at the table…

Well, it’s been a crazy week. I recieved a call from my brother on the evening of my birthday letting me know that my grandfather had passed away.

For a few reasons it seemed impossible to get to the funeral, one being that my passport was in another city, another being that it was a Thai holiday so no one could get to my passport, and finally, the price of last minute flights this time of year from Thailand to America.

One obstacle after another disappeared and though I never figured I would be at his funeral, after about 35 hours of traveling I arrived in Atlanta late the night before and spoke at my granfathers funeral the next day.

It was Christy’s prompting that got me here. She felt it was important that I not only be here for the funeral but that I be here for my mother and the rest of my family for Christmas. She made a lot of sense, but coming here meant that I would leave her behind, not just for the funeral, but for Christmas as well. This didn’t sit well with me at all, but we made the decision for me to go.

So, I’m in Texas…

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers during this time…

Jason

P.S Maybe I’ll see some of you sooner than we thought

Marriage isn’t easy, not for me anyway. Christy and I have been together for some time now. We started dating just short of five years ago and as of November 22^nd we’ve been married for three of those years. There have been some dark days. There have been days, seasons, when neither of us wanted to be where we’d covenanted with God to be: Together.

Christy and I had our first conversation near a food table in the fellowship hall of a church at a Seminary preview conference. In that brief moment, I checked her out. I did. I took a moment to take a look and then I asked a few questions. She’d just spent two years in Africa. She was interested in seminary. She was a friend of a friend of a friend. There was something about her. She intrigued me. This was the feeling I left our first few encounters with: intrigue. I wasn’t sure about her, and yet, I was. She was shy, but I sensed strength, and her strength was confirmed as I discovered her story.

Christy has asked me a number of times to tell her why I like her. She wants to know this no matter her mood. I could tell her the same thing over and over and over again for days in a row and she would still want to know. I try to mix it up. I share a couple of thoughts in the moment and I save a few for later, realizing also that there are reasons I have yet to discover and there are reasons I know, deep down, but I have yet to come upon the words.

In the beginning, I think it was strength and intrigue.

Time has confirmed that my sense and my curiosity were well placed.

Neither of us is perfect. Surprised? Together we find a lot of imperfection. Sometime we point it out. But in the midst of all of our sins, there is also redemption, and there is spirit and there is God. In covenant, God is teaching us to be kind, to be humble. He’s teaching us to listen to one another, to help one another, to try to understand one another. Slowly. Slowly, it’s starting to sink in.

We’re learning to play together. We’re learning to laugh together. We’re learning to back one another. Slowly.

Slowly God is putting us together, and as he does His leading us to each other is making more and more sense. I can’t see the big picture….any part of it really, but I am learning to be content in the small picture, and to anticipate the small pictures that are coming soon.

I am really enjoying it, and I am looking forward to more. Friends together. Family together. Ministry together. Discovery together. Children together. Joy together. Learning together. Life Together.

Transformed by one another.

I am so thankful for these three years. I am thankful for where we’ve been, the memories we’ve made that I will always cherish and the ones that I hope we’ve learned from so that we will not need to visit them again. I am grateful for where we are now. Our marriage still isn’t perfect, but it’s good and it’s hopeful.

I am looking to the future with expectation and wonder. I believe we’re at the beginning of something that will be worth savoring as we go. I hope God will help us to live in the moments. I ask that he will grant us good things along the way. I pray that he will help us to always look to him, to trust him, and to kneel before him: Together.

Amen.

Little did I know, but I have been training for Thailand my entire life…

My family didn’t eat out much. Mostly, we had an evening meal Together. Mom would cook and we would gather, for better or for worse.

There were, however, a few built in special occassions:

1. Thursday night was Cosby night, for a season. My mother and I both liked the Cosby Show, so when Thursday rolled around we ordered pizza and brought in the TV trays: a special treat.

This wasn’t the only TV tray night, there were plenty more on the weekends, but for the most part this was an exception, which is what made it special.

2. Mexican Food Night. Or Day for that matter.

From as far back as I can remember my family had one night, at least once every week or two, where we would all load into the car and drive somewhere, usually to another city to eat out. “How ’bout we go out to eat tonight,” my Dad would say with a grin, which we all knew really meant “Let’s go out to eat Mexican food tonight.” You could suggest something else, if you dared, but unless it was Steak, which did worm its way in every now and then, mostly on vacation, you weren’t going to get much more from him than a stearn, blank, telling look.

Of coure, none of us really minded this tradition. It was something we loved and expected. We had all been brainwashed into believing that when one eats out, one eats Tex-Mex if at all possible. (with the noted exception of vacation time. you can only have tex-mex once a day, really. Steak, Shrimp and Burgers must step up and fill in the gaps.

Now most of you that know me are at least somewhat aware of this tradition. If not, you’ve seen the effects of it.

I shovel salsa.

In seminary my friend Chad grew into the habit of personally ordering me my own bowl of salsa if he was ever with me at Chili’s or a Tex-Mex Restaurant. This too became a sort of expectation. “And you’re gonna need to bring this guy his on bowl. He SHOVELS IT! If you don’t, the rest of us will get nothing.”

In high school I used to pop jalapeno peppers like candy. I did this because I liked them, yes, but even more so I could exhibit my skills. Guys need to show other guys that they too have skills. These skills were forced upon me by my Dad at a young age. At 3, maybe 2, I was shoveling “hot sauce” at least one night per week. I would shovel it because if I stopped shoveling it I would feel the burn.

And afterwards, something Brown. (My parents inside code for “should we stop for a chocolate milkshake or a frosty)

So, I’ve been in training.

In Thailand, we have Nam Pric. (Pepper Water) It’s like super hot salsa with no water, actually. The hill tribe people mix it into almost all of their food, and it…IS…..GOOD. Every tribe makes it their own way.

And if you’re white, and you have the skills to handle it, you eat the Nam Pric. Lot’s of it. You eat it because you love it and you eat it because when they see a white guy with these kind of skills, they like it.