Heart Soul and Might

For the last couple weeks, I’ve been showing my five-year-old Josiah a few basics on the piano. Basically using three fingers starting on middle C… I still think he’s too young for formal lessons, but it’s been fun to see him picking up some things at such a young age.

This morning we had an interaction that reminded me a lot about life.

A few weeks back, I decided to resurrect some Scott Joplin material, so I’ve been practicing “The Maple Leaf Rag” here and there when I have a few moments. I’ve gotten it to where it sounds great, and it’s a lot of fun to play. It’s one of those classics that most people would recognize if they heard it. Not the easiest song, but of course practice delivers results, right?

Well, this morning I sat down with Josiah to have him play his 3-note scale and he did so well that I added fingers 4 and 5 as well, so now he can play a 5-note scale up and back down. He picked it up quick! I asked him to practice three times - and I welled up with excitement as I saw him negotiating his fingers on each key. He did it perfectly the first time! So, I said to him “Ok, two more times, Jo-Jo.” His next comment floored me, and I knew we were moving into a teachable moment.

Sitting on the piano bench, he turned around to me and said, “Now I wanna do some hard stuff, dad.”

I said, “What hard stuff?” and he said “The song you were just playing. Show me what to play, and I’ll play it.”

I got down on my knees and looked him in the eye and said “Josiah, you have to learn the easy stuff first and keep working on it before you can learn to play the hard stuff.” His eyes deflated, and he leaned his head down on the piano keys and said “But Dad, I really want to play the hard stuff.” So we spent the next couple minutes talking about how Daddy needed to work hard for years on the “easy stuff” before he could ever start to play the “hard stuff.” He wasn’t too excited about that prospect in that moment, so he jumped off the piano bench and went back to playing with his rubber crocodile.

It reminded me of life and growing to maturity in Christ… I’ll let you make the connection as it relates to you personally…

Our family prayer times are some of the funnest and most fulfilling times we have as a family. And just before our meals, our prayer can get pretty interesting. We’ve adopted a pretty familiar prayer that we sing - you may be familiar with it. It goes like this:

God our Father, God our Father
Once again, once again
We bow our heads and thank you, bow our heads and thank you
Amen, Amen.
Thank you, Jesus!

It’s the “Thank you, Jesus!” that usually shocks people around us at restaurants, because every one of us throw our hands up in the air and with much vim and vigor, shout those words… Sometimes I wonder about our ritual because a red-headed three year old can have some serious volume on that part.

Well, every now and then, we spontaneously break out into at least a 3-part harmony - sometimes its 5-part harmony - as we sing our prayer. And, I have to admit that I’m usually the one to start it, often choosing either the tenor part, or even getting up into my falsetto alto range. At that point, any reverence in our prayer-song goes out the window, and we all break into our wide-ranging operatic vibratos. Sometimes, I must admit that I’m a little convicted that I’m the one influencing our three boys to be irreverent during our family pre-meal prayer. But it’s so fun watching the faces of Josiah (our 5 yr old) and Jonathan (our red-headed 3 yr old) as they express themselves to the Lord. (or at least to each other!)

Well, in the last few weeks, Jonathan has gotten a kick out of watching me try to hit either the really high notes, or the really low notes (that I never actually get to) and he imitates my face. His face is so contorted I’d actually like to think I don’t really look like that, but he’s looking right at me when he does it, so he’s probably right on.

And following our “Thank you, Jesus!” he turns to me with eyes full of anticipation, and asks, “Daddy, did I look like you?” I can’t help but get a kick out of his enthusiasm, and he’ll only be happy with ONE answer. So of course I say “Jon-Jon, you looked JUST like me! You looked just like your daddy!” And then, satisfied that he accomplished his goal, he rips into his food…

But, it got me thinking. My little boy wants to look just like his daddy. He wants to try to sound like his daddy. He looks up to me, and tries to imitate me - even in something as silly as our operatic family prayer… And he’s teaching me a lesson when he asks me this… Because this is the question I need to be asking MY Father. My heavenly Father. “Daddy, do I look like You? Do I sound like You? Do I act like You? When people look at me, can they tell that I’m YOUR child?”

I love the lessons I learn from my kids. And, I don’t think I’m going to stop our 5-part harmony prayer anytime soon - because I have to admit: now I actually look forward to hearing that question from my son. And I have to believe our Father likes hearing that kind of question from us, too.

