Friday, October 9, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Codyism...
My good friend Beth has a blog called Bethism. Check it out here! On this blog she keeps a record of all the random awkward things that happen in her life. (And they are awkward!) One of my greatest joys in life is reading this blog and getting a good laugh...and being very thankful that none of those things have happened to me. Today however, one of those things happened to me...kinda. It wasn't really an awkward happening, more a series of unfortunate events.
So here is the story. Today I was painting a door. It was the door that we are going to put on the back wall of the stage at The Rock, to make it easier to load and unload sound gear and things like that. I was painting it that same color as the wall, a rich, dark, blue. Now just so you know, it's a Husker game day so I was wearing my favorite RED Husker shirt and one of my nicer pairs of khaki shorts. (I wasn't really planning on painting today...) The door was on the ground, so I was kinda squatting over it and painting it. My legs we getting kinda tired, so I decided to sit down and paint it that way. Maybe you can guess what happened next. I sat down...right on the lid of the paint can. And now I have a sweet, dark blue paint spot on my nice shorts...
I proceeded to run into the men's restroom to try and wash all the paint off my shorts. So I emptied my pockets, put my wallet and keys on the floor and put my phone in the front pocket on the hooded sweatshirt that I was wearing. I washed as much paint off as I could, but it was a lost cause. HUGE BLUE MARK RIGHT ON THE BUTT! No bueno...
I decided since I was already covered in paint to go and finish the first coat of blue on the door. So I continued to paint but this time instead of sitting down, I just bent at the waist to prevent myself from sitting in the paint again. So I was just about finished with this coat of paint, I had just dipped my brush into the paint can and leaned over the door to paint the last section when I heard a *sploosh* *plop* *splash* *gloop* or any other sound like that...and yes...my phone had dropped into the paint can and was slowly sinking to the bottom. I was in shock...what are the odds of my phone jumping out of my pocket into the paint can of doom?
I reached in and grabbed my phone out of the paint can. It was completely covered...and now so was my hand. I grabbed the paint can lid and hovered over it so I didn't drip paint all over the floor on the way back to the bathroom. When I got back into the bathroom, I grabbed the paper towel roll and unwound most of it, then proceeded to clean off my phone. There was paint EVERYWHERE on it, the earhole, the speaker, in between the keys, everywhere. I cleaned it off really well and was really pleased with how clean it actually was. I turned it on and to my surprise, it worked...until I pressed the buttons...then it freaked out on me. Needless to say it no longer works, so I'm down one phone, one pair of shorts, and probably about $50 to cover the insurance claim on my phone.
This was one of those days where lots of things decide to go wrong. All I can say is that if the Huskers lose tonight then I might scream! When all was said and done, I was really really frustrated, by all I could do was laugh about the whole situation and how it panned out. I hope that everyone can use this post to have a little laugh themselves. Huge props to Beth, I feel your pain, hang in there!
So here is the story. Today I was painting a door. It was the door that we are going to put on the back wall of the stage at The Rock, to make it easier to load and unload sound gear and things like that. I was painting it that same color as the wall, a rich, dark, blue. Now just so you know, it's a Husker game day so I was wearing my favorite RED Husker shirt and one of my nicer pairs of khaki shorts. (I wasn't really planning on painting today...) The door was on the ground, so I was kinda squatting over it and painting it. My legs we getting kinda tired, so I decided to sit down and paint it that way. Maybe you can guess what happened next. I sat down...right on the lid of the paint can. And now I have a sweet, dark blue paint spot on my nice shorts...
I proceeded to run into the men's restroom to try and wash all the paint off my shorts. So I emptied my pockets, put my wallet and keys on the floor and put my phone in the front pocket on the hooded sweatshirt that I was wearing. I washed as much paint off as I could, but it was a lost cause. HUGE BLUE MARK RIGHT ON THE BUTT! No bueno...
