Category Archives: life

Closer to Christmas

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I love Christmas. I have since I was a little boy. When I was between 3 and 10 I believed in Santa Claus. My goal was to see him delivering gifts on Christmas Eve. My two sisters and I would devise a plan each year to try to either take a nap during the day see we could stay up to see him, or have one of us stand watch. If either of us saw him, we’d come running.

Unfortunately, none of us could: a. Stay awake that long. b. stay up (mom an dad ALWAYS made us go to bed). And, c. None of us deep down REALLY wanted to see Santa Claus — it was spoil the surprise.

But, I would go to bed with very few Christmas presents under the tree. Then, I would wake up at 2am or 3am and sneak out to the living room where there would be MANY more gifts under the tree. It always AMAZED me how many more gifts would just magically appear under the tree in just a few hours.

One year, I had a flashlight in my room and I would sneak out and play with the toys before everyone got up. I got a Lionel Train set one year. Another year I got an airplane that would REALLY go. It was electric…it could take-off, fly around and circles and land. It was cool. Another year I got a Virtibird helecopter toy. It was really cool.

I know many Christian families won’t let their kids believe in Santa Claus, our family does. It’s not the only thing we tell our daughter about. We STRESS the reason for Christmas is the birth of God’s Son, Jesus. We also tell her that without Jesus’ birth, we’d never have salvation. It’s the best gift of all.

Well, I’ve been enjoying listening to my favorite Christmas music: Perry Como – Home for the Holidays (1959), Maranatha Long Play Christmas, Steve Green – Joy to the World, Steven Amerson – Is There A Place, Damaris Carbaugh (especially the song, May God Give His Gift This Christmas). I’ve also been dreaming of a white Christmas. The weather’s predicting 8 inches tomorrow. We’ll see.

Merry Christmas!

Greg

Paterning my life for someone else

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I’m 42 years old and I still struggle to pattern my life in a way that invites people to ask me why I’m different. I struggle to show unconditional love to people I love the most. All of this failure seems to have created difficulties with my grown kids, and I don’t want it to be the case with my daughter still living at home. It’s interesting how I can know God’s Word so well, and yet still express such disappointment with my kids.

I don’t know where they are spiritually. I pray that God takes each one and molds them into the person (or people) He wants them to be.

With my youngest daughter, I need incredible patience. She is the kind of person that will find what bothers you and continue doing it just to bother you. She doesn’t even seem to care much about punishment. She just wants to control every situtaion. We’re trying EVERYTHING to stop her from doing this.

Since my health turned south, God has reminded me that I need to do better. I can’t continue to think that everybody else is the problem. Perhaps, I’m the problem. Perhaps people are reacting my lack of love and for my lack of being a testimony of God’s love for us. I seem to take the sin my kids commit, personally. Why do I do that? Why do I take they’re rejection of the things of God personally. I guess I’m beginning to understand how God feels when His children sin against Him.

I’m praying that God will be me the ability to forgive people as He forgives me each time I commit sin against Him.

Giving Thanks

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I doubt I’ll be posting anything tomorrow because we’ll be heading to church for our Thanksgiving service, but I wanted to take a moment to tell the world what I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving.

First, I’m thankful for God’s grace in my life. It’s incredibly humbling knowing that God is allowing me not only to be a part of his family, but being able to serve him. His grace has been even more evident through my illness, or whatever it is I’ve been dealing with lately. I realize that even though I was dealing with ‘shocks’ in my head and a little light headedness, there are so many other people dealing with things so much worse. I’m also thankful for His work in my life during this time. God’s brought to mind sin, selfishness and other issues that were preventing me from having a better relationship with Him. Pray for me that I’ll be able to win that constant battle against those things.

I’m also thankful for my family, my wife especially. I’m pretty fortunate the God has given her to to me. She’s stood beside me even though I’m not the most pleasant person to be around. Many times my work, selfishness and other things have upstaged her. While she’s been hurt, she’s stood by me.  I’m also thankful for my kids. Each of them have taught me more about myself. While all of them are FAR from perfect, they are committed to the family and that’s a good thing. However, I regret that none of them have much of a relationship with Christ. I’m making a concerted effort to pray for God’s work in their hearts. Anastsia is young. I’m praying God will move in her heart early. With her personality, I believe God has got some great plans for her.

I’m also fortunate to have a Mom and Dad who have always believed in me. I have never been a very confident person. I don’t know why, but I’ve always doubted myself. I’m sure they were wondering what would become of me, since I wasn’t very motivated in school. I really have to thank them for their prayers and unending support for my success. I surely didn’t earn it on my own.

I’m also thankful for my job. I love it. I love being able to literally tell the word what God is doing through His people. I’m a very fortunate person. I’ve also got a wonderful team. Everyone of them are committed to the cause of Christ and the cause of calling more Christians to get off the butts to do something. Too few believers are doing anything for the Gospel.

My church family has also been an incredible blessing. I’ve learned so much from so many people and I can’t imagine going into spiritual battle with any other group of people. We’re truly unified and it’s thrilling.

So, Thank you Lord for your incredible blessing in my life.

I’ve learned a few things

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It’s 4:45 PM on Saturday and I’ve had a pretty good day today. Last night I had another ‘shock’ experience, but it was short lived. It came one, I dealt with it and then it went away. Since I know there’s nothing there physically causing it, I’m no longer concerned about it. It’s still irritating, and shocking (no pun intended),  but it’s easier to deal with.

One thing I’ve learned is that I value good health much more than I ever have. It’s hard not feeling well. It even more difficult not knowing what’s causing the problem. I’ve also learned that it doesn’t matter how you’re feeling, God is still good. He’s still in control. He’s not out of control just because you’re not feeling well. In fact, I really believe He brought this into my life to draw me closer to Him. Why?

I have been under a lot of stress the last eight months. The Better Than Life Project took a lot of energy. I thought the more work I put into it, the more successful it would be.  Iquickly found out that it didn’t matter how much effort I put into it, if God wasn’t behind it, it would be successful. It took me until the final week before the tour to realize that.

I think the Lord wanted to put a period to it by hitting me with this (whatever it is) in the middle of the tour. I think He wanted to get my attention and make sure that I really understood He has a plan for EVERYTHING ‘under the sun.’  Not just my life, but EVERYTHING.

So, while I’m experiencing a little ‘shocks’ in my head and a little dizziness, there’s a reason for it. I don’t know what it is, but it’s all good.