State Champs

I was reading an email sent from Coach Kyle Richardson at NWHS and noticed the stamp at the bottom:

State Champions 2010, 1993, 1989

WIN TODAY!

A couple of things struck me:

1- You don't win state every year. Some years you struggle for a winning record even, but you never give up. You fight to "win today" and get better. You keep grinding and working and developing so that tomorrow is a little bit better than and closer to what you want reality to be. You can't get "fat & happy" & complacent. Yesterdays victories don't mean anything today.

2- You can't be state champs if you don't "win today." You can't focus on what you have done in the past or what might be around the bend (it is good to plan etc, but you get my drift). You have to win the day in order to get better, to move on and to succeed. 

Our jobs, relationships and lives can be so up and down. Sometimes you are flying high and the next minute you are face down on the ground. I wear a band on my arm that says two things on it. On one part it says, "ALWAYS COMPETE" and on the other side it says, "WINFOREVER." Those are great reminders that we need to work hard to be all we can be as disciples, husbands, wives, teammates, friends, leaders... We should always compete to win the day in every way and then give the glory to the One who deserves it.

Blessings-

Pride

I was hanging out with my friend Joe yesterday. He is on staff with FCA but used to be a college baseball coach. He was a good college baseball coach. A couple of years ago he got fired from the school he had been at for almost 20 years.
So, we are hanging out and talking and he told me that he was going to be going to Atlanta for a big baseball tournament that the high school travel team he coaches was going to be playing in. I told him off the cuff that that might be fun because he would see some of his old coaching buddies who would be scouting players at the tournament. As we continued to talk I realized that it might not be fun for Joe to see some of his old coaching buddies and I asked him about that. Would it be hard to see them and know that they are still coaching and he is not. "Yeah," he said.
I knew exactly what he meant. It is hard to be let go, passed over, down-sized, etc. The crazy thing is that Joe and I both know he is right where God would have him, doing what God has gifted him to do. He would probably say that he is closer to God than he was a year ago, his family is in a better place and would agree with all these things. As I looked him in the eye though I could see that glimmer of, "Yeah" still lingering.
His pride still wanted to be coaching partly because he loves it, but partly because he just wanted to play out things on his own terms. This is a hard thing to swallow as a man. I got passed over for a store a year ago, another friend of mine got turned down for what he thought might be his dream job with the FBI and we all would say in our head, "God's will," but in our hearts we struggle, when we are honest, we still struggle some with it. There is a little pause there.
Jesus was good at really believing in his heart, "God's will." Joe and I started talking about Jesus and others in the Bible that were just faithful to whatever God had for them. They stayed right on His heels, trusted Him and very often set aside their pride and personal plan for whatever He had for them. They went where He wanted them to go, said what He told them to say and grew closer to Him because of it. I am grateful that I have a Savior that I can look to, that modeled how to listen to, follow and REALLY trust our Abba. I am also grateful that I have friends that I can sit in chairs at Starbuck's with or in the back booth of my restaurant and have real conversations with, pray with and just be truthful with. Those times help that little pause get shorter and shorter.

Blessings...

He thinks we're just fishin'

