The Van done got wrecked...

I mentioned briefly that our van got wrecked. Suffice it to say I am thankful that it does not look like the one in the attached photo. When I find a cable to get pics from my camera maybe I'll throw some up.

Sunday morning I left work and was heading to the church to make sure everything was ready. The roads had been very slick the night before, but it had actually warmed up overnight to the main challenge was the slush in the middle and on the sides of the road. I was cruising right along and a full size pickup truck just drifts across center right in front of me. I swerved off the right side of the road and missed the truck, but when I tried to get back on the road I slid on said slush and hit a tree. The entire right side of the van took a pretty good beating.

The topper? The driver of the truck never even slowed, let alone stopped. I managed to get away with just a few sore muscles and a headache. God was good. The adjuster came yesterday and looked things over, now we wait to find out if we are going to the body shop for repairs or to a car lot for a new vehicle. I hate the thought of getting back into a car payment but I;m not sure if we would get enough from the van for an adequate vehicle. We shall see.

The only good thing so far has been that our rental car is a 2008 Pontiac G6. Pretty fun, sporty, little car. Life sure has a way of throwing things your way to deal with when you feel like you can least deal with them. Murphy's Laws really come into play at times like these.

Advent Conspiracy - Swingset

I know its still early for the holidays but thinking on the Advent is never too early

LACK OF HELP

This week at the Little League (LL) I went to the concession stand after batting practice with the thought of chili cheese nachos in my head. I was greeted by a sign that said, "NO HOT FOOD TONIGHT DUE TO LACK OF HELP" . I have several thoughts on this. First, it's a shame when people will not commit just a couple hours of their time so that the LL can provide foo and drinks as well as make a few much needed dollars for upkeep and improvements.
Second, I was glad to see that the usual people did not just give in and work, even though their kids were playing a game. It is good for people to know that if everyone does not pull their own weight things will not magically be done for them. We have become so consumer driven in our culture. We expect to have what we want, with high quality, every time, when we want it. And we are willing to be quite vocal in our complaints if it doesn't happen the way we think that it should. Unfortunately there are very few who are willing to pitch in and make this happen. Most are content to stand on the side and complain about how bad the service is, and how terrible it is that there are no hot dogs or nachos tonight.

This got me to thinking: What if a sign was posted like this in other arenas when people refused to step up. In areas where there is a volunteer fire/ rescue Dept. it would be a real bummer to find a sign on the door that said no service due to lack of help. What about the church. What if the few who always do most of the things decided that they would not do that any more and just put up the appropriate sign when someone does not do/ show up for their job? "Sorry, no nursery due to lack of help", "No worship team; due to lack of help" , "no Sunday School due to lack of help". You get the idea. I am not saying that everyone should be involved in every area. God has given us all gifts, abilities, and likes/ dislikes. We need to find a place to plug in. Maybe it's in the sound booth, maybe it's slinging hot dogs and pretzels, maybe its _______ (you fill in the blank). Many hands make the load light. All we have to do is our part.

FPU is 10 days away

10 days until our newest Financial Peace University (FPU) class begins. I am excited to see what can/ will happen in the lives of the families that are participating. Micki and I always get more out of it each time we go through. It also helps with our motivation and discipline to "work the plan". Arrangements can still be made for ayone who wants to participate. Give me a call, send an email, call the church, respond to this post, send a carrier pigeon, whatever you need to do.
This class will arm you with the information and discipline to become the master of your finances. You can win! This is one of those things that I am convinced will not only change families for generations to come but will change churches as well. When was the last time you were able to respond to the promting of your conscience to meet a need rather than thinking "I wish I could help, but..."?
We have 11 people confirmed for this class, not including anyone who may be a return student, and I would love to make it 20. I borrowed the following list from Joseph Sangl:

Top 10 Signs That You May Have A Money Problem

1. You sold your child on E-bay last week to pay off the dog you bought with 90-days same as cash.
2. When you plug your expenses into the INCOME - OUTGO = EXACTLY ZERO budget form, INCOME - OUTGO actually equals "Microsoft Excel Gives Up"
3. Check Into Cash holds a ceremony in your honor
4. You have eaten ramen noodles for eight straight weeks, but your pet is eating Eukanuba Reduced Fat dog food for $20.29/bag.
5. You cringe every time that the phone rings
6. When the credit card companies actually believe that you have too much debt and stop sending you credit card applications
7. Your hand suffers a 3rd-degree burn when you write a check
8. You are afraid to discuss debt with your spouse
9. When your child tells you, "Man. We sure have a whole lot of debt!"
10. If you can not imagine or remember what it was like to NOT have debt.
    

