Day with the Lord

On Monday, myself, Chad Corbitt and David Wittenmyer all broke away for several hours to just pause and sit with God. A good friend of mine, Colin Millar, challenged me to break away and spend some extended time with God and so I decided to finally take him up on this challenge. We headed over to McDade park in Conroe and each found our own little spot along a little creek in the woods. It was good just to relax, breathe, pray a little bit, observe the creek, put my feet in the sandy creek bed, and sit. We only spent two hours in quietness with God but it seemed like a really long time. I was reminded of how fast paced our culture is. We each did different stuff during our time. I read a book called, "The Greatest Thing in the World" which was written in the 1800's by a guy named Henry Drummund. It really delves into I Corinthians 13 and unpacks love and how it is the essence of the Christian life. I also just got a lot out of his biography and how he was most known not for his acccomplishments and accolades but as a "man who had been with Jesus." I guess at the end of the day I just want to be a man who has been with Jesus and followed His will for my life no matter what that might look like.

What are you gonna be when you grow up?

Well, our kids little personalities continue to unfold and develop each day. I was thinking today about if I had to predict what they're going to be when they grow up based solely on what they're quite passionate about at this stage of life I would conclude the following. First Emily. I guess she is going to be some kind of talk show host/circus announcer person/magician. Whenever we're sitting down on the couch we become her audience and she races into the room with her famous quote, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Everybody!" Which I'm not exactly sure what that combination of words means but she is quite passionate about it. Then she proceeds to host some kind of wierd variety show full of magic tricks, extreme makeovers with people from the audience usually involving placing multiple hats on the audience members. Her show is talkshow host-like as its always very interactive and involving the audience members.

Josh apparently has quite a passion for popsicles and taking care of his baby. He is definitely the snuggler and quite affectionate with a contagious smile. So I guess he'll start his own day care facility where he can take care of lots of babies and then be an ice cream/popsicle man and drive around his little white van around various neighborhoods.

The StoneBridge Softball Civil War

So once again our team of young stallions faced off against Mark McDaniel and the seasoned veterans last night out at the softball park. And once again we came up short of victory. It felt like about half our church stuck around for this StoneBridge Softball Civil war. As usual Mark was hard at work and amassed a giant army against us of about 16 guys to our 10. It's kind of like the strapping young teenage athlete who goes out and plays his dad in some one on one basketball. He knows athletically he can surely take down his old man. He, in theory, should be able to race by him with his great speed and agility. And yet...when the game begins...the old man creeps into his brain and any athletic ability that he normally has when playing anyone else is somehow zapped out and stolen. The old man with pure delight begins to watch his young son sweat and fumble the basketball as dad slowly but steadily drives up the score to sweet victory. So, yep this is exactly what went down again. Mark's team shows up and the shekina glory seems to rest upon each and every bat and glove. Flawless defense, perfectly executed hitting and base running strategies. While our bats turn into complete mush and somehow refuse to operate as they normally do for us. What can you do? Surely our time will come one day. Maybe.

37 Words

I was reading today in the last chapter of Colossians and I got to the 'final greeting' part where Paul is closing down the letter and mentioning a few people who were with him that want to give a shout out to the church at Colossae. You know we do it when we're talking to someone on the phone and they're like "tell them mom said hi and that she misses them bunches." Anyway, it's easy to get on cruise control in your mind cause you're thinking that they'll be no real theological meat or anything important here but of course I'm proven wrong as normal. Paul when mentioning Epaphras spends 37 words describing this guy in this final greeting. Here is how he describes him, "Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured."

Three things stand out about this guy. First of all that he is just an average guy when you look at him. He is "one of you". He's not a body-builder, or a 'pro', or unusually good looking or funny, he's just another face in the crowd (hey sounds like me). Secondly, he's described as a servant of Christ Jesus. Or to flip that around, Jesus Christ is His Master. His owner, what Jesus says, he does. Pretty simple and yet radical way to live your life. Third, this is a guy who really loves others. Is it just me or is praying for others hard to do. Prayer reveals how stinking selfish I am because I have such a hard time moving away from me and my world and entering into the world of my brothers and sisters around me. But, Epaphras doesn't just stop there, it says he wrestled in prayer for others, he cried out on their behalf. He pleaded with God concerning them. What was he praying? that they would not fall short of fully following God's will....that when it came to their will and their desires vs God's will and His desires that they would surrender their own agenda to God and that in that they would become mature and fully assured. What an awesome and loving thing to pray for people. What an awesome thing to desire for the people around you that they would experience the deep and inexplicable joy of living a life surrendered to the will of God.

So if someone had 37 words to describe your life, what would they be?

Christmas in July

You just never know what to expect in the adventure of parenting. We caught this scene going on this morning. Emily kind of carries the tune and Josh chimes in here and there and feels the freedom to take a little water break in the middle of the concert and then throw in a little laughter at the end.

Water Camp!!!!!

Well today has been 'water camp' week. For Emily that is one of the highlights of the year. I mean she was about to wiggle with excitement right out of her car seat as we made our pilgrimage to the church this morning. Josh being at that wonderful repeat everything I hear stage was repeating all of Emily's little chants and cheers about water camp. It kind of made me feel bad because I think he brainwashed himself into believing that he too was going to water camp which of course Emily being the caring and concerned big sister reminded him that he was too little for water camp. Josh took the news pretty well as we whisked him to MDO and Emily went off for her last day at camp.

