another day

I'm finding that eating right really requires planning ahead.

I had my 2 eggs and 2 sausage patties for breakfast

smoked grilled sausage, baked chicken leg, grilled chicken breast, baked fish filet and green beans for lunch (wow...looks like a lot when you write it down huh?)

dinner, didn't plan ahead and ran out of time with packing for the Canada trip so I had 2 burritos and a soft taco from taco bell.


Hmmmm.....that doesn't look so great huh. No workout today either as I've been packing for the trip. Will be hiking and canoeing all week so my goal is to lose 5 lbs. this week. Am packing beef jerky and mixed nuts for snacking during the day on the trip.

Weigh Down

So, yesterday I think I stayed on track pretty well.

Breakfast--sausage and eggs
snack--grapes
lunch--small filet and spinach salad
snack--nuts/seeds
dinner--2 hamburger patties

At crossfit we worked on technique for pull-ups and handstand push-ups. Then we did 500m rowing warm up followed by three sets of:

200m run
12 kettle bell swings
6 body rows

Today on the scale I am down to 253 lbs. Grand total of 14 lbs. Only need 6 more before I can get that new tattoo!

balance

Balance is hard for me...it's hard to balance everything. Family time, quality family time that is. Work, exercise, diet.

Today is a non-workout day for me. My ramp up session is tomorrow but I didn't really have time to run today. I worked until 6:00, came home and had dinner with the family around the table for some nice face to face time, now putting the kids in bed and it's already 8:30.

Then I'm gonna snuggle on the couch with Reese for a little bit of quality time with my wife. I'm not willing to give up family time, I can't afford to give up work time, so exercise time gets pushed to the side. I should have gone for a twenty minute run today for the last of my week 5 "couch to 5k" workouts but it aint gonna happen.

I also need to learn balance in my diet. Not sure if I'm eating too much or not enough. Any fellow crossfitters wanna fill me in?

I had two fried eggs and two small sausage patties for breakfast.

12 grapes for a snack

6 oz. filet mignon and a spinach salad for lunch

1/4 sandwich size ziploc of mixed nuts/seeds for a snack

(broke down and got a taco bell beef burrito cause I was hungry)

then for dinner had about 4-6 oz. roasted pork tenderloin and about 2 cups broccoli.

My only breakdown came late afternoon on the way home and I was hungry and couldn't seem to will myself to wait until I got home and grabbed a burrito.

I need enough protein to fuel the body change, but not too much to make it slow going, and not too little to make me prone to eat too much of the wrong things.

Guess I'll keep on working and spending time with my family, keep hitting crossfit at least 3 times a week and try to get in as many runs as I can while I keep tweaking the eating.

Post Labor Day

Ok...first potential roadblock on my body transformation journey has come and gone. Labor Day and at least three parties that I can remember.

It all began with our 10th annual Harding Street block party. I was able to avoid grains completely eating my brat and burger without the bun and enjoying the spinach strawberry salad that I took. I did consume a bit of wheat with the few beers I had and I couldn't avoid sugar altogether as I had two brownies.

Sunday morning we had a breakfast party at our house which had plenty of protein only but I did give in and have some breakfast pie. Great eggs and sausage, but with cheese in a pie crust as well and I must admit I had a half of the cinnamon apple french toast that I made for the party.

Fast Forward to my parents house last evening and I did quite well avoiding the grains, didn't have any. Probably had too much protein though as I had a small pork chop, a burger patty and hot dog all bunless. Oops...I did have some corn on the cob, but only 1/4 of the cob and I did give in and have some peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream.

I forgot to weigh before breakfast, but after breakfast the scale says I gained 1.1 lbs. Back on track, had egg and sausage for breakfast and have already grilled my filet for lunch along with my spinach salad and packed nuts and grapes for snacks during the day. Charis will be roasting a pork tenderloin with veggies for dinner. I'm working late so probably won't get in a workout but back to Crossfit tomorrow.

New adventure

So...any of you that read my "Manhood Plan" knows that I'm interested in making lasting changes in my life. That plan outlined ways that I want to be the father and husband I'm intended by God to be. It included spiritual, emotional, discipline, financial.....and physical. See, I want to be around for my great grandchildren. And, I would like to be active and able to have fun with them, maybe even still be able to play with them. One of the goals I have is...

-I will continue striving to maintain healthy diet and proper exercise in order to maintain my health and longevity allowing me to serve my family into my great grandchildren's generation.

Well...half-hearted attempts have been made to this end. I've eaten "ok" sporadically but not with any continuity. Recently I decided to follow the couch to 5k training program. Just today I completed run two of week 5 which consisted of an 8 minute run, 5 minute cool off walk followed by another 8 minute run. I was able to do this in a rather hilly (by hilly I mean uphill...both ways) and completed 1.65 miles. My next run is supposed to be 20 minutes running with no walking. Ouch...we'll see how that goes.

But, more importantly, I have recently been subjecting myself to a strangely satisfying torure called crossfit fire. I must get in shape and stay that way.

Before I joined crossfit I set a goal to lose 20 lbs. with the reward of a new tattoo. I lost 10 lbs. pretty quickly then hit a wall with my own efforts. I started at 267 lbs. and dropped to 257 over a month or more. I have been through one week of Cross Fit and dropped another 2 lbs. to leave me sitting at 255 lbs.

