The Rieslands » Josiah

These Two…

Zack — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:45:00 +0000

These two are on track to put me in an empty grave.

But man… what a life it will have been!

Happy Birthday, Josiah!

Zack — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:43:17 +0000

Josiah turned 3 this weekend.

Last year, I attempted to write some thoughts to capture how I feel about my son, but I realized it’s just about impossible.

So this year, you get 7 minutes of Josiah telling you all about his favorite songs, shows, toys, sports…. oh, and the biggie: does he plan to get married.

This video is PURE Josiah.

Enjoy!

The Lord Is A Warrior

Zack — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:57:23 +0000

I once heard Mark Driscoll explain something that was somewhat eye-opening to me.

He said something along the lines of, “Growing up, somewhere between the picture books and flannel graphs, I got the impression that Jesus was a feminine hippie with a lot of hair product. One day, I realized: I don’t have respect for this guy because I could beat him up.”

He went on to point out that, even during Jesus’ first visit to Earth, he had many ‘manly’ characteristics. He was a carpenter, so likely strong and rough. He spent most of his time camping with His disciples, and the pharisees made Him so angry that he consistently mocked them to their face.

But, more to the point, when He comes again, there will be nothing soft or ‘hippie-ish’ about Him. He’s coming to start (and finish) a war.

Revelation 19:

Then I saw^(W) heaven opened, and behold,^(X) a white horse! The one sitting on it is called^(Y) Faithful and True, and^(Z) in righteousness he judges and makes war. ¹²^(AA) His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are^(AB) many diadems, and he has^(AC) a name written that no one knows but himself. ¹³He is clothed in^(AD) a robe dipped in^[d] blood, and the name by which he is called is^(AE) The Word of God. ¹⁴And the armies of heaven,^(AF) arrayed in fine linen, white and pure,^(AG) were following him on white horses. ¹⁵^(AH) From his mouth comes a sharp sword^(AI) with which to strike down the nations, and^(AJ) he will rule them with a rod of iron.^(AK) He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. ¹⁶On his robe and on his thigh^(AL) he has a name written,^(AM) King of kings and Lord of lords.

So, just a quick recap: A warrior on a horse with a sword coming out of His mouth, with a robe dipped in blood, a name tattooed on His leg, and itching for a fight with everything evil.

Add an announcer and you have a scene from WWF smack-down.

Put that on a flannelboard….

I’m writing this because I’ve been reminded of it lately as Josiah has grown up a little bit.

The other night, at the dinner table, Josiah looked up and said, “Dad, I love good people. But I don’t love bad people. I will KILL them!”

Now, clearly, we have some serious work to do. I need to teach him that there is no such thing as a good person, and that Jesus already died FOR the bad people.

But he explained himself. I asked him, “What kind of bad people?“. And he said, “Like Goliath“.

What my son was saying that day was, “Dad, I want to be brave and I want to stand up against the bad guys! I’m not afraid. I’m a warrior!”

It’s in his DNA as a little boy.

Just like Kharis gets all of her shoes out and tries them on even though nobody taught her to, Josiah beats up imaginary bad guys with invisible swords.

There’s some part of my parenting instinct that winces every time he does. I can see him at the playground getting carried away with “playing swords” with some kid who doesn’t understand the game and then trying to explain it to their parents.

But the last thing I want to do is try and suppress that natural desire that God gave him to be brave, strong, and to fight against “the bad guys”.

Fast-forward a couple of weeks…

Josiah and I were driving to the store and we were rocking my new favorite windows-down-and-radio-up song, The Lord Is A Warrior by Matt Papa.

In it, he simply celebrates how God is the ultimate warrior and the ultimate Savior – both by dying for our sins and then by promising to destroy all evil that rejects His reign. It’s basically the resurrection plus Revelation 19 put to music.

You can listen to it here:

(And once you realize that it’s awesome, you should go buy it.)

Anyways, back to the story:

Josiah asked me, “What’s he singing about?”

I said, “He is singing about how the Lord is a Warrior. Do you know what a warrior is?”

“No.”

“A warrior is like a strong fighter.”

“Jesus is a fighter?!!?!?!?”

“Yeah buddy. Jesus is the strongest fighter. He is the best hero ever.”

“YEAH! The best HERO! And whenever the bad guys want to hurt you, He will KILL THEM!”

We came home and Josiah ran in and told his mom, “Mom! Jesus is a fighter and he gets ALL the bad guys and He ALWAYS wins!”

Theologically, my son is learning (and very excited about) God’s sovereignty and justice.

Now we just have to figure out how to communicate about grace, sacrifice, and love….

But I think most of us could use a little more of that perspective.

When is the last time you went up against something scary (illness, difficult relationship, financial hardship, etc) and pictured Jesus the warrior riding in front of you to fight your battle?

Kind of makes me want to break out my action figures….

I Love This Kid

Zack — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 11:44:19 +0000

LOVE this kid.

That is all….

The Wind-up…

Zack — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 19:23:58 +0000

If you find yourself “playing baseball” with Josiah these days, he’ll likely insist that you wear a hat, and you will probably want to make sure it’s your “patient hat”.

This wasn’t always the case.

There was a good year there where you could have a pretty good time playing baseball with Josiah, considering his age.

You would pitch it.

He would hit it and “run the bases” (run down the hall).

Then you would switch sides and repeat over and over until you gave up (because there was zero chance that he would).

But not so these days.

