how big are queen sheets?

So I went to a internet search engine to find the size of queen bed sheets. Which doesn't sound like a big deal, but you wouldn't believe the ordeal that I had trying to find that specific information. It was funny. You should have seen all the places that have positioned themselves to the top of those search engines so that you see their websites first. Target, Wal-Mart, Sheets Emporium. It didn't matter. They weren't even truly trying to answer my questions. They were trying to sell me sheets. I just wanted to know the size. After pointing and clicking I was able to find the size on a page that just so happened to be answering some different persons random question.

I think it funny. We get so inundated with things around us that we lose sight on what we set out to do in the beginning. Scripture says in James, that we are like a man that looks in a mirror, walks away, and forgets what he looks like when we know what is expected us of and yet we don't do it. My goal was to find my answer to the size of some bed sheets. So I looked all over the place getting side tracked often. I had to remind myself of what I was doing. What are we doing? What are we supposed to be doing? I don't want to see God work in my life and just walk away and forget it. That's just my prayer.

Just food for thought.

12 hours in 4 days...

It's funny, I know I talk about my daughter a lot, but I have spent a lot of time with her lately. Most of that taking place around 2:AM-4:30AM. You see she just can't sleep for some reason. My wife, such a wonderful mommy, has tried to go with many different solutions, but to no avail. Everyone and their mother has an idea about what we should do which just complicates things. If you are 100% certain that she will sleep then bring on the ideas...if not, please don't confuse the issue!!! (That's sleep deprivation talking.)

Despite the sleep deprivation I fall in love with her a little more every night. She has a this thing she does when I go in to put in the pacifier in her mouth at night, she will grab on to me with her hands and feet. She kinda wraps herself around my arm like a koala bear. She just wants to hold on to me and know that I am there for her. She wants me to comfort her. In my arms, to her, is the safest place to be. I love that feeling.

In a very small way, I get to experience what God gets to experience when we are right where we need to be with God. Resting in his arms. Psalm 4:8 says, "I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety." I love that...I love knowing that despite my fear, I can rest in the Lord and in his loving arms. It is the place where I feel the safest. When I need rest...he is there. When I am scared...he is there. When I am in need of encouragement...he is there.

Grab onto God like a koala bear. With all that you have hold tight in all things.

Ouch!!!

So, I have had some tests done lately on my brain. Fortunately, there is one in there and I am doing well, so please don't worry. The funny part to this entire story comes now. I had to go to a closed MRI location. This just means they stick you in the tube and you feel pretty claustrophobic as they scan your brain. I could have sworn that things was going to blow up. All that noise. Well, that isn't the half of it. I guess technically it was the halfway point of the MRI though. They took me out and then the fun part started. I had to get a contrast die injected into my body so that my brain would light up like a Christmas tree. Now, I am a pretty patient guy with people, especially the medical field but this poor lady got on my very last nerve. She stuck that needle in me 11 times looking for a vein. Now, after the 6th time, I was a little put off by her inability to stick the needle in my HUGE veins. She stuck me in the elbows, hands, and back again. Unfortunately there was no one there to help her and I was strapped to the table. (Which was probably good as my initially reaction was to punt her "In the name of Jesus!") All that to say it was a pretty frustrating day. She finally got it in and I finished my scan.

The pain we go through, the rough patches of life, if we look at them the right way, we can totally see how God is working in our hearts and in the way we respond to the tough situations we are put through. I had to go through that pain in order to get the results of this very important test. Such is life. Pain to get to the end. I am encouraged by knowing that God has me in his loving arms. Protecting me, guiding me and opening my eyes to His plans.

Just a thought!

Oh...that's right...FAITH!!!

Isn't it funny that we hold so tightly to our faith when something is happening to other people? Let me unpack that just a little. When something goes wrong with someone, we offer to pray for them. When someone is going through divorce we offer to counsel them with all the spiritual information that we can. We dig down so deep that we will offer prayers when the world says that we are crazy. We will hold tightly to God's strength and try to push through, what would seem insurmountable. Isn't it funny though, that sometimes when it comes to ourselves, we forget what we hold so tightly in our grip for others, that we think it won't work for ourselves.

