realityczech

talan james

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:08:59 +0200

talan james kincannon is a week old today. time has flown by already and i’m sure that before i know it he will be

one

ten

twenty

[i’ll be dead]

___________________
my sister graciously allowed my entire family to be in the room during labor. it wasn’t an easy thing, either, as she was going for a natural birth!

being there was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

it was amazing to watch my sister labor. to experience her body in a completely new way as it worked to birth a child!

a human being came out of my sister.

now, don’t get caught up in the graphic nature of that last sentence, but let the reality of life coming from life settle in.

a human being was born!

BUT

it wasn’t easy.

she was induced at ten in the morning and talan was born at nine-forty-five that night.

almost twelve hours of labor...ten of which were very difficult.

at about seven things started getting pretty hairy.

talan’s heart rate was dropping and meghan was struggling. the nurse called for help and brought the doctor in. people were rushing everywhere.

“flip to your other side”

“get on all fours”

“we need to get the baby’s heart rate up”

“give her oxygen”

“we need to start thinking of other options”

my heart was racing as my mind started thinking the worst.

that is when, for the first time in my life, i experienced the thin line between life and death.

new life was coming, but it is so fragile.

one moment meghan is in normal labor and the next nurses and doctors are rushing everywhere.

life
-------------
death

eventually i couldn’t stand that thin line, so i left the room.

my mom couldn’t handle it either, so we spent some time with emily’s parents praying. towards the end of the prayer em came out and told us that things got bad again and that they were taking meghan in for a c-section.

about a half hour later i was an uncle.

i don’t know if i’ll ever be comfortable with --------- but i think that if i can at least recognize that ---------- more often that i will appreciate the life part of it more.

talan, thanks for showing me a little about life in your short one.

i love you.

open boxes

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:02:25 +0200

my buddy josh posted this about balancing that correlated nicely with some thoughts i had today after walking my wife to the train station.

for the last thirty years (or at least the last twelve that i have lived on my own) i have made a nice little place for myself. i’ve worked life out to a pretty good deal. my life, for the most part, has been organized and packaged into nice little boxes that have bows on them and are orderly.

life was manageable.
life was predictable.

but now i am married.

emily has come into my life and beautifully opened up every box that i have.

her love has opened my box of self-reliance and tossed it aside. i find myself reaching for it as it lays open and discarded on the floor, but in doing so i leave her alone. as i look over my shoulder, i see the sadness it causes her and i have a choice to make:

_ pick up the box and all the pieces of pride and individualism that once filled it and carefully put it back together

or

_ leave that box behind and cling to my wife who i love

the choice is easy, but doing it isn’t.

it’s amazing how for so long i have desired a
|partner|friend|helpmate|co-laborer|lover|
and now that i have her i find myself reaching back over my should clinging to
|independence|individualism|self-reliance|

what am i doing?

well, for one, i’m learning to live with clutter. i’m learning to live in a way that chooses

relationship
[over]
independence

other
[over]
self

humility
[over]
pride

emily
[over]
nate

i am failing miserably.

but...em has been ever so gracious in showing me that it is not only ok, but actually better, to live in the clutter of relationship and love.

i am learning to be a man who lives in the mess with my boxes being opened and left that way.

some wedding teasers!

Sun, 7 Jun 2009 12:24:34 +0200

joshua has been working hard to finish our wedding photography and has passed along these tasty treats to whet our appetite while we wait for them all.

enjoy!

why wait until the new year? start reading today!

Fri, 22 May 2009 13:49:11 +0200

my friend brett (on the far right) is wicked (insert poor Good Will Hunting accent here) smart!

he took some of that wicked smartness and applied it to creating a Bible reading plan that is worthy of its own blog post.

he listed five reasons as to why his plan is better than the typical bible reading plan:

it breaks down by week, which makes it psychologically more doable. What is better: "Read six or seven chapters every day" or "Finish Genesis by Sunday"?
it breaks down to 1 Bible book per week (2-4 for the really short ones and 1/2 for larger ones) and 1 Psalm or Creed for every day. This helps you to better grasp these books as whole documents not chopped up pieces. Also, it takes you through the Psalms and three important creeds twice in the course of a year.
it tackles the whole OT before touching the NT. This might seem like a disadvantage for some, but I think the payoff is worth it as so much is missed or misunderstood in the NT because we have no knowledge of the OT.
it breaks down by the OT in the order of the Hebrew Bible rather than our English Bibles. What!? There is a difference? Yes there is. Our English Bibles are broken down by the Historical books, The Poetic books, and the Prophetic books. The Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) is broken down by Torah, Nevi'im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings). The differences are books like Joshua, Kings and Samuel are read with the prophets and books like Daniel, Ezra, Chronicles round out the writings. This order was likely already solidified in some form by the time of Jesus, and so could have been the order he would have had it organized in his head.
The NT narratives are rearranged to highlight their unique features. Mark is first, which is likely the first Gospel actually written (and one that Matthew and Luke used and expanded upon). Luke and Acts are read as what they really are, one story in two parts.

i would add a sixth:

I often feel burdened to start a Bible reading plan on January 1. This one gives me the freedom to start wherever.

you can read more of brett’s brilliance here or here.

four years

Sun, 17 May 2009 20:55:18 +0200

today marks the four year anniversary of arriving in Czech.

four years is a long time.