How's yer henhouse?
Pardon me if this goes in a few different directions. If it does, it's the oxycodone...
Me on painkillers and the blog software is akin to a guy being drunk and calling up his old girlfriend; most likely it's something I'll regret in the morning and a bad idea to begin with. The painkillers are left over from my ankle surgery. I skipped the leftovers from the knee surgery; those are 12 years old. I wonder if hydrocodone ages like good scotch?
The six year old ones still work. I only took one. Yes, my knee hurts that bad! It's time to go see the doctors about it. I'm just getting to the point where I can't sit for long periods of time and I can't stand for long periods of time, either. Unfortunately I do both. And the pain is starting to really suck.
I've been sick all this week too, with my annual fall cold. I have to get a tetanus immunization soon too so I might as well go in and have the knee looked at again. The hard part is figuring out which way will be the cheapest way to go here; the VA or my conventional doctor. That's a whole other blog post.
I told you this was going to be a bad idea.
If I were you, I'd quit reading this right about here.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
Still here? Me too. My knee still hurts but I don't care. I'm starting to care more than I did a couple of hours ago so I might revisit the medicine cabinet. Probably not, but I might.
Oh, yeah, the henhouse thing.
Sorry.
I went to this mens' conference the other day. One of the speakers was a pastor from Las Vegas. The intent was that he would deliver his message in Spanish and there would be interpreters there. The hope was to draw some men from the large Latino community to the conference but as things worked out there was actually another gathering of Christian Latino men going on that day, so the presenter spoke in English.
He talked about guarding our homes. Often times, he said, we get busy worrying about bringing home the bacon that we neglect or take for granted what's important at home. I'm kind of oversimplifying the message, I think, but that was one of the main points of his talk. A godly man remembers to take care of home.
As I listened to those words and to the promise this man talked about from God (boy, I hope that was for me!) I kind of nodded in agreement. This week though, I've had a lot of time while ill to reflect on that concept. More importantly, I've had the opportunity to share a little bit about that with a friend.
It's been in the back of my mind about not guarding my henhouse. I was busy worrying about the things of the world and another rooster found his way into my henhouse. I paid a hell of a price for that. Let's face it, I've paid a hell of a price for all of the mistakes I've made in my life up to this point, both in treasure and in things far more important than a few 10,000s of silver dollars. The money was insignificant when I compare it to the broken relationships in my life.
As I said, I've been thinking a lot about that this week, along with giving, which is something that I'm sure plays a huge part in the upcoming chapter in my life. I believed the lies of the world; bought into them whole-hertedly and made a ton of mistakes because of it.
You can learn a lot from my life and I'm hoping a friend of mine did the other night. We kind of talked about guarding your henhouse. We talked about how a man should speak to his wife; there are right ways and wrong ways. We talked about the five love languages. I told him about the ex's dish collection and how it got to be so big and how it didn't replace what she really wanted from me. I told him what not guarding my henhouse cost me.
Giving, for some reason, has been the theme of the week for the last couple. There is nothing I'd like more to do than to chuck it all and buy that little cabin near the ocean in Oregon. But I can't. I'm still painted into that little corner and between the house and the bankruptcy, I'm still just as stuck as I was before. Being able to file the bankruptcy was a blessing. I mean that. I'm thankful for where I'm at. But it's tough, too, and getting harder to stay here as costs go up for everything else. But it's hard when everywhere you look, you find things that scream at you about Oregon.
Prayer helps, but right now, there doesn't seem to be much direction. I mentioned a while back the GF reminded me a little of my NO! and a lot of the reason I haven't been writing much lately is that the wheels seem to be falling off both of our little red wagons lately. I read the book of Jonah tonight and I can't help but wonder if the storm we seem to both be going through (her worse than me, though) isn't of our own doing. There's still no hanky panky going on and a lot of that is due in no small part to a very HEALTHY fear of the LORD.
I gave her something tonight. I told her it wasn't her and while I didn't go into the details of what God did when He no longer wanted Tami Jo in my life (I don't want to scare her off), I can't help but wonder if that movie is replaying itself out in my life with someone else in the starring role.
Giving, as I said, has been kind of in the forefront of my little world, too. I don't do as much as I'd like to and it seems what I have been doing isn't working out like I think giving ought to. I don't buy into this whole prosperity gospel stuff. I'm not going to get rich by giving all my money to a TV preacher or any other preacher, either. I'm kind of trying to make sense of the whole giving thing. I do know this; giving is like planting seeds and I believe you reap what you sow. Sometimes though, the seeds don't grow or produce a crop. From what I've heard, a lot of people don't have corn and pumpkins in the garden this year. It goes like that.
Other times, you have a bumper crop.
I've been kind of thinking about giving; time, money, attention. I look at what I give and more importantly why I give and still I don't understand. But then too, what I need always seems to be there and in the middle of the mess, something small happens. I got a coupon for inspection/emissions in the mail. I can use that. It ain't much but it sure meant the world to me to get it.
It don't take much to make me grateful anymore and I don't take much for granted these days, either. The missions jar is slowly accumulating its' pennies from heaven. I found one on the hangar floor the other night. It's not much, but it is money that's not being overlooked or ignored anymore and enough of them hopefully someday will be small seeds that grow into something to further God's Kingdom.
I have an interesting life. I don't recommend it for any of you; living it is killing me, but it's never boring. Often it's kind of tragic, but never boring.
And in the midst of all the chaos that's swimming around in the deep end of the pool in my little brain, I think it's a real good opportunity to thank God for all of it. I'm clinging to the promise I heard Saturday like a drowning man to a life preserver with one proverbial hand and clinging to Romans 8:28 and Jeremiah 29:11 equally as tight with the other. God is good all the time; even in the storms.
