At 11:38 PM nine years ago, I cried like the baby they had just placed in my arms as I beheld my 1st born son. Back then we enjoyed being surprised by the sex of each baby. With the advent of #5 and 6 practicality won out over the joy of that moment where nine months of suspense is culminated in your arms. But, on November 5, 1999 I was overcome by the news that I had a son. He was small, for us anyway. Only 7.1 lbs. He was Jacob Elijah and I had been dreaming of him for quite sometime.
Since then, he has delighted us with all of his boyish ways even while sending tremors of fear into our hearts. Jacob excels at everything he puts his hand to. It seems that he lacks no amount of confidence or security in who he is as 1st born son. Everything with him is black and white. His ability to assert his position is infamous. Constant training of relying on Christ more than self is what makes up most of Jake's discipleship. When Jacob reaches manhood we pray that all of his gifts and talents, confidence and security will be spent proclaiming Christ and Him crucified.
This year Jake has worked on developing his artistic abilities, being encouraged by his great-grandma Kitty. Here are some of his efforts:
He has also started baking, which I love.
Even though all of this baking and drawing is great, the thing I love most is when I see my son loving and serving the little ones who look up so much to their "Kuya Jake".
We were greatly blessed this day nine years ago. In that moment I thought I could never love him more. I was wrong.
6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 8 According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. 9 Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
Samuel's Warning Against Kings
10 So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. 11 He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. 12 And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. 15 He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16 He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18 And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”
The Lord Grants Israel's Request
19 But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” 21 And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. 22 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey their voice and make them a king.” Samuel then said to the men of Israel, “Go every man to his city.”
This weekend was packed full of all kinds of fellowship. We had a great time. I think I need another Sabbath to rest from all of our rest.
On Friday, we celebrated Reformation Day, Hussey style. Our nephew, Brandon came to stay the night and he always adds an extra measure of fun to our home. The big event was when James and the kids torched idols with his blowtorch. I told you it was a Hussey style Reformation Day. Said idols were donated by an anonymous source. If you know my husband, you know seeing those idols go up in flames by the hands of his children caused him to do a leap for joy as his heart swelled with love for his idols, Calvin and Luther. We did other stuff to celebrate our Christian liberty, such as teach the kids to gamble for candy. Oh, and we threw a little pumpkin devotion in there for the little one's. You know how we love to keep up with the culture.
The next morning I had planned a surprise party for Jacob's 9th b-day. Lately Jacob has been having a hard go of it. As I am sure you all have experienced, there are certain times when you notice weaknesses in your children's character. While you are trying to weed out this area in your child's heart, sometimes it seems like the child is "in trouble" non-stop. This has definitely been the case as of late. Although, all of this training is done with the reassurance of love, like us when we are being disciplined, feeling "loved" is the farthest thing from our minds. All this to say, he was really surprised, and really thankful for his party.
James put a "W" on Jake's friend Wyatt's forehead so that he could tell him apart from his twin brother. Needless to say, he started a trend.
After the party we went to a friend's house for a potluck dinner. The guys pretended to watch the BSU game and drank some beers. The girls chatted and this girl drank some beers. And, the kids played in the rain. Ever the responsible parents. The next day was a potluck at church. We shut the church down with another family. When your church has to have last call you know it is time to go. (If you don't know what last call is then you've never had any fun in your life I'm sorry to say.) After that we went to some friend's for a spur of the moment dinner. When we got home at 9:30, our kitchen still looked the same as it did after the birthday party on Saturday. Some things are just more important than cleaning.
I just wanted to say that the majority of our posting will be done on our new blog: http://brazenhusseys.blogspot.com/
We will still post family stuff, pictures, etc on vox. But, the majority of anything with substance will be done on the above blog.
So, check us out...
...abortion was a bad idea?
...the "Hippocratic Oath" meant what it said, and the doctors taking the oath meant to keep the oath:
"I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.
"I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a (an abortifacient) to cause an abortion."?
...America believed in a representative government, with God-given and state-protected "inalienable" rights, with three branches of government with limited power?
...America believed in capitalism, individual rights, and 'liberty and justice for all'?
