Christian Living Class: Next Steps

Friends:

I write with good news! A member of our illustrious group has taken the plunge and chosen to lead our class for a six-week stint beginning this Sunday. Steve May is the one, and I am very appreciative to Steve for his willingness to tackle this challenge. He will start this Sunday and will go through sometime around May 16th or May 23rd (Steve, we obviously didn't work out the specific date; we can figure out the details later). I hope that all of you will join me in supporting Steve as he takes the helm for a while. I know that a few others of you were thinking about teaching the class for a short time at some point as well. Perhaps one of you can consider taking a turn beginning toward the end of May?! Keep praying about it folks!

I will not be there this Sunday, but I will be back in class on April 18th. I plan to find a new spot near the donuts. I might even bring along a joke just in case someone wants to hear it, but my feelings will not be hurt if nobody is interested. : )

As you can see on the blog, we are set for snacks for the next three weeks. If Steve and the rest of you want to continue with the soft drinks, feel free to bring along a six or twelve pack to stock that sucker this Sunday!

That's all for now. Once again, I want to say thank you to Steve for his willingness to pick up the baton and run with things for awhile. God bless you, Steve!

Wes

Easter News, Prayers, My Biggest Loser Shot, and What's Next?

Dear Friends:

Good evening, all! For those of you who are looking at this message on the blog (which will give you the illustrated version), I've included a photo that shows me before I went on the Biggest Loser. Who is that guy with my wife? She obviously wasn't with him for his looks. : )

That picture was taken in about June of 2002, when Raegan was about 6 weeks old. Jeff Hookham captured this shot of me at the height of my weight explosion. What can I say, I thought gaining weight alongside my wife during pregnancy was the appropriate thing to do. This photo will show you what tenure stress will do. In my defense, I lost the extra pounds rather quickly and they have never returned! (and the tenure bid was successful)

Thanks, Jeff, for sending along the picture. I've included a few more from our recent trip to Disney World. Things sure have changed during the past eight years (and not just due to my makeover!). Let's get to our prayers and praises for this week before I try to sum things up.

PRAYERS AND PRAISES

I want to say a big praise for a terrific Easter service this morning. What a wonderful celebration we had!

Vince E. is traveling back to the Valley yet again this afternoon. Please pray for his safe travel.

Next, I would like for us to pray for all of the Baylor fans who are headed to San Antonio this evening. Pray for their safe travel and that they will be returning on Tuesday night instead of today!

I would like to say a praise and a prayer for Miss Raegan. She had a rough day at soccer yesterday. In addition to getting beat about 25-0 (yeah, seriously), she was hit by two very strongly kicked balls, one in the face and another in the stomach. She is just fine, but I don't think she had such a great time at soccer yesterday. I was so proud of how she got back up and kept playing. On the way home, we got to have the "sports can be a great metaphor for life" talk. I think she bought it. Please pray that she will recover from this rough day and continue to enjoy soccer this season.

Praise God for Reese Nicholson's last treatment! She finished up last Monday. This is incredibly wonderful news, to say the least. We are so proud of you guys, Brian and Amy. I still find it surreal that you guys have been through this. I don't even live with you guys, and it feels like a crazy, unbelievable whirlwind from start to finish. Please pray that Reese will continue to get nothing but great news!

Vince E. has asked that we pray that the violence in Mexico will subside soon. His station and the area he serves are deeply affected by what is going on there. Pray that God will help bring resolution to the situation soon.

Raelynn VanZee has had a difficult week of sicknesses. I think she even hit a 105 temperature at one point this week. Pray that Raelynn will feel better and have a sickness-free week.

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That covers our prayers and praises. Dana and I want to say thank you to everyone who has been so kind and thoughtful as our time of teaching the class has come to a close. The book of letters that everyone presented us with this morning is incredible. The letters mean so much to us. We cannot thank you enough for taking the time to write them. We already cherish the book more than we can express.

These past eight years have been nothing short of a roller coaster. We have been through so much with so many people that I don't even want to try and summarize everything. We have been blessed so much more than we have blessed others. God has shaped our family through all of you every week for the past eight years. That's all I know to say.

So what's next? What's the next step for the class? The truth is I honestly don't know. We continue to search for someone to pick up the teaching, but, if we don't have someone right away, that's okay. In time, God will provide. I will talk with Wayne this week to see if we can come up with some ideas. Dana and I, of course, are not going anywhere, and we will continue to search for someone who is interested in teaching.

In the immediate short term, I will be at home next Sunday morning participating in yet another sacred event at the Null home: Watching the Masters. I will be rooting for Phil Mickelson to beat the number one player in golf on the 18th hole by one shot, treating all of us to one of the biggest sports stories in history. Following that, on April 18th, I may spend the 10:50 Sunday School hour shooting baskets in the Family Life Center. My self esteem is still trying to recover from getting beat at Horse by Jill VanZee about three years ago (folks, think twice before challenging Jill). Jill, if you're looking for something to do on the 18th, I would like a rematch. You have to give me a chance to redeem myself!

Question

On a serious note on this most sacred of Sundays, I want to share a question with all of you that a good friend of mine shared with me this week. We discussed it in class this morning, so I apologize to those of you who are hearing this for the second time. Here's the question.

Was Jesus happy or sad when He died on the cross? Listen to that question again. Was Jesus happy or sad when He died on the cross? What a great question. I think Vince E. had a good response this morning. He said "Yes". The obvious answer is that Christ was both happy and sad. On the other hand, he may have been neither. He knew that His destiny was to die for our sins, so, in one respect, He was just performing His duty. On the other hand, Christ was also sad because He had just experienced--in a very painful and personal way--how sinful man can be. If I have to lean one way or another, I think the answer is that Christ was more happy than He was sad. After dying on the cross and turning death into life, He had now done what He was called to do and could move on to spending eternal life with his father--our father. I'm not sure this answer is sufficient, but I do know that this is a wonderful question for us to put in the back of our minds as we celebrate Easter every spring.

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Have a great week, everyone. I will be in touch if I hear more or different news about next Sunday. Thank you again to all of you who have been so kind, thoughtful, and appreciative as we have led the class.

God bless,

Wes and Dana

P.S.--Go Lady Bears!