Uhm, Houston we have a problem...

I loved that line! (If you don't know it don't sweat it you will be OK) So last night I felt like that was what was happening at home. For those of you that know me, with pastoring a church, working full time, trying to be a loving husband (I did say trying!) and a father of four kids my schedule is plenty full. With work travel, church work, visitations, dinner with my wife and ALL OF THE KIDS activities I am running most times. So last night I get home and we have absolutely nothing to do. I mean cook dinner, eat and nothing, nada, zilch, zippo, at all to do. We did not even have a new movie that we wanted to watch so there I sat dumbfounded on what to do.

So I examined my surroundings and remembered I had a book that I was reading, so after a search I found it (how it got on top of the fridge I have no idea, gremlins I am thinking) and finished it off in about a half hour. So I look around, it is 7:30 and I have a pair of kids playing the WI, WEE, Wiee, or however you spell it, another is strumming a guitar till he gets told he did not do his chores so he got bathroom duty so off he disappears to the bathroom. Another is sitting at the table making buttons. I mean like "VOTE FOR ME!" political buttons but they were for the basketball games coming next week. My wife is sitting next to me reading her Kindle. Not sure I like the Kindle, I never know what she is reading!! And here I set with nothing to do. So I remember that I have some sheetrock to finish in the ongoing project that is the master bath, so I go and hang that, and realized that I killed ten minutes. It is too early to go to bed, I am not 70 yet, the weather outside is looking kind of bad but I really have no where to go. So what am I going to do tonight? I was having that kind of evening.

Me: "Houston, Uhhhmmm we have a problem here, over."

Mission Control (MC): "go ahead, we read you, over."

Me: "Yeah, control; well I am sitting here with nothing to do, over."

MC: "what do you mean, nothing to do, explain, over."

Me: "I mean I am sitting here twiddling my thumbs, passing the time, doing absolutely nothing, over"

MC: "Gotcha, we understand, lets see, have you made dinner? Over."

Me: "affirmative, dinner is digesting, over."

MC: "How about that piece of sheetrock, over."

Me: "confirming installation of piece Houston, over."

MC: "have you thought of reading a book, over."

Me: "yep, finished it up Houston, over. Come on guys there has to be something that needs to be done, over."

MC: "We'll get back to you, over. I have my best guys on it, over."

In my minds eye I can see Mission Control saying, "we have a man out there that needs something to do, figure it out!!"

Well after about three hours of doing nothing, I finally got sat down and did some writing on my book. Pretty soon the bed started calling and I called it a night. I am really hoping something comes up tonight, I don't know what I am going to do with myself...

So I am a writer now...sort of

I have a friend that has a local website that updates local news and such for our small community. So one day I was with my basketball playing daughter and was keeping score for her when I had a thought of relaying the information on the game to my friend so he could give a report just after the event happened. So I wrote up a few paragraphs briefly outlining the game, high scorer and such and e-mailed it to him. A couple of minutes later my "crack"berry beeped that I had mail. So there is my friend asking where I got that information from. I sent back to him "from the game?". He then sends me another message that says, "yes but from which publication?". So I replied "from my Blackberry". Needless to say we were both not very bright when it came to reading between the lines or my friend did not think I have the skills to actually formulate an article in 300 words or less. After I did that one he asked if I could do the boys game later in the evening and I agreed and it was then and there I became a member of the media.

It all happened so fast, I did not have time to pick up a press pass and even less time to get a fedora to stick it in its braided hat band, I actually had to pay to get into the game. I did not have a tweed blazer or a pen and a notepad so I am not even sure I could call myself a reporter, but I just did what I could with my "crack"berry and the plain old clothes I had on, sans hat even.

I thought this was pretty cool, sending in reports of the game and then seeing them on the website with my name as a contributor to the article. But with each article came the pressure of trying to make it better than the last. I ran out of snazzy catch phrases. I ran out of adjectives to describe a play. And to my horror I had to start repeating the same old words I had used before. So I started working harder to enhance my writing to be able to entertain and inform my many readers (4 I think currently) and hopefully attract the eye of some writers agent who will whisk me away to write for some large conglomerate of magazines who will put my words in front of millions of people.

