CH...CH...CH...Changes

Hi Everyone!

It is so good to be back. The last few weeks have been extremely hectic. I just returned yesterday from my final stint of travel for a few months, with a quick 4 day trip to Detroit for a meeting.

I am hoping that things will begin to slow down over the next few weeks and life might get back to normal. However, I know me and you know me....so we will see!

This week I am going to spend a little bit of time talking about changes. As you know God has been reveling himself to me in different ways, showing me things in my life that needs work, and showing me what I am doing right.

However, as God reveals those things in our lives that need work, what are we doing about it? Are we saying "OK, thanks God!" and moving on; or are we taking action? That is what I want to focus on. Taking action on the things God is showing us.

I know for me, that can be extremely difficult. So, lets take a look and see what God wants to teach us!

C-ya tomorrow for the first installment!

Funny Friday Fun

Every Friday I post a video that is funny or fun or just plain enjoyable to watch. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: This is meant to be something enjoyable, if you don't find it funny or enjoyable, then please turn it off.I didn't make them, I simply shared them. Chill out a bit will ya!

Funny Friday Fun

Every Friday I post a video that is funny or fun or just plain enjoyable to watch. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: This is meant to be something enjoyable, if you don't find it funny or enjoyable, then please turn it off.I didn't make them, I simply shared them. Chill out a bit will ya!

Camping

This weekend we went camping for 4 days to a local lake. We had a wonderful time. The ironic part of the trip was that originally we were not planning to go to the lake.

When we planned our trip a couple months ago, we were planning to go to a camp ground at the top of a pass. The place, Kennedy Meadows, is about 6000 feet or so. Unfortunately, due to unusual June weather, we relocated our trip to a local lake....about the same elevation to home.

This would cause many to be disappointed or upset. In fact, a year ago I would have probably been upset and may even have canceled the trip. However, we didn't cancel and I didn't get upset. We simply relocated without giving it much thought.

It turned out to be one of the best camping trips we have been on in a while. Why? This trip was about focusing my time with my boys. I spent one day with Austin, driving in to town to get supplies and just talking and hanging together. On another day, Jordan and I sat and fished all afternoon. We didn't catch anything but we had a cool time hanging out together and talking.

As I talked about here a few weeks ago, the most important thing I can do as a father is spend time with the boys. We may sit and talk about nothing, but if the opportunity arises they may ask questions, and if I am not there to answer them...then who will?

I am glad we went and I look forward to the next camping trip. Who knows what we will talk about, but I am glad I will be there to answer their questions.

Reflection

This week I was having lunch with a friend and we were talking about the year and what I was going through, so I decided to share a little of it with you.

If you have followed my blog at all, then you know last year was a very focused year of goals. As I talked about last week here, this year, however has really been about slowing down, spending time with family and spending time reflecting. As I mentioned last week, the last few weeks, God has really been showing me a lot.

This year has been a real journey. If you want to catch up, then I would go back and read these blog posts here, here, here and here. You will see that it really has been a year about self reflection, and less about book study or leadership growth.

God has used this year to really open up my heart and mind to areas of opportunity. The problem with areas of opportunity is that they can be uncomfortable. Sometimes it is easy and other times it can be extremely uncomfortable. For some, a move across the country or a call to a different church would be very uncomfortable. However, if we are to grow as leaders, as Christians and as people sometimes God has to make us uncomfortable if we are going to grow.

What does that mean for me? I am not sure. I will share more as God reveals it. I do know that something crazy IS going to happen. I know that it WILL be uncomfortable. I know that I will grow as I go through it. I am just not sure what IT is yet.

How about you? God doing anything crazy in your life right now?

Funny Friday Fun

Every Friday I post a video that is funny or fun or just plain enjoyable to watch. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: This is meant to be something enjoyable, if you don't find it funny or enjoyable, then please turn it off.I didn't make them, I simply shared them. Chill out a bit will ya!

Camping Time

Today we leave for a nice long camping weekend. Yeah!

We were originally going to go to Kennedy Meadows, but do to the storms of the last 2 weeks, we decided we would go somewhere lower. Not really sure where we are going to end up, but the key is we are together and we are going to have fun.

This trip is at a perfect time. As I posted on Monday, God is doing some crazy things in my mind and heart right now. This will give me some time away, with no computer or cellphone, where I can contemplate and meditate on what God has proposed in my heart.

Besides, I have worked so hard the last 1 1/2 weeks getting the tent trailer and Yukon ready for the trip, that I need a vacation from preparing for vacation!

See ya next week!

Change is the only constant

Yesterday I had a break in my day and I was walking the hallway. In the hallways where I work (a government public utility) there is a lot of memorabilia. There are photos of whole departments from as far back as the 1910's and 1920's. The photos are warn and hard to see but they are there.

There are also lots of old trophies in the break rooms. Back in the 1980's and earlier it was not uncommon to have sponsored teams competing in softball, bowling, etc. As these teams would win, the trophies would come here to work, where they were proudly displayed for all to see.

Why share this? There isn't a trophy newer than 1990. It isn't something that we do any more. Just as I looked at the photos over the years, things have changed. We are not the same organization we were 5, 20, 50 or 100 years ago. For many reasons, our business has had to change and adapt to the way things are done today.

