Pit Stops!

Is it just me or is this year FLYING by already!? It's mid February already! So far so good on my goals for my new year! How bout you?

I have another blog topic waiting in the wings, but tonight I'm "compelled" to write this one! Obviously this happens RARELY with my four entries total, but nonetheless it's happened tonight!

I'm in the midst of reading "To Live is Christ" by Beth Moore. It's about the apostle Paul and his journeys. It's actually a devotional so I'm doing the question part of it via email with one of my former students from KC and I think we both like it, not sure she would tell me if she didn't! :)
Our next devotional is going to be Beth Moore's newest one about insecurity so if any of the 2 of you that may read this blog want to join me via email I'd love it!

Anyway... one of the questions tonight was : What blessings has God brought into your life during "unscheduled stops" along the way?

The answers just kept coming and coming...

My entire 6 years at Englewood was "unscheduled" for me, I went to CBC to go to the missionfield, Englewood was a pit stop... I cannot and would not want to imagine my life without those kids! We'll call this pit stop "the brick building" or "tentacles" (Sometimes God takes us places we didn't ask to be and keeps us there to make us something we never thought we could be and uses us to do things we never thought we could do!)

Oh no, I definitely shouldn't leave out "the blue house" pit stop... it's really part of the above pit stop so maybe we should just call this one, "the Danish" a foriegn exchange student at our school was very unhappy with her host home and in tears at the stinking altar asked if she could stay at my home for a couple of weeks. what pastor can say no to the agnostic / borderline atheist exchange student at the altar? So in she moved... I should have known it was for more than 2 weeks when the moving truck showed up at the house! So I forever have a foriegn daughter in Denmark, who forever has Jesus in heart too as a result of an "unscheduled event" (Sometimes when you're running a youth ministry of 200 plus, working in a school full time, have to load the coke machine, drive the van, and hire a police officer... God sends a kid to live with you... he's not changing your life with more to do, he's giving your heart more to love!)

Then Springfield and AGTS oddly enough were "unscheduled" again at least by ME they were "unscheduled" but they were evidently on God's prewritten plan!

oh wait I'd be amiss not to mention that during the "unscheduled pit stop" between KC and Springfield is where I met the girl who will be my sister in law in a few short weeks. I'm sure my brother is more grateful for that pit stop than I am! ha! We'll call that stop, "the crack of the bed" (God will use ANY situation to get you and the ones you love where you need to be!)

SPTC was definitely a pit stop... a 3 year pit stop! But I wouldn't know a thing about transcriptions, how to spell plantar faciitis, or be able to write a mean SOAP progress note without the help of the PT for a physical therapist procedure that I know nothing about :) Nor would I have acquired Annie, Jen, Connie, Amy, or Amy! We'll just call this "Where's Brad?"
(Stuck in an $8 an hour job? No way you can pay the bills? Somehow I made it through grad school, never missed a meal, and came out with lifelong friends, I'd do the $8 an hour job again for all that! His plan is bigger and where God guides He provides, even if it seems IMPOSSIBLE and RIDICULOUS!)

this one time at band camp... I mean at panera... I met friends of a friend of a friend.... (strangers) because I was in dire of need of rent payers, I mean roommates, those 2 strangers moved in a few weeks later and well, they became so much more than rent payers! I love those girls! We'll call this "the package deal" (no worries if your roommates bail on you while you're working an $8 an hour job and leave you with a three bedroom apt and all it's obligations... God has a plan... one that does more than change your financial situation, but one to change your LIFE!)

believe it or not AGTS was a "pitstop" I was lured in with a semester scholarship and a much needed answer for "what are you going to do next with your life?" "I'm getting my masters" sounds much better than "IDK!!!"

There I acquired Dr. Mostert and James and a newfound passion for social justice and oh .... a master's degree! However, I can't decide if I should call this era "crutches or can't standya!" (Sometimes you might make a huge decision on a WHIM and then realize God is the author of such "WHIMS!")

