In church today are Pastor based part of his message around the saying if you're not moving forward you're moving backward. I disagree strongly with that.
When I look at different Psalms and they say wait on the Lord that's not moving forward. When I look at Ananias, the guy that ministered to Saul after he had been blinded on the road to Damascus, Ananias wasn't moving forward.
The corollary with this is if you're not growing your dying, which I've heard many times before also. I constantly think when I hear this that that is so wrong in my life. In my life I've been called to be a rock. The rock in the middle of a swirling river that's flooding the banks and overflowing me and trying to make me move. And yet here I am, still solid, still doing my thing. Not shaken. The river hates the rock. The river and the water and the drops and the splashes all laugh at the rock. It doesn't understand the rock. All it understands is the force of the movement and the constant pressure to go go go. There is no relating to the rock.
I tend to plant my feet on rocks and stand firmly. I think of my life as a testament to that. Not great, not perfect, successful, good things, good family doing great things.
So I bristle when I hear stuff like if you're not moving forward you're moving backward. It makes me feel guilty. Yet I'm still here doing my thing for the Lord.
Sunday, March 28, 2021
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
Driving ~
I remember growing up when we would drive somewhere dad would always drive, mom would always sit in the passenger seat, Michael would always stretch out and sleep on the backseat, and I would always said right in the middle of the backseat looking out the front window through the windshield and watching dad drive. They would be smoking so there is always some sort of movement to watch. They would be usually quiet but sometimes they would talk. I would watch their mannerisms and listen when they talk to each other. And sometimes I would ask questions.
I remember one time I asked in the middle of the pouring rain storm how dad could drive through that. He kinda shut me down and said he needed to concentrate right.
I remember another time we were on a 2 Lane Rd. The cars coming from the opposite direction all seem to have their high beams on. Bright headlights in the nighttime. It made it really hard to see where you were gone and where the road was. And so I asked if they had their high beams on. Because he had always made a big deal about an hour flicking his lights at people he thought had their high beams on. He said no, it was just right tonight. And I asked him how he could see the road through that bright light because I couldn't see. He said oh I can't really see the road either. And I kinda got nervous and said will how are you staying on the road? He said well I look at that white line on the right side of the road. That way if I stay on the side of it I know I'm on the road.
In all my years of driving up thought of that answer often. I thought of how much I've had to look at that white line to make sure I stayed on the road. How much that white line has helped me.
I learned a lot from my dad. A lot of really good stuff.
I remember one time I asked in the middle of the pouring rain storm how dad could drive through that. He kinda shut me down and said he needed to concentrate right.
I remember another time we were on a 2 Lane Rd. The cars coming from the opposite direction all seem to have their high beams on. Bright headlights in the nighttime. It made it really hard to see where you were gone and where the road was. And so I asked if they had their high beams on. Because he had always made a big deal about an hour flicking his lights at people he thought had their high beams on. He said no, it was just right tonight. And I asked him how he could see the road through that bright light because I couldn't see. He said oh I can't really see the road either. And I kinda got nervous and said will how are you staying on the road? He said well I look at that white line on the right side of the road. That way if I stay on the side of it I know I'm on the road.
In all my years of driving up thought of that answer often. I thought of how much I've had to look at that white line to make sure I stayed on the road. How much that white line has helped me.
I learned a lot from my dad. A lot of really good stuff.
Saturday, March 20, 2021
The ~perception is reality~ myth
A few years ago I worked for a guy who told me over and over "perception is reality". He was giving me feedback that my demonstrations of frustration were leading people to think of me as an angry or out to hammer those around me. While I may have been angry at the time it was because I was pushing major goals and felt that expressing the frustration was the right thing to do at the time.
Which leads me back to the phrase. It almost seems like people that use this phrase are trying to control those around them by putting up invisible barriers to behavior. If you don't act the way I want you to people will perceive you to be wrong. Then the person giving this feedback doesn't have to be they one getting on to you, They've brought a straw man made up of those who perceive you as the bad guy.
At the time I hoped he would use this phrase with me again. My hope was that I would get to say back to him that because I perceived him to be a homosexual he must be one, then see what he did with it. It's probably a good thing that I never got to say that!
Which leads me back to the phrase. It almost seems like people that use this phrase are trying to control those around them by putting up invisible barriers to behavior. If you don't act the way I want you to people will perceive you to be wrong. Then the person giving this feedback doesn't have to be they one getting on to you, They've brought a straw man made up of those who perceive you as the bad guy.
