memory

Trying to memorize this. John Piper told me to. (He's hard to refuse.)

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things. 2 Peter 1:3-15

The cries of Haiti break my long silence

I haven't blogged in some time, but with the utter devastation that is occurring right now in Haiti, I just have to join the many others who are pleading for your involvement.

I've been to Haiti four times. It is the poorest, most over-populated, under-educated nation in this hemisphere. And it's right on the doorstep of America.

My mother has been a part of or led mission trips to a small community in the north called Ft. Liberté for 35 years. She, along with my deceased father (and many other wonderful people), started an organization called Friends of Ft. Liberté that has done some amazing things over that time, both for Haitian lives and American souls. Everyone needs to see people in situations much worse than their own. We need to remember to 'share your food with the hungry, and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter--when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood' (Isaiah 58:7).

I was talking with some people last night about the earthquake, and someone mentioned that 100,000 people could be dead, and I said, 'Surely not that much? Maybe in the tens of thousands but 100,000?' But it seems to be unbelievably true (though the numbers are almost impossible to determine).

Haitians are literally digging out friends and family from rubble WITH THEIR HANDS. It's so terrible. Please, even from the comfort of your keyboard, take a moment to try and take that in. Let the sorrow overwhelm you for a moment. These are our fellow men and women and children, our own flesh and blood.

Haiti is possibly the worst place in the world for something like this to happen as far as relief efforts go, because communication and transportation is so bad. That's why the international effort DOES need to rival that of Katrina. The world's eyes must turn to Haiti. Let your eyes turn there also.

One very easy way to help, if you text, is to text the world HAITI to the number 90999, and you will donate $10 to the Red Cross International Relief fund, which is very much being focused in Haiti right now. It will be added to your cell phone bill. Easy. Please consider doing that now.

My mom (Annette Crislip) said that refugees are arriving in Ft. Liberté now, which thankfully was fairly untouched by the quake. So that community is going to become important in relief efforts and will need lots of resources. I'll keep you posted on ways you can help through Friends of Ft. Liberté, which will be sending money to our beloved Jerusalem Baptist Church whom we've worked with for 35 years. They will be doing everything they can to help their fellow countrymen.

Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day (which is one my favorite comedies - I'll blog more one day on the type of comedies that always catch my fancy) and its namesake (February 2nd) will always hold some bittersweetness for me. Groundhog Day 1989 is the day my dad (John Dillard King III) died of cancer (I was 7), and in some ways my siblings and my mom are forced to relive that day each year not unlike Bill Murray's character was forced to relive his own Groundhog Day over and over in the movie. I know that Christopher, my older brother, in particular feels the effect of the day strongly. It reminds me of Frodo in the Lord of the Rings, because there was a long period of his life after his adventures where he would become sick on the anniversary of being stabbed by the ring-wraith on Weathertop, and also on the anniversary of being stung by the huge spider in Mordor.

20 years' distance does help a bit, to be sure. It doesn't feel anything now like it did in the days and months after it happened. But 20 years! Wow. Very hard to believe that nearly 3 times as many years have passed as how many I'd lived around my dad. People often wonder if I can remember him very well, but I always explain that in my child's mind at age 7, a world with Dad was the only one I'd ever known, so all I have to do is remember what it was like to be a kid, and with all those memories come a lot filled with him. Sometimes the things I remember remind me of myself now that I'm an adult (of course he was a much older adult than I am - he was 53 when I was born!), particularly in areas of humor. He was good at waiting for the joke, just like me. Good comedy takes a lot of patience (reference Andy Kaufman for an example of what I mean), especially when you're using the contrast of inaction and action (like the basic fun thing to do with kids of acting like you don't know they are there, like you're reading or something, knowing the kid is locked on you with a huge smile, and then when they get close, making a loud noise and quickly reaching out to grab them). And then occasionally I'll catch a memory of my dad calling for me to come to dinner or something (I was always slow - still quite am) because all of a sudden I'll hear his voice in mine when I'm saying something to Sarah across the house.

I have to admit though that all my personal knowledge of Dad is from a child's perspective, and though I've heard a lot about the adult side of his life, it's different from actually knowing him as an adult myself. I sure would like to have a conversation with him now, just to see how our personalities would get along. I'm sure he was even more interesting and quirky than I realize (as all people are once you get to know them), and I would have loved to see our relationship play out as I got older.