Clocking in at one year and eight days, Joshua is officially the earliest walker of the three Petak boys. This morning, caught on video by his mommy, our little smiley one-yr old took his first official steps on his own. There were at least three 2-step combinations and one that was really close to three steps on his own! Congrats Joshua!

Long ago, I gave up on the traditional “New Years Resolutions” since it was usually the third week in January that I gave up on my New Years Resolutions. So, a few years ago I started doing something different: I began asking the Lord in December what word He’d want me to focus on in the following year. This would be a word that would focus my thoughts, shape my goals and give me something to think about during the entire year. No longer did I have a set number of pounds to lose or a fixed number of times per week I would work out - these always led to failure. My word for the year would give me something to meditate on, to think about, to live by - it would bring me to certain books to read, messages to listen to, websites to check out… No failure. Only victory!

This word always inevitably comes from something that is already a theme in my life in some way - but maybe something I want to challenge myself with over the course of the next year. In 2004, I knew I needed to get beyond my self-focus, so my word was “others”. In 2005, He actually gave me three words: purity, humility and dependence. In 2006, it was church history.

A few weeks ago when I began to think about my “word for 2008″, I was thinking about my boys. I thought about the fact that they get jazzed at just about everything they see, no matter how common or simple. Jonathan still looks up at the moon sometimes and says “Daddy! The moon, the moon!” Unfortunately, I’ve looked at the moon so many times I hardly see it anymore and have gotten bored with it. It just blends in to the night sky now. I’ve forgotten that it’s an amazing orb 240,000 miles away from earth whose lunar pull actually affects ocean tides here on the earth! And it struck me that somewhere between the age of five and me, humans tend to lose the childlike wonder and awe that my boys have. Many people trudge along just trying to get through life, unaware of the incredible things in, around and above us that can inspire that same childlike wonder. I don’t want to be one of those people.

A few years ago, I read my favorite book of all time The Pleasures of God by John Piper, and he introduced me to a fascinating man - his mentor, Clyde Kilby. Kilby lived every day by his “Eleven Resolutions for Staying Alive to God’s Glory.” His seventh resolution said this:

I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their “divine, magical, terrifying, and ecstatic” existence.

I love where these resolutions take me. They make me open my eyes and my heart - and they take me to the glory of God - to His mystery and wonder. I too seldom live according to these resolutions that I adopted as my own a few years ago, and I know God wants me to recapture His glory by opening my eyes to His wonder. The wonder of all that He has made, the wonder of how He’s redeemed me, the wonder of the relationships He’s blessed me with…

So, it is with great expectation that I live 2008 with my word for the year: Wonder.

I looked up “wonder” on dictionary.com and here’s what it says:

One that arouses awe, astonishment, surprise, or admiration; a marvel:

I look forward to seeing what God brings my way that will arouse awe, astonishment and surprise - as I open my eyes to the wonder of all that He is and all that He has made - staying alive to His glory. And I invite you as well, to keep your eyes and ears open to experience the wonder God has in store for you.

If it’s difficult to get a pic of Joshua with his eyes open, it’s monumental to get a pic of all five family members looking at the camera! This was no small feat… OK. I take it back. We still couldn’t get Joshua’s eyes open while everyone was looking at the camera, but this was as close as we were going to get…

It isn’t easy getting a pic of Joshua with his eyes open. He is content sleeping most of the time when he’s not eating. Here was one of those rare moments, so the camera was snapping away…

And the baby’s pretty cute, too.

Someone caught daddy napping with Joshua today. Where was the candid camera?

Here are the three Neopolitan Petak boys: Jonathan (strawberry, age 2 on left), Joshua (chocolate, center) and Josiah (vanilla, age 4 on right).

We are proud to announce that the newest Petak has arrived: Joshua Brian Petak was born at 2:16pm on Friday, December 29th, 2006 at Baptist Hospital in Nashville. He weighed in at 7 lb 3 oz and 20 inches long. As you can tell from these pictures, we finally have our much-anticipated dark-haired son! With Josiah (blonde) and Jonathan (red), we’ve joked that Joshua (dark brown) gives us Neopolitan Boys.