I was hanging out with a friend today and he shared with me a really great personal story about God meeting him in a cool way when he was fishing recently. We talked a bit about the experience that he had and how he had been praying and was almost embarrassed to say that he had asked God to let him catch a fish (he had had a string of bad luck).
We agreed that scripture is clear that he shouldn't be and that it really does encourage us to simply keep our hearts and thoughts totally open to Him. I really think that that is when we are most close to Him. When we are willing to really just talk with Him. Not posture or pray as we think someone may want us to pray, but to open our hearts and then be willing to listen too.
We went on vacation recently and I did a lot of fishing with Ryan, throwing the football with Matthew and boogie boarding with Garrett while we were at the beach. I literally could have done those three things almost all day long. I had such a great time simply being with my boys. Doing what they liked to do with no time line or distractions (except maybe one of the other boys wanting to do one of the other things I listed above). It was simply fun to be with them.
Whether I was casting the line out into the ocean for Ryan, lofting the ball to Matthew as he ran a route or catching a wave with Garrett I felt really close to them. I got joy through their joy. God is no different. He gets joy through our joy. He longs to spend time with us, talk with us and be known by us. As John Eldredge once said, "The Bible can mostly be summed up as God simply saying, "Come closer.""
What I should be embarrassed about is wondering if my Abba would think that I am foolish for asking Him to help us catch a fish. He tells us to have faith like a child and to become like a child, so why am I so surprised that when I do that I often have such a real experience with Him?
I did the same thing as my friend when Ryan and I were fishing off the beach on our vacation. Ryan had not caught anything when we went out on the first day and after quite a while I just started to talk the Him as I was net casting for bait. Asking Him if Ryan could just catch one fish so we could celebrate together there on the beach. After talking to Him about that for a while when Ryan finally caught that little black tip shark it didn't feel like it was just the two of us celebrating the catch, but rather three of us.
My friend told me today that he thinks that we are often slow to pray because we are then admitting that we need God and can't do it on our own. I know that sometimes for me that is true. I also know that it is a lot more fun to catch a baby shark with your son when your Abba is there with you. It is easy to often think that we are simply "fishin" and that God is not involved in our lives, but that is simply not true. Life is meant to be far deeper and richer than that. I really do want to come closer and yes, He really wants us to as well.
Blessings...

Why?

I was outside my store today and happened to look up and see our flag blowing in the wind. I remember when I first got the store and I loved seeing the flag flying high and blowing around up there. I was disappointed because my second thought was that I maybe ought to think about getting a smaller flag next time to save money.
My mind immediately then went to a talk that a friend of mine gave at our fall plan share. He talked to us about the importance of why we do what we do. He said that it was important to not forget why you came to work for CFA and to think about why you were going to operate your store in 2012. I felt guilty as I walked in the store because by allowing myself to think about getting a smaller flag I was really copping out on doing some harder work that concerns profit at our store.
I didn't come to CFA to not rise to a challenge, to not grow and to put temporary band-aids on things. I want to make a difference in the lives of others, be a faithful steward of what I have been entrusted with and carry the baton of CFA as far and as I possibly can. I plan on taking some time over the next week or so and making a little list of "Why's". Why are you going to do what you do this year?

Hugs

I know that there are all kinds of thoughts, stats and quotes out there that try and quantify the importance of hugs. I can never remember how many you are supposed to have a day or during the week, but I learned a valuable lesson about hugs on Thursday.
Karon has worked for me for almost 4 years. She has some challenges and OCD is one of them. She does detailed cleaning a couple of times a week at the store for us and always asks the same questions, in the same order, etc. She stands at the register waiting for exactly 9:30 to clock in every time she works. I really like Karon and have tried to make sure that we always have a place for her at our store. Sometimes that can be a bit challenging because of her issues, but it has proven worth it.
Back to the hug.
December 1st was my birthday and after Karon was done at precisely 11AM, she clocked out and came back to the office to talk with me. She explained she needed a day off in December and we chatted for a minute.  Then there was an slight awkward pause and she just reached up and wrapped her arms around my neck and as she was doing this she wished me a happy birthday. She didn't just let go either. She held on for a second and really hugged on me like she meant it. I was caught way off guard by this because with Karon having OCD things are usually very routine and quite predictable.
I hope that I never forget the feeling that I had in that moment when Karon hugged me. Everything melted away. I felt cared for and genuinely loved. It was unbelievably genuine.
It reminded me of the value of a hug, a kind word or a simple gesture. During this season I hope to take that hug that Karon gave me and pass it on to others in unexpected and fun ways that will encourage them and let them know that they are loved, not just by me but by the baby in Bethlehem.

Frat House Weekend

When the boys were smaller and Suzanne would head out of town for a weekend we would call it Frat House Weekend and the boys would usually just wear their diapers and we would eat and do whatever we wanted. They would sleep in the bed with me and we would watch Disney until late at night.

Suzanne has headed to Atlanta for the weekend to visit her family and took Garrett with her. Ryan, Matthew and I stayed here because Ryan has hist first 5k tomorrow and they both have baseball. Even thought I really miss Suzanne when she is gone these are good times alone with the boys.

I don't always do a good job of slowing down and staying in the moment with them like I did when they were younger. Sometimes I get frustrated at stupid things or think that other things are more important and usually they are not. Two things made me really want to relish these times alone with them more today.

