Tag Archives: Friends

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Proverbs 15

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The Dinner Party. about 1821. By Henry Sargent...
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For the despondent, every day brings trouble;
      for the happy heart, life is a continual feast.
Proverbs 15:15 (NLT)

This past Saturday night Wendy and I hosted a dinner party for a handful of friends. It wasn’t anything fancy schmancy. We simply made a light dinner with some sandwiches, chips and a few bottles of wine. Wendy made one of her fabulous cheesecakes for dessert. All day long we putzed around the house getting ready for our company. Wendy and I had truly happy hearts as we prepared for our evening.

As I read the above Proverb this morning, I was reminded of our friendly feast. It was life giving in both the preparation and the execution. So much so, in fact, that after the last guest left Wendy and I cleaned up and then found ourselves chatting until we had to remind ourselves that it was the wee hours of the morning and we both had obligations at church in a few short hours.

Each day, even busy Mondays, can be a life giving feast, or they can be a sorrowful, miserly spread. The difference is in the condition of my heart.

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Wayfarer's Journal

Anniversary and New Year’s

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New Year’s Eve was Wendy’s and my 6th Wedding Anniversary! We enjoy being with friends on New Year’s Eve, so we actually celebrated our Anniversary the day before. We decided that we’d celebrate this year by checking out all the after Christmas sales, get a few new clothes, and then go out to eat. We had a great day together and did find some wonderful deals. Taylor was working at J. Crew and she told us that Clayton was meeting her after work for a date night, so we met them for coffee when she got off work and enjoyed some conversation. We ended our evening at the Latin King for a nice leisurely evening meal.

New Year’s Eve was spent at the Pella VL’s with a small group of friends. It was supposed to be a potluck of appetizers, but everyone brought enough food to feed an army. We had Wendy’s chicken fingers, meat and cheese platters, chips and queso, a few more meat and cheese platters, pita bread and hummus, and more meat and cheese platters. Then there was Wendy’s snicker doodle cupcakes and chocolate truffle cheesecake for dessert.

There was plenty of great conversation around the room and everyone enjoyed getting to meet baby Camille. She was the center of attention for a while. The VL boys got back from being with a babysitter and we got to enjoy seeing them before they headed to bed. I  even got to read Casey at the Bat to Nathan. With the kids down, the adults retired to the family room to play a hilarious game of Quelf and laughed until it hurt.

By the time Wendy and I got back home, cleaned up a bit, and got to bed it was closer to my normal waking time than I care to admit. We were able to sleep in, however, and we enjoyed a very quiet day spent mostly on the couch Sunday.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day 1 Thessalonians 2

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Yes, you are our pride and joy. 1 Thessalonians 2:20 (NLT)

Yesterday afternoon I walked into the kitchen to find Wendy putting all of the family photos we’ve received on the refrigerator. We love that our fridge is covered with photos of loved ones. It has been fun for the two of us to pour through the load of Christmas letters we’ve received.

Yesterday I talked about how encouraged I was to know that my children and family are faithfully serving God in their own journeys. Today is, I guess, a variation on a theme. As I read how Paul considered the believers in Thessalonica his “pride and joy” I thought of the family photos on my fridge. Faces I knew as squirrelly teenagers now are starting to line with age as their own children grow. Friends who walked with me in my own squirrelly years are grandparents and spread out doing amazing things for God’s kingdom.

This is going to sound terribly old of me. But, as I continue in my own journey, I begin to realize that there are certain passages of God’s Message that don’t come into focus until you reach a certain place in your own journey. Today’s thought is something like that. I don’t think I’ve ever thought much about Paul’s “pride and joy” until I reached a point where I could turn around and look back myself and those in whom I can feel that same sense.

Wayfarer's Journal

Artist Date

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A month or so ago I wrote a post in the 30 day blogging challenge I was doing about a date I would like to go on. Wendy and I finally arranged the “Artist Date” a few weeks ago and headed out on a gorgeous autumn afternoon with our friends Sam and Candace. We spent about and hour or so wandering through the Des Moines Art Center, taking in the collection on display. Each of us then split up and spent just over a half-hour with one work of art that stood out to us for whatever reason.

