Luc...

That boy never fails to amaze me. Let me give you a little insight. It was only a couple of months ago that he started asking me things about the Middle East. He wanted to know why people from there wanted to dominate the world and why they wanted to hurt us. I told him that they follow a religion that has fanatics involved that translate things into literal meanings. Their “bible” calls for all of its followers to “destroy” anyone that is not a follower. We then talked about how books can be used to illustrate an idea and how they can be taken literally. It was a short little exchange that lasted only a couple of minutes.

It didn’t surprise me because we are always talking about battles and World Wars from the past as both of us are military buffs to an extent. He has been curious for a year or two about the world around him. We have had talks about Hitler in Germany, Russia, Japan many times all with the understanding that countries that choose freedom over oppression will usually always triumph. He understands that Korea has problems up North and that we help keep South Korea protected. I keep it light and never try to condemn across nationalities and he understands that leaders can take a nation “hostage” so to speak. He has a pretty good grasp of the world for someone his age. Incredible to me if I think back to how oblivious I was at his age.

Suffice it to say, he is a real deep thinker. I think he always has been and I can relate a little because growing up, I always over thought everything. I worry about him sometimes because he can seem real serious and I want him to be a happy kid. Almost always he is but it’s the somber times that get me to worrying. I must still be doing it (the over thinking thing). Amber has a great analogy and I have to tell myself this when I worry about him.
She says “Luc might feel things harder than most kids and while his low moments will be really low; his high moments will be more intensely high than others.” I might not have that worded right but that is the basic premise and I like to think she is right.

This Sunday he made a major decision and we are all extremely proud of him. Amber and I were sitting there listening to the sermon and keeping an eye on our “row” of kids. You see, our kids and their cousins tend to migrate together so our “row” of kids can quickly grow to a half dozen or so and on the odd rare occasion; they need to be reminded that church is a quiet place. When I looked across one time I noticed that Luc was looking down and seemed just a little sad. Not definite of it I asked Amber what she thought. She looked down the row and then told me that he was listening and probably listening pretty closely.

The sermon starts to wrap up and Amber moves down the row to check on Luc. She and he huddle for a minute and before I know it, it is that point when the pastor is asking those that want to give themselves over to come to the front. Luc seemed a little teary eyed but determined and he starts to head out to the end of the row. Amber looks back to me and starts down with him. I immediately got a little choked up as I realize what a brave thing he was doing and how intensely proud I was of him. I marveled at his bravery because while I have accepted God, I have not made a show of it and I was stunned as I watched him going forward doing what I was afraid to. I love that kid so much. Heck, I am getting a little choked up again writing about it.

Amber will have to fill you in on what happened up front as I didn’t get to hear any of it. His baptism ceremony will probably be this week sometime and we don’t have any specific details but I will let anyone know that is interested once I know.

You know, it’s funny. We have not been the most consistent church goers recently and had started to check out other churches. We had drifted away from First Baptist Pflugerville (FBP) because of the adult Sunday school class in the past. I don’t know the whole story but I think there were a couple of bad apples and it seemed they were being judgmental toward Amber. You will have to ask her. It was mostly my fault because in years past I had cycling events on the weekends and when I wasn’t out fo town racing on Sunday, I was training long miles on both Saturday and Sunday. Being in Texas forces you to ride in the morning to beat the heat during the summer so it all added up to a tough church situation. I blame myself, she may not, but I do. In any event, we have been wanting to make church a regular thing and had started to check out other local churches. Pville is a growing community and new churches are popping up like Starbucks. We tried one of them but it didn’t seem totally right for us but there were a couple of things we did like about it.

We came back to FBP yesterday and our Sunday school class ended up being great. We were being led by a man and wife that had (curiously enough) been Luc’s Sunday school teachers back when he was 2. It’s been on and off with this church for a while. I hadn’t realized how long until this moment (again, my fault). I am glad we came back and gave FBP another try.

We needed church back in our lives. It is obvious that Luc felt the same way.

You know what he told me just after we got out of the sanctuary … I said “Luc, are you alright?” He said “Dad, I feel better.”

(edited later for Church's proper name)