The Boxing Match that I didnt want to fight...

I know that everyone has those days that just suck. Well I had one of those on Monday. So take a minute and step into the ring with me...

Round 1 – Me vs. the Alarm Clock

5.45 am and all I hear is the stupid alarm clock making noise. Not something that I or my body wanted to hear. I had to live up to my word and keep my promise that I would be at the gym at 6. What was I thinking??

Round 1 WINNER – ME

Round 2 – Me vs. My Contacts

Just like me, my contacts do not like early mornings. All they want to do is stay in their case and “sleep” longer. I don’t think they have ever seen 5.45 in the morning before so I think I caught them off guard with this one.

Round 2 WINNER – My contacts

Round 3 – Me vs. My Office

Compliance meeting from 9-2. Wonderful! This isn’t your normal sit and listen to your manager and interact meeting. This is a listen to monotone man on the computer for 3 hours and then discuss it for the next 2 hours. Definitely not my cup of tea. And to top it off, I’ve already been up for 3 and a half hours before the 9 am meeting even started. This equals me being tired.

Round 3 WINNER – My Office

Round 4 – Me vs. 2 pm

Like I just mentioned my meeting lasted until 2. I, however, had to be at Indian Rocks at 2 to get everything together for our golf match in Bradenton. Before I go any farther, I was unaware that I would be traveling down to Bradenton for the match. I didn’t think I was allowed to drive, which by the end of this blog you will understand why I wished I didnt drive. Anyways, I got to school at 2.30 and everything was together by 3.

Round 4 WINNER – 2 p.m.

Round 5 – Me vs. Ironwood Golf Course

I left the school in a hurry without any clue as to how to get to my destination. Luckily, I called a couple people and got directions to the place and made it just in time for the match.

Round 5 WINNER – Me

Round 6 – Me vs. Rain

We got to the golf course right on time, as well as did the rain. It was a downpour. I thought great, Ill get to go back home. Their coach had other plans. He wanted to wait it out. We ended up waiting an hour and fifteen minutes before it stopped raining. The course was now obviously covered in water. Not your ideal conditions to play golf in.

Round 6 WINNER – Rain

Round 7– Me vs. My Dry Cleaned Suit

Nothing like getting back dry cleaned clothes. So fresh and so clean. Since I wasn’t aware that I would be driving my team to the golf match, I didn’t bring a change of clothes and didn’t have time to run home and grab any. Due to the weather conditions, I definitely was not going to win this one. Therefore, the dry cleaned suit wins by default.

Round 7 WINNER – My Dry Cleaned Suit

Round 8 – Me vs. Bradenton St. Stephens

We lost. Simple Enough.

Round 8 WINNER – Bradenton St. Stephens

Round 9 was cancelled because I was crying in a corner. JK, I actually cant count right and forget about number 9. Oops!


Round 10 – Me vs. Food

I hadn’t eaten since 12 noon. I was starving at 8 when we left the golf course and so were my kids. I told everyone we would stop at McDonalds and they were excited. Only problem was that only one of the seven kids had money. That is a big problem when you are going to buy food.

Round 10 WINNER – Draw

Round 11 – Me vs. The Cops

We all know who wins when you’re up against the cops. Just to let everyone in on the story. We had just got into the car and I was driving across a bridge which had a speed limit of 50. After crossing the bridge, the speed limit drops to 30. That’s a big drop. Anyways, I was talking to the kids about things we need to work on and really wasn’t paying attention. I was driving but really not watching my speed. Big mistake in a different city. I came flying through the 30 mph zone only to get pulled over. Lucky me!

Round 11 WINNER – The Cops, they almost knocked me out

Round 12 – Me vs. Cable Box

I look forward to two things on Monday nights. EE and Prison Break. I did catch the end of EE which was exciting. However, I missed Prison Break. That’s the good thing about DVR. I can do stuff and still catch the shows I like. The only thing that you need to DVR something is a cable box and power. Last night, we didn’t have power. Therefore, there is no Prison Break. Based on the day, I should have just known.

Round 12 WINNER – Cable Box


Let’s go back through and look at the scorecard. I won 2 1/2 rounds and lost the other 8 1/2 so it’s pretty safe to say that I lost this fight. The good news is that there will be other fights and there will be other days.

Things to learn from my day:
1. Don’t go into a fight unprepared
2. Expect the unexpected
3. Turn the bad into good, somehow
4. The devil will throw anything and everything at you to get your focus off of God
5. PRAY

Romans 8:28 – “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

How does an onion cry?

