Neil James slattery

What a crazy 24 hours.

At 8pm Tuesday night, jasmine started having contractions just a few minutes apart. So we rush down to Dubois to the hospital. Long story (which are better told in person) short. Our little miracle baby was born at 6:18am on Wednesday April 19th, 2017.


I say miracle because how else could a baby fit through that hole! But seriously after two miscarriages we decided late spring of 2016 to try a third time for a baby.

When we found out jasmine was pregnant, I was so scared. Could it happen again? Would we have to deal with another miscarriage. And I understand, I know some people have more difficulty than us but it was still hard because we knew God promised us a child.

But God came through. Because he's awesome. 


But I wanted to talk about his name. 

We chose the name Neil James slattery

James is a tribute to my grandfather. That is his name. It's also my brothers middle name. And my dad's saint name. 

But Neil? Why? Well, it's normal. In a world with people naming their kids crazy things it's nice to have an old fashion name.

But what does Neil mean?

The Irish name may be derived from words meaning "cloud", "passionate", or "champion".

Most authorities cite the meaning of Neil in the context of a surname as meaning champion.

One of favorite bible verses is romans 8:37, "we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."

I also saw this picture of my son kneeing at the cross where Christ was killed and defeated death. 

This idea of being a champion makes sense to me. I wrestled. Who doesn't want to be the champion?

But I have been ppraying/declaring that as my son grows he will know he is loved. Love by God. Loved by his community. And loved by his family.

I pray that as he knows he is loved and fully accepted just for being who he is.... a child of God.... that  he will be able to overcome anything Life brings his way. 

After all he is our champion. 

I think there is more to upload here but it will have to wait. It's time for my nap! 


We love you Neil! Thanks for gracing us with your presence. 

You will never let me down

 

I love Easter. I have started to realize that my favorite holidays are more weather related. It's wonderful having Easter this late this year. The sun was bright and baseball games were being played. 

 

And most of all its an important holiday (which means Holy Day). Sidebar: Don't get offended when someone tells you "Happy Holidays" in 8 months from now. Because Holiday really does mean "Holy Day"

 

Anyhow, as we wait for the arrival of my son this Monday after Resurrection Sunday I wanted to go back and read the "end of the story" from St John's Perspective.  

 

So This morning I read John Chapter 21. 

Jesus is alive. He already appeared to his disciples twice but had some unfinished business before His ascension into Heaven. 

So he goes down to the lake and He sees His friends doing a thing they loved to do. FISH

We think to ourselves? How could they go back to fishing? Their world was changed forever. Didn't they understand what was going on?

 

But the truth is we do the same thing! When something traumatic occurs in our lives it is actually healthy to run to a thing that brings us a sense of security. Something that makes sense.  This does not mean we are meant to stay in that place forever but it's good to have your place of safety and refuge. 

It is here that Jesus eats fish and bread with them and forgives Peter for his denial of Him. It is here that Jesus forgives him not once, but three times (one time for each denial).

 

 Do you remember the sequence? 

Quick review!

Jesus: Peter you will deny me.
Peter: Never, Lord.
Jesus: You will deny me three times before the rooster crows.
Peter: No, you are wrong.

Peter then proves Jesus right by denying him three times. 

This was a pretty traumatic three days from Peter's perspective. Not only did he deny his relationship with his Lord but also his best friend. Peter must have felt like he let down God. 

 

 

Have you ever felt like you let God down? Maybe you felt God calling you to do something for Him and you didn't deliver. Or maybe you had a situation similar to Peter where you denied knowing Jesus because it would not benefit you. 

The good news of the Gospel is two things.

1) We can never let God down because it wasn't about us earning his love in the first place. 

This idea of letting God down is rooted in pride and honestly a little bit of narcissism. I earned this. We need to be very careful in America. We tend to be people that value earning things. You know like the American Dream. 

The issue is God doesn't work like that. He is better than the American Dream. He gives of Himself freely to us. Our salvation was a gift. Our daily walking with him was a gift. 

If you think you have to earn a gift, then it was never a gift to begin with. 

