9 posts tagged “life”
Time has been moving very quickly for me these last couple of months. I really am surprised that it is already September. Time seems to move more quickly as I get older. Which simply means each day that passes seems like it has less time in it than the day before. And I think realizing this has added some pressure for me to think more seriously about a topic that I have written about previously. Earlier this year I wrote on this blog an article called ‘What if the life you really want…‘ , and I have been dealing with the concepts I discussed in that posting in more practical terms now. (if you haven’t read that posting you may want to read it before moving forward into this one…)
My closest friends know that I have had a dream of ‘one day’ actually getting involved in politics. Not as a lobbyist, or an activist but as a civil servant and run for elected office. But this has always been something that I would simply talk about, but have never truly seriously considered. Even when Jaime and I were raising support to go to Kenya we would talk about what life after Kenya would look like. Political office often came up in those conversations. And currently, and I should admit that for the last year at least, this has really been the only thing that I truly dream about doing. And I recognize that simply because I have a desire does not mean that I should pursue it. But I keep meditating on the following verse.
Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
And I keep praying ‘Lord, give me the desires that you want me to have.’ And I keep dreaming of how I can help people through local government. So, I am beginning to think about facing my biggest fear, being rejected. I honestly think the only thing that keeps me from saying ‘Yes, I will run for an elected office.’ is simply fear of rejection, fear of failure. I recognize that I don’t have a laundry list of civic achievements, nor do I have a deep wallet to help ‘win’ an office. I know that if I choose to run, it will be hard work. I will need to prove to the community that I can do the job, and do it well. This won’t be an easy road. In fact it could be the hardest road I have ever thought about moving down.
In my posting called ‘What if the life you really want….’ I looked at the idea of facing a Lion. At the time that I wrote that posting I suspected that my Lion may be ‘becoming an elected official’. But, I wasn’t sure. And I still can’t say with 100% certainty that it is, but I am beginning to believe that God has given me the ‘desires of my heart’. That this idea is not all simply some crazy idea that I have come up with. That this may be what I should be doing with my life.
So I am continuing to process what I am supposed to be doing in Southwest Florida. If anyone who reads this blog has any feedback on this subject please feel free to post a comment or call me up.
Last Saturday I talked with my cousin Jeremiah on the phone for about 2 hours. It was so interesting to see how much we have in common. Jeremiah plays guitar and I do as well. (however, he is far more talented than me), Jeremiah designs websites and I just happen to do this as well. We actually spent quite a bit of time talking about websites. For me I don’t know a whole lot of people that know anything about websites, so I don’t get to talk a whole lot about it without getting glazed over looks from friends and family. Maybe Jeremiah is in the same situation, so we talked about websites a lot. Overall, this two hour conversation was very enjoyable and didn’t feel strange and awkward (even though we had never talked before).
This is the second phone call I have had with my ‘new’ relatives and both calls were really good. Which is very encouraging to me since I feared that awkwardness would prevail in any conversations I might have with them.
I think I have a lot going in with life at the moment. Meeting relatives I had never met, waiting on a new job, and exploring adoption options. So maybe I will hold off on running for Governor or Senator or County Commissioner or President of the United States until a few things settle down a bit.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines the word adoption as:
“To take into one’s family through legal means and raise as one’s own child.”
Jaime and I have been exploring adoption for a few months. We have looked at International Adoption, domestic adoption, and domestic fostering. Currently we are working to narrow down the direction God wants us to move in. We both feel deeply compelled to adopt a child. At this point we are not sure the direction that we would like to go in. Should we adopt a child that needs a family here in the US? Maybe focus on a child in Asia? Maybe an infant? Maybe a toddler? Maybe…. well the maybes can continue.
I would like to ask anyone who may be reading this to be praying for Jaime and I. That we will be on the same page and follow the direction God wants us to go in. Adoption is a big step and I can relate to a degree with the situation that some of these children are in. ( I am half adopted. Maybe I should try and find a better term for my situation?) So I feel a connection with children who have been abondoned and need a Mom and a Dad. Jaime feels more of a pull to help children who have medical needs. And honestly that idea scares the stuff right out of me. So we are not 100% on the same page. The good news is that we are both in the same book. So please pray for us, that we will get to the same page.
Another factor for my desire to adopt is that I am now 29 and would like to be a Father near the age of 30 if at all possible.
Thank you for your prayers.
I just read an article about a man who strapped helium balloons to his lawn chair, sat down and floated 195 miles in 9 hours.
Source
This is a man with a lot of guts. Lawn chair, water, balloons and a bb gun. I think thats all he took with him.
As I was reading this I was imagining what it must have been like to be floating above the ground on top of a lawn chair. It certainly must have been once of the most amazing things he has ever experienced. And he was able to experience this because he didn’t let the idea that “This is crazy!”, be his dominant thought.
