Looking for ISAIAH in the Bible

My son is always very excited to get his hands on my Bible.

It’s not that we’ve instilled in him a thirst for the word of God. He’s not seeking truth or relationship with God. We haven’t yet explained to him that the ESV is THE hippest Bible to read. He’s not looking at the colorful maps in the back or the red letters in the gospels or my notes and scribbles throughout. 

He’s looking for page 683, where it says, in big letters “ISAIAH”.

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Reminders of Relationship

We named our second son, Enoch Shant Arunav Begg.

Enoch was taken from Genesis 5:24

"Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him."

We want our son to walk with God. It also states that Jared was the father of Enoch, so that’s a nice bonus.

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Bearing the Lonely

On Sunday morning at 4:22am, my wife and sons left for a month vacation. I’ll join her after three weeks and take a week of my vacation, but for three weeks, I’m alone.

After she left, my Sunday looked like this:

Watched YouTube and Netflix and Facebook.

Slept a little

Went to church

Moved some bricks (patio work).

Watched YouTube

Facebook

Played Hearthstone

Ate lunch [Pizza, followed by rum & coke]

Slept

Organized our storage room

Read some articles online

Cleaned up around the house

Worked in the patio

Played Hearthstone

Ate dinner

Watched Netflix

Facebook...

Watched Hulu

More Facebook

Went to bed

Sometime, late in the night, I realized that all my actions of the day (including going to church) were motivated by a desire to distract myself from loneliness and I thought, “Maybe it’s time to write that blog.”

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Encountering Bronze Jesus

I was in Indiana recently for the closing of Bowman House as a freshman men’s Residence Hall at Indiana Wesleyan University. Arriving a day early for the closing events, I was able to participate and assist with the end-of-year Banquet and Awards Ceremony for this past year’s residents. I watched my friend’s son, Uriah, during the Banquet; when he got a little too antsy I took him out of the room and we walked around the Student Center and the campus grounds.

While we were walking around outside I observed this young boy have an encounter with Jesus. To be precise, he encountered the statue of Jesus outside the IWU Chapel Auditorium.  His encounter with the bronze Jesus statue is a picture of too many of my own encounters with Jesus.

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Knowing Louie

It’s no secret that Louis CK often speaks insightful truth, albeit sometimes in the midst of off-color comedy. His comments on the influence of technology on the human condition have gone viral on two separate occasions. He’s outspoken about racism and white privilege. He’s honest, though perhaps exaggerating for comedic effect, about his flaws and foibles.

A few lines in particular of his stand-up have stuck with me for a few years. I have reproduced them below.

I just want to ask you, have you ever done something or lived a moment that you afterwards said,

“yeah, I don’t think I’m going to tell anyone about that. Yeah that’s going to my grave with me, that one is.”

Either because it’s stupid, embarrassing, or horrible you just think…

“yeah that’s staying with me. I’m not telling any people about that.”

I would say that probably 40% of my life is made up of moments like that.

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Repost: On Loving Isaiah

Every other week my blog will feature a reposted work. I had been a contributor on two different sites that have since closed or no longer include blogs. I will be reposting pieces that had originally been featured on one of these two sites.  

This was originally posted May 4, 2011

While in my MA program I learned about Bernard of Clairvaux and his work On Loving God.  It seems that we start our journey in the faith loving God for our own sake, then we grow a little and maybe we learn to love God for God’s sake.  According to Bernard of Clairvaux, the final stage is loving self for the sake of God.  I have a long way to go on that journey. 

I’m not even very far on something a little more tangible: my journey of loving my son, Isaiah, as he ought to be loved. 

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