Bumper Bowling

Today I realized that my life is a lot like bumper bowling. I am the bowling ball. I am a highly driven, passionate person with a goal in mind. I want the strike. The strike is all that God has intended for me. I move with great speed and generate a lot of force as I barrel down the lane. There is just one obstacle; the gutter. People are imperfect we where born with a tendency toward sin, this is the imperfect throw, the one that sends a passionate highly driven bowling ball towards the gutter and ultimately missing his Strike. That’s why I am thankful for the bumpers. That’s right God was wise enough to put people in my life that act as inflatable tubes that keep me out of the gutter and headed toward strike I so desperately seek. I just wanted to take a moment to thank my bumpers. I wanted to thank my wife, my pastor, and my friends both at the well and abroad for being my bumpers. Thanks. A note to all out there in blog land if you don’t have bumpers get them, bowling with out them could be a disaster. Live the Adventure.

The most favored (part 2)

The most favored Part 2. I must apologize as I re-read yesterdays post I realize that I made no mention of this being a two part series. So yesterdays post may seem to leave you hanging a bit. The reason I wanted to talk about discipline as necessary and not always punishment is because as I contemplated Hebrews 12 yesterday I had an interesting thought. If God Disciplines those he loves does the more discipline or more hardship one suffer mean that one is loved more. Let me digress for a moment and say that I do believe that God plays favorites, that some people are more loved or more favored than others. I also want to take a moment and say that even the smallest most minute amount of Gods love is far greater than anything a person could ever give you, remember that Christ gave up his life for the those he loved even just a little.

Back to the question does more discipline mean more favored. Does it mean the more hardship you suffer the more you are favored? I think so. Think about it, if there is some really nasty task one which requires much hard work, or perhaps getting really dirty and stinky, or will make you uncomfortable or is a bit humiliating and you needed help doing it who do you call, the guy you met last week or your best friend that has been with you through thick or thin? Who does a general call with his most difficult missions the officer he knows and trusts or the one he doesn't. Read your bible, read the stories of Joseph, Moses, David, Peter, Paul, the Johns. They all had lives full of hardship, yet these men are the biblical greates and there is not a Christian on earth who considers these men not favored of God.

So back to the question are the more disciplined the most favored? Absolutely. So treat hardship as discipline God is treating you as sons, dearly loved and trusted sons. Rejoice when things get harder and things seem difficult more often it just means that God is giving the more difficult missions. The ones he only gives to best friends, those he trusts. Live the adventure.

The Most Favored

Today I found myself contemplating Hebrews 12. It speaks of discipline. It says to treat hardship as discipline and that God disciplines those he loves. I want to speak a moment on discipline. Discipline is often thought of as punishment for wrong. I was in the military for 4 years, one thing I remember was P.T. Its full name is physical training. It happens everyday. Its one our daily "disciplines". I hadn't done anything wrong yet everyday at 6 a.m. everyday I would be in formation waiting for the order to do the push up.

It wasn't a punishment, it was a discipline. A discipline we had to endure not because we were bad soldiers but because it was vital that we remain in good physical condition in order to be ready for combat. We see this through out the scripture. Look at Moses he spent 40 years in the desert. Why because he killed an Egyptian, I don't think so. We must remember that when Moses killed the Egyptian it was out of defense of a fellow Hebrew. Moses was not exiled for forty years as punishment, he was out in the in the desert for 40 years because he was the one chosen to lead Israel thru the desert over the next 40 years. It was a necessary discipline to keep him alive in spiritual combat. Its important that we see that Because if we see discipline merely as punishment than we are always trying to figure out what we did wrong in order to receive when in fact you didn't necessarily do anything. It just may be a discipline necessary to keep you alive in future spiritual combat. Live the adventure

The Chance to Be a Hero.

So I was watching Law and Order yesterday and on this particular episode a 7 year old had shot a 6 year old. Now in this instance the 7 year old was shooting at some drug dealers whom he had witnessed murder some one the day before and the six year old just happen to get in the way. The police knew it there was just no evidence to prove it, the DA was charging the boy. The prosecutor and the police where particularly torn up on this case as they didn't want to send a 7 year old to jail on murder charges. The police scrambled to find anybody else they could charge with the crime, they couldn't find anyone. The attorney assigned to the case pleaded with the Chief District Attorney to find another option, he gave her none. So this prosecutor is given the most difficult of her life. The media is watching. Her boss is watching. The Fate of a 7 year old boy is on the line.

So the show comes to a scene where the prosecutor is asking the counsel of another lawyer friend of her's. She is telling her friend of all the woes she is facing, how her career and political future are doomed and she doesn't know what to do and wishes she had never gotten the case. Her friend looked at her and said "I don't know why you're complaining you should be glad you got this case and not someone who doesn't care, it's a tough case, but you have the chance to be a hero".

The line gave me chills. It's a tough case but you have the chance to be a hero. How many of us wish we had the chance to be a hero. Yet how many of us fail to recognize that our present adversity is the chance for us to become a hero. We spend our whole lives cursing our every adversity and then wonder at the end why we achieved nothing. Heroes are born out adversity. Want to be a hero? Live the Adventure.

True Love.

