The Voice In Your Head

Yesterday while I was working I got a message from Facebook that said I was invited to participate in a get-to-know-you chain letter kind of thing.  They call them Meme’s, and essentially they are a “do this and send it to 25 people asking them to do it too” in an attempt to increase community on-line, and get to know people better.  I have done a couple of them in the past, but for the most part don’t participate.  But as I was looking at the persons “25 random things about me” there were a couple funny entries and I left a message on the post.  A few seconds after I hit “post comment” I began to hear that small voice in my head saying, “that may be taken wrong.”  I pondered the comment for a few minutes, it was funny, but it may have been offensive to people reading the post, AND it was something that may have put the person in a not so positive light…

It didn’t take me long to revisit her site and remove my comment, but only after hearing this voice did I even consider removing it.  How many times in life do we ignore this voice, our conscious, and do what we think is funny, justify our actions to the voice, or just plain out go against it, only to regret not listening.  I have learned over the years that if I ignore the voice, and don’t act on it, even if it makes me feel a little embarrassed, I regret it later.  I have even learned that if I stop paying attention to the voice, it goes away all together.

The voice is what makes us human.  It provides much needed guidlines in our lives.  It is what reminds us that other’s are human and should be treated a certain way.  If we cultivate ears to the voice we begin a path of self-respect and respect for others.  If we don’t,  we can leave a trail of hurt people behind us.  Listen to the voice, it will help you be a better person!

Study Groups; Then & Now

I remember when I learned about study groups.  Probably later than most because I was in college!  At the school I attended you were required to take a yearlong Western Civilizations class.  It was Literature and History combined so it was a two-hour course instead of on.  If you had the class Monday, Wednesday, Friday it ran two hours, if you took it Tuesday, Thursday it was a grueling 4 hour long class!  When the first final came along a group of about 20 students gathered at someone’s house to study.  I spent about 2 hours there and realized that I had no idea what they were talking about, and there was no way I would learn it with so many people talking and trying to work together.  I left, went to the Kettle, a 24-hour breakfast restaurant, and pulled an all nighter.  Alone.  I can’t study in groups.

Now my older kids school has a study party every Wednesday or something.  They have learned to study in groups and both seem to love it.  Today one has a science test and she has been studying like crazy.  But as I walked by her last night, she was on the computer, Facebook to be more specific.  As I was being all fatherly and questioning how she could be studying and on Facebook, she showed me here chat history.  She was on with a friend and they were quizzing each other over the instant message part.  Welcome to the new study group!  I love this generation, they have grown up with cell phones, Internet, TV on demand, and they are connected like no other generation, as well as having a global perspective.  They can figure out how to leverage the technology to make their lives easier, so long Kettle all nighters!  I wish I had all this technology when I was in school.

Focus: Covering Too Much

I know I have probably written about this before, but it bears repeating; Focus clarifies and provides direction.  So often we become involved in so many different things and it spreads our energy too thin.  If we cannot put our full undiluted effort into one or two things then we cannot do our best in those areas.

Yesterday we had our first staff meeting with the Children’s Director, Worship Leader and myself.  As we were evaluating last weekend, we discussed the length of the sermon.  It was long.  I knew it was too long before I even got up there.  I can usually tell when I am trying to do too much in the sermon that it will go longer than I want it too.  When there is a lot of information to cover, or I am trying to relay too many points, not only does it tend to go long, it also dilutes and minimizes the impact I hope the message has.  It would be so much better to be shorter and emphasize 1 point, yet I get caught up in trying to do too much.  So, this week I am going to be a lot more intentional about covering less for more.

Self-Discipline & The Wall

I have heard long distance runners encounter a barrier as they run, one that depending on how they handle it, can make or break their ability to excel at distance running.  The body fights against the will, the will gets soft, doubt creeps in, pain mounts, and if any one of these gets it’s way, the runner stops and gives in.  My running wall comes around 20 minutes.  Sometimes depending on if I give in or not, I make it all the way to 30.  I would really love to be able to put 4 or 5 miles in on a run.  I settle for two.

But lately in my life this isn’t the only area I feel I am lacking in self-discipline.  I am not sure if it is an age thing, or just having my routine change periodically each time adding more challenges and responsibility, something is keeping me back from overcoming my “wall”.  I need a mentor/coach, and a plan.  Sometimes you just cannot do it alone.  If you want to get to the next level, you have to find someone that has been there and can help!  That starts with asking for help, and I am not usually that good at asking for help.  But to get to where I know I need to go, I’m going to have to intentionally and purposefully seek it out.

Can You Believe It?

I have a deal with my kids, one that actually started with the pastor of the church I started ministry in, or at least that was what I was led to believe.  The deal is straightforward and simple, if I use one of my kids names in the sermon on Sunday, I owe them 5 dollars.  That is what he did, and he shared the idea with my kids, and so they all talked me into it.  It is supposed to help keep them out of the sermons as illustrations and I get it, no one wants their home life talked about in front of a bunch of people. So I really try not to use their names if I share stuff, so no one knows who it is about and so I don’t have to spend the money!

