Friday, September 24, 2010

Super glue, duct tape and bailing wire...

I am a fix it person. Show me a problem and I will fix it for you, many times not having to buy a part to do it.
I have fixed a screen door with a little bailing wire instead of having to buy new door hardware.
I fixed a faulty muffler hanger on my old truck with some bailing wire.
I fixed my water bed one time with some super glue and duct tape.
I have used duct tape and a black plastic trash bag to fix a broken window (it is still there by the way).
I have duct taped hoses together, poles together and even used duct tape one time to fix some ducts... who'd thunk it?
I have used super glue to glue back together broken glasses, a piece of fine china my boys broke (sorry mom) and numerous fingers in the process (by accident of course, you have SEW fingers back on).
But many times when it comes to fixing someone's problem, it takes more than duct tape, super glue and bailing wire.
Many times I want to just take people and fix their problems for them.
Have a drinking problem? Well quit going to bars, the liquor store and don't hang out with people who drink, there you go, problem solved.
Have a drug problem? Well just stop. Just say No. Its easy.
Have a weight problem? Well quit overeating and exercise, its that simple.

But many times fixing our problems is more complicated than what I just mentioned. I have never struggled with an alcohol or drug problem but I have struggled with a weight problem. I know what my problem is (duh, I am fat) but I still mess us sometimes.
Like the other night I was returning from a trip so I stopped on my way home to get some fast food. I pulled into BK and took one look at the menu and felt a sensation going through my body like a crack addict must feel about to get a fix. I gazed on the menu board and decided I did not want to spend too much so I ordered off the dollar menu. I ordered two double cheeseburgers, since they were just a dollar each. But I really wanted a spicy chicken sandwich too, and since it was just a dollar as well I ordered one up. I did not order any fries because they are not too good for you... yeah I know small victories. But then, to wash it all down, well I think it would be stupid to order that much food and then get a diet Coke and feel good about yourself so I got a chocolate shake. It came to a little over $5 and I was pretty happy about that fact. At least until the food came out.
I dumped the contents of the bag into the passenger seat and placed the shake in the cup holder. I unwrapped one of the burgers and the first taste sent my whole body buzzing like an alcoholic getting another round. I quickly finished that one off and decided it was so good I had to have another.
Set em up barkeep, I think I am going to stay awhile.
As I devoured the first and then the second doublecheesessliceofheavenburger I washed it down with that somewhat runny chocolate shake. It wasn't the best shake I have ever had but it washed down the remains of the cheeseburger just fine. It was after I had eaten both cheeseburgers and drank most of that shake that I looked down at that spicy chicken sandwich. It was still appealing but I was pretty full at this point.I really did not need to eat it but I wanted a taste. So I reached over, unwrapped it and took a bite. Oh mama, this was even better than the slice of heaven cheeseburger. It was crispy with a hint of fire to it that made your nose start to water and your tastebuds sizzle. As I chewed that bite I looked over at the two empty wrappers and the quicky diminishing shake and thought to myself, "I really don't need this, I just want it". So I wrapped it back up, sans the one bite, and put it back into the bag with the other now empty wrappers and the almost empty chocolate shake. Quickly before my willpower was lost I put it in the floorboard in the backseat where I could not reach it.
As I drove home I pondered my actions. I did not need that much food, I really could not eat that much food, but I want ahead and bought that much food because, well it was cheap and I really wanted it. It was then and there that I decided I had a problem and it is one that duct tape, super glue and bailing wire will not fix.
I read about Lindsay Lohan today and I thought to myself, what a waste, she has no self control. Two weeks out of rehab and she is back doing drugs. I sure am glad I am not like her... but in some areas I think I am...
Something to think about...

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Just take the ___ out!

Take out the _____.
You fill it in. Most time I am told to take our the "trash" because no one in my family can see that it is overflow other than my wife who happens to notice those types of things. So then I yell at the boy closest to me and request that they take the trash out.
But that is not the thing that I see most people trying to take out in their lives. Most of the time they are trying to remove God or at least replace him with something else. I guess it is easier that way, it gives us a glimmer that we are in control , because no one controls God. God just won't seem to come around and appease us with our fantasies that we know what is best for our lives. It is like that overbearing mother who thinks she can choose the people that you associate with, what carreer field you will go into and that you always wear clean undies in case you are in an accident. How many times do we actually listen to those choices that others made for us?
Well if you are having a God complex like this I have good news for you. You can scientifically eliminate God from your lives! Yes it is true, God really does not have any interation in our lives that can not be explained away in science!!
See the attached link for a great example of replacing God with science.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddIg3tzTggA

