Christmas present and future

Merry Christmas!

Meggan and I are in Waupun today. It's a beautiful white Christmas outside, with an extra ice storm last night to make things interesting. We had Ben-and-Meggan Christmas on Monday morning; weather permitting, we will get to celebrate Christmas with many of our different extended families over the next few days. We've been participating in "Advent Conspiracy" through our church, which has dropped our stress levels a little, refocused our attention on the Lord's coming, reminded us of the needs of the world around us, and included some fun crafting for gifts. (Look out, family!) We are content, blessed, and significantly ready to have the baby. (Look at my pretty preggo princess!!!) Being pregnant gives advent a fresh poignancy - it sometimes feels like we're traveling along with Mary and Joseph towards parenthood. Songs about the joys that come with a certain baby have a double entendre for us.

I love my families. I feel so deeply blessed to have them, besides being particularly fortunate to like them (most of the time =-P). Up until the point of writing this, I've mostly been avoiding thinking about the idea that we'll probably be off in Spain next year. One's life journey is a curious thing - when I first became passionate about global ministry, I was a single male college student, eager to participate in God's mission to save the world, ready to make whatever sacrifice might be necessary. It was almost a foregone conclusion for me that this would involve leaving the U.S. I knew that would be bittersweet, but when you're 20, male, and loving college life, (1) you think it would be worth anything to pursue your passions, and (2) you're in the one season of your life where you feel like you could live a happy life apart from your family of origin. Besides, what passion could be more worthy than the gospel? The Lord's promise to his servants seems black and white - trust his words; follow wherever he leads; don't let the Christian subculture's family-first message dilute the Lord's prophetic call; go serve where servants are deeply needed.

Inevitably, my perspective has evolved over time. I still believe a lot of that stuff... but there are way more shades of gray than there used to be. I have a deepened desire to maintain faithful connections with my family members, both on principle and on a heart level. My strongest connections with my brothers and sisters in Christ do not naturally feel as enduring as my connections with my brothers and sister. Supernaturally, the family of Christ will surely endure, but I can't help seeing the world both ways, for better and/or worse. Puedo esperar por "abuelos, tíos, y primos" que van a venir con nosotros cuando criamos nuestro hijo en España, but I know there are grandparents, uncles, aunt, and cousins right here in the Midwest who will always be here for us, wherever we go.

Nevertheless, we do have family to look forward to in Spain. We will be part of a local church family, as always, but the people who will probably feel most like family will be our WorldVenture Spain family. This won't be a replacement for family, but we're praying and believing they will become a new family for us. We will love one another faithfully, but as far as Meggan and I can tell, we'll also probably like each other, A LOT, the vast majority of the time.

So, Lord willing, we will spend next Christmas with...

¡Los Gudeman! Ed and Sheryl, with their son Mark (off at school), their daughters Angel and Nikki, and their dog Navi. The Gudemans will be our veteran missionary coaches in Madrid, and probably our babysitters from time to time.

¡Dan y Eva! Dan and Eva are our Spain field leaders. They have two boys, Manuel and David. Dan grew up as a missionary kid in Papua New Guinea, and Eva is the only native Spaniard on the team.

¡Brian y Cassie! Our fellow Coloradans, we met Brian and Cassie for lunch before we left Denver. We had a wonderful time with them and their two boys. We and they are two of five missionary family units currently raising support to join the Spain team. All of us hope to be there within the next year.

¡Bill y Gina! Bill and Gina will be the team coasties (from New Jersey/Philadelphia). In our online team conversations, Bill is building a reputation as a goofball. (I already consider myself an unofficial member of his fan club. If it doesn't exist, I'm unofficially starting it.)

¡Los Reeser! Chad and Julie hope to be involved in church planting and theological education. They will probably be the first of the new units to arrive in Madrid, sometime in early spring.

¡Theresa! Theresa will be working with other WorldVenture ministries in southern Spain. She flies very soon - January 12!!!

As hard as it will be to leave, we are so thankful for our WorldVenture Spain family-to-be.

Christ the Lord has come to us this day, in the humble garb of infant flesh. He is coming again to make all things new.

Pro-life argument in the form of systematic logic

I just crafted the following argument for a facebook conversation, and I would like outside input. In particular, I'm wondering if my friends & acquaintances who are trained philosophers could help me find the technical holes in my formal argument. I know I'm not the first to put something like this together, and I certainly won't be the last... but, it was fun!