I think this weekend though, me and the GF are gonna have to do some reading and thinking about Jonah and his storm.....
Me on painkillers and the blog software is akin to a guy being drunk and calling up his old girlfriend; most likely it's something I'll regret in the morning and a bad idea to begin with. The painkillers are left over from my ankle surgery. I skipped the leftovers from the knee surgery; those are 12 years old. I wonder if hydrocodone ages like good scotch?
The six year old ones still work. I only took one. Yes, my knee hurts that bad! It's time to go see the doctors about it. I'm just getting to the point where I can't sit for long periods of time and I can't stand for long periods of time, either. Unfortunately I do both. And the pain is starting to really suck.
I've been sick all this week too, with my annual fall cold. I have to get a tetanus immunization soon too so I might as well go in and have the knee looked at again. The hard part is figuring out which way will be the cheapest way to go here; the VA or my conventional doctor. That's a whole other blog post.
I told you this was going to be a bad idea.
If I were you, I'd quit reading this right about here.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
Still here? Me too. My knee still hurts but I don't care. I'm starting to care more than I did a couple of hours ago so I might revisit the medicine cabinet. Probably not, but I might.
Oh, yeah, the henhouse thing.
Sorry.
I went to this mens' conference the other day. One of the speakers was a pastor from Las Vegas. The intent was that he would deliver his message in Spanish and there would be interpreters there. The hope was to draw some men from the large Latino community to the conference but as things worked out there was actually another gathering of Christian Latino men going on that day, so the presenter spoke in English.
He talked about guarding our homes. Often times, he said, we get busy worrying about bringing home the bacon that we neglect or take for granted what's important at home. I'm kind of oversimplifying the message, I think, but that was one of the main points of his talk. A godly man remembers to take care of home.
As I listened to those words and to the promise this man talked about from God (boy, I hope that was for me!) I kind of nodded in agreement. This week though, I've had a lot of time while ill to reflect on that concept. More importantly, I've had the opportunity to share a little bit about that with a friend.
It's been in the back of my mind about not guarding my henhouse. I was busy worrying about the things of the world and another rooster found his way into my henhouse. I paid a hell of a price for that. Let's face it, I've paid a hell of a price for all of the mistakes I've made in my life up to this point, both in treasure and in things far more important than a few 10,000s of silver dollars. The money was insignificant when I compare it to the broken relationships in my life.
As I said, I've been thinking a lot about that this week, along with giving, which is something that I'm sure plays a huge part in the upcoming chapter in my life. I believed the lies of the world; bought into them whole-hertedly and made a ton of mistakes because of it.
You can learn a lot from my life and I'm hoping a friend of mine did the other night. We kind of talked about guarding your henhouse. We talked about how a man should speak to his wife; there are right ways and wrong ways. We talked about the five love languages. I told him about the ex's dish collection and how it got to be so big and how it didn't replace what she really wanted from me. I told him what not guarding my henhouse cost me.
Giving, for some reason, has been the theme of the week for the last couple. There is nothing I'd like more to do than to chuck it all and buy that little cabin near the ocean in Oregon. But I can't. I'm still painted into that little corner and between the house and the bankruptcy, I'm still just as stuck as I was before. Being able to file the bankruptcy was a blessing. I mean that. I'm thankful for where I'm at. But it's tough, too, and getting harder to stay here as costs go up for everything else. But it's hard when everywhere you look, you find things that scream at you about Oregon.
Prayer helps, but right now, there doesn't seem to be much direction. I mentioned a while back the GF reminded me a little of my NO! and a lot of the reason I haven't been writing much lately is that the wheels seem to be falling off both of our little red wagons lately. I read the book of Jonah tonight and I can't help but wonder if the storm we seem to both be going through (her worse than me, though) isn't of our own doing. There's still no hanky panky going on and a lot of that is due in no small part to a very HEALTHY fear of the LORD.
I gave her something tonight. I told her it wasn't her and while I didn't go into the details of what God did when He no longer wanted Tami Jo in my life (I don't want to scare her off), I can't help but wonder if that movie is replaying itself out in my life with someone else in the starring role.
Giving, as I said, has been kind of in the forefront of my little world, too. I don't do as much as I'd like to and it seems what I have been doing isn't working out like I think giving ought to. I don't buy into this whole prosperity gospel stuff. I'm not going to get rich by giving all my money to a TV preacher or any other preacher, either. I'm kind of trying to make sense of the whole giving thing. I do know this; giving is like planting seeds and I believe you reap what you sow. Sometimes though, the seeds don't grow or produce a crop. From what I've heard, a lot of people don't have corn and pumpkins in the garden this year. It goes like that.
Other times, you have a bumper crop.
I've been kind of thinking about giving; time, money, attention. I look at what I give and more importantly why I give and still I don't understand. But then too, what I need always seems to be there and in the middle of the mess, something small happens. I got a coupon for inspection/emissions in the mail. I can use that. It ain't much but it sure meant the world to me to get it.
It don't take much to make me grateful anymore and I don't take much for granted these days, either. The missions jar is slowly accumulating its' pennies from heaven. I found one on the hangar floor the other night. It's not much, but it is money that's not being overlooked or ignored anymore and enough of them hopefully someday will be small seeds that grow into something to further God's Kingdom.
I have an interesting life. I don't recommend it for any of you; living it is killing me, but it's never boring. Often it's kind of tragic, but never boring.
And in the midst of all the chaos that's swimming around in the deep end of the pool in my little brain, I think it's a real good opportunity to thank God for all of it. I'm clinging to the promise I heard Saturday like a drowning man to a life preserver with one proverbial hand and clinging to Romans 8:28 and Jeremiah 29:11 equally as tight with the other. God is good all the time; even in the storms.
I think this weekend though, me and the GF are gonna have to do some reading and thinking about Jonah and his storm.....
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