Darren LeBlanc

I was tickled when I got home from work and saw how many comments there were on last night’s post. I loved it. It got me thinking…You know, in a strange way, your reading this blog brings validity to my ramblings. It brings a deeper purpose to my thoughts and daily undertakings…whether spiritual or secular. It brings a greater significance to my life and to Misty’s. For that, I owe you all a great debt.

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I have taken a few weeks off from doing much of anything that seemed like work. Today that has ended. I had a good day back to the office. I’m also back on board with Anthem of Hope and I wanted to share something with you. Below is the Executive Summary. I am so very fired up about this whole thing…I hope that as you read the document, you are drawn to pray regulary for AoH. There are so many lives that will be touched. Thanks to Misty for inspiring this. It’s just one of the many debts I have to her.

Anthem of Hope – Executive Summary

NOTE: If you click the link, it should open. Otherwise, use the right mouse button to click on it and select “save as”. You can then save it to your desktop and open it. If that still doesn’t work, get a computer-savy friend to come over and install adobe acrobat for you :)

Olivia has personality just running through her veins…just like her mother. So things always have to be done up. For her first haircut, she appropriately has her personal stylist, Heather, escort her to the beach for a little snip and photoshoot. Thanks to Miss Yvonne for the lovely images and organizing the extrvaganza…and thanks to Heather for getting my daughter hooked on lollipops (and for the cut). 

Then today I decided to doll her up for church. I made her sit on my lap as I took the curling iron to her hair to flip out the bottom (after conservatively applying a bit of product to the tips, of course…haha). She likes it cause that was the way mommy often did her hair :)

You can click on either of the pictures to go to the gallery. Do me favor and leave me a comment with the number of your favorite (this one would be #5 cause it’s “5 of 15″) . I am going to submit one to the baby gap contest. Vote today though cause I have to submit it by the 22nd. (I didn’t get a lot of smiles…she is NOT very easy to photograph anymore.)

PS…It’s back to the daily grind for me tomorrow. I’m thrilled that Olivia has such a wonderful group of people to hang with her when I’m at work (my mom, Misty’s mom and our best friend Ann) . I’m pretty sure I’m gonna miss her during the day though. Now, I just have to find a job that pays the same and lets me stay home :)

Here are a handful of the 1750 shots Shannon and I took at thier wedding a few months back. I know its a little late but…hey, I’ve been a little preoccupied :)

Click on the Image to visit the gallery.

In other news, Olivia decided that instead of a nap she was going to sneak the balmex again and paint all over her sheets, feet and hands. I must say, the amusement I have found in the past in such instances was significantly diminished.  Later the dumb squirrel further decimated my pumpkin. And lastly, Liv and I both missed mommy today a bit. Only a few more days and its already a month since she died. That feels weird.

Courtney is one of my favorte people in the world and tonight I noticed that she had a “vote for this site” banner up as well. Many of you signed up to vote for me and could go back and throw a vote her way. She is in a different category from me so dont feel bad about voting..haha.

Here is the link:
http://www.divinecaroline.com/awards/932-storing-up-treasures-in-heaven

By the way, I love the comments and emails I get…so encouraging. Sorry I’m not always timely in responding to email..I do eventually read everything though. I just wanted to say that its appreciated and not ignored.

I haven’t always hated these mid sized rodents. My disgust was more of an acquired taste. It all started in 1998 on a wanna-be picturesque campus away from the city, outside Harrisburg PA. Messiah College was nice enough, but somehow the the population of members of the Sciuridae family had skyrocketed and upon my arrival to the college, I found myself wondering if I had stumbled upon the worlds only squirrel breeding ground.

One day I happened upon the college radio station (I was a DJ there for a couple years) and heard some dialogue about these rodents. The two DJs were discussion how long it will take for the squirrels to take over the school. Trust me, if you had been there, you’d know this is was quite an issue.

Anyway, today I remembered why I do indeed dislike these little rat creatures. My beautiful front porch pumpkin (that olivia was instrumental in selecting) was decimated by the street troublemaker squirrel. These pictures tell the whole story.   

Great comments everyone. I have a couple responses:

Tbone,
Good thoughts, but I must point out how the scripture I quoted says that faith comes by hearing the word. The faith you talk of does not come from hearing the word. I suspect that your definition of faith is not exactly the same as the author of that scripture.

