Ragin' on the Road

Does anybody else have a problem with the way people drive? It's absolutely crazy sometimes.

What happened to letting people merge when you see their lane going away? Now I just see people gunning it to close the gap. Why? Do they really think that being one more car spot back is going to make that much difference?

What happened to slower traffic keeping in the right lanes? Sometimes I find people going 55 in a 65 zone in the left lane. What's up with that? Then when you get up close to them they slow down even more, or sometimes even hit their brake to show you they're mad because you're too close. Move over...it's not that hard. Even if you're not in the left lane, if you see someone coming up on you just move over and let them by, it's not you that will get the speeding ticket.

Just had to vent a little...

Intuition or Holy Spirit

It would have been okay with me if my day had started out differently. It's okay that it happened, as I've expected it would sooner or later, and I'm sure it will again.

Being the Satellite Facilities Coordinator at Fellowship Church one of my main responsibilities is to make sure everything runs smooth which requires everything gets to each campus. Let me give you a little knowledge, if you don't know already, about our satellites...we have three Satellites-Plano, Uptown, and Alliance. I wouldn't say Plano is easy, but we have a permanent set-up in the building so it's much more simple. Uptown and Alliance are held in high schools in the DFW Metroplex. For these two satellites we have a portable set-up, a "Church-in-a-Box". We have 7 trailers combined between the two, full of everything we need to set up and run a church service. Needless to say these must get to the proper place each Sunday morning for us to hold a service.

We have hired drivers that come in each week to haul the trailers for us and stick around through the day to help set up and tear down, etc. Two of them were off this week so we had just enough to get by(it's always a good thing to have a back-up or two). Then another one of them didn't show up, and I got the call at 5:00am this morning. Still being half asleep, it took me a few minutes but I realized that I had to go in so I could drive a trailer to our Uptown campus. This wasn't bad, like I said it's something I've been expecting to happen sooner or later.

The funny part is, well I'm not sure if you'd call it funny, but it made me think and it's why I'm writing this. Last night before I went to bed, something was telling me that I needed to get up early this morning and meet the guys before they took off. I had my alarm set for 4:30, but hit snooze until Mickey(my lead guy at the Uptown campus)called me. So I quickly got up and headed to the church to pick up a trailer and head out.

As I was driving to our Uptown campus, I remembered that little voice in my head last night. It made me laugh a little thinking "I should of listened to it and got up this morning". Pondering life as usual, I asked myself "Was this simply intuition, or the Holy Spirit speaking to me?".

The answer was clear, it was the Holy Spirit giving me a "heads up". The trick for me is to learn to listen to it. Not that this was a huge deal, but I believe it was a small reminder. Most of my life was spent listening to the "voice in my head". But at that time it was definitely not the Holy Spirit. It was the evil one continually leading me down the wrong road away from our Holy Father. I won't get into details here, but it's funny how I would listen as it urged me to do things that I shouldn't be doing.

What's equally funny, but not really funny, is how I sometimes try to get away from what the Holy Spirit now tells me. It's almost like I'm still a little kid who won't listen to his parents. It's like I just have to learn everything on my own. If it was so easy for me to give in and do all the bad things I used to, why is it so hard to listen now and do the things I should? Funny, but not really funny, right?

Cleaning Mom's Pool

Yesterday was my day off, and mom needed her swimming pool cleaned. She just had surgery a couple of weeks ago and is still recovering. As of Thursday, the day before, I had every intention of going over and cleaning the pool for her. But, like so many times before, a better offer came up.

My friend, Barry, called and asked if I'd be interested in a game of disc golf. Disc golf or cleaning a swimming pool? Tough...of course I'd rather go play golf. I called mom to see if it could wait one more day, just like I've done time and time before, and I could hear in her voice how much she would of liked to have the pool clean. You see, my mom is sort of a clean freak, but not really a freak, maybe fanatic. Maybe it's just that she is such a busy body that she keeps everything clean all of the time. And I know it really bothers her when something is a bad mess or too dirty. So, mainly because of her being in recovery, I went and cleaned her pool.

