A Week Of Silence

Last week I had the privilege of spending 4 days at Gethsemene Abbey in Trappist, KY. It was my third trip to the Abbey for a week of silence and as usual, it was an incredible time with God. Gethsemene has been a silent monastery since 1848. Thomas Merton spent many years there developing his discipline of silence and solitude while writing his books and serving God. At Gethsemene the monks hold three things very dear: Prayer, Work and Spiritual Reading (Lexio Divina). I had the privilege of entering into all of these along with the monks and I'm always amazed at how they change me more into the image of Jesus. When I'm tired and burned-out like I was this year, It's critical for me to get away and be alone. To allow God's Spirit to refresh me and speak to my spirit. Only God can quell the busy-ness and driven-ness in my soul. I return more in love with Christ and more in tune with who He created me to be than I've ever been. Thank-you Lord for some time to pull away and rest. You are an awesome God and I can only pray that my brothers and sisters reading this will afford themselves the same opportunity to meet with you in the quietness of their daily lives.

Man on the Run

It seems like I've been on the run since the beginning of summer. And today is already the first official day of fall! From events and camps to retreats and messages, my life has been in constant motion lately. I can feel my body telling me how tired it is. I can feel my soul yearning for some rest. Do you ever feel as though you'll never cath up? Do you always feel like there's something more to do? If so, I have just the prescription for you: Stop and rest! When God created the world, he worked for 6 days and then rested on the seventh - not becasue He was tired, but becasue He was showing us the importance of developing a Sacred Rythmn. I'm learning to understand the importance of regular rest. I'm trying to make it a natural part of my life. Next week I plan on getting away for my annual week of silence and solitude at Gethsemane Monastary in Kentucky. It's the one place in my life where I feel I can truly allow myself to rest and pull away for awhile just to listen to God...just to bask in His love and remind myself about what it means to be His child. I hope to journal...I hope to read the Scriptures...I hope to worship...but most of all, I simply hope to rest. You may not be able to join me at the monastary, but would you consider resting with me and enjoying the presence of God together?

A Bicycle Built for Two

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I were having a really tough day. I was out in the garage working on stuff while she was upstairs crying her eyes out. She was upset becasue she felt as though she was losing control of our oldest child who is about to turn 13 years old. She wanted to be able to keep him locked away some were so nothing could hurt him or influence him in a negative way that could rob him of any innocence e has left. I, on the other hand wanted to allow him to experience life on his own and go through some hard times that would help him learn a few things. Needless to say we were definitely not seeing eye to eye on the whole parenting thing that day. We were both upset and not listening to each other and it felt like everything was spiraling out of control.

Just then a friend of mine showed up and surprised me in my garage. He told me to come outside becasue he had something he wanted to give me. As I walked outside, I saw his entire family in their minivan and what looked like a bike attached to the back of the van. My friend said, "Remember the other day when we were talking about our futures and what they might look like and you told me that someday you wanted to save up enough money to buy a tandem bike for you and your wife?" To be honest, I couldn't really remember talking about it, but I said, "Sure." And then my friend proceeded to tell me that he and his wife had bought a tandem bike when they were first married. They had only used it about 10 times, and now that they were in the middle of raising young kids, they had spoke and they wanted us to have it.

I was shocked. Really. I tried to talk him out of it. I told him to just let us borrow it for awhile. But he refused and insisted that we take it. Now you have to understand something. This was not some old junky bike that they wanted to get out of their garage. This was a beautiful, almost new tandem bike that my friend had cleaned up and had kept in mint condition! I was super excited! I couldn't wait to show my wife! And I was blown away by my friends kindess and thoughtfulness.

I went upstairs to tell my wife what had happened and fatre talking a few things through some more I asked her, "WOuld you mind coming down and sharing in my joy for a few minutes?" She sais, "What are you talking about?" And then she followed me down the stairs and out into the garage. When she saw the bike and heard the story she was completely overwhelemed with emotion and started crying again. (I still can't figure women out all the time and I've been married for 16 years.)

I jumped on the front of the bike and she jumped on the back and we went for our first ride. It was awesome. She felt really weird becasue being on the back made her feel totally out of control. She was scared and asked me to be careful and not to crash. I promised her that I had her best interest at heart and if then asked her if she trusted me. She said yes. And then it hit us both at the same time: We have to trust each other in everything we do. There are going to be times when we're totally out of control in life, parenting, etc. But as long as we have each others' best interests at heart we can learn to trust one another. And we can also trust that as we area each pursuing God's plan for our lives, He will have our best interests at heart as well. We won't always get it right. We will definietly make mistakes along the way, but together we will be able to accomplish much more than when we're apart.

Funny what you can learn from a simple tandem bike huh?

F.E.A.R.

False Evidence Accepted as Real. A friend of mine shared this acronym with me this week and it reallt hit home. Why do I fear so many things? Why do I worry about so much that's obviously out of my control anyway? Why is it so hard for me to give up control and simply trust my Heavenly Father during those difficult times when I'm tempted to fear and worry and go sit in a fetal position in the corner of my room? If I really believe that my Heavenly Daddy wants what's best for me, then I can be certain that whatever comes my way will be part of an incredible plan for my life. Help me live that way today Father. Help me reject all of the "false evidence" that bombards my mind and attempts to get it off of You!

Can't Keep Up

So its been 12 days since my last post and I'm sitting here wondering why it has taken me so long. I enjoy blogging, but trying to find the time in the last two weeks has been unbelievable. Between my kids' school starting and a few major events at work it has been completely overwhelming. So much for trying to slow down and simplify my life huh?

I desperately want to slow down, but wonder if it's really possible at this stage of my life. How did Jesus do it? How did He meet so many needs and still make time to pull away alone and refresh Himself? I'm not even "feeling the need" to be involved in all of this stuff, but it seems like the "stuff" always has a way of forcing itself upon me. I guess I'm still learning...and probably always will be.

So today I want to make it my goal to pull away for a few minutes to rest - to do absolutely nothing - not even blogging! And with that I say goodbye...

Priorities

Summer's coming to a close. Kids are going back to school soon. Sports, academics, dance, karate and a million other things will all start to kick in again very soon. Where will my commitment to following Christ and serving Him end up in all of this? Will I continue to pursue Him like I know I should? Will I do it out of desire or out of obligation? Do I really believe that this relationship with Jesus is the most important thing in my life? Will other people see that by looking at me and how I live my life? I certainly hope so...but I also realize that so much of that is up to me learning to depnd on God's grace every step of the way...

Better to Keep Your Mouth Shut?

Have you ever said something you wish you could take back? Even as you heard yourself saying it, you were thinking, "This is probably not going to turn out well." But you said it anyway. And of course it didn't turn out well at all. So you say to yourself, "I'm just going to keep my mouth shut from now on." But you are never able to do that either. So what's the right thing to do? Speak up and push into issues that you know will be uncomfortable and cause pain but probably also bring tremendous growth? Or just sit there and keep your mouth shut...watching it all waste away into apathy and nothingness? (Well ok, maybe it's not that bad, but that's certainly how it can feel at times!) I need wisdom when it comes to controlling what I say and don't say every single moment of every single day. My mouth can be one of my greatest assest, but it can also lead to some of my worst nightmares. I suppose one thing I can do is to ask God for wisdom. To pray before I speak and ask God if what I'm going to say needs to be said in the way I'm planning on saying it at the time I'm planning on saying it. And then I need to stop talking long enough to listen for His voice to lead me on...