I have joined the cross fit Better Body Challenge. As soon as I'm able too I'll download my "before" picture so you can all get a good giggle. I'll be posting my progress along the way so you can keep up with it and send me some encouragement every now and then.

Nashty smells made good

I was reading Romans last week and in the first chapter there is a list of all the awful things people were doing. It's a long list

I have often looked at this from an "inside looking out" viewpoint. I'm on the inside looking at all the awful things Godless people do. As God often does...he changed my viewpoint. See, the text says...

"FOR ALTHOUGH THEY KNEW GOD, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened..." It then goes on to list all of the awful things people were doing.

It's still a long list.

What struck me is that these were people who KNEW GOD. They knew him...they just failed to glorify him and failed to give him thanks. And the lack of these two actions/attitudes led them to a place of futile thinking and darkened hearts. The long list of atrocities are things that I don't want to have anything to do with...but they are as close to me as my failure to glorify and give thanks.

The irony here is that these things lead to death...but the only way to avoid them is to die.

Assuming that the failure is the lack of glorifying and thanking, the question is how do we glorify and give thanks? Thanks giving is fairly understandable...but how do we bring glorifying God into our everyday life?

It actually has a lot to do with death.

My good friend Alex preached tonight from John 11 and the death of Lazarus. He pointed out that after Jesus was informed that Lazarus was sick...he stayed where he was for two more days allowing Lazarus to die. Alex talked about the disappointment that was evident in Martha and Mary's reaction when they saw Jesus. They both in frustration and anguish said "If you had been here my brother would not have died"

Alex pointed out that we all have had deep disappointments in God when he didn't show up in a situation when we wanted him to. He asked for specific examples among the congregation. We heard things like I prayed for my marriage to be restored and it wasn't....My mother has battled sickness for 13 years....My nephew died after 42 days of life....my friends haven't come to know Christ. Why doesn't he show up sometimes?

Could it be that he wants us to die? It certainly appears so. He told the disciples that this situation was "for God's glory so that God's son may be glorified through it." Aren't we told that if we are to share in Christ's glory we must also share in his suffering? Aren't we told that to live is Christ and to die is gain?

Lazarus died so Jesus could bring him back to life...thus being glorified.

We need to glorify God to avoid the darkening of our hearts which leads to atrocities in our life.

We need to die to glorify God.

We must die daily.

I feel like the last year and a half for my family has been deadly. Many of our plans died. Much of our stuff died. Our pride definitely died. We have been through a dying process.

But I have decided that if this death serves to glorify God...and keep me close to his heart so my own isn't darkened...then I can stand to stay in the grave for four days before he calls me out.

I bet Lazarus was glad that even though he was in the grave, perhaps in purgatory for four days, rotting and decaying and smelling horrible....he was probably forever grateful that his circumstance brought glory to God and that his NASHTY SMELLS WERE MADE GOOD.

How Michael Jackson inspired me to talk to God

I suppose everyone is reacting to the death of Michael Jackson in different ways. Some are saddened, some are irreverant in their jokes, others are upset that his death upstaged Farah Fawcett's passing, others aren't affected in any way whatsoever.

I must admit, while I respect his musical genius and incredible dance moves that I desparately wanted to imitate as a kid, (I secretly believe I never mastered the moonwalk because my family couldn't afford the smokin' awesome red parachute pants) I have been in the latter group. The one that is largely unaffected. Until this morning that is.

See, the last couple of days I've been dealing with a frustration at work. There are two areas that I'm responsible for. One of those areas is excelling, beating expectations. The other area is struggling. So much so that my boss has been having some serious conversations with me about how to fix it SOON or there could be consequences. Now when it's all said and done..the "consequences" aren't that grave, they would probably serve to benefit me, but it's a frustration that things aren't going as I would like them to.

I had to admit to my boss that I have probably taken the stance that I often take in my personal life. That is, to not spend a lot of effort getting better at weaknesses, but focus my energy on my strengths as that is where I will find success. The glaringly obvious problem with this is that we never improve our weaknesses.

Well, back to Michael Jackson. As was to be expected radio stations were filling the airwaves with his tunes. The one that struck me was his hit song, "Man In The Mirror" Some of the lyrics include:

I've been the victim of a selfish kind of love

That's why I'm starting with the man in the mirror

I'm askin him to change his ways

And no message could have been any clearer

If you wanna make the world a better place

Take a look at yourself and then make a change

See, this struck me so much that I turned off the radio and began to talk to God. I had been trying to figure out how to motivate the people around me to get better at the areas at work I'm responsible for. God reminded me of a book a family friend, Tom Mullins, wrote. The book is called The King's Heart and is based on the verse in Proverbs 21:1 which says "the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord" and God uses these King's, authority figures, to guide us in his favor. He challenges the reader to take cues from our earthly authority figures to better understand how our relationship with The King is doing.

When Michael Jackson told me to look at the man in the mirror I realized that my troubles at work are a reflection of an area in my life that is displeasing to God. When I asked Him to show me, He showed me that I'm not placing proper emphasis on spending time with Him and in His Word. And that as a result, I'm categorizing my life. There is work, there is family and there is spiritual. He wants me to merge all of these together and give my all at work and with my family as a way to honor him.

I was in a meeting where the Hall of Fame and all time Chicago Bears leading tackler, Mike Singletary, was speaking. He was also encouraging the men in the room to step it up and be the men we are called to be in our heart, our family and our workplace.

