The End of an Era

An Investment in the Future

Today, I went to Rachel's orthodontist for the initial consult.  This is where they tell you what they are going to do to her teeth, how long it will take, and how much it will cost you.  Then they look at you and smile their big, white, toothy smiles and say, "It's an investment in your child's future."

Well, our investment in Rachel's future is going to be $2,900 for Phase 1.  I don't know how much it will be for Phase 2 and I'm not sure how many phases we can expect, but that is one big investment.  

On the drive home I got to thinking.  How is this an investment?  We will not see any return on that money.  It's not like in 60-70 years she will be able to sell them on ebay for a nice profit.  In fact, she won't even be able to trade them in on new ones later.  I guess the only thing we will get out of this investment will be to see her big, white, toothy smile when all this is over.  And, the more I think about it, that's a pretty good return on our money.

sadness

Marley and Me is a sad movie.  Micah and I watched it together and cried like babies.  We were full of sadness.

Lately...

Just got back from Orange Beach.  Still dealing with the effects of the sun.  Bad sunburn....it hurts so good.  Had a root canal this morning and physical therapy on my shoulder after that.  Now I am getting ready to preach Sunday night.  Last Sunday I preached at Olla FBC.  Good crowd and good time.  No response to message though.  

Rachel is going to a birthday party sleepover tonight.  Heather is working.  Micah and I rented "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" to watch tonight while the ladies are away.  

Micah's favorite saying at the time, "You know what I don't get..."

Rachel's favorite saying at the time, "I'm bored. What are we doing tonight?"

I'm ready for school to start back for the kids.  A week off is enough.  I am looking forward to taking classes as well.  NOBTS here I come...well...if I can afford it.  Rachel is going to the orthodontist now.  

I have rediscovered my love for chef-boy-r-dee ravioli.  It is great.  I might could eat them everyday for a week.

I want some TOMS shoes.  You should check them out.  For every pair you buy, TOMS donates a pair to a needy kid.  One for one.  Pretty cool huh?  

That's all for now.  

Spelling B...E...E...

This morning Rachel was in the spelling bee at Doyle Elementary.  We were very proud of her for making it into the finals.  I think in the end nerves got the best of her.  She was in front of close to 500 people including all the 4-6 graders at her school.  We are very proud of her and her accomplishments at school this year.

Treasure Hunting: My GPS, a geocache, and God

Yesterday, I took the day off to spend it with my wife.  We needed time to be alone and make some decisions together.  So we headed out to spend the day at Tickfaw State Park to go geocaching.  

For you who may be unaware, geocaching is a global GPS and online treasure hunting game.  Basically, you go online to find the coordinates of a cache.  Once you get the location you use a GPS to go to the place and then hunt for the cache which is usually hidden very cleverly.  

In Tickfaw State Park there are at least 4 caches hidden.  So Heather and I decided to spend the day hunting them down.  This was also a great opportunity to spend some much needed time together without children and other distractions.  Recently, our family has been faced with some weighty decisions.  Heather and I needed to talk, pray, and determine the best direction for our family.  As we walked around the park hunting the cache treasures, I was struck with the realization that I was doing the same thing with God.  I was just wondering around hoping I would stumble across God's direction for my life and the life of my family.

Then God spoke.  God doesn't hide Himself and His will from me.  In fact, just the opposite.  God wants me to know what He wants for me.  I don't have to go "geocaching" or "easter egg hunting" in order to find God's will.  I just have to stop and listen.  Not only will He tell me what to do and where to go, He will tell me the costs of following Him.

Just like hunting those caches...some of them would warn you that there was poison ivy or water and to be prepared.  God will warn you ahead of time what the cost of following Him will be. 

At the end of the day, we found 3 of the 4 caches we hunted for and we found the next step for our family in many areas of life.  Not because of the hunt, but because we stopped and listened to God speak.  

Micah is playing t-ball

Micah is playing t-ball again this year.  You can check out his team's blog to see pictures and keep up with what they are doing.  The website is geauxindians.blogspot.com.

Uhm...what did he just say?

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to preach at a church in a nearby town.  I have never been to this church and didn't know anyone there, but I don't think I will ever forget this one guy who we will call Gary.