At the time I hoped he would use this phrase with me again. My hope was that I would get to say back to him that because I perceived him to be a homosexual he must be one, then see what he did with it. It's probably a good thing that I never got to say that!
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Tension ~
I find it interesting how people seem to think that tension is bad. That we should not have any tension. That we should be able to attain a tension-free life.
Evolutionists believe that tension is what drives change in a species. Christians believe that there is a tension in life because of being in the world but not of the world.
It seems like citizens of cities feel like they should be able to walk down the street with no tension.
How laughable! How disappointing. When people are involved there will always be tension.
Lawyers live to bring tension. Their billboards cry out for people to call and sic them on whoever supposedly did them wrong. This is a tension that thumps on our nerves every time we see those billboards.
I remember reading a book set in the old West. There was a scene where the hero rode into town and got off his horse. He purposely dismounted on the side of the horse away from the people standing close by. The reason the writer used was the horse gave protection from one of the people shooting him.
There will always be tension. How you deal with it is your decision. I suggest learning to accept it and setting things up to minimize the threats in your life.
Good luck!
Evolutionists believe that tension is what drives change in a species. Christians believe that there is a tension in life because of being in the world but not of the world.
It seems like citizens of cities feel like they should be able to walk down the street with no tension.
How laughable! How disappointing. When people are involved there will always be tension.
Lawyers live to bring tension. Their billboards cry out for people to call and sic them on whoever supposedly did them wrong. This is a tension that thumps on our nerves every time we see those billboards.
I remember reading a book set in the old West. There was a scene where the hero rode into town and got off his horse. He purposely dismounted on the side of the horse away from the people standing close by. The reason the writer used was the horse gave protection from one of the people shooting him.
There will always be tension. How you deal with it is your decision. I suggest learning to accept it and setting things up to minimize the threats in your life.
Good luck!
Friday, March 12, 2021
Teaching son to drive ~
My oldest son, our first child, was a lot of fun! Like all parents we learned a lot with her first child. He got a lot of attention, but he also bore the brunt of a lot of learning on how to be a parent.
One of the areas that I learned the most and was in teaching him how to drive. At the time we had two vehicles, a smallish four-door car and then a full-size conversion van so that we could carry our four children and us in all of our stuff on road trips and comfort. I drove the full-size van full time, even when we were paying $4.50 or more for a gallon of gasoline. That was a challenging time because $80 plus a week to drive back and forth to work was a challenge. But that's okay!
Jacob was a good driver. My wife started to teach him at first because I was very uptight about the whole thing. Once he got some basic skills going I started letting him drive with me in the passenger seat. He did fine with the minor things. I do remember the first time that he went on the interstate.
The first time that he went on the interstate was an exciting moment. He turned left onto the on ramp and he was going along. There is a lot of traffic, I 75. And he started to slow down and creep along looking for a place to merge. I yelled that he needed to speed up because the only way you merge into fast traffic is you speed up and get to a speed that fits the flow and slides into a spot. Because nobody's gonna give you a spot if you stop! I think is the only time I ever told him to speed up.
We survived that just fine, but there were other things. One night we were driving to go to the store or something. We were in the full-size van and it was pretty newish to us, we'd only had about six months. We were driving on this four-lane road with the median in the middle and nothing on either side because it was an undeveloped brand-new kind of road. As we were going along we saw a box stent standing in the middle-of-the-road. In the middle of the right lane. A box that was about windshield hi. Standing straight up. Jacob was doing about 50 miles an hour.
As we got closer to the box I asked him if he saw the box. He said yes, I see the box. I can look at him and looked at the box. I asked him what was going to do. He just kinda got this silly slight grin on his face. And we got really close to the box and I had to yell move to the other laying! Because he was going to run over the box.
He slid over just barely missing the box. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw that the box didn't even move as we blew past it at 50+ miles per hour. And I started chewing him out, explaining that you don't know what's in the box and you don't run over things that you don't know what's in them. Because it could be a solid block of wood or it could be a bunch of sharp objects that are to flatten your tires or it could be this and that and you just don't hit things in the road if you can avoid them ever. And I was yelling very loud! And he was in looking at me like I didn't know what I was talking about like he often did. And making the file she thought I was stupid. And I said what were you to turn around and go see what the hell is in the box. And at the next point he did a U-turn and we went back and then we did a U-turn and I told him pull up on the side of the road near the box so we could go see it.
