splinter

Today, I was wrestling around with my 6 year old when he told me that I hurt a booboo on his hand. I took a look, and between his fingers was surprised to see an infected blister. I guess he had a splinter for quite a while but didn't want to tell us for fear that we would take it out. He feared the temporary pain of taking it out, and therefore just lived with the constant pain for probably a week. But of course, now that we had to take it out while infected, it was going to hurt it even worse. Many of us have things we are dealing with deep inside our lives. If we choose not to deal with them, they begin to fester as well. We dread the pain of dealing with our issues, but they only get worse. Just as my boys hand would not get better until the splinter was removed, so we must get our inward splinters out so that we can heal. So what's your splinter?

old stomping grounds

I'm feeling a little old as Gary and I both go back to our former church and perform the wedding of an amazing young lady who was in both of our Youth Ministries. I was her first YP and Gary Fowler was her last. We both look at it as a privilege. Another bonus is that I will get to spend early tomorrow morning in the woods......with my bow.....and hopefully a large furry woodland creature. Ha! Anyway, I'm excited to see some old friends. Side note: When you leave a church on good terms, it is always a great experience to go back. We will get to be with those who have watched Keri and I mature and grow and they continue to pray for us. We cherish those friendships. This is how it is supposed to be.

Dreaming

Sitting in a Panera this morning with a good book and a ton of dreams. When God starts stirring my heart for the lost and all the possibilities of how we can make a "dent", I feel like I'm going to explode! I want to always do my best to be a dreamer of God sized dreams with a pure heart and motivation. I have to guard against only looking at the present and take some time to get out of my box and dream. I am very fired up right now as we are continually trying to stay ahead of the growth that God is bringing His church. I'm just honored to be a part of it. This is our time to make a difference for the Kingdom of God. I want to do everything within my power to bring people to Christ. My prayer is that as I dream, I begin to get a heavier burden for those who don't know Christ. If I ever lose that, stick the fork in me I'm done.

We need each other

I love watching American Idol. Especially the auditions and fthe inal shows. That is when it gets good. In the auditions, I continually find myself asking "don't they know how bad they are?". Then some of them, after being ripped apart by Simon, say "My friends say that I am a great singer." I guess we have to ask, "Are they really your friends?" Woudn't a friend love you enough to tell you that you're bad? I look at my own life and hope that I have people who love me enough to shoot straight with me. I need others to help me not get too far out of balance, one way or another. We all need others whom we trust to give us wisdom, encouragement and honesty. It may hurt at the time, but we need it. Who do you need to shoot straight with? You probably can't see this one, but perhaps someone needs to be honest with you.

Endure

Sunday, I did a message called "endure". I used my Ironman race and the pain which I had to endure and parallelled it with life. If and how we endure, really comes down to our foundation and focus. You can check out the video that my Keri shot and my brother Josh did some studio shooting and editing. I used it Sunday for the message. http://myc3church.com/endure.aspx

Favor

We had a great Sunday today! After the service, I took my 6 year old and teamed up with about 10 others from C3 to join in a citywide clean up day. I love how God just hooks things up. I just so happened to be in the group with the City Planner, a City Councilman and a lady running for Mayor. I had some great conversation about C3 Church and our community. They were very excited about our church and how involved we were in the community. I even talked some future plans on some land that if purchased would need to be rezoned. The City Planner (who makes those decisions) said, "that would be no problem to get that done for you guys". I am amazed at God's favor and am totally loving this journey. It always amazes me how God has me in the right places at the right time.........I may even make this weeks Newspaper with my picture picking up trash.

My b-day dinner

Last night, my Keri and I went out to a steak dinner (buy 1 get 1 coupon...yeah) and had a great time together. It was a man's restaurant......Texas Roadhouse! The floor was cluttered with peanut shells, very loud and had animal heads on every wall. Everything was going great until I decided to play the "hunting" video game. I love to hunt and have harvested one or more deer every year since I started hunting. That's why the gun had to be way off because I didn't hit one deer. (HA) That was embarrassing enough, but it suddenly got worse. Keri wanted a shot at it. I knew this was going in the wrong direction when she pulled up and waxed the first 5 or 6 deer. I mean c'mon.....it's MY day! She was smiling from ear to ear.
I think it is funny how God has a way of humbling me on regular occasions.