I have always said that when we work, we aren't working for our boss or our company but for God. When we have this mentality, we will do our best to honor him. At least we should do our best. I realized today as I looked at the man in the rearview mirror that I have been guilty of not working for God. I have been looking around me at my difficulties rather than working hard. My job has an unlimited upside potential for income. I'm not hindered by a salary, I can make as much money as I am able to make. I haven't been excelling which means I've only been working for me, to pay my bills and put a little in savings for a rainy day. I'm not working for those reasons. The long term goal of my career is to have my family taken care of in a way that I can respond to ANYTHING God wants me to do without financial reasons holding me back. But, I haven't been working with the kind of fervor necessary to do this.

So...long story short, God is the ultimate glass cleaner that makes the mirror crystal clear so we can truly see the Man In The Mirror if we dare to take The King of Pop's advice and allow the King of Kings to show us what He wants us to deal with.

Do you dare look in the mirror?

Ponderings on the Church and the Rock it was built upon

When Peter made his declaration that He belived Jesus was the Son of God...Jesus named him Peter (rock) and said "on this rock I will build my church"

Why Peter?

Dude did stupid stuff all the time. Said the wrong things, tried to stop Jesus from his destiny, messed up so bad on one occassion that Jesus called him Satan. Tried to kill a Roman Soldier....even messed that up and only cut his ear off. Denied Jesus three times the evening he was arrested. Messed up the walking on water thing. He is well known for always putting his foot in his mouth. Why would Jesus choose him?

Tonight at fusion church my friend Mark preached on the miracle of Jesus walking on water. He made a great point about that miracle. You see...I never really saw the point of that miracle...but Jesus never did, and never does, anything randomly or without purpose. Mark pointed out that Jesus sent the disciples on ahead of him and told him he would meet them in the town across the lake. Then in the middle of the lake, a huge storm came up...to the point that all 12 of the men in the boat were terrified and were sure they were going to sink. Add to this...they see a figure coming towards them walking on top of the water and they all thought it was a ghost.

You see...in the ancient world....water, specifically large bodies of it...created great fear among people. It was the great unknown...there were no scientific expedition submarines to explore the mysteries of the deep. They were a mystery...and a terrifying one at that. Tales of great sea monsters...like the leviathin in the book of Job were enough to keep even the bravest fisherman close to shore.

The interesting thing is...the point of the miracle...was to show these guys that Jesus had total dominion and authority over their greatest fears. That compared to Him...their fears were a literal walk in the park (or the pond as the case may be) He showed up literally walking on top of their fears.

Then, Peter says, "if it's really you, tell me to come join you"

Side note...I don't think Peter was very smart. I mean...if Jesus HAD been a flesh eating beast from the depths trying to trick them...and Peter said that...wouldn't the beast have just said "uh, Peter, get out of the boat"..I don't know..doesn't seem like the greatest truth gathering strategy to me.

Anyway...Jesus says get out of the boat.....and I'll be danged if Peter didn't do it. Got out of the boat to get into the thing that he was most scared of!!! I think that is why Jesus wanted to build his church on that rock. Cause it takes ACTION!!! Perhaps as a modern church...we should look back and take a lesson from Peter. Jesus wants action...doesn't want us sitting in the boat scared of what' s gonna happen...He wants us to get out there with him. I can relate to Peter....he was the only one of the 12 that was inspired to step it up and pursue greatness. But...just the way I do....He panicked and couldn't sustain.

Sure is encouraging that Jesus still wanted to establish His church on this rock.

The great ending to the story is that after Jesus' crucifixion...Peter and the disciples went back to what they knew....fishing. When Jesus rose from the tomb he went out to the shore. From the boat Peter immediately recognized Jesus (didn't need reassurance this time) and that sucker jumped off the boat just like Forest Gump when he saw Lieutenant Dan on the pier. He knew he could walk on water if he kept his eyes on Jesus.

Problem was he didn't walk on water. He sank.

He had the same inspired leap of faith....then he encountered the same "failure" as before. Only this time he didn't get back in the boat....he just swam to Jesus. He realized it didn't matter what his approach looked like, as long as he was moving towards Jesus. Maybe we need to swim thru resistance and perceived failure and remember that our goal is to move towards Jesus at all costs.

Sounds like the actions of a rock worth building a church on.

Joshua Q's with no real A's

Just a few rapid fire questions from Chapter Two of the Book of Joshua. Random thoughts, let me know what you think the answers are for my questions and wonderings.

-Why did Joshua "secretly" send the spies. I mean...the very nature of a spy is secrecy, so why did he have to secretly send the spies who are suppossed to be secret anyhow? Who was he keeping the secret from? Was there spies amongst the Israelites? Just seems redundant....secretly sending spies.

-Verse 2 = maybe this is why he was trying to keep it a secret....turns out the spies weren't very good at secrecy

- Why had the prostitute already hidden the spies when the authorities came to the door? What made her feel compelled to hide them before the perception of danger?

- Verse 10 and 11 says they had heard of what God had done and they were in fear....this one will make sense in a moment

- Verse 12....She wanted a sure sign that she would be spared. Think the demand of a contract was just the nature of her business?

- Verse 14....If God had already promised to give them the land...what was the purpose of all the secrecy in the first place?

- Does the scarlet chord tied on the window seem slightly reminiscent of another moment folks were spared by something red on their door frame?

- Verse 22...Maybe it's because Easter is still so fresh on my mind...but do you think there is any significance to the fact that the spied hid for 3 nights in the woods before returning to their home?

