Maturity...

Maturity is something that we all should do, but it is something that we all do not do at the same amount, or during the same time frame.

I have been exposed to a lot of immature people in my life. Talking about bathroom tendencies, explosive bodily functions and vomit tend to make a person seem immature. But I have seen some mature young people and some really immature older people. Although older people have grown accustomed to discussing bathroom tendencies, explosive bodily functions and vomit in their old age the stories just aren't as funny as those who have not experienced all these instances for almost 40 years of life. I mean there was this one time in San Antonio where I had these burritos... I digress; excuse me. And for the people in the hotel room next to me that night I ask your forgiveness as well. I hope you eyes have healed up since that horrific experience.

Anyway, people mature at different rates, it is not a one size fits all. Now I realize that life experiences help with maturation but what I have a hard time with is those who should be mature and are not. Even in the Christian realm we have immature Christians. You know, those that seem to always be in and then out, and then in and then out. Up and down, like a pogo stick, that reminds me one time my brother was bouncing on this pogo stick and he had like this stomach virus and on one of the down bounces when he hit the ground some of him kept going... I Digress, excuse me and for his third grade teacher, well I am sorry for you as well. Anyway we have Christians who have not matured in the church. It is not a new thing, the Apostle Paul pretty much told some early church members to get off the bottle, called them babies and such. He was such a rebel rouser. Anyway people who mature gain a nature that does not allow the small things to overcome their lives. The chart I copied is a business model but works well in this instance as well.

Stage 1 - Firefighting - in our Christian walk this is where you have to make a life and death choice everyday. Do I do what I know is wrong and sin or do I live a godly life? Know anyone that has been there for a while?

Stage 2 - Stabalising - in our Christian walk this is beyond the firefighting but we are still setting boundaries for our life and getting on the even keel of life. I know many who never got through the stabalising part. They are like a teeter totter, one day or week are on top of it and the next they fell off and don't know what happened.

Stage 3 - Preventing - these are the people who see a trap and AVOID it. To many people I know see the trap and then keeping walking right into it. It is like those survivor man shows, remember the guy that keeps going up to wild bears and petting them will one day find a hungry bear. What is that old cliche? An ounce of prevention is worth a ton of something or another...

Stage 4 - Optimising - What you say is this. Well this is where you have finally arrived where you can walk the narrow path, without twisting an ankle every day, being eaten by a bear or falling into a trap. This is where you really start to do something that matters. You find your gift and you begin to make a difference. Sadly there are too many people who never get to this stage. That is why you see so few making a difference in this world.

Stage 5 - Excellence - Man, I want to be here but I am still in the Optimising part. I am still learning what I am really good at and letting go of what I am so so at. The problem is that I want to be really good at the so so stuff and the stuff I am really good at is not as fun as the so so stuff. Oh well, I still have some maturity to go. By the way, you ever heard the one about the lady who had a gas attack in the middle of church? Well, you had to be there...

Have a little Patience...

I was working this weekend and realized that I lacked patience. Yep, I am an impatient person.

Now I am not the guy at McDonalds yelling at the drive through window because it took three minutes to get my Big Mac. Nor am I the guy who is standing by the door waiting on the Dominoes guy telling him I am not paying because it took 31 minutes. And I am not the guy who stands in line at Wal Mart for five minutes and looks like I only had ten minutes to live and wasted half of it standing in line behind a woman who has fifteen cats and a fetish for cashmere sweaters. And I am not the guy who when he walks into the DMV gives that criminal look of incarceration once he enters the door waiting for his time to be served before he gets parrolled. But I do lack patience, usually with those that are closest to me. Those that I love the most, cherish the most, could not live without, those people I have no patience for. I have patience for a client who can't make up his mind, the auto mechanic who is moving at a snail's pace, the doctor who makes me set in a waiting room to wait, and then in an examination room to wait some more. I have patience with those people, but with those closest to me I have none.

Why is that? I don't have an answer but I have determined that it is wrong and I am going to change. So I will have patience with my loved ones, but the DMV gal, the mechanic, the Wal Mart Checkout lady and my Doctor had better be on their toes!!

