Back from the Beach - Part 1

Today is 'back-in-the-saddle' day. Vacation is over, and much work is left to be done. I came back to a church that has kept on moving forward while I was gone, and now I get to jump on and keep rolling! I am so excited about what's in front of us, and pretty clear that the next few months are going to set the tone for the next season of ministry here at LifePoint Church.

So as I look ahead to what God's bringing, I just have to share a few tidbits that God showed me on vacation. First one is this:

I've been trying to get Mac and Rachel to learn how to swim for a few years. We tried lessons a couple years ago, but it killed me how they were being taught, and WHAT they were being taught. In 30 minutes of lessons, they would each get about 5 minutes of individual work, then spend the rest of the time sitting on the edge not doing anything. I've tried to teach them, but that hasn't gone well, mostly because they were doing what they had been taught, which wasn't helping.

So we got to Maui and rented snorkel equipment. The kids were fired up! Then we went to this protected cove where the water was not more than about 4 feet deep ever, and the rock wall kept the surf from pounding too badly. The kids got in, got used to the fins, and then wanted to go all over the place. Rachel kept holding my hand, but pulling me all over the cove, wanting to see whatever was under the water.

Later, after they got good at this, we went to a place near a wildlife reserve to snorkel. The reserve meant no fishing, so there were literally thousands of fish in the water. All colors, sizes, shapes. There, in 20 feet of water, goes Rachel. The girl who couldn't swim three strokes without stopping (the part of her lessons I couldn't seem to break her from) is now swimming all over this inlet, diving down under the water, clearing her snorkel, and having the time of her life. The last day, she even found a wolf eel and showed it to me. So much growth in two weeks!!

It just reminded me once again of how we need to bring up Christians behind us, whether it's discipleship or training in ministry. We need to give them the right equipment, then take them places where it's not too deep so they can get the confidence they need, but then take them where it's deeper, scarier, and more beautiful so they can enjoy all that God has for them. I've been telling the staff that 2 Timothy 2:2 is how we need to do business: "And the things you've heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others." We need to pass on what we know so that others get the full effect and see the beauty of what God has created them to experience. Rachel will never forget her snorkel experience, her wolf eel, and her new found swimming ability. And I will never forget the joy of seeing her enjoy herself in this new and amazing way, playing with the fish.

More later. Aloha!

Time Away

Yep, it feels like we just got here, but it's time to get away. We have not been to visit Beth's parents since Rachel was about 2 years old, so today, on Rachel's 10th birthday, we're packing to go see Hal and Dee. It will be a fun two weeks, and I know that everything at LifePoint will run just ducky without me.

Taking time to unplug is vital to our mental and emotional health, and when you're job is ministry, it's also important to unplug for spiritual health. Being 'on' all the time as a pastor leads to burn out, and taking time away is powerful medicine against it. Burn out is an epidemic in church ministry, and I don't want myself or anyone on our staff falling victim to it. Pastor Mark took his family for a break a couple weeks ago, Pastor Jeremy before that, and Pastor Roy and Pastor Tracy just got back from theirs. The time is right for me to take a break after the last six months of candidating, leaving our great life in Pocatello, moving our stuff, getting kids in school, finding our way around church and a new community, and managing somehow to get some ministry done in the meantime. Before the run up to launching the Fall season and the slow climb to Christmas (yup, I said it... :) ), it would be good to take my family and get away.

I will expect to hear good things!! Pastor Roy and Pastor Mark will be teaching, and they're primed with their parables to let it rip! I will be heading to church a couple times with Beth's folks and can't wait.

Thanks to all who have already expressed their encouragement and prayer support for our trip, it's great to know that so many understand that a pastor can't be there every weekend. I really feel prayer making a difference in my life and ministry here, so please keep it up!

I promise I'll have a story or two when I get back. Maybe even a shirt. :)

Mahalo, Ohana!! (Thanks, Family!)

Silence...

The pressure of football practice and our first game last week (a two point loss for the Lions, revenge will come in the playoffs!!), and getting things in shape for the 40 Days of Prayer campaign coming in October have left me little time to blog, so sorry if you've been looking and not finding here. I'm hoping that after this weekend, I'll be able to get back to regular. Plus I'm still trying to 'debug' the book reviews from Study Leave, I'm having HTML problems of unknown origin. Soon!

Today I'm having the first relaxing day off in a couple months that doesn't involve a long drive or flight, so I'm chilling out and recharging the batteries. Don't underestimate the power of rest in our hurried world. I can't hear from God if I'm too tired to listen.