Let me say first off that I am far from perfect in the area of finances; but I have found a plan that helps me win as long as I stay with it. What are you waiting for???

Where are you deployed?

I was reading a note from a pastor regarding a member of his staff moving on (you can read it HERE)and he posed the above question. This really resonates with me for several reasons:

• We have a tendancy to think that whatever "project" we are working on at the time is most important and the center of the universe; God is way bigger than that!
• Assignments change from time to time. We need to be mindful of how our lives are like Esther's - "for such a time... "
• the King doesn't always grant our requests for a change or not to change - we cannot see the big picture.
• no matter what assignment has been given to us, we should do it full hearted. A great MLK quote on his B-day:
  If a man is called to be a street sweeper he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, "There lived a great street sweeper who did his job well."

There are even more applications to this short note than I have time to think through at the moment but I wanted to write about these before I let them slip away.

The way we approach the world

When did we decide that the world should come to us (the church) for answers? All we have to do is put up a shiny building, have a cool kids program and sit bak and wait for the people to flock to us. I am more and more convinced that we need to be invasive in our world. We also need to find new ways to reach out. I am seeing more and more how important our use of the web and its tools will be in the coming years. USC has just released a report that tells us that 43% of internet users who are part of online "communities" feel as strongly about their online community as their real world community. This says alot about us as a culture. Apart from that it tells me that if we are going to do what we are called to do we need to find a way to become part of this world and the lives of those who are there in order to have an impact on them. The who, how, where, whens of it are very unclear to me but I am sure that we need to be in the middle of it.

Hello Again

Hard to believe its been 10 days since I last posted. Time flies. Been busy with the EMT thing -- if you ever want an interesting slice of reality, try 8 hours in the ER at the local hospital, discipleship planning at church (this is actually pretty exciting), and just life in general. Hope to do better in the coming days.

Distractions

Distractions come in all types and sizes. There are the good ones like sports, movies, or a good book. But even these can take an improper place in our lives. When were are in school weretold not to get distracted. Don't get me wrong I think that a focused intensity is needed to accomplish great things but when we run with our head down we miss a lot of the world around us. We somewhere have to find a balance. The things that are designed to distract us from life for a while can become so important to us that we are distracted from the really important things. Some are more susceptible to distractions than others; some people could benifit from a few moments/ hours of distraction. I think that it's in the change of pace that comes from a distraction that we can get perspective back. Some people take vacations, some people change jobs, still others make changes to their physical appearnce and/ or wardrobe. What really comes to the front is that when distractions take their proper place they really lead back to purpose and perspective. Jesus went off alone for some "ditraction" time quite often. He needed perspective. We all need perspective; and once we get it we need the guts to make the priorities to accomplish what we should. We all should get distracted from time to time, kinda like this blog...

Goals

As I look forward to the upcoming year there are tons of things that I would like to set as goals. For the record, I think that the term "resolutions" stinks. I can "resolve" to do anything but if I take no action nothing happens. Goals require movement. I know that goals can be ignored as well but they somehow give a better mental picture to me. Anywhoo... I'm trying to keep on this list things that I think are truly important and worthy of setting as goals. They are, in only the particular order which they came to me:

• Read the Bible completely through in a translation I have not read.
• Read 40 books. I'm going to count audio ones as well. I hope to well balance non-fiction, fiction and biography in these selections.
• Have an individual time/ "date" with each of my kids at least every other week
• Have a date night with my wife at least once a month
• complete clinicals and pass written and practical exams ro obtain my EMT certification
• meet regularly with an accountability partner
• find a man to disciple personally. I already have someone in mind for this; this is where the taking action thing kicks in.
• have fun with this blog and hopefully make it something useful to others.

I will likely be adding to this as they come to mind in the coming days/ weeks. I'lll also try to pass on updtes on how they are coming.