Here he is on the right, a few minutes after arriving at home, playing his role as our favorite stocking gift of the holiday season…

This weekend I was honored to be invited to speak at a SAM Retreat (Songwriters, Artists and Musicians) at Deer Run Retreat Center (pictured here) in Franklin, TN. Sponsored by Indieheaven.com, there were the maximum 40 artists - many of them indie artists who are members of Indieheaven.com. Deer Run is a beautiful facility, managed by Rick and Angel Bowles who are really developing this place into a premier camp and retreat facility.

After an amazing dinner last night, I gave a talk entitled “Aren’t We All Worshippers?” - where I unpacked passionately staying alive to God’s glory. What a great audience to speak to since everyone there was at the very least a passionate musician and most are passionate about their calling to exalt the glory of God through their music. A LOT of talent was packed in that room! I focused on keeping our ears and eyes open to the glory of God in all that He has made, having a BIG view of who God is. If we see God as the great, transcendent and awesome God that He is, it can’t help but spill out of us in our life-response of worship and influence others to see God in this way as well. I shared a couple of Clyde Kilby’s resolutions for staying alive to God’s glory…

Following a short time of Q&A, Rick introduced Shaun Groves who spoke on songwriting…although definitely not the stereotypical songwriting talk. Most recognize Groves as a great songwriter… but Shaun is a GREAT speaker… and obviously well-read and studied, especially in God’s word. He talked about having the perspective of being “Kingdom People” in our songwriting. Understanding that God, through Christ, has ushered in the Kingdom of God and its our job to lift this good news in our music. Shaun did a masterful job expositing from the beatitudes in Matthew 6. I won’t attempt to expound on it, but he said he’s writing a book on it, so I’d recommend getting his book when it comes out!

Following the song critique session, we had a great time listening to Brent Lamb in concert. He’s a hilarious guy and had us laughing a lot of the time… but he’s also a great songwriter and has penned good ole’ CCM favorites of the past like Steven Curtis Chapman’s “My Turn Now”, Harvest’s “Army of the Lord”, Steve Green’s “Household of Faith” and others. He also had a bunch of success as the lead singer of Grammy Award-winning Shenandoah a few years back. Brent did a kind of career highlight revue of many of his songs and concluded with what he called his legacy - “The Booger Song.” We were rolling on the ground. Here are the lyrics.

Technorati Tags: Deer Run Retreat Center, Indieheaven.com, Shaun Groves, Brent Lamb, Shenandoah, worship, songwriting, artists, music, God

Every Friday is Fenelon Friday, where we drink from the very deep well of my favorite 17th century French Bishop in the Catholic Church. (Everyone should have a little Fenelon with their coffee in the morning…) Francois de Salignac de La Mothe-Fenelon (born 1651) was a mentor to a number of younger men on the court of Louis XIV. In fact, he was given the responsibility of raising the young man who would proceed Louis XIV to the throne of France (the King’s grandson). Many of Fenelon’s writings are actually letters he wrote to some of these young leaders as they sought to walk the life of faith in the face of opposition and adversity. Fenelon’s teachings were met with resistance within the Catholic Church because they aligned more with Reformation teachings than with Catholic dogma at times, and his hope was that once his student became the King of France, he would be instrumental in the reformation of the Catholic Church and bring a real witness of Jesus Christ to France. Those hopes were dashed in 1712 with the premature death of the King’s grandson. Fenelon died not long after that in 1715 at the age of 63, but his teachings live on and continue to influence 300 years after he died.

Preserving Peace with Others

To be really pleased even with the best persons, we must be satisfied with little and we must bear with much. The most perfect people have many imperfections. We also have imperfections, and great ones. Our faults, joined to theirs, make our bearing with each other very difficult. But bear one another’s burdens, and so you shall fulfill the law of Christ. we must make a charitable allowance in this matter. Frequent silence, habitual recollection, prayer, detachment from ourselves, renunciation of all the carefully crafted criticisms, faithfulness in abandoning all vain judgments of a jealous and fastidious self-love - all these things tend very much to preserve peace and union with God. We spare ourselves much trouble by this simplicity. Happy are those who pay no attention to self-love, and who pay no attention to the criticism of others.

Content yourself with leading a simple life according to your circumstances. For the rest, obey the Lord and bear your little daily crosses. You need them, and God gives them to you only out of pur mercy. The great thing is to make light of yourself sincerely, and to consent to be made light of by others if God permits it. Nourish yourself with him alone. St. Augustine says that his mother lived only by prayer. We also are to live by prayer and die to all the rest. We can live to God only by a continual death to self.