Possessed or In need of help?

I saw this on the web the other day and I really feel for the poor guy. Here is the article...

Dear Prudence,
Genetic predisposition and a traumatic childhood have led me to develop debilitating mental disorders that I have spent years working to manage. I'm now at a functional place. My parents are divorced, and my mother's family has always been very supportive. My father's family, by contrast, sees mental illness as a stigma and has always disagreed with my approach to treatment. Recently, they invited me to my grandmother's birthday party. When I arrived, everyone was sitting solemnly around the living room, and the local pastor was there. He calmly explained to me that I was not actually mentally ill but possessed by agents of Satan and in need of an exorcism. I choked back tears as I explained to them that I did not need any demons driven out, and the evening ended awkwardly. Now they've invited me for Thanksgiving, and I don't know what to do. I don't want to alienate them, but my symptoms are part of a real disorder and can be treated by medication. How do I explain to them that while I do want to spend time with them, it's not the Middle Ages, and I don't want or need an exorcism?

—It's the Schizophrenia, Stupid
Dear It's the Schizophrenia,For Thanksgiving, please exorcise these people from your life. Spend the holiday somewhere else, preferably with those who love and accept you. Perhaps your mother's family is an option. If not, maybe you can make your own gathering with friends, or friends will extend an invitation to you after realizing you'll be on your own. And if you're too uncomfortable searching for a place to go, every city has shelters or nursing homes that welcome volunteers willing to serve Thanksgiving dinner. What your father's family did to you was appalling. You're very generous not to want to alienate people who believe you are possessed by Satan; I would have been tempted to threaten them with my pitchfork. I suppose at some time less loaded than a big holiday, you can get together with them to try to explain that you have a medical condition that is being successfully treated. But as you point out, this is the 21st century, and an unwillingness to accept that mental illness is just that—an illness—seems an act of willful bigotry not amenable to reason. Be proud of how you've worked your way to a satisfying life, and don't let people, just because they're relatives, do anything to undermine that.
—Prudie

Let me explain a few things. First I do believe that we can have demonic activities in our lives. Do I believe that people can be possesed? Of course; it is Biblical, but just as I believe it is possbile for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, (you have to use really small camel chunks and it takes a real long time) it is possible for a person to yield to spiritual influences in their life and be possessed. But not in all situations are their spiritual forces at work. Because of illness, inheritated traits and such there are many situations where people may exhibit signs of possession but not be possessed. I know in my life that there are days where I don't want to get out of bed... actually there are a bunch of days like that, but I am able to overcome them by sheer will and the fear of being unemployed. There are days when I want to be a hermit and not interact with people, live in a mountain cave and grow a real long beard, but I subject myself to society. There are days when I just want to curl up in a ball and cry... and I find myself a comfortable place and plenty of tissues. Does this mean I am "possessed"? No it means that I am human. And as humans sometimes we need help. I would have been more impressed if his family had brought the Pastor in to talk to this young man and help him through his problems, spiritually influenced or not...

When Tolerance is not accepted...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VziklUbtHAE
America is screaming for Tolerance today. You tolerate my views and I will tolerate your views, Right. Many claim that Christians are not tolerate of people today. Well I just saw a video that put that shoe on the other foot. We are all guaranteed the freedom of speech, and this poor woman comes to a Prop 8 rally and presents her side which she is free to do. Now I would like to ask this question, after viewing the video what would have happened if these people's views were reversed. Christians all over the US would have been cast in a negative light, it would have led the national news and been on the lips of every anchorman and woman on TV that the mean old bigoted Christians had abused and threatened a person who was just voicing their opinion on some legislation. But because it swung the other way no one has heard of it. I found out by another blogger and was shocked and shamed by the actions of the people around her. I would have been shocked and shamed had the people around her been against same sex marraige and were all wearing Christian T shirts and I am shocked and ashamed by those who aligned with Prop 8 and how they acted. Tolerance goes both ways, but that is not what is being exhibited here, Intolerance is being exhibited. I wonder if it will get around that all same sex marriage proponents are bigoted intolerant people?

