I Get More Beautiful Each Year!!

      As the days and years go by, depending on the day I have one of two questions for myself. Where has the time gone? and How can I continue to get more beautiful each year!? Like I said, these are questions I ask myself.....no one else seems to ask them to me!

     There are two things in the above picture that took me a little while to find and I had to wear my glasses for one of them! There's a hand pump well and a neon sign that reads "Jesus Saves". The sign may still be there for all I know!

     Our sign and light have changed in a few ways but not in placement! And as I look out my office window I can see that the trees in the front yard have grown too but I can still recognize them! After all, it's only been about 60 years since this picture was taken! Things have changed.

     I'm looking at the calendar and am becoming anxious for the weeks to come along! January is almost over and we are having a Valentine's Service at the BBC on 10 February! With Ash Wednesday coming during that week, it sheds more light on the theme of our special Sunday service!

     I was thinking the other day about when my kids were young, very young! I had a great thought for waking them up in the morning for school. I recorded a few up beat songs loaded them into a CD player. I set the system to turn on at 6:30am. The first song that played was Chris Rice singing "What if Cartoons Got Saved!" My kids still remember that song because of the morning alarm!

     That seems like just a couple weeks ago too! And time just keeps going. I've tried to hold it still for a few years but to no avail! The little ones are now big and the very little ones are no longer little at all. And my mind is changing to my Dad's and the way I thought in the past is a memory. I recognize that even dad's continue to grow up from be very young dad's to dad's who aren't really that young any more. The one thing that's supposed to save us is the basic dad thing...love for his kids! What I've found is that it becomes more and more difficult to convince the kids that dads love is still as strong and present as it was when we were all so much younger....and stronger! Without the daily contact, daily touches and smiles....we come to an uneasy place. "I know he loves me but...."! And at that point we place any number of feeling and subjective and many times erroneous thoughts and words that simply aren't true but we have difficulty defending against them.

     What does this Dad remember? Number 1 and 3 getting their hearts broken from other kids in school. Number 2 falling hard off her bike and my carrying her about a block home to care for her bloody knee. Number 4 being hungry and my not having anything to give her. Number 5 getting hit on his bike by a car and breaking his leg. Number 6 with challenges I cannot fix and often time cannot even understand.

     So the question of where is God when it hurts changes and applies itself to me...where is Dad when it hurts? I seem to get a similar answer though.....

     I'm right here, with you always. I never want you to get hurt but because you do, doesn't mean I don't care or I don't love you. It sometimes means that life is hard and because you are an independent little kid of mine, you can and will choose to go places away from me where I can't run interference from all the dangers in the world. You wouldn't want that anyway.
     As you grow, life will change and you may change, but my love never will and I will always want to be with you.

     From the 1950's, the BBC has changed quit a bit. And from 1876 it has changed a great deal! One thing that has not and will not change is the presence of God in our congregation and work! Just like a good Dad, he always will be with us!

    And yes, I am beautiful!

Taking Time to Appreciate the New Years Wrinkles

It's funny the difference a day can make. Yesterday we were looking back on the previous year, the highs and lows and the events that made up 2012. I was an eventful year! Great and terrible things happened. Things we hope to remember for all times and other things that we hope the New Year washes from our memories. Beyond so many other things though, we look to the New Year to refresh our hearts and bring the renewed hope which seems to accompanies a new calendar!

Looking forward is so different than looking back! When we look back we see all the challenges and problems. Hind sight is considered 20/20 though I would hesitate on that idea. It's not always as clear as we would want nor is it always as easy to understand as some would want us to think. One thing is for sure...the year has passed and the events of our lives have happened (whatever they may have been) and the year and it's events are behind us now (for the most part). Now with a bit of excitement and possibly concern, we look toward the new year and all the possibilities that lay before us!

So the challenge again at the start of this new year is to anticipate the challenges and take advantage of the possibilities which inevitably will show themselves. But without some type of planning we may wind up seeing the possibilities but to late to take advantage of them. So the key is looking forward with vision and wisdom.

Our lives go in many directions and at a speed where we simply hold on and wait for it to slow down. This year will be lived through vision of where we need to be by 2014. And we need to aim high when we consider our vision for the new year. It puts perspective on events that happen and keep up focused of the placed we want to be.

I think English Bulldogs are about the cutest little puppies a person will ever see! What helps a great deal though is to know what this little puppy will be like when it grows up! Buying a Bulldog puppy means you will get a grown up Bulldog in a couple years, not a Rottweiler! And that's perhaps the refining point of developing clear and functional vision....to understand the possibilities of what can happen and not the unattainable fantasy of a make believe dream. We should develop a vision to declare what we are when we are the best we can be! It becomes disheartening to work at developing a vision that reveals what I can be if I were Michael Jordan or Peyton Manning, or Billy Graham for that matter because I am not and never will be them. 

I can only become the best me I can be. The church can only become the best Blomkest Baptist Church it can be! With clear and Godly vision, the best we can be will be far more impressive than we think! These are days we will remember!