I decided since I was already covered in paint to go and finish the first coat of blue on the door. So I continued to paint but this time instead of sitting down, I just bent at the waist to prevent myself from sitting in the paint again. So I was just about finished with this coat of paint, I had just dipped my brush into the paint can and leaned over the door to paint the last section when I heard a *sploosh* *plop* *splash* *gloop* or any other sound like that...and yes...my phone had dropped into the paint can and was slowly sinking to the bottom. I was in shock...what are the odds of my phone jumping out of my pocket into the paint can of doom?
I reached in and grabbed my phone out of the paint can. It was completely covered...and now so was my hand. I grabbed the paint can lid and hovered over it so I didn't drip paint all over the floor on the way back to the bathroom. When I got back into the bathroom, I grabbed the paper towel roll and unwound most of it, then proceeded to clean off my phone. There was paint EVERYWHERE on it, the earhole, the speaker, in between the keys, everywhere. I cleaned it off really well and was really pleased with how clean it actually was. I turned it on and to my surprise, it worked...until I pressed the buttons...then it freaked out on me. Needless to say it no longer works, so I'm down one phone, one pair of shorts, and probably about $50 to cover the insurance claim on my phone.
This was one of those days where lots of things decide to go wrong. All I can say is that if the Huskers lose tonight then I might scream! When all was said and done, I was really really frustrated, by all I could do was laugh about the whole situation and how it panned out. I hope that everyone can use this post to have a little laugh themselves. Huge props to Beth, I feel your pain, hang in there!
Monday, October 5, 2009
Reflections...
The past few weeks I have been "fasting." As you might remember from my Practice What You Preach...post, Facebook was taking away from my time with God. So I gave it up for a few weeks and really focused on daily Bible reading, prayer, and tithing (because I do a really bad job with this). I also tried to indulge in some other reading material, mainly my stack of books that I have either bought over the years or have received from someone else. Here is how I have been doing in each area and how God has blessed me also.
1. I just recently started meeting with my boss (Mike Sander) and some teachers at the high school here in Norton. We meet together every Tuesday over lunch to pray and talk about what we have read in the past week. We set a goal of reading one chapter a day or seven chapters each week. We started reading in Hebrews and have just recently moved into James. This has been great for me because it is a way for people to keep me accountable and also a time where I can take in what other people noticed in the verses that we read each week.
Through the first couple weeks, one constant theme has been sticking with me. Faith. In Hebrews 11, the author lists what has become known as the faith hall of fame. Given are various accounts of times when men and women showed great faith. Names like Abraham, Noah, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and the list goes on. The thing that strikes me here is the things that God was asking these people to do. He was asking them to do things like sacrifice their only son, build a huge boat that will take the majority of your life while being criticized by all your friends, standing up to a Pharaoh...etc. The amount of faith that each one of these different people had amazes me.
This got me thinking...how is my faith? Because the truth is, its not that great. So many times in my life I don't put my faith in God and trust that He will work in situations. I like to rely on my own strength and do things on my own without even asking God to help. I don't have the faith to trust that God is going to take care of the little things in my life, much less have the faith to sacrifice my only son to Him. This is something that I need to work on. So many times, when I pray I ask hoping that God will provide or hoping that God will work in certain situations. I need to pray in faith, believing that God will provide and knowing that He is working in my life. My goal right now is to get better at trusting God and believing that He will work through me instead of hoping that He will.
2. I have recently been setting aside specific times during the day just to pray. One of those times is right before I do my daily Bible reading. I ask God to speak to me through His word, help me to find something new that I didn't notice before, and help me to apply those things to my life. I can't explain to you the difference this has made. It's like verses are just jumping off the pages and God is saying..."This is what you need to hear today, take it with you."
