What A Day!

18 Monday Aug 2014

Posted by Seeking Peace in God, God's love, God's provision, hope, joy

What a day! Often, it is a statement made at the end of a trying, hectic day. Today, for me, it is a statement of thanksgiving and gratitude, of hope and possibilities.

I start a new job today. I know it will be full of trials and adversity as is any job. It is also an opportunity to make a difference. To learn. To do new things and improve on old ones. To stretch and to grow. To dream dreams.

My youngest starts a new adventure in college. Certainly a time of hope and dreams and also a time of trials and adversity. A time to meet new people and work on relationships with old friends in different ways. Maybe a time to meet the woman of his dreams and a time to decide on how to begin his life as an independent adult.

My oldest begins her 3rd year of college. Her transition to being an independent adult is getting closer. She is already gaining confidence in her relationships and now starting to look at the days ahead of going to work. She took a job at school this year that will be great for her, will test her and will stretch her. She makes me so very proud and she keeps doing new things that keep the pride swelling. I tell her from time to time that I am thankful God let me be her dad because I aspire to be more like her. Strong. Determined. Sweet-hearted.

A day to reflect on a weekend that offered some trials and offered lots of hope and growth and opened the door to new people in my life. As I am continuing to create a new life with my VSW, we bump into some old bags from our past. I look forward to the day when we have thrown all the bags out but as I reflect today, I see all the joy that comes from the victory in working together to start tossing the bags and the hope I have for how wonderful the future will be. I have the joy of hope that I do because I see how we tackle the challenges that come our way. We are not perfect at it (yet) but we work through it in our own ways. I see a day coming when our own ways become our together ways and know that will be a wonderful time. I want a relationship that people tell stories about because there is richness to share and I believe God has placed a woman in my path that makes those stories possible. How awesome is that?

I have never been filled with more hope than I am today. A job that probably won’t be my last and will provide until it is time to take another step. A son that is in an incredible time of transition. A daughter who is in the latter stages of her transition. And a woman, a VSW, who fills me up with the hope and dreams of what a relationship can and will look like when people are committed to pushing through together. Wow! What a day!!

James 1:4. I look forward to becoming more mature and more complete. I am ready for it with my job, my children and my VSW. Wow!! What a day!!!

Grace and peace.

Gifts

03 Monday Oct 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in gift, gifts, hope, joy

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It’s been a weekend of reminders and something I needed to be reminded of. I have been given many gifts and sometimes the gift is taken away. It’s in those moments I make a choice – will I resent losing the gift or will I be thankful for the time I had?

Anger, resentment, despair, hopelessness, loneliness…all emotions that are normal and reasonable to a point but there is another point when these emotions become weapons of destruction.

Last night I had to make a choice. Do I hang on to resentment for a gift that I was having to give up for a time or do I want to given thanks and rejoice for the hours I was able to spend with these gifts? It is so easy for me to wallow in the pain and hurt but I don’t want to live that way.

Some gifts are mine forever and some are mine for just a season. Will I let the loss of a gift cause me to simply focus on what I’ve lost and forget about the eternal gifts I have?

Nothing in this world is forever. It’s a temporary place and I need to be reminded to treat it that way.

In doing so, I can rejoice for the time I’ve had and know that a better day is still ahead.

Grace and peace to you.

As The World Turns

21 Wednesday Sep 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in hope, Rangers, Rodney King

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Does life mimic soap operas or do soap operas mimic life?

I think I can find more villains in real life than I can in a TV show.

I’m a bit grumpy right now. I think it’s based on a phone call I had today.

“Can’t we just all get along?” – Rodney King (social genius) 🙂

I prefer to focus on the Texas Rangers right now. They don’t cause me to go deep. They don’t cause me to explore pain. They don’t cause me to cry out to God to open my eyes and my heart and to remove my anger and hatred. It appears they are headed to the playoffs. I draw for my playoff tickets on Thursday and will be accepting bids on Friday. ALDS and ALCS tickets will need to start with 5 figures before the decimal. World Series tickets will need to start at 6 figures before the decimal. I’m not sure anyone is willing to pay that much but, if you are, I’ll find a place to watch the game.

Rick talked about hope on Sunday. As he talked I thought about how flippantly I use the word “hope” so often. I hope the iPhone 5 will be ready soon. I hope I can get a new truck or Mercedes soon (I need those ticket prices to be high to support my style of living), I hope I have a good day. I have hope for things that don’t last and as I thought about it, I thought about the song that goes, “my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” We ended up singing the song but I hadn’t looked at the program so I just thought the song leader and me where the great minds thinking alike. Anyhoo, hope built on Jesus’ blood is a bit deeper and broader and weightier than an iPhone 5. I want my hope to be about much, much more than things of this world. I want to focus on and live in that deep and broad and weighty hope that marks my eternity.

