Disciple: What a concert!

So Sunday night, my good friend Wade Hester and I made our way down to Greenville, SC, to see one of our favorite bands in concert:  Disciple.  They are a very unusual band, with thoughtful, reverent lyrics and a sound something like early Metallica – very heavy and with vocals that sometimes are more scream than sing.  (That last aspect I’m not so crazy about, but it’s part of the package.)

The concert was awesome.  They said there were more than 300 people there, and the venue was totally packed, so you can tell this wasn’t a big setting.  The opening acts were fine, but really it makes such a difference when you actually know and love the songs that are being played.  Disciple came on and they were really awesome.   I wish they had played “Worth it All”, but that’s OK — the show was awesome and I can’t complain about any of the tunes they chose, which were fairly well balanced across their three most recent albums.

The most impressive part of the show, however, was not the music.  It’s hard to imagine effective evangelism being done from the stage, especially at this sort of concert where the whole place was basically a big mosh pit, but really, it was extremely powerful.  Lead singer Kevin Young spoke to the common dispair that all believers feel when we have fallen and feel unworthy to be known by God.  Later, he talked about the Prodigal Son.  The most impressive thing, though, was after the encore was over and the rest of the band had left the stage.  Young stayed at the mic and delivered a far more passionate, far more compelling Gospel presentation than I have ever heard.  Ray Comfort would have been proud with how he layed out the case that all of us are undeniably trapped by sin; our conscience testifies to this, and we know that we stand guity before a holy God.  Then he proceeded to effectively and repeatly point to the cross, calling unbelievers to faith and calling believers out of hypocrisy.  When he asked for a show of hands of how many people acknowledged that they were without Christ and needed him, I would estimate that 30 hands went up — perhaps 10% of the crowd.

It was stunning, and perhaps the saddest part is that most of the people there knew they were coming to a Christian concert and probably considered themselves Christian on some level.  They probabably had never heard a full presentation of the Gospel – to realize that salvation is no just a matter of showing up at church and punching the clock, but rather is a matter of life and death, a matter of dying to self and rising in Christ as a new creation.  I applaud Kevin Young and Disciple for the courage to lead a 15 minute Bible study as part of the concert.  It would be easy to just leave the stage, knowing they had played music that exalted God and be done with it, but they didn’t leave it there.  Obviously, they feel a burden to use the “stage” they have for an even higher purpose, and it was awesome to see.   Well done, guys.

“Uncovering” Faith

So I was offering our oldest daughter some grapes (a fruit she is not fond of) and as usual, she balked.  I pointed out that she used to refuse to eat bananas too, but now she loves them.  She had an unusual response:

“Daddy, that’s because bananas are uncovering!”

Uncovering?  That’s a new one by me.

“Imagine that I got a present at Christmas, but I didn’t really like it, so Mommy put it in a box, and put a blanket on top of the box.  Now pretend that it’s been a long time since Christmas so I’ve forgotten all about the present.  Then one day, Mommy starts to pull the blanket off the top of the box.  I didn’t like those toys when I got them, but now I see them and get excited, because they are uncovering!”

I knew that was something I was going to have to blog.  Since then, she has frequently returned to this, as she has reflected on the foods that are uncovering, and the foods that most certainly are not uncovering.  She’s a pretty incredible kid for trying exotic things, but do not offer a grape, blueberry, raisin, or anything spicy.

Daddy, do we have to kill them?

A Navy helicopter, taking off right next to Dad's marina

Recently we did a family vacation to Virginia Beach. Those who have been there will be sure to remember that one of the really dominant features is the Oceana Naval Air Station, with F/A-18s constantly flying overhead on landing patterns only a mile or so inland from the strip. My girls already love planes, and they had a lot of questions about these small planes that were so fast and so noisy. We’ve already talked about soldiers and war and whatnot, so Faith understood when I explained how it fit into that context. After watching yet another pair of wingmen on their approach, Faith looked at me and asked:

Daddy, is telling our soldiers to go kill their soldiers really the right way to fix things?

Well, well, well. My little girl is growing up. What a sad question for her to have to consider, but in the Virginia Beach/Norfolk area, it’s impossible to avoid the machinery of war.  It’s doubly hard when your dad lives on the largest Navy base in the world. I’m very impressed that my little six year old put things together like that.  It’s not an easy question to answer though, is it?

It’s times like this when you realize how really broken this world really is.  I’m impressed watching fighter jets thundering across the sky in formation.  I’m utterly stunned walking down the pier next to the USS Eisenhower, standing 100 feet away from perhaps the largest war machine in the world.   It’s all very incredible to see our military.  And yet it’s also very sobering to consider why this is all necessary. 

My little girls know nothing of 9/11.  They don’t know anything about world wars, communists, suicide bombers, death camps, nuclear weapons, prisoners of war, or anything like that.  All they know is that there are all of these huge, noisy machines operating around us constantly at our beach vacation, and that the reason they are making so much noise is so they can practice, so when the time comes to kill our enemies, they will do it right.

