Death

It's an odd sensation when a Christian friend dies...First there's disbelief and shock. Then sadness for the surviving family, but then an odd excitement knowing that she's with Jesus right now...

How big?

I was thinking about the universe and how big it is. I'm told there are over 350,000,000,000 galaxies...if there are that many galaxies I can't imagine how many stars there are or how much space there is between them. So the thought occurs to me that there are only two possibilities when it comes to how big the universe is and both are beyond my comprehension. Either it goes on forever, or it ends somewhere. How can there be no end to something? But if it ends somewhere, what's on the other side of the end of the universe? Something else, I guess. But what would that be, and how far does that go!

My friend the future Catholic Priest

I had lunch today with a buddy that I've had the privilege of knowing and ministering with over the past handful of years. It was a very encouraging conversation. He is a solid, solid Christian brother who, despite leading worship and being heavily involved with us at an Evangelical Free Church, continued to attend a Catholic Mass throughout the time I've known him. He had previously been planning on pursuing a post graduate degree and would have done very well for himself had he done so, but felt an obvious call on his life elsewhere. He knew that God was leading him into ministry. Seminary, more specifically. And Catholic Seminary in particular. I have to admit, my encounters with Catholicism have left me less than impressed and have left a sour taste on my tongue. But I know my friend's heart and we had some great discussion on his calling and what that will look like going forward along with some good discussion that helped me dispel some of the bad perceptions I have of Catholic Theology and the Catholic Church in general. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, but I guess what I want to say is that I feel very, very good knowing that a man of such solid faith in Christ is going to be moving towards a position of ministry within the Catholic Church and I look forward to seeing how God uses him!

Time

It occurs to me now and then the significance of small incriments of time. In my job (a track and field coach) the smallest increment of time can make the difference between taking a trip to Houston, TX for a week, or spending the week at home in your normal routine. Literally one hundreth of a second (probably less than the length of time it takes to snap your fingers) is what kept my freshman sprinter home from nationals. Had she been that much faster on one given day she would have been in the national meet and had that great experience as a memory. Instead she stayed in Winona and life went on. We agonize over that next hundreth of a second.

On the flip side of that, how many hundreths of a second (let alone minutes or hours) go by without any consiquence? My cursor just blinked 10 or 15 times while I decided what to type next and that didn't change the course of anything in my life other than missing 10 extra seconds of sleep tonight. Those same ten seconds would be the difference between a halfmiler getting a full scholarship to almost any big time school she wanted and getting no money at all...and again, those same ten seconds could be the difference between a disasterous car accident and missing the accident altogether. The ten minutes it's taking me to type this is ten more minutes I could have spent on the phone with my wife tonight...It's amazing how one blink of an eye can change the course of your life while a full minute (or hour) can pass without any consiquence...

Much to say?

I've noticed that when I'm not really living life I don't have much to say here, but when I'm actively pursuing Christ He gives me so much more life to live and to talk about. I'm realizing that I've learned to have a relationship with Him (and just me), but need to learn how to foster a family relationship with me, Ashley, Skyler, and God all together...Married men and fathers, what are some ways you walk with Christ and pursue Him with your family?

Just Wondering...

I was reading 2 Corinthians this morning and wondering what Paul means when he says, "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven" (v12:2)? This is an issue that is not central to my faith, but I wonder what the third heaven is.

Also, on other occassions Paul talks about boasting as something he will only do regarding Christ. I've never heard a sermon on the reason for his boasting in this passage. He gives his reasoning, and it makes sense to me, but I've never heard anyone speak about this. I'd be interested to hear someone smarter than me speak on this passage (2 Cor 11 and 12).

Just some thoughts...

Obedience and Blessings

So I'm married now, and I have a five year-old step son. Last night we bought him a toy without telling him and since it was late when we got home we decided to give it to him the next morning. I decided to put it in the cupboard next to the cereal. I thought it would be fun for him to see it when he opens the door to have breakfast and he'd be all excited. Instead we woke up to him bringing us breakfast in bed...one waffle each. Very cute. So anyways, we decided we'd tell him to go see if we had any Cheerios left. Now at this point he could have decided to have an attitude and ask why he had to go, or be crabby and just disobey altogether. Had he done that he would have went about his day just fine, never knowing that something special had awaited him had he obeyed. I bet you see where this is going...I think we are all like that. If we choose to obey God he may have a blessing in store for us that we never would have guessed would be the consequence of obedience. If we choose to disobey, however, (best case senario) we'll go on our way, maybe just fine, without ever knowing the blessing we missed out on.

Never guessed what this ad was for..

This is just a great commercial that I had to share...