Gary was not the friendliest guy you would ever meet.  In fact, he was a little bit standoffish.  But as a minister you get used to that by some people.  I guess since they are distant from God they feel the need to be distant from God's man.  Anyway, Gary sat in the back of the church despite obviously being a "church leader."  (I found out later he is the church treasurer.)  The reason he sat in the back was to be close to the phone which was located in the church office just off the sanctuary.  While I was preaching, Gary got up and went into the office and proceeded to make a phone call.  He was talking and laughing on the phone during the sermon.  Finally, someone got up and went and shut the office door so that we couldn't hear his conversation any longer.

Following the service, Gary came to me and said he needed to write me a check for preaching for them.  I said okay and that I would wait.  Get this!  He then asked if he could copy my driver's license in order to spell my name correctly on the check.  I told him I would write my name out for him but there was no way I was giving him my driver's license.  I don't know why he would need it other than for less than noble causes.  

Anyway, Gary was quite the character.  Never in my life have I had the kind of experiences I had yesterday at this little church.

Some Honduras Pictures

This is the city dump in Tegucigalpa.  Over 300 people live there.  There homes are cardboard boxes or whatever they can find in the trash.  Their entire lives are spent looking through garbage for food, clothing and shelter.  Also, there were many kids who lived in this environment with their families.  When I first saw the dump my question was, "God, why did you make these people so poor?"  Since being back home for a couple of months and hearing the news about our economy and how "bad" things are and looking at my life, the question has changed.  "God, why did you make me so rich?"

These two pictures were taken at schools in the Santa Ana area.  There was no restrictions about praying with children or talking about Jesus.  Oh...by the way, there are no school shootings in Honduras.

The lady in the cap is Christina.  She is a pastor's wife.  We were able to share Christ with this family and all three ladies in the picture asked Christ to save them.  Three generations!

This is a picture of kids at a local church.  The first day we arrived in Honduras, we were teaching at this church within an hour and a half of our plane landing.  I was able to spend the afternoon with these children and teach them from the Word.

Being in the Middle

Three weeks ago, I began a Monday night Bible study for young adults, collegiates, and students who want to dig deeper in the Word. The Bible study takes place at 8pm at the local coffee house. We meet upstairs and spend an hour studying Romans. We have had 15-16 attend each week. I really enjoy getting together with this group to study. I believe every person should be in the middle when it comes to learning the Bible. What I mean is that we should all be teaching the Word to those less mature and learning the Word from those more mature. I hope you have placed yourself in this position in your life...in the middle.

2nd Try...this one's for you Momma.

My first attempt at blogging ended rather abruptly when I discovered how hard it was for me to put what I was doing and what I am thinking into writing.  It just seems to be another thing I needed "to do" each day and one that I saw no real reason for.  I wasn't even sure who was reading this stuff and if they were I had to wonder why.  Then Momma told me she reads it everyday and so I feel compelled to try this blogging stuff again.  I will try to write the high points of life without getting too deep.  Also, I don't take many pictures so this will mostly be filled with words.  Hope you enjoy.  If you don't...just know this...me either.

HONDURAS MISSION TRIP

I will be leaving on Monday, Feb. 16 to go to Tegucigalpa, Honduras on a week-long mission trip.  Please be in prayer for me and my uncle as we travel and preach message of Jesus Christ.  Sonny Holland once said, "The glorious gospel of Jesus Christ works all around the world."  I can't wait to witness that myself.

Sorry!

I have not posted anything in awhile. I've been busy.  Okay, not too busy just didn't feel like writing anything new or funny.  I'll do better.

Papa Murphy's

Even though I live 20 miles outside of our state's capital, I am sometimes reminded that I still live in a rural area.  Recently, Papa Murphy's came to town.  This is where you walk in and order a pizza.  About 5 minutes later you walk out with your delicious pizza...cold and uncooked.  Yes, you take the pizza home and cook it yourself.  Does that sound like some place you would like to go eat on a Friday night?  Don't be fooled.  It is awesome.  The pizza is great.  I'm a fan.  Thought you'd like to know.  See how exciting my life is.  We cooked pizza at home tonight and I'm blogging about it.  Now don't you feel better about your life?

too much pressure

Gift cards.  Free movie passes.  These are the things which cause undue stress upon my feeble existence.  If you buy me a gift or take me to the movies, I'm grateful.  Heck...I'm ecstatic. But give me a gift card or a free movie pass and I'm a total wreck.  I don't want to waste the money on something I'll never use.  I don't want to see a movie that I won't like or enjoy.  It's just too much pressure.

