The Move

This week is the week! My family is moving to Dayton, OH. It's been about a six month journey but we are finally taking the leap of faith.

Our house hasn't sold but I trust God. The kids are ready to roll and I'm ready to live with my wife again.

We've got the biggest truck you can get (26 ft.) and the fun begins Thursday morning.

I look back on this experience and as tough as it's been I believe my committment to family is stronger than ever.

It's been a time where I have learned to appreciate family time and that's a lesson that you can't place a dollar on.

And oh...a quick shout out to my wife, Beth. You're amazing! I know you hate boxes right now but it's almost over!

TMI

We had a great road trip! I took a group of 11 to Springfield, MO to visit Evangel University and we had a great time.

Over 20 hours in a van. Now spending 20 hours in a van with the same group has the potential for a lot of things to happen. Fortunately, the 20 hours served as some really good bonding time.

On our trip we met someone who loves to talk. Who always seems to give TMI (too much information)

I find these people fascinating. As they are talking it's as if they are the only person alive and their stories are so amazing that Hollywood is wanting to use them for movies. TMI!

To all the TMI people I must say this: Keep it up! Your information sharing allows me to daydream and organize my thoughts and figure out what I'm going to wear for the next month. I appreciate it.

Road Trip

Heading to Springfield, MO in a few hours. I am taking a van full of students to Evangel University. The trip should include: a lot of Mt. Dew, barking spiders, a lot of laughing, little sleep, getting lost and some new memories.

The goal of the trip is to allow some students to experience college life. It's such an awesome time for them to see what the future holds. Do you remember when you were charting out the path for your life?

Sometimes it seems like so long ago.

I have found that the direction of our life is a daily choice to make. Today's choices will affect tomorrow's outcome. (Chew on that for a while)

I'm looking forward to viewing this trip through the wide eyes of a few 16 & 17 year olds and remember that my future too is charted out today.

Nose Hair

That is a nose hair! We all have them but HOPEFULLY we trim them. I had a short (Thank God) conversation today with a person whose nose hair was out of control.

It was really quite a sight. The nose hair moved as she (oh sorry I didn't mention that the culprit was a she) talked and besides it being quite a sight it became really distracting.

I wanted to say something but then again if she's taken this long to grow her nose hair who am I to destroy such growth!

My point: We all have things that are distracting to people? We all have annoying habits or weird mannerisms that can be an issue. The key though is allow yourself to be critiqued. The bible says in Proverbs 27:17 "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

Now go look in the mirror and check your nose hair!

RYB for 60 hours!

I've been listening to Andy Stanley's teaching called TEXT and it's really challenging me. His main goal: RYB! (Read Your Bible)

Too often we get detail deep in answering voice mails, returning emails and the daily grind of work that reading our bibles becomes a woulda...shoulda...coulda...type thing.

So this past Sunday I taught on the importance of reading our bibles and taking 5-10 minutes per day to read our bibles. By the way, if you read your bible for 10 minutes a day over the course of a year you would have read your bible for 60 hours! That's 3 1/2 days!

I bet that would change your life.

Andy Stanley's main point: What if God doesn't want to do something but what if God wanted to say something! And what if His primary means of communicating was a txt message - aka: the bible.

Same State

Yesterday my wife texted me this picture from Conneaut, OH.

My kids and some friends built a snowman! Remember those days? Now the reason I'm highlighting my kids winter fun is b/c while they were building this snowman I was driving home from church in Dayton, OH (300 miles away) and it was 62 degrees!

Am I in the same state? Wow! Talk about an extreme change in environment.

That got me thinking about my job and how some people in the church are loving it and spiritually growing and others are well - not!

How does this happen? How can the same church have such wide gaps?

I don't have the answer!

My point though: the extreme change in weather environment is kind of cool and harmless and whether you're building a snowman or wearing a short-sleeve shirt is meaningless. BUT when it comes to church, choosing to avoid growing cold is just that - a choice!