I have no idea if this man is a Christian, but I began thinking about the ideas and things God may give us. Ezekiel was asked to do some ‘crazy’ things, and some would even say Daniel as well (to not bow down to the ruthless leader of the world). And I think maybe more often than we want to recognize God gives us ‘crazy’ ideas. Like ‘call up that person you haven’t talked to your entire lifetime’, or ’start that ministry, don’t worry about the fact that you have no money’, or ‘tell them about Christ’. Are these crazy? I don’t think so, but when we get these ideas and we know they are from God, do we take action on them? I want to be more like the man in the lawn chair floating through the sky. I want to grab hold of what God is asking of me and follow through with it, no matter how crazy it may seem.
So I lift my can of diet coke to the man with the balloons for teaching me a lesson about following God, even though I doubt this was his intention.
Today has some special numbers in the date. Droves of people have gone to Vegas to be married by men dressed up as Elvis. ( yeah, I know thats really weird) Since it is July 7th of 2007 people figure this is a lucky number since in Vegas 777 is a very lucky number on the slot machines. Today I also had two friends get married in Iowa. Trisha and Ben. But they were not getting married on this date for extra luck in their marriage or anything having to do with ‘Vegas Odds’. They are both Christian and were getting married this summer and there just happened to be a Saturday in July that could have them being married on 777. A very good number in scripture, essentially meaning perfection. And it should be a really easy anniversery date for Ben to remember.
So how did I spend this ‘perfect’ day?
Well, Jaime worked last night so she was exhausted when she got home this morning. So I found myself at the AMC Theatre in North Fort Myers watching Transformers. A very well made movie, but they could have left out all the stuff about the 16 year old lead character lusting after a 15 or 16 year old girl. So the movie wasn’t perfect, but it was good. Who wouldn’t like watching cars turn into robots and fight each other? Other than that this has simply been a nice relaxing day off. I really couldn’t think of anything more perfect on this ‘perfect’ day.
Some people know that when I lived in a mobile home just under one year ago I had frogs coming out of the toilet on a regular basis. So now I am a bit phobic of these little web footed creatures. So…. in short I really don’t like frogs. My wife doesn’t like them either. In fact the frogs gave us extra motivation to move out of our trailer and buy a house. We needed to be able to sit on the toilet without worrying about frogs.
Well, tonight a frog was hanging out inside of the toilet in our house! So I ran into the garage and grabbed the trusty ’round up’ (yes the weed killer) and sprayed him. He then went swimming into the plumbing. So I flushed , and flushed, and flushed, him out. I got a lot of roundup on him so I am hoping he is unable or at least unwilling to return. But my main concern is: How in the world did he get into the plumbing? Does he have friends? And will they also be coming to visit?
So I went out to the main drainage access to the septic tank to see if there was a way in there. I found the access to be very secure with no possible way in. Unless these frogs can unscrew the cap jump in and the resecure the cap then this frog didn’t get in through this access point. (which I am not completely ruling out, these guys seem to be very clever.)
The only other way in that I can think of are the vents on top of the house. But they are supposed to have mesh on them to keep random critters from getting in. But it is late so I didn’t climb onto the house to check those out yet. That will be a task for tomorrow evening.
So my war with the frogs continues!
Today I successfully made it to the age of 29. So far today 29 doesn’t feel any different than being 28, but the day isn’t over yet. Probably once I eat all of my free birthday meals at the restaurants around town I will be ‘feeling’ my age.
And here are some interesting facts about how old I would be on some other planets:
Mercury
120.4 Mercurian Years
Venus
47.1 Venusian Years
Mars
15.4 Martian Years
Jupiter
2.44 Jovian Years
Saturn
.98 Saturnian Years
Uranus
.34 Uranian Years
Neptune
.17 Neptunian Years
Pluto - I know they say this isn’t a planet anymore but when I was a kid it was so Pluto will always be that tiny little planet far far away….
.116 Plutonian Years
If you would like to see your age on some different planets you can check out “Your Age On Other Worlds“.
Today at about 11:30am a fire started a few miles north of where I live and this fire has grown to consume over 2,000 Acres. This makes this the largest fire in Cape Coral’s history.
The fire is moving westward, so my house is not at any risk from this fire. But there are a number of families that have been evacuated due to this fire, and homes are at risk.
For up to date news on this fire you can check out: http://www.winknews.com/
Blogged with Flock
I just spent the past couple of hours listening to and reading about my cousin Jeremiah Rich. I have never met Jeremiah nor have I ever communicated with him. Well, instead of focusing on how I don’t know my relatives I wanted to share some of his music. He is a Christian singer/song writer and acoustic guitar player. And since I play acoustic guitar, sing, and have written or song or two I feel a bit of a connection with Jeremiah.
Below is a video interview of him while he was in college and then after that a video of him performing a song called restore.
If you are interested in learning more about Jeremiah Rich you can check out his website at http://www.jeremiahrich.com/ and at his myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/jeremiahrich
P.S: I really am going to be writing about the book of Ezekiel soon. I don’t think I have a relative named Ezekiel though…. at least not yet.
