Super Turkey

Okay, so there’s a poultry theme going on here.

This evening we were driving to some friends’ house for dinner and there were several wild turkeys on the road. As I slowed down and pointed them out to Brody (who turns 4 in 2 months – holy cats!), one of the turkeys flew away. (on a side note – that was a picture of beauty in motion – aerial artistry – anyone who has seen a turkey fly knows I’m joking here). Brody’s response:

“That must be Super Turkey!”

“The Incredibles” has been the movie of the week at our house. The movie about the family of super-heroes: the dad is super strong, the mom is super stretchy, the girl turns invisible and makes force-fields (a blatant copy of Sue from the Fantastic Four), the boy runs super fast, and the baby can do just about anything. During the movie the family unites and saves the world with their amazing powers.

Brody now has one speed – super fast. He can run as fast as Dash, the fast boy in the movie. As we walk around town, Brody tells everyone he meets about his super powers. No shame.

As Christians, we have the Holy Spirit living in us. Not some warm-and-fuzzy feel good Halmark card phrase lame forwarded email loving ghost-like thing, but the very spirit of Jesus (yeah, Jesus)! The guy that was victorious over… now what was it… oh yeah… DEATH! Jesus – the one that created… hold on… wait for it…. EVERYTHING! He is inside of everyone who has trusted their life to him.

He is constantly working in us, molding us into who he has designed us to be. His creativity is waiting to be unleashed in us. His intimacy is longing to fill every emotional need we could ever have. That’s super power!

If that super power is available to us, if it died for us, if it was victorious over death for us… why do we live our lives in hiding? Why don’t we let people see who we really are? Why do we hide behind our fences and in front of our TVs instead of living out of who God has said we are?

The funny angle in “The Incredibles” is that for most of the movie the family must live in hiding because of the lawsuits that happen when super-heroes accidentally injure innocent bystanders. Are we afraid of harming others? I don’t think so.

My guess is that we’re afraid that we’ll get hurt and we’re afraid that life may look a little different for us.

Let’s move past that fear together.

Breathtaking Fear

I really love the adventure of living here.

Today I found the most breathtaking place in our area. It took about an hour to hike up the side of a mesa, but I found it. A wide meadow. A quiet pond. Tall pines. Huge cedars. Gigantic boulders. Towering cliffs. Mountain lion dining area. All in about an area the size of a football field.

Yeah, it had to be home to at least one mountain lion. I had my 2 dogs with me, as always. They chased a few animals that were just out of my sight. One was large enough to make that scary “there’s-something-big-crashing-through-the-brush” sound.

Shortly after that I found where a few boulders created a small overhang. My dogs were hesitant to go in (I should have taken that as a warning). I peeked in and saw a fairly fresh leg bone of something and some mountain lion scat (I saw tons of bear scat on the way up there, and this was totally different). The hair stood stiff on the back of my neck.

Being in the midst of God’s beautiful, frightening, adventurous creation was almost as cool as when when my boys both tackle me at the same time.

That’s the great stuff of life. That’s the stuff that lets you know you’re really alive.