Yes you see, science once again proves that God really does not exist. Moses actually just so happened to be at the right place at the exact point in time when a 60+ mile per hour wind just so happened to be blowing in the right direction at exactly the time when they were pushed up against the edge of the sea. And when the water fell and covered Pharoh's army just so happened to be the time when the last Hebrew finished crossing and Pharoh's army happened to be in the middle and wind just stopped, and everyone got wet.
Wow, and people say I am nuts for believing in a God I can't see.
I really have a better feeling about God supernaturally intervening on that day than believing some gale force winds just so happened to blow hard enough to part the Red Sea. What are they going to throw at us next? That some explosion cast particles throughout the universe millions of years ago and some of that matter took up a place not too far from the sun to create a big ice cube but not too close to create a big oven but just far enough to create a life sustaining planet? Then I guess someone will come along and tell us that life on earth somehow evolved from some single cells of protiens into all the animals that cover the face of the earth today? And that we as humans really are descendants of that same single cell that made the girrafe, rhino and the blue whale and we became who we are as we went from single cell, to tad pole to frog to fish to lizard to monkey to ape to man. Yeah, that sounds believable... about as much as Moses just happening to be at the right place at the right time to cross the Red Sea when a big wind blew...

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Twinkies...

We are finishing our "Snack" series at our church this weekend. I know, I know... a "snack" series? Yeah, we preached as a staff the first week on Zingers... and the second week on
"Ding Dongs" and this week on "Twinkies".
So the first week my wife preached that Zingers come out of our mouth more often than going in our mouth. A word spoken harshly comes out of nowhere, can hurt and can't be recalled once they left. She really nailed it when she flung (sorry honey, if I said "threw" that would not really tell the story) Zingers around the auditorium. People are still talking about it.
Pastor John preached on Ding Dongs, don't be double minded. Double minded people are unstable, kind of like a Ding Dong once you bite into it, it starts to break apart once the chocolate coating has been compromised. Double mindedness creates people who are wishy washy and tossed to and fro by every fad and new thing to come along becuase they have no foundation.
So this week we finish on Twinkies... you will have to come Sunday to hear it. But I will tell you this... Twinkies... cream filling, Yum!! And only 150 calories.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Satire vs Mockery

Was at a conference (Inluence) where a young man presented this thought to us.
Do you know what the difference between the two, satire and mockery are?
Well mockery aims to wound, where satire is a humorous way to look at something.
How many times do you aim at satire and end up in mockery? I know for me many times something starts off innocent enough in a humorous way and ends up going way to far until someone gets hurt.
I believe as the speaker said that many times that fear alone keeps us from using humor as an effective communication tool. But if our motives are good, and we don't push things too far, humor can have a great effectiveness in presenting a point.
Think of this...
I find myself many times breaking into my "business" voice when I pray. I lower the timbre a few steps, and my wife says I start speaking in King James. I thought it was absolutely false until we were sitting at Olive Garden and I started to pray. I felt my vocal cords loosen, and a "dear GOD" came croaking out of my mouth that would have made James Earl Jones proud.
I continued, "LORD, bless our fellowship (we were just having dinner, but fellowship sounds so much more scriptual and old testament sounding), bless the meal we are about to receive (wow I say to myself, as I don't know if I have ever "caught" a meal before) and bless it to our bodies and our bodies into your service. Ahmen."
I sat there after I prayed that prayer and thought to myself, it is all true! I do use my business voice and I speak King Jamesesnees when I pray. I just hope when the prayer gets to GOD he can figure out who it is on the other line...

Friday, September 10, 2010

How much for that human in the window?

