The plan for tonight is as follows:
1.) Crawfish and real coke for the birthday girl
2.) Chick-fil-A sweet tea and something non-shellfish for me
3.) A chick flick selected by the birthday girl
Adding up to a sum total of:
--Spending an evening with the beautiful woman God has blessed me with.
Keep Soaring,
B
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Garlic sauce, birthdays, and the Lone Ranger...
I'm afraid this post isn't going to be a lesson, more like a sharing of some things that have been on my mind. The LORD has been doing things in my life, allowing things to happen, and some of it has me kind of scrambled up. If nothing else, the title of this post should suggest something of my mental capacity to stay focused.
My wife didn't get a position at the hospital that she wanted. Which, in all actuality, means nothing. There are literally thousands of positions in the Dallas Fort worth area for BSNs, so not getting one job is in no way an indication of whether or not she will find a job. But still, I feel somewhat regretful. She was so worried that this was going to happen, and everytime she mentioned it, I would always say, "but you're going to get it. You're good at what you do and you have a very impressive resume. They'll jump at the chance to hire you." It's true...she is good at this nursing thing and she does have an impressive resume. But for whatever reason, the hospital just didn't hire her. Now I feel like a heel, because I told her this wouldn't happen, and it did. Maybe I should have spent less time trying to fix her worries and more time simply acknowledging that she was worried. I'm learning that sometimes a shoulder to punch/cry on is needed a lot more than the mystery answer to the problems at hand.
On a more comical note, she did find some courage in ordering garlic sauce. She tells the story about it here, but the cool part is that God used it to help overcome her fear of talking to recruiters. God can use anything....even garlic sauce.
Today is my mother's birthday (Happy Birthday Mom!!) and Thursday is my wife's (Happy Early Birthday Sweetheart!!). It's a very happy and exciting time of the year, and often serves as an excuse for everyone to get together, which I thoroughly enjoy. But this year, things are little disjointed. Between work schedules, school activities, assignments being due, and increasingly aggravating geography, it's become impossible to have a gathering to celebrate either birthday where everyone is there. My sister managed to make it in last night to see Mom, but has to work this weekend, which is of course the only time that Mandy and I can make it out to see her, and it also happens to be right when my other sister is going to be in Baton Rouge. Mandy and I have plans to celebrate her birthday with my sister later in the week, and we sort of celebrated with her parents last weekend. But her parents are going to out of town this weekend, so having an actual party is impossible. Don't get me wrong, I understand that this is part of life, and I wouldn't change any of it. Children grow up, they have their own lives to tend to, and getting together gets harder and harder the farther along this life we get. But still, I feel a little disappointed (mainly in myself for not coming up with a solution) that the birthdays of two of the most important women in my life have to be celebrated in pieces where we can manage to fit them.
If you read this blog, and you're not related to me or one of my friends from my many walks of life, then chances are you have a bone to pick with the church. Somewhere along the way, someone has hurt you, ridiculed you, embarassed you, or otherwise caused some sort of emotional damage that makes you uncomfortable to walk into anywhere that has the word "Church" or "Fellowship" written on the building. I understand how you feel; several of my friends and loved ones have been there. But I think it's important to remember something....churches unfortunately are full of people, which means someone at some point is going to screw up and hurt somebody. No matter which church you go to, it's going to happen. Some of you probably figured this out, and so, like I've done before, you just don't go to church at all, thinking "I believe in Jesus, that's good enough. Church is for those other people." It's almost like we adopt this "Lone Ranger" mentality. We can survive this harsh world on our own, we just need Jesus like the Lone Ranger needs Silver, someone to travel with and keep you going. But that just isn't how it works. We're group minded by nature; even loners tend to find a group of "loners" that they feel comfortable with. It's how were programmed.
My old pastor can give you all the Biblical reasons of why you need others here. The point I'm trying to make is this: just like you wouldn't disown your entire family because of one or two mean cousins, it really isn't fair to disown the entire Body of Christ for one sick group of people. I realize that most of the churches in this country are nothing like they should be, but there has to be at least a few, so please find one where you can be at peace and be part of the Body again. And if for some reason you simply can't find one, get a group of like-minded people together and start your own Bible study. Those who earnestly seek God will not be disappointed, and having someone with you to talk about what He's doing in your life makes this life all the more bearable.
I was somewhat lazy on this post and let other people do all my talking for me. But hopefully, somewhere in this madness that is my mind, you have managed to find truth. And I hope that it will point you to the One who defines what truth is.
Feel free to comment or ask questions. I'm always here.