Jai,
Thanks. The line should have read: “the way you should really read the Bible”. In other words, there are many interpretations of the Bible. It is likely that none of us are 100% correct, but it is absolutely true that some are closer to understanding the way it is meant to be read than others.

Courtney,
I have loved that video for a while….I was actually planning on using it in a post about some of the modern teachers of our day…haha. (I still will probably). Piper is a real firecracker and quite potent. I would argue though that he doesn’t quite define “faith” (I’m setting this up to have a post about how we can’t in fact define it…haha). But yeah, awesome video…everyone should watch it.

If you know me well, you know that I put an enormous amount of effort into being the most open I possibly can be to criticism. If you have had the misfortune of having worked under me for any period of time, you know that even as a leader, I ask for feedback often and expect that you will tell me when I don’t observe the sinking ship that everyone else sees…especially when I’m the one steering! I still remember a high school leadership class where we talked about the Johari Window and the inevitability that there are things people observe about you, that you yourself do not notice.

We have all seen it. The obnoxious mother who speaks to her kids like they are dogs; the father who absolutely must be the center of attention; the teacher who tells jokes that entertain himself only; the pastor who doesn’t realize that the way he touches females leaves so many with questions. We all have things that others see about us that we don’t notice. So for a good 5 years now, I have been all out obsessed with knowing what people notice about me. I really don’t need to hear the positive things…I want to hear about the negative reception that John gave after I proposed a new business plan, or the discomfort that Suzie felt when I gave her a hug after just being introduced. I want to know how the world responds to me, not for my sake, but for theirs. If I bore you in my teaching, it is no loss to me, but perhaps you could have missed something important that if I knew to change format a bit, you may have received. Or if I make you uncomfortable, it is not likely that you will see the love of God in me…in my insensitivity.

This line of thinking spills over in to every area of my life. Do you know how I can take better pictures? Is there a more efficient way to get something done? I’m obsessed with being better. And today, the area I’m most sensitive about is my faith. Am I misrepresenting Jesus on this topic? Did I set a bad example for someone who is wondering what God is all about? Is something that I’m saying not adding up with the way you really should read the Bible?

So when I write something that seems wrong, send me an email or leave a comment. I’m not suggesting everyone make trouble for the sake of it, but if you have constructive discussion, please do send it my way.

For those of you who want to “dig in” a little bit to the wonders of the Bible, keep reading…
Yesterday I said that today I was going to respond to the following question:

Darren, you stated, “Our experiences should not influence our faith, but our faith should influence our experiences.” Can you explain in more detail what you mean by this? Why shouldn’t our experiences and observations influence what we believe? We want to believe what is true, no? Why shouldn’t we verify that our beliefs about God line up with reality?

We shouldn’t overreact to our circumstances, and there can be many reasons why God either brings about or permits certain experiences to occur. But if a Christian has an understanding about God, based on his interpretation of the Bible, and an event in life evidences that the belief is incorrect, why shouldn’t he take that into consideration?

Are you making a distinction between faith and belief?

Ok, so first let me explain the thought process leading me to that statement. There are very few passages of the Bible that come anywhere near giving a definition of faith. I do not know exactly what faith is…and if you asked yourself hard, you might not know exactly how to describe it as well. We do however see a functional description of faith in the Bible. Specifically the book of Hebrews:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1

So we start by seeing that faith is the substance of things hoped for.  The way I see it, hope must be for things unseen. We cannot have hope for something that we already have. I would not hope for my freind’s safe return from Iraq if I met him this morning for breakfast. The rest of the verse reiterates that faith is about what is “unseen” not what is seen.

Continuing on in that chapter we see “And without faith it is impossible to please God” in verse 6. Faith is absolutely core to the life as a Christian. Considering it’s importance, we would logically be inclined to ask how we get it, or how we know we have it.

