Terribly Poetic

You know what?  I get it, I honestly do.  I know that it can be frustrating for you to have to sit around my children during church.  I know that they don’t always remember to whisper, they might sit when we stand or stand when we sit, and they will probably (at some point) be eating during the service.  I promise they will be distracting sometimes and I guarantee they are not going to sit quietly the whole service (although I do promise to take them out when they are melting down… we all have those days don’t we?).  But here’s the thing…. that’s not my biggest concern right now.  My husband and I are not trying to teach our children to sit and be quiet so the adults can worship God through singing, teaching and responding. We’re not trying to make sure that they are “seen but not heard”, frankly their noise level is the least of our concern on a Sunday morning.
So what am I trying to teach my children when I get the opportunity to have them with me during the service?
I want my children to know that Church is FUN!!  When we come to Cornerstone, my youngest, Norah who is now 2 years old, almost always runs to the sanctuary doors and starts dancing and clapping.  Even in her young mind, she knows that in that place we sing with joy, we clap (some of us anyways), and we celebrate!  As she gets older she will come to understand that we are singing songs of joy to our Savior, we are clapping in adoration to our Father, and we are celebrating the works of our God!  Our oldest daughter, Libby, has started to understand that more and more every Sunday we are together.  She knows that we go to Church to learn about God and to remember all of the incredible things God has done for us through Jesus, His Son.
Secondly, I also want my children to know that Church is a place where all people are valued.  I want my girls to know that they are a part of something bigger RIGHT NOW.  They are not a nuisance, the are a part of something bigger than themselves… something God specially designed to carry out His purpose to the world.  They are not a part of the Body to come, but they are a integral part of the Body in the present, the here and now.  Are we perfect? Absolutely not!!  But that’s the beauty of God using His Church to work around us…. He takes us in our weaknesses so that we can see His Spirit working through us.  My children can grow the kingdom of God!  I have seen many children come to our mid-week program through the invitation of our Cornerstone kids and I know many children, Libby included, who are excited to be able to talk about Jesus with their classmates.
Lastly, I want my children to learn what God wants to teach them.  There are so many times that Libby has learnt of the things of God from simply spending time in the service.  She has asked me questions regarding the songs (“What does Hallelujah mean?”), regarding the sermon, which I once assumed she wasn’t listening to (“What does obedience mean?”), and she is learning so much from watching what we ALL do (“Why do we stand?”, “Why do some people put up their hands?”, “What’s the bread for?”, “What’s that picture on the screen mean?”, etc, etc).
So what am I asking of you, the Church?  Please understand that my husband and I aren’t perfect (and I’m sure other parents would agree they aren’t either) and we will get frustrated, but we’re trying to teach our children about something that is bigger than any of us.  It can be exhausting for some of us, to look for teachable moments, or to keep a toddler engaged (hence the snacks!).  But you know what?  A smile from across the room, or a knowing nod can be such an encouragement to a parent’s heart.  Older people, please encourage our young families who are trying teach their children the ways of our God.  Please don’t treat our children like an annoyance, and please don’t judge our parents purely on their children’s behavior.  Kids will be kids and we all have bad days.  If you’re around children at all, you probably know that Sundays have that special way of getting children completely off routine, causing more meltdowns… maybe it’s God’s way of teaching families to rely on Him and His Church… who knows!  I am asking that you extend grace to us, as parents, and come along side us to support and encourage us.  It is hard to raise a family in this age, and families are being attacked at every level, so please pray for us and lift us up to God.
Lastly, if you take nothing else from this article, please hear me when I say the children are watching EVERYTHING that happens on a Sunday.  They are not just looking at the stage, they are looking everywhere.  They are not just watching the leaders, they are watching YOU.  They are not just hearing the words that are being spoken or sung, they are watching your actions and how you are responding to what’s being said.  And they are not only watching you in the pews… they are watching you in the foyer, in the gym, while you drink your coffee and in the parking lot.  And please, I beg of you as a mother who whole heartedly wants my children to fall completely in love with Jesus, show my kids what it’s like to be 100% in love with God.  Please extend the love and grace that God has given to you to my children.  How great it would be that by the time the children in our church can first say “Jesus”, they have already experienced His grace and love through people of the Church thousands of times!  And I’m not talking about in the nurseries, or the CE wing, but in our pews and foyer…. can I hear a “Hallejuah!!”