This past weekend in church, we talked about loving one another. What a yucky subject to talk about. Pastor Ray gave us a list of about 30 verses that had the words one another in them. Things like love one another - forgive one another - encourage one another. Some friends, after pointing out the ones I needed work on, decided to challenge me to blog about one of the verses. I picked Galatians 5:26 which talks about not provoking one another. Simple enough right??

I did a little research on my new buddy, provoke. In the NIV translation, provoke is found 42 times in the Old Testament. Most of those 42 times, the verses are talking about the Israelites provoking the Lord to anger. Here are just a couple examples:

Psalm 106:29 - They provoked the LORD to anger by their wicked deeds, and a plague broke out among them.

2 Kings 17:11 - At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the LORD had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that provoked the LORD to anger.

Jeremiah 25:6 - Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not provoke me to anger with what your hands have made. Then I will not harm you."

Ezekiel 8:17 - He said to me, "Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial matter for the house of Judah to do the detestable things they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with violence and continually provoke me to anger? Look at them putting the branch to their nose!

As you can see, they were always provoking the Lord to anger.

As I said earlier, I did some research on provoke. Provoke has 2 different meanings. One of them is to anger, which I just talked about.
Some common other uses of that meaning:
annoy
bother
bug
enrage
incite
infuriate
irritate
madden
nag
offend
upset.
The use of this word, provoke, leads to very violent emotions. Typically when you infuriate someone or offend someone, it doesn’t lead to good things.

However, the other meaning of the word, provoke, is completely different from the first - to start. To start? Hmm. What does that mean?
awaken
begin
challenge
electrify
elicit
evoke
excite
generate
inspire
kindle
motivate
pique
promote
rally
rouse
stimulate
stir.
All things that will make you think. Here are some Biblical examples:

Hebrews 10:24 - And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.

Luke 11:53 - And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things.

How could one word have such different meanings? One is to stir up anger and the other is to get people to start thinking. Let’s look at one more word – provocation. Provocation means an act that causes a response. This is truly what provoke means. Whether is stirs up a feeling or gets someone to think, it still leads to a response. One way or another, if you provoke someone, you will get a reaction.

-provoke (or incite) a fight
-provoke (or evoke) laughter

Whichever way you look at the word, provoke, it will lead to something. The Bible talks about the word in the context of anger. You definitely don’t want to provoke someone to anger but rather provoke someone to start thinking and be different.

Jokes are a good example of provoking someone. We can go overboard with our jokes -
Yo mama's so fat she makes Free Willy look like a goldfish.
If someone told me that joke and actually meant it, I would be mad. I would get angry and probably follow up with a joke myself. One that goes like this -
Yo mama's so fat she fell in love and broke it
- or -
Yo mama's so ugly she made an onion cry!
You get the point. Yo mama is fat and ugly. Just kidding. If you say those things and mean them, you provoke the person to anger.

Point being – first, watch what you say – second, whats the attitude of your heart? – third, if you think you messed up, ask for forgiveness – fourth, have fun and live – finally, provoke people to think rather than anger.

Are you a NERD like Me?

Candy – the first thought that pops into my head is yummy. I couldn’t get enough candy as a kid. I absolutely loved Sour Patch Kids and Skittles. I also loved getting to go to 7-11 after school. I felt like I just hit the jackpot. What could be better? No more school and now I get candy.

The other day I got a phone call from let’s call her Belle (picture the girl from Beauty and the Beast). Well Belle was having some troubles so I went down to help. When I got there, Belle was eating NERDS. Nerds are another one of those candies that I love. I think the only candy I don’t like is black licorice. I don’t know why but it’s kinda gross. Back to the story – I hadn’t had Nerds in such a long time so I needed to fix that. She offered so I took a few. I couldn’t say no because you can’t say no to someone who offers you food (and candy is food).

Between handfuls of Nerds, Dairy Queen was brought up. One of my favorite things about going to Indianapolis every summer was Dairy Queen. I would always get a Nerd Blizzard. So much sugar and ice cream and even more sugar. Great for a little kid like me. This brought up the NEED and Ill say definite need to get a DQ Nerd Blizzard. What a brilliant idea. Go back to the glory days of being young and free and our only worries were getting our homework done and video game time.

The DQ Nerd Blizzard event took place tonight after church. Dairy Queen doesn’t do the Nerd Blizzard anymore which is a shame. After tonight, I can understand why. We stopped and picked up a Jumbo size box of Nerds. Took the box into DQ and kindly asked them to make some for us. The first mistake was having them put half the box of Nerds into each Blizzard. There were so many Nerds in them. The second mistake was ordering a Medium size. Like I said, there were so many Nerds in them. It looked like it was a box of Nerds with a little bit of ice cream in my cup. Oops!

