garage sales

on this bright day three of my neighbors are having a garage sale. i still remember the first one i went to. actually, i went with a friend. while he was looking at stuff i just wandered around. a bowling ball caught my eye - why, i don't know. anyway, i went over and picked it up. emblazoned on the ball just above the finger holes was my first name. i then put my right hand into the holes and it was a perfect fit. now, if you saw my hand - being somewhat small with subby fingers, you might consider that a miracle. maybe it was. maybe it wasn't. but it already had my name on it. so i bought it. kind of like Jesus having my name and buying me on the cross.

hospitals

hospitals are an amazing thing. they really are. and they have changed so much. i have been in many of them over the years - both as a patient and as a visitor. they use to be gloomy, places where two very sick people were stuffed into the same room (and sometimes many more in the same slightly larger room). now they are decorated with a modern flare and not at all gloomy - with the rooms often being single occupancy. (thank you hipaa!) even the people have changed. i just experienced one, and everyone i came in contact with was both very kind and very helpful. they all seemed to be happy to serve. kind of reminded me of Jesus, especially during this season which celebrates the greatest service ever shown to man kind.

long term insurance

today was a most interesting day - a day that i became even more confused by insurance. what type, you ask? well, i'm talking about long term care insurance. now, that is exactly what they mean - long term care. they are only interested in insuring you if you will not need long term care insurance and you die in the relatively near future without ever using them. true. not lying. anyway, i also found that when you insure two people with a significant difference in age that the price is cheaper for the two, than just for the older one. what? wait! how can that be true? well, it is, by about 10%. even the adjuster, who was figuring the price was shocked, as he started out his quote with wow, you won't believe this. the only better deal i've ever found is the one i received when i became a Christian. with that deal, you get three in one for the same cost - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Sweet!

vacation

you know, vacations are really nice. i mean think about it. you leave your home, your job, your family, and your friends and you get away. in other words, you leave your normal life and put it on hold so you can go somewhere - the mountains, the seashore, or the fruited plains. okay, i got a little carried away. the other little thing you leave are the day-to-day stresses of your normal life. that's why you need a vacation - to clear your head - and to tune into God.

thinking

i was just sitting here thinking. about what, you ask? well, let me see if i can put it into a short, succinct paragraph. the day. yes, the day. now, i am impressed that, first, i am thinking. second, that i remember what went on today. i mean, that's like walking into a grocery store without the list and expecting to remember everything that is on the list. uh, ok. which, by the way, is one of the things i did today. but, no worry, i just bought lots of extra stuff - which, somehow or another covered the list. anyway, back to thinking. is it really cracked up to be that great. i think so. after all, that's one of the reasons God gave us a brain - to think. hope we all get around to that some day.

Exciting

i have not published on my blog for some time. however, i am going to make an attempt to do so. it's not that my life has been boring. far from it. my life is rather exciting. pastoring a church is nothing short of a blessing from God. though the church is medium size - what is a megachurch anyway - i am surrounded by a group of people that love God, love each other, and love me. there is nothing like preaching to a group of people on sunday morning that want to not just know about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit - they want to know Him - i mean a real life, intimate, personal relationship. cool, huh? so, my life is not boring. again, i am going to make an attempt to publish at least two posts per week. you know, the old KISS principle - keep it simple saint.

Hardware Stores

i just came back from a journey into a local hardware store. i found what i needed, though it took me a while. and it took me a while to navigate out of the store. have you ever looked around a hardware store? i mean, really looked. it became fairly obvious, fairly quickly that i could use everything that i saw. from birdseed for my bird feeders to Christmas decorations to electrical supplies to all kinds of cool tools (many of which i had no idea what they would even be used for) to keys to - well, you get the picture. you know, some stores you can't figure out if they are of God or satan - but a hardware store - it's a glorious and amazing gift given to us from the very throne room of God. it is chock full of needs - and yeah, ok, a lot of wants. however, this i have against hardware stores - where do you start? what do you buy first? you (at least i do) become fixated on one item, thinking this is it, but then your peripheral vision draws you to something different and even more needed and on and on and on. that's the wonderful thing about God though. when you fixate upon Him and His Son Jesus, there is nothing that your peripheral vision can see that is more needed.