What keeps us in the game?

I am getting prepared to teach out of Phil 2:1-10 on Sunday, July 5. I have been reading the version from "The Message". I love some of the expressions there. One of them is; "When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! 8 Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion.Phil 2:7-8 (MSG)

There is something about the idea "...having become human, he stayed human..." that inspires me. It was both and... becoming human and then staying...

First of all I wonder if there are some things I have "become" by obeying His plan for me but I have wimped out on the "staying" part. For me the latter is definitely the bigger challenge.

My Prayer: Father, thanks for what you have done in my life and for giving me the grace to obey you in becoming your child. I know you have designed me uniquely and lovingly with a purpose in mind. Now, help me to "stay in the game" and accomplish what you designed me to do.

Bark Park Detention

The past few days we have been working with our dog Maggie at our local dog park. She is three years old and by now she should be socialized enough to run and play with other dogs. Well, she's not... much to my embarrassment. In order to "sort of" connect with everyone else at the I have decided that we will hang out in the smaller part of the fenced in area. This area is actually designed for "smaller" dogs who are too afraid to interact with the bigger ones. But for Maggie and me it provides a chain link barrier between her and the rest of the dogs so. I hate it actually. I'm just not ready for the full experience yet. Sure, I usually say that Maggie isn't ready. But, I'm the one who isn't ready. You see, Maggie acts pretty dominant with other dogs and can get pretty snarly as well. I admit that it is threatening for me and I find it embarrassing. So, for the past two afternoons we have sheepishly hung out in Bark Park detention. Maybe today we will take the big jump into the big dog park... :)

What drives you?

What is motivating me today? I was reading these thoughts from "The Message" out of Phil 2;

"Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand."

How would my life change if I allowed the Holy Spirit to restore this attitude and lifestyle in me?

best explanation of the "day of Christ" I have heard in a long time

I was glued to the message Pastor Brent was delivering yesterday morning. He was unpacking the first chapter of Philippians. It was fresh and it was delivered in a way that I loved. But, I especially enjoyed the thoughts on vv 9-10. He talked about "... until the day of Christ..." out of verse 10. He confronted the negative idea of seeing our earth as something to be thrown away and destroyed and therefore something we can neglect and even freely abuse. Then he presented us with the challenging idea that if Jesus is going to "give the earth a good shake and put everything all back to together" we should care about the earth and by faith live as if He is already in the process of doing just that. Great food for thought.

Why did we adopt these dogs again?

My 50 pound high energy Border Collie/Lab mix Maggie has a sore paw. I'm not sure what is up with it because she won't let us look at it. We tried last night, but there was some "teeth baring" and she snapped at Linda when she probed a little too far. So, I resorted to running a couple of inches of warm soapy bath water in our nice clean bathtub for Maggie to stand in so that she could soak her paws. I'll be doing that three times each day until it improves or gets worse. Of course that includes cleaning the tub after each soaking. So, what is that? Probably 20 minutes each time. I'll be investing an hour a day in Maggie's life so that she can recover from a sore paw and avoid an infection. If it gets worse, of course there will be the visit to the vet and the fees. Why am I doing all of this? If I accumulate the time I will be investing this week in taking care of my dogs including feeding, walking, grooming, etc, it will total total 10-15 hours. That is a part time job that is actually costing me money! But... I love it for some reason.

I think the biggest reason is the way my dogs teach me about living in the moment. In a dogs world you have to face every situation as it comes. You have to trust and take action based on your instincts. Dogs seem to have an intense commitment to acting out of instinct. I agree with those who say that humans have lost a lot of our ability to "instinctively" communicate with our world.

I can't be a decent leader to my dogs unless I lead them by instinct. I like what that brings out of me and I enjoy the connection I feel with the world as a result of our friendship.

So, here's to letting "recovering from a sore paw" become a group project when necessary... :)

Read recently that these four things are what we need from leaders trust compassion stability hope.

You can contact me at 5066502600
Vous pouvez me joindre au 5066502600.

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Early morning "send-off"

An excited team of high school students, our youth pastor and his wife and a few volunteer adult leaders just left for NYC a few minutes ago. They are headed to the Big Apple for a week of serving in soup kitchens and reaching out to homeless people with the love of Jesus. My mission this morning was to show up in the parking lot and pray with the team before they left. Well, I was supposed to arrive at the church building in time to see them off at 5:45 AM. When I woke up and looked at my cell phone for the time it was 5:57. So, I jumped out of bed and managed to arrive in time to lead out in a prayer. I don't know if the prayer I offered made any sense but I do believe that the next 7 days will be filled with life directing moments for every person on the team.

"God, watch over this team and help them not to miss even one experience you have intended for them this week".