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
Romans 10:17

So faith, whatever it really is, comes from hearing the word of God. There are no other conditions on that statement….just that we get faith from reading the Bible. It doesn’t leave room for faith coming from our observations or our own good reasoning…just from hearing the word. (While I’m on it, I read Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell today. I found that very much of his writing would have sounded exactly the same coming from me; I enjoyed much of it. There are a few things I disagree with though. He states that everyone has faith…faith in something. The atheist has tons of faith…just not in the same thing that a Christian would have faith in.  This is a very nice idea but I don’t believe that this is the same “faith” as is described in Romans. Rob argues that we all have faith, we just need to change it to be toward Jesus. I don’t think that this verse supports that idea…but that’s for another day.)

So we see that faith is important and quite closely married to the unseen. The observations that we see in our life should not influence our faith, the bible should influence our faith. When we believe something is true, then it can influence our worldview. For instance, I believed that God was healing Misty because the Bible said that a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick…and even when she got worse, I chose to believe the word of God over what my eyes were seeing happen. Obviously, the measurable outcome indicates that she would not ultimately be healed, but somehow that’s ok. I can’t explain it, but I am far….far better off, for having trusted in God during that time, then trusted what my eyes were telling me.  

So back to the specific question. I would agree that it makes sense to verify what we expect to get with the results that we do get. The problem though lies in our perspective. If Olivia looks at the stove she cannot see the flame on the burner. She is not tall enough. The truth is, the flame is there and I can tell her that through my words. It is truth even if she cannot see it. Now, it is possible that she may even reach her hand up over the top of the stove and touch it down just to the side of the burner. So with her eyes and with her experience there must not be a fire. But the truth is that the fire was in fact there. I wonder if this is like it is with God. The things I see with my eyes often don’t match up with what I see in the pages of my Bible. But maybe it’s just my perspective. And to “stay the course” favoring unseen evidence over visible proof certainly does make me feel like an ostrich putting my head in the sand. This answer doesn’t really sit nicely with me. What about how seeing a miracle truly increases your trust in God to be able to do miracles. Is that increase in trust and increase in faith? I’m sure there is much that I’m missing…but I think I’m on the right track.

Scott, thanks for making me a better person today by forcing me to question, explain and better understand my statements.

 1) Today, I’m praying for Lyla Rose. She is 5 months old and has leukemia. Oh how I wish my family was the only that had to deal with cancer.

2) For clarity, my story yesterday was recounting a day from a week ago. I would harldy use “sorrow” to describe any part of my day to day life lately. I don’t need any more peace or comfort than I have right now. I miss my wife, that is still quite true. I see things every hour that remind me of her…but I’m so very comforted and at peace. Also, I don’t need to hear one word from God to be at peace about this. I’m ok with it already and have been for a while. You will see me wrestle with understanding God and the Bible, but that is so I will be a better person…not so I can be comforted by any answers. I don’t think most of us reflect on our lives quite enough.

3) Loved a comment I got from Scott today:

Darren, you stated, “Our experiences should not influence our faith, but our faith should influence our experiences.” Can you explain in more detail what you mean by this? Why shouldn’t our experiences and observations influence what we believe? We want to believe what is true, no? Why shouldn’t we verify that our beliefs about God line up with reality?

We shouldn’t overreact to our circumstances, and there can be many reasons why God either brings about or permits certain experiences to occur. But if a Christian has an understanding about God, based on his interpretation of the Bible, and an event in life evidences that the belief is incorrect, why shouldn’t he take that into consideration?

Are you making a distinction between faith and belief?

I’m going to talk about that tomorrow when I have a few more minutes to type. I love the comment and I’m excited to talk about it.

4) Olivia made some new friends yesterday as I did some portfolio shots out at the park. She is my little helper. Everywhere we go she looks for opportunities to help and always reminds me “I helpin.” Today she was helping to hold a huge box in the basket at Lowes. It wasn’t going anywhere, but I was happy to have her help :)

Click the image below for the gallery.

Last night I got a call from a good friend who had a couple questions. Basically, we discussed something that I have touched on in the past:
If God tells us that “a prayer offered in faith will heal a sick person”, yet reserves the right to not follow through on that, don’t we find ourselves doubting all the promises that he has given? Like should we believe that “all things work together for good, for them that love God and are called according to his purpose” or that “if anyone ask wisdom it will be given to him”….or what about “train a child in the way he should go, and when he is older, he will not depart from it”. I couldn’t really provide her with a great answer for this…but it is time for me to finish my bubble rock tale from last week and I think it may be somewhat relevant.