- Verse 24...Remember verse 10 and 11? The people were scared because they had heard what God had done....why are they now taking credit?


What do you think...Got any answers to my random questions?

Oh The Plans of Men and Their Feet

Ever have really good ideas but don't run with them? Ever have really bad ideas and run too far with them? I think that LeBron James was absolutely accurate when on 60 minutes he said "You can't be afraid to fail, you have to take the next shot"

I also believe that often we spend too much time and energy trying to make something successful that was never meant to be succesful.

Joshua 1:3 is an oft quoted text. "I will give you every place where you set your foot" Sounds inspiring...gives us courage and a backbone to step out in faith and conquer the enemy....throw a rock at goliath, march around a city, face the giants etc.

Ever get that courage...step out...and get your butt handed to you and run back to God and holler "BUT YOU SAID YOU WOULD GIVE ME EVERY PLACE WHERE I SET MY FOOT!!"

Hmm....contextual reading sure is important. Verse 1-2 actually tell Josuah where to go...and verse 4 actually spells out the boundaries. "from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river Euphrates, to the Great Sea on the West" God actually said....here is where you are to put your feet....and by the way...I will give you every place where you set your feet.

Our problem is, we often fail to listen to the guidelines, the instructions on where to place our feet. We run off, stomp the ground...do a magic dance, click our heels together and instruct those around us that it's gonna work cause it's where we planted our feet. Meanwhile...God is looking for someone who can hear his voice and understand where He wants you to plant your feet so he can give it to you.

We gotta slow down and listen sometimes and maybe failure won't be such a frequent visitor.

Whatcha think?

A shooting in first grade!!!! Really???

So, my 1st grader was assigned to do a project that involved heroes, celebration, flag and landmarks. So my wife (oops, I mean Josiah) did a great shadow box with a firework celebration, the statue of liberty and a group of American soldiers guarding an American Flag (from a pirate no less...only because we dont have a toy plastic Bin Laden).

Well....here's where the fun begins. Josiah came home with his toy soldiers in
a ziploc bag.

So...I called the teacher to inquire....because inquiring minds want to know. What follows is a transcript of the conversation, complete with my unspoken thoughts in italics.

ME: "This is Josiah's father. His toy soldiers came home in a ziploc bag today, I was just wondering if there were any problems?"

TEACHER: "Yeah...by the way, Josiah did a great job on his project"

MY BRAIN: kudos honey, you did a great job on that 1st grade project

TEACHER: "he displayed it to the whole class and I was very proud of him"

MY SARCASTIC BRAIN: okay lady, cut the crap and let's get to the ridiculous answer I know is coming

TEACHER: "We sent the soldiers home because...well, they have guns"

VERY SARCASTIC BRAIN: REALLY?! THE SOLDIERS DEFENDING OUR FREEDOM ACTUALLY HAD GUNS!!!! OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE I MADE SUCH A COLOSSAL MISTAKE TO SEND SOMETHING TRUTHFUL TO SCHOOL!! Really?? that's a national security issue that the 1/2 inch plastic soldiers are carrying 1 cm, plastic, bent guns? I should have made sure to break the guns off and send them to school carrying snowballs CAUSE THAT'S HOW OUR SOLDIERS DEFENDED THE FLAG AT IWO FREAKIN JIMA!!!

ME: "Well, they are American Soldiers (repeat the rant from above) and I'm concerned about the message we send Josiah when mom and dad are teaching him that our soldiers are heroes and they are the reason we have a freedom to protect in the first place....yet those soldiers aren't able to make an appearance at school"

TEACHER: "I understand, we are just worried that at this age, the boys especially...

REALLY IRRITATED BRAIN: BECAUSE ALL BOYS ARE CREATED EVIL AND STUPID?

TEACHER: ....won't be able to differntiate between real and make believe."

SARCASTIC MASCULINE BRAIN: Wow lady, you grew up without any brothers didn't you?

RATIONAL ME: "I understand and appreciate the fine line you have to walk at the school and I'm not really upset, I just believe this was handled in an overly sensitive manner and want my concern to be duly noted"

TEACHER: "I understand what you're saying, and I wouldn't ever try to tell a person what they should allow in their home...

MY "WATCH OUT YOU MIGHT CROSS THE LINE HERE" BRAIN: YOU ARE *@#* RIGHT YOU WON'T!!

TEACHER: but at school we really can't allow guns.

BRAIN: Even tiny plastic ones held by tiny plastic solders?

TEACHER: In fact, I've had some problems with some of the boys in the class not being able to differentiate between real and make believe this year when it comes to guns"

RESTRAINED BRAIN SLIPPING INTO SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE SETH MEYERS BRAIN:

REALLY????????? THERE HAS BEEN A SHOOTING IN THE FIRST GRADE CLASS THAT I DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT?Really???You mean to tell me a kid brought a 9 mm to school and shot one of the other kids because he couldn't differentiate between real and make believe???!!! Really??? How did I not hear about this? I would think Josiah would have come home and said "dad, you won't believe what happened today!" Really??? How did it not make the news, what kind of cover up is this? I would have pulled my kid out of school for counseling if I'd have known about it. No note home from the teacher or anything? Really???