I got to thinking about this the other day and I can't seem to shake it. How much is one human really worth?
See what happened is this kid was walking through my front yard, not on the sidewalk mind you but through the middle of my yard. My wife looked up from the couch and said, "there is a kid walking through our front yard". Well I was on my way out anyway so I kept walking to the door and headed to the car never seeing the kid until I remembered that our trash can was being blown down the street. So I decided to retrieve it and it was then that I saw the kid. He was bent down behind my pickup truck and when he popped up he looked very suspicious. Well I just nodded at him and headed that way to get the trash can that was behind him. He quickly started walking away putting distance between himself and I. I retrieve the trash can and dragged it back to the house but I can't help but notice that the kid keeps looking back at me over his shoulder. After depositing the trash can back at the house I get into my car and just happen to hvae to drive up the same street the kid was walking on. When I turned that way I saw him break into a trot and soon disappear around the corner of a building. Now I am starting to get suspicious when I saw him start running as it was as I just pointed my car his direction when he started to jog. As I started up the street I saw it; rolling down the street in my direction was a blue and yellow nerf football. This was the same football that had somehow found its way into my trash can that morning. One of the boys must have gotten tired of it or Mom had enough of it not being put away but I did remember it that morning sitting on top of the trash. Well our thoughtful trash guys knew not to throw it away and so they had tossed it into the yard where it came to rest, you guessed it, on the back side of my truck. So as I pulled over to retrieve said football my mind started racing on what I should do to this little punk that stole my football. That is what I really thought and said was, "you little punk kid". Well I went on down the street and the kid apparently thought I was gone as he poked his head back around the corner and after seeing me then took off across another person's yard. At this point I turned the car toward my destination and drove off in a fever as I thought about how brazen this punk kid was.
After a few minutes of stewing I realized that I had pretty much condemned this kid over a $1.99 Nerf football. I know stealing is not right and I am pretty sure that with the way the kid acted he knew it was not right as well, but over a football that could have very easily been thrown in the trash that very morning, I was willing to condemn him?
It was then that I thought about how someone gave his life for all of mankind, wether we were a murderer or a thief, an adulterer or a punk kid. He paid the ultimate cost, way more than $1.99 for the cost of our transgressions. As that sobering thought coursed through my mind I started to see a young boy without a football more than a punk kid. Who knows his story, I know I don't. Maybe he had never seen one before, maybe he had never gotten to play with one before. Maybe he has never ever owned a football, maybe he saw it in the trash earlier and realized we had discarded it. I don't know but what I do know is that young boy is worth much more than a $1.99.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Welcome to Heaven, can I take your order?

Our small group got to discussing this last night and a thought came to me. Do we live to serve our GOD, or does our GOD live to serve us?
Think about it.
Many times I have heard it preached that GOD is there waiting to fulfill our every need, if we will just ask he will provide. He is as close as the very mention of his name. If we ask him and believe with mustard seed faith, he will come through.
I know that these statements have originated from my own mouth at one point in time or another, and last night I was challenged to rethink my relationship with GOD.
We need to get this through our thick skulls, GOD is not a butler, standing ready to serve us as a moment's notice. He is not standing just behind us in a black suit and bow tie picking up our little messes as we travel through our lives. And yet most of the time we treat him like a butler.

Our prayers go like this, "Oh GOD, I need your help today. I have messed up really bad. I know your word tells me that I should control my attitudes and actions but sometimes you just blow it, ya know? So I really need your help GOD. This has escalated beyond my control and I need you to provide a way of escape for me. I know this is all my fault but remember you chose to love me first, just as I am. Oh and I know you have been working on me about my temper, but I am a work in process reemmber. I have done so good for the last five days, no problems and then all of the sudden this comes up and I lose it. But GOD I know that you are for me and not against me, that you will be my strong tower and place of refuge. Your word says that you have plans for me, plans to prosper me and bless me. So GOD, you have to do what your word says and take care of this. I really do appreciate it so much. Thanks, check ya later. Out.

So do we exist to serve GOD, or does GOD exist to serve us? That is the question I am posing to you today. Paul said that we were lay our lives down and live as Christ, meaning we are not worried about our personal preferences, our comfort, or our very lives. Nothing being more important that fulfilling GOD'S purpose. So as you think about this figure out which catagory you are in. When you are praying, is it like you are at McDonald's ordering from GOD or are you at the HQ receiving orders for duty.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Mistakes...

We all make them, mistakes that is. Some are small ones, like putting on a black sock and a dark blue sock when you are getting dressed in the dark so you don't wake up your wife (guilty).

Others are significantly larger like running a red light and getting in an accident (guilty and in my defense the light was in a funky location).

But the worse of mistakes is the ones that are life changing. Yeah I heard a lot of grief that day at the office about my one blue sock and my one black sock. And the humiliation and hassle of dealing with a fender bender is no fun whatsoever. But the mistakes that change lives forever are the ones that really bother me.

And I am not talking about those accidents that all of the sudden happen, I am talking about the self inflicted mistakes. You know the ones where you shoot yourself in the foot type of mistakes.