Then as I was finishing up my report to send in on a game this week, my daughter made a comment that ruined all my dreams and aspirations. She said, "the girls and I were reading your article and laughing at your descriptions..." She said more than that but I pretty much tuned her out once I heard the "laughing" part. They were laughing with me, or at me? I was not sure, I suddenly became self conscious of my writing. Was "slicker than an eel slathered in motor oil" a good description of a neat play or was it an object of laughter to my readers. So I thought of rewriting my article, to get serious and focused... then I thought to myself, who am I fooling. I am a hack who happens to have a "crack"berry and strong thumbs, who has a friend that is willing to post my articles and if my daughter laughs at my writing, well then she is not laughing necessarily at me like she normally does.

So next time you read about a shot that "brought rain from the heavens", a foul that "shook the very foundation of the underworld", a win that brought "glorious eruptions of ecstatic joy:" just enjoy the images that it creates in your head, and try not to laugh...to hard.

Leprosy?

I read another blog and the writer mentioned leprosy and it got me to thinking. What are the main infirmities mentioned in the Bible? Of course the first we think of are the blind, deaf, and the lame. When we did a little deeper we remember those that were mute and the woman with the issue of blood but we rarely think about the leprous. I think in our culture that disease does not resonate with us like the others do. We probably all could think of sometime in our life when we interacted with the blind, deaf, mute, lame and even people with issues of blood, think Leukemia. I can go back through my life and I have been with all of these people, other than the leper. I have never met a leper, never interacted with a leper and therefore don't know a lot about leprosy. Leprosy is a disease where micro bacteria create lesions on skin and the body responds by creating macules of hard unfeeling like growths to confine the ailment. Untreated the microbes continue to spread and at the same time the body creates more macules to contain them. By popular belief, limbs and fingers do not fall off of lepers, but they can not feel because of the macules and in time break fingers, toes and bones because they do not feel the pain. In extreme cases the extremity is amputated to prevent further injury.

So why the dissertation on Leprosy? It is mentioned a lot in the Word of GOD, and we give it a passing glance. But reading between the lines it is something that infects millions of people every year. The Bible talks of people "hardening" their hearts. Yep, creating macules around their sin, hard encrusted and unfeeling areas. The problem with this is there is never a healing that takes place. The macules just cover the problem, and eventually we grow this thick hide over it that even the greatest conviction can not penetrate it and so we never deal with it.

So let me ask you a question today, have you hardened your heart? Do you have leprosy of the heart? Are you still convicted over sin in your life or have you gone to that unfeeling, numb state where you are unmoved over sin? Jesus can heal you of the leprosy of heart, you just have to ask him to...

Are you Childlike?

JESUS says in the gospels, "unless you become like a little child..." I have always been intrigued with that statement. It goes so against the normal for us. We are always trying to get each other to grow up! We want our kids to take more responsibility, to be older, to do things like adults. If you have a childlike adult you will spend more time criticizing them than praising them for following scripture, think about that!

As I pondered that quote about being like a child I started thinking about my own kids and the kids I see that are so wondered about the little things in life. I have a picture of one of my daughters who was leaning over some rocks on the edge of a lake looking intently into the water. There were minnows swimming right around the rock she was perched on and she was fascinated by them. I beet she stared at them for a full five minutes before I told her to come on we were moving on somewhere else. I remember my oldest son one time just laying on his back in the middle of the yard staring at the sky. "What are you doing?" I asked him. "Nothing" was the reply that I got. Doing nothing seems like a waste of time to me, doesn't he have something better to do than to stare at the clouds? I saw a baby yesterday sitting in a baby swing with a mobile above its head. That baby just laid there and watched the animals come and hover over here head and then move on as another took its place hovering over her. She studied each one intently, her eyes moving from color to color and place to place before the next one came into view.

I think that is what JESUS was talking about when he said to become as a little child. That we notice the little things and are filled with awe and wonder at the creation that was made for us. Like the minnows in the lake, the cloud forms in the sky or the stripes on a tiger, take a few minutes today to really do... nothing and be as a little child for a moment.

Hello? Anybody out there?

Sometimes it can feel like no one is listening. I know, I have four kids. And my wife surely knows as she has lived with me over half her life and I know she thinks I am deaf sometimes. I think we all go through it every so often. We feel like we could jump up on our desk in our cubicle and scream at the top of our lungs and no one would even bother to look up. Sometimes those around us are so caught up in what they are doing that they don't comprehend what is going on around them. Sometimes they just really don't care what is going on around them and sometimes they are on the verge of rigomortis unable to respond to anything.

