Moving In - Part 2

So I was going to give daily updates this week. I was going to take you along as I went through the process of moving into the new church.

Then I got a fever that lasted for 48 hours. It was no fun.

Now it is Thursday, and we are just 2 days away from our moving day.

Today I finished packing my office. I am surprised by how much junk I had accumulated. I wish I could tell you that I purged everything that did not seem necessary, but that is not the case. I am a pack rat. I am not looking forward to trying to unpack this junk.

Anyhow, here are a couple of pictures of my packed-up office, and a nice shot of my last day working with my office roommate.

Moving In - Part 1

I haven't been posting recently. I have no excuse. I can come up with some weak excuses, but they really aren't worth it. Sorry.

But I am back, and I am determined to blog nonstop for the next 2 weeks.

In just 14 days, counting today, we will have our first service in our church building. When I started working here 6 years ago, I had no idea how intense this process would be. In fact, two months ago I probably had no idea how intense it would be.

There is much going on, and I am going to blog all the way through it. Writing helps me unwind and collect my thoughts, so this will be good for me, and informative for you. Maybe it will be entertaining. I make no promises.

Today, I am trying to get my furniture ordered. I have a Preschool and Nursery that need to be furnished, and due to the uncertainty of our move-in date, I haven't been able to order them until now. Unfortunately, the delivery window is very tight, and I am worried that I won't have them in time. Pray for speedy delivery trucks.

So, as it stands right now, I have only packed 1/3 of my office, I have no furniture purchased (for the record, I am not procrastinating that; I am currently waiting for a call from the sales guy), and I still have to finish all of my normal weekly tasks.

I am a bit nervous, but I am very excited about this whole process. I'll have more to tell tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have a good delivery date as well...

this is the title

I am in a bit of a writing slump. I have had the worst time lately trying to keep my blog up to date.

As a result, I am just making myself write. This is the result.

Interesting? Probably not, but it's the only thing I can think of to get back into writing.

Do you remember those papers you had to write in school that had to be a certain number of pages or words? That's how this feels.

Speaking of which, I just thought of something to write about:

I am a pastor. I went to Bible college. B-I-B-L-E college.

And I cheated once. In Bible college.

Bible is in the name of the place I went, training to be a spiritual leader for the Bride of Christ, and I cheated there. Just once.

You see, when I went to school I was married with two preschoolers. My wife was also in school, and we both worked full time and took as many credit hours as they would allow. We were completely overwhelmed and running on fumes all the time.

So one semester, I had two classes that required me to write massive 14-page research papers in order to pass. I had very little time to do it. So, I wrote one really good paper, convinced each of the professors that the topic I chose fit the requirements, and I turned it in for both classes.

It was cheating, at least by the standards put forth by the school. I knew it was cheating. I worried every day until the papers were returned.

Today, I confess. It's Fat Tuesday, so it's a good day for confessions.

Every person does something wrong from time to time. Sometimes is just a mistake, and sometimes it is just a selfish choice. I cheated once in Bible college. It was shameful, and not really worth it.

Consequently, one professor gave me an "A" on the paper and one gave me a "B-". I never figured that one out...

be careful what you ask for

For those of us who grew up around the church, it is common to associate prayer with the phrase, "Be careful what you wish for."

For whatever reason, we assume that God is going to give us things we don't want, just because we asked for them the wrong way. Kinda like when you ask the genie for wishes, and the results create more problems than benefits.

Growing up, I have learned that I should not pray for patience, because the only way to learn patience is to have God torment you on end. I have learned that if you don't want to be a missionary in Africa, you should never tell God that. Apparently He doesn't like that sort of thing.

Now, know these things aren't true, but when you grow up around church people, you hear all sorts of stupid things. Turns out that church people aren't always right. Go figure.

Well today, I've added a new one to the list.

Mikki is home taking care of a sick kid. I dropped about a dozen hints this morning to her about washing my dog. It's my job to wash her, but I really hate doing it. Because my wife is full of awesome, she gave my dog a bath. She even sent me this picture on my phone. Please forgive the graphic content:

Clever and witty guy that I am, I decided to have a little fun. First, I sent a complaint about the lack of bubbles. Daisy loves bubble baths.

