The Smith Story

The sweetest phone call I’ve received.

ryan — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:15:32 +0000

This morning while I at work my cell phone rang, I looked down and saw it was Adriane calling me, we had some issues with our garage door this morning so I thought that was why she was calling me so early. Below is the transcript from our call:

me: Hey babe.
(not Adriane) Graham: I miss you.
me: Hey buddy, I miss you too.
Graham: I’m crying for you.
me: Oh buddy, I am at work right now.
Graham: I need you to come home right now.
me: I wish I could, but I will be home later today, after I finish work.
Graham: Ok. I am going to Mammy (his great grandmother that he eats breakfast with on Mondays).
me: have fun with Mammy and Nanna and Mommy.
Graham: ok
me: I love you
Graham: I love you too. Bye.

If you are a parent of a child who is just now learning how to hold a conversation on the phone, then you know how meaningful this conversation is, and to know that he misses me when I’m not there kinda just melts my heart. Looking forward to getting home tonight.

Colorado Hike (2008)

ryan — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:19:30 +0000

This was a little highlight video I put together of us guys hiking through the Colorado Rockies back in the summer of ‘08, if you look close you will see Graham. I might have already posted on my blog but I can’t remember.

Colorado Hike from Ryan Smith on Vimeo.

First Thunder Game

ryan — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:26:43 +0000

Last night, my Bro-in-Law Justin and I took Graham to his first Thunder Basketball game. He already had a Kevin Durant Thunder shirt that his Uncle Justin bought him last year but he hadn’t had the chance to show it off at a game yet. He wore it with pride last night. As I was putting it on him I kept saying “Go Thunder” and he was repeating me and learning how to cheer for the home team. At one point as we were running around the house saying “Go Thunder” Graham chimed in with a “and Rain!” Such a caring boy, not wanting to leave anyone or thing out.

This pic was taken as the players were being introduced, probably one of the loudest moments of the night. As you can tell, he was in awe but soon after this pic was taken he began to say it was too loud and wanted to go home. We made it past the intros and he slowly came around and fell in love with Rumble the Bison, especially when he played the drums, that was his favorite – looks like I will be buying a little Rumble doll soon.

At one point in the game, t-shirts were thrown down from the sky walk and uncle Justin fought for one as he landed near us, as soon as he got it he gave it to Graham – fighting for his nephew, that’s good.

Looking for food, we took a stroll around the stadium and ran into this robot, Graham gave him a high five. Later when he was telling mom about who he met he said in his robotic voice “i am a robot” while showing off his robot moves. Nice.

Desiring God

ryan — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:38:13 +0000

This coming week I will be taking off to go to the Desiring God Pastor’s Conference in Minnesota. I have been in a pastor’s internship with Sam Storms for the past 5 months. There are 8 of us guys that get together each Thursday night and discuss the various assigned books we are reading that week. Mainly, Grudem’s Systematic Theology and some Piper books as well as books/articles on church life. It has been such an encouraging season, of course I have read more in the past 5 months than I did in all of my university experience (that is really not saying much). The reading has been very life giving, I find that when God calls you to something, He often gives His Mercy to succeed at it. When this internship came about, I really didn’t want to do it, although something deep in me really did want to – the war between flesh a spirit came alive. God then gave me a verse in I Peter 1:13

“Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

God said to me “now is the time to prepare your mind, gain knowledge in Me, let that knowledge flow down to your heart and transform you, sanctify you, then I will do more through you” Whenever God speaks, it brings in a rush of life and then a response of obedience, in a since, obedience becomes second nature because I believe Him and love to respond to His voice, all of this is second nature in the redeemed heart in me. Anyway, the reading has been full of His mercy, to grasp it, and respond in worship to how great a God He truly is. How His ways are so different than mine, and that isn’t just a phrase to use when I don’t understand Him, but even when I do. He says that we WILL suffer for the Gospel, but I haven’t been full on suffering for the Gospel, so have I been full on speaking the Gospel? I won’t go all into this but the suffering for the Gospel is something that is rocking my inner world! I mean, we are called and suppose to live this way, it is almost like a litmus text – no suffering=no advancement of the Kingdom. Here I am throwing this out without any good substance to back it, I have it, it is there but I may not be able to fully communicate it right now. For a quick idea on this read 2 Timothy, see what Paul says about suffering, then read the NT, lots of it in there as well. I am sure there will be more on this later as God is constantly teaching me this truth. For a secondary read on this, pick up ‘Desiring God’ by Piper, read the intro and then the last chapter which is on Suffering, it will rock your inner world too.

Ok, ok, back to the post. I am leaving tomorrow and going with this group of guys, at least most of them. I am excited about this. Sam Storms, our pastor at Bridgeway, is one of the speakers, so that is an honor to be there with him too. Anyway, I hope to post over the next few days, the ways that God speaks to me while there. I am not a big conference guy, I tend to get bored & tired and sometimes overwhelmed with all the info thrown out. But for this one, I am going to take it slowly, resting in His presence and asking Him to speak, change and cause me again to obey Him.

(The entire time I have been writing this post, my son has been sitting beside me offering me imaginary bacon and pancakes he made, that explains why the post is not real concise, oh well, but Graham did just tell me that a bowl in the kitchen is “breakable” – nice word for a 2 year old).

Wifey’s blog

ryan — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:33:45 +0000

If you haven’t read it lately, go check out my wife’s blog.