Many times we feel the same thing about GOD, when that is not the case at all. GOD is not bound by the physical nature that we are. GOD is never so caught up in what he is doing that he doesn't notice you. GOD really does care what is happening in your life. GOD is not on the verge of death and unable to respond to you. What I have come to find is that although we are screaming for HIS attention, we may just not be tuned into his response.

I remember one time after preaching a pretty bad sermon, shaking hands with the people who were leaving and feeling like a failure to myself, my family and GOD. I had disconnected, checked out and was having a pity party where I was the only one invited. About that time I remember thinking, "GOD, why did you leave me? Why do you not care how I am feeling?" when all of the sudden I felt this little hand grab mine. I looked down and my daughter was staring up at me holding my hand. She did not say a word, she did not have to, GOD spoke to my heart at that very moment, "just as she is right beside you holding your hand, I have been there all the time."

Sometimes we just need to tune in on the right frequency to hear what HE is saying.

Leading Scorer and Homecoming Queen?

Wow what a week just went by. I am just so proud of my kids. My oldest Sierra is a tom boy and loves to play sports. My number two Camry is a girls girl, is a cheerleader and a double threat model and actress. My number three Logan is an up and coming young man with so much talent in his gangly still growing body (he is 5'5 and wears a size 11 shoe) there is no telling what he will grow up to be, with those dimples, blue eyes and blond hair I may have lots of girls coming by the house in a few years. And my youngest Spencer, well he is so full of imagination, and is such a thinker he will probably become a doctor, lawyer or a professional bulldogger.

So last week our oldest daughter was selected to be part of the homecoming court (Sr. Candidate) for our basketball festivities. Sierra has never been a part of any court other than a basketball court before so she was a little nervous wearing a dress and all. I did not think dress was part of her vocabulary unless it was used in a "you need to get' sentence. So Mom sent Dad to get a formal dress with his sweats wearing pony tail sporting athletic daughter. Luckily she sent the Cheerleader with us who has watched enough episodes of "say yes to the dress" to keep me from looking like a total loser. So we shopped one Saturday morning for a formal to wear to homecoming. Questions like, "what kind of dress, tea length or full length?" were batted around like softballs at a co-ed tournament. "Chifon or off the shoulder, or strapless?" adjectives were passed around like a pigskin at a picnic. Finally she came out of the dressing room in a blue full length dress that her sister and I both agreed was the one. As she wrapped it up I thought she would look good in it as they coronate one of the other girls with tiara. Well the moment of truth came, she looked fabulous in her dress, with her hair fixed and makeup on, most people did not think she was the same gal. She did not wear heels as she did not want to be the same height as her tall escort but yet she towered over the other attendants. Eventually the call came from the loudspeaker, "your 2010 Homecoming Queen is" drum roll please. My daughter.

She received a peck on the cheek from her escort as she had told him, "you kiss me I will punch your face in", which eliminated any opportunities for him to get a free one. As she smiled to the cheering crowd he placed her crown upon her head and they headed to their seats of honor to preside over the first of the homecoming games. At halftime with her royal duties coming to an end she raced to the locker room and emerged, makeup removed, hair in a pony tail with shorts and jersey ready to play on the hardwoods. Daddy's girl was back.

Life is a lot like basketball...

Now stay with me. Life is like basketball.

1) sometimes you win, sometimes you loose. Sometimes everything goes right and you win, sometimes everything goes right and you loose anyway. Sometimes everything goes wrong and somehow you win, and sometimes everything goes really wrong and you really loose.

2) there is a time limit, in basketball it is till number of points made or a clock is winding down. In life there is a clock but only GOD can see how much time is left and when the buzzer sounds there is not a thing we can do to extend time.

3) You get fouled and you foul other people.

It happens, all the time. If it hasn't happened to you yet, just wait it will. The real challenge is to not let that foul affect the rest of your game/life in a negative manner. Keeping your composure in basketball is important just as it is in life.

4) Timeouts are a good thing.

Coaches call timeouts to regroup, to rest, to strategize and sometimes to just change the pace of the game. In life we sometimes need to call a timeout to prioritize those things important to us, to create a change of pace and sometimes just rest in the hands of the one who created us.