I don’t know whether it was The Sandlot, Everybody’s Hero, or something else, but Josiah has recently discovered “the wind-up”.

This is where the pitcher rocks back on the mound, kicks up his leg, swings around, and prepares to deliver the pitch.

In competitive baseball, this is more than just ceremony.

The wind-up is designed to help the pitcher get the maximum force behind his pitch, forcing correct mechanics and utilizing body weight.

But my 2-year-old son doesn’t understand any of that. To him, it’s just a fancy dance “real pitchers” do before throwing the ball.

And, apparently, he has decided that the longer and more complicated the dance, the more official the pitch will be.

And this is why you will need your patient hat.

When it’s his turn to bat, you will pitch and he will hit and run and you’ll laugh and have fun.

But when it’s his turn to pitch, you will stand over “home plate” (sometimes known as a “pillow”) and wait…

and wait…

while he does a “wind-up” that would probably impress most interpretive dancers.

He’ll move his arms around, pull his legs up, spin around, kick the ground, turn his head, spit on the ball, speak in tongues…

And just a few seconds after you give up on the possibility that the ball will ever get to you, it will come flying at your head.

Well, maybe.

Ironically, the more complicated and involved his wind-up, the less likely that the ball is going to end up anywhere near you.

And that means that you’ll have to chase it down, throw it back to him, and then, guess what comes next:

yep, another wind-up.

Now, I’m being somewhat sarcastic in the sense that, while everything I wrote here is true, it’s at least as adorable as frustrating to see this unfold.

But over the past several weeks of analysing this phenomenon, I’ve been wondering how much you and I do this in our day-to-day lives.

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like we often go for the low-hanging fruit of the fancy wind-up over the hard-work of learning to throw a decent pitch.

A bride spends years being “engaged” and planning the big wedding, because that’s easier and more exciting than being a good wife.

A young man spends years in seminary and devotes himself to planning his “future in ministry” because that’s easier than serving the people around him.

A young woman who decides she wants to “get in shape” and spends weeks getting the “right” clothes and shoes and equipment and workout music because that’s easier than actually exercising.

Even the business man who spends most of his life working himself ragged so he can save up enough money to retire and then spend some time with is family…
And there’s nothing wrong with being a bride or a student or any of the above…

At the end of the day, the wind-up has its place.

Pitchers do it for a reason, and it can be a good thing in general.

In fact: no wind-up often signals rushing into something.

But the wind-up isn’t the pitch.

And a wind-up with no pitch is worthless.

It’s all show.

It only matters if you eventually throw the ball over the plate.

Just a thought…

Just For Fun

Zack — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 15:53:18 +0000

It’s been a few weeks since we posted anything.

There are lots of reasons for that, and I suppose I’ll eventually make the time to catch the world up on what’s been going on in our lives.

But in the meantime, here’s the first photo from the 2011 Riesland Summer Vacation.

Oh, and here’s the shameless plug: If you want photos like this all over your walls, you should hire my wife!

Josiah: Spring, 2011

Zack — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:53:02 +0000

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABDEpUOpsrQ

A Day In The Life…

Zack — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 10:35:57 +0000

My son is BEYOND awesome.

Every day he makes me smile.

Most days, he makes me laugh out loud.

When my dad gave a speech at my wedding, he said “I feel like I won the lottery.”

I think I will probably say the same thing every chance I get when it comes to both of my babies.

But Josiah recently entered a new stage…

I suppose we could call it the “I just realized that I can learn more about the world by asking questions” phase.

Or maybe IJRTICLMATWBAQ for short.

Here is the conversation we had over breakfast Saturday:

J: What’s that?!!?

Me: I don’t know. What is it?

J: It’s peanut butter!

Me: That’s right!

J: What kind?

Me: What kind of peanut butter?

J: Yeah! What kind?!?

Me: I don’t know. You tell me.

J: I don’t know either!

Me: It’s creamy peanut butter.

J: What kind?

Me: Um… it’s just creamy.

J: What kind?

Me: CREAMY! Creamy peanut butter. Made from peanuts.

J: Peanut butter is made from peanuts!

Me: Yep.

J: What kind….

If Stephanie or look totally exhausted next time you see us, it’s because we have 100 conversations like that every day.

It’s amazing to watch Josiah grow up right before our eyes and to see those little wheels in his head spinning as he pieces together his understanding of the universe.

But man…. the kid has a LOT of questions.

These Are My Babies

Zack — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 12:58:15 +0000

It’s scary how Kharis is already trying to be just like her big brother.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyt3tIvVqxQ

Valentines Day, 2011

Zack — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 18:14:18 +0000

Stephanie and I celebrated the whole Valentine’s weekend, so for Valentine’s day (Monday), we all hung out as a family and took a little trip to the local baseball field.

Josiah and I had some fun while Steph and Kharis played with the camera:

Nine Posts From 2010

Zack — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:09:25 +0000

It was a different life when I had time to spend hours reading through our previous year’s blog posts, reminisce, pick out my favorites, and write a new year’s “Here’s What We Did In 2010” post.

But just in case you don’t come around here very often, here are a few of my favorite posts from 2010.

In no particular order:

Kharis Laughing

Josiah Turned Two

The Orange Chair : Kharis Version

Kharis’ First Video

Josiah Video

Kharis’ Baby Shower

Josiah Toddling Around Southpoint Mall

A Couple Of Josiah’s First Steps

My Thoughts Going In To 2010