When I’m around.

I like to talk about myself and what’s going on in my life.

But I haven’t said much lately.

Doesn’t mean nothing is going on.

It’s just that God is blowing my mind in way that defies logic and understanding and comprehension.

What are you up to?

Help Wanted.

In about three and a half weeks a team of four are leaving for Niger West Africa. While there we will be laying the foundation for a job training program targeting the women of the capital city. We are very excited about this trip. But we need some help. We are short on funds for our airfare, and as you can tell we are getting very close to our departure date. If you are interested in helping us financially please post a comment and I will email you all the details. I very much appreciate your interest and support.

Real Love.

I’m looking for a real love. Not necessarily a new love, but a real love. I have been challenged to start memorizing Bible scripture this week. It is interesting to me how, as I look back over my life, memorizing scripture has had this really weird kind of feeling to it. As a child growing up I went to AWANA every Wednesday night. If you are not familiar with AWANA it is basically a Bible memorization boot camp for kids. The more you memorize the more prizes you receive. There are other things like games, singing and of course the annual AWANA Olympics. (Wow, the memories.) Then as I grew up I have had “accountability” partners where we would hold each other accountable for memorizing scripture.

All these things are great and at heart are right on track with what I believe God has called us to. But, just like most disciplines you get going on it and remain focused for a short while and then it fizzles out. Despite that, this week I am working on memorizing scripture. My first verse: 1 John 4:10

“This is real love–not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to take away our sins.” This is from memory and I am quoting the NLT so I may not have it 100% yet. It has become a powerful thought for me and I believe an answer to the question of why I (we) can’t sustain discipline in memorizing scripture or having a quiet time or whatever.

Are you ready for this?

WE DON’T LOVE GOD.

Ouch. I know that one hurt me too. We think that our affection for God is real love, but it is not. Real love is only evident in the way that God loves us. In other words, we can reciprocate real love. Man how hard is that? My intentions are good and I believe that God calls us to demonstrate love through obedience, but I think we deceive ourselves by convincing ourselves that we are demonstrating real love by doing x, y and z.

I will continue to memorize scripture off and on. I will have my quiet time as consistently as I can. I love God’s word and it moves me, it guides me, and I believe over time there will be a difference in my life because of these disciplines. BUT, from now on I am not going to begin my definition of love with things that I can do. My definition of love begins and ends with what only God can and has done.

How do you define real love?

Equations.

My wife is all into math right now. Well she is taking a college algebra class and frankly I can’t help her with the stuff she is working on. Honestly it’s sick. Quadratic equations. Radical denominators. You know I think in the next presidential election we should require all the candidates to solve at least one equation during a debate or something.

Well today I made up my own equations. These are easy. Won’t you join me in solving these equations?

Me X $5 = $5

Me+ You X $5 = $10

Me + You + Everybody else X $10 = 50,000 shoes

Talk about some crazy math. Today I want to highlight Soles4Souls. It’s this crazy little organization led by a crazy big movement to changes people’s lives through the gift of shoes. Five bucks is all it takes to donate two pairs of shoes. Again, crazy math, but it works. The goal is 50,000 pairs of shoes in 50 days. Now that is what I call some, you guessed it, crazy math. I have already donated a mere $5 just this morning to this cause and chances are today already you might have heard something about this. Well this is another reminder. Go over to Soles4Soulsand donate some money to change someones life. Oh yeah, btw, if you donate some money they will put your name in a drawing to possibly win a trip to Mexico and deliver the shoes in person! Once again, crazy math. The bottom line though…no equation is complete without YOU!

A new day, a new look…

Yeah, yeah, yeah…let me know what you think. Who knows maybe I’ll design your header pic too!?

Living in the moment.

Given that today is such a historical day for Americans I found this poston WikiHow very timely. Here is the abbreviated posting:

1.Take notice of the world around you.

2. Focus on whatever you’re doing.

3. Smile when you wake up.

4. Commit random, spontaneous acts of kindness.

5. Minimize activities that dull your awareness of the moment.

Of course the entry comes with this warning:

Living in the moment doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about the future, or do reckless, irresponsible things. It means that when you make a choice to do something, you focus on actually doing it, rather than letting your mind dwell on the future (or past).

How well do you balance living in the moment and looking to the future?

A historical day.

Last night we went from this:

To this:

Last night we turned our backs on this:

And now we look forward to this:

I am proud to be American.

Voting God’s Will.

This is a picture of prayers that were posted during our service this past Sunday. We wanted people to pray for their “issue”. It was a really powerful service. The whole point was to stop and simply recognize that whatever happens God is in control and he is orchestrating things to his great purpose.

So that leads me to this question; is it really possible to “vote” God’s will? This would suggest that there is but one candidate that by voting for we are signifying the fact that indeed God has chosen this one person to be elected. Furthermore, by not voting for that candidate or by voting for the opposite candidate then we are voting against God’s will. Additionally, if it is God’s will that a particular candidate take office then really what does my vote do either way? One last question: what if I don’t sense that God is willing me to vote for a particular candidate? Does this mean that I am out of touch with God? Or could it be that God doesn’t really care who I vote for but cares more about who I trust?

Help me out here…

Ho Ho Ho

Yup. We are officially in Christmas mode. Well not me and my family just yet, but the retailers sure are wasting not time and I’m not too surprised. This past Saturday while doing a little shopping at Wal-Mart we were seranaded with Christmas music and several times we had to stop and ask ourselves out loud: “is that Christmas music?”

Yes. Yes it was. It is time.

The other day my wife asked me how long before we start changing our diet? I looked at her puzzled. She pointed to her mid section and said, “I am not going into the holiday season in this kind of condition.” Well I have to agree. I haven’t been doing real well in the eating right/staying fit category lately. So now I am presented with the prospect of facing a holiday season and coming out way fatter than I am going in.

So now I have to begin to think about what I eat and be more conscious of that. I have to be more deliberate about getting up and going jogging in the morning.

What are you doing to prepare for the holiday season? Do you have to “get in shape”?