5) Free throws are not always free.

I still don't know why they call them "free" throws. First of all something had to happen to get you there, a whack on the wrist, getting run over, a slap on the head, something happened to get you to the line, no one came up and said here, take a free shot. And even the best of free throw shooters do not make 100% so there is a chance that you are going to miss, so it is not guaranteed. Life sometimes says you have a "free" throw. That it will be easy, that you are guaranteed, but in reality those freebies do cost sometimes in the end. And taking the easy way out usually does not result in the best of circumstances. And even guarantees are not at all guaranteed anymore.

So next time life gets you down, think of a little basketball and decide if it is time to call a time out, or get to the free throw line, or buckle down on defense. But always do your best and try to win.

Leadership...

One of the hardest things about leadership is you have to go where you want your followers to follow. A leader does not just map out a course and send you on your way, that is a navigator. A leader is one that maps out a course and goes ahead of you on the journey. Sometimes it is great as the leader, you get to see lots of great stuff before anyone else does. But sometimes it stinks because you have to go through the bad stuff before anyone else does. But in the end, you can look at your followers and tell them, "yep been there done that, and made it through..."

GOD knows...

He truly does. Had a great service last night with one of our Youth Pastors preaching from his heart. Sometimes it is hard to put together a message to convey what you feel GOD is trying to tell his people. But when GOD is trying to tell them what he just got through telling you it is so liberating and free. Our Youth Pastors have gone through a time lately, kids, illness, car problems, house problems, you name it they have had it happen to them. But last night he encouraged us to keep our eyes on the Lord, to trust him in everything and don't let the things in this world drag us down. I saw many wiping tears as they had been going through the same things. It is such a rush of pride, excitement and thanksgiving when GOD uses someone you have invested in to do such a wonderful thing for GOD.

GOD knows what we are going through, and he prepares us for the times when we can minister to others. It was such a blessing to see it happen right in front of our eyes. Thank you GOD for allowing those situations to happen all the time in our lives.

Comfortable?

I love to be comfortable. I love overstuffed chairs, couches you don't set on but become a part of, and firm pillows. I love warm slippers, hot coffee and a good book for a comfortable afternoon. I like a nice car with air conditioning on those hot August days and central heat for the cold winter nights. I like good food, nice views and fun times. I really like to be comfortable but recently I have wondered about being uncomfortable.

I think sometimes we get too comfortable that we get complacent. Being comfortable is not the problem; complacency is. Complacency takes comfortable to the wrong extremes, it makes us inactive to things around us because we do not want to give up our comfortable surroundings for even a minute. It robs us of the excitement of trying something new, it robs us of the fulfillment that comes with accomplishing something.

I remember a guy I worked with for a while when I was younger. He was a complacent guy to the point that he never did anything outside of his home. His car was the one thing that really bothered me, this guy had a drinking problem. No not an alcoholic drinking problem but he could not go one minute without a soda can in his hand. He worked nights so he could actually work with a can of pop right next to his station as he moved along. Well it became a real issue in his car as he would finish one can and then throw them over his shoulder into the backseat. I think it became a game to him, pull one down, slug it down and throw it over the shoulder into the backseat except for the fact that the day I looked at his car the entire rear seating area was full of pop cans. I was dumbfounded and did not know what to say. I asked about it and he told me he was going to turn them in for scrap, which made sense except they never got turned in. And eventually the passenger side started to fill up with cans and he decided he needed a new car as his old one was starting to smell and the cans were a problem. I remember looking at him and thinking, he needs help. But he went out and bought a new car, parked the old one and proceeded to fill up the new car with cans. I asked him one day why he did it and he told me he just did not want to have to clean that car out, it was too much work. I explained if he would take his cans out each day they would not pile up and be so much work, but he looked at the cans already in the back and said, there are too many now it will be too much work to get rid of them.

There in lies the root of many of our problems, we are complacent with the way life is around us, and don't want to make the changes that need to be made in our lives. We need to get out of the complacent mind set and see what there is for us outside of our normal comfortable. Once we beat the complacent bug we will find new comfortable things that will rock our world, but it is going to take getting out of our current comfortable to get to the new comfortable.

Building...

I love to build guitars, the one in my profile is a replica of a 1957 Fender Telecaster that I copied. I have learned a lot about life from building guitars, I am at number 5 right now.

