As I have said recently, my life is a little crazy right now with a weird work schedule for the next month and school in full swing. So blogging has taken a little bit of a backseat…but I’m here today!

In my devotions this morning I read this passage:

Then when they were alone, he turned to the disciples and said,
“Blessed are the eyes that see what you have seen.
I tell you, many prophets and kings longed to see what you see,
but they didn’t see it.
And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.”
Luke 10:23-24, NLT

This is one of those passages that usually rolls by unnoticed…and today would have been no different if it weren’t for the devotional book that said this about the passage:

Are we casual about our knowledge of Jesus and His Word?
Have we been so saturated with the message of the gospel that we take it for granted?

In the passage Jesus is telling His disciples that they are a part of something huge…something few people would get to experience but that many people had looked forward to. I thought it only applied to them. I was wrong. The question above are great questions that step on my toes too much.

I am often too casual about my walk with God. Too often I take my spiritual walk for granted…I take God for granted. You and I have been given a unique opportunity and gift. Let’s not take it for granted.

Starting yesterday (Thursday) at about 4:30 pm I became a bachelor (with 3 kids) until Sunday afternoon. Maybe it’s more accurate to say that I became  quasi-single dad (since the kids are having sleep-overs and staying with their grandma at different intervals)? Anita is spending the time with a few of her girlfriends in Breckenridge…time away from the rat race.

What am I going to do with the time? PARTY!!!

I wish! First on the agenda is to get some sleep since I’m up again tonight (all night) at work.

Next…shuffle the kids around to their various appointments.

Then…spend some time with the kids all together. Might even make it to a movie and some fast food (you know…’cause they like that stuff).

I am actually looking forward to spending time with the kids and getting some rest. It’s an unusual weekend, but that’s good to have every once in awhile.

BTW, my first hunt of the year is coming up…more to come on that topic…

Tonight is one of those nights I hate…I cannot get my brain to shut down and it’s keeping me awake. I am thinking about too many things all at once: Work, School, Fantasy Football, the Upcoming Hunt. You name it, it’s running through my brain.

I usually read something mindless before going to sleep to help down-shift my brain, but it didn’t work tonight. So I’m trying something different: blogging a little and drinking some milk. Will it work? Who knows. I may hit the bed again and go out fast. Or I may start thinking about how much sleep I’m not getting (the last and official stage of insomnia).

Either way, I will be tired at work tomorrow and won’t have accomplished anything tonight aside from thinking about stuff I can’t do anything about right now. Sigh…at least you’re getting some sleep…right?

Good Night…I hope!

I am currently, and slowly, reading through John Piper’s Don’t Waste Your Life. I must admit that the first couple of chapters have been a little on the slow side…but that’s because much of it has been background material. This morning the reading turned a corner. Here is an excerpt I had to share:

You don’t have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know a few great things that matter, perhaps just one, and hen be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by one great thing. If you want your life to count…you have to know a few great, majestic, unchanging, obvious, simple, glorious things—or one great all-embracing thing—and be set on fire by them.

John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life, page 44.

Now that’s something I can sink my teeth into. Yes, it reminds me a little bit of the scene from City Slickerswhere Jack Palance tells Billy Crystal he has to find”that one thing”…but there is often truth in movies…you just ave to look hard for it sometimes.

So what is that one thing…or those few things…that you are mastering in your life? What guides and directs your compass? What are you set on fire by? I hope that the first thing is Christ…knowing Him and walking with Him. If not, start there.

After that…therein lies the beauty. God made you and designed you for your purpose. Part of the fun is finding out what that is and giving yourself to it 100%. Happy hunting!

 I love a good practical joke as much as the next guy, but this might have crossed a line. But it’s still funny!

Happy Friday!

I had a code install that started late last night. It started last night at about 11pm (that’s when I went back into work) and I was expecting/hoping that it would be over sometime around 6 or 7am this morning.

::INSERT ANOYING BUZZING SOUND HERE::

I actually left work at about 1:30 pm this afternoon…after being up for about 44 hours straight. Like I sai, it was a long night. I got about 5 hours of sleep when I got home…but I still feel like I got run over by a train…and I look like it to.