I'm glad to know above all that he trusted Christ. And I trust God through all the circumstances of my life, even my dad's death. When he died, I was, as a 7-year-old, confronted with the idea of 'eternity' and I began my own journey of trusting Christ. If He could keep my dad safe in Heaven, He could do the same for me. The words of Ecclesiastes 3:10-11 have become particularly poignant since that time.

Dry Tears

I was at the 58conference November 7-8 that Chestnut Ridge Church put on, and I met some really cool guys from the organization Dry Tears, which they founded. The really awesome thing is, one's a senior in high school (Conner) and the other's a sophomore in college (Kyle)! I'm just so impressed that people so young are giving themselves to the work of justice (which was the theme of the conference, inspired by Isaiah 58).

Dry Tears is about providing one of the basic human needs that so many needlessly die from being without: water. Of earth's 6 and a half billion people, over 1 billion don't have access to clean drinking water. That's just rediculous. Most of the people who die from water-borne illnesses are children. Conner and Kyle heard about this stunning situation and were moved to action, but I think one of the details (the one for which they named their organization) is what caused them to really become passionate about the work that needs to be done. The terribly sad fact is, some children in this world are so dehydrated that their bodies can't produce the moisture needed to form tears. They cry but nothing comes out. Think about the last time you had a good cry. There's something healing in the saline moisture on your face, yes? There's some evidence that you've come through something; you wipe your eyes, and you begin to be restored. But these children sit in the dust and wail, dry as a bone, being killed from the inside out. Unbelievable.

Check out their website (I've added it to the JUSTICE section to the right) and get involved.

rescue

I'm sure you've heard by now (seeing as it's been a whole week), but Jacob Allen has been found alive in Dolly Sods! He was tired and hungry of course, but otherwise completely fine. There was an amazing response as far as the rescue effort; hundreds of volunteers (dozens and dozens from Chestnut Ridge Church) went to join the professional rescue teams. It was an extremely emotional and surreal week for everyone involved, including we who were praying (Sarah and I were almost literally walking out the door to drive down when we got the news that he'd been found Thursday, almost exactly 4 days to the minute from when he went missing), and looking back now, it's almost like it didn't happen. I saw Jacob in church Sunday (I led worship, and we changed the whole theme of the service to celebrate his homecoming in a day, which is more serious than you can realize because of the amount of people involved in pulling off a CRC service) and he looked fine. I just heard today that he's been smiling more than normal this week (people with autism usually don't show a lot of emotion), and Pastor Bill is convinced that it's because he's been shown how highly valued he is.

This idea was one that Bill has touched on briefly during his reflections on the whole event: that the value of a human life is immeasurable. That when a life is in danger of being lost, many other lives become involved in the effort to preserve the one life. He cited the parable Jesus told in Luke 15 of the lost sheep, whose owner left his other 99 sheep to search for the one; he talked about how much rejoicing there is in Heaven when one 'lost' person's life changes -- more rejoicing, in fact, then there is for 99 'righteous' people whose lives have already been changed! A life being saved is one of the most wonderful and glorious occurrences in the universe.

Bill also mentioned the way in which Jacob Allen's name is know far and wide now. Jacob used to be 'the other Allen brother;' Bill said that his kids couldn't usually remember his name. But now, when there was a threat to this valuable life, suddenly his name became common knowledge, uttered in prayer by thousands, fixed upon by the region and some of the nation for days. Bill likened this recognition of Jacob's name to how we are all given new names in Jesus: Christians, or 'little Christs' literally. God calls our names out of the darkness, and He speaks to us in our 'inner being' with a name that probably can't be pronounced by the human tongue. God had a habit of actually changing people's names throughout the history of the nation of Israel, and it's obvious that He places much significance on the power of a name (His name for Himself, YHWH or 'I AM WHO I AM' suggests great mystery and power and alludes that His real Name is too beautiful for us to hear).

Many lives have been impacted by the search for and rescue of Jacob Allen, and especially those in his church will not soon forget him or his value. May we all place more value on each human life we encounter, even when they don't seem to be in immediate danger!