Lately I have been pondering so much in my head. Maybe it’s because I like to think and internalize alot as I am by nature someone who doesn’t share with others very easily. You might be thinking, then why in the world does this guy have a blog in the first place. My answer… I dunno…

Maybe it was my way of finding an avenue of social outlet (facebook seems to have taken over that), maybe it was because in a way I thought no one would read this in the first place and so why not share, or maybe it was because I thought it would help me to better communicate my inner dialogue with those that really know me. Either way, I’ve been sucking at it and I know that I need to share what’s on my mind, my heart, and my soul more often. I just wish I was a better communicator, a better writer. I feel a sidetrack coming here…. as a writer I am terrible, I can’t have any official document from our office sent out without it going through tons of proofreading, oh and somehow I think that has something to do with me losing 99% of the games of Words with Friends I ever play. So if you ever wanna beat someone, look up ddgrunau. Sorry back on topic. So with that being said, I am going to say that I am going to make an effort to post here and share what’s inside this twisted messed up, sinful, thankfully covered by Grace mind of mine. Oh, there will be grammar errors, and spelling mistakes (thankful WP catches most of those), but I am not going to apologize. I’m just going to share. Hmmm, seems fitting as the title is Terribly and not Beautiful or Awesome. So enough about that… let’s move on to something more heartwarming.

Along time ago, I did a short lived series (only 2) called Artist Showcase. I really enjoyed doing posts like that as it took the focus off me and onto someone else. So I thought I should do something like that again.

So today we are going to Focus Outward and we are going to do something special, even sentimental. I am going to do short bios and write ups on people who have greatly impacted my life. And we are going to start it off with a great friend and co-worker

Greg Benson

Many of you who read this will know Greg Benson. But what many of you don’t know is that Greg and I have worked together forever. In fact, Greg is a huge reason why I am who I am today. It all started in the summer of 1995 or was it 1996, I can’t remember. Anyways, that summer my mom (thanks Mom) forced me convinced me that being a Leader in Training (LIT) at Camp Kadesh would be a great idea. I was raised on a farm, I wasn’t stupid, I knew that being an LIT just meant doing work. ie. Cleaning toliets, dishes and other manual labour. But somehow, my mom got me to signup for a couple weeks. I know now that I’m sure she wanted the best for me, and to get rid of me (I was crazy afterall) for a few weeks during summer. Well, my LIT Director was none other than Greg Benson.

Here I am with my first group of LITs. In case you missed it, I’m button right with the short hair – I know weird huh? – And Greg is top middle with the hair – I know weird huh?

Well, I’d like to say that I was a great LIT and that I always did my best when working. But I can’t. I sucked. So much so that Greg almost sent me home. Not sure how I got to come back the second week. But looking back I know that God had a plan and it included an LIT director was wasn’t going to give up on me. That is the summer my life changed.

From then on I kept returning to camp to work and so did Greg, until one day I was his Junior Cabin Leader as seen in this next picture. We had so great times in that cabin. The 2 tallest cabin leaders together with the smallest junior campers. Fun times.

Those summers at camp impacted my life in a huge way, Greg (and others as well) modeled a faith that was real to me and ultimately what changed who I am from what I was. This caused me to have a hunger for growth in my life and eventually lead me to Briercrest and into fulltime ministry. But this isn’t my life story, this is about Greg.

God has always been so aware of my needs, and as I mentioned above, I am not a super open guy. I don’t connect deeply to others quickly, but when I do it is deep rooted and meaningful. So God made sure to place people in my life along my path, and that the most striking example of that is Greg.