What's my motivation?...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pwSOfW-9jXw

I love this commercial... street ballers getting down with a Sprite when all of the sudden Mr. Playground breaks into his proper English and says, "I played Hamlet at Cambridge, What's my motivation?"
Just goes to show you what you think you are seeing may not really be what it is. Many people are motivated by different things. Some are motivated by $$$, other by fame. Some are motivated by fear and others by the feeling sucess brings with it.
I was thinking about motivation the other day and how some people have it and others don't seem to have it.
I think that we are all equipped with a certain amount of motivation, but that only a small percentage tap into it. Many lack self motivation, others must be threatened to get motivated. But through it all what I have found is that we are all motivated from within. You just have to find that thing that eclipses everything else in your life, devote yourself to it and you will find all the motivation that you need.
Be Blessed.

The Smokey Mountains...

Well in my travels I was in Atlanta and decided to go see a customer up in Virginia. Well there was no good way to get there unless I drove about three hours so drive I decided to do. Well I ended up driving through a section of the Smokey Mountains. Now I have driven in mountains before but this was really cool, during the middle of the day the leaves were turning and the views were great.


But then I had to come back later and the FOG rolled in. Now I am not talking your basic fog, I am talking thick enough to cut FOG. They fog is so bad there that they actually have lights, not reflectors but lights imbedded in the road so you know when you are driving off the road and over the cliff on the side. This is not an actual picture but is a good semblence of what I was seeing as I white knuckled down that stretch of road.


Yep it was a little harrowing as I was hurrying to catch a flight. I was glad to be back in the lowlands and out of the clouds.

Where in the World is Pastor Pat?

I feel like Waldo as in Where's Waldo sometimes. So I put a little compilation together for you...

Well I was in Western Kansas the other day... yep flat land and no hills, scrub brush and prarie... but they do have some neat things.

Like WIND farms...

And then I went to New Mexico for a trade show... so I flew into Alburqueque and rented a car, and since I have a GPS unit on my phone I figureed I was good to go, right? Wrong!! Well I started driving following the directions until I got here...

Then the GPS said "you have arrived at your destination"... I was like "Uhmmm there is nothing here but a fork in the road!!" So I looked around and this is what I saw...

Absolutely NOTHING!!! I mean there is supposed to be a thousand bed hotel here somewhere!! Now I know why the wagon trains going across got lost as there is nothing to tell you where you are.

So kept going down this ONE LANE ROAD!! Hoping that I would see something that looked like a hotel, for you see I am a guy and guys don't ask for directions, that is why they made GPS!!!

So I drove for like 10 minutes down this road...

waiting to drive right up on some Indians ready to scalp me!!! Surely this is the wrong road I started to think but there was no where to turn around when all of the sudden I came over this little rise and see this...

I am SAVED!!! Civilization...

So there you go, that is where I have been and I will update the rest of my travels later...

Feelin' Blue?

How many times have you ever just felt Blue? You know, just yuck... well sometimes the world around us makes us feel blue, sometimes those closest to us make us feel blue. But I want to tell you that you are only as blue as you allow yourself to feel. I was reading this week about a Billionaire, yes that is with a B, who when he first started out went broke not just once, but around three times. He bought this business did great and then everything went wrong and he lost it all. Then he went and started another business and because he did not have enough capital it too folded. Then he went and started buying other peoples bad loans, yep people just like him who had borrowed money they could not repay and had failed in their endeavor. He bought up their bad debts, helped them work through them and made a truck load of money in the process. So if you are feeling blue, well get up and get going, don't let the situations of one day affect all the rest of the days of your life.

CSI this, CSI that...