I have found that many of these types of mistakes boil down to one thing, greed.

Now we normally don't associate greed with mistakes, normally it is about materialism or money but greed can be a driving force in our lives and when it is out of control it can lead to many mistakes. The "want" for things, wether it is that item on the shelf, that boyfriend's love or a position of influence, the things that we really want can drive us to not think things through and make monumental mistakes in our lives.

One of the Ten Commandments that does not get talked about enough is the "thou shalt not covet". What GOD is saying is that we should not look at something and want it so badly that we will do anything to get it. The society we live in today is all about instant gratification, we have a certain time limit set in our minds on how fast thing should be. We think we should be able to get whatever we want whenever we want. I remember asking my Mom for a toy when I was a child and she told me that we did not have the money for it. I asked her, "don't you have any checks?" If I knew I would not get the spanking of my life I would have thought of stealing that toy just because I wanted it. That is a mistake I am glad I did not make, but many have.

I remember a girl I knew in high school who made the mistake of going too far with her boyfriend because he threatened to leave her. She wound up pregnant, the boyfriend broke up with her and she got an abortion all in the span of a few months. I know that she must live with that mistake the rest of her life.

I have lived my entire adult life in the business world and have seen people use one another to make their way to the top. One gentlemen I know told a lie about a fellow employee that secured a big promotion for himself. It was all good till the lie came to the forefront and the truth was exposed. The man who got the promotion was demoted and the one who whas lied about quit the company because they believed a lie. In the end the company was worse off than it started all because of one mistake made by someone trying to get ahead.

So next time you are tempted by greed to make a decision, remember it might be the biggest mistake you ever make...

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Batten Down the Hatches...

There is a hurricane a coming to Oklahoma? It surely must be a sign of the end of the world as we rarely (like never) have hurricanes in Oklahoma.
Now we get our fare share of rough weather in Oklahoma.
Thunderstorms - Not the sit on your stoop and watch the lightening show kind of storms. Our thunderstorms are the kind that rattle your windows, blow water sideways and knock trees down in your yard. And they usually last a few hours followed closely by you guessed it, another storm.
Hail Storms - Now we do get the usuall pea sized hail on occasion. But we also get the softball size, knock a hole in your windshield hail. I remember one hail storm where the yard looked like someone took a sledgehammer and went around hitting the ground.
Ice Storms - I am not talking sleet here, I am talking everything getting an inch of ice covering it. It covers everything, from power lines to trees.
Straight Line Winds - Now this is a weird thing that happens here, we get like 80 MPH winds that just come out of nowhere. They are really strong and blow shingles off, knock trees down, and will clean your yard of an laying around items.
Tornados - I saved this for last. We have our fare share of twisters here, this area is called Tornado Alley for a reason. They come out of nowhere, tear things up and then leave the way they came.
So now we have Hurricanes coming to Oklahoma... big deal, NOT!

Friday, September 3, 2010

What was that???

How many times are we scared by things that go bump in the night? I know I have been. I remember waking up one time and there was a hooded man standing at the foot of my bed holding an axe. I laid there as still as I possibly could as every muscle in my body stood ready to jump up and throw my little brother at the serial killer. I must have laid there at least five minutes in sheer terror as the axe murderer just stood there staring at me. At about the five minute mark I realized that I had forgotten to breathe which was just as well as I realized my soon to be assailant had not taken a breath either. Finally the fog of fear in my brain lifted just long enough for me to make out that his axe head was not all shiny and sharp looking but had little tufts of something on it. Focussing as hard as I could I then realized that it appeared he was wearing two shirts as one was a slightly different color than the other. So I moved, slightly, like I was turning over in bed to see if he would react and nothing happened. It was then that I got a slightly different angle to look at my soon to be killer. He was not near as frightening from this angle. He actually was really skinny, bean pole thin. And his face although shrouded from the hoody was not really looking at me but looking at a blank wall. It was then that I realized that someone had moved the coat rack from the living room and put it at the end of my bed.

I had been working late nights and rolled into the house somewhere around midnight. Apparently Mom or Dad was cleaning the living room and relocated temporarily the coat rack to my bedroom, at the end of my bed to be exact. I was so tired that when I came home I walked right past it on my way to bed. It was only later that night when I woke up that I saw it for the first time. You see, there was a hat, actually two that was at the very top of the rack. We would just stack them up on it and someone had thrown their hoody over the top of the pair of hats making it look like a hatted and hoddied killer. Then the coats were on the lower sections and made up the body where a pair of them were sitting side by side with one side of the hoodie covering them. Violla! There you go, ready made axe murderer.

