17

09 Tuesday Aug 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in 17, birthday, daughter

My baby girl turned 17 yesterday. I can’t believe how the time has flown, how she has grown and the things she has achieved and what life has brought along the way. It’s nothing that I imagined but when I look at her I realize there is so much to be thankful for even while viewing it through the storms of life. My daughter is a special young lady, one who constantly shows me the hope we can have for the future and one who inspires me to reach for higher goals. I pray God will bless her journey, speak into her deeply and loudly and prepare her heart for the obstacles she will face and the joy he can bring.

Grace and peace to you.

Go Rangers!

08 Monday Aug 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in 2000 hits, baseball, kingdom work, Michael Young

≈ 1 Comment

I went to the Ranger game last night with my son and parents and were treated to a boring 7 innings, a great comeback victory and Michael Young’s 2000th hit. Even with a 107 degree start time temperature, it was a fun night at the Ballpark.

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Michael is the 11th fastest player to 2,000 hits and, I believe, the 3rd fastest right-handed batter. That’s pretty good company I would imagine. I appreciate his work ethic and tenacity. Both of his hits last night were little infield rollers that he had to hustle out and I thought it an appropriate way for him to get there. Sure, a home run or game winning hit would have been great but I think hard work, determination and hustle have defined Young’s career.

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It makes me wonder what will define my career. Not my work career so much as my kingdom-building career. Much of it will be defined by a former life of hiding the truth and pretending to be something I may have wanted to be but wasn’t living up to…and I’m ok with that because it might lay the ground work for what I can do in the latter half of my life to share the Good News. A friend told me one day he almost wished he had a story. I wish I didn’t. He’s lived a pretty directed life and has been the man God wanted him to be and I think that is the story, that we can choose to live that way. But sometimes a story of a rocky road, a hill climbed, of failures made and made again and overcome show people an option too.

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I hope the day will come when I celebrate my 2,000th hit in the kingdom baseball game and I hope I celebrate it much the way Michael Young did – with a brief acknowledgment and desire to get back to work and keep doing what he’s been doing.

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Grace and peace to you.
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Loving Others

05 Friday Aug 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in God's love, homeless, The Shack

≈ 1 Comment

I met a couple of homeless guys in Decatur last Saturday. They weren’t very lovable. They didn’t say much so it’s hard to know how to help them or if I can help them or if they want help. The easy thing to do at this point would be to move on and look for someone who is easier to love or just go do whatever it is I want to do and do some loving on myself (hope you see the drips of sarcasm in the last part). Instead, I’m going to try and find them again and talk to them again and to let them know that love exists in this world for them. I don’t know where they’ve been or what they’ve done but I know God loves them and I know how God wants me to feel about them.

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I was reminded of The Shack this past week and the great lesson I learned from that book that we are all God’s children, all made in his image and all doing things we shouldn’t always be doing. No one is perfect. Not those guys on the streets. Not my boss. Not the people around me. Not my kids. Certainly not me. Yet we are all God’s children, made in his image and under attack by a force wanting to pull us away from his perfect and unconditional love.

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I’ve experienced God’s perfect and unconditional love and still I try to walk away at times telling myself God can’t love a sinner like me. Day-by-day, week-by-week, month-by-month I’m learning more about his love and believing that nothing I do can shake it so I tell myself more and more than he does love me. He loves me when I mess up and he loves me when I live in his power and will and glory. The incredible thing about being open to his love is that it makes me want to live in his vision for me and not my own – his love is a mighty, powerful force. I just have to be open to it. And ready to share it.

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Grace and peace to you.
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Pitching and Conviction, Part 2

04 Thursday Aug 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in God's love, love

≈ 1 Comment

Mike Adams made his debut with the Rangers Tuesday night and it was a bit underwhelming. Now, I don’t have a clue what it is like to pitch in the rain in your debut after a team gave up some of it’s best prospects for you and I guess I can understand that the weather and nerves might throw you off your game a bit but this guy is supposed to be Superman and I was expecting 3 outs with 2 pitches. Don’t ask me how he would do that but it’s what I expected. Better luck next time Mike.

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My discipleship is a bit like Mike Adams. My Lord gave his best player for me and often I come out and serve up meatballs to the enemy that he can hit out of the park. The good part is that just like Adams will get to go back out on the field and show what he can do, God will let me try again because he loves me so much. I read a blog the yesterday that reminded me that God is love. Not that God loves to love or likes to love and wants to love. GOD IS LOVE. If he’s love and I’m not loving, then who do I look like? If I’m not living as love, that’s when I’m serving up hanging curveballs and fastballs that are dead-red across the plate. It’s when I live in love that I am walking arm-in-arm with my Lord and nothing can hurt me, nothing can beat me because he is living through me.

Pitching and Conviction

02 Tuesday Aug 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in persecution, Prayer, Romans

≈ 1 Comment

Koji and Adams. The Rangers certainly got busy and pulled off a couple of big trades at the deadline. It will be a few years to see how good the trade was as we watch the other guy develop, or fail to develop, but I liked what I saw out of Koji yesterday and everyone is saying Adams is the “it” guy from the NL. We’ll see. Go Rangers.

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Yesterday’s sermon from Romans 12 was convicting. Rick did what good preachers do by reminding me that there is something missing in my prayer life that I’m commanded to do but don’t really care to do – pray for those who are persecuting me. Now, I’m fortunate that no one is beating me or imprisoning me for my beliefs but sometimes the mental wounds feel as deep and as painful as what I imagine the physical wounds to be. From terrorists who threaten our safety and security to people who want to argue with us about our beliefs and actions to those who would try to gain ground and build stature around our mistakes to those who are simply abusive, everyone I know faces some level of persecution and I, for one, have certainly failed at praying for anyone and everyone who I believe is persecuting or hurting me in some way. I’m thankful I got an earful of reminder yesterday that the power of God can do amazing things if I will tap into it.

