Pain in the ***
Yes, I do have a pain, and no, it has nothing to do with my wife or children. At one point in my life I would have scoffed at someone who suffered from chronic pain, especially head, neck and back pain. I probably would have said it was psychosomatic or something. For the last two days I have had sciatic nerve pain that truly can be called a pain in the *** . It hurts, and it makes me crabby or I’m crabby and it gives me an excuse. In any case, it has me unable to concentrate on anything other than how much it hurts.
I often wonder how pain, physical, psychological and/or sociological in my lif
e compares to other’s. How bad is it, would someone else ignore it or would they find it debilitating? Sometimes I would like to know if I’m being a baby or am toughing it out. I realize that it doesn’t really matter, to whomever owns the pain, it is real and knowing how someone else is effected is irrelevant. I wouldn’t trade my burdens for the unknown of someone else’s. I will keep my own, however significant or insignificant they may be.
I will do the best I can to remember the pain of the one who died so I could live and give Him thanks in all things. Thank you Lord that I have the ability to feel the pain that I am whining about.
Perception is reality
There’s a statement that will turn some heads. I don’t believe that perception is reality although it can be, it certainly isn’t an absolute. We do have to deal with people’s perceptions and to them, often times their perceptions do constitute a reality.
What?? I discovered recently that my children don’t always see things as I would believe they should see them, they don’t even necessarily see them as they are, but they see them as they think they are. This shouldn’t be a revelation, I’ve been a father for 20 years, and have 8 children, I should have picked up on this earlier. The incident that opened my eyes occurred a few days ago. I was sitting with my laptop in the living room, I was reading the book of Acts in my Logos software, I had 5 commentaries, a couple of bible dictionaries and some other resources open, I was deep in thought.
A couple of the kids were still awake and they asked me if they could play a computer game. I, in responsible fatherly fashion, said, “no it’s almost bedtime you don’t need to be messin’ with that junk, the computer isn’t for playing games.” One of my fine youngsters looked at me and said, “why do you get to play on the computer all the time?” Now there are a number of things that could be (and were) taken from this exchange but, my focus was the fact that they perceived my time of study as play time. If I had a paper Bible and a bunch of books laid out around me the exchange would not have occurred, there perception would likely have aligned with the reality that I was studying. Instead, their perception was that I was playing (I don’t play games) or at the very least recreationally surfing (I may surf a bit) on the computer.
I started to wonder, how many other things in my life are seen differently than they really are? Am I being intentional enough in the discipling of my children? Am I being intentional enough in my discipling of others? Ultimately, what do I need to change to minimize the chance that someone’s perception of what I do or say is different than reality?
I don’t know the alI the answers, but I know there are areas I need to be more intentional in setting an example, in explaining my actions and intentions. Anyone else??
Opportunities and life
My life has been full of opportunities, I was reminded yesterday at our staff meeting that I was born with opportunities. I have squandered many opportunities in my life and I will likely squander more before I die.
It was only a few years ago that I started the path to a degree in Christian Ministry with absolutely no good reason why, other than the nudging of God. Now I stand in the beginning stages of planting a church. What an incredible opportunity, what an incredible risk, how incredibly hard yet how could I not move when God nudged? To the eye, I have much to loose and not much to gain, the ministry is probably not know for its great financial rewards or wonderful benefit packages, yet there is so much more to life. As I wrestle with raising support and preparing to launch a new church I came across an interesting post (written by a young church planter) that I can totally relate to.
A lot of people I know are more fearful of making a wrong move than making no move at all [...] If you are currently considering an great, godly, risky opportunity, consider this: The cost of missing out can be greater than the cost of messing up. The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized in the lifetime of the opportunity.
I did way more than Mark
I read today on a friend’s blog about the Hundred Push-up program and being one who can’t stand to pass up a challenge I had to opt in. My initial count was 27 and I am feeling really fat, old and out of shape.
Where are we going? part 1
I have watched my bride blog for a couple of years and she has prodded me continually to start writing. I can stay silent no longer.
We have been on a wild ride for the last few years and this seems to be a great way to share thoughts, concerns, dreams, triumphs and failures.
Three and a half years ago I was led to a bible college to start taking classes for a degree in Christian ministry. I had no idea why, I just knew I had to go. After a year or so I began feeling the call to ministry, although I had no idea what that might look like. Two years ago I met Jeff Gauss through his blog and a few months later he asked my wife and I if we would bring our family to the church they were serving in, 20 miles from our home. Two years later we have been through church planting assessment and have been invited to do a year of church planting internship at The Journey North Community Church.
This will be the first post of many, documenting the trials and tribulations of our church planting journey.
This is a test
a test to see
if this post is truncated in the rss feed
I don’t know why this thing keeps truncating the posts
I have it set properly on the dashboard
Maybe there is something in the template that is forcing
this horrible truncation
Day 2 Great weekend
Sunday at TJN we were present for an incredible worship experience with Glen Clark & Family. Glen’s personal testimony starts out, “Called to the ministry but rejected by the church…” his story resonated with me in many ways and while they family dresses the part of hillbillies, nothing could be further from reality. Traveling as a family and going into places that many would shy away from, they are truly ministering to the broken and hurting. Jesus hung out and shared the hope that is found in Him with thieves, prostitutes and many others who were cast out by society, this family follows his lead!
After a great morning we had the pleasure of having a picnic with the Richmonds at a park in Baxter. We had a little lunch, the kids played and we got to have some adult conversation. Brett is the children’s pastor at TJN and it was great getting to know this family better.
Day 1 great weekend!
We had a great weekend, at Amy’s Aunt and Uncle’s house on Saturday.
The rain blew over on Sat. and we had 19 children under 12 at the lake, talk about insanity!
I can’t stand the pressure!
Why is it I can always think of something to say except when I have to? I’ve avoided blogging for that reason. Guess you have to start somewhere.
Today we are going to Amy’s Aunt and Uncle’s cabin. This is what it looked like a couple of years ago. It’s raining this morning, so hopefully it will blow over quickly and be fun.
First post?
Everything has to start somewhere and this is starting here today.