Shout Out To Blessings!

Just got back from an incredible week in Mexico. I went with our youth group and my beautiful daughter, Madison. Will need a few post to share some of that experience. It was pretty cool. Today as I get back to reality, I'm thinking about little blessings in life. 

Often these are little things that we tend to miss and they are happening all around us every day. Here is the challenge though. I think some of the greatest blessings are the ones that happen when we are not looking for them. You ever been disappointed on Christmas day or maybe a birthday. You were expecting something big and it was not quite as big as you had built it up to be in your mind. Those are blessing that we are expecting. Kind of like doing something for someone and then expecting a certain response and when we don't get the response we are a little bummed. Again, we are looking for an expected blessing. Expected blessings lead to disappointment.

Blessing are like gifts. I think they mean more when we don't expect them. A couple of weeks ago I got a SIGG water bottle from a couple of friends. (Thanks Karen and Karla) I was not expecting to get a water bottle and certainly not one with such a high cool factor. It made my day and every time I use it, I'm reminded of little blessings. Plus, I think water taste better when drinking from a SIGG.

While I'm writing this I'm listening to, We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things, by Jason Mraz. Besides a great title, he has a very cool sound, one of the types of music I really enjoy. I did not know anything about Mraz last week. I was talking about music with some of our teens. They put this in for me to listen to. They turned me on to several musicians that were new to me. Aside from having to spend money on some new tunes, a cool unexpected blessing. 

My water bottle and new music have reminded me to be more aware of the little daily blessings of life. They remind me to be more sensitive to what is going on around me each day and not miss the little things. 

I am also reminded of all the people that bless me every day. Pretty amazing if you think about it. How God puts people in our lives that bless us. I want to be that person. The one who is a blessing. How about you?

Peace,

"Amazing Grace" I Want Some Of That!

Guilt is a fascinating reality in my life. Guilt happens for me when I "should of on myself." Just for the record, you shouldn't "should of on yourself." Wait, I think I just did. See, this guilt thing gets real screwy.

This morning  Mason, Doug and I were going through our workout out front. My neighbor comes out to leave for work and says, "you guys are making me feel guilty", and ready, here it comes. She said "I should be working out." She dropped the dreaded, "should of" on herself. It reminded me that feeling guilty is my choice. Guilt is climbing in a bath full of condemnation and choosing to sit in it for a while. God's word says, "there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

Michael broke both his wrist in a basketball game Saturday night. We were playing in a tournament and I was coaching. The game had gotten out of hand. We were up by 60 and several guys had been trying to get a dunk. I was a little uncomfortable with that wanting the guys to finish the game and move on to the next one with no injuries. Michael had already gotten a sweet dunk, his first in a game and wanted one more. He went up to dunk with two hands and swung to much, his hands came off the rim and he feel head first, broke his fall with his hands and broke both wrists. I have chosen to feel guilty about that all week. Feeling like I could have prevented it from happening.

Guilt is like a stinky shirt we choose to put on and wear. I am weary of wearing a stinky shirt all week. My neighbors words reminded me this morning that it was my choice. I had chosen to "should of on myself."  I put it on and I can take it off.

I am reminded today that God's grace is sufficient. You and I were not created to walk through this life being burdened by guilt. I just wish it weren't so hard to extend that grace to myself.

Peace, 

 

Fathers Day and Rain

I am still processing fathers day! That particular day has always been a struggle for me. Growing up it always served as a reminder that I had no father to say, "Happy Fathers Day Dad, I Love You!" to which I'm sure he would have replied "I Love You too, son." Not having a dad presented several challenges for me.

First by not having a dad I would create in my mind what my dad would have been like. I'm sure that the father son relationship I had created in my mind was not very close to reality. The dad I created was perfect, he was a dream dad, literally and figuratively. What I have learned after being a father for 17+ years and working with teens and adults for 20+ years and is there are not any perfect dads out there.

The other challenge is that I believe dads are suppose to affirm and bless their children. I have always wanted that father blessing. I believe this father blessing, is very different and unique than any other blessing we get in this life time. With out it most of us walk through life with some type of limp. For some the limp is very noticeable and some of us hide it pretty well. But if you look close you will see it manifest itself somewhere.

Mine is now much like a bum knee that aches a little when it rains or when it is cold and damp. Just a reminder of a more serious wound that has healed.  Scar tissue that reminds me of a deeper pain I use to feel. 

Fathers day is like a cold rain. There is a little ache in the heart but not to bad.

God and Fitness

I was visiting with a friend recently. I referenced in the conversation that someone I know really wanted "security in their life." This friend mentioned he had read something about security being a form of idolatry. I have continued to think about that and I believe I would agree. 

There are some forms of security that would not be a bad thing. I attempt to secure my house every night. I check doors and make sure they are locked, check lights etc. This is a good thing to do, but I would acknowledge it has limitations. I crawl in bed feeling a little better but realize if someone wants in bad enough they will get in. So do I lay awake all night listening for any noise getting up and checking doors and windows? No I go to sleep trusting my family and I can sleep with some assurance of security. A pretty normal process for each of us.

