Time...

Time is something often talked/quoted about; “Look how time flies”, “Time is just standing still”, “I’m just killing time”, “time is of the essence”, etc, etc, etc….i’m sure you can come up with more. I’m always blown away how it is human nature to look back in the past and wish we would have “spent” our time differently in situations. Often I find myself doing this….sometimes it is deeply disappointing. I may look back at a day and wish that I spent more time cherishing the moments with my wife and children. I may look back at the week and wish I would have spent some of my work time more appropriately. I may wish I would have taken the time to work out or play basketball. Most often, however, it goes back to wishing we had spent more quality and quantity time with the ones we love.

Most people that take the time to read here likely know what is going on with my dad. He has had an accident and has been in a coma for the last 12 days. Things have been pretty stressful because it has been an emotional roller coaster through the whole process. If you want more details about what is going on, go HERE.

As I think back over the last couple of months, I recall several times that I really stopped to enjoy my dad’s time and company. He often likes to show off his knife collection and decided to do so for the 5^th or so time to me. At first I remember thinking, “I’ve already seen all of these, what is he thinking”; however, there was another voice that said, “enjoy your time with him”. Boy, I’m glad I listened to the second voice. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him tell me about his Case, Sheffield, Buck, etc, etc, etc… I recall another conversation that I was able to have with dad on the way to the hospice center where my grandfather had passed away. It was a 30 minute ride each way, and I remember thinking how sweet of a time it was. He told me about how proud he is of each of us kids and how he loves my kids (his grandkids) to death. He was just beaming when he spoke of my kids. This makes me happy. He told me that he knows that he hasn’t done all the right things in his life, but he really loves the Lord. I am thrilled that I got this “time” with my dad.

Time is a funny thing. We use it up like it is unlimited. Unfortunately, it is not. There is a limit to the time we are given and every week that goes by, we have spent 168 hours doing something…..was it worth while? If the thing that God has always wanted most is “relationship”, did I spend my time building it with him and others? With dad in the place that he is right now, I sure do think a lot more about time – and the lack thereof. I just hope that this isn’t a temporary reflection that I lose sight of after all of the drama.

about me..

So, it looks like blog tagging is making it's way around. I have been tagged by my brother-in-law mike crawford so i have to write five things that you probably don't know about me. This will likely be difficult since there are probably only two people in the world that actually read my blog and they know much about me. Anyway, here goes:

1) I had a nose job in college. Yes, it's true, extreme makeover style. Actually, my college roommate, dave hoffman, broke my nose during an intramural basketball game.....I had to have surgery, so they made me a new man :)

2) I once had a dog named peaches when i was a very young child. my dad thought it was possessed so he had it put to sleep...that had to do some long term damage to me.

3) Lynnette (my wife) and I will have been together for 20 years this September 17th. i think that i am finally starting to understand her...barely (no fault of hers, i'm just dense)

4) I once got in trouble (grounded for a month) in high school for putting a brown paper bag of dog poop on a girls porch and lighting it on fire. the idea was to have the people stomp out the fire and get their feet dirty....great plan eh? anyway, evidently, i was seen leaving the crime scene and was called by the parents of this girl at my home....needless to say, my parents weren't too excited...

5) I got to go to Korea for work once....for 2 days....I got to go to Brazil for work once....for 2 days....If i could do it over again, i'd push the issue and get a couple of extra days because the travel time to each of those places was longer than the stay.


Well, that's enough about me. Hope you learned something. You can now go check out the following guys, as they have been tagged:

Josh Longbrake

Kelly Byrd

thinking back..

I received a flier in the mail today that had pictures of a student from Blackhawk Christian School (my old school)that passed away in 1992 of leukemia. His name was Greg Hindle and his passing had a pretty profound effect on the school. The flier was a reminder of the "Gregory E. Hindle Memorial Endowment Fund". I was glad to get it as i didn't even know it existed.

One of the pictures in this flier showed Greg sitting in a bathtub at school (fully clothed of course). Those of you that read this that are from BCS in the "old days" remember the significance of the bathtub. For those that aren't aware, one of our teachers -- Tom Cashen -- had an old bathtub in his room. We as students were allowed to sit in it occasionally as he read books from C.S. Lewis to us.

Tom had a profound effect on me an many other students.

He consistently encouraged us to LIVE OUT what we believed, not just believe it.

He would do things like come into class with his robe, slippers, messed up hair and coffee while acting out how he wakes up in the morning and opens the Bible. This visual still sticks with me today --- i have also taken on the habit of rising early to open the Word largely do to this.

Tom figured out long ago how to connect with kids and "LIVE OUT" his faith in the workplace. He used to be the driver's education leader and used that as a forum to connect with kids in the car. He still connects with kids today -- not in BCS -- but in the public school system. He has been a great encouragement to me and I hope to be the same to others.

routine, study, change...

Holiday breaks can be the best of times and the worst of times. I often find myself getting out of my typical routine and therefore spending less time with my savior. You would think that the “extra” personal time would turn into quality/quantity time with God, but it never seems to. Over the past couple of days, I have been reflecting on how little time I actually spend studying and pondering the words of God. This reflection makes me sad.

Like any other logical man, I started thinking about what the cause of this is so I can fix it. So what did I come up with? Well, two things came to mind that need to be addressed. 1) things and circumstances are taking up mindspace with the absence of “meditating day and night on His word”; and 2) spiritual disciplines in my life have gone down the toilet. Specifically, the disciplines of mediation, prayer, and solitude are what I am referring to. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that #1 is pretty reliant on #2.

Evidently it isn’t enough that God is pressing this issue on my heart heavily over the past couple of days…..I show up at church and Mitch (one of our teaching pastors) talks about wisdom and how to get it. In his message he talks about submitting our intellect or mind over to the thoughts of God. Once again (he does this several times a year) he encourages us to read a chapter of proverbs per day, a chapter in the NT and three in the OT….I guess God is trying to get my attention.

What I really want to do is study His teachings daily and dwell (meditate) on them throughout the rest of the day --- this will address both of the above issues…I know that I don’t want to make it about how much I read that day or getting a checkmark on my “biblical checklist”, but I do know that there is something about the steady, constant, disciplines of meditation, prayer, and solitude.