On October 5th, I posted about hiking up a mountain to this weird rock thing (called bubble rock, because it is on top of bubble mountain – a mountain that looks like a couple large bubbles) and falling asleep trying to read the Bible. Many of you will remember the post because you immediately thought less of me at that moment. Many others recall the sinking feeling you got when, in that same post, I mentioned that my main professional lens for the camera bounced down a steep rock grade and plummeted to its death in the sweet lobster waters of Maine. Regardless, I will continue the story.

When I woke up, I had this ridiculous hunger that was like controlling my mind. So I decided to forgo the potential time of reading because there is no way i could read while I was hungry right? The truth is, I really didn’t want to talk to God. I wasn’t mad…just not in the mood. I mean, I had talked to God quite a bit that day already and didn’t think I was really going to get any more of an answer on why the Bible says that a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick…and well, that doesn’t always happen. (And please don’t comment that “Misty was healed…now she is healed and with Jesus”. This is not really true. While I do believe that her body was restored to her and she is in heaven, this is just simply NOT what the healing in the bible is talking about. The original language is very clear that we are talking about physical bodily healing….not a restoration in heaven.) Anyway, my mind was tired and I didn’t want to think about it.

I headed down the trail quickly. I’m not as agile as my high school days (this was SOO many years ago…) but I can still move quickly in my lightweight hikers. Hunger has always been a good motivator for me. I stopped for like 30 seconds to snap a picture that I couldn’t resist, but otherwise headed right to the car. I opened the door and in one motion flung my bag across the car, landing my body in the seat and I found my left hand reaching for the large bag of beef jerky and my right hand turning the ingition key.

I had left the radio on.
The first words I hear are “Sorrow came to visit us today…”
I broke…it was like I was blindsided by an emotional mack truck. I literally found it hard for me to catch my breath.
I knew this song…I had loved it for years, but the lyrics had meant nothing to me. But this time was different. My mind immediately remembered the lyrics to the rest of the song and I hung on “This mountains high, too high for us” and then “Your ways are high, too high for us”. It was so clear at that moment. This mountain is high….I am so deeply hurt when I hear about a young couple going through cancer or death….that mountain is too high for us to get over on our own. And those of us who are Christians recognize that we have God to help in difficult times, but the reality is that God’s “ways are too high for us” to really understand.

This was not an answer to any question that I have…but it was a hug from God at I time that I needed it. I’m so sad that I can’t answers questions for my friend who called last night or for the many of you that have sent me emails confirming that the standard “christian” answers just aren’t working for you. I can’t now and may never be able to bring a clear answer to the table. But I am praying tonight that God sends you something personally so you feel a little better in the midst of our confusion. I’m praying that you learn to adopt my new mantra: “Our experiences should not influence our faith, but our faith should influence our experiences.” We need to not trust our eyes, but rather trust what we know is truth even when we don’t see it…we need to trust who we know is truth even when we don’t see him.

If you have 3 minutes and 54 seconds take a listen to the song:

Sorrow came to visit us today
Was the longest day, was the loneliest day
Sorrow came to steal our hope away
Only tears can tell
Of this holy hour

This mountains high, too high for us
This mountains high, too high for us

Sorrow came quicker than a fire
Was the longest day, was the loneliest day
I feel your hand, the warmth, your sweetest smile
But you slipped away, through the great divide

This mountains high, too high for us
This mountains high, too high for us

Your ways are high, too high for us
Your ways are high, too high for us

I have posted a link the past to a blog by Alyssa (Lyss) Parker. Lyss and her brother Ryan are very close to my heart and I love them like family. Their dad, Joel, has been in the hospital for over a year now and we are continuing to pray for him even though it is quite discouraging.

Lyss and Ryan’s “Grandma Rita” just had a stroke and is in ICU…not waking up. I’m praying today for healing for Joel’s mom, Rita. If you believe God still heals, please join me.

The gallery is complete. There are 60 images for your viewing pleasure :)
Check it out HERE
I’ll make some prints of the favorites available in the near future.

And yes, I am intending to change those pray for misty banners…just haven’t gotten to it yet.