This is a good thing. This is a necessary thing. If we did not change, we could chance that something we were doing was illegal, unsafe or immoral. None of which anyone wants to happen. In addition, change allows us to be "profitable", so that we can continue to provide a product to our customers.

However, in the church it seems to be so much different. It hasn't been until recent that the church has really been open to change. In many churches I have visited, the congregation, pastor have been happy with the way things are. They don't want to change.

Why is that? Why is the church so resistant to change? Change is the only constant. The only for sure thing is that their will be change. Knowing that, I would think one would prefer to embrace it, as opposed to running from it.

This is why, I think, the denominational church is dying off. Due to the size of their bureaucracy, they are very slow to change. As a result, they are not able to keep up. Where you see the greatest and fastest change is in the non-denominational church. The autonomous organism that is able to respond quickly to the environment. Yet, even then they need to be on constant guard that they don't fall in to the "safe" zone.

How about you? Do you like change?

We should take note

Sunday was another big day in the Christian world of unfortunate events. A pastor in Canton stepped down from his chuch because he had an physical/emotional affair with his assistant. I encourage you to read the statement directly from Pastor Gary Lamb on his blog here.

I bring it up for a very specific reason. I do not want to talk about the moral issues, the issues of him stepping down, the sadness caused his family, right and wrong. Those are all issues that we may or may not ever come to agree on, and that is fine. However, I want to bring to light something that ALL of us as Christians are called too and I think Gary did an excellent job of doing.

God makes it very clear in his Word, that we are to confess our sins, ask for forgiveness, and begin a path to restoration. Gary did that. He could have very easily tried to hide it or sweep it under the rug, as if it never happened. He could have easily justified to protect the "church" and his family. He didn't. When he sinned, he confessed it.

Does that mean he is exempt from consequences? Of course not. Does that mean it will hurt less? No. Yet he probably realized that the consequences of not admitting his sin were far worse for the church and his family, then to admit it now and work through it.

Yes, what he did was wrong. Yes, there may have been ways to prevent it from happening. The fact is, it happened. Now what?

Let me ask you this. Would you have been able to come clean? Could you admit to your wife and children and 1200 people in your church that you sinned? How about the sin in your life today? Have you confessed it? Could it have been avoided?

I think Perry Noble's response is best. When incidents like this occur, we need to look in the mirror and check ourselves. Do we have unconfessed sin? Are we in a position that leaves us vulnerable to sin?

Join me in praying for Gary, his family, his church and the church in America that God would restore them and use this for God's glory and not as a tool for the enemy.

Boggles the Mind

Every now and then you have one of those days. For me, yesterday was that day!

Last year (2008) was probably the year that I can attribute to the greatest growth in my spiritual walk...from a knowledge and relational standpoint.

I spent more time in the Word, with my year through the Bible. I read a lot of books with my book goal. I spent more time interacting and building relationships as I served as a volunteer leader at the church.

This year has seemed to go quite the opposite...I thought. I have really backed off and focused on my family for a period, which has been great. I have enjoyed that time and look forward to each week.

However, as a result of not being such a book worm, I have had a lot of time to think and reflect this year. I have been able to spend more time evaluating and studying who I am as a Christian and what my walk with God looks like. I have been really pleased with some of it. Other stuff, not so much.

Over the last couple of weeks, as I have been preparing a 2-part teaching message for Equip Church, God has really been able to open my eyes to areas of my life. As I have been praying for God to challenge me in certain areas, he has been opening my eyes to those areas in my life and showing me the opportunities to help me work through them.

Yesterday the light bulb came on. Through some discussion with people I was with, God was able to bring everything to a "oh, I get it" perspective. I am not sure yet how this will play out, and will share more as I get my mind around it.

I have no big revelations for you, or huge applications. For now, I just had to tell you that this is really exciting and I can't wait to share more with you.

Stay tuned!

Funny Friday Fun

Every Friday I post a video that is funny or fun or just plain enjoyable to watch. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: This is meant to be something enjoyable, if you don't find it funny or enjoyable, then please turn it off.I didn't make them, I simply shared them. Chill out a bit will ya!

Father and Son

This last Friday, I had to run some stuff up to the cabin. I wasn't staying, it was an up and back trip, so I decided to take my oldest with me.

This was not a trip, for the purposes of instilling great wisdom, or to lead my son down the path of manhood. It was simply a trip that I had put off, that needed to get done, and I didn't want to do it alone. So, Friday after work, we loaded up and off we went to the cabin.

What resulted was something extremely amazing, something that could have been lost forever. We had no planned conversations, or expectations. However, we had a chance to explore every topic under the sun. My son had questions about this and that and everything in between.

For about 5 hours, he had my undivided attention, with no work interruptions, TV/computer interruptions, family interruptions. Just 5 hours dedicated to answering and talking about anything that he chose, with a few topics thrown in by me.

For me, this was probably one of the best times we have had together in a long time and will be a memory I won't forget. That evening, more than once, Jordan told me how much fun that was and he can't wait until we do it again.

Often times life gets in the way of opportunities for great parenting moments. Great parenting moments can't be planned, scheduled or arranged. They simply happen. The only thing we can do, is make room so that there is an opportunity for it to occur and then be there to be a part of it.

I am happy that I remembered to do that this time. Let's hope I don't forget next time!

How about you?