One was when I thought about my friend Theresa. She has a son in the Marines and he is stationed in Japan. She doesn't get to talk to him very often at all. Wednesday she got to Skype with him for a while before he was deployed to help with the disaster. He is doing a great thing, but I thought about what it would be like to only be able to Skype with one of the boys for a few minutes a month and suddenly the fact that Ryan helped himself to an ice bag at the store didn't seem like a big deal at all.

The other thing was that my dad stopped by today on his way back to Greensboro and we hung out for a little bit. When he was leaving I told him thanks for stopping and he told me he was glad he did. That just hit me different for some reason. My dad was glad to see me. That felt good. I need to make sure that my boys know that I am glad to be with them and enjoy their company. They need to know that they are the apple of my eye. I didn't know that I needed that today, but I did and I am 38.

So, if you happen to hear a little more noise coming from 1062 Sharon Lee Ave the rest of this weekend it is just me enjoying being with my boys. I hope you get a chance to do the same with yours.

Blessings...

Laughter

With three boys in my house there is rarely a quiet moment and much of the noise in our house is actually laughter. I love to hear them laugh, and nothing warms my heart like hearing Suzanne laugh when we watch a show together or I do something silly. Today I got to thinking about how much God loves to hear us laugh too. To know that our hearts are full and we are enjoying the life that he has given to us. Often laughter can be the best medicine.

When we went to our annual Chick-fil-A operators seminar this year we were entertained for the second year in a row by Tim Hawkins. He wrote a song about Chick-fil-A a couple of years ago and is absolutely hilarious. Follow the link below if you want a good laugh and want to make God smile! Don't forget to enjoy your day and laugh along the way!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JoJtHpVgNo

Blessings...

This One's For My Brother

At our store we take names and deliver the tray to the person by name. The other day my brother Mike had the pleasure of delivering a very nice lady named Flo her food. This post is for him. We laughed about this for a good while.
Blessings...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yab9fyO3M14

It's The Relationship That Matters

I got a text today from Suzanne and she told me that Ryan had gotten an 88 on his science test and that it was the highest grade in the class. When I read the text a huge smile spread across my face. Before I get too far into this let me set the record straight, I am not sharing this so that you know that my son got the highest grade in the class. Tomorrow he is just as likely to come home with the lowest grade!

As I was working today though I really smiled deep down inside thinking about my relationship with Ryan and what I am lerning from fathering my son. Suzanne and I have really struggled to work with him on giving his best efforts at all times (especially in school). He really tends to blow things off if it isn't something that gets him jacked up or is of real interest to him. I have also noticed how relationships are very important to him. If he connects with a teacher or coach he is all in and goes after it in a way that he doesn't if that relational connection is not there. Ryan has a teacher right now that he is really connected with. She is a very gifted lady who has been teaching for many years and knows her stuff and cares about her kids.

This little situation made me think about God and how so often people view him as a distant something floating around somewhere. Often he is viewed as disengaged and disinterested. maybe even uncaring. As I read the Bible though and I spend time working on my relationship with God I find that the opposite is true. I read about and experience a God that desperately wants to be involved in our lives and wants to be known. I also find that just like my son when I keep that thought in front of me and I live life with him and trust him (even when it seems like he is nowhere to be found) I find myself becoming more engaged with others and living my life as he says, "to the full." I grade out better because I am tracking with someone that I can trust loves me, sees me and wants what is best for me. If God is distant and disconnected it is hard to give life your best efforts. To live it out as he asks us to. To have real meaning. But, if God is close and caring that changes everything.
Thanks for the lesson Ry!
Blessings...

Listen to your wife

My wife says that my blog is too serious and I need to lighten it up.
Here ya go honey...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSYlxzCHvKg

Be Not Afraid

A week before Thanksgiving I tweaked my back and it has been giving me trouble since. Back problems are nothing new to me, but they always just go away. This time it did not go away though. It progressively got worse and so I went to see a doctor and they prescribed some medicines and all of those medicines gave me side effects (at one point I think Suzanne thought I had cancer and was going to die) and then finally I got an MRI and they discovered that I had ruptured a disc in my back (then I thought that I was gonna die!)

