Thursday, July 15, 2010

Next Week

Normally, I try not to look too much to the future, for tomorrow is yet to be and often does not live up the hype (good or bad).  This week, though I have been spending a little time everyday preparing for next week.  Sunday morning I am leaving for one of the best weeks of my year.  Sunday, I leave on a mission trip with the CTCYM (Central Texas Conference Youth in Misson). 

This year is different for several reasons.  First, I am not going with my home church.  Second, it is the first mission trip in many years where I was not the pastor.  These two things are a bit disappointing, but they are small mole-hills of disappointment compared to the expected joys of the trip. 

This year will be exciting and new as well.  This is the first time I am going as a dad to one of the junior high youth on the trip.  Yep, Austin is going on his first mission trip.  What a joy to be a father and watch a young man grow up right before your eyes!  Every day he becomes more and more of a young man.  He needs to shave for the second time and we just shave a few weeks ago.  His voice is no longer the voice of a child.  His wisdom and intellegence are growing daily as well.  And he wants to go with me on a trip!

For me this is the best week of the year because in this week I almost always feel close to Christ and his teachings.  Sure some of that is due to the nightly worship, morning devotions, guided discussions during lunch.  Even more it is based in serving my brothers and sisters, semi-monastic living, and being reminded of our interconnectedness as people.

As Christians, we all are called to mirror Christ in our lives.  Some days we are better mirrors than others, but when we stop and act as a servant to someone else, when we tend to one who is in need, when we love our neighbor as ourself, we are acting mostly perfectly as Christ.

Yes, mission trip week is a holy week for me.   My wife, Tammy, almost makes me go because of how much good it does for my attitude and my spirit.  I expect to be blessed because I expect to see a bunch of 12 to 14 year old youth and a group of adults working hard to share the kingdom of God and the gospel of Christ in a real and tangible way in a small town in west Texas.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Time


This summer I have been the stay-at-home father of two boys.  It is amazing how much time they take.  You get them up and feed them breakfast and suddenly it is 9:00.  I run an errand, come home, check email and the bank account, and one of them will start asking about "lunch." 

Lunch?  Really?!?  Well sure enough it is 12:30.

I make lunch, clean-up lunch, and look up and it is now 2:00.  2:00?  But we just finished lunch.  Where did the morning go?  How did it get this late already?! 

Make a phone call for a technical problem with one thing or another, follow-up on an item from yesterday and suddenly, it is 3:00 and I was hoping to write a blog from Wednesday that got pushed by an appointment for one of the boys and where did the week go? 

Was I this busy before?  My "to-do" list is still about 13 items long, and it doesn't look like it will be cleared before more is added.  Yes, sometimes I add things I have accomplished just so I can show Tammy what all I did do while she was at work.  If you are not reading this in a frantic mode, go back and start again. 

I have grown amazingly sympathetic with the many stay-at-home parents that I used to hear saying, "I am tired," or "I am so busy today."  Kids don't wait.  We can't just push them off until tomorrow.

Where do you find time?  Time for the important things?  Not the urgent stuff like bills and dinner.  I mean the deeply important stuff like spouse, family, your kids, strengthening friendships, and the deepening of faith.  Where did you spend your time?  If you looked back at how you spent the last week, would God, family, and friends even make the list? 

Now, back to the "to-do" list before the wife gets home.  We have a few errands to run this evening so we ready to for the next project which starts tomorrow.  AHHHHHHH!!!!