Little Maestros

Our kids love music. I shot this quick little video in the middle of Josh giving us a little concert yesterday and of course Emily wanted to jump in there at the end as well. Also, Emily has been singing a praise song at church where the chorus is "Oh no you never let go..." and it kind of repeats over and over. Anyway that's about all the words she knows and now she has taught it to Josh too. So yesterday when we got home from church the kids are hanging out in the living room as we're making some quick pb and j's for lunch and I notice that Emily is singing something over and over as she's doing we're contorted dances on the couch. And I notice it's that praise song which was really pretty awesome. Then Josh kind of picks up on the song shortly thereafter and they keep singing it over and over. After about 5 minutes they are shouting it/screaming it over and over at the top of their lungs at an ear piercing level and I think added a level of choreography/wrestling as well where we had to step in there and be the responsible parents and call a time out. It was pretty funny though. I often have those moments where the kid in me is in there laughing hysterically but the responsible parent in me is trying to hold it together. Kids are amazing at just pushing something to the absolute extreme. I mean if I wouldn't have called the timeout what noise level would they have achieved and what level of physical violence/choreography would have gone with it. I guess God knew what he was doing when he assigned kids these things called parents.

Where would you be without Jesus?

I was reading today in Philippians 2 and verse 1 really stood out to me, "If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion..." So, I felt led to stop right there and ponder those statements for a moment. I asked God to bring to mind the encouragement, comfort, tenderness I have known because of Jesus in my life. Things started flooding my mind like times in my car listening to a worship song and just tearing up, times of specific and obvious answers to prayer, times of God providing for our finances right when we needed it, times where He used me to bless someone else, times of sitting on my back porch or in my garage and just unloading my stresses and receiving back from Jesus comfort and peace, times when He asked me to serve Him and I had no strength and no words and yet He gave me the strength and gave me the words, times when I didn't know which way to go and He has given me purpose and opened doors, times of prayer when I just didn't want to get up because something stirred in my heart and I felt His presence, times of worshipping with other believers and we were just swept into who He was and we didn't want to leave, times when He has protected us from evil and harm, times when I have sinned and fallen and He has opened His merciful arms back to me and received me and forgiven and healed me, and on and on. What a horrid thought if we didn't have Jesus today. Oh what comfort and tenderness and compassion is so available to me everyday through Christ that I take for granted. Forgive me Lord. May I appreciate You in a fresh way today and may my compassion for others who don't know You be stirred today.

Breakfast Expressions

Well, this morning was my morning to be mr. mom and get the kids fed breakfast and get their clothes on and attempt to comb Emily's hair and tame the wild blond beast that resides on top of Joshua's melon. Breakfast is such an interesting meal with our kids. Their unique personalities really are quite blatant for this morning meal time in our kitchen. Josh is the sunshiny morning person and Emily is the 'you betta keep your distance and don't mess with me' not so morning person. So in case you didn't believe me on this one I thought I would provide some photographic evidence above to futher illustrate this point. They are in round two of the breakfast marathon which consists of Strawberry Dora yogurt. Emily barely had enough gas to make it through round one which consisted of Target Maple and Brown Sugar oatmeal and by the time yogurt came around she was done while Josh was just ramping up to full throttle.

Fireproof, the movie

I met with some guys today that are promoting a new movie that is coming out on Sept 26 called Fireproof. The movie is about a couple who has every right to bail out on their marriage and yet they hang on and find redemption. It's going to be a movie that exposes the different seasons of marriage from letting each other down, to moral failures, to disappointments, to neglect, to seasons of blandness, etc. I'm trying to think through how we could really get behind it and encourage a lot of couples to go and see it. If you want to check out their webpage you can go to www.fireproofthemovie.com.

On the road again

Well we are on the road again. We got a late start today and made it a pretty pitiful distance down the road to Tuscaloosa so we'll have a long haul tomorrow. As usual the kids are full of energy here in the hotel as they've been cooped up in the car. It was a good trip to Georgia. Lets see...ate a lot of good southern food, played lots of disc golf, had an amazing gyro at a hole in the wall Greek restaurant, went to two different churches in one day this morning, learned how to smoke baby back ribs, shot off lots of fireworks, etc. There's always a certain sadness whenever I leave and have to head back home. Especially as I see the emotion exchanged between Whitney and her folks. It's tough and I always stop and think about how fast time slips by. Sometimes its hard not to get depressed or cynical but you just have to roll with it and try and enjoy each moment in this very quick and fleeting life. It has helped that I've been reading through Ecclesiastes lately where it deals with the vanity of trying to hold on to this life and capture it because it will slip right through your fingers. But in the midst of this reality it also emphasizes over and over the importance of enjoying the gifts you've been given and not getting overly stressed about things beyond your control or reasoning. So I'm going to roll along the road and enjoy each leg of the journey for however long God gives me.

Disc Golf Mania

Well we did the mega drive out to Georgia, all 15 hours of it and miraculously survived the roads and a 2 and 4 year old. Its been a lot of disc golf 'po man' golf for me so far during our stay. My brother-in-law John has actually constructed a disc golf course in his back yard. He has set up three professional baskets and has 9 different holes. He has tee boxes and even had a guy come out and measure the distance of his longest hole at 305 feet. It's a little more challenging out here in Georgia as they have these things called 'hills' here that go up and down. We've already experienced some good old Georgia Sweet Tea out here and tomorrow night we'll be doing a blue grass concert at Whitney's granddad's retirement home. I throw down on the get fiddle and my brother-in-law John throws down on the banjo, so should be a good time. Well better go grab a shower cuz I be stinkin' right now pretty good.