We can't let God down, because He knows everything that is going to happen. He knew Peter would deny Jesus. In the same way, He knows our shortcomings. He knows when we are going to make a mistake. 

The amazing thing is: He takes our failures and "let downs" to bring glory Himself glory and works the bad things in our lives (collectively) for our good.

2) The Story of the Resurrection reminds us that God is willing to meet us right were we are.

The first disciples were not the "A" team. They were not the scholars. And many of them had troubling pasts. But God chose them. 

 

God chose Mary Magdalene to be the first person to witness the Resurrection. She was said to have been demon possessed at one point in her life. Talk about baggage.   

The disciples themselves ran back to the familar. When they faced the tragedy, they went to fishing. And we do the same. 

When we feel like we let God down we return to "old life" we once lived before we understood how amazing life could be with Him. But the amazing thing is God came running after them and He comes running after me.

 

 This story brings me hope because in my brain I know I can't let God down, but in my heart there are times when it feels like I did. Yet, I believe Jesus asks us the same question He asked Peter, "Do you love me?"

 

 

Then we can declare with a resounding: "YES, LORD, YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU." 

The Journey to the cross

The Message Bible Does a good job of describing Jesus' Journey to the cross. This is a selection I chose from Isaiah 53 (MSG)

• He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
  
  
• One look at him and people would turn away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
  
  
•  But the fact is, it was our pains he carried- our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
•  We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures.
  
  
• But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him- our sins!
  
  
•   He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
  
  
•  Through his bruises we get healed.
  
  
•  We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
  
  
•  We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
  
  
•    And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him.
  
  
•    He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn’t say a word.
  

•   Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. 

To identify with Christ is to bear his burden. To look inside at our own lives and ask "how am I being selfish?" "How am I being self-centered." 

Jesus told his followers almost two thousand years ago, the way in which we can idenify with Jesus. 

"Then he said to the crowd, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me."- Luke 9:23


I hate verses like this. I sometimes wish I could find some white-out and not think about certain commands from Jesus. But it's there. 

And this verse forces me to trust God. Instead of me putting my faith in myself to be a better person, and trying to advance myself in this world, I have to trust in God. 

The way of self-denial is the way we were created to be. Think of your life. When are you most happy? Is it when things come easily? No. It's when you put others before yourself. When you see others succeed and grow.

When we lay down our lives and trust in God we know that He will work all things for our good. 

It might not be "good" in the way we see it but to be honest sometimes we are more like 3 year old toddlers than we would like to admit. 

Which toddler (or teenager) or anyone wouldn't want to eat a whole package of Oreos? 

Which parent would be insane to give those to their child?

Or would a parent be a good parent if they let their child have unlimited access to the internet? Of course not. Or just a few cigarettes (what could it hurt, right?)


Yet, we look at God when something doesn't go exactly according to our plan and get upset. We think, "God hates me."  or "God let me down."

Could God have something better in store for you? You may not be ready. You might think this is the best thing for you in the moment but it's not. 

Remember, Jesus, tells us to pray to who? Our Father. 

He is a Good Father. 

Jesus went to the cross. And it seemed like the end. 

Think about Mary, his mother. She was promised that her son would be the Messiah. But now? He is on the cross. I wonder what was going in her mind. Fear? Doubt? Grief? Depression? Who knows?

Jesus died on Friday and rose on Sunday. 3 days. A long long three days for those closest to Jesus. We know the story, we know he rose again. But they missed it. 

And sometimes we do too. We see our struggle. We see our pain. We see our disappointment. 

Good Friday can last a long time. Yet God is there with us through it all. 

And he says, "When you get to the other side of this, you are going to be happy that you had to go through it because you are stronger now."

But this becoming stronger in the kingdom of God does not come by trying and persisting. It comes by surrendering. By laying down our lives so God can work through us. This isn't a popular way of saying it in 21st Century Western Culture but by "Dying." 

Jesus, who was and is God, had to physically say, "Not my will, but yours be done." We, who are not God, need to echo this same phrase.So when days are shinning and bright, we can praise God for his goodness. And when days feel like hell, we can praise God because we know He is on the move. And we know Sunday is just around the corner.

Happy Holy Week everyone!

Remember, you are loved!