Making Time

"Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along. This applies to play as well as work. A day merely survived is no cause for celebration. You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine. No more busy work. No more hiding from success. Leave time, leave space, to grow. Now. Now! Not tomorrow!" - Og Mandino

I let it happen too often. Everything on my schedule gets pushed end to end. There are no gaps, no time to breath. The day is all set then here comes that thing I really should be doing. However, because I am so over committed, it goes by without notice? Responsibilities are important but if there is no time to talk to my child or give a neighbor a hand or spend a few moments in prayer when a friend asks, perhaps there is something on my responsibly list that shouldn't be there.

Random Thoughts

• The only person I should be better then is the person I was yesterday.

• Always saying I am busy but if I had more time, would I just be busier?

• I don't know my neighbors very well.

• Take one day off and play golf alone. Walk it and enjoy God.

• Life is a little like poker. The cards are determined but how we play them is our choice.

• The size of this universe is amazing but even so the realization it didn't know that I existed was disappointing.

• The adults when I was a kid looked like they had it together far more then the adults I know today?

• What ever happened to the Information Superhighway? Are we on it? I didn't see the signs.

• When I am out of step with God, I know who moved.

• Getting stuff only increases my wanting stuff.

Do Not Cross the Line

Why do we have this fascination with sin as a line?
We argue about its location.
What is allowed and what is abhorred?
Everything on this side of the line is good while over there is evil.
We even negotiate how close we can stand without going over?
Friendships are broken, religions are formed and wars are fought to establish where the line is.

Do you suppose God is as concerned with the line as much as we may think?
Consider instead, what if God would rather change the focus from the line to Him?
You see when you are facing God there is no line.
Its not so much where the line is but where the light is instead.

I Have Gas

I am confused by the whole gasoline industry. Always have been but even more so today.

How can Nashville be out of gas while 650 miles to the west in Oklahoma City it is $3.19 per gallon which is the lowest price we have had in six months? How does that work? Is I-40 blocked? How did a whole city run out of gas? Was no one watching the little red light on the gauge? My wife starts reminding me to pull over well before that thing comes on.

Also on this subject, why do competitors have such comparable gas prices? The two stations down the street from me are exactly two cents different every time I drive by. Do they stand outside with the plastic numbers and wait to see which one flinches first? Or more likely, Shell spends millions of dollars every year forecasting world wide oil production, monitoring distribution channels, calculating cost of sales, predicting outside influences, etc. to establish their price while 7-Eleven tells their guys to watch the sign across the street and subtract two cents?

How can a station have the same price as the competition on the same corner but the same company has another station a couple of miles away is ten cents higher? Does it cost that much to drive those big trucks? If so, wouldn’t the prices on the highway be cheaper then the ones they have to come all the way into the city to stock up?

Now you can see why I am so confused. I am going back to work.

Stadium Pal

This is too funny. Gross but funny.




And it's real.

"The Original since 1998."

Oktoberfest, Mardi Gras, New Year’s Eve at Times Square, and the list goes on and on.

Oh boy, can you imagine being crushed up against a million people in Times Square with one of these? And look they have Stadium Gal too. I could not bear to click the "Restroom Stories" link.

Just think, no more having to take a break from surfing the net. You could go all night with Stadium Pal.

What are you praying for?

Okay, got hit with this a couple of weeks ago during a sermon at church. Still trying to digest it so thought it would help to write through it.

Imagine two canvases. On the left is a painting of a bright sunshine lit day. Across the top of the canvas, there is a crisp blue sky with only a few white clouds. In the foreground is a perfectly still lake with smooth as glass blue water. Rising in the distance is a majestic Colorado type mountain perhaps snow still visible on the peaks. All around there are beautiful trees with unmoving leaves depicting the calm peaceful tranquility of the morning scene.

Now on the right is another painting. Same location but this time the bright sunshine is gone and a storm is in full fury. The lake is churning with large white capped waves crashing against each other. The mountain is no longer visible through the massive dark storm clouds. The trees are bent over as they are being whipped by the gale force winds. Yet, on the lake there is a small boat being tossed at the mercy of the waves and wind. You can see inside the boat and there is a man asleep completely relaxed inside all of the turmoil.

So here is the question. What are you praying for? Do your prayers focus on God bringing you the perfect day or beg God to build your trust in Him so that the circumstances mean less? Do you want to dictate the how the picture should look or do you work on how you should look in the picture? Is your desire for God to deliver something you can be peaceful with or to trust him to bring peace to you no matter how it is delivered?

I have pondered these questions for weeks. I hope it strikes something with you as it did with me.

Grace Finds Beauy in Everything

I must live under a rock. Never heard this song until purchasing a U2 CD this weekend. Absolutely blown away with Bono's words on Grace.

Thank God, grace makes beauty out of ugly things!!!! Undeserved, unearned, no strings attached grace. Only God could give such an amazing gift. How can I not be changed by that?

Grace, she takes the blame
She covers the shame
Removes the stain
It could be her name

Grace...
It's a name for a girl
It's also a thought that, changed the world
And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness in everything

Grace, she's got the walk
Not on a ramp or on chalk
She's got the time to talk
She travels outside of karma, karma
She travels outside... of karma

When she goes to work, you can hear the strings
Grace finds beauty in everything

Grace...
She carries a world on her hips
No champagne flute for her lips
No twirls or skips between her fingertips
She carries a pearl in perfect condition

What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings...
Because Grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things

Grace finds beauty in everything

Song - Grace
Lyrics - Bono
Music - U2
Album - All That You Can't Leave Behind