...we fought for the right to freely assemble, freely speak, freely worship, and freely bear arms to protect ourselves against a tryannous government (can you picture King George III asking Sam or John Adams for $700 billion to bail him out of his war debt?!)?
...we believed that Marxism was a stupid idea, because we knew world history, and knew it's NEVER WORKED?!?!??
...we had a country that we were proud of, and proud to pass on to our kids?
...we had a true conservative running for office that actually had a chance of winning?
Me neither, it's been so long.
--JMH
Alright, so we're a Netflixin' family. What that translates into is that we're a few years, sometimes decades, behind the times. It also means we can review movies that all of you have seen the last time Haley's Comet did a drive-by, which means that you forgot all about these movies and my review will be fresh.
Onto the movie at hand: Bella. It was produced in 2005, stars Eduardo Verastegui (a Mexican actor who gained fame in the film Chasing Papi, but began acting on a popular Mexican soap opera) Tammy Blanchard and others most Hollywood fans don't recognize (well, in my narrow opinion, then again: what would I know?). The director is Alehandro Gomez Monteverde, newcomer and visionary along with Verastegui, and co-owner of the production company "Metanoia Films."
Cool tidbit: Metanoia is Greek for "repentance" or "changing one's mind." Only bad thing about it--this movie is several years old now, and it doesn't look like this team did any other films since.
What's the movie about? Well, several things, and I don't want to make the plot seem overly simplistic or in the least bit cheesy. Not that I don't love cheese.
The character-driven story centers on the characters Jose (E. Verastegui) and Nina (T. Blanchard). Both have ghosts in their past, and in finding each other they embark on a journey of healing.
Was that vague and cheesy enough? Allow me to disambiguate a bit.
Nina is facing a difficult moral dilemma, and Jose is a shell of the man he once was. They both have a need for healing (did I say that again?), and each other. This film is about human vulnerability, maturation, relationships, and the idea that we were created to experience grace in community with one another.
Seriously, the way this film's written, if I give any more details, I'll spoil the whole cotton-pickin' thing!
You know something? I think this movie review sucks, big time, but the movie was hands-down one of the best I've seen. The cinematography, subject, characters/actors, the experience of the Latin culture, the positive (though equally melancholy, gotta love it!) view of reality, the refreshingly positive message, it was a shock to find such a gem of a film hiding on the back shelf of the Netflix repertoire. Then again, that isn't too surprising.
What can I say? Grab a Kleenex box, your spouse, and check it out! It might not change your life, but that depends on which side of these real-life issues you sit. As a father of six and husband of one, I'm authorized to give this movie 16 thumbs way up for cultural relevance, refreshing points of view (especially on the Latino culture), art value and overall quality.
--JMH, world's not-so-best movie critic
Not to steal my husband's introspective thunder. (BTW: I am perfectly content NOT to look for suffering. I know it will find us, but I hope we can hide a tad longer. Is that shallow? Yes. No prob, I can do shallow. ) But, I just really must share this latest nugget of Jonah's wisdom.
Me: Jamesyn can you please go wake up your Ate's? (Tagalog for big sister's)
Jamesyn: Yes Ma. (I have such obedient children, it amazes even me. Or, it could be that I have stepped up my discipline in the last week from minimal to Don't mess with me, sucker. But, that is the subject of another post.)
Me: (Knowing that the girls don't tend to be "morning people", which is why I sent Jamesyn in....just kidding) You should wake them up with a sweet kiss. I bet they would really like that.
Jamesyn runs off to bestow her good morning kisses.
Jonah: Ma, Boys are the one's who are supposed to kiss princesses.
Me: You know Jonah, that is so true.
Jonah: Princesses don't kiss princesses.
And really, it doesn't get simpler than that. If only our culture could heed the wisdom that is innate enough for a four year old to get.
~Tash
If there’s anything that I’ve found in walking with Christ, it’s this:
“Life is hard, God is good. Don’t confuse the two.”
Put perfectly, Job said:
“Though [the LORD] slay me, yet will I praise Him.”
And:
“The LORD giveth, the LORD taketh away, blessed be the name of the LORD.”