When the doctor told me the news I really thought I would puke. I had to have him open the office door and get me some water it was so bad. For several days after that I was irritable and really worried. It wasn't just the 'roid shots they gave me either. I was scared that it wouldn't heal, that I would have to have surgery, that the doctor might hit a nerve when they operated on me. All kinds of things were running through my head. Fearful things.  Over time though I remembered a song that John Austin my area director had played for us at a YL staff retreat and I began to calm down, I began to relax and I began to trust that God saw me, knew me and loved me. The song that he played that day has calmed my heart through many trials and situations. God has planted it inside me and brings it out whenever I need it.  John took a lot of flack from some of the other staff folks for playing a somewhat cheesy version that was sung by monks, but I love it and am thankful for it.

I have heard it said that God, in one form or another, tells us to not be afraid more than any other command in the Bible. The world wants you to be very afraid. The enemy of your heart wants you to be afraid. Afraid you don't drive the right car, that God doesn't really care, that you aren't pretty enough, are going to go broke, don't know the right people, will never find healing and the list goes on and on and on. But the God who loves you says in his word....

You shall cross the barren desert, but you shall not die of thirst.
You shall wander far in safety though you do not know the way.
You shall speak your words in foreign lands and all will understand.
You shall see the face of God and live.

Be not afraid.
I go before you always.
Come follow me, and
I will give you rest.

If you pass through raging waters in the sea, you shall not drown.
If you walk amid the burning flames, you shall not be harmed.
If you stand before the pow'r of hell and death is at your side, know that
I am with you through it all.

Be not afraid.
I go before you always.
Come follow me, and
I will give you rest. 

The refrain is the part that I love and sing in my head when I need to hear from him. To be reminded that whatever I am encountering and whatever is happening, he is with me and before me. This is a link to an equally cheesy version of the song if you would like to listen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBH-Eh9Bjjg&playnext=1&list=PL0FFD26345FE4A297&index=4

Blessings...

The Recabites

The Recabites... ever heard of 'em? Yeah, me neither until the other day. I did something that I don't do very often. I simply opened my Bible and just read wherever I opened it and I came upon the Recabites. They are an old testament group of folks in Jeremiah 35 that God used as an example to the people of Israel.

You see they had an ancestor that gave them some commands from God and he said that if they would simply follow what he told them they would live long good lives in the land they were in. The people of Israel have  not been listening to God and have been going off doing as they please. God has Jeremiah go and let the people of Israel know that he is not happy with them because they have not been doing what God told them to do over and over again.

This little story got me to thinking about how important it is to have people in your life that are speaking truth into you. Telling you things that are going to help you have a full life worth living. Things that point you to God. I can't tell you how grateful I am for the countless people that God has given me the opportunity to hear from. Some for just a talk or an encounter and some for many years. It is not enough though to just have them in your life, we need to follow the example of the Recabites and heed their advice and be open to what they have to say to us.

It also gave me a different kind of encouragement. For a few weeks now I have been meeting one time a week with Ryan and Matthew and going through a Bible study in the back of my FCA Bible called, "Starting Line". It is allowing me to pour into the boys as they begin to grow. To stop one time a week and purposely look at God's word together (we probably spend half our time just looking up verses, but that is just fine), see what our need is and what he has done to fill that need and then see what that means going forward as they live out life as 2nd and 5th graders at Orchard park and in our neighborhood.  It has been really fun. This morning Matthew had to be excused because he simply could not stop laughing after Ryan was reading in Hebrews and stated that there is no longer any difference between Jew and Geek! Of course he meant to say Greek, but it was too late once it came out.

I am not sure that I would recommend just opening the Bible and starting to read, but the story about the Recabites made a great impression on me. It reminded me about the importance of listening to those that have gone before us and can speak wisdom into our lives through their actions and words and then turning around and sharing the truths of God's word and what he has done in our lives to the next generation so that they might live a long good life in the land.

...the Way of the Master

Ephesians is one of my favorite books in the Bible and Chapter 6 verse 4 is very challenging for me. Here is what it says:
⁴Fathers, don't exasperate your children by coming down hard on them. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master.

