Scared?

What scares you? I am a big guy and not a lot scares me. In fact, I sometimes seek out certain situations that might invoke a degree of fear. For an example when most people have to go the church building past dark they walk in and try to find the first light switch available. Not me, when I have to go the building past dark I don't turn on the lights. There is a degree of excitement walking through the old main building, especailly the kids wing, not knowing what the darkness has in store for you. I love haunted house, scary movies and hearing strange noises at night. I am not afraid of accidential things like car wrecks, afterall I ride with Shane frequently. If you can survive going 120 mph and cutting up, under and around two eighteen-wheelers on the interstate, you get over that fear pretty quick. I love to fly on a plane, if I could afford to I would fly everywhere. It would cut my drive time from Hickory Hills to work down to about a minute and half. I am probably sounding like a crazy man at this point but stay with me.
I may not be afraid of the darkness, "scary" things, car wrecks, plane rides or death but there is one thing that scares me to the deepest part of my soul....experiencing life ALONE. This past saturday my wife threw me a "surprise" birthday party. It really wasn't a complete surprise since my dad and Kevin are terrible liars. But when I got off the elevator and saw all the people there for me I was speechless, which doesn't happen very often. I was speechless because what do you say, what can you say about people who care about you to give of their time to be a part of your life.
Think about it what makes events in life so grand. Things like sports, movies, concerts, meals, church, work, etc... Sharing it with other people. Who wants to watch the big game and not talk to someone about the outcome or complain about the poor officiating? What wants to eat alone all the time? Who wants to work day in and day out alone, without the office enivornment or a co-worker getting on your nerves? No one! Life if fun and fulfilling because of the people that we share it with.
Who do you enjoy sharing life with? Let them know that you enjoy, cherish and appreciate their friendship. Pray that God grants you many more days to enjoy life and the relationships that make them worth living.

At the end of day God is still God, and He is good!

The Big 30

Tomorrow is the big day, the day I have been waiting for thirty years to come. December 15, 2007, I will turn the landmark age of 30. (I love Best Buy if anyone is looking for gift ideas, gift cards are fine, I am picky) I have been told a mixed bag of wisdom and remarks. Some who I suspect are much older than thirty (Laura, Kevin or Jen) tell me that life is just getting started and begins to get good at age thirty. It puts you in a different category, a more mature category. You are no longer in your twenties, therefore it separates you from the college age and most of the newly weds and inexperienced job hunters. Others who I suspect are much younger (my youth group) tell me man you're old! They say things like 'you're like double my age!' According to them I am no longer capable of relating, knowing anything about pop-culture, playing video games or driving past dark. To them I have moved into the age of many of their parents and have separated myself in age from anyone they "hang out" with, since some of them do hang out with early twenties college kids.

So which is it? Is life over and full of doom and gloom or is life just beginning and is full of new found respect? I suppose the latter is what I am hoping for. But more than that I am hoping that God uses me in new and exciting ways. I am looking forward to this new chapter in my life. One that know puts me in a true Christ like mold of ministry.

I think of Christ starting his ministry at the ripe old age of thirty. Just stop and consider the things he was able to accomplish. The lives he impacted and transformed. The deeds of love and compassion he showed. The authentic, meaningful relationships formed with thousands. The stories told and real life sermons preached. And to think he did all this in three short years. Started at thirty at a wedding party and ended at thirty-three on a cross. His mere three years of ministry is the pattern for us to pattern our entire lives after.

What will I do after thirty? Better yet what would I do if I knew I only had three more years to accomplish it? What relationships would I build, what lives would I look to touch? What acts of love would I seek to share? What would my heart long to be compassionate toward? I guess what I am realizing as I approach the eve of life beginning or ending, depending on your perspective, is that life is a flash and what I do with it means everything. This is a new chapter in my life and I am going to strive to max it out when it comes to being Christ-like. How about you? Commet back something you would like to change or do better. And remember it doesn't take a big landmark b-day to begin to change.

At the end of the day God is still God and He is good!

WHY? What Were You Thinking?

I am sure by now most you of you who read this got Lorrie and I's Christmas card. If not look to the left for what you missed out on. Let me also clear up on small issue...This was my wife's idea totally, 100%.

I have received calls from friends and family ask pretty much the same questions... "What were you guys doing?; Why?; Where you at an 80's party?; or What were you thinking?" These questions were followed by streams of laughter. In fact my mom could not ask the questions due to laughing, every time she went to say something she just laughed.

