Thursday, July 29, 2010

How To Be First In Line

I like to eat. Now, I'm not to the point where I am an over eater, I just like to eat. I'm nothing special. I don't know anyone who doesn't like to eat. Seeing how everyone I know is alive, they eat every day, if they didn't, they would be dead. That's the nature of food. It keeps us alive.
 
There are some foods that I really like. Donuts, shrimp, watermelon, salmon, and pizza are a few that are on the top of my list. Come to think of it, there aren't many pastries that I've met that I don't like. Oh, and I like cake. Sheet cakes especially.
 
My wife made a sheet cake the other day for my son's birthday. He turned 10. Like I said before, I like sheet cakes and most of all the corner pieces, so when the time came for the cutting of the cake, do you know what the first thing was that went in my mind? The hope that I would be one of the few that got a corner piece.
 
Truth is, I usually want a corner piece to the point that if someone else wanted one I wouldn't care if they didn't get one, as long as I got one. In this case, my desire for the corner outweighs the other persons desires. In my mind I rationalize that there are four corners, therefore if there were someone else that wanted a corner they have 3 additional chances at a corner after I've got mine.
 
It even happens at church. People know it too. I'm a corner piece guy. That's how I roll. Again, even at church I don't care who gets left out of the corner crowd as long as I get my piece.
 
Notice a trend? When it comes to corner pieces of cake, I'm a selfish guy. I don't think about others, I think about me and what I want. Sure, I'm talking about cake here, but I'm making a point that probably rings true in other areas of my life also. Being upfront about the cake is easier and funnier. If it was something else you'd probably pass more judgment on me than you already are.
 
Here's the deal. Selfishness is not good. Its not what God desires of us. He never intended for us to be selfish people. Jesus said in the Bible that the last will be first and the first will be last. Yes, I'm sure he wasn't talking about cake at that point, but the verse indirectly points to God's order in things. In God's economy you lose something to find it, you give it away to get it, you sit at the end of the table to get to the head, you go to the end of the line to be at the front.
 
What's my point? Selfishness gets us no where. We shouldn't be that way. There is more than enough cake to go around, and if we don't get a corner piece its not the end of the world.
 
Is there an area of your life that you're selfish? Something in your life that you focus too much on that keeps you from serving God whole-heartedly? An area that you are overly selfish? You need to get over yourself, and realize that selfishness is not part of the plan.
 
Give up the corner piece of cake.
 
Be blessed
matt

Posted via email from Faith and Victory Church Blog

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The Best ideas Come in the Shower

I wrote the blog last week and talked a bit about getting back into the writing of the blog. I like it and I know that there are people out there that read it all the time, but I've been slacking on it! Can you agree with me that its hard to get back into the habit of something? Its easy to break it, but its hard to get back into it. I've been struggling to say the least.
 
I think that the hardest part is that life seems to take hold and give you many distractions that keep you from accomplishing what you want to accomplish. Its an easy excuse to use, but the truth is that we make a priority what we make a priority, and the blog has been, well, not the biggest priority.
 
All morning I've been thinking about what to write about and struggling a bit. My cousin and her family came into town last night, and so this morning when I was sitting down to blog, they had all got up, we started talking, and it just kind of fell by the side. But I really wanted to write it! I'm thinking and praying and asking the Lord to give me something to pass on. Something that I can share that will impact a few and encourage along the way, and coming up with absolutely nothing.
 
I'm in the shower. Shaving my face, and the power goes out. No fan. No lights. Doneski. It occurred to me that my cousin didn't realize that in our '77 split level that both bathrooms, the garage, our bedroom, and the TV room are all on the same circuit. Its sweet, because it trips the breaker all the time. Especially if you try and blowdry your hair in the downstairs bathroom. She of course didn't know this, and thus the circuit was tripped once again.
 
Design flaws of the wiring of our house aside here's the low down on electrical- The circuit can only handle so much draw on the wattage and amps. If you exceed it, it turns off to keep your main panel from frying, and burning your house down. Its quite ingenious. Its got a built in function to keep you from overloading the circuit and doing big damage to your house.
 
Making the connection yet? Some people's lives are like my circuit. Overloaded. They are doing so much that they circuit panel of their life is overloaded. So what happens is that they end up constantly feeling drained and sapped of energy because they are overloading themselves.
 
The answer for my circuit and our lives is to have less things that are drawing our energy so we can function efficiently.
 
Are you doing too much? Are you overloaded? Ask the Lord to reveal to you what you shouldn't be doing and do less of it. Expend less energy on worthless things and watch what it does to the energy in your life.

God never intended our lives to be so overloaded that we can't experience Him in fullness.
 
Be blessed
matt

Posted via email from Faith and Victory Church Blog

Thursday, July 22, 2010

The Dangers of Taking a Wrong Turn

We have church on Wednesday nights. Before church, our kids do some Mixed Martial Arts for about an hour at the church, so we usually sit around and talk or go and get some coffee. Last night we decided to go and get some coffee. I was dragging a bit. Caffeine sounded good.
 
