Experiencing God

My family and I did something a little different yesterday. We decided to go visit a church that is different from what we are used to. Wendy has a friend that invited us to come with her and her kids to Trinity Fellowship. For those who do not know, Trinity just finished a huge building project. They have an up to date facility. The sanctuary is unreal. It seats like maybe 5000 people? It is awesome, let me just say that. When we first got there, I was totally blown away by the size, look, feel of the whole place. The praise team was playing. Drums, guitars, keyboards...all things I like, but not use to seeing and hearing in a church. This ol' Church of Christ boy has experienced instrumental music before in a church, but this was different. It wasn't so loud you couldn't hear yourself think. It was honestly at a perfect volume level. Now, I am going to have to confess something. You old Church of Christ people better sit down for this. I really enjoy the instruments in worship. Always have. I have been at some places were the music was too loud and it for sure took away from the music and praise. This Sunday it did not. It actually was a nice addition to the whole worship experience. I may get run out of town for admitting that...but it is just the way it is. I actually hate that I have to write this next sentence down, but here goes. I am in no way saying we should add instruments to a Church of Christ service. There it is. I love the traditions that our brothers left us, and have no intention of trying to change them. The point of this blog is this. We all talked about our experience in the car going to eat and while we ate. We were all stunned by the magnitude of the morning. But in the end, we all had the same conclusion. We do not know if it was the fact we didn't know anyone there to be distracted by, or the difference of worship that had our attention, or what it was, but we all had an emotional experience with our God. The same God we worship every Sunday morning, every day. The same God that Moses worshipped, that Daniel prayed to, that Paul fiercely followed. The people at Trinity were very friendly, and open. We enjoyed our experience. We will be back to our church next week, with a new look on our worship. Not in a bad way, understand, in this way. We will be more focused, not looking to see if so and so is sitting in their pew. We will be there looking to glorify the one who takes care of us and loves us unconditionally. I guess sometimes it just takes a little different jolt to get us out of our comfort zone and a new experience to get us to realize that. We love our brothers and sisters at Southwest, and I for one am excited about next week walking in to church to worship my God with my friends and family.
To Doyle....I can't remember if you get this or not. This is for you. This blog is not in any way, shape or form a bash on our worship time at church. Our time at church is bar none the best. It was really just a funk we had gotten into. Love you bro.
Till next time......

KISS

Jenny dressed in my hard hat and orange vest that I use at the rail road. (craziest one I got)

Jenny, Cutter, Zoe and Katie Beth

Makaela, Kaiygen, Mercedez, Zoe

Shelby, Sabrina, Emily

"my girls"

I have written about "my girls" before. For those who have been with me a while, you know I am talking about the basketball team I coach. The girls are 6th graders, 11-12 year olds. Yep, that is right, the beginning of things I do not understand, and never will. This blog has nothing to do with that, because I wouldn't know what to say anyway. We just finished another basketball league. This is the first of our 'season'. From here we play tournaments for the rest of the spring and early summer. This is the first time we have ever started a new season with the same team we finished with the last season with. This particular group of girls are such a joy to be around. We started all this when Emily was in second grade. I have 3 of those original girls still playing ball for me. One more I have had since 3rd grade. It is funny how it all evolves, how you get a team together and such. The reason I write about them is this. We were really having a hard time getting going this league. Things were just not clicking like I thought they should. I had introduced new and somewhat complicated things at them. Our first game we got smoked, second game lost to a team we should not have lost to. To make a long story short, I was frustrated and so were the girls. So...we just went to the KISS method. (Keep It Simple Stupid) I just asked the girls what they felt the most comfortable with as far as defense, offense, press breaker goes. I was getting caught up in trying to create a team that really couldn't and/or didn't feel comfortable with what I was trying to get them to do. They told me what they liked playing and we spent all our time for the last 3 weeks practicing the same thing over and over and over. Repetition was the name of the game for us. For the rest of the league, we didn't win all the games we played, but the games we lost were close and very competitive. We ended up getting beat in the semi-finals to the eventual champion of the league. It was really cool seeing the improvement, confidence, and self-esteem of the girls grow. With just a few plays to know, they all played with tremendous confidence. Players who had not been sure of themselves with the plays and their own ability, were making plays, good decisions, and having fun doing it. The girls were getting compliments from many of the opposing teams coaches and parents. They made huge strides. When we get our offense going a little better, we are going to be hard to beat. We are all excited about the next tournament. Thursday night we as a team went to watch the championship game and then went to get snow cones. I have been fortunate to have teams that get along pretty good. This particular group I was not sure about. Chemistry has been a problem in the past. Even up to this league. But for whatever reason, it just started clicking with them half way through the league. There is a genuine feeling of friendship between them. I thought it was there but hadn't really seen it until Thursday night. Believe me...these girls like each other. Well our little team outing was awesome. I had half of the girls come up to me and tell me how much fun they had. How they really wanted to do it again. It was very obvious they were having a good time. I just set back and laughed at them and with them. It was great!!! The pictures you see are of our snow cone stop. It just got me thinking as I was sitting there watching them. We weren't having much fun at the first of this league, were not playing very good, just were not having much success. Once we decided to go to the KISS method, things just got better and better, with everything. What is it about simplicity? Anything we do in life that remains simple goes so much easier. Make it all complicated and things just get crazy and screwed up. I have learned that lesson one to many times. You would think that this is a lesson that would stick. How many of us complicate our lives with extra stuff? The clutter of life? The drama of living? Life is hard enough some times to fill it with things we don't have to. The lesson my girls taught me over this league is awesome. Simplicity works. Just look at our Lord and Savior. He lived a very simple life. He did not give us a bunch of rules and regulations to live by because I believe he wanted us to live simple lives. He has made it very simple for us. "Love one another." ...lets see...I think that about covers it. Thanks to "my girls" for helping me remember simplicity is always the best way. Till next time....

