East meets West in the Birthing Room

Since we've been in China, one of the aspects of culture that continues to baffle me is their ideas regarding pregnancy and birth. I met with a friend, Alice, the other day who is a typical Chinese, but can have some progressive thinking. In my conversation with her, I was reminded at the enormous chasm that is placed between the East and the West. Here are a few things they hold to-strictly-when pregnant and having children:

1. Pregnant women shouldn't be outside.
2. After givng birth, the woman isn't to move for 30 days. Literally. That means no reading, taking a shower, brushing teeth, watching tv....nothing. You just lay there and look at the baby.
3. You shouldn't take pictures of the baby before 30 days after the birth.
4. Nobody should be in the delivery room with you to help. It shows weakness.
5. The mother and mother in law will live with you until it is fit they leave.

These are just 5 of the long list of differences. I've tried convincing her that moving these are just traditions and not all medically founded. It didn't matter. This is the way Chinese do it and that's that.

She still refers to her pregnancy as a 'condition' and is not at all excited about being a mom. Parenting is a burden that gets in the way here, but it is essential because the child pays your social security when you get older. Unfortunately her view on parenting is very common and heartbreaking everytime I encounter it's manifestation. She's a dear friend and I'm hoping to guide her through learning to love and care and find joy in this child.

Selah stories

#1: Recently Selah has been waking up a lot in the middle of the night, for no apparent reason. We've been talkingto her about it, trying to keep in bed. The other night she woke up and told us in the morning that she couldn't go bad to bed because God didn't help her because He was busy painting a picture for Jesus. (Unwrap that theology.)

#2: The other night, she asked me, "How old were you when you were my age?"
Ah, what beautiful questions.

It's a ...?!?!

For those who don't yet know, we're pregnant!! I'm almost 5 months along now and getting called fat at every turn of the Chinese corner. But we found out right before we left that it looks like we're having a girl!! The pictures were pretty clear, but there is always an element of unknown.

The kids are excited and Selah is VERY protective. She makes sure I'm eating right and not doing anything to 'hurt the baby.' She also lets me know if what I am doing 'tickles the baby.' She's definately ready for her to come. Malachi likes to kiss the baby and show me his stomach in return.

Going into the Deep

While Malachi and I snacked on a sea weed, cabbage and lima bean salad, I was reflecting on a message that a teammate gave the other day. He was meditating on Faith. Tangibly, what does it look like on a minute by minute basis?! He walked us through some stories of people who were living that very questsion. The disciples were asked to cast their nets into DEEP water and THERE they would catch a multitude of fish. But it wasn't in the shallows of the ocean, it was the depths where the sustanance would be found.

Peter often gets a denegrated because of his lack of faith. For example when he was asked to walk on water. Peter says to J "If it is you then tell me to come." And J simply stated "Come!" With that simple word, Peter took a step out of the boat and walked....even if it was just for a time. But Peter had the faith to step out of the the boat in the first place, obediently following the word "come."

The bottom line is fairly simple. We are to be obedient to the calling of 'come' or to go out to the deep ocean, the rest is up to J. Could Peter in his own faith walk on water.....of course not. Could the disciples catch tons of fish simply by going out into the deep. No, it was up to J to do the work. We are to simply live, BELIEVING that He is capable of the miracle.

More from the book we're reading...

Here's another challenging quote from the book we're reading (by Donald Miller). We add these both to challenge others and to let peope know how we're processing life, what we're learning. This quote concerns our Community's fixation on morality and how it might be going awry.

"I do not believe aa person can take two issues from Scripture, those being abortion and gay marraige, and adhere to them as sins, then neglect much of the rest and call himself a fundamentalist or even a conservative. The person who believes the summ ofhis morality involves gay marriage and abortion alone, and neglects health care and world trade and theenvironment and loving his neighbor and feeding the poor is, by definition, a theological liberal, because he takes what he wants from Scripture and ignores the rest."

This really makes one question the kind of emotional and physical energy we give to things. Perhaps we are so selective that we neglect other things equally evil and destructive, like gluttony, greed, apathy, complaining, drunkeness, addictions, .... We both forget how easily we humans have a tendency to draw "morality lines" up to the issues that we don't struggle with, meanwhile minimizing (even trivializing) those we do.

The Reformation helped us set Scripture over traditon with respect to Bib lical interpretation; yet, we have been challenged to make sure that Scripture also has supremacy over our (social and political) traditions in practice.