In pondering the last 10 years of living conscientiously as a Christian, I’ve learned what the Lutherans call the “theology of the cross,” that is, this idea that we are guaranteed to suffer in this life. That we will suffer is as sure a thing as the sky is blue, or the sun rises, or taxes are due in April.
This is such a true facet of life that I find the following cliché utterly disagreeable:
“To err is human, to forgive divine.”
I don’t disagree that we humans err, nor that forgiveness is divine. However, I have to ask: did Jesus ever err? We might assume he made mistakes that weren’t sinful (maybe He tripped on His sandals once while carrying a piece of furniture He’d just helped Joseph make, for instance). However, that’s only speculation. We can’t know for certain since the Bible doesn’t reveal these details. It does, however, reveal how Jesus suffered. In fact, He promised at various times in the Gospels that we would and should expect suffering—don’t be surprised at it, either. Don’t suffer and think, “God, where are you? Why me? This isn’t good of you.” No, we ought to expect suffering this side of Paradise.
Jesus was absolutely the perfect picture of God our Father and the perfect picture of Man. In that, we can have no doubt.
Thus, the cliché ought to read:
“To suffer is human, to endure divine.”
Don’t be surprised when you suffer, but ask for the grace to suffer for Christ’s sake, without sacrificing His honor and glory. Jesus didn’t promise us a painless life. He was known as the “Man of Sorrows,” after all. He told us to take up our cross (burden/suffering) and follow Him—perfectly obeying the will of God. It’s easy to write this now when most of my suffering seems behind me. Most of my suffering was the consequence of failing to follow Christ, failing to lead my family, failing to measure up to God’s standard, missing the mark of holiness.
To suffer the consequences of my sinful and imprudent choices is to be expected. The suffering Christ promised was of all kinds: suffer our consequences for sin, suffer the normal effects of sin (death, disease, etc.) that aren’t necessarily a judgment against us personally, and to finally suffer for righteousness sakes (the “unfair” type of suffering).
In the book whose name I bear, we read that we are to “count it all joy” when we are in trials of all kinds, because God is fashioning us into holy vessels, driving out the dross and impurities in our hearts, perfecting us as Christians, that sort of thing. In other words: we are to expect and be joyful to receive the suffering of discipline.
Looking back, I’ve suffered for greed. I’ve suffered for lust. I’ve suffered for pride. I’ve suffered for unwise choices, thus not being able to provide for my family. I’ve proved the verse in Galatians 6:7-8:
“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption (NIV says, “destruction”) but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
What I have very little of is the “good” kind of suffering: suffering for righteousness’ sake. The type of suffering that drained the martyrs of life and limb. The type of suffering that Christ endured, and that is the unmerited suffering because the world simply hates its Creator. The kind of suffering that we ought to covet. This is the type of suffering for being bold in the faith. It’s a prize, a joy, a mark of a Christian. I have seen my wife go through it, I have seen her stripes and burden. I myself have caused her suffering many a times simply because I wasn’t in the same spiritual place as she, and I couldn’t understand nor rejoice with her.
I covet suffering for Jesus’ sake. Am I odd for saying this aloud? Here’s something odder still: I sometimes think I’m not a Christian because I have so little experience of this kind of suffering. I read it in the book of Acts, in the Epistles of Paul when he’s jailed, I read it in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, I read about our Lord on the cross suffering and then praying, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” I don’t know that I’ve ever experienced it, however, and it worries me at times.
Is it weird for wanting to suffer for Christ’s sake? I think this would bring an assurance that my comfortable life simply doesn’t afford me. I sleep well these days, my wife and children are in good health. I am loved. I have a great family, church and employer. I am well taken care of. My stomach is full (and is, in fact, a floatation device!).
This I still lack: I don’t suffer for Christ. It makes me uneasy.
--JMH
Idols For Destruction
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Janet Carstensen said:
Have to agree... Mr Hussey and Jake fit together like legos... read more
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Janet Carstensen said:
MMM! Those look yummy! Open up a restaurant! Call it "Jakes Place" or something... read more
on White chocolate cranberry
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