I will post some more on the Beautiful series (so far, lots of good stuff God is getting done in the lives of women AND men in this series!), and let you know what has me fired up about 40 Days of Prayer when the dust settles next week. Meantime, pray for me, we have a game Saturday night in Bear Lake (90 minutes south of here), and that's going to make for a long weekend. I think the Lions have a great chance to win, and Mac will get the start at both tight end and safety, so pray for him to stay healthy and have enough gas in the tank to go both ways for the full game.

Yes, I promised not too much of 8th grade football on this blog, but this one is important! :)

I Don't Like Mondays...

It's an 80's song, but it's how I feel today. I don't like Mondays.

The week of vacation ended up being a week of being sick, so I missed the paintball war for Mac's 13th birthday, I missed out on doing anything remotely fun, unless you call coughing all through the night some kind of adventure!!

I managed to pull myself together long enough on Saturday to go the the Cancer Survivor's Lunch. I was asked to do some stand-up comedy for the folks there, and it went well, despite how crappy I was feeling. Good news: the people who were there were surprised by how funny I was. The Bad News: weather and other issues kept it from being the normal sized crowd we usually get at this event. Should be better next year, since we made the front page of the paper (no misquotes this time, because they didn't talk to me!!), and the buzz generated from a good time will get more folks to show up (more on this later).

I went to the Doctor afterward, and he put me on an antibiotic for a sinus infection (uber-fun!!), and I was still sick on Sunday. Heard worship was great! I slept. Hard.

There was more 'stuff' waiting for me at the office when I got here today, plus my Mentoring Group (props to the LLC!!), and various pieces of drama. I'm not sure why Mondays are what they are, but this was definitely one of them. So I was glad to see in my inbox an email from a friend who likes song lyrics. This one came at a good time, and I feel like it's a help to remember that God is working in the midst of the chaos:

Whatever You’re Doing

It’s time for healing

Time to move on

It’s time to fix what’s been broken too long

Time to make right

What has been wrong

It’s time to find my way to where I belong

There’s a wave that’s crashing over me

And all I can do is surrender

Whatever you’re doing inside of me

It feels like chaos

But somehow there’s peace

And it’s hard to surrender to what I can’t see

I’m giving in to something heavenly

Looking for the chaos to grow into peace. Looking for the mess I'm feeling around me to be something heavenly. Looking forward to tomorrow not being Monday.

Vacation Blogging

To blog on vacation or not? That is the question.

Don't know if I should do this, but I'm blogging from my vacation. I'm taking the week off, more of a stay-cation, than a vacation, 'cause I'm not going anywhere. Waiting for word on Beth's dad, but last we heard, they are finding some treatable issues, and he's hoping to get out today or tomorrow.

I have so much coming up the rest of this year, that I'm having to try to schedule the rest of my vacation around all the trips, conferences, football practices (starts Aug. 10), and study leave. It gets tough.

I've seen Aaron's outline for Sunday, if you're here, prepare to be rocked!

Okay, no more this week. Gotta go. Back on Monday.

6 inches of Snow for "Spring" Break

Here's the funny thing about planning: when you are not God, you don't get the last word.

I had the best plan for this week - I was going to start jogging to get ready for the summer 5 k runs I want to enter, I was going to get some yard work done, get the garage straightened, clean out my truck, do some fun stuff with the kids, and generally rest up for the push to Easter. Then reality set in.

First, the man-child got bronchitis and has been sick since Saturday. He missed church (something he never does, so you know it's bad), and was a slug all day yesterday. Then my own cold, which had been getting better, took a bit of a turn again (thanks for praying last week, by the way. It helped, and I got thru Sunday just fine), and I was a slug most of the day yesterday, too. Oh, and one other thing, THERE WAS SIX INCHES OF SNOW ON THE GROUND MONDAY MORNING!!

So no yard work, no garage, just shoveling the driveway. I couldn't take sick kid sledding, couldn't jog, and basically had to scrap the whole 'plan.'

Tentatively, there's some fun that still might happen if and when the boy gets better. Beth is working all of her hours up front this week so she can take time off at the end of the week for a trip to the Titanic exibit in Idaho Falls. There will be some book shopping at Barnes and Noble's, and some kind of good food experience for sure, but for now, it's Spring Break in name only.

If you think about it, pray for a couple things: one, that I get the rest and recharge I need for the next two weeks running up to Easter; two, that I remember to spend some quality time with Jesus while I'm on my down time (it's hard to have my quiet time when I'm on vacation, not sure why, just is); and three, that the next series we're doing, Take It Like A Man - Real wisdom for Real men and the women who love them, will start to come together. I'm excited about it, especially coming out of the last two months, but it needs some real spit-shine.