News Articles from Today - Part 3 of 3

Okay, this last one is a little out there and not so much about the article, but what the article made me think about...Okay, here goes. The Iranian president talked today about the "ending of the American Empire". I've been thinking about about that for a few years now. It occurred to me a few years ago that Rome didn't last forever and that if there's anything that can bring America down it's corruption/politics and economic issues. As far as coruption and politics goes, is it just me or does it seem like the government doesn't really get much done. They all talk a lot, but presidents don't seem to get anything important done in their first term because they are afraid of rocking the boat and not getting elected for a second term. Well, with that logic I think congress is even worse because they never have a "last term". They can just keep on running so they always have to be afraid of making tough decisions that may be the right decision even though people may not like it. It just seems that even when you get a politician on the national stage who defies stereotypes, like Sarah Palin, (ie, young, woman, from Alaska - the furthest place from Washington) that you'd actually start to hear some things that aren't "politics as usual", but guess what, she's just like the rest of the crusty old guys that run this country. Okay that was a lot longer of a political rant than I expected. As far as the economy goes, it sure looks like we're in a tough spot right now. Whether this is statistically acurate or not, we seem to be in the worst housing market, stock market and overall economic state since the Great Depression, and back then we were barely a shadow of the world power we are today. They say that, "If America sneezes the whole world catches a cold." They say that, "The bigger they are the harder they fall." It sure seems like if we're the 800 pound gorilla today, 80 years ago we were just a baby. It seems delusional that one empire could last forever when all the others have fallen...Anyways, that was a lot of fluff with not a lot of content. The point is that the thought that occurred to me 6 or 7 years ago is that I bet America won't exist when I am old in the same form that it exists today. Sorry for the non-sensical meander with no organization...but those are just some thoughts from my observations of the way I see things...Okay, I'm done now. Side note...I just spent the last 45 minutes writing these lame posts instead of opening my bible like I had planned... (If that makes no sense, see my post from a few days ago)

News Articles from Today - 2 of 3

So this next article was on people whose homes are being foreclosed. It was AWESOME! Awesome? You're wondering how home foreclosure is awesome aren't you? Well it was about people that refuse to stop giving their money (tithe) to God; people that will go to financial counselors to seek help in managing their money and cutting expenses so they don't lose their home and after they've cut everything else they can and they are still short they refuse to stop tithing even if it means losing their home!!! THAT is awesome!

One financial counselor said, "After we've gone through their monthly expenses and the only thing left to cut is their tithe, they say 'I guess this home is not for me' and they walk away,"

A couple interesting statistics that the Barna Research Group came out with are that only 5% of Americans tithe and of Christian denominations the highest is Evangelicals at 24%. Interesting, but not entirely encouraging.

There was a lot of other stuff in the article; other examples of people who did similar things to the guy quoted above. And it talks about how people are so committed to not give up on giving back to God, but I just wanted to throw that short bit out there because I knew there was no way I could get lots of people to read that artice, but I could at least get a few people to hear about in on my blog.

The article can be found at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-09-23-tithing-housing_N.htm

News Articles From Today - Part 1 (of 3...I think)

I read two incredibly encouraging news articles and one, not so much on USA Today's homepage today. I'll write about the first here and then separate posts for the others. The first was on retirement. It excited me and at the same time reminded me of one of the huge reasons I could no longer work in the retirement planning industry. I'll try not to mess up the details, but the jist of it is that five or six years ago a well-to-do couple (nearing retirement age) who spent money as it came in on nice cars, collectors items, and whatnot, was told by their financial advisor that they had to cut back spending so that they could retire and live the dream and settle into a "leisure life of sunscreen and lounge chairs" on a small Caribean island. They did everything he advised - they stopped spending and three years later sold everything they owned (including the nice cars, all the collectibles and their home) and moved to the Caribean - except for the last part. They decided they did not want to waste their remaining years away soaking up sun on the beach. Instead they would live simple and teach impoverished children. The story goes on to detail some of what they're doing, but the point is that they didn't buy into the crap that the American Dream means work only as long as you have to so that you can relax the rest of your life away on some beach or golf course.

I'm not articulating this very well (no surprise there) so here are the two sides of the coin:

1. It reminded me that I just couldn't, in good conscience, continue to help people stash away as much money as possible so that they could bask in the sunshine of their greed and waste away the last 10, 20 or even 30 or more years of their life doing NOTHING of any value!!! I wish I had the ability to put into words what my brain feels right now, but that short rant will have to do.

2. It is soooo encouraging to see a couple who GETS IT! It may have taken them a while, but before it was too late they realized there's more to life than a 30 year vacation to end your life on.

I guess that wasn't as inteligent and articulate a rant as I intended when I started typing...Oh well, I guess that's why I'm a coach and not a journalist...

The article can be found at: http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/retirement/2008-09-22-dream-retirement-teach-island_N.htm