I mean really....I grew up playing American vs. Russian, cops vs. robbers, cowboys and indians and just plain old shoot each other with anything you can find, including a chicken nugget bitten into the shape of a gun for heavens sake. I can assure you, when I met my first Russian friend...I didn't shoot him!! I never became a vigilante and hunted bad guys, I never shot an Indian and real bullets never came out of my chicken nuggets!!!!

Really???!!!! we're worried kids are stupid enough to shoot each other for real cause they don't know the difference? Heck, we even had bb gun wars as a kid and we knew that they would hurt but not kill. I even made my little brothers stand still and let me shoot them in the butt with the bb guns, but Really!!! I never pulled the 12 gauge down not knowing the difference between reality and make believe and shot either of them in the butt!!!

Really?? my kid can't take a small toy soldier to school? This is insane!

RATIONAL HEATH: "Well, thank you for your time, I still think it was handled in an overly sensitive manner. Have a nice day"

REALLY??

What's in a Name

My name is mentioned in the Bible only twice, in Jeremiah 17 and 48 and it is referenced as a curse. However, it is one of only a few plants with the ability to produce fruit, or to bloom a flower in desert conditions...so it's actually a pretty cool meaning and I'm proud of it and grateful that God sees me that way.

Charis' name means God's Grace and she is full of it. (grace that is)

Karston's name comes from the root Christos which means anointed and was a name given to Christ, it then came to be translated Christian and finally Karston.

Josiah was the youngest and most righteous King in Israel.

Alyssa's name comes from the French form of the Germanic name Adelheidis which is composed of the elements "noble" and "kind". It then progressed to Adelaide, then Alice then Alicia before becoming Alyssa.

I think meanings of names have great significance.

In my Men's Fraternity meeting this morning (highly recommended men's study that can be found here) we discussed Adam's shortcomings in the Fall in the Garden. In Genesis 3:16 Adam names his wife "Eve" Prior to this she was referred to as "woman" While Eve means mother of all the living, it is often synonomous with seductress, or temptress. She really gets the bad rap here. The reality is....in this account of the temptation by the serpent, there isn't much mention of Adam until it says that Eve gave the fruit to Adam "who was with her". Adam wasn't off "at work while she sat at home watching soap operas and twiddling her thumbs with idle time" He WAS RIGHT THERE THE WHOLE STINKIN' TIME!!The problem here is that Adam abdicated his responsibility to REJECT PASSIVITY, TAKE RESPONSIBILTIY, LEAD COURAGEOUSLY, AND EXPECT A HIGHER REWARD. He became the epitome of passivity and apparently stood by and watched his wife be seduced into something he knew was forbidden. You can almost here inside his thoughts...."Let's see what happens here...if she dies...I bet God will make me another one. If she doesn't, then I can taste it too" Sickening.



Now Eve becomes the "bad guy" thru the ages when it was actually Adam's fault for not stepping between them like a man and shielding his wife from this danger. So...while Adam did name Eve, meaning mother of all the living, he also allowed her reputation to be tarnished, therefore he gave her the name of temptress and seductress thru his passivity.



Dad's and husbands. What are you naming your children and spouses? Are you naming them insecure? Are you naming them inadequate? Are you naming them lazy or undeserving? Or are you naming them Graceful, Anointed, Righteous, Noble and Kind allowing them to be able to flourish in any environment, even a dry desert?

Selah

The evidence of God's favor

We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I heard Bonhoeffer quoted on the radio today and have not been able to verify the quote, but it was to the effect of We must learn to rightly relate to suffering....suffering is not a curse, it is the evidence of God's loving favor upon a life.

Doesn't make sense. Or does it....it is, as mentioned in my previous vampire post, that it is promised for those that follow Christ. I understand sacrifice...I understand that Christ sacrificed for us and that we are called to sacrifice all for him. I mean, heck, we even had an entire Youth Summer Camp dedicated to the theme SACRIFICE '90! But...it turns out that to obey is better than sacrifice. What gives?

Romans 1:5 says that obedience comes thru faith. Interesting that Paul discusses bringing people to OBEDIENCE. OBEDIENCE seems to always require SACRIFICE. Either of time, will, desires, posessions, etc. OBEDIENCE to the gospel is OBEDIENCE to lay it all down, to SACRIFICE your way for his way, your life for his. It requires the SACRIFICE of your life...you are to share in the suffering and death of Christ. Seems like Paul should be calling people to SACRIFICE. Didn't the rich young ruler have to SACRIFICE his stuff?

But Paul specifies OBEDIENCE. Didn't the Old Testament (I Sam 15:22) teach us that to OBEY is better than SACRIFICE?

The OBEDIENCE part is difficult. SACRIFICE feels easy because we can measure it. We are able to accomplish it, it is immediately apparent and we can often pat ourselves on the back for "suffering for Jesus".

True OBEDIENCE tells you what, when, where how and how much to share in Christ's SACRIFICE and that kind of OBEDIENCE takes a serious amount of FAITH.

SACRIFICE is never a substitute for OBEDIENCE, but when done by FAITH, thru OBEDIENCE it can become a very spirtual act of worship.

Vampires!!!!

Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.

Ok, that's gross. It takes on a different kind of visual image after reading the Twilight series about vampires and their insatiable thirst for human blood.

Remember, the people to whom he was speaking didn't have centuries of understanding to realize that Jesus was being metaphoric here. He just straight up said...you gotta eat my flesh and drink my blood. Make a meal out of me the Message Translation says. This freaked them out a bit. In fact, the disciples responded with "This is tough teaching...too tough to swallow (I'm sure no pun intended)"

Well....there was never a promise that following Jesus would be easy. In fact...just the opposite was promised...got that? PROMISED!!