Second, I texted her with the suggestion that Daisy deserved to have her nails painted. I was kidding. Again, sometimes you have to be careful what you ask for. Mikki later sent me this picture:










Not sure how well it shows up in the picture, but yes, they are now painted. According to my wife, Daisy's favorite color is pink. What a pretty princess I have.

we're praying for you

We, the pastors, staff, leaders, elders, volunteers, etc., of Horizons Church are praying for you.

It came to my attention this weekend that you may or may not know that.

We do our best to be a praying church, and we want you to know that we pray for you. Sometimes it is specifically you, and sometimes it's you as a group.

One way or another, we are praying for you, your kids, your homes, your relationships, your careers, your connection to God, and your health.

It's not always all these things. But these are things we are concerned about.

When you turn in a prayer request on Sunday morning, we pray about it.

When you submit a prayer need on our website, we pray about it.

When you talk to us and tell us about struggles in your life, we pray about it.

As a church, we may not do everything the way you wish. You may not always like the music, you may not laugh at all our jokes, you may not always feel moved by our videos or graphics, you may think we spend too much time doing some things or not enough time doing others.

That's fair. That's normal. That's just kinda how churches are. We're ok with it. We're banking on the fact that Jesus is ok with it. We can't be everyone's favorite. We wouldn't want to be.

But please know, when you walk through the doors of our church, we take it as our responsibility to lift you up in prayer. Even if we never get to know you, we will always pray for you.

Please pray for us too.

me and my wagon, pt. 2

So, yesterday I announced my problem. My life recently has felt like a trip up a mountain, pulling a wagon which is constantly being filled with other people's rocks.

I have decided that I am going to get through this. I am down, but not out. I am not going to worry about all the rocks anymore. Perhaps I will even throw some of them back out. I will do my best not to hit anyone with them.

I have 2 things going for me right now. I have had 2 times in the past few days where God has given me encouragement.

• The first was Saturday night. While I should have been a) sleeping or b) preparing for my heart for Sunday, I was sitting around thinking about things that made me mad. I wasn't trying to. I guess I just got something in my head, and I just couldn't stop focusing on it. Just after midnight every night, biblegateway.com drops a verse for the day into my rss reader. The verse that night? “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” I guess God knew what I was up to. That set me straight quick.

• The second was today. You see, yesterday's post was too long, so I had to delete something. I had to delete a paragraph about how I have been a little depressed every January here because we get cold and dreary, but we rarely get snow. I am from Michigan. I need snow like a fish needs water. Last night, I checked the forecast at 3am, and it said we might get a little flurries. I woke up a few hours later, and there was enough snow to keep everyone home. We had a great day of sledding with family and friends. I couldn't find something to complain about today if I tried!

So, despite my recent grumpiness, God is reminding me that He is here and that He is aware of my plight. That's pretty awesome.

me and my wagon

I haven't been posting much on this blog lately. The reason is that every time I want to write something, I am in a bad mood.

That's been happening a lot lately. Every day brings something new to bother me. I know that sounds bad, but it is the truth. Some days bring big problems, and some days bring small ones. But every day brings a new one.

I once heard a speaker who used a great metaphor to describe this feeling. Because I rarely take notes when I listen to speakers, I will likely butcher the concept in the retelling.

Basically, it's like I am constantly pulling a wagon up a mountain. Every day, at a time and place that I never foresee, somebody runs up and drops a rock in my wagon.

Only a few of those rocks are heavy. Most of them are quite manageable.

But after a few days of people dropping rocks in my wagon, I am feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. The wagon is heavy and cumbersome. (do heavy and cumbersome mean the same thing?)

Right now, I am not sure how many more rocks can go in my wagon before I lose my grip and watch the whole thing just roll back down.

And just in case I haven't mentioned it enough, it really has been every day. January 1-January 25. Easily 25 rocks in there right now. Maybe more. Some big, some small. Quite cumbersome (new favorite word).

I haven't been blogging much, because I don't want my blog to be depressing. I am in a slump and I am down. I don't want that to be what I am communicating to the world.

But you know what? Today there have been no rocks added. Maybe it's because I've been watching for it. Maybe it just hasn't happened yet. Either way, I have a good feeling.

So, I am not keeping it to myself anymore. I am going on a journey this week. If you read this blog, you're going with me. I am determined to get up this mountain, and I am going to document what's left of it.

Maybe you are on your own mountain. Maybe you have jerks sneaking rocks into your wagon. You're going to make it. I am too. Come back tomorrow, because I am posting every day until I get to the top!