Fascinating

$100 Million

Fanny Crosby

250

My life has taken an unexpected turn as of last week. I'm slowly realizing the surprises of aging. While I'm not "old" my body isn't the same as it once was. Balding showed it's ugly head a few years ago. Stretching is an absolute must before and after working out or my body screams relentlessly at me. Now the biggest mark of my body age's came from my doctor. For our adoption Karen and I had to get a physical (No, I'm not that old, yet). We have to get various tests documented for our home study. Karen called to inform me of bad news related to my medical report. The first thing I thought of were potential problems this could cause for our adoption, but I noticed in Karen's voice a subtle jubilation. She's smiling while about to tell me bad news.
Karen had hoped this news would come two and a half years earlier. She had been strongly encouraging me to get my cholesterol checked since we were married. Before we moved to Chicago, I did get checked so that I might calm her fears and worries stemming from my family history and my poor eating habits. To her surprise and disappointment, I was in great shape with a level of 182. Her response, "you're joking me?"
Her good news and my bad news was finally here - 250. The shock didn't set in until Karen and I had lunch after our doctor's appointment. We're in line at Subway and I have to figure out what kind of sauce I can get on my sandwich - definitely no chipotle sauce. As I stood there, I looked at all the people around me in disgust secretly judging my health against theirs. Alas, it doesn't matter one slice of butter if I could out run the three obnoxious women in front of me or lateral toss the tattooed and pieced twenty-somethings sitting to my left. All that mattered was the end of the line. When I stepped down to the end of the line, I declared mustard.
This decision was the first of many decisions I am now making. I can't answer what's going to happen when friends and family come to visit and want to eat the forbidden buffet at Moonlight. I don't know what every meal is going to look like, but I'm well on my way to being a healthy father and husband. There is one goal in focus - loving my family. I can't stop aging, but I can age wisely on matters within my control. I'll say good-bye to butter and welcome leafy greens. May I never eat butter again so that I might love my children and my wife, and may God grant me a long life with which to love them.

According to what?

Yesterday marked fifty-three years since Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, and Ed Mcully were killed in Ecuador by the Waodoni tribe. Their desire was to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a people known to be hostile and dangerous to all outsiders. Despite potential danger, these men, their wives and children moved to South America with the intent to establish relationships with the Wadoni tribe and see them live for Christ.
However, the warnings about these people proved fatal for the three men. They died making contact with the tribe. Of all the ways these men could have lived a life of ministry they chose something extremely dangerous knowing they could leave their family husbandless and fatherless.
What makes such a lifestyle choice acceptable and rational? Clearly these gifted men could have been missionaries in many other areas where people had never heard about Jesus Christ and been faithful to Christ as well as possibly seeing people accept the Gospel. But they chose to follow a calling that many people, even in the church, may say is unreasonable. I don't recall their friends' and families' response to their move and mission so I am merely bringing this topic up to encourage people to think about the values with which they seek to live their lives. Is the love of Christ the constraining power driving you? Or is natural reason or selfish motives driving your decisions?
Jim Elliot said, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." May the love of Christ and His call to love move us beyond human rationality to godly wisdom.

Wanna Race?

We're having a baby (actually two)!

Karen and I have begun the process of adopting two children from Ethiopia through America World Adoption. We have a blog that details our journey of adoption. However, the blog is private. If you would like to follow our blog email me at johnmark20@gmail.com so I can send you an invitation.

Here is a post that I wrote which describes some of our reasoning and desire to adopt:

Adopting in Our Family
Karen and I talked about adopting from the beginning of our relationship. Once we moved to Owensboro and God provided both of us with stable jobs, adoption became a reality rather than just a desire. Over the past few weeks and days, Karen & I have fielded many questions regarding the adoption process, the costs, and at the bottom of it all, the why.
When you read the statistics listed on Karen's previous blog post, and on the right side of our blog about the desperate situation for adoption in Ethiopia and in other countries, it's easy to cognitively recognize the need. Karen and I feel the call to adopt children in this desperate situation--not only because of the need, but because of our faith.
We are tremendously excited about starting our family by adoption and raising up children for God's glory. There are many things that I do differently--that's for sure! I ride my bike rather than drive a car. I drink hot coffee by the pool in the summertime. I would rather read a good book on a Friday night than go to a movie. American food is not my favorite food. If given the choice, we'd both chose anything but American food. But adopting children from Ethiopia before trying to have biological children, that's not what most people think is natural. Karen and I do not operate by natural thinking. Even so, I would agree; it's not natural. It is so much more. One might even say supernatural.
God has done something that is unthinkable by our standards. While I was far away from Him, a foreigner, his enemy, God brought me to His family. I call Him Father because His son, Jesus, paid for my adoption with a much greater cost than our AWAA fees- His blood. By the blood of my brother, I am not a stranger anymore; I am a son of God. The strangest part of God adopting me is that I did nothing to make this adoption possible. I was the ugly, estranged person that had nothing to give back. But God being rich in mercy and love brought me out of darkness and made me His son. I don't deserve the riches that God has given me, but I know whom my heavenly Father is and what He has done for me. It's not natural by any measure at all.

Ridin' & Killin'

From Bike Monkey:

I always considered pepper spray products such as Halt! to be the ultimate weapon in the battle against bicycle-chasing dogs.

The former mayor of Seven Mile, Ohio, trumps that with a .357 Magnum handgun.

"The man was bicycling through the small southwestern Ohio town with his wife when a 10-pound mixed terrier named "Precious" chased down the couple, knocked the mayor from his bicycle and attacked him.

He told police that he feared for his life and shot at the dog five times before killing it.

The Oxford Press reports that the former mayor said he is a former police officer and permitted to carry an unconcealed weapon.