As I said before, I am reading a book with my brother that is called Integrity, but I have dubbed it The Quan and it is really challenging me. As the father of 3 boys that live life at full tilt my home is rather crazy, noisy and difficult to keep tidy. Last night I came home to Ryan having taken apart his entire airsoft rifle and scattered it across the kitchen table, Matthew dancing and flopping around on the second floor so loudly that it sounded as if he was going to come through the ceiling and did I mention that there was a paper target tied to the tree in the front yard, several pairs of muddy boots in the driveway and a boomerang laying in the yard. The rest of the evening was filled with more than its fair share of accusations and frustrations of trying to get things cleaned up, who made what mess and should be accountable for it and then of course the jabbing and nagging of boys towards each other.

Later that night while Suzanne was wrapping gifts I was reading The Quan and a couple of lines really hit me right in the nose. In them Dr Cloud talked about the fact that at home, just like at work you want to win the hearts of your wife and children through true care and empathy and then they will be more likely to follow you out of love and respect not because you have forced them to by shear will power (which can be easy for me to do with my young boys). That is exactly what this verse is talking about in Ephesians. I don't want to exasperate my kids so that they do what I ask in the short term but want to get out from under me the first chance they get. I want to lovingly "lead them in the way of the Master" so that they will want to follow me and ultimately him. It is something that takes great thought and focus for me though. I often have to check myself and evaluate my words and actions so that I do not find myself exasperating them and being too heavy handed with them.I have to constantly be checking my words and motivation. So that as the Bible says, when they are older they will have that foundation of love, discipline and faith and not stray from it. Thanks for the challenge God, Paul and Dr Cloud!

Turn Around

The word repent can be translated, turn around. I heard my friend Allen Levi sing a song at our church in Greensboro many years ago and was looking for some Christmas music on the computer yesterday and came upon it on his website. It is a Christmas song of a different kind.

This song reminds me of how much love Jesus has for each of us. How he sees us and loves us just as we are, yet longs for us to turn around and follow him. To repent of the things that we have done that have caused bumps and bruises on others as well as forgiving folks for the scars they have left on us. Neither is easy sometimes. The baby Jesus, the creator in flesh, though calls us to change. He calls us to bold and daring moves that don't make sense like The Word  becoming flesh and moving into the neighborhood to save that which has been lost. He calls us to turn a round and trust him and as the song says we are often scared to turn around and walk a different way than those around us. To walk differently than the rest of the world. God please give us the courage to turn around follow you in new ways this Christmas season and beyond.

Below is the link to the song if you would like to listen. Blessings...
http://www.allenlevi.com/songsandstories/LandBackwards.html

The Quan

What is "The Quan" you ask? It is a word used by Rod Tidwell in the movie Jerry Maguire to refer to the total package. To Rod the total package means love, respect, community and money. According to Rod, "Other football players may have the coin, but they won't have the 'Quan'". My definition of quan may not line up exactly with Rod's definition but I do love his enthusiasm and spirit in the movie.

My brother and I had a great conversation today about a leadership study that we are doing and a book that we are reading together. It is called "Integrity", but I have taken to calling it The Quan! I really enjoy these times with him and today was a good one. We spent time talking about the kind of wake that we are leaving behind us in life. We thought about our wake at home, work and in our community. 

I think this is going to be an important study for us because as life changes the demands on us change too and this study is going to have us asking ourselves good questions like: Are people in our wake more trusting after working with us? Are they more fulfilled as people? Were they stretched and inspired to become more?
Or, instead are they wounded? Less Trusting? Do they feel let down and manipulated?

The book is by Henry Cloud and in it he talks about the fact that we all will have our metal tested in life and we need to do our best to make sure that we have the "structural integrity" or in my words "the quan" to meet those demands.  If we don't we will have a wake behind us that instead of causing my friends, family and co-workers to grow, flourish and move to a stronger, better place in life may cause them to stumble and wipe out and I definitely don't want that.

Jesus said that He came to offer life and not just life, but life to the full. A life with meaning and purpose as well as eternal life. I want my life to be a reflection of his as much as it can be and to have a wake that the people I lead and the kids and wife that I live with will be encouraged by, challenged by and ultimately help guide them to a full and meaningful life that only Jesus can offer. Blessings...

Are You Passionate About Chicken?

