Boxing Day...

cailyn talk on the phone yesterday with an older lady who was originally from england. they apparently talked about just about everything under the sun.

one of these things that they talked about was boxing day. apparently in england there is/was a holiday that took place on december 26th (the day after christmas) and the whole premise of the holiday is that you take your old stuff that you don't want anymore and your leftover food from your christmas dinner the day before, and you box it all up and take it to the poor and needy.

sounds like an amazing idea to say the least.

after cailyn told me about it, she said that she thought that it would be a great family tradition to start, and i really don't think that i could agree more. i think that would be an awesome family tradition. what an awesome show of the fact that Jesus has been born into the world. and what a great learning experience that would be for children!

boxing day...here we come!!

Giving Up Control...

this coming wednesday i am teaching on giving up control.

so, as often is the case when you teach, there is this bittersweet thing that happens. God brings personal examples into your midst...which is sweet...the bitter part is that it often means that you have to grow and change personally (which, of course, in many senses is also sweet) which can be a little uncomfortable at times.

this has definitely been the case this week. God has been showing me an area where i struggle to give up control...and it seems it is one that may not be typical or obvious.

i have trouble giving up control of when and under what circumstances i am challenged and grow. i want to be able to orchestrate those times and i don't really like the idea of just stumbling upon those times. ultimately, i don't trust God to be able to set those times up...i would rather be in control myself.

glad to be coming to that realization...and yet, incredibly challenged to begin to figure out how i progress forward in it.

Lord lead me!!

A Perspective on Prayer...

i have been realizing lately that when people ask me to be praying for something, there is this piece inside of me that just innately cringes. i have been quite perplexed by this and by what causes me to have this reaction.

and i think that much of what brings this reaction out in me is that in my mind i feel like if people need prayer that bad things are happening or that life isn't going well and i just don't want the inconvenience and pain of it. as if, maybe my perfectionism creeps into my attitude on prayer to the point where i would rather have things be perfect and then i wouldn't have a "need" to pray.

however, i realize this is totally and completely the wrong perspective on prayer. i realize that what i need to do is to embrace the privilege of talking to God about the things that matter most. to cherish the fact that the God who created all things is also willing to communicate and talk with me. instead of striving to not have a need to talk with him...i need to embrace every chance and moment as a wonderful opportunity to be able to connect with him.

i pray that my attitude and perspective on prayer can begin to change one opportunity at a time!

That Thing God Does...

i meet on a weekly basis with the male community group leaders in our ministry. and this year as a part of our weekly meetings we have been going through a series of "major" stories from the bible that span from genesis to revelation.

we meet on thursday afternoons and so i typically find myself studying the story on thursday morning sometime in preparation for thursday afternoon. however, this past week, i knew that i was going to be particularly busy on thursday and so i had planned on reading the story for thursday during my morning quiet time that day.

however, when i got up on thursday morning, i realized that i had forgotten to bring him the bookmark that has the references for the stories that we are reading, and so i didn't know what story i was supposed to be reading. and on top of that, i was tired and had a tough time getting out of bed and so i only had a few minutes to spend reading that particular morning.

and since i didn't know what story i was supposed to be reading for my meeting, i decided i would just read a little in the one year chronological bible that i have been reading (for over a year now...but i will finish). so, i opened up my one-year bible and i had time to read just 12 verses of scripture. i read mark 2:1-12 (Jesus heals a paralytic).

and unfortunately (or so i thought), that was all the time that i had to read that morning and so i headed off to the office for a busy day. and it wasn't until about 2:30 that i was even able to pick up the bookmark that had the reference for the story that i was supposed to read on it (the meeting where it is to be discussed starts at 3:30). and i look down on the bookmark where it says what we are supposed to read for the week and it says, "Jesus heals a paralytic".

to which i am like, "holy crap"...but because i had looked ahead for just a second in my one-year bible, i remembered that there is more than one account in scripture of Jesus healing the paralytic man. and so then i quickly jumped down below the title, "Jesus heals a paralytic", to see what the reference was, and sure enough...the reference underneath that title said...

"Mark 2:1-12"

God...you are a pretty cool guy...you never cease to amaze me...and i am blown away by the many forms that your grace takes!!