charlieDEAN’S Blog

There are moments in your life that you only get to do once, and today was one of those moments.  Today, Caleb turned 7, and so, in honor of his birthday, I took him to his first baseball game at Wrigley Field:

We left a little early because we were so cold (temperature was in the 40’s with increasing winds & cloudiness throughout the game), but the Cubs won, and we had a great time!

You will never fully understand this until you have children of your own, but I love this picture so much, so I thought I’d share:

By the way…this came from the Gateway Building on Sunday morning…

by the way…you can run from Wal-Mart, but you can never hide!!

5 years old today!

I’ve talked before about how I think that perhaps one of the single most significant events in my life in terms of understanding God differently has been taking on the role of parent.

Last night, I made my rounds, tucking them in, kissing them, telling them I love them (even while they’re sleeping, I’m convinced that it sinks into their heads anyway).  Anyway, I was kinda laughing at myself, because I turn to a big pile of mush when I see them sleeping in their beds (even if they were holy terrors only hours before!), and I was asking myself this question, “at what age do you stop going in and kissing them every night, whispering in their ear that you love them and praying blessings over them.”

(I don’t want that age to come.)

Yesterday, Jaxon turned two.

(Actually, it’s birthday season — including me we have 5 birthdays in 4 months.)

This morning Jennifer was gone for a couple hours, so I was sitting at the counter, working on my notebook (which came home yesterday!!). Madox is in bed sleeping, and Jaxon, for a long time did everything he could to get my attention. I pretty much ignored him, cuz I’ve got work to do, emails to write, etc.

So after about an hour of just being irritated with him, he was entertaining himself with mega-blocks. (He builds towers until they get too tall and fall over, then he yells at them…hilarious!) Anyway, I said to him, “Jaxon, do you want a hug?” He jumps up and comes running, but is so excited that he trips over his own legs. Twice. And it would have been a third time if I hadn’t caught him. And he’s laughing the whole time because he can’t wait for Daddy to wrap him up in a big hug.

I don’t spiritualize everything, but just in that second I wondered, “Does God look at me as that eager to run into his arms? Or am I too cool for school…nonchalant, lackadaisical, aloof most of the time, with my hands in my pocket?”

Convicting.

Before the industrial revolution, most people didn’t “go to work.”  Work was on the family farm, or one’s trade was plied in the home.  With the advent of machinary and the factory, men (and eventually women) started leaving their homes 8-12 hours a day to “go to work.”Another of the changes that’s happening in my life is a convergence of “home life” and “church life.”  With my office here at home I find myself much more a part of the rhythm of my family and I also find my family more attuned with the rhythms of my ministry.It probably means that I’m actually “working more hours” than I did when I worked in an office, but if feels like less.One of the coolest things, in my opinion, is that every morning, because I start the day fairly early and my office is right next to my two oldest sons in the basement, they come in and say “good morning” to me right after they get up — and they get to see their dad, with his Bible open, reading — and that too, is a good thing. 

Just for fun, I’m asking what you would do with this scenario:

I have no idea where this idea sprouted from, but earlier this week Caleb and Gavin who are almost 7 & almost 5, decided to write God a letter telling him how much they loved him.  So they wrote notes and left them Tuesday night at the ends of their beds so God could come in the middle of the night to take them away.  When Tuesday morning came and the notes were still lying there on the bed, they — and especially Gavin — were crushed.  So on Wednesday night they left the notes again, and this time, in his bedtime prayers Gavin earnestly asked God to take his note.

So here’s the quandary: if you were Jennifer and I, do you go into their room at night and take the notes off the bed?

Obviously, I know what we did…and I’ll tell you in advance, we laughed about this for a couple minutes on our leadership team and there was no consensus.  I’ll let this go for a little while, then I’ll tell you what we did.

Over the weekend, while we were visiting Grand Rapids (I’ll post more on that later)…the boys stayed with my parents.  On Sunday morning, they went to church with my parents, and usually — when they are there — they stay in the service with my mom.  Anyway, mom said that Caleb was great at church, didn’t talk the whole time, because he was consumed with a writing project.  So here’s what he came up with…they are his nine rules for church.  I’m going to type it just like he wrote it…good luck!!

Gud Thenges 2008

1. be cwiet.
2. lisin
3. be nis
4. look at the prsin thas talking
5. show the propr reyspect
6. sing
7. lisin to mimi
8. triy to oBay
9. lisin to God

It’s times like this where I’m just amazed at what God’s doing in his sensitive heart.  (Of course we have plenty of those other times too…where my veins are popping out of my neck!)

Although I worked hard on it, my beautiful wife rejected my nomination for the “Dean Family Christmas Picture.”  She chose conservative and boring….I was going for funny.  So, in a passive-aggressive maneuver, I post my work here:  (okay, she’s looking over my shoulder laughing, cuz she’s sure that you’ll all hate it as much as she does).  I think it’s awesome!