Kyle's Random

I don’t know if Mr. Wizard was into  microscopes, but I’m sure he would love this little hand-held device that I bought for my daughter’s birthday last weekend.

It’s called the Bionic Eye, and it’s made by Eye Clops.  It plugs into your TV, and it has zoom levels of 100x, 200x, and 400x.  The best part: it only costs about $30.

Below you can watch a video of me testing out the microscope.

Even if my daughter doesn’t end up playing with it much, I’m going to get hours of fun from this thing.

If you happen to know of anything that’s especially cool to look at under a microscope, please tell me about it.

Yesterday’s post was difficult to write.  It’s challenging to take a hard look at your own struggles and then put them into writing.  The reason I did it is because making progress in that area was at the top of my personal growth plan for the year, and I believe that as I expose my struggle to the light, God will continue to change my heart and mold me into the likeness of His Son.

It is such an amazing and freeing thing to know that through Jesus, not only do I find forgiveness for my sins, but I also get to watch as God redeems even the broken places of my life.  Through Christ, I have nothing to hide.  I don’t have to pretend that I’m perfect.  Even my biggest struggles are no match for the cross and God’s power to make things new.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I really struggle to be an encouragement to my wife.  Honestly, that’s a bit of an understatement.  The reality is that she is the one who gets the dark side of my systematic and critical thinking.  As you can probably imagine, she finds it very discouraging.  Without intending to, I often deflate her with my words.

This is really hard to write.  Of all the things I hate about my flesh, this is probably the part I hate most.

“So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” – Romans 7:21-24 (NIV)

The Apostle Paul continues that passage to say that his deliverance comes through Jesus Christ.  Like Paul, through Jesus, I’m beginning to find victory in this area – learning that I don’t need to be less of a critical thinker.  Just the opposite.  I need to apply my critical thinking to understand how important it is for me to be my wife’s primary source of encouragement.

I’m curious to get some feedback on something.  When you’re making a purchasing decision (electronics, appliances, tools, etc.),  do you go with the name brand or not?  Do you think that there is extra quality/value in the brand, or do you go with the less expensive option when things appear to be equal?

(The photo above might be a little clue on the way I tend to lean on this.)

As I’ve mentioned before, Keri and I don’t own a TV.  It’s a decision that we made on purpose to help keep the lines of communication open in our home.  But even without a television, there are still so many things that try to pull the two of us apart from one another.  Whether it’s my wife’s desire to read her favorite blogs after an exhausting day with our kids or my efforts to manage freelance website & graphics projects, life has a way of trying to bring emotional distance between the two of us.

To combat this natural tendency in our relationship, we introduced a new nightly ritual into our schedule a couple of weeks ago.  Once we get the kids in bed and the house set back in order, we’ve committed to spend at least 20 minutes sitting on the couch together without distractions – just talking about the day and snuggling.  My personal goal is to begin our couch time with a few minutes of encouraging my wife and building her up – something that I’m ashamed to say I have neglected for the past ten years of marriage (more on this later).

In just these two weeks, I can already tell that God is helping us break down some barriers that were beginning to creep up between us.

(As an aside, I find it ironic that all the stock photography I looked at showed computers pulling families together for some fun family time.  Really?  I’m not saying that it’s not possible, but there’s no way that’s the norm.)

I had no idea what a nebulizer was until my daughter was prescribed one for her asthma a couple of years ago.  For those of you who don’t know, it’s a little machine that vaporizes medication so that it can be inhaled through a mask.  Kind of like an inhaler, only louder and much more time consuming.

Our nebulizer has become a normal part of life in the Gilbert household.

Well, yesterday, Keri called me on the phone at work to share the funniest story with me.  My nearly four-year-old daughter was doing a breathing treatment in her room, and Keri went in to check on her when she noticed that my daughter had turned it off sooner than it should have taken her to finish the treatment.

When Keri asked her why she turned off the machine, my daughter told her, “It was taking too long, so I drank the rest.”

Five years ago, I did an interesting thing. I sent myself a time-delayed email, and I received it just last week. Here’s a short excerpt:

As I write this you stand on the verge of something awesome that is happening at Southcliff. You’ve started training leaders on how to do cell groups, and tonight you have a strategy meeting with them to figure out how you’re going to multiply your first group. This Fall, Southcliff is also going to do a program called 40 Days of Community. This is an exciting time at Southcliff, and it is your first year of ministry as Associate Pastor.

Right now, I’m a bit scared about what will happen with all of this stuff, but I’m trusting God to do something beyond my wildest dreams.

Kind of hard to believe that was only five years ago. I sensed that God was up to something, but it’s amazing to look back at how things progressed:

• Experimenting with small group ministry and learning more about websites
• Planning and eventually launching a satellite campus of Southcliff and serving as their Campus Pastor
• Serving with great people and working hard together to reach out to the community
• Grieving through the process of seeing the campus close after two years
• Understanding that God was moving me into a new phase of ministry
• Moving from Texas to Tennessee to join with Faith Promise

Every one of these steps was challenging in one form or another, but it’s neat to see look back and see how God has been at work.  “Beyond my wildest dreams” is a pretty accurate description.

“For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.”
- Hebrews 13:14 (NLT)

Isn’t it amazing how much comfort this world can try to offer us?  We’re surrounded by conveniences – fast food, nice grocery stores, amazing technology, and abundant entertainment.  So many things try to win our love and steal our attention away from God and eternal things.  For the Christian there is a constant struggle to remember that this world isn’t our real home.

Tonight, I am again praying that God will keep what is real and lasting in front of me.  I’m praying that He will give me eyes of faith and a heart that only finds fullness in Him.

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity; and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes; and to push us into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love.

- Sir Frances Drake (explorer and naval pioneer during the Elizabethan era)

I could really use three or four of these to cycle through the kids’ toys on a daily basis.  Pretty cool video.