When I was at a grand opening for a Chick-fil-A in Denver a few years back I met a guy who was an owner/operator at one time but had left the company. At the time I thought that he was nuts because he had been where I was trying so hard to get and had walked away. I asked him why he had left and he said that he was just not that passionate about chicken. He said that he loved all that CFA stood for and loved the atmosphere of the company and the pride that he felt when he told people what he did, but he wasn't passionate about chicken.  He wasn't passionate about rolling up his sleeves, getting coater all over him and making an awesome fried chicken breast.

When he shared that with me it really made me stop and think and has turned into a question that I ask myself whenever I need a gut check in life now. The question, "Are you passionate about chicken?" has come to mean a lot of things to me. It means am I willing to do the little things with my kids? To unload the dishwasher for my wife after a long day? To follow Jesus into places that I don't want to go?  It is easy to be passionate about the things in life that come easy or are not messy or you know are not going to ask too much of you. It is harder to be passionate about chicken. Making chicken is messy, greasy, hot and when you have been breading chicken in the kitchen there is no mistaking it. The rest of the team knows it because you are covered in coater, your sleeves are usually rolled up, you are probably sweating and you most likely have a few good grease spots on your shirt and pants.

There are so many days when I come home and I don't always feel like throwing the ball, doing homework, tackling a "honey do list" or going to set up for church but that is what I signed up for when I said, "I do", when I took that boy from the doctor and held him for the first time and when I told the one who made me that I was giving my life back to him. So Lord, help me to be passionate about chicken! Blessings..

Even When You Can't get There, Just Keep Running

Friday morning I had the opportunity to lead the devotional time with a local football team at their morning breakfast and the following is a bit of that.

I read an article after the Iron Bowl that really got me to thinking. It was about how Auburn had come from behind against The Tide and seemingly insurmountable odds due in large part to the efforts on one play by one man. Auburn DE Antoine Carter ran down Mark Ingram and stripped the ball from him just yards before he got to the end zone and extended the Alabama lead even more. The article talks about the fact that a 256lb DE cannot run down the reigning Heisman Trophy winner. Especially not after rushing the quarterback and starting behind the line of scrimmage. He did though.

The author talked about the fact that Carter simply did what he had been coached to do his whole career. He has probably been playing football since he was a little guy and if you have ever played football you know that one of the first things you learn is to play until the whistle blows. His current defensive coordinator, Ted Roof says that you never know what is going to happen. "The guy could stumble. The ball could get tipped. The ball could be fumbled." After the game Cater said about the play, "Even when you can't get there, just keep running." This is a great life lesson.

Sometimes it is hard to understand what God is doing. Often God tells us to do things in his word or speaks to our hearts and it makes no sense. We think we can't get there or it is impossible or what he says seems so opposite of what we want to do. I have had coaches that at the time I would have questioned whether they were trying to kill me or if they were a bit nuts. In hind site though I can usually see what they were doing and why they were doing it. Our job is to give our best in every drill, to execute the game plan the best we can. We need to be faithful to what he has called us to, no matter what it looks like. No matter how far out of reach a victory seems.

 If you think that your current situation has no hope or your boss will never notice you or your kids are beyond help (feel free to insert your situation here) I would urge you to think again.  God says that it is our job to trust Him and just keep running. To be faithful until the end of the play. We can't control what others do, but we can control our hearts and our efforts.

Antoine Carter chose to keep running and in doing so saved the game for Auburn. Maybe you need to choose to keep praying, to keep showing up, to keep loving or to keep trusting and in doing so you may just save the game for your kid or your wife or yourself. I don't know what it is for you, but I can promise that the God who made you sees you and loves you. He knows what is best for you moment by moment and HE CAN BE TRUSTED. His heart and intentions toward you are good. You nay not always get there to save the day or recover the ball, even then (or especially then) we simply must continue to trust him.

My favorite line in the article is when the author says that because of Carter's faithfulness to do what his coaches had taught him to do and had instilled in Him, "A sure 28-0 deficit turned into hope." I pray that God will give all of us the ability to trust him and that through that he will turn your deficit into hope.
Blessings...

Proverbs 3:5-12 (The Message)
 ^5-12 Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track.
Don't assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil!
Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life!
Honor God with everything you own; give him the first and the best.
Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over. But don't, dear friend, resent God's discipline;
 don't sulk under his loving correction. It's the child he loves that God corrects; a father's delight is behind all this.