It seems like God has been making things easy on me throughout this journey too. Usually when I give up things to give more time to God, it is really hard to do and I have trouble sticking with it. These last few weeks, however, different things keep happening to help me keep with it. For example, as our youth group activity last week we developed a prayer labyrinth. This is simply different stations of prayer, each with a specific area to pray about. We set up stages like giving adoration to God, praying for your future, praying for your friends, confession, etc. Just focusing on prayer while preparing for that activity helped me to stick with my goal of spending more time in prayer. It was a constant reminder that I needed to spend time with God.
3. I am really bad with my money...and this is probably an understatement. I spend impulsively and usually on things of little importance, like fast food or many cubes of Mt. Dew. Because I am so bad with my money, I rarely have anything left to tithe with. Therein lies my problem. I have spent all my days so far giving what I have left back to God after serving myself first. I need to focus on giving to God first.
It was always hard for me to tithe because I liked to see what my money was going towards. I would find creative ways to tithe, like giving to missionaries or helping friends who are raising money for an internship. I don't think doing that is a bad thing, but it points back to my lack of faith. I need to trust that God will use the money I give to help further the Kingdom.
In the past few weeks, I gave to God first. Not spending money on myself even though there are things I need to pay for. I gave in faith knowing that God would bless me if I offered my gift to Him. And bless me He did. He gave me multiple opportunities to make some extra money through doing some odd jobs. He also blessed me through an anonymous gift of $100 from someone in the church here for no apparent reason. If you give in faith offering your gifts to God from the "first fruits of your labor," he will look on you with favor! If you don't believe me, read about it here; then here.
4. I have a stack of books that I have accumulated over the years, but still have yet to read. This pile keep growing for some reason and I have no clue why. Most of the books in this pile are books by Christian authors on leadership, Christian living, etc. So I decided that this would be a great time for me to grow closer to God and grow in my leadership skills at the same time. I just finished a book called Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz. Miller offers unique insight into many aspects of Christianity. Painting pictures of Biblical truths in a new light.
In his books, Miller really challenges his readers to get away from the cookie cutter, do these 5 steps to get into Heaven thought process on Christianity. His thoughts are that this way of thinking takes away from the relational aspect of Christianity and feeds the compartmentalized culture. The thing that really stuck with me after reading this book though was this: As Christians , we spend so much time looking at the sins of people and what is keeping them from a relationship with God that we forget to love them. We spend our time trying to "convert" non-Christians and feeding the notions that Christians are all hypocrites instead of reaching out to people and meeting them where they are at. We need to focus on the relational aspect of our relationship with God and show people that we are Christians by loving them and showing them that we genuinely care about them. Jesus spent the majority of His time during His ministry reaching out to the homeless and sick and poor and hurting. He ate with tax collectors and conversed with prostitutes. He loved people and met them where they were at. We need to strive to be more like Jesus in these ways.
These past few weeks have been a journey for me. A great adventure. A time when I have really started to dig deeper into who Christ is and what His plan for my life is. My prayer is that I will continue to grow in Christ daily and be more like Christ as I grow. I also pray that you will be able to do the same.
Acts 2:42
They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
1. I just recently started meeting with my boss (Mike Sander) and some teachers at the high school here in Norton. We meet together every Tuesday over lunch to pray and talk about what we have read in the past week. We set a goal of reading one chapter a day or seven chapters each week. We started reading in Hebrews and have just recently moved into James. This has been great for me because it is a way for people to keep me accountable and also a time where I can take in what other people noticed in the verses that we read each week.
Through the first couple weeks, one constant theme has been sticking with me. Faith. In Hebrews 11, the author lists what has become known as the faith hall of fame. Given are various accounts of times when men and women showed great faith. Names like Abraham, Noah, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and the list goes on. The thing that strikes me here is the things that God was asking these people to do. He was asking them to do things like sacrifice their only son, build a huge boat that will take the majority of your life while being criticized by all your friends, standing up to a Pharaoh...etc. The amount of faith that each one of these different people had amazes me.
