LOST STARTS on January 31st, NOT February!
The TV gods have been pleased by something…
Okay, not life changing, but exciting!
Year: 2007
Flying time
Boy time is flying by….
Thanksgiving – done
Christmas – done
New Years – less than a week
Trip to Poland – just over 1 month (still need $$)
Baby Emma – March 30th… coming soon!
Come dream with me…
So I’ve been thinking about the future a lot recently. Dreaming of tram riding and central radiator heating as a part of every-day life. Thinking of speaking in a language far removed from my native tongue. But most of all, envisioning following Christ on a daily basis in Krak
The season
I could go on about the stereo type Christmas that many Americans try to adhere to. I could go on about the Christmas I try to adhere to. But I will not. Instead I want to simply give a public thank you to everyone that made it our Christmas party tonight. I wish we had been able to get the word out to more people, as there were many that simply didn’t know, and I wish that those that couldn’t make it, could have.
Christmas is a season about celebrating friends, family, and the fact that we are all brought together by God in special ways. The miracle I saw tonight was many people under one roof, with incredibly different backgrounds, some with ugly pasts, others with amazing pasts, and some that have randomly come together through God’s providence on our lives.
At some point or another some of these people are ones that I have either been annoyed by, frustrated with, or would have rather “un-invited” in the past. But today I celebrated the fact that we were all together, enjoying one-another, loving on-another, and most of all simply having meaningful fun.
Something about consistency
5 Years ago I was fairly flaky about things… the only constant was being with friends
4 Years ago I began getting serious about tithing
3 Years ago I began getting serious about offerings
2 Years ago I began creating boundaries for my day
1 Year ago I got serious about making priorities a reality
Out of all of this, I have always had what I needed, always made it through the hard times, always had wise council through confusion and have always been able to see through the fog.
Becoming consistent in life with my words, thoughts, and actions and making my yes be yes, and my no be no, has brought nothing but peace and love into my life. I never waver on the things I listed above, and the less I waver about life the less messy life is.
Mornings
Well I am going to finally decalre an official miracle has happened in my life. The super-natural event doesn’t come with much fanfare, except that in my own life it’s been amazing.
I’ve been reading, learning, and journaling from my Bible every weekday morning for over a month now! This is the longest and most consistent I’ve ever been.
A little over a month ago a buddy of mine who just recently went through a divorce asked me to join him for his morning coffee time at a Starbucks near by… at first my flesh freaked out 6:30 in the morning! No way.
But then I was convincted, because here I am saying no to two things. 1. My need and desire to be in the Word of God more often. and 2. A time to fellowship, encourage, and be encouraged by a fellow brother on a regular basis.
So I said yes.
Thankfully it was the day that the clocks changed, so it felt to my body like it was 7:30 instead of 6:30… 😛 Good time to start… but that whole spring forward thing will suck 😛
The greatest gift to give someone.
Your story.
Not the abridged version.
Telling people your full life story and iluminating the areas where God’s hand is on it, is, in my opinion, of the best gifts a person could recieve.
The story of how God touches our lives is one of the most touching things a person could hear.
The good, the bad, and the ugly.
More to come.
February trip update….
Not sure who is actually reading this these days… But I know those that do will pray and spread the word.
We have raised about $1,000 out of the $3,200 that we need. We’ll be there for 10 days in late February serving at a retreat in the snow-covered mountains in the south. Essentially we just need $20 from the 120 people that recieve my updates… I haven’t sent out an update yet… but be praying for this. Thanks!
What is faith?
In my observation of the 20 something group of people here in America there seems to be a slight lack, or at least an apathy towards faith. We speak it, we talk about it, we sometimes do things by faith. But do we live by it? Do we truly say “I know God has this for me so will live towards that promise”? Most of the time I hear “I don’t really know what God wants” or “God promised me this, but first I ned to… (fill in the blank, job, house, family, etc)”, I am just as guilty as the next.
I want to live by faith, I want to make it a point that everything I do is about what God has promised me. In my case, God has called my family to Poland, to disciple, train up, and equip. So, what are we doing while we wait for the departure day? We’re leading a small group, encouarging, discipling, training and equipping. We’re co-leading our young adult’s group doing the same. Therefore everything we do and say is exactly what we’ll be doing in Poland.
How do we know when we’ll be leaving? When the people we have submitted ourselves to, the ones that help equip and disciple us, release us and commission us and ordain us. There’s a process, don’t quote me on this, but I believe it took Paul 7 years before he went on his first trip. While Alexis and I have been to Poland for a combined total of nearly 16 months of “in country time” we know that for us to move there we have things here in our “Jurusalem” to take care of and God will provide. We know it, and we strive to live it.
It’s going to be a long week…
Alexis is in Frankfurt until next Monday…. 7 days without her. Not long when compared to the first year we were apart and across the world from each other. But it’s the longest since we’ve been married and it’s significant with her being pregnant and all.
Thankfully I have a lot of friends to go do things with, and a lot of things around the house that I want to work on. There’s a feeling of some kind of expectancy for this week, I believe it’ll be spiritual… So that sounds cool!
More later… I’ve got the time and the thoughts flowing in.