See...I've had difficulties in life but never any real HARD times.

Until lately that is. My sister-in-law, in her recent Fight Club blog wonders "Would God destroy our homes to show us what really matters? One of my friends says God is not that manipulative, but I wonder if manipulative and sovereign could be synonymous when it comes to God."

I kind of think God knows the desire of our hearts and he grants them when they line up with his will. So, even though what was visible to others about my life looked more like a typical person that wanted to gain a foot up in life and have more stuff, the reality was that my heart craved a sold out life for God. I think he saw that and began to allow the stuff... the props in my life to begin to crumble. He began destroying my "home" to show me what really mattered. When we decided to really give God control of our life and see what would happen....It got HARD. Frankly...when we decided to allow God to teach us his principles and begin living within our means, our pretty little life we had created began to turn to ashes. We have lost a car and a motorcycle to reposession. We are driving a 12 year old vehicle that was given to us and our home will either be lost to short sale or foreclosure, whichever comes first. And we will be spending up to 4 years repaying a massive amount of accrued debt while we fight the overwhelming urge to give in to the easy option of falling back into debt. We decided to stop sacrificing our future...and our current effectiveness for Christ to gain present stuff.

We are actually excited about what God is going to do with us and through us as we allow ourselves to line up with "to live is Christ and to die is gain". We are dying with the excitement of the resurrection that will follow.

We foresee current effectiveness for Christ as we live below our means...and a future of being conduits of large blessing to others as we mantain the focus of earning to give.

We sing a song at church that has a great line in the chorus..."May the vision of you be the death of me" The more we see Christ...the more we die.

I had someone recently say that they were impressed with how we are handling our present circumstances. Well, to be honest...it's not that much different than the disciples response to Jesus' call for them to become bloodsucking vampires. He asked them "will you leave too?" Their response was not laced with awe inspiring devotion. They simply said "where else do we have to go?" Have you offered your life to God for inspection and the burning away of EVERYTHING that hinders you from a sold out life for God? Are you empty enough to respond to Leonard Sweets question - "Can the church stop its puny, hack dreams of trying to "make a difference in the world" and start dreaming God-sized dreams of making the world different? Can the church invent and prevent, redeem and redream this future?"

Has your life been stripped to the point of truly having no other option but to throw yourself headlong and wholeheartedly into HIS vision for your life? To say...what other option do I have but you and all of you?

It hurts....but in the words of John Mellencamp...."It hurts so good"

Do you have the faith to obey? Rom 1:5

The Long Awaited Presidential Fatherhood Blog

Whether a kid can recognize or not...or be willing to admit it or not, he wants the approval of his Father. I have learned that kids need to hear 3 things. I love you. I'm proud of you. And...You're good at (fill in the blank). It's important to know your father believes these three things about you.

There have obviously been study after study shown about the importance of a father in the life of his son and absentee fathers are to blame for a lot of the problems in our nations and prisons. However, it's important to note that many fathers are present in their children's lives and it doesn't make a difference in their son's behavior..or a father is absent and the son goes on to live a fruitful and productive life of greatness.

Newsweek magazing has dwelt on an important observation recently regarding Barack Obama and John McCain. All presidents for that matter. The magazing has observed that most presidents had either an absent father or a high achieving powerful father figure. And in Barack's case... a little of both.

The issue isn't really pertinent to the current presidential debate, but does make me wonder why it is that presidents seem to be spawned from either absent fathers of powerful fathers. The obvious observation is that those with absent fathers are trying desparately to prove their value and worth apart from that upbringing. Almost as if to say "see I can do it on my own I didn't need you anyway" in order to mask the pain of the absence. And those with a powerful father figure seem to be trying desparately to live up to those expectations...either real or imagined.

The core issue though...is what are you as a father (or mother, cousin, uncle, mentor, friend) doing to make sure someone can look up to you and use your example as a launching pad into greatness. It also highlights the importance you have to those that look to you.

Jacob and Esau were desparately fighting for approval from their father. They both wanted the blessing of their father (there were monetary ramifications of this, but at the core, they wanted the approval of their father). They also wanted to please their father. Esau, in Genesis 28, found that his parents would be displeased if his brother married a Caananite. Esau then went, and in addition to his other wives, married a grandaughter of Abraham in order to garner their pleasure. Even as an adult, he was willing to go to great lengths to receive approval from his father.

Are you living a life worthy of having someone seek your approval? Are you allowing those over whom you have influence to be able to reflect off of you and become greatness? I urge you to understand the impact you have. Be a present AND powerful influence in the lives of your children. Live in a way that they can become presidential. That they can be "impacters" in the Kingdom of God as they live as ambassadors in this worldly kingdom. They can be great....but a lot of it depends on your life.

Persistence

I was listening to the Mack, Jurko and Harry show on ESPN 1000 radio the other day. Once a week they have Cubs second basemen Mark Derosa (De row) on the show.

He has become well known in Chicago for not avoiding questions and always having great stories to share. He was responding to a question regarding pitcher Ted Lilly. He recalled a playoff game last year when a particular player went yard on Ted Lilly and Lilly responded in a Bad News Bears-esque manner throwing his mitt on the ground. Early this year Lilly was facing the same hitter and delivered an identical low, inside fast ball and was taken long again. DeRosa approached the mound and said "last year he took you deep on a low inside pitch. He just did it again. I think he has your low inside stuff figured out." Lilly just scowled at him and said "I'm bringing it again next time I face him!"

