Today is my birthday.  Some are glad I was born on March 18th in the year of 1976, and I’m sure some are still trying to decide how they feel about my presence.  As I think over the past 33 years of my life, I’m really only thinking back 20 years, because I don’t remember much of anything before the age of 12 or 13.  And then in the past 20 years I really only remember the highlights.  You know things like my wedding day, birth of my kids, Dallas Cowboy playoff victories, international mission trips, graduations, job opportunities, moving about 15 times, and various other memorable events.  It seems that the farther I get from the past, the harder it is to remember things. 

Which leads me to one of my favorite birthday quotes of all-time. 

"This day I completed my thirty first year, and conceived that I had in all human probability now existed about half the period which I am to remain in this Sublunary world. I reflected that I had as yet done but little, very little, indeed, to further the happiness of the human race, or to advance the information of the succeeding generation. I viewed with regret the many hours I have spent in indolence, and now sorely feel the want of that information which those hours would have given me had they been judiciously expended. but since they are past and cannot be recalled, I dash from me the gloomy thought, and resolved in future, to redouble my exertions and at least endeavor to promote those two primary objects of human existence, by giving them the aid of that portion of talents which nature and fortune have bestowed on me: or in future, to live for mankind, as I have heretofore lived for myself."

-Meriwether Lewis, on his 31st birthday

Meriwether Lewis wrote this in his journal while trekking across the previously undiscovered terrain of the Western United States.  The quote is significant to me because it reminds me to look towards the future, not being held back by the mistakes of my past.  I love the line, “to live for mankind, as I have heretofore lived for myself.”  As I trek towards my mid-thirties I will continue to do the things you do when you’re my age.  I will take my Omega-3 Fish Oil to keep my cholesterol in check, I’ll visit my Doctor annually to keep up with my overall health, and I’ll remember not to eat Mexican food when travelling long distances in a car.

But I’m encouraged by Meriwether Lewis’s statement and I will really look forward to opportunities to redouble my efforts over the next 33 years.

Today I have a 5 year old. I’ve had a 5 year old before, but this makes my second 5 year old. Dylan Joel will celebrate his birthday with friends, of his choosing on Saturday. He’s having a monkey party if you believe it. Why a monkey party? Because he can make a great monkey face, of course! Geesh…

A few days ago someone was telling me how much Dylan loved her son, and how if Dylan ever sees him he drops what he’s holding and runs to him with arms open telling them hello in his own special way. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that Dylan does that to everyone that he knows. He’s wonderfully shy in rooms of strangers, but get him around someone familiar and there is NO DOUBT that Dylan is their friend. It’s weird actually to have such a shy, hidden, and reclusive kid be such a clown. He makes his family laugh everyday, whether be it when he’s acting like the unfortunate man who gets kicked in the groin each week on America’s Funniest Videos, or making fart sounds at the most inopportune times. But ask him to do it again, and he clams up. Not an ounce of showmanship in him!

It’s perfectly demonstrated each week on the soccer field. Dylan is a great little soccer player, however it hasn’t exactly translated to the soccer games. We’ll play in the backyard and he gets the ball and dribbles and kicks it as good as any kid his age. He’ll go to practice and for the most part do the same thing, but dress him in his blue soccer jersey and take him to a game and he turns into a zombie. He’s still the biggest fan of his team, jumping up and down when someone else scores, and handing out high-fives every few minutes. He just forgets to actually kick the ball and play the game. Other parents have watched with fascination how he gets so lost when everyone is cheering and yelling his name; but watch him in the huddle, eating bananas at half-time, or running through the parent tunnel after the game and they, like me, see a kid that is 100% enjoying himself.

So last Saturday was a special time, because for the first time Dylan took the soccer ball and started dribbling towards the goal with all his 4 year old might… and kicked the ball… through the goal for a score! When he scored I couldn’t even get to the sideline to give him a high-five. The other parents beat me there, as well as grandparents, and his teammates on the sideline. They were all so thrilled for this happy little kid to score his first goal, that they almost tackled him on the sideline to congratulate him. It almost makes me cry thinking about it.