I love when she writes.

Life

ryan — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:27:53 +0000

Came across this quote the other day, I wholeheartedly agree with it and truly wish abortion encounters were like this. Any “doctor”, and I use that term loosely in this case, who performs an abortion is less than a man, and merely a savage beast. It doesn’t take much to kill someone when you know 100% of the time no danger will come to you. I pray for protection of the thousands of babies whose mothers are contemplating abortion today – Lord, Jesus, save them and their mothers, and at the same time, bring conviction to more doctors to stand up and to not commit murder to these innocent lives. Amen.

“Suppose, in the encounter between doctor and child [in an abortion], the child won half of the time, and killed the doctor in self-defense—something he would have every right to do. Very few doctors would perform abortions. They perform them now only because of their absolute power over a small, fragile, helpless victim.”

—Stephen D. Schwarz, The Moral Question of Abortion (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1990), 143.

First song with his first guitar

ryan — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:48:03 +0000

I couldn’t resist, I had to buy Graham a guitar for Christmas. Yes, I know he is just 2 and half but the boy loves music and I want to do all I can to encourage it. The guitar is a little big but I have high hopes that he will grow into it and then grow out of it and we will need to buy a really nice big boy guitar. He is also a lover of the drums, every Sunday after church he must spend a few minutes practicing. If this continues, this will be the next item on the list to purchase. We will need to create a full on music room in the house too – I like all of this.

Graham’s First Song from Ryan Smith on Vimeo.

10 Books to Read in 2010

ryan — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:15:58 +0000

With the new year approaching and lots of people listing their top books of the year, or of the decade, it is inspiring me to be intentional about what I will read this coming year.

I am finding that I am back into reading, partly because I am doing an internship that requires it but partly because I am desiring the growth that comes from it. I love truth, and how it transforms my being into being more like Jesus. I love humble yet creative stories and authors who write in first person. Even though I have not read too many, I want to peruse through a few solid biographies this year as well.

For my own sake and for accountability sake I am going to list some books that I am intentionally planning to read this year. I was first approaching this as a number of books I would read this year but I don’t operate like that, that doesn’t inspire me. What does inspire me are great proven books, ones that I can have high expectations for and watch how they meet those or exceed those expectations. Those kind of books, are the ones I will work to read.

On with the 10 for 2010. BTW – these are books I have either wanted to read for a long time or ones that at some point in my life I have been interested in.

Enjoy.

When I Don’t Desire God by John Piper
The Way of the Heart by Henri Nouwen
Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Let The Nations Be Glad by John Piper (re-read)
Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis
Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan
Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters by Timothy Keller
Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God by Bob Kauflin
This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence by John Piper
Love and War: Finding the Marriage You’ve Dreamed Of by John Eldredge
& Staci Eldredge

Triple Chocolate Cookies

ryan — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:49:18 +0000

I pulled up the SousChef on the Mac and went to work. These are pretty decent cookies, more like a brownie type cookie. It calls for an instant espresso, not sure where to find this so I did some research and discovered that I could use NesCafe instead, took me back to my Istanbul days where I didn’t really care for it and was reminded that I still don’t care for it. If you attempt these cookies, I would leave out the instant coffee(espresso) part, unless you just must have that coffee flavor included. Also, I would probably add a tad bit more salt or maybe use salted butter instead, ok, other than that – they are some good cookies. They strike a solid punch of straight chocolate all over your taste buds. You like chocolate = you like these.

Taking ‘em to a house church gathering tomorrow night.

Ingredients

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1/4 cup plus plus 2 tablespoons all purpose fl
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder (Medaglia D’Oro)
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup best quality white chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups toasted pecans, coarsely chopped

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the chocolate in a medium bowl and place over a pot of simmering water and melt completely. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. In a bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar. Add eggs, then vanilla and espresso, and beat on high speed for 2 minutes. On low speed beat in the melted chocolate mixture until just combined. Fold in the flour mixture with a rubber spatula until just combined. Stir in the chips and pecans.
Using a small ice cream scoop, scoop the mixture onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, putting 8 cookies on each sheet. Bake for 10 to11 minutes. The surface will be dry but the inside will still be soft. It will take no longer than 10 to 11 minutes so set the timer. Cool on a baking sheet. Best eaten the day they are made. Wrap leftovers well in plastic wrap and store in an airtight container.
Description:
Recipe courtesy of Bobby Flay”

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Pleasures Forevermore

ryan — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 06:10:45 +0000

Truly our ultimate pleasures & joy are found in Him alone – and He has created us to do nothing but experience those pleasures and glorify him in response whereas we will find more pleasures – is God not an amazing giver of all good?

“The pleasures of loving and obeying, loving and adoring, blessing and praising the Infinite Being, the Best of Beings, the Eternal Jehovah; the pleasures of trusting in Jesus Christ, in contemplating his beauties, excellencies, and glories; in contemplating his love to mankind and to us, in contemplating his infinite goodness and astonishing loving-kindness; the pleasures of [the] communion of the Holy Ghost in conversing with God, the maker and governor of the world; the pleasure that results from the doing of our duty, in acting worthily and excellently; . . . these are the pleasures that are worthy of so noble a creature as a man is” (“Christian Happiness” in Sermons and Discourses 1720-1723, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 10. Edited by Wilson H. Kimnach [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992], pp. 305-06).