I'm feeling better, now...

When you read the title, make sure you use a British accent and mentally reference Monty Python's "Search For The Holy Grail."  Otherwise it's just an update on my health.
 
I have a little virus thingy that is making its way out of my system.  I have little "pin-prick" blisters on my hands and feet...such fun.
 
But so far, no one else in my family has it...thank God!
 
No big plans for the weekend.  Should be fairly quiet.  Although...by saying that I just set myself up for a doozy!!
 
Libby is great...still eating us out of house and home...good thing her supply is free...just have to keep feeding mommy!
 
Izak seems like he's turned a developmental corner.  Ladies and gentlemen, introducing...the will.  There is a little fight going on inside him at times.  He knows that he shouldn't touch the computer...but he...wants...to...so...bad...it...hurts...
 
I got to spend some time this past week with Dale.  He's a friend that I got to know as a part of our church community.  He has always been a great pray-er -- meaning that he is quick to turn to God to pray in every situation.  And God responds to his (and all of our) dependence on Him.  He's a peaceful man with a growing spirit.
 
Dake worked for many years at one of the local utility companies.  They presented him with the option of early retirement.  He took it.  Not to golf or lounge around or pick up new hobbies.  He took the early retirement because they would mostly fund a new life serving God in other parts of the world. 
 
So he spent the last year doing mechanical engineering in Chad, Africa to support the translation work of an organization called Wycliff.  This organization sends a few people into a community that doesn't have a written language.  These people are trained and gifted to learn a spoken language, develop an alphabet based on the sounds they hear, and then create a written language.  From that, they develop educational material on life skills like farming, health, community concerns, and spiritual matters.  It's absolutely incredible.  (FYI - My step-sister and her family are translators in Thailand...incredible work!)
 
These translators need homes that work.  Dale, and others like him, travel around the world and update kitchens with running water, repair broken solar panels for electricity (a few hours a day), and whatever else needs to be done.
 
Anyway, I have the utmost respect for Dale.  He served his time in the workforce.  He deserved to take it easy until...whenever.  But he knew that God has been preparing him and calling him to use his skills and gifts to serve others. 
 
Initially, I think that Dale's situation deserves special merit badges and celebration.  But isn't that what Jesus' followers are called to, no matter where we live and work?  No matter what our skills are?  Aren't we all called to go wherever and do whatever needs to be done?  It's not so much that Dale is a spiritual giant...it's just that many of us are too comfortable as spiritual babies...notice I said "us."
 
I'm not sure what I need to do in response to this.  But lunch with Dale was a good challenge to me...and challenge to make a crazy, radical, strange life of following Jesus into something more normative.
 
Here's to livin' crazy!
 
Matt