Zoom!!

Life flashes by at breakneck speed. Work, phone calls, visits, planning, meals, meetings, projects, more meetings, requests for help...oh, and did I mention meetings?
I take a breath to slow things down and realize that a week has gone by. I have no particularly fond memories, only flashes of hurried activity.

I sigh as I realize I will never get that time back.

Life doesn't stop for anyone until the end. "Time" never takes a time-out. But I can sure wrangle it in and slow it down from time to time!
What are you doing right now? Get off the computer! Go to your loved ones and just look at them and enjoy it! Quit making new projects for yourself! Take a nap. Read a book. Read a magazine the whole way through. Have a conversation that lasts for longer than 15 minutes. Stay at the church building instead of rushing off next week. Oh...here's a novel idea...get rid of ONE commitment (remembering that we should never get rid of our commitment to God!)
Remember..."if the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy."

A Blessing

One of my favorite Bible verses is the blessing which the priests gave to the Israelites long ago...
"The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace." (from Numbers 6:24-26)

My interpretion of this passage would sound something like this...
May the LORD take care of you and hold you in His loving arms
May you see the LORD smile and feel His loving kindness
May God turn His face towards you so that you feel at peace.

In a few weeks we will be blessing our graduates. I constantly struggle with how to bless people. It is a foreign concept to our culture. And yet, I know how sweet it is to hear a blessing from a loved one.
I hope I can continue to learn how to bless others. What to say, how to say it.

May God Almighty bless you today
Feel His presence as He walks beside you
Know He loves you as you look at the sky
May the LORD keep you and your loved ones wrapped in His protective arms
May He give you abundant joy and contentment
As you rest in His presence.

"I Want To Kill Him"

These were words written by the shooter in the recent massacre at Virginia Tech. Apparently, they were written about his stepfather.
Sigh...poor kid.
My first reaction is to scream, "What's WRONG with you? Why would you do something like this?"
My next reaction is to calm down and say, "No, seriously. Why WOULD he have done something like this?"
Apparently an extremely shy kid...Cho never spoke to anyone. He had moved from South Korea when he was eight years old.
Starved for attention, he would "sign in" at college classes with question marks instead of his name. It seems like he was subtly asking the professor, "Do YOU know my name? Do you know who I am? Do you care?"
So we have a kid transplanted kid from another country, leaving everything he knows to come to a new and strange place. His relationship with his stepfather is already not a good one. He arrives and perhaps some people tried to reach out to him, but he is painfully shy. He gets made fun of by rich kids and develops a deep anger towards them which is never released or resolved.
Could the love of Christ have reached Cho? God loved Cho with a relentless love. He was always there, offering his love and hoping.
This incident just reminds me how important youth ministry could be. Reaching out to "the new kid" is one of the best ministries you will ever do. Breaking through the "shy" kid's wall is extremely rewarding. Coaching a teenager along spiritually, emotionally and socially is SO important!! Teaching how to properly release your anger is a must for us all.
Victims, survivors and families...my prayers are with you.

Snapshots of Life

Snapshots of life float around in my memories...

• Fischer (my son) with spaghetti all over his face...not a care in the world!
• The day Fischer was born. Stressful, joyful!
• Shadow puppets with Tracy (my lovely wife) on a Friday night when we had nothing else to do.
• A kid in my youth group getting busted by the police!
• A kid in my youth group catching fire by sitting too close to candles I had set out!
• A radiant and beautiful Tracy walking down the aisle on our wedding day.
• The look on Tracy's face as I proposed.
• My mom's smile as I walked with her down the aisle at my graduation.
• Sneaking chocolate chips with my dad, and sitting in his lap to watch Star Trek as a kid.

Oh, I could go on and on and on!!! You know what, though? The times I remember being terrible...well, they don't seem so bad when I recall them. I seem to remember happy times much better than sad times.

Maybe that's God's way of reminding us to dwell on happy memories. Maybe it's His way of saying, "See how many great things have happened in your life?" Maybe it's His way of cheering us up when we've had a bad day and a friend calls chuckling about an old memory. Maybe it's God's way of making life even sweeter!

What are your favorite "snapshots of life?" (Doesn't matter if we know you or not...please share!!)