This is a link to the article if you would like to read it:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/andy_staples/11/26/iron.bowl/index.html

A Great Dancer in China

This goes along with my post from the other day. It is from Steven Furtick's blog. Check it out!

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/stevenfurtick/~3/bf_T0SuhXAM/

I am Dave

This morning at church we were singing a hymn and as I was singing I started to really think about the words. The part that got me was:
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
For some reason a picture popped into my head. It was a picture of someone I have only met once. I will call him Dave. Dave's parents died a few years ago and he has been adopted by other members of his family I believe. I can't remember his whole story, but I am pretty sure that Dave did not have a great family life and now that his parents are dead my understanding is he is living rather recklessly and not real appreciative of what these family members have done and continue to do for him daily even.

Any way, when I saw the picture of him the other day my first thought was, "What an ungrateful fool." Then I thought about how I am better than Dave. I am more responsible, don't drink as much, work harder, etc. For just a moment I may have been glad that Dave existed just so I could feel better about myself. Then today when I was singing God smacked me right in the face with the words to the song I was singing to him!

I realized that I am no different than Dave. I have been adopted by God through his son Jesus and far too often I am just like the prodigal son that Jesus told about in Luke 15. I may not do it in loud, public ways like Dave or the son in the story, but often I tell God in no uncertain terms that I want my inheritance and I don't really want a relationship with him and march off to do things my way.

My pastor put a little piece of paper on our chairs at church this morning and on it was written, "I am thankful for..." He said to really think about it and maybe even put it away for a while and came back to it later. Well here I am at 9:44 and I know what I am thankful for. I am very thankful for my heavenly father who waits and watches for me, who calls for me and when he sees me coming back home he runs to me with open arms, hugs me and welcomes me back home. That is what I am thankful for. Blessings...

The Big Rocks

Suzanne and I were talking this morning and we both agreed that we are simply feeling too rushed lately. We feel like we are running from one thing to another and are constantly feeling the stress of that and also I feel like we are being harder on the kids than we need to be because it too often feels like we are behind and need to go, go , go and the kids don't always feel the same way. They are usually seen as too slow, slow, slow. Homework needs to be done, shoes tied, baths given, errands run, etc and before you know it you find yourself shouting at a kid that is just being a kid or a wife that is trying her best to keep up.

A friend once passed along the organization principle to me of putting your "Big Rocks" in first, which means basically that you plan your week out and ensure that you make time for the most important "rocks" or things in your life and let the other stuff (the smaller rocks) fill in the cracks between the big rocks as space allows. Instead of letting the opposite happen, too often I let all of the little rocks just get dumped in and then my bucket can't hold the most important rocks or out of laziness I fill my bucket up with often meaningless things like too much TV, my Crackberry or countless other time fillers that really don't amount to much of anything.
The sad part too is that the things that get left out are usually the things that make a life meaningful. It seems that if I want to have a meaningful life with a better pace to it then I need to do what is counter intuitive when it feels like there is a time crunch. I need to slow down and ask myself a few questions like, "Am I spending time in my Bible, talking with Him, being helpful to my wife, what am I accomplishing here?" It would seem to me that as life picks up speed and you add more kids and more sports and more whatever committees and more volunteering and the fly wheel really starts to spin and momentum starts to build we need to hunker down with the one who knows us best and who really is the only one who can make our life meaningful. We need to inch our way back to the center of the wheel, not allow ourselves to get spun farther and farther out.

 That is what Jesus did. Just when things seemed to really be turning the corner and more and more people were listening and momentum was building and people were wanting to do things like crown him king, he would  head for the hills or make a left instead of a right or cross to the other side of the lake to get away and be with his father. To listen to him, to be filled by him and to get put back on track. I don't do that enough. Too often I flop right onto the couch to watch the TV or raise my voice or crack open a cold beverage, when what I really need to do is check in with the one who made me. Maybe I need to go to bed a little earlier and get up a little earlier. Put the big rocks in first and let the smaller rocks fill in where they will. Listen for His voice amidst all the other roaring voices that clammer for my attention and distract me daily.
I think if I can do that I will be a better dad, husband, boss and friend and I am pretty sure I will enjoy the ride a good bit more. Blessings...