Oh and I'd be really amiss to not mention this short and sweet pit stop... one time I booked a ticket to San Jose Costa Rica... well, I thought it was to San Jose COSTA RICA it was to San Jose California, I realized it on a layover in Denver! (Should I not have noticed you don't go thru denver to get to costa rica?) Well, I flew back to Springfield, found a fellow grad student going to take the same class in CR and booked a PRICEY ticket on her flight.. which left from Chicago (well, the part of Chicago that is really Ecuador!) The trip went great we flew back ... that morning there was a police chase in her neighborhood and her parked car was hit, undriveable! We were stuck there for a week while her car was getting fixed then drove the 9 hours back to Springfield in the snow! One of the best weeks of my life! :) She called today and left me the longest message almost as long as this entry! :) I smiled and thought, I got one of my favorite friends over a $1000 mistake and a wrecked car! We'll definitely call this "rackempina!"

And the current pit stop? 29 and living at home with the parents! Definitely scheduled to be a short visit! We're at nearly 2 years now. I've acquired old friends and their beautiful children... a few of which who have allowed me the privilege of seeing the change in my life and let me share in their's. I get to see my family A LOT :) I get to call Dave Ramsey and scream, "I'm debt free!" I get to work at the middle school of my youth with some pretty precious kids, all while raising my money to become the missionary I graduated from college 10 years ago thinking I was going to be!

God is in the pit stops, even when they are the result of dire financial straits, failures, a decision made on a whim, wrecked cars, illnesses, whatever, there were too many to list! I'd venture to say... there are NO UNscheduled events... they may not have appeared on our calendar or our to do list, but while we were still in the womb they were there!

Ten for '10!

Ten goals for my 2010!

1. To please God. (If I accomplish this then I will accomplish everything else on my list!)

2. Stay connected.

To Christ. To my family. To my friends near and far.

3. 4. 5. To get healthy.

Mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.

Exercise daily, lose weight, pay more attention to what I'm putting into my body, mind, and spirit. This will involve de-cluttering, putting an end to my all time favorite activity of procrastination, getting organized, discipline, consistency, i.e. getting my ducks in a row! ;)

6. Enter the presence of God daily.

This is more than a devotion, or praying, or reading my Bible although it will likely involve all of those.

7. Become debt free.

8. Take others with me.

As I become healthier, closer to the Lord, more disciplined, more connected, etc. etc. I shouldn't go at it alone.

9. Be diligent and purposeful.

In my job. In my relationships. With my speech. With my time. With my actions. With a purpose of glorifying God.

10. Bloom where ever I am planted.

I'm always waiting on or working towards what's next. So I'm here until God moves me onward so here I will root and bloom and flourish!

A little less talk and a lot more action!

Confession: Christianeze, Spiritualeze i.e. Christian Talk... makes me want to vomit.
** Disclaimer: Yes, I've done it!

Unfortunately this disdain has grown and no longer filters out genuine vs. rhetoric and I find hearing God is good from the most sincere person causes my eyes to roll all on their own!!
** Disclaimer: I know God IS good .. ALL the time God IS good!!!

I've become so anti-spiritual talk that my FB does not even give my religious views yet I'm officially a missionary! The one time my status reflected what God was doing in my heart and my own brother called in shock and awe that I had publicly proclaimed that Jesus had washed my sins away!
**Disclaimer: God has done AMAZING things in my life and He IS my life, I want nothing more than to please Him and proclaim Him and for EVERYONE to know Him.

However, Christianeze makes me sick! STILL!
Our TALK is so FULL of Christ, so STICKY, SICKENINGLY SWEET! and so many times our ACTIONS are so EMPTY, non-exisistent, and SICKENINGLY something else! So much so there's a whole book on how UN-Christian we really are!
**Disclaimer: I've been so guilty of this that it is SICKENING!

I find myself overwhelmed with love and compassion for the victims of Christianity.

You didn't have to do it!!!!

I'm at the end of the 90 day Beth Moore study on the life of Jesus and this hit me tonight like a ton of bricks! Let me back track a little bit, today I was reading a group email from close friends we're all weighing in on where we are on the journey right now and one friend wrote this:

"I have started reading Matthew and the verses that talk about how Jesus would climb a mountain or cross a lake or go hide in a garden really have stuck out to me and challenged me…I keep thinking, if Jesus made it a priority to be by himself, then who am I to think I don’t need it??"