Interesting how life is. We all have the things in our world that really seem to be a burden, an irritation, an inconvenience. Sometimes it can be work related, or money related, our kids, or spouse, whatever. Most of the time if we take a moment and step back we realize it is not really that big of deal. There are times when things happen to us are that really self inflicted and then we wonder why life is so unfair. Or we try to get revenge somehow, because we have been wronged and we want justification. (that never works...ever). I really consider myself one of the luckiest guys in the world. Let me explain this. As I have said in earlier blogs, my wife, kids family and friends are the most important things to me. My son Cutter is 5 years old now. He attends a preschool 3 afternoons a week. Here is what I mean by lucky. I get to spend a great deal of time with my son. More time than most fathers do. He goes with me on those mornings to work. I get 4 solid hours with my son before school. Sometimes he talks me into cutting class and he spends the whole day with me. I have clients that get a little ticked if I show up to work at their house and my "little helper" is not with me. Cutter calls going to an appointment a 'mission'. We always have a game going. (we are superheros fighting bad guys, or army men fighting evil, or cowboys fighting indians.) Each mission is a different scenario. It is rather complicated at times. But it comes from a 5 year old mind and I am apart of it. I LOVE IT!!! We just finished a week long story. It started out as a story about a man who lives on a mountain. After I got it started it was his turn. He then told a lot of the story, then it was my turn, then his turn. You get the idea. It just evolved. By weeks end, this story involved his cousins, Ethan, Matson, and Greyson. His buddies Baylor, Brock and Caleb. The story was full of great adventure, courage, bravery, and heroism. We have started a new one today. We have fought and won against zombies, so far. Who knows what tomorrow will hold.

I had the privilege to take Emily on a date tonight after church. We talked about just stuff. More importantly, we talked about what she wanted to talk about. I get to coach her in basketball. I have done so since she was in the 2nd grade, she is now in the 6th. She and I get to spend a good amount of time together.

My oldest, Lizzy is 17, and a junior in high school. It is funny, alot of my friends who have kids this age seem to complain that their kids are never home, or don't want to talk. I am so thankful that Lizzy is not this way. She likes being home, she still talks to us. I still get to take her on dates. I am truly blessed.

Today was a weird day. A little over a year ago my wife had a very close friend, Julie, die of brain cancer. It was sudden, quick, and sad. It was unfair that such a beautiful person was taken from her daughter. The question why was asked alot over that time. Today another friend we know lost his life to cancer. Rick was only 43 years old. Two children now cannot hug their dad. A wife cannot kiss her husband goodnight again. Is this fair? Of course not, it sucks big time. It just got me thinking that most of the things in this world are not worth worrying about. Rick cannot spend time with his son again. He cannot be there when his daughter gets married. He can't grow old with his wife. How lucky are we that we still have our children to hold, play with, and talk to? That is why I feel like a very lucky and blessed guy. God does not promise us tomorrow, so we better live in the now with our relationships. Just a thought I had to remind us all that it could be taken away that fast. Is the stuff at the office that important? Can't certain things wait so you can spend time with your kids? I am lucky and I know it! Till next time......