Grace and peace to you.

Perseverance

21 Thursday Jul 2011

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

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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.

A Final Plea

30 Thursday Jun 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in epic, hearts, hope, Uplift

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TODAY is the last day of Camp Coldwater’s effort to raise $5,000 to drill a well. I know I have a lot of people who can read this blog and I’m asking you to help. I won’t do it often. I don’t expect it. But, I am hopeful. We need $995 as of 2:15 pm on Wednesday.

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I have been at Uplift since Saturday with our church youth group and taught classes Tuesday and Wednesday to 150 or so kids both days. We are driving back today and I can’t wait to sleep in my bed again. It’s not that I mind a twin bed, I’ve just had enough of it!

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What an incredible experience with incredible young people. I’m encouraged about what the future will hold with these kids I get to be around. Some may talk about their tattoos and piercings and crazy hair-do’s and whatever else but when you are around them long enough to peer into what God is looking at, their hearts, I believe you will find hope.

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Grace and peace to you.
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Markers

26 Tuesday Apr 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in Cry Out to Jesus, hope, pain, Third Day

≈ 1 Comment

We mark a lot of events. Birthdays (happy birthday Shannon!) and anniversaries are maybe the most common but we also mark the bad days and bad events. I’m not sure if many people are like me but I tend to remember the bad markers better than the good markers. Sunday was one of those markers, an anniversary of sorts that is a painful reminder of something lost. It’s odd that I would spend the day vacillating between it being a day of resurrection and hope and a day of what is dead and lost, not odd that I would be thinking about one or the other but that they occurred on the same day. I was fortunate to be with a great church family and some very, very dear friends that day but I also needed and wanted some time alone to process, to cry, to read and maybe to heal a little. I was granted both time with others and time alone on Sunday.

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I often wish I could have a do-over. There are so many choices I don’t think I’d make again. I realize that many of my choices have led me to where I am and I don’t get the do-over so where do I go from here? Well, I’ll start by crying out to Jesus for help, for guidance, for courage, for strength to take the next step, to keep moving forward and to use my experiences, good or bad, to help others who are crying out for help too. I’ve been told by some people I couldn’t have reached them without some of my experiences. Honestly, it’s a tool I wish I didn’t have but it is what it is and my next step to growing closer to God is to use what I have and what he is giving me and go from there. I can’t rewrite the past but I can work on making the right decision today. So, I’ll keep crying out to Jesus to lead me.

Hope

25 Monday Apr 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in Children of God, hope, Third Day

≈ 1 Comment

Yesterday wasn’t the best of days for me which is hard to say relative to what the day was about. I’m thankful it was a day about hope. Maybe I’ll say more about it this week.

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I spent the weekend listening to Third Day. So many of their songs speak to me and so I will be sharing some of those this week.

I am thankful to be one of the children of God and I will rejoice in knowing he loves me.

Grace and peace to you.

Christmas Eve 2010

24 Friday Dec 2010

Posted by Seeking Peace in Christmas, hope

≈ 1 Comment

Today is an anticipatory day. Santa is on his way. Tomorrow most of us will wake up with toys or underwear or a new iron and stockings full of candy to tide us over between desserts. Today is the last shot to get out there and grab something for a parent or spouse and maybe catch a last minute markdown. Or, in my case, a few lottery tickets because I lack imagination and gambling is ok on Christmas. I remember watching Harold Taft tracking Santa on the ten o’clock news. I remember going to bed and not wanting to sleep waiting on Santa to drop by and my parents waking me up to see the cool stuff. I remember the excitement of my own children in their early Christmases and the knowing smiles of Santa’s identity while saying nothing as they got older.

Christmas has come to mean many things over the years and that changes again this year for me. Challenges of a new life paradigm and challenge of typing a blog post on my iPad for the first time. That said, today remains anticipatory of the hope tomorrow brings because the day is about the hope that entered the world in the flesh, the hope embodied by the Christ.

I hope as Christmas day approaches that all the folks who want to keep Christ in Christmas will keep Christ in their life, their words and their actions each and everyday. I hope that the world will come to know the peace we can have because of what these days represent.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope that you will be reminded of hope regardless of the situation you find yourself in this Christmas.

Grace and peace to you.

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