As I was cleaning the pool I realized it wasn't so bad. It was actually kind of nice. Sort of a serene time where I was just in the quiet backyard pondering life while skimming the surface of the pool. I was thinking about a lot of things, most of them unimportant except for this. Commitment. And what better time for the Lord to put something about commitment in my face. At Fellowship Church our Pastor, Ed Young, has just started a new series, Too Legit To Quit, all about commitment.

As I was cleaning the pool for my mom, I found myself wondering "Why haven't I done this more often?", "Why am I only doing this today because of mom's recovery?" and "Why have I not been a better son to my giving, caring and loving mom?". The answer was clear, commitment, or lack there of. I am full of good intentions, I always want to be the best friend or best son I can be, but without commitment all of these "good intentions" are simply worthless. And excuses, I've learned, are commitment killers.

We all have excuses, "I'm too tired", "I don't feel well" or "I'm just too busy". Well for me, and for some of you too, I'll give you the truth...we're LAZY. But not in every aspect of my life. If it's something fun, I'll be there. Or if it's my job, I do the best I can and work my hardest every day. And I've found these are where my best excuses come from. If something comes up that would be more fun to do, then I'll put off other things that need to be done saying "I'd love to help you out, but my buddies are going fishing and you know I just love to fish". And after a long day of work it's just too easy to say "I worked hard today, I'm just going to rest". But the truth is, I'm 27 years old and I've got enough energy to work double shifts almost each day(not to say that my job can't be draining, but the Lord gives enough to get by, plus some). So there's absolutely no reason why I should feel I have to come home and sit on my butt each day after work, or on my days off either for that matter. An excuse is simply something that gives us a false peace of mind for not doing something that we should do. It's too easy to use them to get out of doing anything that we just don't feel like doing.

The other bad thing about excuses is it just shows that life is all about "me". It's all about "what I want to do", "what I need", or "what's better for me". We should all know that life is not about us, it's about Him. And what He wants from us is to be there for each other, to help and support each other, and to love each other. We all need to quit with the excuses. And I challenge everyone who may read this, just as I'm challenging myself, to make a conscious effort to do just that. Take notice of every time you're thinking of a good excuse to use and ask yourself "what should I really do here?" or even "What would Jesus do?". If you commit to something, just do it. You'll feel much better about yourself.

With that said, I am turning over a new leaf. Starting with the pool and hopefully followed by many more completed commitments. I will make a continued conscious effort to keep the commitment killers at bay. I will follow through with my plans and keep the promises I make. I will not be lazy anymore.

Weekend Sports

Mike Tyson is at it again. This time taking on a 6'-6" guy named Kevin McBride from Ireland. I may just watch it to see if McBride loses one of his ears.

The Spurs are up 1-0 in the NBA Championship. I do live in Texas, but I'm tired of the Spurs. I'd like to see Detroit take this one.

Danica is in town. I hope she wins. Not that I follow Indy Car Racing, but it's nice to see a woman break into what has been a "male-dominated" sport for so long. I think it's funny that so many guys will say there's no room for a woman in their sport. They add that it's too dangerous and the girl might get hurt, but I think they're just afraid of losing to a girl. And there's no shame in that, I wouldn't like losing to a girl either. But if she's good enough to compete with and possibly beat the best, then she deserves to have a shot at it.

And still no hockey...terrible.

Blessing in Disguise

Nobody in their right mind would ever want to spend a night in jail. Especially not one night in the Tulsa County Detention Center followed with two more in the Tulsa County Jail. Well I did, and I'm happy about it.

Lesson #1-Don't drink, nothing good comes of it.
It all started out with a small party in Broken Arrow. Just me and two friends from Arizona hanging out with some guys from Ok. After enough beer something bad is always bound to happen, and it did...in the form of a fight. And a bunch of drunk guys running around and throwing wild punches in the front yard of a quiet neighborhood will always lead to the police being called.