Francois Salignac de la Mothe Fenelon, Talking With God, pp.133-134.

A few months back, I wrote an article called “The Size of God” (click here) and as I’m updating my research for an upcoming retreat talk I’m giving, I found that we have new astronomical information to work from! This doesn’t change the size of God (smile) but it does affect the accuracy of my illustration model in attempting to get our minds around the size of God. If you read the article, you’ll know what I’m talking about…

I was referring to 1994 research that the Saggitarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy was the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way at 80,000 light years (LY) away. However (and I should have checked more closely before writing “The Size of God”!), I’ve now found that in 2003, astronomers discovered the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy is actually only 42,000 LY away from the Milky Way. Here’s a picture of this beautiful new discovery! The Canis Major is the ribbon of red mingled within the blue that is the Milky Way. The cool thing about this galaxy is that the Milky Way has actually been stealing stars from Canis Major over the years. In fact, the Milky Way has gained around 1% of its current mass by stealing stars from Canis Major!

It seems that streams of stars pulled out of the cannibalised Canis Major galaxy not only contribute to the outer reaches of the Milky Way’s disk, but may also pass close to the Sun.

Astronomers currently believe that large galaxies like the Milky Way grew to their present majestic proportions by consuming their smaller galactic neighbours. These cannibalised galaxies add stars to the vast haloes around large galaxies. However, until now, they did not appreciate that even the disks of galaxies can grow in this fashion. Computer simulations show that the Milky Way has been taking stars from the Canis Major dwarf and adding them to its own disk - and will continue to do so.

information taken from the following University of Strasbourg website: http://astro.u-strasbg.fr/images_ri/canm-e.html

I relay this info simply because I’m amazed by God’s handiwork. The more I find out about the universe, the deeper I worship the Creator of it. And to think about the fact that in just the last three years, we were finally able to see the galaxy that is CLOSEST to ours makes my mind spin at how many other wonders there are out in the universe that we can’t or never will see!!

This galaxy is able to be seen only because of new infra-red technology (the Two-Micron All Sky Survey or “2MASS”), which has allowed astronomers to look beyond the clouds of dust in the disk of the Milky Way. Just think about what else is out there that we have yet to see…

Technorati Tags: galaxy, Canis Major, 2MASS, God’s handiwork, Milky Way, worship, universe

As many now know, the world lost one of it’s most passionate animal advocates yesterday in the untimely and freakish death of Steve Irwin, known as “The Crocodile Hunter.” Today, I received this from my dad, written by Alvin Reid, a prof at Southeastern Baptist Seminary in Wake Forest, NC. I couldn’t have said it better, so here it is in its entirety:

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that
they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they
realized that they had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13, NKJ)

I have always had an interest in snakes and other reptiles. I have a
python in my office, my son has a corn snake in his bedroom, and my
eight-year-old daughter loves to play with her little ball python who
dwells in her room. My wife has no reptiles, but she does possess a
great amount of patience! I am most proud of my newest addition, a
five-foot-long, black-throated monitor lizard named Goliath. We like
to take him for walks on a leash - he does draw a crowd! I often quip
that as an evangelism professor who likes herps (that is, reptiles), I
actually teach soul winning and snake handling. Don’t worry, we do
not handle serpents in church!

With this in mind, you might guess my favorite television show - you
got it - The Crocodile Hunter. It has been a long time since I was as
excited about a television show as I am about The Crocodile Hunter, or
the shorter Croc Files for kids.

Whenever I speak to young people, I ask how many of them know who the
Crocodile Hunter is. The response is telling. Nearly every one of
them knows who he is, although his primary show, The Crocodile Hunter,
appears on the cable network Animal Planet. The show’s star, Steve
Irwin, has jumped from “just another host” of a little known program
on this smaller market cable network, to the host of primetime
specials on network television and an occasional appearance on movies
and commercials.

Steve Irwin’s incredible rise in popularity can teach us some things.
The enthusiasm of young people from age 5 to 25 for the show is
obvious. They know his sayings: “She’s a beauty!” (I have to admit
even a snake lover like me has a hard time calling a salt water
crocodile beautiful!) If a particular python attempts to bite him,
you will hear him say, “Oh, you’re being grumpy, mate!” “Danger!
Danger! Danger!” is another of his popular sayings.

