Ragamuffin Soul

I love my life…
Los

So yesterday I decided to stop by a hole in the wall Korean BBQ joint on Buford Highway.
It had some GREAT reviews and I was missing my Korean kid.
So I pulled in.
Alone I walked to my table where the waitress immediately recognized my Korean tattoo on my left forearm.
She grilled me and soon found out that I was the proud father of a Korean born son, Losiah.
She yelled something out to the kitchen and soon after I was surrounded by the staff oooooing and ahhhhhing over the pictures of my beautiful family on my iPhone.
I soon was delivered my Beef ribs and was about to get to work when my waitress returned and…

It all happened so fast…
My question to you…
Would you have let her shove her fingers all up in your mouth or politely declined?
Los

When I was a kid I wanted to grow up to be a _________
Los

In fatherhood there are wins…and there are losses…
This my friends falls right in the middle.
It is a win because my 3 year old son now knows the devastating effects of singing Beyonce in front of his father.
It is a loss because with 6 words, I accidentally crushed his little heart!
He apparently loves the song Single Ladies by Beyonce.
Little did I know how much he loves that song.
I was simply making a point that he, in fact, is not a single lady.
And check out my daughters faces. One is pissed and one is devastated at what just transpired…

Where’s that parenting manual again?
Los

[UPDATE - Yes I held my phone while I drove.  Just like I hold a coke can and drive. I wasn't looking at the back of my iPhone, I was watching the road.  Just for you concerned parents. But the safe thing would have been to pass the phone to the wife. Of' course 2 hands are better than one.]

Last night I tweeted…
“Most of the time,when God tells U something,He’s probably looking 4 simple obedience as opposed 2 tweeting or blogging abt it.”
Yes God wants us to share so that we may help.
But I’m finding more and more on this world wide web that we are trying to turn every still small voice from God into our Large Loud Voice from us.
And I’m talking to myself here too.
This is just an encouragement to US all that when God speaks…Listen…Do…Listen…
And try and speak just a little bit less.
And yes…I do feel like God spoke to me to tell you all this…I’m not saying to not share…but your time with God should probably be just that most of the time…YOUR TIME WITH GOD…
I was reminded last night in a reply back to me that in the Screwtape letters, a suggested way for Wormwood to divert his ‘patient’ is 2 get him 2 write a book about what he’s learned.

The great thing is to prevent his doing anything. As long as he does not convert it into action, it does not matter how much he thinks about this new repentance. Let the little brute wallow in it. Let him, if he has any bent that way, write a book about it; that is often an excellent way of sterilizing the seeds which the Enemy plants in a human soul. Let him do anything but act. No amount of piety in his imagination and affections will harm us if we can keep it out of his will. As one of the humans has said, active habits are strengthened by repetition but passive ones are weakened. The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel,

Your affectionate uncle
SCREWTAPE

I am assuming that probably most of the time…the still small voice of God in your spirit is meant for just one person…

You…

and just one action…

Do…

That’s all…
Los

Fly…
Los

10 Years ago in May, I married my wife.
I’ve learned sooooo much I thought I would start documenting what I’ve learned on here.
This is what I have learned from my in-laws since the day they’ve let me into their family…

1. I have learned how to change the alternator in my car.
2. I have learned what Mama Barkumes reaction when I call her and say…”Mama. I’m so sorry. We’ve been in an accident. I don’t know how Heather is. They won’t tell me anything. She’s in the ambulance. I’m so sorry.”
3. I’ve learned how to take my steering wheel off to fix the steering column. All over the phone.
4. I’ve learned how much a wife craves the love of her mother in a way a husband could never understand.
5. I’ve learned how to change the oil in my car.
6. I’ve learned more about faith, strength, and love from a couple who don’t call themselves Christian than I have from most Christians.
7. I’ve learned how to change the starter on my car.
8. I’ve learned that Multiple Sclerosis might take your strength away…but it doesn’t take your strength away.
9. I’ve learned how to check my head gaskets.
10. I’ve learned that in order to know how to best love your wife…you watch her father love her mother.

I’ve been lucky…
You?
Los

Do you say things like “That church and it’s leader is an inch deep and a mile wide”?
Do you anonymously post on church leader blogs saying how full of themselves they are?
Do you say things like “Where’s the conference I can go to that will help me choose the conference I will go to?”
Do you chat about how church leaders with great production are focused more on providing a show than providing Jesus while you secretly wish you had the money for one moving light?
Do you talk smack about other church leaders period?
Do you make fun of all the affliction shirt and 7 for all mankind wearing man bag sporting pastors who attend Catalyst while your v-neck and rosary are actually just as outdated?
Do you rip on Christian bloggers for using their network to market their product while you bow at the feet of Seth Godin for doing the same thing?
Do you hate on Crowder for taking “sloppy wet kiss” out while you censor yourself for your audience everyday?

If you answered yes to a few of these then you are well on your way to becoming a “Professional Professional Church Person Hater”

Look. We are all human.
We all fall short.
But hopefully this post and the post below will help us see the line a little clearer and stop acting like the way God made “us” is any better than the way God made “them”
Because we all suck and are in need of Jesus and a professional counselor anyway.

You’re Welcome…
Los

Do you find yourself thinking about someone else’s ministry more than you think about your own?
Do you throw tweets out to “famous Christians” and stare at your time line hoping for a response?
Are you strategic about the friendships you try to build in order to use them for future leveraging of your “Christian career”?
Are you only trying to take ideas from other ministries instead of giving your ideas to smaller ones?
Do you get more excited about having a conversation with a “famous Christian” than you do about having a conversation with Jesus?
Do you spend more time reading leadership books than you spend actually leading your family?
Is your ministry more “relevant” than it is “real”?
Does everybody you socialize with know what you are talking about if you say North Point, New Spring, Saddleback, or Mars Hill?

If you answered yes to more than one of these questions you are on your way to becoming a “Professional Church Person”.

Thoughts?
Los

Well.  Tomorrow it becomes official.  Team Whittaker will be a home schooling family.
As you can see from the picture above we have really taken this home schooling thing to heart.
We even adopted a few more white kids to make it feel a bit more normal.
Home School Here We Come!!!

I kid. I kid.
Here’s the deal.
I love public school.
I love what it did for me.
I love what it did for Sohaila’s the last 3 years.
I love what it did for Seanna’s confidence this year.
We really love our kids being in public school.
But with the amount of traveling I am doing and the crazy schedule I keep when I’m home we thought that this would be the best solution for the Whittaker family during this crazy season of tours, conferences, albums, books, and puppet shows.
We have LOT’S of support as a TON of our friends home school and their kids are turning out ok.
Heck. Some of my favorite people were home schooled.
In fact, I REMEMBER when he was being home schooled.

Honestly…when I was growing up…the home school kids…well…they were a bit little house on the prairieish.
And I thought it was the home school that did it to them until I met their parents.
Then I realized they were just the spitting image of them.

Homeschooling causes debates like breastfeeding and politics do.
People SWEAR by one or the other.
I swear by whatever works for your family during the season of life that you are in.

So I’d like to know…
Were you public schooled, private schooled, or home schooled?
Will or are your kids public schooled, private schooled, or home schooled?

I’ll be right back. I gotta go french braid Sohaila’s hair and tie that bad boy up in a scrunchie…
Los