What about relationships, money, careers, my stuff, my heath? Here is where security can get a little screwy. I want security in my relationship with my wife. I want to trust her and know that she will be there for me. But how much control do I have over her? At times in our twenty+ years together I have tried to control her. It didn't work very well for either one of us. And if it gave me any security it was an allusion, not real security. 

What about financial security? I know people who pursue it all their lives and it can be taken away in an instant. I am not suggesting we should be careless when it comes to finances. God calls us to be good stewards. But how much of our security in life is based on the balance in our checkbooks? By the way, my checkbook is not providing a great deal of security.

What about health? I work hard in this area, exercise hard (Kettlebells), eat pretty well and yet there are some things totally out of my control related to health. So how much stock do I put in health? You tracking with me here?

End of the day much of the security in this life is about control. The reality here is, I like to be in control. And when I choose that path I attempt to provide my own security. I basically choose to dismiss God, and become my own god. And shazam! I now have idolatry. 

The truth is, as much as I would like to be god. I'm not very good at it. So my friend's comments remind me, that my security needs to be in God. Trusting that he will be faithful. It's that whole enjoying today and not being anxious about tomorrow. Chasing security and trying to control this life,  robs me of my joy and peace.

Plus if I let him be God, it gives me more time to workout. 

Peace,

Mowing, Jack Johnson and God

I was edging the yard Saturday and Mason was mowing. I was reminded that life is always better together. I enjoy working in the lawn for the first few months of the summer. By August I am tired of it, although it already feels like August. To edge, weed eat and mow takes me several hours. But with Mason mowing and me edging and weed eating we were only in the yard about an hour. Perfect!

This mowing experience with my son reminded me of Jack Johnson and God. I will explain. Jack has a great song called, Better Together and God created you and I to do life in community, together with others. I really believe God created us with the understanding that life really is better when lived out together, in relationships.

Can you remember a time when you were living your life in isolation out of community with people? I believe our world is full of lonely people. There are all kinds of goofy reasons and lies we believe that lead us to a place of loneliness, isolation and out of relationship with others and God. But we were not created to do life alone. 

So if you need a little community come on over. You can pick. The mower or the edger. We can mow, get my yard looking good, go inside get a cold drink, listen to Jack and enjoy life. Because it really is better together.

Peace,

Batman God and Underdog

Is Batman a super hero? Most would respond pretty quickly, either yes or no. I guess we would make our decision based on our personal definition of super hero. Take away his utility belt and he is just another rich guy concerned about mean people and injustice, not necessarily a super hero. It is funny how we make decisions about people based on information from key sources in our life and life experiences. 

What about God. Who is he and what is he really like? Scripture says that you and I were created in the image of God both male and female. Now this obviously has nothing to do with our anatomy. Because there is a difference. Won't get into that today, maybe another time. It is safe to say that there are qualities and characteristics about you and I that mirror the image of God. That is actually pretty cool. We are each beautiful based on that reason alone.

Back to Batman. I don't really care if you think he is a super hero or not. We can debate that, argue that and at the end of the day, doesn't really matter. What does matter is what you and I think about who God really is. I believe we were created in the image of God and have turned around and tried to create God in our image. It is funny how we get things all backwards, from time to time.

I guess I get why we do this and maybe it is not always a bad thing. But creating God in our image doesn't work very well. We put limits on him, make him something he is not and really make the whole God thing confusing. We confine him to our limited understanding and experiences, or put all our stock in what someone else says that he is. God said, "My ways are not your ways." He was pretty clear with Job, that Job was going to have a difficult time fully grasping the ways of God.

For some reason I'm pretty comfortable with this. In fact I don't want to fully understand God. I really like God's response to Moses. He told Moses to tell the people that "I Am" sent you. It reminds me that God is God that is enough.

Batman is much easier to debate. The whole utility belt bugs me. You take that away and he is not that impressive. Now Underdog on the other hand, "a true super hero" but that's another blog.

Peace, 

To Grow Or Not To Grow

Walking home Sunday I had a thought. "Can you experience growth without some level of discomfort?" I am talking about any kind of growth. Physical growth, emotional growth, spiritual growth, don't all of these require some level of discomfort.

My 14 year old daughter tells me her legs hurt because she is growing. I think we call those, "growing pains." So my thought is maybe growing pains happen in every area of growth or change. You have heard the phrase, "he learned a hard lesson', same idea. He had to learn something through some level of pain. 

C. S. Lewis wrote a great book entitled The Problem With Pain. He wrote this book after losing his wife to cancer. His insights for this book were birthed out of loss and grief. Back to this idea that pain or discomfort seem to always be part of change and growth.

But here is the problem. Myself and most people are not real fond of low levels of discomfort and certainly not full blown pain. So I become pretty good at avoiding pain. Actually our current culture is very skilled at pain avoidance. We do all kinds of goofy things in an attempt to avoid any kind of discomfort. We work, we drink, we shop, we stay very busy, we pursue stuff, look at pornography, gamble, pursue shallow relationships, we do religion, ignore our hearts anything to avoid the pain we sense in our lives. 

So many of us don't grow into the people we were called and created to be. So I'm thinking "can I grow with the absence of pain in my life?"

I really want to grow. Ouch!

Peace,