Keep Soaring,
B
My wife didn't get a position at the hospital that she wanted. Which, in all actuality, means nothing. There are literally thousands of positions in the Dallas Fort worth area for BSNs, so not getting one job is in no way an indication of whether or not she will find a job. But still, I feel somewhat regretful. She was so worried that this was going to happen, and everytime she mentioned it, I would always say, "but you're going to get it. You're good at what you do and you have a very impressive resume. They'll jump at the chance to hire you." It's true...she is good at this nursing thing and she does have an impressive resume. But for whatever reason, the hospital just didn't hire her. Now I feel like a heel, because I told her this wouldn't happen, and it did. Maybe I should have spent less time trying to fix her worries and more time simply acknowledging that she was worried. I'm learning that sometimes a shoulder to punch/cry on is needed a lot more than the mystery answer to the problems at hand.
On a more comical note, she did find some courage in ordering garlic sauce. She tells the story about it here, but the cool part is that God used it to help overcome her fear of talking to recruiters. God can use anything....even garlic sauce.
Today is my mother's birthday (Happy Birthday Mom!!) and Thursday is my wife's (Happy Early Birthday Sweetheart!!). It's a very happy and exciting time of the year, and often serves as an excuse for everyone to get together, which I thoroughly enjoy. But this year, things are little disjointed. Between work schedules, school activities, assignments being due, and increasingly aggravating geography, it's become impossible to have a gathering to celebrate either birthday where everyone is there. My sister managed to make it in last night to see Mom, but has to work this weekend, which is of course the only time that Mandy and I can make it out to see her, and it also happens to be right when my other sister is going to be in Baton Rouge. Mandy and I have plans to celebrate her birthday with my sister later in the week, and we sort of celebrated with her parents last weekend. But her parents are going to out of town this weekend, so having an actual party is impossible. Don't get me wrong, I understand that this is part of life, and I wouldn't change any of it. Children grow up, they have their own lives to tend to, and getting together gets harder and harder the farther along this life we get. But still, I feel a little disappointed (mainly in myself for not coming up with a solution) that the birthdays of two of the most important women in my life have to be celebrated in pieces where we can manage to fit them.
If you read this blog, and you're not related to me or one of my friends from my many walks of life, then chances are you have a bone to pick with the church. Somewhere along the way, someone has hurt you, ridiculed you, embarassed you, or otherwise caused some sort of emotional damage that makes you uncomfortable to walk into anywhere that has the word "Church" or "Fellowship" written on the building. I understand how you feel; several of my friends and loved ones have been there. But I think it's important to remember something....churches unfortunately are full of people, which means someone at some point is going to screw up and hurt somebody. No matter which church you go to, it's going to happen. Some of you probably figured this out, and so, like I've done before, you just don't go to church at all, thinking "I believe in Jesus, that's good enough. Church is for those other people." It's almost like we adopt this "Lone Ranger" mentality. We can survive this harsh world on our own, we just need Jesus like the Lone Ranger needs Silver, someone to travel with and keep you going. But that just isn't how it works. We're group minded by nature; even loners tend to find a group of "loners" that they feel comfortable with. It's how were programmed.
My old pastor can give you all the Biblical reasons of why you need others here. The point I'm trying to make is this: just like you wouldn't disown your entire family because of one or two mean cousins, it really isn't fair to disown the entire Body of Christ for one sick group of people. I realize that most of the churches in this country are nothing like they should be, but there has to be at least a few, so please find one where you can be at peace and be part of the Body again. And if for some reason you simply can't find one, get a group of like-minded people together and start your own Bible study. Those who earnestly seek God will not be disappointed, and having someone with you to talk about what He's doing in your life makes this life all the more bearable.
I was somewhat lazy on this post and let other people do all my talking for me. But hopefully, somewhere in this madness that is my mind, you have managed to find truth. And I hope that it will point you to the One who defines what truth is.
Feel free to comment or ask questions. I'm always here.
Keep Soaring,
B
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
THIS IS NOT LOUD!!!!!!!!!!......this is.......
I've been away from the blogging realm for a little while now. I've been in Fort Worth, TX, securing a rent home so that my wife and I won't be literally homeless while I attend Seminary. The LORD had his hand in the whole process. Our new landlords just happen to walk into the hardware store where a friend of mine worked, who happened to mention to said landlords that he has friends (that's us) who just happen to be moving to the Fort Worth Area and needed a home. Then it turns out that the only week we have to go looking just happens to be the week that the landlords are finishing remodeling the house. The cards were shuffled, the dominoes fell, we somehow managed to survive all of my mixed metaphors, and God allowed us to put down a safety deposit on a small but beautiful rent home. Thanks to all who have been praying, and please remember to praise God for His provision.
