I just saw a student… a college, now… standing in the hallway, picking the crusts off a sandwich.

There’s a new pope… Joseph Ratzinger was elected. He’ll be known as Pope Benedict XVI

In one of Doug Wilson’s sermons.. I think it was one of the first ones in his current series on Marriage… he spoke of the need to be broken to be made whole again. Sort of like what you hear about broken bones. When they heal, they grow thicker where the break was. God breaks us to reassemble and build us up more glorious. Adam was broken – his rib taken out – so that Eve could be made, and he could be joined together with her, and be made whole once again. Only, the new whole was superior to the intial, unbroken whole. He gave several other examples from the Bible, but I don’t remember them. Of course, Christ is also an example of this principle. He was broken on the cross, and rose again, even more exalted than before.

I’m learning to see this in my own life. Take, for example, this incident. I sin, God breaks my heart and makes me recognize my sin for what it is, and repent of it. And to make myself right not only with God, who my sin was chiefly against, but also with my fellow man – which is most often my closest neighbors, my wife and children. It is shameful how often this process occurs, but that only brings more glory to God.

I am learning not to dwell on how pitiful I often can be. I don’t want to wallow in three feet of depravity, as Pastor Wilson puts it. Instead, I believe God. When He says that He is faithful and just to forgive me my sins when I confess them, and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness, my duty is to believe Him. So rather than worrying about having committed this sin again, I look to see how God is going to raise me up. How can this be used to strengthen my marriage, or teach me something, or be an occasion to teach my children something?

Today is free ice cream scoop day at Ben and Jerry’s. Getchasome!

And let me live vicariously through you since there is no Ben and Jerry’s shop anywhere near me.

So I cut my hair last night. Not Too Shabby.

Megan made it look nice.