What is it with CSI? I mean how many TV shows that deal with Crime Scene Investigation do we really need. Now you know that I only get five channels on a clear day so when I travel a lot of times it is TV Vegetation time. That means I have a remote in my hand and I endlessly surf for hours at a time. Well not really hours but I find myself getting board with stuff to early to watch a whole show and the commercials are so long... well I digress. So the other night I am in the hotel watching the Tube and I kid you not, every show that was on was a CSI show. First it was in Vegas, or Miami or New York or some other cosmopolitan town, and then it was a Military version, and then there was this discovery channel deal about dudes in the old west who were killed and how they were investigating how they died. And then there was this Mayan temple thing where they were investigating the bones of people who had been sacrificed. And then there was this National Geographic where they were investigating the tombs of the Pharoes and then there was this cop show where they investigate a murder scene because they have to catch a killer in the first 48 hours or the donut shops close or something. I mean really, what happened to Magnum PI, Starksky and Hutch, Berretta, the Six Million Dollar Man, The A Team, and all the good old shows that were different? Are there not any good shows on anymore that don't involve solving a crime? Those guys were really good about getting the bad guys BEFORE they committed the crime... I guess that is kind of backwards today...

Blah, Blah, Blah

I am so tired of hearing the talking heads on the TV tell me how bad my life is. It is all gloom and doom right now. I am hearing it from both sides of the aisle now, the Dems saying the Repubs have put us in such a hole we are going to take a while to dig out. The Repubs saying the Dems will only dig us deeper with their new found power.You know what. We had a man in church Sunday who was just in Zimbabwe Africa. Their unemployment is 80%, there are no jobs anywhere. Now I know we have unemployed people in the US, but lets face it there are jobs around if we are willing to work them. Their inflation has gone up 800% in the last two years. Now we have seen inflation, but not at an 800% rate. It is so bad there that parents are having to supplement the government paid teachers to get them to school to teach their children. The less fortunate have been reported eating cow dung to survive. Now I am telling you that is bad, but it is common place in the world we live in that people get by on a lot less than the average American is used to.So quit bashing my country, we still have the best thing going in the whole wide world. The United States is still the land of opportunity it always has been.GOD Bless the USA!!

Paul the Apostle

I am intrigued by this man... The Apostle Paul... what a hero of the faith. Did you realize that Paul was not one of the 12 who followed CHRIST all around Judea? Did you realize that he was called after the death of JESUS? Did you realize that after his Damascus incident, and being prayed for by a follower of CHRIST and received his sight back, he went? Where?

To the Synagoge to preach? Nope. On TV to be a televangelist? Nope. To Rome to confront the Emporer? Nope.

Paul went to the desert of Arabia. whaaaa? Arabia? Desert? Uhmmm I do not understand. Me either.

I mean the guy has a face to face encounter with the risen lord JESUS, gets knocked off his horse, get commisioned by the Lord to preach to the Gentiles, is stone blind, get his sight restored and goes out into the desert for THREE STINKING YEARS?

Wanna know why? He wanted to get a personal revelation of who CHRIST is. Is that not too cool? He did not go to one of the apostles who followed JESUS all around. He did not go to Peter, or James the brother of JESUS to get their opinion of who JESUS was. Paul went out to the desert by himself to find out who exactly JESUS was.

Made me think of my own faith, do I know who JESUS is or do I go on someone else's knowledge? Have I found out for myself or have I been lazy and just gone with what I have heard from someone? I think we all need to spend a little time in the desert to really figure out who JESUS is, who knows, he might just use us after that to reach a nation and eventually the world...

I've been everywhere man...

Remember that Johnny Cash song, well I've been to

Tulsa, Dallas, Addison, Atlanta, Memphis, Atlanta, (again) New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Jackson, Dallas (again), Tulsa and back to Dallas (again), Alburquerque, Midland, Odessa, Dallas (again), Tulsa and then back to Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Tulsa again. All in two weeks. I am pooped.

I was flying a lot but still got to see a ton of country. This was the resort in New Mexico, it is so far off the beaten path the GPS said, "close enough" and I could not see it. It is nesseled in a little valley out in the middle of the scrub brush.

Down to Hotlanta next week and St. Louis end of this. Work never ends.