Believe it or not, I think Steve Irwin’s rise - from a man running a
zoo in Australia to internationally known figure - can teach us some
things about how to make an impact on this culture.

First, he is passionate. Have you ever seen anyone so incredibly
zealous for a bunch of lizards and snakes? On several occasions he
has said, “I would give my life to save this crocodile!” Now that is
passion! Oh, that we as believers would have such a passion for
Jesus, who is of infinitely greater value than a reptile! Our lost
culture desperately needs people who will live for Jesus with a
passion. Great movements of God in history, from the First Great
Awakening to the Jesus Movement, have been led by people ablaze with a
passion for God.

Second, he is real. His videography is inferior to what you see in
National Geographic specials, but no one cares! We live in a society
today where reality is in, and synthetic is out. Look at the
popularity of shows like Survivor, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and
The Weakest Link, all of which feature everyday people rather than
phony Hollywood actors. The primary way The Crocodile Hunter has
grown to reach the masses is not through marketing. Rather, it has
touched a chord in the lives of many in the culture, especially the
coming generation of young people, who are sick and tired of slick
approaches to push a product. This culture wants real, not slick.

The best way to witness in this postmodern, increasingly radically
unchurched culture is to be just like the early believers. They did
not make an impression by their background, or their position, but by
their genuine, obvious, and deep love for Jesus. Acts 4:13 gives one
of many examples of this: Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and
John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant, they
marveled; and they realized that they had been with Jesus. The most
remarkable aspect of the early believers was that they were
unremarkable. That, and they were real.

Third, Steve Irwin takes risks. No, that is inaccurate. He loves
risks. His first show that put him on the map concerned his adventure
to capture the ten most venomous serpents in the world with his bare
hands. It seems he spends his life trying to get as close to being a
crocodile dinner as possible. He would not be happy unless he were
chasing down a wild pig by foot, or grabbing a cobra with his bare
hands, or jumping in a river on the back of an alligator. He will
make sacrifices to save an animal. Oh that we would make sacrifices
for the salvation of the lost! Could God even use a Crocodile Hunter
to spur us to take risks to reach the unchurched at any cost?

I teach at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, a school known
for its doctrinal convictions and evangelistic passion. We are
uncompromising theologically, but we have some unusual people -
besides me, I mean. One of the members of our prestigious Board of
Visitors, Richard Headrick, sports a long ponytail and loves to wear
shirts with logos like “Hellfighter” on them. I like to tell people
that our theology is black and white, but our approach to ministry is
in living color. In other words, while we must consistently contend
for the faith once delivered, we must live in a way that demonstrates
the radical, passionate, total abandonment of our lives to Jesus.

Examine yourself: what are you doing for the sake of the Kingdom of
God that could compare to the zeal shown by Steve Irwin for the sake
of a pile of snakes?

This was written in 2001.

Technorati Tags: Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter, Crocodile Hunter

Boundless has an article here on responsible blogging that I thought was insightful, helpful and good. Two bloggers I link to, Justin Taylor and Carolyn McCulley were interviewed for the article (by Suzanne Hadley). Here’s an excerpt:

In May I visited a certain well-read Christian blog for the first time. The content of the day’s post was a review of a controversial Christian book. I had been pointed to the post by another blogger who claimed the comment trail following the review was unloving and unfair. I, along with several hundred others, flew to the controversy. As I read through the comments, many revealed not only an aversion to the book but severe and specific criticism of the author’s character.

As I scanned the comments — many seemingly dashed out in anger — I found myself wondering if these bloggers didn’t have something better to do with their time than tear apart a fellow follower of Jesus.

Unfortunately this kind of graceless conversation among Christians is all too common in the blogosphere. “The secular world is not impressed with the Christian world of blogging,” says Justin Taylor, proprietor of the blog “Between Two Worlds.”

Justin, whose blog receives up to 1,800 visits per day, believes that many Christ-followers are abandoning the basics when it comes to their online conversations. “Jesus said they will know us by our fruit and by our love, and a lot of blogs are failing in that.”

And, fellow blogger Bob Kauflin provides some GREAT insights in this article “Blogging To Worship God.” This is a must-read for fellow bloggers…

Technorati Tags: blogging, blogs, Christian blogging