I don’t know what happened between the time that I was 10 and now but I don’t like all that sugar anymore. I ate probably ¾ of the cup and my stomach was so sick feeling. I could just picture my stomach down there looking up at me saying I hate you for doing this to me. Why would you ever think you could handle that much sugar? You aren’t 10 years old anymore.

As much as I love the Nerd Blizzard, I think it should go into retirement just as it has at Dairy Queen. There is just way too much sugar and I honestly can’t handle it. So thank you Dairy Queen for all the great memories with the Nerd Blizzard.

Take this verse however you like.
Ps. 107:18
- “They loathed all food, and drew near the gates of death.”

All the Small Things

Matthew 5:14 – “You are the light of the world.”

Every Wednesday morning while in elementary school, I prayed to become a Christian. I was the type of person that prayed the prayer every time it was offered. I liked what they said and I wanted to follow who they were talking about. However, my true day of salvation that I marked it down as was at children’s camp when I was 7 years old. I don’t remember the exact day but I do remember vividly praying the prayer, walking down the aisle and being escorted into the back rooms. What a great day.

At the age of 7, you can’t really get into too much trouble. I know everyone is born into sin but what can you really do at 7?
Steal a crayon.
Write on the walls.
Then lie about it and blame it on your sister.
It’s not like your going to be involved in drinking, drugs and sex at such a young age like so many people in our world today. This brings me to my question…

What would it be like to live in the life of an unbeliever for one day and how would they view Christians??

My struggle is how much impact do I have on the world.
Does a simple handshake and how are you doing mean anything?
Does a smile really brighten up a total stranger’s day?
Is praying over my food noticed?
Does my attitude reflect Jesus Christ and is it visible?
What kind of impact does carrying your Bible into work really have?

Do non-Christians really see these things and what do they think? If I were to pray for my food, do they look at me differently? Will they watch me the next time to make sure I do it again? Will they watch my actions; listen to my conversation as I eat dinner? What do they really think?

Being saved at 7 has its ups and downs. I don’t really have that ugly past sin life like others have. You know the ones that can tell you how bad their life was and then God’s grace was poured into their life and completely turned them around. Parts of me wish I could have a testimony like that but we are all the same. We were all sinners, lost in this darkened world and had a choice to make. No matter what our past, we had a choice that very moment. Do we follow God or the ways of this world? If you chose God, it doesn’t matter what our past is like – God wipes it all away in His forgiveness. His doing on the cross freed us from our pasts.

Getting back to the main question – what impact do these “little things” have on the world? A friend of mine the other day said that in her days as an unbeliever, those things really did add up. The smiles and hello how are you, really do mean things in the lives of unbelievers. Back in my UCF days, I went to listen to a speaker named Mark Cahill. If you haven’t read his book, One Thing You Can’t Do In Heaven, you need to. It’s great. Anyways, Mark was talking about planting seeds. A smile, a hello, a prayer – these are all things that can plant seeds. It gets the person thinking. They begin to wonder what is so different about him than the rest of the world. As Pastor Ray put it on Sunday, we need to be the light of the world. We need to attract people to us and shed some light on the darkness.

I wish I could spend a day as an unbeliever. Be able to walk around and see the world in view of their eyes. See how the Christians treat them. See how much love is truly given to them. Feel the loneliness of this world. Feel what it is like to have no hope and no joy.

You know the old saying, I wish you could walk in my shoes for a day – well I wish I could….

Cook me something woman...

Totally kidding about the title. That wouldnt be a servant. That would be a slave. Anyways....

Busy – (adj,) – full of or characterized by activity

As I sit here in the wee hours of the morning, I am thinking about the schedule that I have somehow gotten myself into. Everybody likes to be doing something because boredom for me puts me to sleep. Obviously busyness keeps me out of trouble but it also can get me tired. I think the point of those couple of sentences is that no matter what I do, whether I’m bored or busy, I’m still going to be tired. Busyness = fun. That’s why I like the busy schedule.

Starting tomorrow, my schedule will look as follows:

Saturdays - Coaching 2 soccer teams in the morning
Country church @ Indian Rocks

Sundays - Transport elementary kids @ Indian Rocks
Encounter @ Indian Rocks

Mondays - Work (yes I do that)
Evangelism Explosion

Tuesdays - Work
Junior High Golf practice @ Indian Rocks
97 West @ Davis Island

Wednesdays - Work
JH Golf practice @ Indian Rocks
Mid-week service @ Indian Rocks

Mens Bible Study

Thursdays - Work
JH Golf practice @ Indian Rocks
Soccer practice @ Indian Rocks

Fridays - Work
The Spot @ Indian Rocks

I’m sure I forgot some things in there but oh well. Clearly there is hardly anytime for me to go to the gym or even eat for that matter. Some would say you’re crazy for trying to do that much stuff. I love it. It keeps me, one, out of trouble and, two, it is a great opportunity to change kid’s lives and my own.