A six year old asks, “Is this really the best way?  Daddy, do we have to kill them?”

I’ve been doing a Bible study lately on the Doctrine of Man.  It’s really a very thorough study of what the Bible has to say about the current state of mankind, and I’ll tell you what — as far as I can tell, the Bible is spot on.  There is nothing in this world that is not tainted by sin, and the fact that we need to spend so much money and devote so many men (and women) and so much material to our military is a great indictment of just how far we have fallen.  When we pay people to have a career dedicated to war, to be ready at any moment to stand up and fight for this country – that they do this as their profession – is a testimony to where we are as people.

Don’t get me wrong – I am incredibly grateful to those who serve in the military.  I know why we need a military, and I am glad they are there to protect the freedoms we love, like being able to sit in our living rooms on quiet peaceful nights typing out blog posts.  But, oh, how I dream of the day when …

He will settle disputes among the nations
and provide arbitration for many peoples.
They will turn their swords into plows
and their spears into pruning knives.
Nations will not take up the sword against other nations,
and they will never again train for war.  Isaiah 2:4

Right now it seems there is the dream that we are leading the world into the Pax Americana -  that nobody really wants to mess with us, so the world will largely stay at peace.  But don’t think it will last.  The Kingdom of God is not the United States of America.  Isaiah’s prophesy will find fulfillment when God establishes the New Earth and no sooner.

Come, Lord Jesus.

My Baby is One

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost a month since the last post I put out here, but that’s not nearly as hard to take as knowing that on August 17th, my baby isn’t a baby anymore.  Our little Annabeth is suddenly one year old.  She is walking.  She’s saying “Mama” and “Dah-eeeeh”.

As far as I know, this is the last 1st birthday we’ll be celebrating in the Thompson household.  That’s kind of a strange truth to consider too — we’ve been doing the baby thing in one way or another for the last six years and change.  It’s odd to think that I probably won’t see KIm sitting on the sofa nursing a baby again.  That the nights of holding tiny infants that cannot hold their heads up are gone.

It’s hard to honestly say I will miss a lot of that.  Parenting a baby is the hardest thing I have ever done.  Kim has a handful of movies that deal with pregnancy and babies, but have to say that what I see in movies is more like grandparenthood: you see the baby, and she’s so cute, and she just sleeps and coos and smiles.   You look at her for a few hours, and then you give her back and the parents go home … the credits roll.  In the movies, you never have to change diapers that are full of tar.  You never have to put on a gas mask when you open the diaper pail.  It’s clean.  It’s cute.  It’s not real life.

So now, my little Annabeth is 1.  Actually, she’s been one for the better part of a month.  I guess that’s part of the cliche, “they grow up so fast.“  And it has been a quick year.  Since August 17, 2007 when she was born at CMS-University.   Her first smile in September.  First tooth in November – and seven more by February!  First baby cereal in March.  Her funny learning to scoot on her bottom instead of crawling in May.  Her first step in July.

Lots of people ask us if we’re done.  We’re at a church where plenty of families have four kids, but at this point I really think we’re done, unless adoption comes up again in a few years.   But if we stay where we are, I can’t count myself anything but blessed far beyond what I deserve.  I have a terrific wife and three beautiful daughters and I am delighted to be able to call them my family.

Happy Birthday, sweetheart,

Daddy

Rest in peace, Sandy

Yesterday, we saw our friend Sandy Baudier laid to rest. It’s a little spooky that when I was writing last week, I was almost exactly right:

It’s very strange to be writing about something like this, knowing that the person you are writing about – a real living person who has laughed and cried and loved and suffered in this real world for a long time – could be breathing her last at this very minute.

I was writing that at just about the same time she was in fact dying.  This is a much harder thing for Kim and her parents, who have known Sandy for decades.  My main interaction with her was at Christmas when Kim’s family would make a full Christmas dinner and take it across the street to the Baudier house, where they had also made a full Christmas dinner.  There would be an insane amount of food and always delightful conversation.  The thing that I will remember most about Sandy was how Christmas Eve dinner always had a birthday cake for Jesus.  I thought that was a remarkably simple and yet poignant reminder of what the night was about.  It was a great way to bring theology into real life, in a far more visceral way than putting a “Jesus is the reason for the season” sign in your front yard.

The funeral was a very small graveside affair – perhaps 15 people in attendance, as Vic Baudier desired.  Kim’s aunt Margaret Ashby (an ELCA pastor) led the service.  I was struck again by what a hard job pastors have.  This time the challenge was trying to give a meaningful funeral address to somebody you don’t know.  Perhaps she had met Sandy in passing when visiting Kim’s parents, but at a time when you are trying to summarize the significance of a life, how hard it is even if you really know the person!

One of the scripture texts that was read in the funeral was from Colossians, which we just finished studying in a sermon series at our church.

