jwestfall.com Blog

I’m sitting in Starbucks in San Diego with my son Damian.  He has been redoing the jwestfall.com web site, and I’m thinking about my mom.  A few weeks ago Hospice was brought in, since the doctors have determined that nothing more can be done.  Her cancer is growing and taking over her body, so she gets weaker each day.

I have been visiting with her each day and we sit and hold hands and talk about good memories, then I get in the car and cry all the way back to the hotel.  

She gave me a fairly certain faith, and a mind that refuses to accept the ordinary.  All in all those are pretty good gifts. 

Many of you have lost a parent or a child or a spouse, so you understand even more than I do at this point.  I mentioned to a friend that I have walked through the loss of a loved one hundreds of times with church members.  But this time it’s personal. 

Anyway, Christmas will be a little more tender this year.  There I go crying again, the Starbucks staff are wondering what is wrong.  Oh well.  It sure reminds me of what is most important and how small some other issues can seem in contrast.

I hope you have a tender Christmas and don’t let anyone take away your joy. After all, it’s why Jesus was born.  “…that my joy would be in you, and your joy would be complete.”

I just got back from ten days in Africa.  Although I lived in The Cameroons as a young child, this was my first time to travel back to that great continent as an adult.  I would have put some pictures on the site, but my camera and cell phone were stolen in the Nairobi airport on the way home.  Oh well. 

Our team had a great experience traveling about 12 hours north to the town of Kitale.  We spent significant time at  a seminary that trains pastors and leaders from many countries in East Africa. Of course the devastating effects of the HIV/AIDS crisis is evident whereever we went.  Visiting a poor school for AIDS orphans in one of the impoverished parts of town leaves a lasting impression.  Children’s faces, whether engaging or distant are forever impressed on our minds and hearts. 

Traveling with Greg and Deb Snell, visiting the site of the home/retreat center they are building, and seeing the land through their eyes of love, was so very valuable. It almost made me forget that we were driving on the worst roads I have ever experienced in my life.  At times we just surrendered and drove in the ditch because it was so much smoother than the highway. 

Our last evening in Nairobi, we spent the evening with some Kenyan followers of Jesus. It was important to see the breadth of experience and situation in this country.  The people we met were not only gracious, but rich in resources, commitment and ability to make a difference in this emerging land. I went to sleep that night grateful to catch a glimplse of what God is doing in this part of the Kingdom. 

What good is all the knowledge we gain about ourselves, God, the world, if we lack the power to live it out? 

In Colossians 1, Paul’s prayer is for people to be filled with knowledge of God and his will, but then he prays that at the same time they be filled with the incredible POWER of God, so that we are just smart people sitting on our ASSumptions. 

Experiencing both sides of this issue hasn’t always been natural for me.  Sometimes I’ve leaned on my power to make things happen but I wasn’t always wise about the directions I pushed.  

Sometimes I lean back “on my own understanding” and nothing much happens because I start to feel overwhelmed by the scope of what needs to happen. 

Why not join me in an experiment?  I am going to begin each day for 31 days by praying the Colossians 1 prayer for myself, my family, and my church. I’ve never done this before and who knows what might happen. 

On a slightly diffeerent subject, I had some good conversations this weekend with Damian www.damianwestfall.com about Umberto Eco’s postmodern novel: ‘The Name of the Rose’. It is an incredibly dark, historically accurate view of life and church life in times long past.  The church’s disdain for laughter was so shocking, it made me grateful for a Lord who called us to life filled with expressed joy. 

If you are reading this, there is a good chance you have navigated my web-site and found the blog.  Today is my son, Damian’s birthday, and he is building the site for me so that I won’t lose touch with the world due to ‘Olde Man Syntrome.’ 

I invite you to to enter into some virtual dialogue as we consider stuff from theology to politics to music to movies.  I will try to be true to my “Westfallian” views and attitudes.  So if you are disturbed by what you might read, I suggest you go get help from a professional, because I have found it not all that fun going through life being a ‘disturbed individual.’ 

You are all clamouring for a film recommendation.  So here it is:  Go out and rent “Eat, Drink, Man, Woman”. It is a wonderful look at generational issues through the eyes of a  man in Asia who is raising three daughters, is a chef but has lost the ability to taste. 

Once you have watched this film, go out and rent “Tortilla Soup’.  It is the exact same movie and script, but the setting is a Mexican cook in East L.A.  Together we see that family is family, generational issues are cross cultural, and food expresses love. 

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!