We will be looking for renters for our little home on Forest Street and hopefully move to Boulder this Spring/Summer. In the meantime Will starts mid-March and we will be commuting to Boulder for a while.

I (Lauren) am wrapping up school–my MA Counseling program–this spring and will officially be done in August (if all goes well). Liam will be two in April and is a healthy, happy, and very energetic little boy. We are very busy this Spring but feel very blessed!

LOVE from the Forsythes!

First of all, the beginning of the Bible doesn’t treat women very well (correction: it treats them with extreme abuse). Abram freely gives his wife over to kings so he won’t be killed, Lot gives his daughters over to a mob, other women early in the bible are raped, abused, and treated as nothing. To be honest some of these stories simply break my heart, and I wonder “why do allow these stories to be my authority?”

The more I have reflexed on these stories, stories of brokenness, I have begun to see that their brokeness is the beauty of them. Because it is the brokenness we find throughout scripture that is speaking the truth about reality. I bible is not  fairy tales that encourages us like some Motivational Speaker. No the bible tells the true story of creation, brokenness, and redemption. So although it breaks my heart, the bible should have stories where women are mistreated. Not because abuse is deserved but because in the reality of our world today, women are greatly mistreated every single day. The stories of abuse in the bible are like the same stories of abuse in the news we hear everyday. And this abuse and brokenness points us to our historical and present need of redemption. If we long for life (and the bible) to be filled with fairy tales, we are avoiding the reality suffered by many all around us.  

The truth is I’m a block head of a man, and don’t have a clue about the struggles women go through in our culture. But I do believe that thier stories must be told and listened to, both the good and the bad ones. Sometimes the worst abuse is the silencing of a story.

Even after rehabbing from “40 days of purpose”,  I have decided to go ahead with my churches program and try reading the bible in 90 days. Who knows maybe it because its the new year, and I also committed to trying to run a marathon, lose 30 pounds, and travel around the world with my family, I thought might as well fail at reading the whole bible while I’m at it.

I just finished reading (listen to some British actor read) day one, the first 16 chapters of Genesis. The sad news is I’m already a day behind schedule, but the good news my wife Lauren and I thought we might as well try to do this whole 90 day thing together. After finishing chapter 16, I found myself unable to fall asleep because I had a lot of questions about the first part of Genesis.

Maybe because I was inspired by the new girly movie I watched last week, Julia and Julia (which when I’m honest, and not around a bunch of guys, I have to admit I like it…and added “learning to cook” to my on going list of  new year goals) or maybe I’m just longing to find a way to honestly process all the stuff I’m going to read this next 90 days. But I decided I going to blog my way through the bible. So here we go… day 1:

I think the strangest things I found while reading the first 16 chapters of Genesis, was the many different “gods” that make an appearance. There is the great God of creation, the God that is “walking in the garden”, the pissed off God that kicks yells at Adam and Eve, shuns Cain, and kills all humanity but Noah’s family, the God that keeps using the words “let us” like he is part of some Greek council of gods, and the one the wacked me out the most that God that on the surfaced seems threated by humanity.

Since I was a kid I have wondered why God didn’t want Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge. In Genesis it seems to paint a picture of a God that is afraid that man will become to knowledgeable or powerful (like in the story of Babel, where God says, “nothing that humanity propose to do will now be impossible for them…Come, let us go down and confuse their language.”) What is God afraid of?

I think when I was in professional ministry, i was always afraid to ask these questions, because I was scared someone would discover that I didn’t have the answer, or maybe I was even afraid that God didn’t have the answers. But now i find it excited to ask questions I don’t have a clue how to answer, and to be honest, I don’t even think there is an answer. I use to read the bible to find answers, but i think this time I may read it to hear the story of God.

As you can imagine this decision was a hard one to make, but I truly believe that God has led me to this point. If you were to ask me a year ago, “What do you think God is calling you to?” I believe my last answer would be “A mattress salesman.” But that’s what I love about God, He seems to work in our lives in ways we never imagine, and in doing so continues to draw us closer to Him.

For this next year my dream is to continue as a missionary in Denver, who is able to be finically sustainable by working at a mattress store. I plan to continue much of my involvement in the ministries here in Denver, by continuing to attend City Church, and by joining the board of an international ministry called Hope International that gives micro-loans to the most poverty stricken places in the world.

To be honest, I truly don’t know how God is going to work through all this transition but I am confident that He is at work. The beauty of it all is that whether I’m a Minister or a mattress salesman, I know that Christ will still walk with me every step of the way.

Liam is 5 lbs 9 oz and likely coming home tomorrow if all goes well! Here are some more pics from his 2nd and 3rd week.