He put the van in park and shut it off and we got out and walked to the box. He went to pick up the box and it was too heavy for him to pick up. It had a full piece of solid wood furniture in it. At that point I began explaining to him how that would have totaled our band and possibly could've killed both of us as we slammed into it and it ran to the engine into our laps. As I was chewing him out a teenager pulled up in a little pickup truck behind our van. His pickup truck bed was full of furniture and other bits and pieces like they were moving an apartment or house somewhere. The kid got out of his truck and sheepishly came up and said that I dropped that and can I please have my furniture and put it in the bed of my truck again.
That moment is so vivid in my memory! The moment of just barely missing the box and then the look of shock on my son's face when he realized how bad the damage would've been if he had run over it like it had been a box in a videogame like he wanted to do.
Luckily he is a grown into a fine young man that is responsible and does not run over anything in the rooms. Because he doesn't want to damage his own vehicle at all. Since he's almost got it paid off!
, Memories!
One of the areas that I learned the most and was in teaching him how to drive. At the time we had two vehicles, a smallish four-door car and then a full-size conversion van so that we could carry our four children and us in all of our stuff on road trips and comfort. I drove the full-size van full time, even when we were paying $4.50 or more for a gallon of gasoline. That was a challenging time because $80 plus a week to drive back and forth to work was a challenge. But that's okay!
Jacob was a good driver. My wife started to teach him at first because I was very uptight about the whole thing. Once he got some basic skills going I started letting him drive with me in the passenger seat. He did fine with the minor things. I do remember the first time that he went on the interstate.
The first time that he went on the interstate was an exciting moment. He turned left onto the on ramp and he was going along. There is a lot of traffic, I 75. And he started to slow down and creep along looking for a place to merge. I yelled that he needed to speed up because the only way you merge into fast traffic is you speed up and get to a speed that fits the flow and slides into a spot. Because nobody's gonna give you a spot if you stop! I think is the only time I ever told him to speed up.
We survived that just fine, but there were other things. One night we were driving to go to the store or something. We were in the full-size van and it was pretty newish to us, we'd only had about six months. We were driving on this four-lane road with the median in the middle and nothing on either side because it was an undeveloped brand-new kind of road. As we were going along we saw a box stent standing in the middle-of-the-road. In the middle of the right lane. A box that was about windshield hi. Standing straight up. Jacob was doing about 50 miles an hour.
As we got closer to the box I asked him if he saw the box. He said yes, I see the box. I can look at him and looked at the box. I asked him what was going to do. He just kinda got this silly slight grin on his face. And we got really close to the box and I had to yell move to the other laying! Because he was going to run over the box.
He slid over just barely missing the box. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw that the box didn't even move as we blew past it at 50+ miles per hour. And I started chewing him out, explaining that you don't know what's in the box and you don't run over things that you don't know what's in them. Because it could be a solid block of wood or it could be a bunch of sharp objects that are to flatten your tires or it could be this and that and you just don't hit things in the road if you can avoid them ever. And I was yelling very loud! And he was in looking at me like I didn't know what I was talking about like he often did. And making the file she thought I was stupid. And I said what were you to turn around and go see what the hell is in the box. And at the next point he did a U-turn and we went back and then we did a U-turn and I told him pull up on the side of the road near the box so we could go see it.
He put the van in park and shut it off and we got out and walked to the box. He went to pick up the box and it was too heavy for him to pick up. It had a full piece of solid wood furniture in it. At that point I began explaining to him how that would have totaled our band and possibly could've killed both of us as we slammed into it and it ran to the engine into our laps. As I was chewing him out a teenager pulled up in a little pickup truck behind our van. His pickup truck bed was full of furniture and other bits and pieces like they were moving an apartment or house somewhere. The kid got out of his truck and sheepishly came up and said that I dropped that and can I please have my furniture and put it in the bed of my truck again.
That moment is so vivid in my memory! The moment of just barely missing the box and then the look of shock on my son's face when he realized how bad the damage would've been if he had run over it like it had been a box in a videogame like he wanted to do.
Luckily he is a grown into a fine young man that is responsible and does not run over anything in the rooms. Because he doesn't want to damage his own vehicle at all. Since he's almost got it paid off!
, Memories!
Monday, March 8, 2021
Tattoo sleeves ~
The other day I helped with an event at church, a drive-in reunion communion.
It was part of our pieces of any group service. Chris Woodson had us helping out in the parking lot directing cars. It was still full on daylight in the early afternoon so there was plenty of sun and very few clouds. So had my adventure hat with the wider brim and I pulled on my son protection sleeves and went about helping.
