My boring page

So I decided that my blog page is pretty boring.  Black background and no pictures.  Someday I'll take time to figure out how to make it look decent.  That stuff takes too much time.  I guess if you need pictures for you now, you can visit my wife's blog; she has pictures of us all over that thing.  I love her; she's the best!

My job

This has been a weird morning.  I have been at home, resting from the long day that I had yesterday and getting ready for church tonight.  My muscles are sore and I have a list of several things that I need to do around the house that keeps growing everyday that I don't get to it.  Last night I didn't get home until after ten o'clock and I will be at the church until around 9 o'clock tonight.  I told myself that I wouldn't do anything work related until after lunch today.  The reason my muscles are sore is because I spent a lot of time playing sports yesterday.  Here is the basic run down of what I did: 

10 am - 2 pm: working in my office

3:30 pm - 6 pm: youth open gym/playing basketball

6 pm - 7 pm: filling in for your junior high basketball coach who is on vacation

9 pm - 10:15 pm: playing softball

(and Monday evening was spend at men' s open gym basketball as well)

Looking at this list doesn't sound like much of a ministry.  However, here is what I really have accomplished in the first two days of this week:

1. Monday night, halfway through open gym, I was able to lead a prayer with 30 young men, most of whom would never step foot in a sanctuary.  We talked about trusting God in an unstable economy, and asked God to help us to be men of integrity that make a positive difference in our workplaces.

2.  After basketball on Monday, I had a conversation with a man who was impressed by our open gym format and began asking questions about our church.  He shared that he recently moved to Columbia and hasn't been attending a church, but that he has a religious background.  I invited him to join us on a Sunday and asked him to consider helping me coach in our Upward Basketball children's league.

3. While in my office yesterday, I was working on collecting registrations for our Upward league.  Last season about half our children heard about Jesus for the first time.  Many of these kids come from rough family situations and were probably in the most positive environment they've ever been in.

4.  During youth open gym, there is a young man that comes every week and asks me to play one-on-one.  We have probably played each other about 40-50 time in the last few weeks.  One day he might beat me if he keeps practicing.  He is trying to get him life back on track after making some dumb decisions.  Each week I am able sit and talk with him about making good decisions, ask about how he is doing at school, and tell him about the life that Jesus has for him if he wants it.

5. At junior high practice, one young man kept saying "I'm not good at basketball" and apologized to his teammates about every ten seconds.  I was able to work with him on a couple basics of the game.  I reminded him every chance I had that even though he didn't shoot or dribble well, he was a rebounding beast and had good court vision.  I don't know if it made any difference to him or not, but I could tell that he wasn't told what he did well very often; only what he did wrong. 

6.  At the softball game I was able to have a conversation with a 30-year-old war veteran with two young kids.  He is a very nice guy.  I don't know where he stands spiritually but I do know that he is not involved in a church.  One day we will have that conversation.

7.  I set up a lunch appointment with a 19-year-old young man on our softball team that is in desperate need of some positive male influence in his life.  We go out to lunch a couple of times a week to talk about life.

I type all of this to say that yesterday was a weird day.  I played a lot of sports.  It would be easy to only see that part of the day.  However, with a little intentionality, it I did a lot more than that.  Sometimes I love my job.  Who wouldn't love spending a work day playing ball?  At other times I don't like it so much.  My wife works until 5 o'clock every week day.  I will be at some aspect of my job until at least 9 o'clock every night this week from Monday through Thursday.  That is really tough.  I can't imagine what it would be like for Christie and I to both be done with work at 5 o'clock each day and have our evenings together.  Despite those difficulties, I am so thankful to have a job that allows me to do something that I love, while making an impact for the Kingdom of God in the lives of the people around me.

Am I selfish?

Over the last few months I have discovered that I really like blogs. I like reading about what other people are up to in life, and what they are thinking about. Every couple of weeks I make my blog rounds and read up on the people that I know keep up with blogs. Then I got to thinking: if I enjoy reading other peoples thoughts, am I selfish for not sharing mine? I think I've always been this way. It's funny how our personalities spill out into different areas in life. I have always enjoyed discussion style learning. That probably sounds funny to any one who has been in class with me because they would notice that I rarely say anything during classes. Once a group gets larger than about four or five people, I tend to simply sit back and listen. Unless I hear something that I believe is completely false but its being accepted by the group as true or I have a strong feeling that I am having a unique perspective that no one else seems to be thinking about, I usually just sit and listen to all sides of an argument without saying a word. I guess I just figure that if I wait long enough, some one else will say what I was thinking anyway. If that doesn't happen, then I usually speak up as the group is wrapping up that topic. Anyways, I noticed recently that I am acting the same way with blogs. I read quite a few blogs and online discussions but never take part in any of them. Some I agree with, others not so much. Over the last year I have thought about a lot of different aspects of my faith. I have questions things that I have never questioned before and gained a new perspective on life and spirituality. This was a pretty scary experience at first, but I have gained some comfort through reading blogs and discussions written by others who have had similar thoughts. That led to the question in my title. What if some one else out there is dealing with the same questions and my blog would be helpful to them? I have always loved listening, reading, and learning. I don't think it is fair to others if I don't force myself to step out of my quiet comfortable self and speak up sometimes. Throughout my life I have been told over and over again that one of my greatest strengths is wisdom, but that my greatest weakest and keeping it to myself. I figured that starting a blog would be a good step in the right direction. So here it goes....