Being a beautiful, warm, sunny afternoon, I spent my time in the courtyard with the DMAC’s iconic statue of a man launching himself off of a pegasus. I’ve seen this sculpture a million times and it had sort of morphed into the background of the Art Center’s surroundings. I didn’t think much about it. So, I took some time to really study it. It spoke to me of the relationship of myth and culture. I realized that the statue, now surrounded by the three very different buildings making up the DMAC, had layers of meaning for me that the artist could have never envisioned since it was conceptualized and installed well before its present surroundings. I thought a lot about the meaning of artwork that gets layered upon it over time and the changes of culture compared to the artist’s original intent. It spoke to me of courage, faith, and adventure.

We stopped for coffee and casual conversation at Zanzibar’s on Ingersoll. It was a great time of building relationship and friendship as the process of knowing and being known deepened between the four of us. We then took a walk through the sculpture garden downtown before ending up at Noah’s for a wonderful dinner.

Over dinner, each of us shared about the work of art with which we spent time. It was really interesting to hear how each piece affected the viewer and intersected with our current life experiences. We had a lively conversation with great food and good wine, topped off with rich, dark chocolate cake for dessert.

The ride home flew by as our conversation continued. Wendy and I could not have enjoyed ourselves more as we looked back on the day. It fulfilled what I’d blogged about and envisioned back in August. Great experiences with great people certainly serve to fill life’s well.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Deuteronomy 26

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“And today God has reaffirmed that you are dearly held treasure….” Deuteronomy 26:18a (MSG)

When I teach customer service skills to my clients, one of the skills I talk about is the importance of using the customer’s name in your conversation. Names imply relationship, and you want your customers to feel that they are more than just another “customer,” “account,” or “call” you have to deal with that day. They are a person who is known. You communicate that by calling them by name.

The truth of the matter is that as a relationship grows and becomes more intimate we not only use each other’s names but nicknames and pet names emerge that speak to an even deeper level of knowing and being known. The opposite is also true. As a relationship breaks down, people stop using one another’s names and refer to each other with simple pronouns like “they.” Then, derogatory nicknames emerge that communicate our negative perceptions of the person.

In today’s chapter, God tells Israel that they are “dearly held treasure” and it immediately reminded me of my own dearly held treasure: my wife, and my daughters. In fact, “treasure” is a special word between Wendy and me; It has incredible depth of meaning in our relationship. What makes it special I will leave between the two of us, but suffice it to say that when I read that God affirms that His children are “dearly held treasure” I feel something very deeply because of the connotations that “treasure” make with the most intimate human relationship I’ve ever experienced.

Today, I am thankful for dearly held treasure. I am thankful that I can treasure my wife, my children, my family and my friends. I am grateful that God treasures me.

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Day 21: Something You Can’t Seem to Get Over

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Red sky at night, sailor's/shepherd's delight.
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30 Day Blogging Challenge Day 21: Something you can’t seem to get over.

Here’s a short list:

  • The way my heart skips a beat when Wendy gives me that look
  • The love, joy and pride I feel each time I see Taylor or Madison
  • How quickly time flies, especially as you get older
  • The unique beauty of each sunrise and every sunset
  • The profound satisfaction that comes from a simple evening spent with good food, fine wine and pleasant company
  • The way Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus moves me to tears
  • How the St. Crispin’s Day speech from Shakespeare’s Henry V stirs something so deeply inside me, no matter how many times I hear it
  • How God’s grace always reaches deeper than my sin, my shame, and my failures.
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Wayfarer's Journal

Day 3: What Kind of Person Attracts You?

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Okay, so I didn’t really explain what I’ve been doing the past few days. So for my regular readers, a little catch up and explanation: One of the most common frustrations for bloggers is sitting down at the computer and wondering “What am I going to blog about?” So, there are all of these “blogging challenges” out there which attempt to help bloggers break out of their writers block. I’ve never done one, though my daughter Taylor has done a few and I thought they were fun. So, I chose one in particular to try.

So…. the question “What kind of person attracts you” at first strikes me as a simple “what are the physical traits that visually attract you?” But, the question is so much larger than that. If we’re simply talking physical appearance, then I’d point you to my wife and best friend, to whom I’m very much attracted in the physical sense. She always reminds me of the lyrics to a little known song by Jackopierce:

“And that girl over there, she’s got mahogany hair,
and eyes of sweet amethyst.”