Often, pitchers like Lilly are described as Bulldogs. Reminds me of a story my dad tells about an English Bulldog he had as a kid. It would go in the pig pen and bite the Boar on the tale. The boar would spin in circles, lifting the bulldog off his feet, and slam the bulldog into the side of the barn. The bulldog would hit the ground and in one leap would have the boar's tail in his mouth again.

There is something about stupid persistence that is quite noble sometimes. Like my friend, Scott's father who would pack his lunch, walk to work every morning and return home every evening in order to support his family. Or my friend Thad, who was too stubborn to give in to his disability but steadfastly, persistently held on to God's promise of healing and left the wheelchair and is still independent to this day. Maybe it's like my old Bible College friend I recently reconnected with that has lived his life in a massive struggle of identity of self and reconciling that to his faith. Who has made the courageous decision to truly deny himself, against seemingly every fiber of his being, and offer his body as a living sacrifice to God. Or perhaps the inner city worker who sees one young person after another succumb to his surroundings only to get up another day and work with yet another young person that might be spared. Maybe it's the single mom who gives her life to her children and sets aside all her desires and comforts to provide for them. Maybe it's like Jacob who was deceived and cheated yet was too persistent to give up and worked another 7 years for his true love Rachel. Maybe it's my son Karston who gets up every day and goes through a routine of medications and interruptions in his day just to function with his disability. Maybe it's what I need to remember and learn from my son, that I just need to get up every day and keep on grinding, because the blessing is in store.

How about you? In what area of your life do you need to just keep firing low inside fastballs regardless of how many times life takes you yard? Do you have the courage to be a stupid, persistent bulldog? Let me know how and where you can be more bulldogish in your life.

Me And Animals Part II

So....here is the end of the story, the part which prompted my wife to incorrectly and slanderously claim that I "flailed my arms like a girl".

My grandmother, Nanoo (yep, the one who's cow attacked me) is visiting for several weeks. So, we were over to visit. We had a nice meal on the patio and hung out for a while and ended the evening by watching a movie. It was quite late and I had to be at work the next day so we began loading up our crew to go. All of the kids were either asleep or very tired and it's become a bit of a tradition for my parents to carry the kids out to the van and buckle them in and do hugs and kisses. So, my father was walking out the front door carrying my 6 year old Josiah and I was right behind them. They went out the door first and I was right behind them when my dad looked at the door jamb and said "Oh look there's a frog" So, I looked. And this is when it all began. You see, I have a real issue with small critters. I would rather face the cow all over again than a charging squirrel. Thanks to Alfred Hitchcock I have a real issue with birds flying too close to me out of fear that they will either peck my eyeballs out while I lie squirming on the ground, or that they will steal something valuable of mine like the peacock in Florida that stole my giant chocloate chip cookie when I was a kid. When I was a teenager our cat chased a chipmunk into the house and I nearly lost all control of my bladder.

I would say that given the choice I would rather wrestle a Kodiak bear the size of Gentle Ben than have to deal with an angry bunny rabbit.

So...that should give some context to the rest of the story.

As I see this frog crawling up the door jamb from the corner of my eye my dad says "Ooh (which was a bit girlie in my opinion) it's a rat" OOHHH MMMYYYY GGGGOOODDD there's a rat within a foot of me and it's just high enough on the doorjamb to facilitate an easy leap onto my head to bore into my ear and feast on my brain while I die a slow painful neurologically torturous death. Granted...it's the size of a tree frog but PLEASE can't I choose to have a pregnant angry cow charging me??!!! If that freaking thing would have touched me I would have died an unintentionally self inflicted death in my efforts to escape it's blood soaked fangs!

Well...this is where there are a few different versions of the story. Everybody at the house (isn't it amazing how everyone but me can be completely mistaken on the actual facts of the story?) They all say I screamed in a high pitched tone as I spun in a circle flapping my arms. Really now...does that sound like me?

Here is the reality. In a moment of bravery and clarity, I managed to escape the throes of death at the claws of a vicious rodent.

The high pitched scream was really a Braveheart-esque war cry.

The spinning in a circle and flapping my arms is a gross misunderstanding of athleticism. All real men out there understand the swim move that Warren Sapp so aptly mastered and displayed for all Defensive Tackles the world over. See, my father and 6 year old son had me pinned in as a buffer between them and the beast. Now...I love my son and all but really...how can I leave a legacy if a R.O.U.S. (rodent of unusual size) has severed my jugular? So...I had to think of myself first.

I had the most flawless technique. With the left hand I slapped my father in the head to throw him off guard while simultaneously stepping through his block by completing a swim stroke with my right hand and in a feat of true beauty busted a spin move springing me clear of all danger. Remember....a war cry and a beautiful, athletic, brutal swim/spin move.

I then stood back about 20 feet while he killed the little critter with a shovel.

Gotta stay on your toes WHEN ANIMALS ATTACK!!!!!

Come on, lets show them a solid front, leave a comment acknowledging what a brave and stunning specimen of a man I am.

Me and Animals Part I

So, this is a repost of a blog I put on myspace after a mishap on the farm....(Yes Richard and all you Liberty you Bahama trip alums...the cows finally got their revenge.

