Waves Continued

Was taking a look at my daily bible verse for the day. Thought that this would be a great update on the "wave" post. Is it not amazing how God lets us know that He is listening and He is still on His throne. May God Bless us all today.

January 30, 2008
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
2 Corinthians 1:8-9

Waves

There is a movie that I still like to sit and watch whenever I happen upon it on cable. The name of the move is "Point Break" starring Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves. The tale is about a green FBI agent, played by Reeves, being placed on a case where he has to work himself into a "surfing gang" that they believe is robbing banks. To be accepted by this culture Reeves decided to learn to surf. There is a scene in the movie where Reeves, on his extra large surf board, begins to try to teach himself how to glide across the water. He paddles franticly while a realitivly small wave approaches, timidly jumps on top of the board and within seconds crashes back into the water. While trying to come up for air another waves falls on top of him and pushes him back under the water. The waves keep coming until you believe that this could be the end of this young FBI agent's life, until you remember that this is a movie and the director still has 90 mintues to fill. Finally, after not being able to catch his breath Reeves is pulled from his watery prison by another surfer and the movie continues.

Everytime I watch this scene I have to take a few deep breaths to allow my mind to come to an understanding that I am not the one that is in the water. My chest feels heavy and lungs feel as if they are about to explode if I do not allow oxygen to flow through them ASAP. Today I think about this movie, not because I wish I could sit and watch the flick, because I have the same feeling in my chest. I feel like Keanu. I feel like I have waves crashing on top of my head as I am trying to find just a little air. I need somone to reach out and pull me out of the abyss.

As I write these words another "wave" story comes to mind. Jesus, after feeding a lot of people, wanted to spend some time alone. So, He told his disciple, "Take the boat, cross the sea to the other side and I will meet up with you later." (Now, I know what would have been the first question out of my mouth but that is another post.) Late that night the disciples notices a figure coming toward them on the sea and believed they were seeing a ghost. (Now, I know what would have been the first words coming out of my mouth but that is another post.) Wanting to keep them calm, Jesus yells out to them "Hey it's just me, chill out". Peter looks at Christ and said, "If that is you then call me out to join you." Jesus says, "Come on out". Peter did it! (Now, I know what I would have called Peter if I would have been in the boat with him but that is another post.) Peter is out there walking on water...Until! Everything was fine, he was just taking a walk with his Lord, UNTIL he began to notice the waves. That is when things began to go south, literally! Peter began to sink (maybe just like Keanu) and cried out for help. Help came! Jesus reached out and grasped the hand of a man that thought everything was lost. Jesus reaches out and grasped the hand of a man that had the guts to jump out of the boat and follow Him.

This story helps to remind me that I am not in the water alone. I have jumped out of the boat. I have done my best to keep my eyes on Christ, but there are times that the wind is blowing across my face so hard that my eyes have to shut. There are times that the waves are whipping around me in a way that I can no longer see my Lord, I can only focus on the water that seems to be building a wall between me and the only thing that can save me. I scream with all the air that is left in my lungs...."SAVE ME!!!" And just as I lose all hope, a hand reaches out with a strength that I have never felt before. He pulls me close to His side and looks at me with a stare that only a Father can give His child and without a word spoken hope begins to take root. We all have "waves" in our lives. We all have those times that we feel that we are alone in an inflatable raft, in the middle of the ocean, no land in site, no way of knowing which way to go, no paddle, with the air slowly coming out of the only thing keeping us out of shark infested waters. What do we do then? Human nature.....we scream out in hopes that someone would hear, "SAVE ME!!!" And He does.

Super-Amazing

I saw the Patriots coming, but New York!!!!!

My sister is dancing a little jig!!!!

What a story for the Super Bowl!!

A Team that has a chance to make history, and a team that no one (and I mean "NO ONE", don't even try to convince anyone that "you" were the one that thought it was possible, if they would believe that then I have some ocean front property in Arizona I would like to sell them - I love that song... but that is another post) thought the Giants would make it this far! I believe the Pats are going to pull off the improbable...19-0 season, but after watching the G-Men play the last two weeks don't think they are just going to lay down and be happy with "Runner-Up".

Perfection vs. Cinderella

It's going to be great!

Call it in the air

Something very interesting happened to me today while leaving the house to go to work. I was rushing to get my two oldest children, my daughter 7-second grade and my son 6-kinder, into the car to take them to school. Now, the regular routine is that whoever sat in the back yesterday gets to sit in the front today. Well, after a discussion that took so long I felt I had to go shave again, all three of us could not remember who sat in the front the day before. (The kids excuse - they are 7 and 6. My excuse - another story) So, being the great diplomat that I am, or possibly just trying to rectify the situation a fast as possible, I came up with the idea to flip a penny to see who gets to sit in the front. Both children were excited because we were playing a game; I just wanted to move the process along a little faster. My daughter looks up at me with a smile on her face and says "tails",my son being the aggravating little brother looks at her and snaps back "I wanted tails". It is at this point in the story that I tell you that I have a lovely daughter that truly understood this morning that Daddy was in a hurry and with compassion in her big brown eyes looks at me and said with an ever so soft voice, "Daddy I'll take heads". With warmth in my heart I flip the coin (with just a tug of hope that my daughter wins for being so sweet to me, should I admit that as a dad) and it lands on heads. The announcement is made that my daughter will sit in the front and off we go. Dispute resolved, but the story is not over.