When I went to Bible College, Greg and Jess lived on campus and I spent many many Fridays at there house. Sometimes probably too much time, but again, I was never turned away. I especially remember one difficult month and I bet I was over at their place 2x per week. Did I have super deep conversations each time, no, did we have an official “mentorship”, No. But I always knew that I could count on Greg and Jess. And I do remember enjoying alot of beadwedges and Kool-Aid at there place.

When I got married, Greg was there again to stand up as one of my Groomsmen. I won’t get into stories on this one as somethings are left for another day.

And then when I graduated from college to start my first ministry employment, who does God place me to work alongside? You guessed it Greg. Those first few years working with Greg at Youth For Christ(YFC) I was young and needed a lot of guidance and mentorship and He did SOO much for me those early years of ministry. One thing I appreciate is that I was given a chance and even given a chance to fail. But when I did fail he was beside me guiding me through and helping me pickup the pieces. When Greg left YFC I was scared. Scared to be without him. But during these years working alone I learnt alot and was challenged to step out for myself, which was a great time of growth for me. Now there is a whole story of how Greg challenged me while we worked at separate ministries in the same city, and even how I got to where I am know, but that’s a story that is really long and tough to tell. but what I can say is that God brought us back to working together at Ranger Lake Bible Camp and I must say that working with one of your closest friends is so very rewarding. And working with someone with integrity, courage and strength of character, but most of all, strength of faith that also happens to be a great friend is even better.

But don’t take my word for it. This past week while down at Briercrest for the college’s Camp Day’s, Greg was honoured and selected on the school’s 75th Anniversary as one of the 75 Alumni in the school’s history for being a Faithful God Honouring Servant who stands out. You read that correct, only 75 Alumni are being chosen for this special recognition. 75 of the 1000′s who have graduated from Briercrest. And I think everyone should know that. And know that I agree 100%.

So here’s to Greg Benson.

I look forward to serving with you for many more years to come.

Truly, in my absence of communication you are my Aaron

In my encouragement, you are my Timothy

And in my weaknesses, you are my Paul.

I hope this post is the first in a long line of Focus Outward. To honouring and encouraging each other and to challenging each other to strive to honour God. May this be a way to follow Thess 5:11, “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”

Hey everyone, as I mentioned in my last post. I finally got the sermon posted. Go download it here or subscribe to the podcast here

I have been meaning to write this post ever since this Sunday morning, the Sunday that I was wrecked. However, I have been putting it off mostly because I am wrecked and don’t completely know what to share, but as I have reflected over this for 2.5 days now, I know that I need to share what God is doing to me, and what I believe He wants to do with many others.

For me, this didn’t just happen this Sunday, it has been a process that has climaxed in a dramatic way this Sunday. Nonetheless, I will begin earlier than Sunday. Earlier this fall I was given a book entitled Radical to read as some leaders in the church where giving them out. This book challenged me in the comforts we as have and how Jesus challenges and demands that we live in a way that requires Him. So as I look at my life, one area God pointed out was money. Yes, I’m going to start talking about giving first. The money I am given is from God, and when I look at my life, and when you look at your own, are you given in a way that is a sacrifice? I mean are you giving to God, knowing that He will need to continue to provide for you? I’m not talking about giving more, I’m talking about things like retirement plans, savings, the way we put our money away for that trip we’ve always wanted, I’m talking about giving in such a way that we completely, 100% rely on God. I venture to guess that NO ONE reading this right now is doing that. But I believe we ALL should be. I’m not going to go into details on how God has challenged myself and our family on that fact, but know that this has been very difficult.

So that’s was the beginning. God showing me that He needs to be the provider. God then has been challenging me that if we rely on Him for everything that He also demands so much more of our time, energy, talents, etc, etc. This is when the bigger struggle begins for me. As I have been looking for more ways to serve, I’ve also been challenged by how much time I spend with my family, and what can my family do together to serve, and all these thoughts get in my head, and I get pulled in so many different directions. But what ends up happening is that I end of thinking about things and going to work and then going home to a warm house sitting down, after what I think is a hard day, with a cup of coffee to relax to one of too many mindless TV shows or movies to watch as the day ends. And time passes and I still am thinking about this, and before you know it, I’ve done nothing to change. Oh, I can spend the time to make sure I am up to date on the latest TV Shows, or tech whatever (insert something else for yourself here), and make sure all of my comforts are taken care of, but really making a change, especially one that might get in the way of the comforts that you and I all think we deserve? That’s all together different, isn’t it?

