What's a mom?

This was my sweet Mother's Day letter from Trevor. :)

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Mom.
A mom.

What’s a mom?
I suppose a mom is just where we all come from – a simple origin of sorts.
Our genesis. Beginning. Source.

But what’s a mom?

I guess a mom is simply a tutor – a trainer of sorts.
To start us off in life. Point us in the right direction. Guide us. Teach us right and wrong.

A mom? Who’s mom?

Oh, she’s the maid. She cleans everything. Dirty dishes? She’ll take care of them!
Leave your clothes on the floor? Don’t worry – that’s HER job! They’ll be washed soon.

So what’s a mom?

A mom is just a disciplinarian – the slap on our hand when we reach for the cookie jar.
A policewoman. The rule enforcer. “The Man”.

Hey, have you heard of a mom?

She’s like a sidekick, - the comic relief. You live your life, and every once in a while, when you interact with her, she says something hilarious.
And makes everything a little bit easier because of it.

And what IS a mom?

A cook. All she does is cook. Her job is to feed us.
Spaghetti, pork, vegetables, casserole – you name it. She’s a pretty good cook.
I like her food a lot.

What is a mom?

Two words. Trans. Portation. She gets you where you need to be.
She’s a chauffeur. A driver. When you need a ride, she’s your woman!

Wait, a mom? What’s that?

Oh, it’s this awesome money machine! Dude, like you just push a few buttons and say a few words, and you get money! It’s so crazy. And it never runs out.
Oh, and you can set it up on this recurrence plan, where it like automatically gives you money on a certain day every month. Plus it pays for meals. You should totally get one.

Could you tell me what a mom is?

Sure – she’s a confidant! Life’s got you down? Go to your mom!
Her job is to listen to anything you say, and give advice on anything and everything.

I bet a lot of people wish they had a mom – the awesome secretary/fixer I have!
She does all my paperwork for me, calls the people I need to, straightens out messes, does tech support, fills out applications, and makes appointments.
You name an administrative task, and she does it for me! (P.S. She got me into college.)

I bet a lot of people wish they had my mom. She does everything: She created me, she raised me, she disciplined me, she cooks, she cleans, she judges, she keeps order, she jokes, she drives, she pays, she works, she works, she works! And she works. And how.

But she loves.

She loves like I don’t understand. It’s like if I told you that I would pay you 70% of everything I ever earn, and as MY payment, I made you promise to take it. It doesn’t make sense. I guess her house will just be really big in heaven.

Yeah, I think I’ll probably want to live with my mom there. She’ll have like, a mansion. And I’ll ride my moped over from my hut, up her driveway past all her limousines and hummers and ferraris, up to her personal parking deck. And then I’ll take the diamond elevator up to the front door, where she’ll have one of those awesome video doorbells that projects a 3D hologram of who you are the owner inside, and will probably play you your favorite song as you wait patiently outside for her to fly down from her bedroom on the 87^th floor. She’ll open the door and see me with my hopeful grin and mooching face on, and she’ll be like “Trevor, do you even have a house?? This is the like 120^th time this week (‘cause weeks in heaven are 70 times 7 days long) that you’ve ‘needed a place to crash for the night’!” And I’ll just mumble something incoherent about “unruly cherubim gangs in my part of town” while she kindly lets me in again, and as she rolls her eyes and flies back upstairs, I’ll dive onto her pegasus-feather couch and be engulfed into its succulent comfyness.

Suffice to say, she’s done a lot. And she deserves a lot.

Mom.

What’s a mom? Oh let me tell YOU…

I bet a lot of people wish they had my mom.

What if that was your son?

God says, "That's MY son. And you're My body. I'm not there, except through you. Your hands, those are My hands. Your feet, those are My feet. I'm a father to the fatherless through My body. I rescue the weak and the vulnerable THROUGH YOU. And if you're not doing it, NO ONE IS."

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

Just finished reading this book by Donald Miller, and it really inspired/encouraged me to live a meaningful life, to "live a good story" with my life. 

Loved these quotes:

"Once you live a good story, you get a taste for a kind of meaning in life, and you can’t go back to being normal; you can’t go back to meaningless scenes stitched together by the forgettable thread of wasted time."

"Here’s the truth about telling stories with your life. It’s going to sound like a great idea, and you are going to get excited about it, and then when it comes time to do the work, you’re not going to want to do it...People love to have lived a great story, but few people like the work it takes to make it happen. But joy costs pain."

"I think this is when most people give up on their stories. They come out of college wanting to change the world…But they get into the middle and discover it was harder than they thought. They can’t see the distant shore any more, and they wonder if their paddling is moving them forward… and they go looking for an easier story."

His Hands and Feet

Christ has no body on earth but yours,
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion for the world is to look out;
yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good;
and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.
- St. Teresa of Avila

Here is the bottom line: if we are aware of the suffering of our distant neighbors - and we are - if we have access to these neighbors, either personally or through aid organizations and charities - and we do - and if we have the ability to make a difference through programs and technologies that work - which is also the case - then we should no more turn our backs on these neighbors of ours than the priest and the Levite should have walked by the bleeding man.
- Richard Stearns, The Hole in Our Gospel

How We Spend Our Days

I went to the Pure Life women’s conference in New York this past weekend, and was really encouraged by Lynette Lewis’ word on Saturday night. She talked about being a hero -- that we are all called and chosen by God for great things, but we also choose to be chosen. It sounds kind of strange, but I know what she means -- we have to make the choice to step into what God has for us, to just walk forward. And we can also choose not to.

In Crazy Love, Francis Chan says:

Most of us use “I’m waiting for God to reveal His calling on my life” as a means of avoiding action. Did you hear God calling you to sit in front of the television yesterday? Or to go on your last vacation? Or exercise this morning? Probably not, but you still did it. The point isn’t that vacations or exercise are wrong, but that we are quick to rationalize our entertainment and priorities yet are slow to commit to serving God.

As Annie Dillard wrote, “How we spend our days, is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

Something to think about.