Stories and other stuff

I was praying for someone the other day when I came to understand some things about prayers we pray. Sometimes, I think w can be praying for someone for the thing we want, when it might just be the plan for someone's life to have to go through hard things. That thought came as I was praying for somone who is going through a lot right now. I mean, a LOT. And that's sad. And again, maybe it's not. That thougt also came to me after someone else shared a thought they had about the same person. Maybe, just maybe, the stuff is the thing that the person needs right now so they'll lean on Jesus. I can relate to that. I made a very bad choice several years ago and while I still live with the consequnces of it for now, those consquences....the hard things I had to go through have made me who I am today. God kind of let me know that my act of disobedience didn't catch Him by surprise and He had plans for it. It was my choice to make the wrong decision. The consequ...

Sometimes, it's hard to understand why God puts us in the circumstances He does. I'm going through a little bit of that battle these days. It's a real battle because on the one hand, the thing I think God wants me to do, and I'm trying to do, at best results in futility and that's on a good day. The other part of that battle comes in when I have to fight the battle of the flesh to not stray off the path I think I'm supposed to be on and that's sometimes even more difficult than the first thing. Proverbs 3:5 says to trust in the LORD and lean not on your own understanding and that's what I try to do. What proverbs doesn't say is that sometimes is a very difficult thing to do. The question of how we do this finds an answer in two things: first a Christian is to love the LORD their God with all their heart, all their mind, and all their strength. When we love God first, then it's easier to see why it's good to say no to what He doesn...

 It seems to me that in God's economy, lots of things are backward from the human way we see things.  Often, the way up is down.  The last become first; conversely, the first last.  I think the story of the thief on the cross in the Bible is a good example of that principle.  He, at the last possible minute, chose faith in Christ and for that, he was with Jesus in paradise on the other side of the cross. So, too, I think it is with being faithful in what God calls you to do.  When you're faithful with the little stuff, then God will sometimes give you more stuff.  I saw this play out when I moved here.  I asked for a few things in conjunction with the move and God granted them to me.  One was more time with the Wondermutt.  Another was a job as a custodian at a church.  Yet a third was mowing the lawn at a church, and I have been blessed with all three. For a season.  Bucky, as must happen to all living animals, died just about...

There's a touch of fall in the air.  I noticed it a few nights ago, but you can tell it's coming tonight.  It's even starting to smell like fall is upon us.  I don't know the seasons really well here on the coast because the temperatures don't change a whole lot during the year.  There's that little hint of a chill though and my son mentioned tonight his dog is starting to put on his winter coat. Lately, there have been lots of opportunities for ministry.  I've been blessed to do a little bit of preaching at a small church here.  I've also been asked twice in the last couple of weeks about leading Bible studies.  I think that's going to be doable but that's also going to mean that I will have to curtail some other activities.  I think too much of a good thing can be a bad thing and now that I have people at home, I kind of need to be about making time for them as well.   It's hard to find the happy medium sometimes.  But I also know...

 If you're unfamiliar with what cowboys do, let me explain to you that riding horses is just part of it.  There are fences to mend, gates to hang, hay to be loaded.  The term for loading hay onto a truck is "bucking hay", and I had just finished helping some friends buck some hay out a field and transport it to their own field.  We were getting ready to head home and that's when the phone rang. On the other end, my son, distraught, told me he thought his mom was dead.  His cousin had come to her house to find her laying on the floor unresponsive.  Less than 12 hours later, we were on plane back to Utah, where my son was going to have to deal with the passing of his mother and the resolution of her affairs in a week's time. I've had some time to process all of the events that led up to her passing and as it is with most things in life, it's hard to see in a moment, God's hand in things, but looking back, I was able to see how God prepared things to be i...