Things went well. Chris Woodson came out to check in with me and said everybody thinks I look like I'm hot and sweaty. I laughed and said I actually felt very cool temperature wise and was having no issues with the sun.
As the event went on got done with communion and served Brewster's ice cream to everybody. And one of the ladies in the line commented that she thought I looked like I had tattoos up and down my arms with my sleeves.
That made me remember the Halloween back a few years ago. It was at harvest point church and we were having a trunk or treat event. I decided I would go ahead and dress up were doing our of Van and handing out candy and decorating for the trunk or treat event. I dressed up with the mullet wig, rose-colored sunglasses, and that I had found sleeves that look like actual tattoos and pulled them on both my arms. I had on blue jeans and a short sleeve shirt otherwise. 10 issues.
But nobody would come near me! Nobody would even look me in the eye. It was so weird all as a guy I go through some of that, but with the weird hair and the tattoos all up and down my arms it was so much worse. And so strange that nobody even recognized me.
I say that because I see so many people nowadays getting tattoos actual tattoos up and down their arms and making sleeves. And I feel bad for them. Because they will be ostracized and looked down upon. And when the tattoos start to give out and sag as they get older and fat or skinny and saggy. They'll just look awful and they're stuck with all that think embedded in their dermis beneath their epidermis.
But the Halloween thing was fun and I I did buy some sun protective sleeves that look like actual tattoo sleeves so I may have to try them next time. See if I get the same reaction!
It was part of our pieces of any group service. Chris Woodson had us helping out in the parking lot directing cars. It was still full on daylight in the early afternoon so there was plenty of sun and very few clouds. So had my adventure hat with the wider brim and I pulled on my son protection sleeves and went about helping.
Things went well. Chris Woodson came out to check in with me and said everybody thinks I look like I'm hot and sweaty. I laughed and said I actually felt very cool temperature wise and was having no issues with the sun.
As the event went on got done with communion and served Brewster's ice cream to everybody. And one of the ladies in the line commented that she thought I looked like I had tattoos up and down my arms with my sleeves.
That made me remember the Halloween back a few years ago. It was at harvest point church and we were having a trunk or treat event. I decided I would go ahead and dress up were doing our of Van and handing out candy and decorating for the trunk or treat event. I dressed up with the mullet wig, rose-colored sunglasses, and that I had found sleeves that look like actual tattoos and pulled them on both my arms. I had on blue jeans and a short sleeve shirt otherwise. 10 issues.
But nobody would come near me! Nobody would even look me in the eye. It was so weird all as a guy I go through some of that, but with the weird hair and the tattoos all up and down my arms it was so much worse. And so strange that nobody even recognized me.
I say that because I see so many people nowadays getting tattoos actual tattoos up and down their arms and making sleeves. And I feel bad for them. Because they will be ostracized and looked down upon. And when the tattoos start to give out and sag as they get older and fat or skinny and saggy. They'll just look awful and they're stuck with all that think embedded in their dermis beneath their epidermis.
But the Halloween thing was fun and I I did buy some sun protective sleeves that look like actual tattoo sleeves so I may have to try them next time. See if I get the same reaction!
Thursday, March 4, 2021
Surprise visit ~
We went to visit my daughter and son-in-law last year. Their friends were throwing a surprise birthday party for him and we ended up with an invitation so we went.
It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed all the things that we got to do that weekend. We get to meet their friends and hang out waiting for my daughter and son-in-law to get to the party. We got to help set things up and clean things up afterwards. A lot of nice people!
We went to their church on Sunday morning. It was very strange! We had been watching their church at home over the Internet and so we were excited to be at church live. But we were at the remote campus. So when it came time for the sermon they rolled the screen down and we got to watch the message on the screen. It was hilarious! We would all that way and got to watch it on the screen anyways. But it was nice being in the church and being with the people in meeting and talking and all that stuff. Good experience!
It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed all the things that we got to do that weekend. We get to meet their friends and hang out waiting for my daughter and son-in-law to get to the party. We got to help set things up and clean things up afterwards. A lot of nice people!
We went to their church on Sunday morning. It was very strange! We had been watching their church at home over the Internet and so we were excited to be at church live. But we were at the remote campus. So when it came time for the sermon they rolled the screen down and we got to watch the message on the screen. It was hilarious! We would all that way and got to watch it on the screen anyways. But it was nice being in the church and being with the people in meeting and talking and all that stuff. Good experience!
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