Insert Sunday morning.

Read Micah 6:8, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Instead of trying to describe more about this Sunday, I would like to have you read an excerpt from our Pastor’s latest blog post below.

On the second Sunday of Advent this year God met us at church in a startling fashion. He drew our attention to the needs in our own city. Not Toronto or Vancouver but Saskatoon. The way that happened was through Hands On Ministries down on 20th. We had Rick Langlais come and share at our Friday morning men’s breakfast. We left disturbed with the news of what is happening within our own city. We discovered that we have over 250 prostitutes under 16 working our streets. These are under age children so as Rick said let’s call it what it is….these girls are being raped.

It was a sobering, disturbing Sunday because we were talking about the coming of the Messiah. It should be nice and Christmas-like but the truth is Jesus came to change lives. He did not come so we could have church. He did not come to make us comfortable. He did not come so we could be nice. He came to change our hearts and to give us a message to share.

This is what wrecked me. In the Christmas story you will remember that when the angels came to the shepherds in the field that he said, “Do not be afraid, I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.” ALL THE PEOPLE, includes those girls in Saskatoon that are being abused. Jesus does want to save the world, and He wants US to be the ones who deliver hope. Not just those that are officially in paid ministry, but ALL of us. He doesn’t want us to be comfortable. So I am completely wrecked and I hope I don’t ever get fixed.

It’s time to get uncomfortable.

I’ll end with the Great Commission. And I like how the version, The Message, puts it.

From Matthew 28 – “Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life…”

Also, as soon as the audio podcast of Russ’s complete sermon from Sunday morning is available, I’ll post a link. Or you can subscribe to it via iTunes here and get it right away.

Awhile back I was asked to make a large typographic treatment of the Shema to be printed on a large canvas. While I had intended on changing colours, background, etc, this is what I came up with and I still really like it. While I choose to use each word only once, I had thought about redoing it and using different words more often. What do you guys think?

It is a season of change at the Grunau household. You have already heard about my change in jobs, which will take place officially on April 1st. But today is the day to let the world know the REAL BIG NEWS. Here it is…

Sometime in October the Grunau house will be growing to 4!! That’s right we are expecting another miracle baby. To keep a long story short, God has totally given us another miracle of being pregnant once again. We are extremely excited to say the least. Libby is already starting to wish for a “sister” and sometimes she even says she wants a “brother.” She is getting excited too! There is a much longer story on God totally displaying His amazing timing and blessing in our lives, but it is much better told in person. So if you want to hear the story you will have to invite yourself over to our house to hear it.

We feel extremely blessed and I believe I am starting to freak out abit myself. I have become very comfortable with our little family of 3 and am scared for change. However, with a new job, and a new baby on the way, I am forced to accept change head on. The scary leap of faith is that my new job is a “term” position that is only guaranteed until Sept 30th, which means I could be unemployed with a new baby on the way, that is what is scary. But God hasn’t steered us wrong and I know that He has our best in mind, so we trust that He will provided as He has provided our second miracle.

First off I will preface this post by saying that I am not downsizing the blog. While it may appear that way because of the lack of posting to the site, I am in no way planning to downsize my blog. In reality, I would like to increase the amount I post here. However, I would rather wait to post something good, than post alot of junk. If you are looking to here more from me than I encourage you to follow me on twitter here, if you don’t know what twitter is, then you are missing out. You can also see my most reason twitter in my lifestream on the sidebar to the left.