To find our coffee, we went to St. Arbucks, (saw Pastor Pat) and went on our way back to the church. OK, we had a pit stop on the way back at the Auburn Donut and Muffin factory, but it was closed, so I didn't get a donut, so there. Well, as it turned out, we were in Downtown Auburn, and were trying to get back to church, and the barriers were down at the Train Crossings. It was rather odd, because there weren't any trains coming, but the barriers were down.
 
As we sat in line, there were a few people that went through the crossings even though the barriers were down, but we weren't going to do that, so we decided to find another way around the tracks that went over, not through. We found our way over the C street bridge, got on Highway 18, and merged onto Highway 167 to make our way back to the church.
 
And then it happened. Out of no where, with no big trucks in sight, with no one in front of us..... CRACK! A rock hit our windshield and immediately made a spider crack about the size of a silver dollar.
 
It was sweet. After the rock hit and made the spider, we were about 3 mins from church and the cracks began to grow and grow. By the time we got to church the cracks were inches long.  Its clear that we're going to need a new windshield.
 
Of course my immediate thought was that we should have stayed in the line for the railroad crossing and just waited it out. If we had done that, we wouldn't have got on the freeway, we wouldn't have hit the rock, and we wouldn't have to worry about buying the new windshield.
 
Some people might say that God was trying to teach me a lesson. Others may say that I learned something about patience. Here's the bottom line- you can deduce whatever you want about the why, but here's what happened- I was on the freeway and rock hit my windshield and its annoying.
 
Here's the deal- sometimes things just happen. Sometimes you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is no rhyme or reason, its just two points connecting at the wrong time. Such was the case last night on Highway 167 in Auburn Washington. My truck was in the wrong place at the wrong time. 3 seconds earlier or later, and I wouldn't be out a windshield.
 
What's the nugget for the day? I love the Lord. I believe in his sovereignty, but it frustrates me that people try to put every last thing in the world back on God.  I have a difficult time believing that the Lord was in the throne room last night, and looked down on me and decided to have some fun with a rock and my windshield. Sure, its possible, but I don't think so. More than likely it was the choice that I made to buy and have a car, drive on a highway, go get coffee, etc. that put me in that place at that time.  I can learn something from it and God can teach me something through it, but Hedidn't chuck a rock in my windshield to teach me something.
 
Think about your own life, is there something that is more coincidental than you think? Are you giving in to thinking that the benign things of your life are cosmic interactions? Realize that God set up this world in a way that things happen, they are sometimes just that- things. You can learn something from them, but God may not be doing them to you. He is God and He is Lord, but we make choices every day that we have to live with. We can learn from them, but they may not necessarily be God doing them to us.
 
Be blessed
matt

Posted via email from Faith and Victory Church Blog

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Back at the Old Grindola

Ok blog-readers. Its been a bit. I can't even remember the last time I wrote the blog. I think its maybe been a month. I'm sorry I'm going to try to get back to it.
 
This blog has always been characterized by brute honesty, hasn't it? Its been a place where we gather together and look in the mirror and change what we see, and I think that's a good thing. Most of you who read this, know me personally, and by now have figured out that I don't really fit the mold of most blogs. I write what I write. I twist and turn and turn again.
 
To be honest why I think I let up on the blog is simple- (and yes, I know this is a shallow attempt for affirmation) I began to get this feeling as if the blog had outstayed its welcome. For some reason It began to feel as if it was a cyber intrusion that had kicked in the front door of your inbox and was now sleeping on the couch and wouldn't leave after scores of attempts to remove it.  Hopefully its not the case, but sometimes even the best piece of pie gets a bit bland after the fourth piece. Maybe it was a satanic attack, maybe it was reality, either way, I began to get this sinking feeling as if the blog was on life-support and the readers were merely stopping by out of respect of the dying.
 
I hope that is not the case. Here's the plan- a new invigorating attempt at whimsical theologically insight to encourage you throughout your day. Personal thanks to my friend Patrick Nelson who's facebook message challenged me to sit down and write today. Moving forward I will no longer give into the shallow self-loathing behavior I have allowed myself to give in to. I will write with the vigor of which I used to be accustomed. Now, its still Summer, so i can't promise every day, but more than never.
 
Here's the deal- I had began to think that the blog wasn't received by the readers, so I stopped writing it, but what I realized is that the benefits that I get from writing the blog are enough to keep me going, or at least it should be.
 
What the application for you? Is there something in your life that you used to do that you stopped doing because you thought it wasn't beneficial? Possibly what you were doing was a benefit to others and most importantly yourself. Go back to doing it.
 
Often times we talk ourselves out of something that we should be doing merely because we're not getting the feedback that we think we should be getting. This is not how todo things. We do things because we know its what we should be doing them, not because someone else is encouraging us to do it. Usually the most beneficial things we do in our lives we get zero recognition or encouragement to do so. We do them because we know that God wants us to do them, not because of some external encouragement.
 
There you have it. Get back to it. I'm trying to.

Be blessed
matt
 
 

Posted via email from Faith and Victory Church Blog