This Miraculous Life

It's been awhile since I posted anything and today's particular post is something that I was reminded of this morning.  It is a story that many close friends and others have heard but I wanted to put it down here because it is an important story in my life and deserves to be put out there.

My partner and I have been married for 16 years this August.  A couple of years after we were wed we decided to try and have children.  After many months of nothing happening we went to the doctor and were put through the usual gamut of tests.  Ultimately, my partner was diagnosed with a condition known as Poly-Cystic Ovary Disease.  What this meant, according to the doctors, was that we would never have children naturally.  We were a bit devastated but not without hope as we could get treatments done to get pregnant.  Unfortunately, those treatments are expensive.  As is adoption which was are next avenue of thought.  It seemed we were destined to not have children.

However, as the years went by we sought second and third opinions.  There were many tears as doctors insulted my partner, blamed her for the situation and as we sought to figure out how to afford something like the treatments.  It was a tough number of years, yet we never seemed to give up the idea of children completely.

Finally, life took a turn for us as I left full-time work to go back to school and my partner started a new job.  These changes got us thinking that maybe we should just go for the treatments.  We would do what we had to to pay for them, even if I had to go back to work.  So, back to yet another clinic to look into beginning fertility treatments, cost be damned.

In our fifteenth year of marriage we were about to start treatments when my partner called me the day we were to begin with the news that she was pregnant.  You could have bowled us over with feathers.  After years of being told we could not have children naturally, it happened . . . naturally.

This morning as I was watching my 9 month old daughter play on the floor I was just reminded of this story and how amazing the God I serve is.  I smiled as she crawled around on the floor and tried the beginnings of words (mainly gibberish, but the most beautiful sound in the world, let me tell you).  She is my joy.  I took a quiet moment to say a quick prayer of thanks to my God because, while He loved us so much to send His Son to die for us, He also loves us enough to send a beautiful child into our lives.  My daughter will forever remind me of the miraculous nature of my God and I am so thankful to Him for that and for her.

This story is important to be told.  It reminds me of what my God is capable of.  Many will say that it is a coincidence how everything happened, but my partner, family and I know better.  My daughter is a gift straight from God, a miracle.  Proof that the God I serve still performs miracles in this modern day and age.  My hope is that those reading this will be encouraged.  Maybe you are struggling with something, wondering if God is there, or if a miracle can come your way.  Don't give up hope.  His timing is always perfect and His plan is perfect and He will see you through.

Maybe there are those reading this who don't know this God of which I speak.  If not then I would love to answer any questions you may have.  I don't have all the answers but I do know He is there and waiting to hear from you.

Importance of Community

Over the past couple of weeks the idea of community and the importance of it has been brought to my attention.  I was researching a paper and came across an article that was about how in our modern day and age with our quasi-public spaces (such as shopping malls, privately owned, but public encouraged to be there) that signs are how we determine our social behaviour now.  A more recent blog post I read today was about how community and the gathering of neighbourhoods is what teaches us social behaviour and how to act in public.

This is interesting to me because it appears that we have lost something then if our learned social behaviour is coming, not from the public around us but from the signs we see posted, or the security officers patrolling the malls or even the closed circuit cameras that are always watching us.  It is interesting that this has partly happened through he loss of true public space.  As a result of this, individuals no longer know how to interact with other individuals.  While a shopping mall may appear to be a public space, your behaviour is tightly controlled within and you are encouraged to not interact with others but to shop.  It is not like the medieval marketplaces of old where everyone gathered and ideas were shared and conversations struck up and a general equality amongst people was seen.

The blog I read recently (see references below) pointed out that people are more likely to do a thing if that thing is considered to be normal for the whole of society.  We see this today with the number of people willing to use pesticides when they may not want to, all to keep up the social norm of a green and perfect lawn.  This idea works in a positive way as well, if the social norm became such that a meadow as your front yard was the acceptable than people would start letting their lwns become meadows, which they naturally want to do anyway.  People respond and act based on what the majority of the community sees as acceptable.  You may be asking, "What does this have to do with the article about signs?"  Well, I'm glad you asked.  You see with the loss of public space we do not interact with our neighbours or communities anymore to determine as a community what those norms should be.  We allow private corporations and privately owned, controlled spaces to goevern what the societal norms should be.

Also, since I have a degree in theology, I cannot help but think back to the early church in the Book of Acts.  The early church met as a community and shared everything.  All were equal, there was no longer rich or poor, free or slave, but simply followers of Christ.  In community they taught each other what their ideas of social norms were and acted upon them, even though a lot of times they were contrary to that of the state. 

