Tennessee Adventures

Our Tennessee trip has been absolutely wonderful. Peaceful, warm, full of family and new memories. Having Kenny around makes everything even better. Some things to share:

Kenny works in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where we drove up to the top of the mountains to look down on the range. Absolutely breath taking. We stood in a cloud for several minutes- if Kenyon were telling you the story, that's the part he'd tell. I'd probably talk all about the colors and sounds and sights, but Kenyon was super excited about the cloud. I'll give it to him; it's cool.


Today, while Mom and Kevin and I were Christmas shopping, Kenny and Chrispy and Kenyon went shooting out on Kenny's family farm. They spent all day playing around with Kenny's arsenal. Kenyon's favorite part was the 50cal monster that he was able to shoot. I just was excited to see a silencer. It basically made me feel like Jack Bauer.

Here's some fantastic shots from the afternoon:



Kenyon and the monster who we named Lucky.



I'm pretty frickin' awesome.



And let's be honest... we're so cute!

Humbled

Over the past week, we've been incredibly humbled as we say goodbyes. It has become more and move obvious how God has blessed us through such strong, unique friendships here in Lincoln and in Springfield at Lakeside. Such wonderful people with such passionate and caring friendships have become a part of our lives, even in the last several months. To leave is painful.

We are, however, oh so very grateful. We will cherish them forever.

the Golden Compass

There has been a widespread panic in the Christian community about the Golden Compass, a movie in theaters. The outcry rises from the fact, allegedly, that "bad wins and good loses." This is, of course, troubling. Because we all know that can't happen.

But that's not what the movie is about at all. Good overcomes evil in the movie without a question. The real reason Christians are all upset: the Church is the bad guy in the movie. Ah-ha. Makes more sense now, huh? The author plays with classic Christian vocabulary to cast an power-hungry, hierarchical light on the Church. The movie uses words like "heresy" for free thought and "imposing" and "reigning" for the power of the church. The (quite brilliant) author even refers to people's souls as their "demons."

Something to keep in mind before one attacks this movie: this movie degrades an earthly power trying to call itself Christianity. It looks surprisingly like the very church that Christianity claimed was corrupt during the Protestant Reformation. Why are we all getting so upset? We all said this was a bad idea too! The church attacked in this movie is not the church as we now know it, it is the ever-looming potential that the church could become if she loses sight of her purpose and identity in Christ.

Now, I (this is Michelle if it wasn't obvious already) do agree that the church is looked upon very negatively in this movie, and particularly in some of the other books in this series, the church in its present form is being attacked. I do not doubt that at all! But telling the world to not see the movie is not the answer.

From this movie, I was reminded what picture I need to fight. I need to love the crud out of people, so that someone could never peg me as part of that sort of an institution. And more importantly, we need to keep our church leaders responsible, honest, and close to Christ.

So... whether or not you see the movie is of course up to you, but please refrain from attacking it without seeing it. You might be surprised what you learn about the world... and the way it sees you.