I love it all.  Its just something I don’t get tired of. Ok… maybe I don’t like Little Kitty to be scared all the time but it is funny when she gets spooked:)

Thunderstorms calm me… they also make me remember. They didn’t always, but now they do…

I was golfing with my Dad a few months back. We usually go golfing every Saturday as our father son hangout time. Saturdays are really one of my favorite days of the week because of this. Well, we were having a great time and just talking away when Dad told me a story about me as a baby that I never knew.

He went on to tell me that when I was just a few years old I used to be scared to death of thunderstorms. Every time one came I would cry and cry because I was so afraid. Well, one day a thunderstorm came, and me being the first child (aka test kid) Dad said he decided he was going to help me get over my fear of thunderstorms.

Much against my Moms liking Dad picked me up, held me close to him, and he walked me outside in the front yard in the middle of this massive thunderstorm. He said I cried and cried… but then after about thirty minutes I stopped crying. The thunder didn’t scare me like it did, and the rain wasn’t as frightening as I once thought. We just stood there, soaked… and I can only imagine what a moment like this brings to a father as he stands in the rain holding his son.

Dad went on to tell me that I never once was afraid of thunderstorms after that. This story just floored me… I just couldn’t believe it, I love thunderstorms, it’s just hard to imagine not liking them. I’ve learned so much about God just from watching the rain and listening. Thunderstorms are special to me and are even more now.

This story taught me about God and His love for us. Sometimes in our lives we are hammered by storms that make us just want to curl up in a corner and pray it doesn’t last. All we feel we can do is cry and hope it just doesn’t get too bad. Many times it can even feel like God himself is not there with us… and we start to ask why?

Why God did you let this happen? Why God did I have to go through this? Where were you when I needed you most? Why?

Many times I think if we were able to peek around the fence of this world we would see that in the middle of our scariest times… in the middle of the claps of thunder that shake us… in the middle of the lighting that flashes across the skies of our memories… in the middle of our cries… we would see a drenched, soaking wet, father holding his drenched, soaking wet son in the middle of his storm.

We would see a father who see’s the fear that grips his son and loves him too much to let him remain that way… a father that loves him so much, that he walks through his sons storms… with him… and sometimes carrying him.

So, when you are afraid… remember…

may you see that you have never been alone but God has been there all along… and may you see the storms in the painting of your life in a new light… and know that there is nothing to fear.

Now, where I live if we see a snow flake or even feel like one could form, school is canceled and everyone runs to Wal-Mart to stock up on the essentials (toilet paper and milk – I think one may be a little more essential than the other, but I’ll leave it up to you to decide which one that is:)

As the years have gone by it seems like we get fewer and fewer snows. Whenever it happens it makes me start remembering my childhood and how I would anxiously watch the local news station in the morning hoping I would see a glimpse of my schools name under the canceled list. I think this is something we all, as kids, have been through a few times. For that much, I sometimes wish it was the same for work. Pop on the tv to see if work was cancelled or not. Unfortunately that never happens.

It seems like as kids knowing how to anticipate and get excited over the simplest of things came natural. Snow brought excitement because, well first off no school, but also because it meant sledding and snow ball fights, friends and forts, all to end by telling our stories of the day while drinking hot chocolate. These were all things that we just couldn’t do any time we wanted… we had to wait for them. Sometimes it would only happen once a year but when it did we were ready… at least I know I was.

I think a lesson can be learned out of remembering. The snow reminds me to take time to stop and enjoy the change going on around me. Just to take a minute or two to watch green turn to white and the air become thick with flakes. It reminds me to remember… remember stories of times with family and friends of the last snow; because I know eventually the snow will be gone.

The same thing can be seen at work in our spiritual life. God wants us to remember… and take time to stop and watch how things around us are being changed. To remember that He is in control and just because our day may not look sunny that doesn’t mean it still isn’t be beautiful. Things change in our lives, jobs change, hobbies change, tasks change, minds change, things change… it’s what we do when things change that matters. Do we stress out and beat our heads against the wall trying to fix everything or do we take time to watch the snow, and remember… knowing that this change could very well be one of those changes, just like the snow, that may only come every once in a while, providing us with opportunities that we normally would never have.

Technorati Tags: christianity, devotional, teachings

This means that in the Greek culture, when sin was talked about they instantly gained a mental picture of missing the mark with an arrow. Really interesting. I have always loved metaphors and parables, because they help you really grasp the full meaning of a teaching and continue to remember it long after it has been spoken. So, hopefully this helps you understand another viewpoint of what “sin” was seen as.

I wrote a blog entry a while back about finding God hidden stories this Christmas, you can read it here. I have been saving this story for a few weeks now. I wanted to give it to you all on Christmas. This is not my story but another persons story that I have claimed as my own… it was hard not to cry when I heard it. A person in the church community I go to told us this story… it was the Sunday after I wrote the stories of Christmas post. For the sake of her identity I will refer to her as Sue.

Sue got up in front of the church to tell us about what had happened. The pastor had just mentioned how Sue’s story had touched him and he wanted us all to hear it. Sue began to tell us how she was going to Wal-Mart over the weekend to try to finish up her Christmas shopping (Just like every other person in the US) She fought the crowds all the way back to the lay-away section where she was going to pick up some presents that she had been paying on. In front of her was this man who was holding on to a five dollar bill tightly and he was talking to the sales clerk. Sue could not help but over hear the conversation and apparently the man was trying to buy some shoes out of lay-away for his child. Sue heard the sales clerk tell the man, “Sir, I’m sorry but I told you when you first brought these shoes here for lay-away that it was going to cost more than five dollars to get them out… you don’t have enough.” Sue could tell the man was having a hard time accepting what the sales clerk was saying. Five dollars was all that he had… and his child really needed these new shoes. Sue silently prayed thanking God for this opportunity that was just given to her. She had the opportunity to help someone in the middle of all this shopping chaos.