Here’s what I looked like “before”:

And me “after”:

Looks like I really need to get some sleep!

In Elder Meeting last night our pastor started of, as usual, with a devotional. Last night was from 1 Peter 5 and it was one of those times when something just sticks with you. As we read and discussed the passage this stood out for me:

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil.
He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith.
1 Peter 5:8-9, NLT

If you have a been a Christ follower for more than…oh….say…10 seconds, you know the truth behind this passage. We are all targets. Satan has it in for us. He is our enemy and wants nothing more than to see us fail and suffer. But that wasn’t what really stuck with me. What stuck with me…and is still with me this morning…is how God tells us to handle the fact that we are targets:

1. Stay alert!
2. Stand firm
3. Be strong

Not what I would have expected. I would have expected something along the lines of: “ask God to protect you, trust God to take care of the problem, let God handle this…” But that’s not what we get here (and that’s not to say we shouldn’t do those other things)…in this case God tells us to take some action…to have a Spiritual Backbone and stand up to the enemy who is bent on destroying us. To be sure, we need to do that with God’s power and strength…but we are called to take a stand and be strong in our faith. We need to lean on God, but we need to stand our ground too. Something to ponder…

Hopefully life is starting to settle down a little bit as I get back into school and a more “regular” schedule (whatever that is!). With the busy schedule blogging has taken a little bit of a backseat…which should mean I have a lot stored up right?

I’ll ease back into it today though. Today’s topic? Bad movie rentals! Anita and I have been on a bad run lately…every movie we have rented lately has S-U-C-K-E-D. Hopefully this is just a result of a lull in the movies that are available, but I am starting to get a little “gun shy” when we go to pick one out! We don’t get to the “big movies” very often so it’s a real bummer when a rental doesn’t pan out. Life is too busy to waste 2 hours of it on a lame flick.

Any recommendations?

It’s probably just me (I am a little slow), but God keeps repeating the same two themes in my walk with Him over the past few weeks. Life has been busy and stressful. School is out for a week and I am getting back on track (whatever that means).

So what has God been repeating? Two themes…

Theme #1: Turn to Him When Things Get Rough

I have said it before, but I have had the tendency in the past to turn to unhealthy things instead of God when the chips were down. This is a lesson that has taken, and is taking, time to really learn. God is undoing old, bad habits and teaching me how to turn to Him. Here’s the latest passage He has given me on the topic:

Dear children, keep away from anything
that might take God’s place in your hearts.
1 John 5:21, NLT

Theme #2: It’s All About Relationship

This one has been repeated in many different venues: Church, Men’s Group, School, Devotions, et al. And it’s the most exciting. Life is about relationships…it’s how God made us…it’s WHY God made us. And God wants to have a personal relationship with me and with you. That’s exciting! And it changes everything when I think about living my life with God as my friend…in relationship with Him. It came up last night in Men’s Group:

So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God
because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
Romans 5:11, NLT

So those are my lessons. How about you? What has God, or is God, continually teaching you? Are the repetitive themes in your life?

I must preface this post by admitting that what follows is insufficient, incomplete, and inadequate. But it’s true none-the-less.

God has truly blessed me with a wife I do not deserve. How do I know this (aside from her telling me?  Let me count the ways…

1. She is my best friend in the whole world.
2. She is a great lover (no details, even if you ask)
3. She is the best mom to our kids..and it’s no easy job
4. She has a sense of humor that I envy and get to enjoy every day
5. She is a Proverbs 31 woman
6. She loves God with all of her heart, soul, and mind
7. She thinks she is better at Bible trivia than I am
8. She is better at poker than I am
9. She is a Republican (more specifically she is a Libertarian that votes Republican)
10. She likes funny, goofy movies like Dumb and Dumber
11. She shares a guilty pleasure for vampire movies
12. She puts up with all of my &$%#@
13. She makes a mean Pumpkin Pie
14. She is a Broncos Fan
15. She is one sexy gal!
16. She puts her family ahead of herself on a consistent basis

Here’s what it boils down to…God created her for me and she is more than I could have ever hoped for. God knows what He’s doing (always has). I thank God for giving me such a beautiful, charming, sacrificial, and loving wife. I am the better for it; she truly is my better half!