Something happened to me on the way home from out house hunting. It's a little embarassing, honestly, that it's taken this long for me to get it. But God knows how thick-headed I can be sometimes, and that subtlety for me isn't always the best way to do things.
To spare the suspense, I believe, for the first time in a long, long while, I heard God speak.
Now let me clarify, God did not verbally speak to me. The heavens did not open, I did not have a vision of a winged creature wreathed in light and speaking with a tongue shaped like a sword. I don't have some sort of special communication with God that no one else has. This is not the televangelist "God told me to tell you" horse manuer that you get so often these days. What I am talking about is the Holy Spirit leading and guiding me in a way that is undeniable.
I won't go into details of the circumstances due to their personal nature, but suffice it to say I was very bewildered. Things were going on a track that I didn't know how to get off of, and I was going to crash emotionally if things didn't work out soon. I had asked God for guidance on the subject before, but He never really seemed to be answering. Well this time, He answered. As I said before, it wasn't a grand vision of epic proportions. No, God chose to speak to me in probably the most unlikely way you can imagine.....He spoke to me in a whisper. Just a slight "tug" on my heart that pulled me in a direction I didn't normally go. And the results were profound. Months of confusion suddenly and instantly made clear. Wounds that had been open for far too long, for the first time, seemed to finally be healing. And the oddest part of it all was that it wasn't because of a great effort on my part. It was because God chose to whisper.
I know that this is terribly vague, and if the circumstances didn't involve more people than just me, I would be more forthcoming about it. But the point remains the same--when God spoke to me and gave me an answer to questions that had been plaguing me, He spoke in a whisper. So, if you have tried to listen for God and heard nothing, maybe you were like me. You were looking for skywriting and supernatural events, when really all you need to wait for is a whisper.
I wanna close this post with a lesson that the prophet Elijah learned. He had just seen God work an amazing miracle by conquering the false god Baal. Then, when his life was threatened, he fell into horrible depression. When God came to him, to encourage him, this is what happened:
"A very powerful wind went before the Lord, digging into the mountain and causing landslides, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the windstorm there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a soft whisper. When Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his robe and went out and stood at the entrance to the cave." --1 Kings 19:11-13
To hear God's voice, we don't need to look for miraculous signs and wonders. We need only to listen for a whisper.
Feel free to comment or ask questions. I'm always here.
Keep Soaring,
B
Something happened to me on the way home from out house hunting. It's a little embarassing, honestly, that it's taken this long for me to get it. But God knows how thick-headed I can be sometimes, and that subtlety for me isn't always the best way to do things.
To spare the suspense, I believe, for the first time in a long, long while, I heard God speak.
Now let me clarify, God did not verbally speak to me. The heavens did not open, I did not have a vision of a winged creature wreathed in light and speaking with a tongue shaped like a sword. I don't have some sort of special communication with God that no one else has. This is not the televangelist "God told me to tell you" horse manuer that you get so often these days. What I am talking about is the Holy Spirit leading and guiding me in a way that is undeniable.
I won't go into details of the circumstances due to their personal nature, but suffice it to say I was very bewildered. Things were going on a track that I didn't know how to get off of, and I was going to crash emotionally if things didn't work out soon. I had asked God for guidance on the subject before, but He never really seemed to be answering. Well this time, He answered. As I said before, it wasn't a grand vision of epic proportions. No, God chose to speak to me in probably the most unlikely way you can imagine.....He spoke to me in a whisper. Just a slight "tug" on my heart that pulled me in a direction I didn't normally go. And the results were profound. Months of confusion suddenly and instantly made clear. Wounds that had been open for far too long, for the first time, seemed to finally be healing. And the oddest part of it all was that it wasn't because of a great effort on my part. It was because God chose to whisper.
I know that this is terribly vague, and if the circumstances didn't involve more people than just me, I would be more forthcoming about it. But the point remains the same--when God spoke to me and gave me an answer to questions that had been plaguing me, He spoke in a whisper. So, if you have tried to listen for God and heard nothing, maybe you were like me. You were looking for skywriting and supernatural events, when really all you need to wait for is a whisper.
I wanna close this post with a lesson that the prophet Elijah learned. He had just seen God work an amazing miracle by conquering the false god Baal. Then, when his life was threatened, he fell into horrible depression. When God came to him, to encourage him, this is what happened:
"A very powerful wind went before the Lord, digging into the mountain and causing landslides, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the windstorm there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a soft whisper. When Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his robe and went out and stood at the entrance to the cave." --1 Kings 19:11-13
To hear God's voice, we don't need to look for miraculous signs and wonders. We need only to listen for a whisper.
Feel free to comment or ask questions. I'm always here.
Keep Soaring,
B
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