That's it! Laughter! Sometimes you don't have to have a good reason do something. You simply do it, hoping someone will smile, laugh or benefit from it in some small way. I don't know how beneficial this card was to you but I do know that when people's lives are touched when they are given something out of love. I am not necessarily talking about a physical gift but small things like time, an ear for listening, an act of gentleness and understanding, an act of kindness, patience, a warm, heart-felt greeting, etc... I know it benefits them because you can see it on their faces. You can see it in their body language. You can see in how they in return treat someone else.

The beautiful thing about this card is the same beautiful thing about the gifts talked about above...You don't have to have a good reason to do it other than you just wanted to for a moment impact some one's life in a positive, make them smile kind of way.

What smiles, laughter, acts of love will you share today? It may not come in the form of a goofy, down right stupid Christmas card but be creative and you will find a way to achieve giving the ultimate gift.

At the end of the day God is still God and He is Good!

You gotta be S#@%ing Me!

I live not only to be surprised but to surprise. I love to see shocked faces, l live to hear the response “you gotta be s#@%ing me!” Let me explain. A while back a good friend of mine, who is in ministry as well, and I were at Keva Juice (a little health conscience, smoothie place and anyone who knows me knows this is right up my ally since I am so health conscience). My friend and I were in rare form that day. We were in one of those moods were you laugh at anything, your wit is sharp and quick, life was good. As we waited in line we cut one joke after another, probably annoying everyone around us, even though several of them were laughing (not sure if it was with us or at us). We got our smoothies , I got a razzamajazz or something like that, and moved on.

After visiting another store my buddy said he needed a hair cut and there was a place a couple of shops down from Keva, so in we went. Low and behold the girl who would cut his hair was the girl behind us in the smoothie line. Sometimes you feel free to act stupid because you think you will never see those people again, but here we are seeing them again. He sat down in her chair, I sat watching, and as beauticians do they talk. After making small talk about the smoothie line side show we were putting on, she asked the question all good hair dressers do…”So what do you guys do for a living?” We replied “we are ministers.” The next line out of her mouth was priceless…”you gotta be s#@%ing me! Now the stuff at Keva was funny but that takes the cake.” We spent the next few minutes trying to convince her that we were legit but she wasn’t buying it. Finally I had to go the car and pull out business cards to convince her to believe.

What’s my point? She went on to tell us that she never meet minister like us. Most of the pastors she knew were tight, dressed in a suit, older, always frowning, preachy, judgmental, etc… She said you guys don’t fit the mold. We weren’t dressed the part or acting the part at all. It wasn’t that we were doing or acting immoral and didn’t fit the mold. It was that we seemed and conducted ourselves as if we were real people. I live for that reaction! Because if I can seem real and I can seem approachable then I have the chance to make an impact. Jesus warned us about appearing churchy or religious but having nothing to offer (Matt. 23:23ff). Strive to be real today, strive to surprise someone in a good way that you are a Christian. The best sermons that preach and penetrate into the hearts of people are not the ones you hear on Sunday but the ones YOU live out through the week.


At the end of the day God is still God and He is good!

Senselessness

Who or what is Bompy? The term at this point may not make sense to you...well that is okay I am sure there will be things posted on here from time to time that won't make sense! But just go with it and humor me.

Have you ever despised someone in life to point you would like to remove them from your memory or recollection of even knowing them. That would be Bompy for me! I hated (maybe really dislike is a more "PC" way of saying it) this guy. Bompy was not his real name, just a nickname given to him by his grandkids. I hated him for multiple reasons. I desperately wanted to forget him and leave him in my past. Well as fate would have it I would be stuck with this name in my head and my life perhaps forever.

A good friend of mine, Shane, thought it would be amusing to have his, at the time two, now three girls call me Bompy for a laugh. They did and it was funny, like cancer is funny. In fact, I think I was the only one who didn't laugh. I tried to quickly dismiss it and have them move on to something else. Well to say the least that didn't happen. Here we are almost five years later and my nickname forever more is and will be Bompy. My youth group calls me that, our churches pre-school kids call me that and yes, Shane's girls still call me that.

You know the oddest thing about all this is that I actually embrace it now...I know it doesn't make sense to embrace something that you once hated so much. But that is life, things happen, sometimes they make sense and sometimes they don't. Sometimes you feel in control of what people can and do say about you and sometimes you don't. Sometimes you choose what people call you and sometimes you can't.

It does not make sense to those preschoolers or Shane's girls why they call me Bompy. They don't know the story, they just know it's me. That is what makes life so grand. The unexpected, sometimes unappreciated and unwanted senseless surprises make life worth living. We serve a God that loves to see His people laugh and enjoy every twist and turn of life. The thing is He doesn't even make sense to me all the time. He does things or doesn't do things that may or may not make sense to me but He does them anyway. And these seemingly senselessness moments is why I love him so much.

At the end of the day God is still God and He is good!