So Sunday I was sharing with our people about how Jack would grab both sides of the door frame and scream, “I don’t want to go!!!” when we would leave him in the preschool when he was young.  (The funny part of it was that I was the Children’s Pastor at the time!  Great endorsement for the areas when my own son wouldn’t go!)  So I accidentally used his name, cringed, and then explained the 5 dollar deal.  The pastor’s family that supposedly had been doing this was there  yesterday, so afterward one of them said something to my wife like, “I don’t remember that deal!”  Interesting… the kids in that family don’t remember that deal, and I began to wonder if it was really a deal after all!  Maybe it was just a funny anecdote he used to make me poor and make my kids rich… maybe he knew all the illustrations that I would have to think twice about using, because some funny stuff happens in our house!  Maybe he felt sorry for my kids now that his are all out of the house or something… I am not sure, but regardless – can you believe that a pastor would make that up?  I mean, aren’t pastors supposed to be perfect or something, don’t they know they cannot tell lies, make up stories, and lead people astray?  Don’t we put them up on pedistals and believe they should be above all the craziness we fall into?  Should’t they treat their families perfectly, never have a down day, and never be prone to mistakes?

No, pastors are not perfect.  They are made up of broken messy insecure parts just like you.  They sometimes speak before thinking, act out of anger or selfishness, or miss the point completely. They can destroy themselves just like anyone by giving way to the things they struggle with.  They are real people too with real struggles but are saved by God’s grace just like you.  But Iwas still suprised and can’t believe he told my kids that story and I have been paying them 5 bucks when I use their names!

Games We Play

Okay all you “family night” people out there… I would like to know what games you play when you gather your kids around the family room.  We have played Monopoly, Spoons, Apples to Apples, and others, but are looking for more!  It would be great to hear about any card games, board games, or Wii games you all play when you gather your families together!

This weekend post your favorites, and if it is a card or other game that the rules are not well known please share the rules too!

For those of you, like me, who didn’t know what spoons was; it is a card game that all players are dealt four cards from the deck (two decks are best) then one person starts drawing cards as fast as they can and discarding to the person on their left.  The person on the left either keeps the precious person’s discard or passes it on to the person on their left, until a card has gone all the way around the group and is placed in a pile the last person starts.  Each person takes the discard handed them and tries to get four of a kind.  When one, or more, people have four of a kind the sneakily or quickly (they choose) grab a spoon out of the center of the group.  One less spoon is provided than players playing, when the player with four of a kind takes a spoon, everyone else must grab one as well.  (The sneaky spoon stealer can keep the game going long after they take the first spoon and it is fun to see who is paying attention and who is not.)  The player that isn’t quick enough, mentally or physically, loses and the game is started over.  For really fun spoon play, put the last spoon in another room in the house, so the last two have to race for it!  (we have recently used clear spoons – which adds a dimension of vision acuteness as well) Of course I would love to hear your funny spoon card game stories or variations on the rules!

The First Day In Office

If you became President of the United States, what would be the first thing you would change on your first day in office?

I’m still thinking about my answer, but share yours!

Without It

Our internet had been down for three days.  It somehow broke Sunday night.  Monday when Trish called they said there was an outage in our area and in about four hours it should be fixed.  We waited the four hours and still no internet.  She called back, they said it was our converter box, bring it in tomorrow (Tuesday) and they would replace it.  Tuesday she took it in, they checked it out, and the box was fine.  They wrote down some numbers and told her that in about 45 minutes they would program something and take care of the problem.  She brought the box home, I plugged it back in, we waited 45 more minutes, and still no internet.  They said they would send someone out to the house to check it out.  We waited and waited.  No one called, no one came by.  At about 5 PM Trish was going to call again, but decided she would check it one more time.  It was working.  Finally.  We aren’t sure how or why, but the somehow got it fixed and we are happy…

So, here is the question; what is missing in your life.  You might not even realize it, but you are walking around unable to connect with someone or something.  Is it joy, peace, contentedness, relationship?  Is it God?  You look around at others that you know and they seem to have something you are missing, or you just feel incomplete without it.  It may take some effort to get it going, you might need to find someone to help, but don’t stop trying, searching and questioning until you find it.

The Scene

I am pretty sure that the curb faired better than my car… seeing as it is still in the shop, but here is the curb’s perspective!

ENT Comes Through

Yesterday some of us picked up office furniture that ENT Credit Union donated to us.  They had upgraded some of their office furniture, so they gave us a bunch of office chairs, conference room chairs, waiting area chairs, and even desks and cabinets.  It was really cool of them to do and we are very thankful. It isn’t cutting edge or contemporary furniture, but it will work great for what we need it to do!  Without it we may have been using folding tables and chairs!  It is so great to consider what you have that you don’t use, need or want and how it could benefit someone else.  I am so glad that ENT decided to do just that.