Sacrifice

A quick recap of some recent thoughts and events...

While driving through Sonoma recently, I saw this sign (previously posted as random picture of the day here) and it gave me pause and forced me to reflect momentarily.

"Some gave all"

It's such a simple phrase and yet it describes, with great accuracy, an extremely profound element of the human psyche: sacrifice.

What compels a person to be willing to sacrifice their own well-being or self-interest for another person, cause, or entity? There must always be a tremendous amount of love directed toward the thing for which people are willing to give their all. Be it a family, a country, an ideal, or God, people that are willing to throw out all sense of self-preservation for a good an noble cause are indeed worthy of memorial and honor.

Of course, if a person is willing to die for a favorite ice cream sandwich or for some other form of a false god, they can only be labeled as fools. Who decides that which is worth dying for? Well, that's for you to wrestle with and reason against. I have a clear - albeit incomplete - idea in my head. What about you?

Some other things caused me to detour when on my way home from the wine country; steeples.

Anyone who would listen to me rant when the new designs for our educational building were being drawn knows that I wish we had incorporated some sort of steeple into the architecture of our church. Steeples not only herald back to the days when it was safe to let your 8-year-old ride her bike down to the local grocer to pick up some eggs and a pack of gum (try that these days and you'll either see your daughter on the side of a milk carton or get slapped with a child-endangerment suit), but it also raises the gaze of passers by heavenward.

What a great inspiration such a spire must be to the downtrodden needy. Oh, to look upwards, ever upwards and to rest your eyes upon the cross of Jesus where the ultimate love and the definitive sacrifice was played out and here represented!

And speaking of sacrifice; would you consider leaving your family and your home to go abroad for the sake of the gospel a great sacrifice? Some would say 'yes', others would say, 'it depends on how much trouble you get from your family on a daily basis and if by "abroad" you mean "Hawaii."'

My dad is finally heading overseas again and will be abroad until about September. Here are some pics of my dad talking with (at?) Gregg.

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On a totally unrelated note, my car recently passed 15,000 miles.

Auntie Nancy was at the same restaurant that my Dad, Gregg, Zach, and I ate at this afternoon.

And lastly, (be thankful I don't have a picture) Zach, at his birthday party showed symptoms of his stomach flu. And when I say 'showed symptoms of his stomach flu', I mean 'he threw up on the carpet in the lounge at Cloverleaf Bowl'.

Also, the auntie nancy picture and the second picture of my dad were taken by Zach. (I cropped it a little, but it's otherwise a good representation of Zach's photographic eye!