Matthew 11:28 – “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

God calls us to have a servant’s heart. With the proper attitude and motivation, I know for certain that I will not grow weary and I can find rest in the arms of the Lord.

Malnourished friends and anorexic marshmallows

This goes out to all those people that like to be sarcastic but know that sometimes there is a fine line that we often dance around.

So I have been blessed with a group of friends that enjoy being sarcastic. I mean who doesn’t like to be sarcastic? If you can’t joke around and have fun, then what the heck are you doing? As much fun as it is to be sarcastic and joke around, sometimes it can get ugly and down right mean. With one of my malnourished friends, we joke around so much with each other that we had to make a deal that we would never take it personal. We, as people, joke around to have fun. You always heard, or at least I always did, the only reason you make fun of people is to make yourself feel better. Blah Blah Blah. I do it to have fun, because I know the moment I say something, its coming right back at me. Usually, it comes back even harder. And this game goes on for quite some time. Either we get tired of it or have nothing left to say. At this point, it’s time to reload the ammo and start it all over again. It’s a fun game. Try it sometime.

Now that you know the rules and the way the game is played, let me dive into the real matter. It all starts with a comment and then snowballs from there. One comment or one sarcastic remark can blow up into something huge. Like I said earlier about “the deal”, my friend and I aren’t supposed to take anything personal. However, sometimes it feels like I’ve gone too far. I know you’ve done it before where you have said something and then immediately wanted to take it back. Unfortunately we can’t do that. I know my friend knows that I am only joking but sometimes you never know. A smile covers up a lot of stuff. What if that was a touchy subject for the person or what if you’ve said something so much that they actually start to believe that it’s true. I know that if I said you smelt bad, you probably would laugh it off but what if I said it all the time. You would start to wonder.

My point is that sometimes we as individuals can get carried away. We honestly can’t know everything about everybody. Certain people will be more affected by things we say than others. Obviously we never want to cross the line in our joking around. We dance around it and trust the other person doesn’t actually take us seriously. My hope is that I never cross that line. I mean, we are here to have fun, enjoy life and eat as many anorexic marshmallows as possible. We don’t need to be hurtful with our fun. We laugh at each other but in the end, we just want to be laughing together.

Live for the MOMENT

Lions, Rocks and Strawberries - What do they all have in common??

Ever feel like you’re just running and you can’t stop and take a break?
Life is moving so fast that you just need a time-out.
You need a vacation, a day off.
You need a day to simply smell the roses.

Let’s say I give you a plane ticket. (You can pay me back later)
The airplane will take you to an altitude of 38,000 feet.
Then you will be asked to look down.
The ground is your life.

What does the snapshot of your life look like?
What is going on in your life?
What is keeping you busy?

Think about your life for a second.
Are you so involved with work that you don’t have time to have any fun?
Are you so involved with yourself that you don’t let anyone in to get to know you?
Or are you so involved with Christians that you miss the people crying out for help that are right in front of you?
We get so involved with the everyday busyness of life that we oftentimes miss opportunities that God places in our lives. That brings me to my story.

Imagine you are running.
You ask what am I running from.
There are humungous lions running after you!
There is absolutely no way you are going to outrun these lions.
They are way too fast for you.
And face it, you aren’t much of a runner anyways.
Luckily for you, there is a cliff ahead with a rope on it.
You make it to the cliff.
You grab a hold of the rope and slide down to avoid the lions.
Phew! That was close. The lions were right there.
You begin to wonder, what the heck am I going to do now?
You look up and the lions are ready to devour you.
You look down and there are gigantic, jagged rocks just waiting for you.
They aren’t trying to kill you but they will if you fall.
What do you do?
Do you climb back up the rope and face the lions?
Or do you let go and let the rocks win?

Think about it...

Neither.
You look directly in front of you and eat the strawberry that God has placed on that cliff for you to enjoy at that very moment.

Life is full of worries and distractions, busyness and boredom.
Stop looking back and dwelling on the past lions in your life.
Don’t look forward at the rocks that may exist.

Take advantage of the things that God places in your life each and everyday.
Make a difference NOW.

Eat the strawberry and seize the opportunity.