This should be good for a laugh or two.
When we were on vacation a few weeks ago, we stopped in B'ham and stayed with some good friends and had lunch with a few more. While there I played football. Didn't get hurt like my good friend James. From there we went to Florida and swam in the outdoor pool and waded in the ocean in early December and petted and fed alligators. Didn't get sick or bitten. We then drove to Georgia to my grandparents farm to visit my grandmother. There we swam in the nasty pond in December, shot 9mm, .45 handguns and several rifles. Didnt' get sick or the funk from the pond. Didn't get snake bit and didn't get shot. But....my wife and I were taking a early morning walk around the farm with the baby and the two dogs. We were walking thru the cow pasture (beef cows, not used to a lot of human interaction) and enjoying the little fiasco created by two beagles who have never seen cows and about 25 cows who have never seen dogs. Now...there were a few pregnant cows and a couple brand new baby cows...but I've been going there all my life and think I'm a pretty good judge of a cow's character. Some of the cows were very upset and agressive, but when they would charge me instead of the dog's, I would act real big and throw my hands up and yell at them to get away....which they do. A very fine tactic if you ever find yourself on the receiving end of bluffing cattle. Some of the cows would be downright mean and I would chase them off before they could misbehave, others were very friendly and I would let them approach and would scratch their head or feed them from my hand.
Well...one particularly large pregnant cow (about 2000-2500 lbs.) approached and I could tell she was friendly (remember I'm good at judging the character of cattle ha ha) she came right up to me, and as I was reaching out to pet her, she lowered her head and charged me before I could react. She slammed into my knees with her head (right knee still hurts and is stiff) then lifted her head quite agressively into my groin. This not only hurt enormously, but sent my flying on to her back, backwards, and slammed my head into her shoulder blade. (felt like I had been punched above my eye for a week). I'm now laying on this cow backwards, my wife screaming for the cow to "stop it" and both dogs barking and howling. The cow proceeds to run with me riding backwards on it's neck feeling quite confused and instinctivelly punching it in the ribs, which, as it's a 2500 lb. cow, is less effective as the aforementioned tactic of acting big, throwing hands up and yelling. It then wants to punish me for taking this ride and runs head first into a barbed wire fence which managed to not only cut my leg up, but hurt the cow and make her angry thinking that I was the one poking her in the head. She then proceeds to throw me through the air sideways landing on my butt between her and my wife holding my 8 month old baby. Now that she's not blindfolded by my crotch and can see the source of her discomfort, she feels it's her maternal duty to charge my with the intent of stomping me to China. Luckily, I got off one good punch that caught her behind the ear causing her to wince in pain and turn in the other direction.
All this to say, I now think it unwise to play Dr. Phil in analyzing the intentions of beef, and just stay away from cows when there is no protective barrier.
See..you're laughin' out loud now aren't you?

I know you're thinking of some interesting comments to leave for me.....leave them and wait a few days for my most recent adventure with "wild" animals.....and remember, no matter what my wife says, there was no "girlie flailing" of the arms.

Still Gotta Be a Father on Father's Day!

So...it is Father's day and I've already been a bit spoiled. Got snuggle time and breakfast in bed from the kids. Got a Best Dad Ever certificate and received a coupon book for fun stuff from Reese and the kids that are redeemable throughout the rest of the year. But, I've been reminded that I can't really take Father's day off.

See, my ideal rainy father's day is, after lunch of course...falling asleep on the couch while watching Chicago beat Toronto

And a little US Open action.

However, the kids really want me to watch Waterhorse with them so it looks like rather than sleeping to the sound of the crack of bats and the hushed tone of Open commentators, I'll be sleeping to the sound of the Loch Ness monster.

What will you be doing to enjoy your family today and more importantly allow your family to enjoy you?

Financial Legacy (Part 1 of 12)

If you remember, part of my "Manhood Plan", my strategy to be the husband and father I've been called to be in order to effect a long term legacy on my family, is

-I desire to reach financial freedom for my family in order to pursue God's callings without encumberance. To this end I will continue seeking God for his will with our money, finding ways to free more money to reduce debt sooner.

Dave Ramsey states it well when he says: "If you will live like no one else, Later you can LIVE/give like no one else!!"

To this end, Charis and I have begun a 12 week study by Dave Ramsey called Financial Peace University. It is encouraged that we journal our progress so I thought this would be as good a place as any.

It seems as though, although our income has increased, our ability to save has decreased. Some of this is due to our reliance on credit cards when my commission-only business was getting started, some of this is due to our buying a house and drastically increasing our housing expense. But, most of all, it is a mindset and excuse. The point was made that if our child were going to die unless he received a $1,000 vaccination, we would find a way to come up with that thousand. Good point. Dave recommends several baby steps, the first of which is to save $1,000 in an "emergency" fund. We have decided to take this first baby step although it doesn't seem possible with our current expense/income ratio. I currently have $50 deducted from my paycheck twice a month. We will continue to do this, but add a few things to this. We have decided to TRY to decrease our grocery/food budget from $700 a month to $400 freeing up $300. This will be quite a challenge of frugality, creativity and discipline in order to feed a family of 5 (and 2 dogs) on $100 a week. Also...I have TEMPORARILY postponed my 401(k) contributions and will re-route that into savings as well which will provide an additional $230ish a month. At this rate, if we can stick to it (could use your prayers for God's provision on that one) we will have our first baby step completed in 6 1/2 weeks. Currently we have 5% of our goal completed.