Sitting on a Rock

Yesterday I went 6 hours without worrying about my cell phone, e-mail or running off to anyplace other then the bathroom. I spent the day at Potwisha sitting on a rock next to the river with Jonathan & Joel... it felt a lot like I was on a hiking trip with my dad. Instead of having my pops point out things around us and turning them into a life lesson I felt like the Lord was sitting on a rock with me all day pointing out things and turning them into life lessons. It was very Andy Griffith...just not in black and white.

(Thoughts on some of the life lessons to come..)

Saturday morning coffee 10am

Woke up to go to small group at the cafe and hung out with Colleen. It was filled with great conversation about loving our enemies and took time to pray for them and how to creatively love the ones who don't love us. We watched the St. Patrick's Day parade and then to top it all off...this took place...

simple.

Ever feel like you are sitting in a room and are everywhere but there. I meet with a lot of people throughout the day. Sometimes I show up but never fully make it there. My mind is set on the other 14 meetings I have to go to that day, the discussions I should have had the day before, the laundry I left in the washer and now smell like a swamp, that crazy idea I had about opening a coffee shop in Montanan and on and on and on and on. So I show up with a cup half empty and filled with murky water. I cheat the person. I cheat myself. Ultimately I cheat the Lord from using me and actively listening for what He is speaking to me.

Simplify.

We live in a time where you can be almost anywhere in the world at any time. Get on Skype and your chatting with a friend in Mexico and the same time texting your parents in Arizona all the while sitting with your brother in a sandwich shop in Visalia. We show up everywhere but here and now.

Simplify.

You can only do what you can do with what you have when you have it. So let's both stop trying to do the opposite. Next time we have coffee...I'll be there...all the way there.


"Be a simple kind of man. Be something you love and understand. Be a simple kind of man. Won't you do this for me son, if you can?" - The Skynyrd

Happy Birthday Mom..Teacher...Friend

Back to Back birthdays! Today is my moms birthday...All of my memories of when I was younger are filled with smells. Smells of Christmas, Fresh laundry, Cookies, Brown Sugar, Perfume hugs, Hot fresh bread...all thanks to my mom.

My mom apologizes sometimes for her parenting methods and not being the best mother she could have, but the more I think about it the more I realize that although she may not be wrong about much I think she may be wrong about those statements. The truth is we do what we can with what we have and what we know in life. My mom showed me what love looked like with flesh and bone. What compassion and sacrifice means to a human heart. How to give and give and give and give and give even when it looks like there is nothing left to give. My life is different, my life is better, my life is brighter because of my mom.

thank you mom. for doing wonderfully with what you had and what you knew and still giving today. I love you...happy birthday mom, teacher, friend.

feliz cumpleaños roberto!

Today is one of my best friends birthday...His name is Robert Jacobo Jr. I met him when I was 2 years old in Tulare, CA where we grew up together building forts in each others backyards, playing with army men, watching power rangers, staying up late at night talking about girls and making videos that only we laughed at. We also feel in love with the Lord side by side and I learned what friendship was through the last 23 years. Robert moved to Mexico 3 years ago, he got married (to beautiful Lucero) and now has an adorable baby boy (Nico!) Life is full of twist and turns, ups and downs, surprises and mundaness, but I’m thankful iv gotten to experience these things with him.

happy birthday bubba...may God bless and guide you this new year and may you come to know just how much you are loved by the savior of the world and by your skinny white kid friend down the street.

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one” - C.S. Lewis

Farm-Show

I went to the farm show this morning...prayed with farmers. ate a steak sandwich. missed the sham-wow guy and saw this jiggy machine...life changing eh?

Crazy Love Saturay Mornings

We're starting small groups at Elevate..there is a group meeting almost everyday of the week, so if you have a day free check out www.ellev8.com to sign up for one. If you have Saturday mornings free then come to 210 at 10:30 for the group I'm leading. If you don't have Saturday mornings free you should get them free so you can come. end of story.