Uncovering The Truth

I'm on a quest! It's a quest of discovery and understanding, but not anything that requires a Fedora or a bull whip. In fact, it probably wouldn't make a very interesting movie! I'm on a journey to seek the truth in a couple of areas.

The first deals with our past.

When I was on the air one day, I made a comment about my admiration and fascination about Abraham Lincoln. When we lived in Illinois, Becky, Jaden and I had the opportunity to visit Lincoln's house and his tomb and I talked about the experience. A listener heard it and sent some information that completely shocked me. She was a history teacher and even more of a history buff than I, and recommended some books that detail the truth about Lincoln from actual letters, articles and speeches. One of her comments caught my attention. She said that, "He who wins the war, writes the history...!" That made perfect sense, so I decided to follow her suggestions. Right now, I'm reading the book, "The Real Lincoln."

I'm finding out that the books and movies that portray him as a quiet, shy, passive man aren't entirely accurate. I just started reading it, but it has been quite an eye-opener so far.


The second area that I'm looking for truth is in the Bible!

Being raised in the particular theological vein that I was, I heard some of the most wonderful, powerful messages by some fantastic preachers. They were fiery masterpieces of inspiration and exhortation. Of course, the men who delivered them were renowned men of integrity; anointed, ordained men of God who only spoke the truth directly from their in-depth study of His Word. I'm not trying to sound cynical, because that was positively true; however, in their zeal to hold people's attention and get the message across, they managed to get some of the facts of the Bible slightly out of whack. I'm not sure when or how it started, but by the time I came into this world and was raised hearing it, those had somehow morphed into accepted truth. Here's a "for instance."

"Saul had a life changing encounter with God and, as a result, God changed Saul's name to Paul." It is usually followed by a question that asks if your name has been changed as a result of an encounter with God.

Imagine that delivered with zeal and vigor and you can see how it would impact the people who hear it! The problem is...it's factually wrong! God didn't change Saul's name to Paul. He went by either name! What he was called was dependent on the people he was dealing with at the time. When he accepted Christ, he began to be called Paul, but I haven't found anywhere in Scripture where God made the final decision on that.

Anyway, that's where I am at this point. Not confused, not meandering about, but wanting to know that what I believe is the truth! If it's not, I want to know the truth so I won't fall for any lie that the enemy might spout out. I'll keep you posted on what I find out.

Ahh, Rest!

I'm glad it's the weekend! Saturday morning means no alarm clock, which means I can sleep until it's all out! I like that!

I like my job! It's challenging, and certainly not boring, but it also brings its share of stress. I know every job has a certain amount of stress, but the regular stress of work can be compounded when you want to help push forward toward excellence, but just aren't really given the chance.

Relax, I'm not going to sit here and dump on you! I just want to encourage you (and me too) that no matter how tough things get, we have chances to relax along the way. All we have to do is take advantage of them. I know people who work hard in the office, but it doesn't stop at the end of the day. They have to work late, and then they still take it home with them and keep working through the evenings and even on weekends. Everything revolves around work. They can't even take a vacation without having to keep tabs on everything that's going on at work. To quote Charlie Brown, "Good grief!"

I made a promise to Becky when we got married. Work would be work, and home would be home. The two shouldn't cross! Have I always kept that promise? Unfortunately, the answer is, "no." Now, she understands that there are times when extra work is needed. There's no problem with that, but she is quick to remind me if I cross the line into obsession. Hallelujah!

So, it's the weekend, and work is work. I'm home, and my focus is on my life which consists of God, my family, our friends, and the hobbies I enjoy doing. Somehow, I have the feeling that work will still be waiting for me when I walk in on Monday. If you're a workaholic, think about this. When we are old, I doubt we'll ever regret not impressing the boss by getting that task completed early, but I'll bet our hearts will break when we think about the times we missed with our family and friends.

I'm glad it's the weekend!

Father and Son Time

Today was supposed to be workshop day for Jaden at Lowe's. We've never done one of the kid's projects there, only at Home Depot where you come and go as you like during their specified time. Unfortunately, the one at Lowe's is apparently a full workshop, because when I called to ask about their policy (while already on the way and running late,) they said we would need to be there at 10. Oh well...we had bigger plans, anyway.

Jaden decided this morning that we needed to have a Father and Son day. Just the two of us, facing the day and all of the challenges...aww, who am I kidding? We went shopping, except when guys do that, it's called "looking around." We went to Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, and Staples (an errand for Becky.) From there, it was on to the library and lunch at La Carreta. Cap it off with a trip to the electronics, sports and toy departments at Walmart and you've got a pretty eventful day. Oh, I almost forgot about running from Walmart to the car in a downpour - with no umbrellas! Too cool!

By the time we got through with all of that, we had completely forgotten about missing the workshop. I always have a great time on our Father/Son outings, and my only regret about this one is my fault. I have a camera on my phone and I didn't take any pictures!!! C'est la vie! I guess we'll just have to have another Father and Son day...soon!

Doing The Right Thing

“I’ve fallen behind in blogging and I deserve a flogging.” I thought about making that the title of this post, but I was afraid that someone might take me seriously so I decided against it. Actually, the last several days have been relatively easy as far as physical things are concerned, but mentally they have been tough.

Have you ever been in a position where you had to decide whether or not to do the right thing? Doing so could hurt friends or family but would protect the “greater good.” Keeping quiet would maintain relationships but could cause greater problems elsewhere! What a quandary! What do you do?

Ordinarily, my response would be to just jump in and do what I thought was right. Not necessarily a knee-jerk response, but one that was swift and decisive, without too much thought and certainly not enough prayer! The last thing I want to do is hurt anyone, but hey…right is right and I’m (insert corny superhero theme here) the Fleshly Avenger, using my own power to insure that justice is served! Serving justice might be a wonderful thing, but doing so without praying isn’t! As many times as I’ve done it the wrong way, you’d think I would have learned, but…I almost didn’t!

I say “almost” because, thankfully, I stopped short of making a potentially grand and glorious mistake by doing what I thought was right. Instead, I asked God to guide me and give me wisdom, and guess what? He Did! He took things in a totally different direction than what I would have and I believe everything will work out in a way that will not only solve a problem, but will also bring God glory.

There were some other benefits as well, but I won’t get into them right now. I might use them later so I won’t get dangerously close to receiving a flogging for not blogging.

Happy New Year!

I can't believe another year has gone by and we're starting over again. That's not a bad thing, especially when it comes to vacation time and sick days! It's also nice to have the feeling that we can make some changes and do things even better than before.

I really hope I can make improvements to my life. Not just for the sake of a "resolution," but because I want to be a better husband and father to my family. I want to get in better shape so I can enjoy more of life with them, but most of all, I want to be the Spiritual leader that God has ordained for me to be. That will also help me fulfill my biggest desire of all...to be what God created me to be.

Have you ever felt like you just weren't doing all that you could be or should be doing? That's where I am right now. Recently, I've been so convicted about my relationship with God. I've been so busy trying to work to serve Him (and provide for my family) that I've managed to get stuck in a rut where I focus on my small portion of the world instead of God's Big Picture! I'm living Larnelle Harris' song, "I Miss My Time With You." I get so wrapped up in the service that I allow the fatigue to keep me from developing the relationship. It becomes my rationale for taking free time "off" to unwind instead of using it to draw closer to God.

That's my brief bock about my immediate goals. I just want to make sure that my family and I are ready when Jesus comes back, and I want to bring as many people with us as I possibly can. Please, pray for me and let me know if I can pray for you. Have a blessed 2009!