I've noticed that I've passed this debilitating trait on to my daughter.  She received a gift card to Target from Christmas.  So I took her to Target to spend her money.  It took her 2 1/2 hours to spend the $20 bucks and then I had to chip in another $10.  She didn't want to buy something that she wouldn't like and therefore waste the gift card.  In fact, she couldn't find anything for $20 that she wanted and I had to add the extra money.  But, her favorite toy for Christmas was a $15 Webkinz.  Go figure.

I have come to the conclusion that for every dollar of monetary value on a gift card a single minute of my life is lost.  So thanks for the gift cards and movie passes I got for Christmas.  Because of you, my life is one hour shorter.

Oxymoron

I'm been learning about oxymorons lately. You know what an oxymoron is right? An oxymoron is two words that are opposites and are used together. Some of the best examples are: Jumbo Shrimp, Government Efficiency, and Microsoft Works. Lately I've found a few that have intrigued me. I began studying Romans 12:1 and determined "living sacrifice" to be maybe my all-time favorite oxymoron. I'm going to preach a sermon one day on that verse and that subject in particular, but we will leave that for another day. I also studied Revelation 3:14-20 and determined "lukewarm Christian" to be an oxymoron. In fact, I'm not sure there is such a thing, but once again, we will leave that for another day.

Today, I would like to discuss another oxymoron that has become a reality for me. It is "insecure leader."

Unless you are in the desirable position of not having to work for anyone then you have likely worked for someone who is to some extent insecure. Over the past few years, I have come to realize that insecure leadership is not leadership at all. In fact, insecurity kills leadership potential. I feel that as a leader, one must be secure in who they are, where they are, where they are going, and how they intend to get there and lead others to that place. First and foremost a leader must lead. If you look back and nobody is following, then you aren't leading, you are just going for a walk. However, if there are people following or at the very least wanting to follow, then you had better be secure in that position.

Understand this, a leader who is insecure can think only of himself. Insecurity breeds self-centeredness. Therefore an insecure leader focuses only on himself when the very backbone of leadership is others. Without others, you are not a leader. Without others following, you are not leading. So if your focus in on yourself, then you are not focused on others which is at the very core what a leader should do!

INSECURITY MAKES YOU UNSURE.
BEING UNSURE MAKES YOU INDECISIVE.
INDECISION FRUSTRATES THOSE AROUND YOU.
FRUSTRATION LEADS TO LOW MORALE.
AND LOW MORALE LEADS TO NON-PRODUCTIVITY.

For a person who is called of God to be a leader in a church or in a para-church organization, the insecurity which leads to non-productivity leads to a lack of effectiveness and if the church is ineffective then lost people do not hear the greatest news that could ever be told and if the lost don't hear, how can they know about the One who gave His life that they might live and be secure in the fact that they are loved and accepted and have a future and a hope!?! Whew!
Think about the progression of Saul of the OT, the ultimate insecure leader. He went from being more afraid of people than of God. Then to shifting the blame and taking no responsibility of his actions. He began to become self-seeking and then jealous of others whom he viewed as a threat...mainly David. He distanced himself from David, became afraid of David, and sought to destroy David.

Today, you can spot an insecure leader. They can't give credit to others, they hide information from the "followers", they are threatened by others, they take more than they give, they limit the growth of those around them, and ultimately they cannot lead.

So the question for me has been...what do you do if you find yourself trying to follow an insecure leader? Or if you sense yourself becoming an insecure leader? Your help answering the question would be welcomed. I've had no problem over the past few years learning to define the question, now I await God to teach me the answer.

One last thought, this is not intended to be an indictment on anyone in particular. I am grateful for the calling which I have received from the Lord. I look forward to continuing to grow and mature. I want to be the best leader I can be for the cause of Christ. This is intended to help me grow and mature in Christ. I never want to find myself as an insecure leader. Because really, who wants to be an oxymoron.