Oh the axe. Yes the axe was actually a glove someone had placed on one of the arms to let it dry. So I laid there in utter terror for over five minutes scared of a pair of hats, a hoodie, two coats and a winter glove.

So many times in life we are afraid of things we should not really be worried about. So next time you are sitting scared to death, think it through. You might be surprised that

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Football is almost upon us...

Tonight and this weekend is the last of the preseason games for the NFL. Yeah I know for most of us it is a big as the big named stars will not be playing saving their energies for when it really counts; next week.
But I want you to consider something, each NFL team right now has 75 players on it. By Saturday night they have to be down to 53. That is 22 players per team that will find themselves unemployed come Sunday morning. So for roughly 600 plus players this last preseason game is a make it or break it weekend; literally playing for their NFL lives. Those guys who have a starting position all lined up aren't worried about their performance tonight, most won't even be in uniform. They will be on the sidelines wearing their team issued sweat suits and their 2 Carat diamond earings laughing and cutting up the entire game. But for those guys on the proverbial bubble it is life and death of their NFL carreers. One mistake is all it will take for them to find themselves out of a job and most likely out of football. One missed block, one missed assignment, one missed pass route, one missed throw and their dreams are over of being a NFL player. Talk about pressure. You make the team and even as the 53rd man you get the leauge minimum which is way more than you can make down at the 7-11. You make the team and for this year at least you know what your future holds and you get a chance to improve and make an impression on the coach. You make the team and you are a part of something that a bunch of other guys would give anything for. But if you are one of the unlucky ones, your future is left clouded, what are you going to do? Do you try again next year? Do you hang up the dreams? Do you try to catch on with some inferior leauge and hope someone notices you?
So as you Yawn your way through this last preseason game this weekend. Remember these are real people with real hopes and dreams. Root them on with all your might for next week 22 of them will be just like you, out of the NFL.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Happy Birthday!!

Today is the 17th birthday of my #2 daughter. So much has transpired in 17 years.

She had heart surgury to correct a heart defect at 8 days old. I remember getting the call while at work that I needed to come to the hospital as there was something wrong. I drove over as fast as I could and arrived to see an abulance sitting at the hospital. As I was going to the baby ward I passed a couple of EMTs who were taking my baby girl the other way unknown to me. Looked like they were taking some equipment, but under all that techo stuff was my newborn daughter. Then I get to the room and the doctor is waiting with my wife to tell me my daughter has a problem and is being transfered to Tulsa. I head directly there as my wife would not be discharged till the next day and find my little girl in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She was there with all the preemies and babies with health issues and I could not believe that this was happening to me.

They eventually transfered her to Oklahoma City where a team of doctors did open heart surgury to repair her defects. She was not given a very good prognosis, the man who did her heart ultrasound said that not only did she have an artery and a vein in the wrong locations she was also suffering from numerous holes in the chambers of her heart. At 8 days old they did surgury, at one point she flat lined as they took her off the heart lung machine and they had to restart her heart. She spend the next 12 days with tubes going in and out of her, a few of those days on a ventilator in a small glass room with lots of beeping and nurses and doctors checking in on her.

On day 20 they said we could take her home. We loaded her up and brought her back to our home which seemed like we had not seen in ages. She acted like a normal baby other than all the medicines we had to give her and the check ups she had to endure. She grew up like all the other kids, and I have to admit I would forget she had open heart surgury till I saw the scar running the length of her breastbone.

She had another procedure when she was younger to check on her arteries and later received a pacemaker to make her heart stay in rythem. She just a couple of weeks ago received her new and improved pacemaker as her original was starting to wear out.
It amazes me that she pretty much has not allowed this liability from keeping her out of the game of life. From gymnastics, to basketball and softball to cheerleading, to acting and modeling she has continued to live life to the fullest. She inspires me every time I think of what she has accomplished in the short time she has been in my life.
She is smart, funny, and articulate. Beautiful and gracefull and is always a ray of sunshine on cloudy days. I can't wait to see what achievements she has in front of her as she lives her life to the fullest.
It seems like only yesterday we celebrated her first birthday and her mom and I both felt so blessed to have her in our lives. We have celebrated many birthdays since then and she is still as much of a blessing now as she was then.
Happy Birthday Cam, we love you and are so proud of you!
Dad