Soakin' Up Life . . . at a 100 MPH!

This morning was ultra-busy - as were the last two days. I've just had a ton of little things to tie up and get out the door (so to speak). This afternoon I'm at Carpe Diem - (as I climb upon my soapbox) a local coffee shop with FREE wireless - take that consumer-friendly Starbucks who forces patrons pay to use their wireless (another pet peeve of mine). (stepping down off of soapbox) The atmosphere is relaxed. They roast their own beans here, so the aroma is i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-e! The coffee is wonderfully rich. And they have some of the best pecan pie I've ever tasted - next to my two grandmothers, one who made a living selling hers. Let's be clear here, south of the Mason-Dixon, that's peh kahn pie . NOT peeee can pie. A peeeeee can is what my parents took on a trip for my brothers and I to peeeee in so we didn't have to stop every time one of us had to go to the bathroom. So. . .It just hit me, not only is this blog informational, it's also e

Last Thursday I was running errands - trying to get a lot of stuff accomplished in a short period of time. I happened to be driving ol' Silver - my Toyota Tundra pick-up - when I noticed one of the tires was a little low. In the back of my mind I kept thinking how I need to stop and put some air in it. Then I have this pet peeve - I HATE paying for air to put in my tires! Not only do I greatly dislike paying for air for my tires, I really dislike the fact that it cost me 75 cents for enough air to barely fill up one tire. And because I didn't have time to chase down another gas station to pay for more air that I didn't want to pay for in the first place, I was hot! Remember when you used to pedal up to a gas station, grab the air hose and put air in your bicycle tire - it cost you nothing, nadda, zilch, ZERO?! What happened to those days? Why are we having to pay for air that is all around us? Why is it now costing 75 cents? AAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!! So. . .I had to li

As some of you know, I have been praying about going to Africa, specifically to Tanzania . Well. . .God opened the door for me to go! He is graciously allowing me to go to minister to the men and pastors of Tanzania. I am so excited. This is the first mission trip I will get to go on in five years. It's not for lack of trying or praying . I tried three times while I was in Lufkin to go to the Amazon. In 2003 Karen was diagnosed with cancer, so we were treating her and couldn't go on the trip we cast the vision for. In 2004 her cancer returned and, again, we were treating her cancer and couldn't go on the same trip. In 2005 she passed away AND I moved to Mobile, so that was out of the question. Last year it just didn't work out for me to go. SOOOOO. . .I'm getting to go this year! Last year our group saw over 11,000 people give their hearts to Christ. That's is not a mission trip, folks, that's a crusade! Now I just need to raise the money, get my s

Ran across a couple of guys in the Bible yesterday I thought were worth writing about. Rather than write about them here and in another blog ( Man Words ) I thought I would link you to the Man Words blog and you could read it there. Thanks for making the switch. Mike

I had a great weekend. Saturday I didn't get up until 10:30. My eyes opened around 7:30ish, but my body commanded them to close. So they complied and didn't open again until 10:30. I haven't slept that long in I don't know how long. It was well needed and well appreciated. Spent the day catching up on some reading. I'm going through our EE (Evangelism Explosion) class this semester. My teacher is, get this, Billy Graham!! No, not the Billy Graham you see on TV. Though this Billy Graham was, at one time, a full time evangelist, he is now our pastor of missions and evangelism. What makes him so amazing is how he allows God to use him, his passions, and his giftedness in spite of the fact that he's blind and in a wheel chair. Our staff has also begun to read Breaking the Missional Code by Ed Stetzer and David Putnam. It's premise is that churches need to begin - and some have begun - seeing their communities as mission fields. We need to evaluate

Read this post by Matt Heaton, president of Bluehost.com. It got me to thinking, Don't we compare our churches to the other churches in our area, demographic, style, and/or size? . Sure we do. We offer this in children's ministry. We have this for your students. Looking for something for all ages and stages of life? We've got what you're looking for. I tend to agree with Mr. Heaton - we need to stop comparing ourselves to each other and begin asking a few hard questions of ourselves. Here are just a few I thought of: Are we focusing all our efforts to reach our community? What real and felt needs are going unmet in our community that we could meet? How can we meet those needs in context of the church without compromising our message? Are people falling through the cracks of the church - losing track of them, tragedy in the family and no one knows about it, leaving and no one noticing? What are God's expectations of us? Do we still care what other churches ar