So another marriage building Blog. Yesterday we got on the topic love and respect. The most essential need for a man is respect while the most essential need for a woman is love. The general concensus of the men in the room is that it is easier to respect than to love, while for the women much easier to love than respect. I had another observation yesterday, the topic of love languages has come up on a regular basis. Love languages are the the ways you communicate love. You feel loved when some one touches you, or when some one gives you a gift, or maybe with kind words, sometimes when they do nice things and other times when people just spend quality time with you. Everybody has a different combination, what I have noticed over the past few weeks is that every couple in that room has a love language that is very difficult for their spouse to speak. In other words if one likes to be touched the other hates touching. If one likes to spend quality time the other could not consider that a bigger waste of time. Why does God do that. Why does he put people together who have to stretch in order to serve and show love and appreciation. Why does he give women a need for love and men have such a hard time giving it and why do men have a need for respect that women have such a hard time giving. I was pondering this last night. My thoughts came to me and my wife, I am an advid cuddler she hates it. I wondered what life would be like if she were also an avid cuddler. I realized that life may not be as good as one would think. I may have all the cuddeling I could possibly want but I don't think it would mean as much. Love is sacrifice. The fact that my wife has to stretch her self to make me feel loved makes every touch and cuddle more worth it. The respect of my wife can mean more to me than the respect of one hundred men, it is easy to get the respect of men, it is not near as easy to get the respect of the women you care about, it makes it all that much more valuable and worth it. I think Jesus is sending us a message, love is sacrifice. The best love we can give God, our spouse, our friends and our family is that which we had to sacrifice to do so. Live the adventure.

Like Christ.

To be like christ. It is the mission of the modern Christian to be more christ like. The ardent Christians pray a lot, reads a lot, worships a lot, spends a lot of time with God so they can figure out who he is so they can be more like him. I had a revelation that may help. What is God like? God is like a man its his focal point that is different. Let me explain. Jesus was a perfect reflection of God. If you read John chapeter 14 verses 5-9 You'll see that Jesus tries to repeatedly explain to the disiciples that if you have seen me you have seen the father. So to figure out who God is let us look no farther than Jesus. Jesus acted like a man, Jesus was a man and he related to men. The twelve disciples loved him, not because he acted like this ominpotent all powerful being, but because he acted so human. The gospels are full of emotional texts about jesus; "The lord wept", "and he had compassion on them". He cried, he laughed, he joked, he gave hugs, people came up to him and talked to him and he talked back. Regular people had regular conversations with God. God was no more than a spritually perfect regular joe. This is cause for pause for me as I see him hanging on the cross, in his final moments in the most pain of his life he does 3 three things that astonish me, he prays for those who persecute him, He comforts his mother and his friend, and he preached to the criminals beside him. How does one so human do something so amazing, so anti human. People often take the easy route saying he was God. It seems we dismiss it as it was easy for him. I don't think it was so easy for him. It says he genesis we are made in his image, meaning with his personality traits, when we add this to the fact the God is so relateable and so human it tells me that at my core me and God are not all that different. If our personalitys are similar and it is not easy for me I can not assume it was easy for him. So how did he do it. How can we be so similar yet act so differently? This us being like in personality is esstiential because it is out of our personality in which we react. Jesus reacted on the cross, the things he did where not well thought out actions, they were reactions that stemed from who he was by default, they stemed from his personality. This tells me that I could act like Jesus like Jesus acted, I could be like him in default. The personality is there. So why don't I, what is different? What is different is the focal point, were do the persoanlitys focus. Jesus thought only of others, often I think only of myself. Like Jesus at my core I am loving and compassionate, I wish to serve and protect but to often the personality is focused on me. I am loving and compassionate towards me, I wish to serve and protect me. How do we become more like Christ? We don't need to change who we are,we need to change what we are focused on. Focus on others, be like Christ, Live the adventure.

Wax on, Wax Off:

The classic line of the 20th century; "Wax 0n, wax off". It comes from the movie Karate Kid. In the movie young Daniel son wants to learn karate. Mr. Meeogie agrees to teach him. His first lesson; wax on wax off. His first lesson was polishing cars, his second lesson was sanding the floors, his third was paint the fence, fourth paint the house. Mr. Meeogie ends up with a completely re-done house and young Daniel son ends up exhausted and frustrated. He was supposed to learn karate not become some one's personal slave. As Daniel begins to walk out, to quite Mr. Meeogie say's show me "paint the fence" as Daniel mimicks painting the fence Mr. Meeogie takes a swing at him, its blocked by Daniels "Paint the Fence". I, along with so many out there feel called to do great and awesome things for God yet sometimes it seems like one problem after another. Sometimes I feel like I am Daniel I wake up early in the morning and head over to Mr. Meeogie's house, I have excited smile on my face, I think I am about to learn karate and I get there and I get handed a bucket and a brush and told to "paint the fence". Mr. Meeogie was a wise teacher, so is God and God like Meeogie sometimes has us do things that seem completely unrelated to our great callings in life, their difficult, tedious, not fun. sometimes they are down right disappointing. Let me lift your spirits by saying Daniel became a karate champion. We will become spiritual champions but it all comes from "paint the fence". To waxing on and off, to painting that spiritual fence. Live the Adventure.