Now to what I meant by downsizing. I have decided that I own to much stuff. While I don’t think of myself as a pack rat, I have accumulated too much. Oh sure I have many useful things that I might like to use more often at a later date, such as my pool table or coke machine. The reality is that I don’t need this stuff and can easily get rid of it, sell it, or even throw it away. While the idea of selling the stuff I have to get new stuff is a reality, I hope to be more diligent in spending this money. For instance, I need new tires for our car, this would be a wise use of money I would get from selling my coke machine. However, one of the biggest reasons I want to downsize is because we don’t need all this stuff to live. Modern consumerism has played a HUGE part in helping me acquire all the stuff I don’t use. My plan is to get rid of stuff and not to free up space for NEW stuff as consumerism would tell me to do. Jesus told a parable about the rich man, and when told to sell everything he had and give it away he was very sad, because he had lots.

How many of us have too much stuff. I know I do and I plan to do something about it. I will sell anything of large value, like my pool table. But I hope to be able to donate alot of it as well. We have so much and others have so little. Sometimes when I see my garage, my basement, my storage rooms, I get sick to my stomach by all the waste. Today I am letting you all know that I have had enough. It’s time to downsize.

Ephesians 2:1-10

1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature^[a]4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

For the past few years I have helped to dialogue with a few camps over their summer theme. Again this year we are talking over themes, and the Ephesians passage above is the passage they have choosen for the next summer. However, now comes the hard part, naming the theme. So I thought this could be a good topic to spur on some discussion. I have chosen not to tell you any of the names we have floating around yet so that we can get another perspective. To help you out, it is usually a one word title, however, it could be a one word title with a tagline as a followup. Please leave your ideas in the comments.

Tonight I realized that with WordPress I could finally import all 154 blog posts I made on my first blog hosted at blogspot.com. So while I was waiting for all the importing/exporting to take place I decided to skim through some posts and came across this one, that seemed to speak to me once again.
It’s an excerpt from a book I was reading before the birth of my daughter.

It is futile for us to live in anticipation of life always coming together.
It will come together as it does in those moments in life that just seem
‘perfect.’ It will again. And then the next day, it will be disrupted. It
may even fall apart. The hope is to live fully in the moments of laughter
and contentment- and to also be present in the moments of fear and
disappointment. We need to remember that every part of it has purpose and
meaning. We need to live as if we really believe the greater purpose for us
is transformation – to believe that sanctification takes priority over
enjoyment.

– from Becoming a Dad

Due to some bizarre issues between iWeb and the new Firefox 3, those using the new FF3, wouldn’t be able to see photos or blog comments on any page created with iweb ’08. Thanks to some great people on the apple discussion board and a friendly email discussion I was able to get it all fixed. Here is how I did it for those that need to fix there iWeb sites.

First you will need to fix the problem with the photo albums. Luckily someone was kind enough to make a quick little script to do all the hard work for you. Just download this program and run it. Click Here This patches the javascript issue and all you have to do then is republish your site and all should work. This doesn’t work for all pages. Any photo album page your created in iWeb 1.x won’t be affected. However, I soon discovered that if I changed themes around and moved some page elements around enough and republished that the fix would work. This essential changed the page to a iWeb ’08 page and not in the old iWeb 1.x way.

The next problem you might have is not being able to view blog comments. This one wasn’t easy to find a solution. Until a faithful mac discussioner created a install patch for me. You should be able to download it from below. Otherwise email me darylgrunau AT mac DOT com.

To use here is the instructions that I got sent. And it all worked great.

Attached is zip file, unzip it for “Blog Comments Patch.pkg” installer. The installer will install the patched Comments.js inside iWeb.app

Also, a patched Comments.js file, you need add it to your current site Scripts folder (this will save you a publishing):

1) mount your iDisk, in FInder hit Command (⌘Œ˜) + Shift + i
2) Look for Scripts folder in iDisk’s Web folder
3) Then follow this path: Scripts/Widgets/Comments/Comments.js
4) name the current Comments.js to some thing else bad_Comments.js
5) place this Comments.js in the same folder.
clear out FF cache and open your blog entry – cross your fingers.