When I first got married to Karen, I would run the moment she started to cry. If there was one tear rolling down her face, I was giving in and doing whatever I could to make her feel better. Early in my Army career I would do the same thing, except it would look as if I was not speaking up for something that I knew needed to be done.
I pride myself on being able to relate to people. I work hard at being authentic and showing up in a way that honors who God is calling me to be. It just so happened that I was taking questions at an event the other day and I failed miserably at relating.
I need to let you know something: You have unspoken agreements, all of us do. Unspoken agreements are behaviors or actions that we adhere to without giving them verbal permission to be in our lives.
I just finished another year of coaching t-ball. Caleb was an absolute stud on the field, and it was clear that watching his brother helped him grow into a great t-ball player. As a team we improved as well. The boys learned how to be better hitters, how to scoop the ball with the glove, and some of them even found first base! (It was a miracle, trust me.)
So many of us get caught in the rut of life that the opportunity for fun is missed or, even worse, intentionally forgotten. Relationships need fun, awe, and unity in order to survive.
The more I wrestled with this, the more I thought about it in my own life. What has caused me to change? I’ve never changed for someone screaming at me from the corner. I’ve never changed because someone waived a Bible at me and told me I was wrong. I’ve never changed because of a rant on Facebook.
Over this past weekend I was given an amazing gift: the chance to take part in the wedding of my little brother. This is the same brother who found a way to push every button I had growing up. He had the superhuman ability of being annoying at the same time he was being extremely endearing. I can remember days where he would seemingly push the limit to no end.Over this past weekend I was given an amazing gift: the chance to take part in the wedding of my little brother. This is the same brother who found a way to push every button I had growing up. He had the superhuman ability of being annoying at the same time he was being extremely endearing. I can remember days where he would seemingly push the limit to no end.
We’ve been in vacation-planning mode for the past several weeks, carefully planning out everything we want to do and see, and deciding what adventures we want to have. I love planning everything out, looking at options, and deciding what is going to work best for our situation. I have huge dreams for everything we can do, then – right before I book it -- I need to do one more thing: Look at the price. That’s when the decision gets tough.
I’ve held quite a few titles in my life: father, husband, son, SGT, and several more. The one thing that I can say is that none of them are as broad as the title of pastor.
I would never have guessed that I would get to have a relationship with an entire church. It truly is mind-boggling how God uses the church to communicate with me about the people of God and how I can best act as their servant leader....