Our Thanksgiving

The last few weeks have been hard. I could have titled this post "Continued, Continued" in my series on temporary home. On November 17th, my Uncle John passed. It was sudden and unexpected, in a tragic plane crash. More about the accident and his legacy can be found here: www.wfaa.com/news/local/Plane-registered-in-Fort-Worth-crashes-in-Oklahoma-one-dead-108863894.html

The hardest part about his death, was that it was unexpected. Unlike the previous deaths written of in my last few posts, John was a healthy man. We are unsure what happened, but one thing I am thankful to know, is that he is in heaven.

I have not gotten out of my Ecclesiastes series (i wonder why), and so this continues to encourage me:

"There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,"

"a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance," Pieces of Ecclesiastes 3.

"It is better to go to a house of mourning
than to go to a house of feasting,
for death is the destiny of everyone;
the living should take this to heart." Ecclesiastes 7:2

"The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning" it goes on to say.

Matt Chandler (Pastor of the Village Church) says in reference to Ecclesiastes 7:

"But death, death for the believer is about fulfillment. It's like, in
that moment, I've got all that Christ had for me, like all that He wanted me to know, all that He wanted me to experience, all that He wanted me to feel and know and and do, that I am full, that I've got all that He wanted me to drink. And so, He pulls me out. And this is hard for people, and in it, we show how sinful we are. Because what we like to do is this, “Aw Chandler, you're 32. It would be a tragedy.You have a three-and-a-half year old daughter and a ten month old son, a young wife. That would be a tragedy if on the way home tonight, you died. How could you say that that's more of a cause for celebration than the birth of a baby?” Well okay, do I want to see my daughter get married? Do I want to stand up and watch her walk down with a kid that I hopefully like? Yeah, I really do. Do I want to watch my son and daughter have kids and get to play the role of grandparent? You know, the role where you can just keep feeding them candy corn and never spank them. I want that bad, alright. I want that so bad, just making my kids' lives a nightmare, alright. “Candy corn, no punishment, go!” I can't wait. I want it. I am looking forward to that day. Do I want to be 90 years old with Lauren on the back of a porch, one of my kid's porch, sipping coffee as we suck their resources out of them? Do I want that? Yeah, absolutely I want that. Do I want to grow old with Lauren? Absolutely, I do. But listen to me, she's not mine and neither are my kids. They belonged to the Father long before they belonged to me. They are nothing but on loan. And any other view than that is idolatry. I don't own anything."

He goes on later to suggest that we celebrate all that a person got to do before s/he died. This is what we did for John. His service was a celebration of his life. I am very thankful to have known John Hugon. He will be deeply missed.


In keeping with the season for everything theme, here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving celebration with my extended family. I am so thankful, and truly blessed to have the love and support from them. I cannot describe how much they mean to me. I love you all!!!

Some Updates :)

So, we have had some fun things happen and I have tried to be better about carrying my camera around to take photos. First, Britt has started dating a boy named Mike. I have had the privilege of getting to know him a little bit. I can vouch, he is a nice guy. Here is a picture of them at the Ranger game awhile ago. Caleb and I got to take them after the Texas/OU Red River Rivalry game. Did I mention, Mike goes to OU? He also plays the drums in their band and is really tall.



As you know, last weekend was Halloween. On that night, our church held its annual Glow in the Dark festival. Caleb had to work and I ran the face painting booth. Caleb said it wouldn't be fun unless we dressed up so here is a pic of our costumes. Caleb was an outlaw, I was the Sheriff :).




My job at TCU is going well. We are in the first few days of advising season (busy season). I still enjoy it a lot and cant believe how blessed i am to have a job I enjoy (Ecclesiastes 3). Well, my boss, Deidra, had a beautiful baby girl a while ago, before we were able to throw her a shower, so we decided to throw her a baby shower once the baby could come. This was great because I got my hands on a picture of Ketty (the baby) and painted it for her. It was awesome because it made her cry :). Here are some pics.



Also, the siblings and I have had a great time doing dinners every-now-and-then. I LOVE US BEING SO CLOSE!! Cant wait till the next one. Here is a pic from then. (thanks bro for the reminder :)).


Well that's life for now :) and lovin it.