I hate being tired. Being tired creates a cycle for me that I find difficult to escape. First, being tired means I don't want to work out. Second, not wanting to work out I also find that I don't want to think about cooking or what I'm supposed to eat, so I don't eat well - lots of fast food, junk, and bar-b-q. Third, not eating well and not wanting to work out I gain weight and begin to feel bad about myself. Fourth, now that I don't want to work out, I'm not eating well, gaining weight, and my personal perspective of myself is dropping like snow in the northeast. . .I'm tired! Think I'll go to bed early tonight, workout Thursday (my regular scheduled day), stop eating the junk, and quit being obsessed about my weight. Hoping by Friday, everything will be back to normal. Hope you're doing better! Mike

The last two day have been pretty long. Wednesday night had our Single Men's Bible Study - jumped into Every Single Man's Battle . I've read and led Every Man's Battle a couple of times with guys, but this is the first time with single guys. It was a great discussion - very open and honest. We finally wrapped things up around 10:00 pm. Yesterday, we held our new members' dinner called Starting Point. It went really, really well and was very well attended. Way more than I expected. I think we had somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 adults in attendance, plus children, plus pastors. I finally got home around 9:45. So. . .today I slept in. And later I'm heading to Destin, FL with Ricky to stay with some friends of his who live there. I'm ready to hit the road. Hopefully we'll get to stop at a couple of Harley shops along the way, but we'll see. We'll be back tomorrow afternoon sometime. Speaking of Harley - I'm still waiting on one

What was I thinking this morning? Actually, I wasn't. I got up this morning thinking I would get ready and head on into the office to have my quiet time and get busy. We have our Starting Point dinner tomorrow evening - it's our new member dinner and I oversee it's production. I love it, but it gets a bit crazy for me the week before, the week of, and the week after the dinner. Today is the day to print material for the participants and the pastors. I need to make some changes, print and proof it before final print. It's a pain sometimes, but it makes for a better presentation. So, in my morning mindset I get up and head into the kitchen where I feed the cats and make coffee. Today I'm only making enough to take into the office with me. Then I head out to the dogs to pet them, be the disperser of treats, and fill their water bowl. Wonder back into the bedroom to get ready. Grab a yogurt, the coffee, and stroll to the car (which I'm selling if anyone is

Was reading this article on ESPN.com when I read what Roger Goodell , NFL 's new Commissioner, said. "We have to educate our players to the issues out there ," he said Friday. "We are raised to a higher standard in the NFL. We must make sure the players are more accountable and our clubs are more accountable." The bold print is mine because it struck me as odd that grown men who should know right from wrong don't know what's out there. They don't know what's out there? Give me a freakin' break. Am I the only one who's struggling here, folks? He does go on to say that players and clubs/teams should be held more accountable and I'm all over that. But to say that these guys don't know what's out there and it's the league's responsibility to educate them, I'm sorry. These are big boys and they know. They're not stupid. Maybe they need to know more about the consequences for being involved is the &quo

Just a couple of things - they're not very noteworthy, but what the hey! Had yesterday off. It's one of those admin things - have one day of vacation left - use it or lose it. So I took it. Last night as I was getting ready for bed I realized that I had not been outside all day. Except to feed the dogs and re-fill their water bowl, I had unintentionally locked myself in the house all day. I didn't even go to the mail box and that's a big thing for me. I like seeing what I get in the mail (another rant for another post). Worked on the ManHeart web site all day yesterday. Still working out some of the quirks. I keep adding things as I go. It's going to look somewhat like the Man Words blog. Worked on the Man Words blog site last night. Wanting to add a sidebar where I can put announcements, recommended readings, a link to the ManHeart web site, etc. Didn't have any lunch yesterday. Worked right through it. I don't think I'm a very nice guy wh