Busted By An Aggie

01 Monday Aug 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in Aggie, Charity Water, Lifebread

≈ 1 Comment

I’ve got a friend, well, I know this guy, who is an Aggie and he sends me a text on Friday about my math abilities and the sad part is, he was right. Now, if you’ve even had something pointed out that you did that was wrong, you know how it can make you feel. Imagine that same thing pointed out by an Aggie. OUCH!

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I’m writing this on Friday and wondering what the Rangers are going to pull off this weekend. Heath Bell to Texas? Someone else? No one coming to Texas? I wouldn’t mind seeing Robbie Erlin and Tanner Scheppers and Chris Davis somewhere else if it gets the Rangers back in the World Series. They are good, promising players but I don’t think any of them will get a good shot in Arlington and they deserve a good shot based on what little I know about them.

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Grace and peace to you.
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168

29 Friday Jul 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in 168, Jesus, service, serving, worship

≈ 1 Comment

Several conversations I have been a part of, along with a sermon and a class, have raised the question of “what is worship?”

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I grew up in a time when our churches battled over the style of worship and some wanted to condemn “musical instrument” churches to the damning fire while I was always thinking we were more worried about singing our parts than living what we were singing (and I was very guilty of not living what I was singing/saying/whatever). “When we all get to heaven (as long as you ain’t using a piano to sing this song)…” Maybe it should have been “When some of us who think we’ve got it all figured out get to heaven…”

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The last few years have brought some inside cleaning. There’s more to do for sure but I can tell you that lots of gunk and muck have been cleaned off and thrown away. Turn the lights down? I don’t care as long as I’m using my 141 hours a week to find ways to serve. Sing new songs or old songs? I’m much more concerned with how I’m spending my 141 hours a week to find ways to serve those in my life the way Jesus did. And for my friends who go to church where there’s a band or anything else that my fellowship might not agree with, I’ll consider the fruit of what you are doing in 141 hours a week long before I’ll want to talk to you about the band, the lights, the women or whatever else it is that I have seen my brethren worked up about in the past.

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I’ve got 91 hours coming next week to reach out, to help, to clothe, to feed, to give water, to provide shelter, to teach. I wonder what I will do with my time?
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Retry

27 Wednesday Jul 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in NASCAR, Nelms, Prayer, Rick Ross

≈ 2 Comments

After 4 edits of today’s original post, I give up and will borrow a link from Josh Graves.

Love me some NASCAR

I’m not going to go into how Jesus taught us to pray and make any comparisons (as if) or contrasts.

Here’s a link to my good friend’s blog if you want to read more on prayer and how Jesus’ idea may be a little different than Pastor Nelms

Thoughts on Prayer

I’m not condemning Pastor Nelms or suggesting Rick knows all there is to know about prayer. I mean, can you really hate a guy who prays for his smoking hot wife? Just trying to be fair and balanced today.

Grace and peace to you. Ivar gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”); document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src='” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”)); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-12356560-1”); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}

Running on Empty

25 Monday Jul 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in Faith, love, myers-brigg, personality, stress

≈ 3 Comments

It’s been tough to blog lately…as you’ve probably noticed.

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Same sex marriages in New York. A murder spree in Norway. Oh yes, now I remember why I have quit reading the paper and watching the news. Burying my head in the sand, you say? In all honesty, I think I have been more focused on my Father’s business since I went without “news” for awhile. Sadly enough, I can find enough problems in my own yard without hearing from around the world. I’m not advocating for all people to quit listening to the news, I just feel like it has been a good thing for me for a season.

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I’m taking an Organizational Behavior class for a Master’s program right now. One assignment was a Life Stress Inventory Test. A score of 0-100 indicates you have low stress, 100-200 indicates reasonable stress that a person should be aware of and taking steps to reduce, 200-300 indicates high stress that can result in a 50% chance of a major health issue within 2 years, 300 and up indicates extremely high stress that can result in a 80% chance of a major health issue within 2 years. I scored a 485 the first time so I took it again and got a 520. Maybe that’s why I feel exhausted all the time. Silly tests.

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I also took the Myers-Brigg Personality Inventory and found out I’m a INFJ. I still don’t know all that means but my personality is the same as Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela – not bad company. It’s also the same as Billy Crystal and Mel Gibson (that may explain some of my outbursts at times). Fascinating stuff.

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I got into another faith and works conversation the other day. I’m still confused why anyone would try to separate the two. I do stuff for my kids because of love. God gave his son for me because of love. Love is unseen (faith) until manifested in something I do for someone but what I do isn’t done for proof, it’s done out of love. So is my work for God, not something I do for proof but something I do because of love. It seems so simple to me.

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Grace and peace to you.
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Perseverance

21 Thursday Jul 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in Faith, hope, James, perseverance

≈ Leave a comment

How long does perseverance last?

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I know it’s wishful thinking. I know trials will never end and some are on a loop it seems. I know my timing and God’s timing vary slightly and I know His timing is the one I want to be aligned with (I’ve seen what doing things my way looks like – YIKES). I’ll keep praying for strength and courage and wisdom to persevere and to take joy in knowing and seeing how my trust in God to get me through the rough times always looks and feels much better than what I would do on my own accord. And, I want to revel in the hope that comes from persevering in faith.

Grace and peace to you.