Lesson #2-Don't drive drunk, you should know that.
A bunch of drunk guys driving through a quiet neighborhood will always lead to a night or more in jail. My buddy was driving in circles around this neighborhood unable to find the way out, and it wasn't until we ended up in somebody's front yard-ON THEIR LAWN-before he let me drive because I was in much better shape to do that...yea right! So here I am behind the wheel, having to drive right by the house we were trying to get away from just to get out of the neighborhood. And by this time the police were there and, of course, all of these guys that we just fought with started yelling "There they are, that's them!".

Lesson #3-Don't mess with the Police, they always win.
So, needless to say the cops hopped in their cars and had us pulled over just before we got out of the neighborhood, which was probably a good thing because there's no telling what would have happened if we had gotten out on the streets. And let me tell you, you don't want to smart off to the police in Tulsa County when you're inebriated, it is not a good thing. After rubbing my head in the blacktop and hitting every pressure point there is on the human body, they were finally nice enough to put me in the back of the squad car. I want to say I was hog-tied, but I really can't remember.

Lesson #4-Don't mess with Detention Officers, they always win, too.
Now we're at the Tulsa County Detention Center. My buddy and I are getting processed by this Detention Officer(my other buddy who was in the car with us actually got let go...lucky him) and either this guy is the biggest jerk in the world, or we're still really drunk, probably the latter. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but all of the sudden this officer has my handcuffed friend by the neck and is screaming in his face. So like any good friend, who is also handcuffed, would do, I moved as close as I could to the officer and started screaming and yelling in his face. I'm not sure exactly what I said but it worked. The officer let go of my friend, then grabbed me and shoved me up against a brick wall. With my head against the wall, he put his thumbs in those pressure points right behind the ear lobe, you know them, and pushed as hard as he could for what seemed like an eternity. Needless to say, after this my friend and I were on our best behavior.

Lesson #5-Never go to jail, it's boring and a little scary.
After a night of sleeping in the Detention Center, we were moved to the Tulsa County Jail. This is not the funnest place to be. First of all, you don't know what these other 20-30 guys have done to be there so you sleep with one eye open and always watch your back. Fortunately I seemed to get along with everyone. All there is to do is listen to guys tell stories and play spades or bones. After two nights of extreme boredom and exhausting all of my other options, I finally decided to call Mom. It took me so long to do this because I had put my mom through so much grief growing up. This was the third, and last time she got me out of legal trouble.

Lesson #6-Always listen to Mom, like it or not she's right.
We made a deal. In order for her to bail me out, I had to agree to two things(mom was as tired of bailing me out as I was of asking her for help). One, that I would move to Texas and stay with her until all of the legal issues were worked out. And trust me there's a lot...two trips to Tulsa for court, a total of almost $2,000 between fines, court fees, and legal representation, and no driver's license for six months. And two, that I would try this church she was attending just once.

Lesson #7-Find a Church, find Jesus, you can't afford not to.
After about a month of putting it off, I finally went to this church she seemed to be so excited about, Fellowship Church(this was actually my 2nd trip to FC, I had visited my mom for Mother's Day of that year and we went to one of the services, but that's another blog by itself). I immediately met some incredible people, got plugged in and before I knew what was happening, my life started to radically transform. Two months later I accepted Christ as my personal Savior and was baptized shortly after that. Life hasn't been the same since. I finally found the only one that could fill that hole in my heart, Jesus.

In closing, I must say that I am happy that I got in fight. I am happy that I got roughed up by the Police. I am happy that I got a DUI, paid nearly $2000, and lost my license for 6 months. And I am happy that I got a 4 day/3 night package deal in the Tulsa County Jail system because, ultimately, this led to my salvation. That is a "Blessing in Disguise".

no news is...good news

Especially after last night


So today I'll just ask you to check out the sites and blogs that I've linked.