My son handled the news a lot better than he normally does. He picked up his backpack and out the door he went with a slight frown on his face. By the time we reach the car I saw that his head is still held low and tears are beginning to run down his face. Not wanting to get to upset with his behavior, I asked him if he was alright and reminded him that he had agreed to the terms of the coin toss. He looked at me with tears in eyes and frustration in his voice and said, "Yeah, but God made it be heads. Its His fault." After I took a step back, just in case lightning flashed before me, I began to see this as a teachable moment. I looked at my son and began to remind him that it was not God that made him lose, it was actually his own decision. I began to recount the events to him, "Remember that your sister originally picked tails? Remember that you pitched a fit over wanting tails? Remember that your sister lovingly allowed you to have tails? What if you would have just let your sister have tails, then you would have had heads right? So was it God that made the penny heads just to get back at you, or was it your choice to take tails and therefore lose the coin toss?" I never really received a verbal answer from him, but seeing him begin to wipe the tears away and allowing a small grin begin to blossom on his face later down the road showed me that he understood the meaning to the questions.

After I dropped the kids off and began my journey to work, I began to think about the situation a little more. I began to think about how my kids crying and whining really get under my skin sometimes. And then, as it has happend so many times before, a still small voice began to tug at my heart and understanding began to compassionately embrace my mind. How many times have I cried to God because the coin turned up on heads for me? How many times have I believed in my heart (real belief) that because a situation has not turned out the way "I" wanted it to turn out, that God had it out for me? How many times has He had to listen to my crying and whining about something that "I" wanted knowing the entire time that my desires were not what was best for me? How many times have "I" blamed God for my coin turning up on heads when it was really because of choices that "I" have made? Just something to think about.

A Sad Update :(

Another quick update on the playoffs. Yes, you don't have to say anything, I know that the Cowboys logo did not keep moving down the bracket. I could go on and on about all of the "game changing" plays that took place (NY TD in 46 second, Romo missing TO for easy TD, Crayton dropping the ball for a first down, NY long punt return late in game, the Cowboys O line giving up in the 4th, maybe I did just go on and on). How could Tha Boys do this to my wife? Yes, you heard me right. How could they do this to a woman that has never done anything to them? Now, my wife is now going to have to listen to me P&M (if you don't know what this means then you are a better person than I) about the Cowboys for the next seven months. Then she will have to listen to me for the entire next season as the Cowboys have a great regular season (until December) just to blow it in the playoffs again. Why would this team do such a thing to such a great lady? She deserves better than this.

?Question?

I was having a very cool conversation with a coworker during lunch. We were sharing with each other our thoughts on the Church today. Now, you notice that I wrote Church with a big "C", this was not by accident. When I say church I mean all aspects: the local church, and the global church. So, I decided to post a question on my blog. I notice that if people are reading this (and I am not convinced they are, which is fine I just....I think I'm talking to myself again so I will move on) there are never any comments. This is going to be a question that will get some comments if anyone is even listening: What does Church mean to you? I am not trying to trick anyone to answer a specific way. I am truly interested in learning what "Church" means to other people. Give me your thoughts if you are out there. Don't be afraid to be honest. It is only through tough dialogue that we grow. I am a big boy, I can handle hard comments about Church, but I also want to hear if you have good comments. I am truly looking to be enlightened by what YOU think here. I am very interested in where this may take us, or I may just be talking to myself again :) Thanks

I told you I'm a Nut!!!

Just a quick update on the Playoffs!!!

Go Boys!!!

My Favorite Time of Year

It is that time of the year again, when my mind (at least 3 to 4 times an hour) jumps back and forth from the task at hand to the glorious thought of the NFL playoffs. Yes, I have it bad. The football season is bad enough, but my wife knows that once the new year is ushered in she can count on me to be as useless as that big "Yellow Dog" in the Chevy Chase movie Funny Farm! (Side note: If you don't know what I am talking about, you have to see the movie! It's great) Everything about my weekends, for about a month, revolves around the games. Now, the beauty of this year is that my beloved Cowboys are in the playoffs as the number one seed in the NFC. This makes this year even more special, but that does not mean that if Tha Boy's were not there that my world would still not revolve around the NFL logo, because it would.

There is something beautiful and real about the a bunch of grown men being able to go out and knock each other around and play in the dirt (don't get me started on AstroTurf) like the little boys that we all know we still are, even though we like to act "so grown up". I guess football for me can connect me to feelings that I have had through various stages in my life. Whether its memories of my dad and I out in the yard as he taught me the fundamentals of the game like catching the ball with my hands and how to take a hand-off from the Quarterback (he was a running back when he played), or standing in a huddle with a bunch of guys that I have been bleeding and sweating with all week long just so we could make that fourth down play that is needed so desperately. Football brings back great memories for me.

I don't know who you will be pulling for this year (I would love to talk you into it being the Cowboys, they are God's Team you know), but take some time to enjoy the experience for what it is and to allow the problems of your week fade away. Go Boys!