To be in Dylan’s presence and not be happy is to not be a human. He is an absolute delight to share life with, and I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t feel the exact same way.

Happy Birthday Dyl!

My family had all kinds of complications in relationships. I would like to meet
the person who did not. Since when is being absolutely perfect what being a
human is? What do we gain from that? -Anthony Edwards

I’m not sure who Anthony Edwards is, but I’m sure he would understand my daughter. Today is my daughter’s birthday. Lauryn is a healthy, vibrant, opinionated, and highly complicated little 3 year old. It’s on her birthday that Starr and I often remind each other of the CODE RED hospital moment in her first week of life. She just up and stopped breathing, little stinker! Watching one’s daughter hooked up to machines, and sitting in an ICU can be a life-changing moment. For this dad, I settled with God on that night that I would never take for granted the life within each of my children. I learned that each and every day was a gift from God, and that even if tomorrow isn’t promised I know that the the very moment I’m living in is. She pulled through it miraculously and it’s been such a long time ago, that it’s easy to forget the day.

Lauryn is my third kid, and my only daughter. She is easily the most complicated kid I have ever been around. It is like wrestling a bear to get her to do something that isn’t her own idea. She makes everything from hair combing, putting her head on a pillow at night, and where she sits at the dinner table a complicated undertaking. Her brothers are the polar opposites in every way, willing to settle for whatever Mom or Dad suggest or command; but Lauryn has a nasty independent streak that goes mostly undetected in both of her brothers. She has gone an entire day unwilling to put pants on, because she didn’t like the ones that her mother picked out for her. (And before you think us to be bad parents, please know that to coexist with this complicated little girl we’ve had to choose our battles carefully… and not wearing long pants in the house when you have nowhere to go rates as not very important.)

So Happy Birthday to my beautiful complication!

School is out for Summer. I’ve spent my official “Off Day” with all three kids running errands, taking Dylan to his last speech therapy session(yes I know what his mother does for a living…), mowing the yard, paying bills, and finally letting Lauryn take her daily 2 hour afternoon nap. While the yard looks great, and the boys were itching for entertainment I pulled out a birthday present Ryan got last week.

I can now say that Summer has officially begun. And I’m craving a Popsicle!

This weekend I took the family to Tulsa to witness in person my little brother’s Graduation from High School. With it being a holiday weekend it made a good weekend to get out of Lubbock. Monday also happens to be Ryan’s 6th Birthday, so it really worked out perfect to have a Grandparents, Aunt, & Uncle birthday party.

I don’t miss many weekends at the church, but when I do it just feels so strange. It’s good to ‘be away’ every once in a while, and I have an awesome team of staff and volunteers that will have it running perfectly in my absence. But it just feels so weird. Here’s a glimpse into how different this is for me.

• I actually went to a late movie last night. A Saturday Night. The night before a Sunday. This is strange.
• I slept til 8:15am on a Sunday morning. I’m usually at the church before 7:00am. Trust me, sleeping til 8:15am an a Sunday only happens once or twice a year. This is strange.
• It’s 9am, and I’m sitting in the living room watching Mythbusters and blogging, while I wait for my wife to finish getting dressed for going to Lifechurch.tv (Tulsa) this morning. This is strange.
• We will go to church as a family this morning. All of us in the car. Three kids, my wife, and me. All together driving to a church. This is strange.
• I get to go to a church this morning and sit on my butt. I don’t have a job, and I get to park in visitor parking. This is strange.
• I’m just Jonathan this morning. I’m not Pastor Jonathan. Nobody will complain about something that is wrong, and nobody will ask for my keys. I’m just Jonathan, and this is strange.

I miss my church, and can’t wait to get back at it next Sunday. But I’m really going to work on just enjoying myself this morning. It’ll be strange, but it’ll be great!