Sue spoke up and said, “Sir, I would like to buy those shoes for you if you will let me.” The man quickly agreed and was very thankful. Sue handed over the $6 to $10 dollars to pay out the shoes and gave the man his child’s gift and wished him a Merry Christmas. He was of course very thankful and took the shoes and left. Sue paid out her lay-away items and left to go home, thankful that God would let her small amount of money help someone so much.

This is where we thought the story ended…. but it didn’t…

Sue went on to tell us that a few weeks went by and she received a phone call out of nowhere. She answered it and on the other side was a woman’s voice. The woman asked if this was Sue. Sue was wondering what this was all about. The woman proceeded to tell her that she was the sales clerk at the lay-away counter a few weeks ago where Sue had helped the man purchase shoes for his child. She told Sue that she wanted to call her to tell her something. Sue asked what it was and this is what the sales clerk told her. She said: “Sue, no one knew but that day when you helped that man buy those shoes for his child I was planning on taking my life when I clocked out from work. I had already planned the entire thing and was prepared to do it. I had decided that the world was just too bad and I was not happy with life. When you paid for that man’s shoes, it shocked me. It showed me that there were still good people in this world and maybe the world was not as bad as it might have seemed. I decided then that I was not going to end my life but instead was going to keep on and I wanted to call you to tell you myself… Thank you.” Sue was speechless.

You see… stories are everywhere… opportunities are everywhere… waiting for us to find them. Sue thought that all she had done was help a man provide his child shoes. She was completely unaware of what God was really doing. Sue had no idea that by being Jesus to someone, EVEN IN THE SMALLEST FASHION, she played a part in showing a third party sales clerk that life was worth living.

So, this Christmas… may you be Jesus…. may you find that even the little things can be so big…. may you see that the true spirit of Christmas is not just on one day… but everyday… may you look past the crowds and chaos… and reach out a hand to help someone… may you find the God hidden stories that wait for you everyday…. and respond… and may you find that God uses shoes of all sizes for more than just walking.

Jesus new the culture when he was here on earth. He talked about what was going on, he answered the questions that others were wondering (to their surprise many times he answered with a question, which was customary), he was familiar with what made people tick. Paul even spoke about becoming all things to all men that he might win a few. I think Paul was talking about be aware of culture. He became a Jew the the Jews and a Gentile to the Gentiles. He tried to understand where they were and met them there. Maybe there is something we could all learn from that. Just a thought… what are your thoughts?

What have I learned through all this?

Coolness will not keep the kids but relationships and sustanence will. I was reading one of Josh McDowell’s books about a year ago that had a really good point in it. He said that youth ministry can be looked at like a scale. If you put all your weight on coolness, games, and atmosphere and relationships… withouth any weight on sound Bible teaching, then it will not keep the kids and the scale will tip. On the other hand if you put all your weight on strict Bible teaching with no relationship then you will not keep the kids and the scale will tip. It’s a 50 – 50 scale. Youth groups need to have sound biblical teaching, Barna stats have shown this is an area youth ministry has been failing in. On the other side youth groups need to have a relationship level with games and atmosphere that will encourage them to talk with one another and, well just enjoy themselves.

If you have both sides of the scale working, then you will have a youth ministry that is growing spiritually. Think about it this way… how do you learn?? How did you learn when you were young?? What were your favorite teachers that you learned the most from?? The best teachers were the ones who were able to make their lesson come to life and usually they had good relationships and atmosphere in their classrooms. Youth ministry doesn’t need more coolness to be effective, just more life and balance. We need to re-evaluate how we teach and become better so we can be more effective. No one likes to be hammered with Bible for hours where the teacher resembles a Scrooge more than Jesus. Jesus brought life to his teaching with parables and stories. Jesus also was good at relationships since he could be found many times eating with people and laughing. Jesus taught more depth than anyone ever and he also put focus on relationships. Not so much on coolness.

What are your thoughts???

You see, apparently there is a whole new level of ubergeek that I did not know existed. Maybe it existed once a long time ago. You know, the time where if you could make a fire out of rocks you were this kind of ubergeek. But now this ubergeek only exists in the shadows of their closet listening to the hummmm of processors. LED’s, and 10 Terabyte RAID 10,000 RPM hard drives. Well, all I have to say is they are real and they can be seen only one time a year…. Game console release day, day, day, day.. (echo for effect).

I call them Superdooperubergeeks…

You see, a Superdooperubergeek is about as rare as they come. They have crossed the vast lands of cyberspace and are adventurers of their own kind. Superdooperubergeeks are bigger than web 2.0… they are more like web 7.2 1/2. They are the guys and girls that laugh at the speed of an Intel Extreme dual Core processor… because they made one that fast 10 years ago… They are the ones that intimidate Bill Gates … They exist… you just have to look hard enough.

Back to the story,

Walmart guy informed my friend that Superdooperubergeeks had already been lining up days before the release. Days! I guess by now we have all seen the lines of drenched Superdooperubergeeks, waiting in line at their local Best Buy or Walmart.. cold… tired… smelly (just joking) ready get their hands on what they had been waiting for… a brand new PS3.

Well, its unfortunate but our Walmart already had more people waiting in line than stock of PS3′s they had to sell… Surprise!!!. Oh well… I was going to sell mine anyway.

So, for you few Superdooperubergeeks out there that were able to get you hands on a brand new PS3… I salute you… you set a standard that few ubergeeks ever attain and even fewer know exist…