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:9-14

For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is. So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. Colossians 2:5-8

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.  These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Colossians 2:16-17

I know that’s a pretty long read for a blog.  The thing that I found so interesting in this is that this is not a text that I would think of turning to for particular comfort in a time of trial, and yet I thought the three sections actually were very appropriate.

Col 1:9-14 reminds us that Jesus has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light … an awesome truth.  We have great assurance in the Lord, and it starts by considering our worth only in respect to Christ.  That qualification will never be taken away.  The text reminds those of us who are still living to live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way. This is the hope of Sandy, of course.  To be in the presence of Jesus now, what greater desire could she have than to wish that those she loves would join her!

Colossians 2:5-8 talks about Paul being absent from his hearers in the body, which hits you really hard when you hear it seated 15 feet from a coffin, and the request to continue to live in him is all the more powerful, along with the warnings to not stray far from the truth.

Colossians 2:16-17 seems a little out of place, doesn’t it?  Don’t let anyone deceive you into believing that you can be saved by legalism, because the things we are pursuing in legalism are just shadows of the reality that is freely available to us in Christ.  Why is this relevant at a funeral?  Because right now, she is seeing the reality instead of the shadows!

Like I said, Colossians isn’t a book that I would usually think about turning to in a time of grief, but perhaps I should.  The promises of God are indeed sweet, and anywhere we can find them we get a powerful glimpse into just how heavenly Heaven is, and will be.

Though I Walk Through the Valley

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,for you are with me; your rod and your staff,they comfort me. -Psalm 23:4

A little while ago I got an email from an old friend who was talking about how much death there was around her.  I pondered that for a moment, since I have really had very little death to deal with for a long time.  A new friend at church lost his father a couple of months ago, but for the most part, but I don’t really know him that well, and I certainly knew nothing of his father.  In our marriage, the only deaths Kim and I have had to deal with were her Grandfather in 2001, plus our two miscarriages (2001, 2007).  Other than that, it’s really been pretty easy to avoid the whole death topic as anything more than abstract.

That isn’t possible these days.  Sandy Baudier, a friend and neighbor of Kim’s parents for decades is dying.  She isn’t expected to last the night.  it’s very strange to be writing about something like this, knowing that the person you are writing about – a real living person who has laughed and cried and loved and suffered in this real world for a long time – could be breathing her last at this very minute.

At the same time, I consider our friend Bill Adair.  Bill is suffering with ALS (Lou Gherig’s Disease) and it has finally atrophied the muscles in his neck: he can no longer swallow.  Today the doctors inserted a feeding tube.  What an incredibly tough call for Jan, but honestly I cannot imagine any other decision.  How could you even stand to sit down and eat knowing that, at your decision, your spouse is starving to death in the next room?  The thought of the whole situation is almost more than I can bear.  There are a lot of awful diseases out there like Alzheimers and cancer, but I wonder if any disease is more cruel than ALS.  At some point in the fairly near future, God is going to take this disease away from Bill.  I don’t know if that will be through a miraculous healing or by clothing him with immortality in the presence of God.  Bill still talks about wanting to take his grandchildren fishing when God heals him.  I don’t know if there will be fishing in Heaven, but I certainly pray that God will bring his grandchildren safely home as well – that on the New Earth, Bill will be able to enjoy all of the things with his grandkids that he thinks he is missing now.

I think Paul had a really important observation about all of this when he reminded the Thessalonians that we do not grieve like the world, who have no hope.

Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way God wil bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. -I Thessalonians 4:14

I think of Sandy and Bill and I cannot help but think of this verse.  It will be very sad to be in a world where they are not.  Yet that is not the end of hope!  There is a great reunion yet to happen.  I think of how good it is to see old friends:  people I used to laugh and cry with, but have not seen in such a long time, and yet only a few minutes later its as if we were never apart.  What a joyful day that will be.  What hope we can have for those who die in Christ, knowing that they are enjoying that hour, both with their brothers and sisters of faith, and in seeing the face of the Lord they love.  And while we grieve at the funeral for our loss, we also have the hope that our friend will be there – waiting for us – along with all of the other faithful departed.

For the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.  Therefore, encourage one another with these words. – I Thessalonians 4:16-18

Death is not supposed to feel normal.  In our heart of hearts, we know that it is wrong, that it is foreign to us.  This is not the way things were supposed to be.  And we can see that this is true when we read Genesis 1-3.  Death was not here at the beginning, and it will not be here in the end.  We mourn Sandy Baudier now, and probably Bill Adair soon, but at the same time, we rejoice – even though we can see only in part now.  And the thought of the rejoicing that we will know in the presence of God and in the company of the saints is too much for a mind to consider.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow meall the days of my life,and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 23:6

Welcome!

Welcome to the blog of Steve and Kim Thompson. This will be a place where we can post the comings and goings of the Thompson life, thoughts on the world and its meaning, book reviews, and cute pictures of our kids. Thanks for stopping by! This is not going to be updated on any kind of a regular basis, but if you have an RSS reader and want to keep up with things that are important to us, we’ll see how things go with this.

Steve and Kim