Broken or Crushed? Your choice.

"And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder."

—Matt 21:44

When Peter and I lived and worked in Mozambique, everything seemed to end up opposite of what we hoped and expected. Our infant son faced death a few times, our co-workers were having troubles, other missionaries were bickering, and our sending church had no experience being the sole support for long-term missionaries. It was a toxic mix. I look back and see myself bracing for the repeated onslaught, stiffening myself against the impact of the events of life, and becoming angrier and angrier at God for getting us into the mess in the first place.

He did "get us into it." There was no doubt in either of our minds that God put us exactly where we were, for whatever reason, I couldn't say at the time. From a decade down the road, his hand is evident in all of it, but at the time, all I saw was a rock coming down to crush us.

Instead of running and falling on the Rock, I ran away, fearful of it. Instead of taking all my trouble to God, I sought solace in other places, and became more bitter. I could have had a tight relationship with my Savior because I was willing to fall on Him, instead, I spent about five years after Mozambique forgiving Him and another few years until I was ready to give up my will to Him again. All told, I missed a decade of my life as God intended it to be. How different it would have been had I only been willing to be broken.

The options we are given are not attractive either way to our human minds. But Jesus is insistent that these are the only two responses available to the one who encounters the Chief Corner Stone of life: fall on Him and be broken, or stiffen against Him and be crushed. Remember that our Rock is also the Potter—He has a plan to remake you into a vessel for His honor. Choose well.

Shark on Wheels

The pinewood derby went off well earlier this month, and though Edmund didn't place, he's number one in my book for creativity. Here's his entry:

21 Chickens in My Bathroom.

It's true. There are 21 hen chicks in my bathroom. They've been there since the beginning of March. This is what they looked like then.

Aren't they cute? Isn't the newspaper CLEAN? They were so easily cared for way back then, four weeks ago. Such fluffy little creeters.

This is what they look like now.


They require multiple water changes and destroy the newspaper as soon as we lay it down. Eventually, these gals will be laying beautiful eggs: some brown, some speckled, and some even greenish-blue! In the meanwhile, they'll stay in their cage atop my bathtub, making quite a racket until their feathers grow in and they can move to their permanent digs outside. And I? Well, I content myself dreaming of their future eggs, with deep yellow yolks and lovely shells.