Whew!

Today began with clean-up day at church, progressed into clean-up day at home with grass (really leaf) cutting and car washing. Then drop by at a 50th BD party at church, a 30 minute breather then men's prayer.

Do I hang around church too much or what?

Still, to hear the men praying for God to strengthen their pastor and for God to speak through him, and protect him and his family is really humbling.

Tired but it's a good tired.

Gadget revenge

There's a scene in one of master thespian Jim Varney's "Ernest" movies, where he becomes electrically charged by a brush with an electric fence. For a while there, anything electric near him went haywire (he was also magnetic, but that's another story).

That was me yesterday.

Color Laser? Error code blue.
Telephones? Barking static
DSL? on line, off line
PC? Cannot read from drive C
PDA? Stuck and had to be hard reset, thus losing my data

It got so bad I got out a pencil and a piece of paper. Remember those? I got into it though, so much that I pulled a rectangular object made of cloth, cardboard and paper off a shelf behind me.

I think they used to call them books.

All things considered...

So, on my 51st birthday, I...

was awakened at 1:30 AM by an insistent Great Dane with diarrhea
and again at 4:20 AM
oh, and at 6:30 too
then I went to work where I
got to order toner for the copier
officiated at the funeral of our color laser printer
observed the demise of my pc's hard drive
and bounced emails all over the planet
coming home
I got to help clean up the schnauzer's throw up
and do it again
and then the Dane rained
again

so I take stock

wife - awesome
sons - great
family - supportive
home and hearth - intact and in the same place they were before Ivan
work - meaningful - eternally so

and I remember that I'm here because my Mother put her grief away in favor of love...

and I end the day certain that Somebody up there likes me.

I told you Somebody up there likes me. (The Wilson's on the Gulf - from left to right, me, Bunny, and Sean) 

It's a Clean-A Cane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, now that the storm has passed, 1.2 million leaves have been raked into piles, and thank God the power is back on, my bride has decided the next storm to hit Valparaiso is a CLEAN-A-CANE!

I was just asked to clean the ceiling fan blades, so this might be a Category 5.

Of course when she smiled, I forgot about the storm.

Somebody up there likes me.

Why No One Used To LIve In Florida

One thing I have learned in the last three days is don't let those images of the sultry South fool you. No one would live here without A/C. It's just too hot and too buggy. It's as if every insect that's been shut out of the cold FL households has decided that it is open season on people.

In our house, the beauty that is my bride has alternated between threatening us with a butcher knife, and suggesting that Gulf Power folks should be hunted down like Al-Queda.

At one point my son and I thought about kidnapping a couple and holding them until the electricity flowed. But the heat got to us and we forgot what we were about to do.

But not having power did allow us an unfettered view of the stars tonight.

Somebody up there likes me.

Safe As I Can Make It

Spent today getting ready for Ivan the Terrible. Since I have never experienced a hurricane, I might be at a disadvantage. But being a male, I tried to convert everthing into a to-do list of tasks.

Tree limbs away from windows. Check.
Gasoline in car. Check.
Batteries and flashlights. Check
Canned food and bottled water. Check.
Escape money. Check.
Cell phone charged. Check.

Check track of hurricane every chance you get. Check.

Well, it's as safe as I can make it.

Commence praying. Check.

There's All Kinds of Storms

On a day after remembering 9-11, and three or four days before Hurricane Ivan might come, I'm realizing more and more that there's all kind of storms. In just our little congregation of 100 regulars, we have two sons in prison, people with cancer and other life threatening illness, at least one couple at the point of divorce. One lady lost her job, another can't find one.

Life is hard.

Yes, the hurricane may come, but there's all kinds of storms.

Praying for the God Who calmed the waters to calm lives tonight.

So David, What Do You Want In A Church?

So what do I want in a church?

What I'd like is pretty normal for Acts 2. But way far distant from today's typical church.

I want to be involved with a group of people as a leader of a team that seriously wants to invest their lives in helping people find faith in Jesus. With people who expect each believer to grow in Him.

I want to not just share a common doctrine, or common tastes in worship, but our lives in community with one another. Real life - good and bad - tears and joy - with real people who love each other deeply, from the heart.

I want to be in ministry with people who are intimate with Christ, fresh with God, and directed not by money, power or career aspirations. The question my dream group would ask wouldn't be can we (because if God is in it...) wouldn't be should we (same reason), but when can we begin, and how many will we reach.

I want to help people realize that the best preaching they will ever hear may be far from church and not given by a preacher - and may not even include words. But I also want to bring the Word into their lives through the preaching event, and encounters in groups both large and small.

I want to be and work alongside people who are intentionally trying to create relationships with the unchurched - not with an ever-present agenda waiting for the time to turn the 4 spiritual laws loose on them - but with an ever-present care - genuine care - the soil that gospel seeds can be planted in.

I want to be on the journey with people who really want to know Christ better, and who aren't satisfied with yesterday's depth but press on toward deeper knowledge, understanding, and practice in their faith.

And finally, I want to work and be in an atmosphere of passion. Passion about what we have been given - the incredible honor of being involved with Christ in kingdom building. Passion such that we can't wait to come together to share what God is doing in our lives and the lives of those around us.

That's all.

And you know, the fact that God saved me and gave me a chance to work in His church among the people He loves is proof...

Somebody up there likes me. :)

The Case for a Creator

Just finished reading the book by Lee Strobel again. Pretty amazing stuff, well documented. Then I pick up the newspaper and read of some astronomers claiming that some radio waves they picked up three times might be evidence of intelligent life elsewhere. Or.. it could just be hydrogen, since the frequency they heard was the same as hydrogen which is found throughout the universe.

Not sure I can make the case for intelligent life among that crowd.

Walking with the dolphins

You didn't think I'd swim with them did you? No thank you. But yesterday as the BBD (big black dog) and I were walking along the levee, I hear a cough and turn my head to the water and 10-15 feet out a dolphin's fin rolls under the surface.

He paralleled us for a minute or two. Is that cool or what? I know I like the mountains, but what's the equivalent? Rambling with the racoons?

Somebody up there likes me!

David