Tonight I was reading in Luke one such passage, Jesus is at the Mt of Olives alone, praying? observing? resting? thinking? Probably thinking about what He knew was about to come, the fulfillment of His purpose, His life being sacrificed on that cross. What was going through His mind as He overlooked the city? I wondered to myself... Jesus, did you ever contemplate NOT doing it? Somehow getting around the sacrifice of the cross!? Probably not, but it just hit me, He didn't HAVE to do it!

As I wrote the words, "You didn't HAVE to do it!" in my journal... I thought WOW those are powerful words! In this case it provokes extreme relief and gratefulness that He didn't run from His calling or wash His hands of us all together when that's exactly what we deserved!

But what if I said to you, "You didn't HAVE to do it!" What does it bring to mind... for my missionary friends you didn't have to go, to pack up your whole life and move far away from your loved ones (namely from me!!!), but I hope you look at the precious lives you're touching and are glad. You didn't have to: Get married, but hopefully you roll over and see your spouse and think oh but I am sooo glad I did! Have children: and then they give you sticky kisses and tell you they love you and you can't imagine life without them. The list could go on and on and on.

For others it might go in the "other" direction it might be "I didn't have to do it." Stay in that relationship... let my weight get out of control, say that terrible thing, drink and drive... compromise in that way.... venture off the straight and narrow and take life into my own hands...go further and further into debt... again the list could go on and on!

"You didn't have to do it!" A powerful statement that can go either direction positively or negatively... to describe 1 choice w trillions of consequences!

It becomes even more powerful of a question when I think of Jesus sitting on that Mt of Olives overlooking the city, hypothetically in a moment of decision, He had free will just like us He didn't HAVE to do it. He made a choice and because of that choice... even when we make the wrong ones and set the wheel of consequences in motion in a direction that we never wanted them to go.... because He DID what He didn't HAVE to do (1 choice trillions of consequences).... we have the opportunity to do what we don't HAVE to do, make 1 choice w trillions of consequences to surrender our lives to Him and let His grace and mercy take us in a brand new direction.

You didn't have to do it, but You did! A trillion thank yous! Love, your most needy recipient & one of a trillion consequences.

2 years and all I got is a title!!!

Stepping cautiously, she pauses, deep breath, eyes widen at the brightness of the screen, a moment of hesitancy, another deep breath, rapid clicking of the keys, one click and then some silence (the backspace). Repeat this scenario multiple times over the course of about 2 years and you will thus have my entrance to the blogger world!

I picked the name of this blog years before blogging even existed and for nearly 2 years it's all that has been on this page!

Where did the title come from? Glad you asked. Leadership guru John Maxwell gives the illustration that as leaders (heck as people in general!) we're likely,(FOR SURE TO) to slip up, to fall down, to get knocked down, to fail, and so on so forth thereby spending a lot of time on the floor. (Don't worry it's not ALL gloom and doom!) He reminds us that while we're down there to learn something, to take something of value from the situation... to pick up the 'change' if you will.

I used to remember this bit of information because in the year 2000 I spoke in my first graduation commencement exercises. I was so nervous and didn't want to be boring to the class of 2000 or their many friends and family members who would be there! So I inserted a little skit so to speak at the expense of a couple of teenage girls. I sent Crissy Miller and Ashley Day two cute, but scrawny under classmen girls across the stage carrying one of those big clear plastic bottles of change that probably weighed as much as they did combined!! To their horror one of them had to trip and fall in front of everybody. I don't really remember who drew the short straw that day, but one of them fell, the audience laughed, and the other said, "What are you doing down there?" And of course her line was "well, while I'm down here I thought I might as well "pick up the change!" Cheesey I know, but it eased my nerves to know the comic relief was on its way in point number 2 of my message!

Since then LIFE has taken place and this bit of info is no longer remembered because Crissy and Ashley did a skit! (If only!) I remember it from the personal experience of time spent on the floor! Nearly 10 years later I can't (or rather don't want to) begin to tell you the countless times I've failed, tripped up, been knocked down... found myself on the floor! I should be rich by now with all that change and picking up the change should be down to an art form for me! Rather than hang my head about this, I've got to tell you that while I'm not proud of my times of failure, that I'm proud of the change I've picked up! Hoping it can somehow be seen and shared...

Jeremiah 29:11-14, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity..."