1) Poor materials builds a poor guitar.

As you know I am fruggle so when I can save a dollar here or there I do it. But what I found with my guitars is there is a price to pay for being cheap. Not just any slab of wood will do. Not just any electrical components will do. You need to buy good parts to make a good guitar. The same goes with our lives, if you live a cheap life and don't invest in yourself, you will be like that cheap guitar, you can make noise but it isn't really pretty, it is always out of tune and becomes a pain to play. don't be like that in your life, invest in yourself so you can make beautiful music with your life, stay in tune with things in life and enjoy the results.

2) You can try to cut corners but they come back to cut you.

I had this one body I just could not get to work. I had it all made up and then went to put the neck on it and the neck end was cut different than the body groove. Now that connection is a major part of having a good guitar, and this was not a good situation. So the way to fix it was to either make a whole new body, or glue in a new piece and route a new neck pocket, or buy a new neck. All of those options were either very time consuming or expensive. So I took the shortcut, I decided I could BONDO in the gaps on the neck and everything would be fine. Well if did not work, the neck wobbles something fierce, if you hit it right it falls out of tune and it is setting in my back room and hasn't been played for the last six months. It is useless in its present state. Many people do the same thing in trying to cut corners with their lives. They think one little change here or there will not affect them but it does. One little indiscretion won't affect them but it does and it has drastic effects on their lives. So next time you are tempted to cut a corner, step back, suck it up and do it right, you will appreciate it later.

3) Patience

I hate finishing guitars. You know, putting the paint on it. You see I always assemble my guitars before I finish them. It makes sure everything is working before you spend a lot of time finishing them and it also helps to eliminate some tense times of putting screws into a finished product for the first time. So I get the guitar together sans paint or finish, and I string it up and play it a bit to make sure it works well. After that it is time to take it apart and finish it up. Now here is where the trick comes in. You just had a chance to play that new guitar as a test, and you really are excited to get it done so you can play it all the time. But finishing takes time, and patience. You put the paint on too thick and it runs and you have to sand it off to get it back to smooth. You put it on too light and you don't get even coverage, you apply it too often and you can get bubbles that burst when it cures out leaving you a nice divot on the face. In the finishing process you have to apply patience, you can't touch it till it is dried and cured or you will ruin it. Out lives are that way too, we need to have patience. GOD is working on all of us and sometimes he gives us the foretaste of something to come and we are so excited and anxious that we push and pull and get ahead of GOD and then we mess it up.

So next time life throws you a curve, step back and make sure you have good materials to work with, don't cut corners to get there faster and have some patience, it will all work out.

Blogging

I love to write. Well I actually love to think about writing although it always seems there is always something better to do. It seems to go that way in my life at least. I have great intentions but something else always seems to attract my attention and therefore wrecks my good intentions. We are sometimes that way with our dreams and goals. We have great intentions but get sidetracked by things that get in the way. Here are a few ways to get to where you want to go and not get derailed.

1) put it in writing... yeah I know the writing thing again. But just don't write it down, put it somewhere it will motivate you to do your good intentions. My Dad for a time in his late forties developed a "beer gut". He gained a lot of weight around his middle from drinking beer. Duh! So anyway I was in his room one day and there was a picture of him with his gut hanging out and a beer in his hand at one of his company picnics. On the picture was a post it note that said, "never again" in his hand writing. What shocked me was I remembered my Dad having that gut but over the years prior he had lost it and gotten back to his somewhat skinny self. I always wondered why he never threw that bad picture away, now I know, it was motivation for him not to go back there.

2) Set realistic goals... I am the worlds worst at setting goals. I set them too far out and I set them too high. Be honest with yourself, you are not going to get back into those jeans you wore in high school. Number one bell bottoms are out, number two your hips don't want to be hugged anymore and number three you probably won't ever get back to that size again. But it is OK to set a goal to get down two pant sizes or dress sizes in a years time. It is achievable and will build your confidence to do even more next year.

3) Work at it... anything worth doing is going to take work. If it was easy everyone would be doing it!! Some people think things will just happen as by osmosis, but in reality anything that happens happens because something put it into motion. So put your good intentions into motion and get out and do it!

4) Have fun... if it is enjoyable, you will go for it. We all work too much already to not enjoy the non work stuff. So have some fun, it won't kill you!