It was this...

coming out up out of the water...

All 7'-0" of him...

BIG Country Bryant Reeves...

Luckily we had to leave to I did not look like a girl getting out of the pool. Of course if I had known he was there, I would have never broke rule #163...

:-)

What is that in the water?

Key scary music here... Da Dum....Da Dum.... Da Da DADADADADA!!!!

No chomp... its a dolphin fin. Right outside my window of my hotel. How cool is that? The hotel has a dolphin lagoon that has like a half dozen dolphins in it. I am sure for a small inheritance I could go down and swim wiht them. But that would break rule #163 in Pastor Pat's rules of life... did not know there were so many rules did ya?

Hawaii...

paradise...

dreamland...

heaven???

I get to travel on business to Hawaii tomorrow. 10 hour plane flight... we shall see if it is worth it. Everyone tells me that it is glorious, breathtaking, unbelievable. But all I can think about is Volcanoes!!!

I mean that island is an ACTIVE VOLCANO with DAILY eruptions... that is what is said in the travel guide. Should I be worried about this? I mean I live in Tornado Alley, and I am not scared of tornados, but Volcanoes, that is another story. Do they have Volcanoe drills? Where do you go? What do you do? Do they have boats on stand by just in case?

I guess I will find out when I get there. So Aloha!!

And the Prophet of GOD said what???

We always get this high and mighty attitude about preachers. They need to be perfect, straightlaced, uptight and without a sense of humor. I so don't fit that mold. I love to cut up, think I am witty, ride a motorcycle so I don't think I am too straightlaced. So I always wondered what GOD was doing with me. I was not made in the Preacher Mold...So I was doing some reseach on a sermon. Elijah on Mount Carmel with the sacrifice against the prophets of Baal. So I know this story; and the part where Elijah starts shouting to the Baal prophets because their god had not answered with fire was always straight forward. I could see Elijah saying, "shout louder, sing longer, jump higher... but there was one part where he asked where their god was, he said something like, "maybe he is in meditation or deep thought". So I go to studying that and Elijah was refering to their god may have been indisposed in the potty. I laughed out loud! Can you imagine the gall, the look of shock on the prophets faces as Elijah tells them their god is on the pot and can't anwer?I then decided that maybe I can be used of GOD after all. I mean that was flat out rude for Elijah to say that; (funny but rude). I would have never said something like that, so maybe there is hope for me too!!

"I'm Rubber and your Glue, what you say bounces off of me and sticks to you..."

Wow, now we are going back to grade school... that old ryme was chanted so many times on the playground that I can still recall it later in life. But do you know what? We used to say this all the time but we never really put into use. Let me say this, even though those words don't hurt physically, they do hurt, and being rubber is a great defense to bounce those words back to the rude party. But they still stick and work themselves into our pysche. What I have come to realize is that we allow them to stick. We allow them to hurt, we allow them to melt our self esteem and cause us grief.

I remember when I was in grade school, we had this girl in our class, we were all poor but she was poorer than most. And in the second or third grade we had an outbreak of lice... yep still makes my head itch. Well the teachers all checked us and this girl with her long blonde hair apparently had lice along with a few others in our class. Well most parents took their child home and did the lice shampoo and such and it was all good. Well not her family, they could not afford the special shampoo but her dad had some sheep shears and so he cut all her hair off. The next day she came to schoolwsith her head shaved; now this was before shaven headed women were the "in" thing... And she was made fun of. The other kids teased her, called her Kojack (he was famous back then) and made horrible fun of her. I moved away later in my early junior high days so I lost track of the kids in my class. After my senior year of high school I came back to the area and was reading the paper and saw this familiar looking person in a story about a beauty competition. It was "lice girl", yep it was her!! And man, she was a looker! Beautiful blonde hair, beautiful smile and I sat there and thought, "how can this be?" While reading her list of accomplishments I saw that she graduated from another school in the area than where we attended together. I saw that she graduated at the top of her class, that she was involved in Stuco, Drama, Sports and just about everything else. I started wondering how this "lice girl" was transformed into a smart, attractive, talented beauty queen?

I remember her saying one time, "I am rubber, you are glue, what you say bounces off of me and sticks to you..." I think she actually took that to heart... I wish we all would.

Wow, that dude is fast...

Usain Bolt from Jamaica...

Broke the 100 and 200 meter world records... doing a little math... I know geekville city... in setting the WR for the 200 meter in 19.3 seconds, if he could have continued he would have ran a mile in 2 minutes, 34 seconds. That is smokin' fast. So I went and checked how that compared to other animals. Well at a little over 23 miles an hour, he is not as fast as a cheetah but in a race he might outrun a horse at 200 meters.

Made me think of the time that Elijah was waiting on rain to fall, and before it started raining he told the King who was in his chariot to get home fast. And the Bible say that Elijah girded up his loins, (the dude was wearing a dress like thing) and ran to the city outracing the King. Now that is flying low... Although what Usain did is impressive, it does not hold a candle to the power that GOD has at his fingertips...

Olympic Fever...