In the end, this post is here as an outlet for my thoughts, but I hope it got you to think about how you may or may not be controlled in the spaces you occupy, whether private, public or quasi-public.

References

 Williamson, K. M. (n.d.). Civility proxies and social tolerance in American marketplaces. (2002). Sociological Inquiry, 72(3), 486-99. 

http://www.good.is/posts/how-to-make-a-dream-neighborhood-resource-sharing-and-collaborative-communities/

My love-hate relationship with excercise

Over the last couple of years as my job has gotten less physical thanks to new equipment, my waistline has increased. This is not good. I am now the heaviest I have ever been, not to mention several other problems that are not evident but are probably in the danger zone right now (i.e blood pressure, heart health)

I used to exercise quite frequently. During summers I used to bike quite often, almost once a day, I was pretty thin then for me and I felt good about the exercise. I enjoyed biking so much.

After that there was a period of about six months where I was a runner. That was OK but it was hard. Since then I have really done nothing but say I need to exercise.

I had all kinds of excuses, but when your excuse is that you don't feel like putting running shoes on then you know you are in a bad way.

So, yesterday I pulled out my bike after a couple of years and tuned it all up and took it for a spin. I discovered that I have really missed cycling. The freedom of it. The ability to go places you couldn't in a car. The honest sweat that you work up (mind you I don't remember it ever being this difficult when I was a kid, oh well).

Anyway long story short, I am trying to get back into the exercise thing. I am currently not at a place where I enjoy it, as many of you can empathize I am sure, but I am making the effort. I may never love it, but I hope I will continue to do it. I also hope my continuing struggle in this area will encourage others to at least try to get out. In the end I think it will be worth it, even if I hate every minute of it. See ya'.

Lessons from "The Punisher"

The other day I was watching the newest "Punisher" movie and while it is filled with a lot of violence and gore it did have a message there. You just have to look for it.

For those who don't know "The Punisher" is a Marvel Comics anti-hero. Frank Castle witnessed his family gunned down by the mob and after this event he took on the mantle of "The Punisher" to exact revenge against all those who break the law, only his brand of justice is usually in the form of death to the bad guys.

Anyway there is a scene in the movie before the climactic final battle where Punisher is in a church talking to his priest friend. His friend quotes Matthew 7:2 "The standard you use for judging is the standard by which you will be judged" (NLT) and the Punisher simply says "I can live with that."

Now I have been thinking about this a lot since then because so many times I am quick to judge others for various reasons. Also, I see it all to often where we as the human race are quick with our judgments without knowing the whole story or we judge based on our prejudices.

Knowing that God will judge me in the same way I judge others can I say with the Punisher "I can live with that?" Unfortunately I cannot. I do not want God to judge me based on the things I have done or the things I have said. I don't want God to judge on the basis of my skin color or how well I speak English. I don't want to be judged by God on my appearance or how wealthy or poor I am. I cannot live with being judged in that manner, especially by God.

Sometimes we are so quick to judge others based on so many things, I think we would be wise to remember that we will be judged in the same way we judge others.

Of course this leads into whole other topics of discussion like loving one another and being good Samaritans and such but I will leave those for another day. So, in the meantime, for those that didn't think comics had anything to teach us, think again.

First blog post ever.

Well, here it is. I have decided to start a blog. The biggest reason for this is that I have a lot of stuff go through my head and I decided I needed to start putting it down somewhere. I have opinions, thoughts, ideas and for my own sanity I thought writing some of them out would help me, and if they are helpful to any readers out there, then all the better.

I hesitated to start this blog because once I start I am committed to it. Committed to writing it, committed to putting my thoughts out there in cyberspace for all to see. In the end though I have decided to go through with it because I think the benefits far outweigh the negatives. I also have been looking for motivation to write for years and I thought this would be a good start.

So, what can you expect from a blog entitled 'Jeremy's Ramblings'? Well, those in the know say your blog should be about that which you are passionate about. So with that in mind (and trust me I have thought long and hard about this) I have decided to have a blog about no one specific thing. My passions are many and how can I write only about comic books, or movies, or God. No, I must write whatever happens to be on my mind at the time, sometimes it will be serious, sometimes humouress ( I hope), but in the end it will be about the things that I am about. Also, do not expect daily blog posts from me. Right now I am challenging myself to write at least once per week. I also plan to keep thing fairly short, no one wants to read me ranting for 20 pages.

So, I hope, dear reader, that you will take time every week (and possibly more) to come and see what is on my mind. I look forward to hearing from those who read this blog (if anyone) and hope that some of the things that I write will challenge and encourage.