20days and a cloud of dust...

20days ago I started work and 20days later I'm hurtin' but I've got some days off. I don't know if it will be enough but its better than nothing. We are now on a schedule of 10 days on and 5 off so maybe over the next few weeks I can recover a bit and get healed up. It won't be long enough but I'll take what I can get.
This week I will be back in Kansas for a few days the 28th-31st to see some family and play in a softball tournament. Its been a great time in the past and I'm looking forward to it. It'll be a nice change of pace. I'll get to visit some friends back in Hays and hang out a bit.
I don't know if anyone has watched the Olympics or enjoys them but I have the last few days I've been off and I DO enjoy the Olympics. There are so many stories of expected triumph and fantastic performance, crushing failure and perserverence resulting in glorious victory. There are amazing and inspiring performances from teams and individuals. They are great stories of preparation, commitment and focus all meeting at one place and tested. USA Decathalete Brian Clay redirecting his life and turning it around win Gold, Jamaican Sprinter Usain Bolt with 2 world records, USA Womens Soccer & Basketball, USA Mens Basketball celebrated with joy like little boys when they won, British hurdler Tasha Danvers overcame an unexpected pregnancy and much scrutiny for having the child to win bronze, South African Natalie du Toit leg amputee making her debut in the open water swim to finish 16th, Australian Diver Mathew Mitchum won Gold over the favored Chinese divers on his last dive, Swimmer Michael Phelps made olympic history with 8 Gold medals, German weightlifter Matthias Steiner wins Gold on his last lift after losing his wife in a car wreck in the last year, Equestrian Rider 61 yr old medalist Canadian Ian Millar rode for 35+ years without a medal but that changed in 2008 and many others that inspire greatness, perserverence, commitment, heart and spirit. I found a great story in the Calgary Herald that alludes to this spirit. You should check it out. The passion is enticing. The stories captivate.
The thing I wonder as I think of the Olympics come to a close is why does this spirit loved and adored in sports but we often are scared to exhibit the same commitment to our faith in Christ. Not belief but faith. Where is our commitment? Where is our preparation for those appointments that are divinely directed? We may not all be great athletes, scholars, speakers, or anything else but we are not asked to first be great and then commit we are simply asked to follow with what we have and who we are and our Creator will use us in ways and do things we could never ask or imagine(Eph. 3:20-21) He says "follow me and I will make you fishers of men". All through the gospels He says "Follow Me". Know me. Walk with Me. I know I am guilty as the next. Why do we not follow with out hesitation? Its almost like we have layers like an onion that have to be peeled away in order for us to act. Why are we not diligent? Is one persons eternity not worth it? These questions have simple answers that I think are often more difficult to back up with action.
I'll leave you with a quote that I love and is so true from the movie The Gladiator....
"What we do in this life will echo in eternity." -General Maximus Decimus Meridius
Lets make this one day we have count.
Until Dukey Drops Again......Much Love.....

Safety Over Significance?

I was reading "The Barbarian Way" by Erwin McManus(highly recommended) and some statements made in here really hit me. The first being the oft used cliche "The safest place to be is in the center of God's will." Read Corrie ten Boom's diary and you'll feel different about that statement.

"For Corrie and Besty(Corrie's sister), the promise of safety in the center of God's will was fleshed out in the concentration camps during the Nazi holocaust of the Jews. Betsie's statement was a declaration that to walk in the character of Christ is always the right choice, regardless of outcome or consequence. Was have some how perverted this more primal understanding to a more civilized one. Instead of finding confidence to live as we should regardless of our circumstances, we have used it as justification to choose the path of least resistance, least difficulty. Instead of concluding its best to be wherever God wants us to be, we have decided that wherever it is best for us to be is where God wants us. Actually, God's will for us is less about our comfort than it is about our contribution. God would never chose for us safety at the cost of significance. God created our so that your life would count, not so that you could count the days of your life.
Bam! Powerful words to soak in...to let marinate in your spirit. Convicting. Then McManus poses this question: "If the safest place to be is in the center of the will of God, then how do you explain the life and ministry of Stephen---one sermon and then stoned to death? Was he really that bad? If the safest place to be is in the center of the will of God, then why is it that the biblical work for witness is actually the word for martyr?
And what about Paul...I'm sure Paul didn't sign up for jail time because he was bored or needed a place to stay. Check 2Cor. 11:23-27
McManus goes on to say, "There may not be a more dangerous weapon for violence or oppression than religion. It seems counterintuitive, but when human being create religions, we use then to control others through their guilt and shame. True religion always moves us to serve others and give our lives to see those oppressed find freedom."
He goes on and asks, "Is it possible that the transforming power of the church has been lost because we keep inviting people to step into the comfort, safety, and security of Jesus Christ? We've created a religious culture in which---even though we're the most blessed society in the history of the planet---our best selling literature still focuses on how we can be more blessed. Maybe we need to step way back to the beginning of this movement. The original call of Jesus was so simple, so clean, so clear: "Follow Me." He wants us to surrender our lives to HIm and follow Him into the unknown. And if it means a life of suffereing, hardship, and disappointment, it will be worth it because following Jesus Christ is more powerful and more fulfilling than living with everything in the world minus Him. Have we forgotten this? Have we become so refined and so civilized that the benefits of our faith have become more precious and more valuable to us than the Benefactor of our faith?" I wonder how many of us are in that place of John the Baptist, at that crucible where God is asking, "Are you willing to lose everything on My behalf to gain everything I desire for you? Rather than living a long life, are you willing to live a life worth living?"

Words that sting my heart and challenge me. Words that are hard to type and not take them to heart.

Gotta get going...found out I have to be at the shop by 6am. Rumor is that I've got work to do tomorrow. How long? No idea. My bet is a week to 10 days but we'll see.
Anyways let those words stir in your heart and see what God has for you.

Until Dukey Drops Again....Much Love.........