Man do I have Olympics Fever... we have been watching every night, Michael Phelps and his quest for 8 Gold medals, Shawn and Nastia battling it out in the gym, basketball with the Redeem team, it has all been great.

But can I tell you the greatest part of the Olympics? Nope it is not Michael Phelps even though he is greatest Olympic athlete of all time. Shawn and Nastia, nope, even though their duel has been fun to watch. Kobe, LeBron and the rest of the Redeem team romping over all comers? Nope not even that.

The best thing about the Olympics is the opening ceremonies when the athletes walk in representing their country. Belarus, Ubezistan, and some of those other countries you've never heard of, with their sometimes three or even sometimes less athletes. Countries like Bhutan, a neighbor of China which entered two athletes, one male and one female in Archery. They marched in under their flag and waved to the crowd just as Lebron and Kobe and the others did that were there seeking a medal, only knowing that they will probably never see one.

I started thinking that those people are the best athletes in their county and they are honored at representing their country even though they will probably not bring home a medal. I can imagine what their countrymen are thinking today, will they win, how they will do and I can't believe that wether they win or loose, they will be proud of them anyway.

As American's we have been brainwashed with a win at all cost mentality. Stuff like "second place is the first loser", and "just win baby!" have made us a country that will only settle for the Gold and will look down on the loser. That is a sad way to look at life, losing is a part of life, we don't always win and it is in how we compete and perform where the real medals lie...

Milk, it does a body good, but...

it hurts the spirit.
We have all seen the advertisements on TV pitching the benefits of milk, how it builds strong bones and teeth and is a great source of calcium. And yep, I agree with all of that. But as beneficical as milk is to the body it is a significant detriment to the soul.
Paul the apostle spoke of some Christians who preferred milk over meat and somewhat called them babies in scripture. I think there are a lot of people like that today.
Milk is easy to fix, takes no effort and digest easy. Meat on the other hand takes more time, more preperation and doesn't digest as easy.
Many people take their spiritual journey only packing a gallon of milk and soon grow discouraged and fall away as they only get milk because they don't want to put forth the effort to eat meat.
Meat will sustain, enpower and endure where milk will spoil, smell and curdle.
So eat some meat on your spiritual journey, so you make it through.

Gadgets...

What is it about men and gadgets? Why do we just love them so?
I mean you give a guy a new gadget and he is in hog heaven. We get a new gadget and we think we can do anything. Phones, PDA's, Computers, tools, and all that other stuff really makes our hearts beat faster. I was watching my wife yesterday hook up a new I phone. She was saving stuff and moving stuff around. And then last night I pulled out one of my new gadget and one of our ladies in our church said, "let me see it" and then she said, "sweet". So I guess it is not just us guys that have Gadget Syndrome.

Whew...

After two weeks of flat out running. Finishing up one job and moving onto another, I have a few pointers to hand out.
1) two weeks is a long time. I know you are supposed to give a two weeks notice, but man does those two weeks cause some serious turmoil in your life. Depending on how long you might have worked at a specific place or how well you did your job, there are two different ways things are seen during those two weeks. The first; if you were a schmuck is they are glad to get rid of you and it is party city at the office. People are wishing you well, helping you pack your stuff and pushing you out the door. The other face of this is if you are truely an important cog in the wheel, well it is like "dead man walking", you know the movie of the guy who is heading to the electric chair, or gas chamber? People are walking around in doom and gloom, wearing black, muttering to themselves while you are all excited about the job that is awaiting you. It is stress beyond belief as those you like and those you maybe did not like too well are all hurt, betrayed and sometimes downright mean to you for leaving.
2) The other side of the fence is not always greener. When the mind has time to think, sometimes that is not a good thing. When you go into something blind, you really never know what to expect. And your mind will always conjure up the worst, trust me.
3) People are people... think you are getting away from the slob at the office? Think again, they are in every office. The neat freak, yep he is at the new office too! Seems no matter how hard you look, freaks are everywhere... even at the new job.
4) You last weeks will either seal your legacy or will seal your legacy. Face it, we will be remembered most of the time for the last two weeks we were employed than we will be for the first two weeks.

Leaving a job and heading to something else is the most painful and exciting thing I have done in a long time. I hated to leave those I worked with all those years, but I am excited at the same time for the oppotunities afforded to me at my new place of employment. So when you make that leap, just figure it is only two weeks, it has to end sometime.

Dude...get a clue...

What is it with people nowadays?
We have those who hate high gas prices but continue to drive their gas hogs around the block...
We have people who dress Goth to stand out, and then stand by all of their Goth friends who all look alike.
We have people who still refuse to utilize the turn signals on their cars, even though they are not optional equipment and they won't cost you every time you use them.
We have people who can't walk and chew bubble gum at the same time, yet will operate a motor vehicle while texting on the cell phone.
We have people who are cooking Meth in their house with explosive ingredients who always seem surprised when their house blows up!
Why is it the mass murderer is always a good neighbor?

You know. I try to use common sense in all my actions and decisions. But if common sense was so common, why is there not so much of it floating around?