But attraction is so much more than physical, and the things that attract me to my wife in a broader sense are the same things that attract me to friends and acquaintances of all types. I think what attracts me to people is a certain measure of life that reveals itself in curiosity, contemplation, appreciation, and adventure. People I’m attracted to enjoy life in both the micro and the macro. They are people with whom you can sit down to dinner and still be sitting there in rapt conversation four hours later. They laugh much and feel deeply. Their world is so much bigger than themselves.

Wayfarer's Journal

4th of July Weekend 2011

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Old Glory flies from the Hall’s front porch.

Wendy and I picked up Grandma Vander Hart headed to Boone for a 4th of July cookout at the Hall’s yesterday. It was a gorgeous day and while the family gathering was much smaller than it might have been considering the size of Wendy’s clan, we had great food and a lazy afternoon of pleasant conversation.

That capped off a wonderful 4th of July weekend. Wendy and I enjoyed some rest on Friday night and Saturday, watching Wimbledon together and remembering our visit there a few years ago. We went to a matinee movie, something we rarely do these days. We went to see Green Lantern with extremely low expectations and were pleasantly surprised that a silly movie based on a comic book prompted such great conversation about the themes of love, will, and fear which carried on through the rest of the weekend.

On Saturday night we enjoyed a wonderful date night dinner out with the VL’s. After spending a week together in June with every meal dominated by the chaos of three families and four young children, we blissfully enjoyed a quiet dinner with adult conversation. We even got to extend the conversation back at our house for a dessert of chocolate lava cake and a wonderful Bordeaux. Mmmmmmmm.

I played bass in worship on Sunday morning which was a blast. I haven’t been playing as regularly with our crazy summer schedule, and the drummer pointed out that my fingers needed to limber up. Nevertheless, the joy of playing with the worship team and being part of the music never gets old for me.

We then headed to Des Moines to meet up with Tim & Kumi and Taylor & Clayton for lunch at Court Avenue Brewing company. More great food and pleasant conversation as we celebrated Taylor’s impending 21st birthday (more about that tomorrow).

How blessed to have a weekend full of people and experiences we love and appreciate most in life wrapped around a celebration of the freedom and sacrifice that made it possible.

Wayfarer's Journal

At the Lake with Friends

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We spent this past week with our friends at the lake. One of the reasons we wanted to make sure we had a lot of room at the Playhouse was for the opportunity to have a lot of family and friends together. Mission accomplished. We had six adults and four kids which made for a loud, busy, action-packed week.

There was a lot of great food, great conversation, and warm laughter as we made plenty of memories together. As you might imagine, there are more stories and anecdotes than I have time to write about right now.

As I look back however, the highlight of my week probably came on Thursday night out on the deck. My little 2 year-old buddy Aaron acted out in a moment of toddler rage. He looked up at me and caught my glare at him. He immediately ran to hide behind his daddy’s legs crying “No papa (that’s what he calls me). No want time out!”

When it comes to giving the “dad look,” I guess I’ve still got it 🙂

Wayfarer's Journal

Summer Night; Backyard Dinner

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After a wet, cold spring followed by a week or two in the proverbial oven, we’ve had precious few opportunities to enjoy being outside. The weather this weekend was perfect, and we decided to take advantage of it!

Wendy and I have been working hard on our little house this year. Our attention was focused down at the lake for a few years and our cute little house was in need of some TLC both inside and out. We had the siding replaced on the upper floor, replace flooring on both the first and second floors, and I’ve slowly been trying to get the lawn and landscaping cleaned up.

The backyard hadn’t looked so good for years, and we decided to enjoy it with dinner on the patio. We invited the VLs over, threw some New York strips on the grill, baked up some potatoes and made garlic bread with homemade Italian bread. Then we opened up a bold Australian Shiraz that paired perfectly with the steak.

It was wonderful to eat, laugh and play on the patio. After dinner we pulled out the Nerf dart guns and the VL boys enjoyed running around the yard playing commando in their p.j.s

Great evening. Great food. Great friends. Great time.