Sean Who?

I suppose epic tales will be written about me someday, but for now I am completely happy eating coffee ice cream with my beautiful wife, Megan, and amazing little girls, Ivy and Phoebe. All three will demand I share the ice cream… which makes it all the better (granted Phoebe is a little young, but she is already after ice cream).

My favorite baseball team is the Kansas City Royals (where I grew up) and I always believe this will be the year… of course my hopes and dreams might as well be stuffed in Ivy’s build-a-bear! Still, throughout my travels, from SBU (where I met Meg), to Truett Seminary, and even in Augusta I kept the hope alive! And who knows, now that we are back in the KC area, maybe this could be the year…

As for Megan, she grew up in Tulsa and roots for the Royals out of love. She was a high school teacher (supporting me through seminary, beauty and brains) before Ivy came and now she is a full-time mom. Ivy was born March 10, 2006. People always ask where the name came from and I must admit we discovered the name in The Village, a movie by M. Night Shyamalan (who is my favorite director, all of his movies have theological significance!).

As added joy little Phoebe Rose arrived May 22nd 2009! Her name is one of significance found in Romans 16:1 (often accused we did get it not from Friends, even though smelly cat could be a nice lullaby…). And do not worry, I am already indoctrinating her to walk the path of champions (as you can tell from the picture).

Check out our family blog, which is really all about Ivy and  Phoebe (click here or use the link on the right)!

Vision for Ministry

Play by RS Thomas

Your move I would have
said, but he was not
playing; my game a dilemma
that was without horns.

As though one can sit at table
with God! His mind shines
on the black and white
squares. We stake our all

on the capture of the one
queen, as though to hold life
to ransom. He, if he plays, plays
unconcernedly among the pawns.

The gap between students and adults is not as wide as we might guess. Now as a pastor I see that adults have just grown better at covering up and concealing, but the struggle remains. What students openly pursue and say, we ponder in our minds – we do while no one is looking. In part because we continue to play a game with the hopes of capturing the one queen.

We preach that God has no concern for status. That He is not concerned with our dress or house or job or abilities. And yet our time is wrapped up chasing after these things. We find our self worth in grasping these things. Though the status symbols change (from cars to grandchildren), we continue to pursue. As though we could find joy. As though we could provide a future for ourselves.

All the while, God play unconcernedly among the pawns. As the church of Laodicea, we must realize that we are only pawns. Driven this way and that by forces we can not control. All the while, the Creator, is prepared to pick us up and use us for His purposes.

And this is our reality and purpose. In His hands, submitting our wills and pride, we find our future. In His control we find joy. As Kierkegaard writes,

Imagine a big, well-trained obedient hunting dog. He accompanies his master on a visit to a family where, as all too often in our time, there is a whole assembly of ill-behaved youths. Their eyes hardly light upon the hound before they begin to maltreat it in every kind of way. The hound, which was well-trained, as these youths were not, fixes his eye at once upon his master to ascertain from his expression what he expects him to do. And he understands the glance to mean that he is to put up with all the ill-treatment, accept it indeed as though it were sheer kindness conferred upon him. Thereupon the youths of course became still more rough, and finally they agreed that it must be a prodigiously stupid dog which puts up with everything.

The dog meanwhile is concerned only about one thing, what the master’s glance commands him to do. And lo, that glance is suddenly altered; it signifies—and the hound understands it at once—use your strength. That instant with a single leap he has seized the biggest lout and thrown him to the ground—and now no one stops him, except the master’s glance, and the same instant he is as he was a moment before.—Just so with me.