Money, money, money...

I have to admit that I like money. Somebody once said, "money doesn't buy happiness... but it sure helps!" For people like me without a bunch of money we think having money would be the end of all of all our problems. I suppose the truth (that I try to convince myself of often) is that people with money have a whole other set of problems I can't begin to understand.

I like money because it helps me do two things.
First, money helps me keep God first in my life. If it's true that where your treasure is your heart is then money helps my family keep our hearts deposited with God. Now, I don't always look forward to writing out my tithe check with eager anticipation... I am only human after all, but I do like seeing how much we've given at the end of the year. I do sometimes think of what I could have done with that money - but that just gives me the opportunity to remind myself that it's not mine to begin with.
Second, the money I give to God goes to meet the needs, pay the bills and do other cool stuff at the church I attend. Because I give (back to God what was His to begin with) the church can help people in need. Send money to help plant another church in Koper, Slovenia. Keep the building warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Provide lesson material, technology, replace damaged ceiling tiles, get new chairs, etc.

So, even though I wrestle with the desire to have more money, I'm glad what I do have meets my needs and helps God grow His church. Hopefully I'll be able to do even more in 2010!

Practice makes better.

My daughter is playing basketball for the first time in her life this season. She is in 8th grade and never played (outside of gym class) before. I grew up playing basketball but until she decided to play this year, none of my children followed me in that desire to play.
She has come a long way this season from the first day of practice. She didn't know positions, how to shoot, where to stand or what to do... seriously, it was bad at first. But she is now about the best defensive player on the team and has even scored in about three different games!

Today, during Christmas break, I took her to the Y to work with her one on one. She was not as excited as I was. I had her shoot around the paint, five made shots at each mark with left hand on the lowest hash on the left side. We worked on a little one-on-one offense/defense so she could see how to play it. Then we did lay up... that's when things began to fall apart.

She got very frustrated because she couldn't get the rhythm of a lay-up on either side. She held it together pretty well but was not happy.

Our little trip to the gym reminded me of the Christian life. There are some things that I do well. I'm pretty good in some areas of the faith offense, attacking Satan and recruiting for the team. I play my part and hopefully can be counted on to be in the right spot at the right time so my teammates can count on me. In defense there are some areas where I'm okay - defending against the attacks of Satan in some areas is easy.

But, in other areas I miss the basket. I play horrible defense. While I succeed in one area I struggle in another. But just like working with my daughter on the court I need to transfer some of that to the Christian life. The areas I don't do well need more attention and work while keeping up the other areas too.

This new year I'll continue to work on the total game, offense/defense and even sitting on the bench encouraging others. If I practice, work hard and listen to coach I'll continue to improve.

Christmas for a Crank...

This year has been a hard one for me to get into the Christmas spirit. Do I even know what the Christmas spirit is? Well, I'm not sure. And here's why:
If the Christmas spirit is giving then why do we have to ring bells to get people's attention and, I often feel guilty if I don't put something in ever single red kettle I come across. Why is giving so hard if it's the spirit of Christmas? Maybe it's because we want to give, but only to those we know or love... or, quite honestly, we give to those we know will give back. Ouch.
If the spirit of Christmas is about family, that can't be, families always seem to be stressed to the max this time of year. Mom and Dad arguing about Christmas money. Kid's so excited they end up fighting with each other constantly. There is so much "Christmas spirit" stress that Dads and Moms often end up worse off and even splitting up this time of year!
In reality the Christmas spirit seems to be more about getting than giving or family. And if I was honest, I fall into that trap all too often. But last night got me in the mood.

Last night we celebrated the birth of Jesus with our Real Life family at Christmas '09 and it was great! 90+ of our closest friends got together to "share" (that's a word for giving) their Christmas food creations with everyone and for the most part each family sat together at wonderfully decorated tables and we got to talk about the real Spirit of Christmas, the birth of a baby named Jesus who changed the world and would later change people, one at a time.

I may still get stressed about gift giving and not having enough... I may still witness (or be involved in) a family squabble. For for a couple hours last night it was Christmas. And I was in the spirit.

cleaning time...

well, Andi and Tristen are in Norman for the Revolve tour and me and the boys are home...cleaning. Well, I am anyway. I guess Trevor and TJ cleaned their rooms. And they've hauled away a few things I've asked them too, but that's about it.
I on the other hand have cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom. Cleaned the bookcase. Cleaned the laundry room. cleaned off the dinner table (you should have seen it!) and (breath here) I baked the Russian tea cakes for tomorrow's open house.

I still need to finish picking up the living room/dining room and clean the wood floors and carpet. And I was asked to coat the pretzel sticks with chocolate... I guess I'll do that last.

Cleaning is hard work! It's hard to keep my life clean too. Getting rid of the junk I don't need anymore is sometimes painful, but always better for me. Cleaning my language, attitude, thoughts is a good idea every once in awhile!

Here's to cleaning the house and the life!

uh... you still there?

well, it's been a loooooong time since I posted anything on here. I kind of feel like we were talking on the phone and then I set it down to do something and forgot to come back. And here you are, holding the phone to your ear, thinking with every noise that it's me again. Sorry.

Okay, so that was like TOTALLY vain!

Just finished reading some of the rss feeds I get from another pastor's blog and was encouraged to write something to you and even to begin the process of blogging every day (or close to it) again.

Christmas is coming and we've got our annual open house planned, only this year, Andi and Tristen are gone to the Revolve thing in Norman, OK. That means me and boys are left to clean and bake! We'll see how that goes. Anyway, Christmas always makes me a bit nervous... too many things I want to give the kids and wife and not enough money. You probably know what that's like too. But my issue is that I don't have enough to pay the bills and get much for Christmas. And I'm reminded today that there are those (many this year) who don't even have enough to pay the bills, you know, keep the heat on for Christmas. Boil some water for Christmas. They may have a tree but nothing but dust and air beneath it. I wish God would bless me enough so that I could make sure everyone had presents for their kids and their bills paid this Christmas.

That's my grown-up Christmas wish.