This got me thinking...how is my faith? Because the truth is, its not that great. So many times in my life I don't put my faith in God and trust that He will work in situations. I like to rely on my own strength and do things on my own without even asking God to help. I don't have the faith to trust that God is going to take care of the little things in my life, much less have the faith to sacrifice my only son to Him. This is something that I need to work on. So many times, when I pray I ask hoping that God will provide or hoping that God will work in certain situations. I need to pray in faith, believing that God will provide and knowing that He is working in my life. My goal right now is to get better at trusting God and believing that He will work through me instead of hoping that He will.
2. I have recently been setting aside specific times during the day just to pray. One of those times is right before I do my daily Bible reading. I ask God to speak to me through His word, help me to find something new that I didn't notice before, and help me to apply those things to my life. I can't explain to you the difference this has made. It's like verses are just jumping off the pages and God is saying..."This is what you need to hear today, take it with you."
It seems like God has been making things easy on me throughout this journey too. Usually when I give up things to give more time to God, it is really hard to do and I have trouble sticking with it. These last few weeks, however, different things keep happening to help me keep with it. For example, as our youth group activity last week we developed a prayer labyrinth. This is simply different stations of prayer, each with a specific area to pray about. We set up stages like giving adoration to God, praying for your future, praying for your friends, confession, etc. Just focusing on prayer while preparing for that activity helped me to stick with my goal of spending more time in prayer. It was a constant reminder that I needed to spend time with God.
3. I am really bad with my money...and this is probably an understatement. I spend impulsively and usually on things of little importance, like fast food or many cubes of Mt. Dew. Because I am so bad with my money, I rarely have anything left to tithe with. Therein lies my problem. I have spent all my days so far giving what I have left back to God after serving myself first. I need to focus on giving to God first.
It was always hard for me to tithe because I liked to see what my money was going towards. I would find creative ways to tithe, like giving to missionaries or helping friends who are raising money for an internship. I don't think doing that is a bad thing, but it points back to my lack of faith. I need to trust that God will use the money I give to help further the Kingdom.
In the past few weeks, I gave to God first. Not spending money on myself even though there are things I need to pay for. I gave in faith knowing that God would bless me if I offered my gift to Him. And bless me He did. He gave me multiple opportunities to make some extra money through doing some odd jobs. He also blessed me through an anonymous gift of $100 from someone in the church here for no apparent reason. If you give in faith offering your gifts to God from the "first fruits of your labor," he will look on you with favor! If you don't believe me, read about it here; then here.
4. I have a stack of books that I have accumulated over the years, but still have yet to read. This pile keep growing for some reason and I have no clue why. Most of the books in this pile are books by Christian authors on leadership, Christian living, etc. So I decided that this would be a great time for me to grow closer to God and grow in my leadership skills at the same time. I just finished a book called Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz. Miller offers unique insight into many aspects of Christianity. Painting pictures of Biblical truths in a new light.
In his books, Miller really challenges his readers to get away from the cookie cutter, do these 5 steps to get into Heaven thought process on Christianity. His thoughts are that this way of thinking takes away from the relational aspect of Christianity and feeds the compartmentalized culture. The thing that really stuck with me after reading this book though was this: As Christians , we spend so much time looking at the sins of people and what is keeping them from a relationship with God that we forget to love them. We spend our time trying to "convert" non-Christians and feeding the notions that Christians are all hypocrites instead of reaching out to people and meeting them where they are at. We need to focus on the relational aspect of our relationship with God and show people that we are Christians by loving them and showing them that we genuinely care about them. Jesus spent the majority of His time during His ministry reaching out to the homeless and sick and poor and hurting. He ate with tax collectors and conversed with prostitutes. He loved people and met them where they were at. We need to strive to be more like Jesus in these ways.
These past few weeks have been a journey for me. A great adventure. A time when I have really started to dig deeper into who Christ is and what His plan for my life is. My prayer is that I will continue to grow in Christ daily and be more like Christ as I grow. I also pray that you will be able to do the same.
Acts 2:42
They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
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