If you need to find a church home then definitely check out FC. Even if you're not in the area there is a church finder on the site that can connect you to a great church wherever you are.


Since I was a kid, I've always had the thought of being a race car driver. The Driver's Edge is a great place to learn about high performance driving. Hopefully I'll have the chance to enter one of their events. My mom of all people went through one event, she had a blast. She even got the car up on three wheels around one corner...that's my mom. Anyway, check out the site, there's even some cool "on-board" cameras so you can get a cool feel of being in one of the cars.

Poop

As I opened my door the stench hit me in the face like an open ice check by Darian Hatcher.

My first thought was "Diva, why in the house". But as I walked through the house I found nothing on the floor. It had to be Dexter. And sure enough as I walked into my bedroom there was a nice mess on the floor outside of Dexter's kennel. And so you know, these are American Bulldogs coming in at over 220lbs combined. Now I won't get too graphic here, but it was nasty. All over the floor, all inside the kennel, and ALL over poor Dexter. Oh, and it wasn't solid. Five years ago I would of blew my lid. I would of dragged Dexter to the back door and thrown him and Diva outside. Then I probably would of sat on the couch and drank a beer or two(possibly more) as I wallowed in my self pity thinking "why me" and mumbling a variety of four letter words. But not this time, though I was upset because this is definitely not a nice thing to come home to anytime.

I simply let Dexter out of his kennel and gently led him to the back door letting him and Diva outside. Then I started cleaning. First the kennel, then the carpet, then the trail Dexter took over the ceramic getting to the back door, and finally the walls that were rubbed against and hit by his tail. Never feeling happy about it, but never feeling mad or asking "why me" either. I simply did what needed to be done to get on with life, almost unconsciously or subconsciously, whichever you prefer. After the house was clean I lit some candles and sprayed almost an entire bottle of Oust throughout. And yes, there was still a bit of nastiness left in the air. After all of this, I was finally ready for Dexter. But I had to warm up, so I brought Diva in first.

I let Diva in and took her to my bathtub. Yes my bathtub, and we share shampoo, too. As I was bathing my dog, I wondered "does God smell our poop". Not literally, but I just imagined our Holy Father setting me in his giant bathtub and washing away my dirtiness. Making me pure and holy in His eyes. I've always thought that the dog to man relationship is a lot like the man to God to relationship, and this was one of those moments where it came into perspective. No one is perfect, all of us have been covered in our own mess at some point in our lives. I really believe that I was probably one of the dirtiest, smelliest creatures to ever be saved. Not that my sins were any worse than anybody else's, for all sin is equal, but the amount of sins I had stacked up in the twenty one years before I was saved had to compare with the best of them...Or the worst.

After all I had done in my life, after all of the pain I had brought upon those who loved me, after all of the hate I showed the world, after I had covered myself in my own filthy mess did God throw me out of the door? No. He forgave me. Then He simply picked me up, led me to his giant bathtub and washed away my iniquities. I used water on the dogs. God uses the blood of Jesus on us. I used shampoo. He uses Love, Grace, Compassion and Forgiveness. I put the leashes on my dogs and walk them around block. God fills us with his Holy Spirit to guide and lead us through this messed up world. My dogs still get dirty, they're dogs. And I still sin, I'm human. The one big difference here is that I have to wash my dogs continually or they'll pretty much stink. But when we bow our knee to God, he washes us once and that's all it takes. That's how great his "shampoo" is.

Now, Diva was clean and it was Dexter's turn. I went outside and hooked up the hose to give him a quick prewash. Then I took him in and to the bathtub where we underwent a major scrubbing. The whole time I was washing and scrubbing away all of his own stuff, I couldn't help but be compassionate. Although I knew what my hands were touching, I couldn't help but love him. Knowing how much better my evening could have been, I couldn't help but forgive him.

I love my dogs, but how much more my God loves me.

My shampoo costs money. God's grace is free. If you'd like to experience all that God has to offer please visit your local church and take the chance to get plugged in.