Take for instance going having surgery. We can know that God will take care of us, but we begin to feel an anxiety that really shouldn't be there. "Will the surgery work?" "Will I wake up during the procedure?" "What if the doctor cuts me in the wrong place?" "What if the doctor falls asleep?" This is where the rubber meets the road. Will we hold on to the faith that helps carry others, when it needs to carry ourselves? To many times we will fall back on our old ways and forget that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the same God that will take care of us. The very same God that help make the lame walk and the blind see is the same God that will sustain us when we go through trials. This is the same God that sent his son to die on a cross for you and me.

God is big enough to handle our struggles and weaknesses and he knows how well we can handle each thing that happens that might sway us. Our faith in God is more than just a knowledge of his existence, more than just knowing that he is everywhere and knows everything, our faith is about building a deep relationship with the creator. Lanny Donoho, author, speaker, creative mind, once said, "Sometimes you have to go through the worst of life where you almost lose your faith in order for it to become real faith." While God never wants us to lose our faith, he definitely doesn't want you to hang on to a faith that really doesn't mean much to you.

Farm livin, ripples and ducks

I used to love living on the farm. In case you didn’t know, starting in the 3rd grade I grew up on a nearly 60 acre farm outside of New Richmond, Ohio. I loved every aspect of living on the farm. We had room to do just about anything we wanted. We would play hide and seek in the corn, camp out in the woods, play in the creek, you name it. But I think one of my favorite things to do was to hang out by our little pond. It seemed huge to me. I mean, I would sit in a small little row boat and watch the fish underneath me, play with the ducks, or just lay back in the boat and look at the sky. I was so carefree and I remember when I was in the boat, anything was possible for me to dream up.

One thing I truly loved...the ripples. Sounds weird but it was true. You could throw something into the water and it would make ripples that would run from one side of the lake to the other. I like the ripples because fish would come up to see what it was that was making such a commotion, or the ducks would be moved by the ripples, the cattails would sway a bit. I loved what would happen when you could make ripples. It was an action causing a reaction. It was awesome.

I think about my life now, am I making ripples. Am I causing people to move, stand up and take notice, or even acknowledge anything is even going on? Jesus says in Mark 8:35, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” Are you even putting yourself out there? Is there an area of your life where you could be putting more effort in making ripples? Just a thought.

3:AM Feedings

As I write this to you my eyes feel extremely heavy. So it might not be a good article for me to write at this very moment. I love being a daddy. I can tell you that even through the sleep deprivation I have never felt so connected in my entire life. I see things that God is growing me and opening my eyes through being a father to Elizabeth. She is amazing. She is growing like a weed and is beginning to smile, giggle and make the most beautiful sounds ever. I was in the office with her last week and she woke up very hungry. We found that we have a limited amount of time to get her fed right away before she goes completely ballistic. So I rush around looking for something to heat the bottle in and balance a steady bounce/rock as I am walking with her before she lets out a LOUD SCREAM!!!

Now, I have not once let her go without eating. WE feel it is important to the growth of our child to feed her every three hours or so. (DUH!!!) It's funny because you think we must have let her starve to this point in her life. But she eats, 8 square meals a day.

Aren't we like that with God? The little hint of pain we go through and we panic. We try to scream and kick and try to make things right on our own or try to direct things ourselves. In a way, we are little babies searching for God to give us we what we need RIGHT NOW!!!! The reality is, God has never let us go without. We have made it to this point in life. He also know just how much to give you. With my daughter I can only give her three ounces. Anymore and its Mount Sovious. It will come up on her. God knows exactly how much we can handle and how much we need.

That to me is comforting!!!

`09 Commitment

My commitment in 2009 to advance the kingdom is to stop saying that things are "just fine". Let's be real here, if we could just focus on the blessings that are right in front of us we will be sustained by that goodness and things would stop being "just fine". I want to live beyond "Just Fine" in `09. I want to make every moment count. It is time to live in the moments of each day. Conversations with people, laughs with my co-staffers, holding my little girl, kissing my wife before we leave in the day. I want to make each and every moment be more than just "fine". I want to break the mold. The mold of people thinking that people who follow Jesus are intolerant, two-faced, and unfriendly. I want my friends and family to wonder why I am so different. The change we need in our church can be found by us simply looking in the mirror.