Argument in favor of pro-life legislation in the United States
1. Our nation promises all humans the right to life and liberty. (Axiom, from the Declaration of Independence)
2. The right to life qualifies all other rights. (Axiom, implied by the Declaration of Independence)
This is the only statement I'll elaborate on just a bit. Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness are to be granted to U.S. citizens in that order - that is to say, when there is a conflict between one person's life and another person's liberty, the claimant on life has the legal right. You and I have liberty, but that liberty is qualified by the state in important ways - I am not allowed to murder you, and vice versa.
3. The right to liberty is one of those "other rights." (Follows from #1)
4. One person's right to live qualifies each other person's right to liberty. (Follows from #2 & #3)
4a. Each person's right to liberty does not include any right to infringe upon any other person's right to live. (Restatement of #4)
5. A nation that promises rights should defend those rights with the rule of law. (Axiom, probably from Plato's Republic or some other classic I've never read)
6. Our nation should defend the human right to life with the rule of law. (Follows from #1 & #5)
7. Our nation should defend the human right to liberty with the rule of law. (Follows from #1 & #5)
8. Our nation's defense of the human right to liberty should not include any right to infringe upon any other person's right to life. (Follows from #4a & #7)
9. A woman's choice to receive an abortion in any case where her own life is not in mortal danger is a matter of liberty. (Axiom, from the definition of liberty)
10. If a fetus is a human, s/he has a right to life. (Follows from #1)
11. If a fetus is a human, s/he has a right to life that qualifies each other person's right to liberty. (Follows from #4 & #10)
12. The mother of any fetus is in the category of "each other person." (Axiom, from the definition of person)
13. If a fetus is a human, s/he has a right to life that supersedes and qualifies her/his mother's right to liberty. (Follows from #11 & #12)
14. A fetus is a human from the point of conception. (Separate scientific and logical argument, alluded to above)
15. A fetus has a right to life that qualifies her/his mother's right to liberty. (Follows from #13 & #14)
16. Our nation should defend a fetus's right to life with the rule of law. (Follows from #6 & #14)
17. Our nation should defend a mother's right to liberty with the rule of law. (Follows from #7 & #12)
18. Our nation's defense of a mother's right to liberty should not include any right to infringe upon her fetus's right to life. (Follows from #8, #16, & #17)
19. Our nation should defend, with the rule of law, a fetus's right to life from her/his mother's choice to receive an abortion in any case where the mother's life is not in mortal danger. (Follows from #9, #16, & #18)

Will Ferrell as a third culture kid?

There are a lot of Christmas movies out there - some good, some not, some classic, some goofy, some cheesy, some highly irreverent. Odds are you have a favorite, maybe "A Charlie Brown Christmas" or "It's a Wonderful Life." Meggan and I? No buts about it, our favorite is "Elf." Will Ferrell is hilarious, and unlike most of his stuff, it's clean. Good plot, good comedy, good pick-me-up, nothing raunchy. An all-around fun flick.

We put it in the DVD player this week, and a whole new way to see the movie opened up for me: Elf is basically a third culture kid.

What is a third culture kid, or TCK? TCKs are kids who grow up between two cultures. Their parents are expatriates, living in a culture other than their home culture. Oftentimes TCKs don't really "fit" in the country where they live or their parents' home country. The two cultures combine to create a "third culture" (hence the name). A TCK of Nigerian parents raised in Germany would quite possibly feel like she has more in common with a TCK of Canadian parents raised in Brazil than she does with anyone from either Nigeria or Germany. In our world today, third culture kids come from military families, government diplomats' families, international business families, and ... missionary families. If we stay in Spain long-term, our kids will be TCKs.

So, how is Buddy the Elf a TCK? On the surface, the movie is about adoption. Will Ferrell's character, Buddy, is a human who crawls into Santa's sack as a baby in an orphanage. He is adopted by an elf father and raised at the North Pole. However, with the differences between elves and humans, Buddy's situation ends up more like that of a TCK than that of an adopted child. He cannot perform basic elf tasks at the level of the elves around him, and he stands out as the different kid. Some of his differences are useful, but many make him a misfit. When he returns to New York City, the same thing happens - he doesn't function like a normal human being. He has been raised in a perpetually upbeat culture, and he subsists on a diet of various forms of sugar. He commits some serious cultural blunders that any born-and-raised New Yorker would not make. He also has some skills that no New Yorker can match - his energy and ability for crafts and play, while sub-elf, are superhuman. He is an unparalleled bridge between the two worlds, and that becomes a great thing.

So this Christmas, as we expect our first child who will probably be a TCK, "Elf" takes on fresh emotional significance for me. When I see him doing things no one else can do, I glow with a hint of expectant pride. When I see his sorrow at feeling like he doesn't belong anywhere, I ache just a bit. And theologically, when I think of the day in the renewed heaven-on-earth to come at the end of the age, I rest in knowing that we will all feel as though we have come home.

If you've never seen "Elf," go watch it! If you like "Elf," watch it again and look for this theme. If you have personal knowledge of TCKs, take a look and let me know of any parallels you see that I haven't mentioned.

(Photo credits - Flickr user Positively Puzzled)