I suppose that when most people start to think about what they have learned in the last year of their life, it happens in January. But as a teacher, I start to think about it in May.
I am working on a top ten list of what I have learned in the last year of my life. You can read the first one here.
Here is #2 - I love being a teacher.
I mean it, I really do! Now, there are plenty of things that go along with the job that I don't like. For example, the paperwork, the endless responsibilities, the low pay, etc.
But I love it!
This year has been the best year when it comes to getting to minister to students. I have had countless opportunities, and God has given me the Grace to handle them all. There is nothing more wonderful on this earth than doing exactly what God would have you to do. Nothing compares.
Thursday, May 27, 2004
the van
Towing the van home........$43
Fuel pump & other parts....$86
Fixing the melted pieces...$52
Saving about $500 by
doing it myself...............$500
Being 31 years old and
crawling under the van
again with my dad ...........priceless
All around, it has been an expensive week for me. But as I have said before, God is good. And even in this He is good. I honestly don't know how people can survive without Him.
p.s. Thanks again dad, for all of the help that you have given me. Not only coming over and helping with the van, but also showing me how to be the kind of man that would even attempt to fix his own car! I can't ever thank you enough.
Fuel pump & other parts....$86
Fixing the melted pieces...$52
Saving about $500 by
doing it myself...............$500
Being 31 years old and
crawling under the van
again with my dad ...........priceless
All around, it has been an expensive week for me. But as I have said before, God is good. And even in this He is good. I honestly don't know how people can survive without Him.
p.s. Thanks again dad, for all of the help that you have given me. Not only coming over and helping with the van, but also showing me how to be the kind of man that would even attempt to fix his own car! I can't ever thank you enough.
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Creator -- creature
let thy glory be above all the earth."
(Psalm 57:5)
Have we forgotten the creator?
The creator of the heavens and the earth... and the creator of us! Like Jeremiah the prophet, God could say to us, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you..." (Jeremiah 1:5) He is planning out and orchestrating our lives to conform us to the image of His son. (Romans 8:28-29) He knows the best way for us to be us!
He is the creator, we are the creatures. We can't forget that. In order for us to live the most peaceable, enjoyable experience that we can live, we have got to get that right.
It is true that order in nature depends upon right relationships; to achieve harmony each thing must be in its proper position relative to each other thing. In human life it is not other wise.
The right relationship with our creator would be to have Him as our Lord. Many of us would claim to be in that right relationship with Him. We might call ourselves "Christians" or we might say that we are "saved." We might even "call" Jesus Lord! But is that really true, or is it just words? How does this right relationship begin?
A satisfactory spiritual life will begin with a complete change in relation between God and the sinner; not a judicial change merely, but a conscious and experienced change affecting the sinner's whole nature. The atonement in Jesus' blood makes such a change judicially possible and the working of the Holy Spirit makes it emotionally satisfying.
There are many of us who have been "toying around" with God's grace most of our lives. We have claimed this salvation stuff, but we have never really lived it. It has only been words. Jesus is not Lord.
Much of our difficulty as seeking Christians stems from our unwillingness to take God as He is and adjust our lives accordingly. We insist upon trying to modify Him and to bring Him nearer to our own image. The flesh whimpers against the rigor of God's inexorable sentence and begs like Agag for a little mercy, a little indulgence of its carnal ways. It is no use. We can get a right start only by accepting God as He is and learning to love Him for what He is. As we go on to know Him better we shall find it a source of unspeakable joy that God is just as He is.
But how can we know if we are on the right path? How do we know that we are claiming Jesus as Lord and really meaning it?
Our break with the world will be the direct outcome of our changed relation to God. For the world of fallen men does not honor God. Millions call themselves by his name, it is true, and pay some token respect to Him, but a simple test will show how little He is really honored among them. Let the average man be put to the proof on the question of who or what is above, and his true position will be exposed. Let him be forced into making a choice between God and money, between God and men, between God and personal ambition, God and self, God and human love, and God will take second place every time. Those other things will be exalted above. However the man may protest, the proof is in the choices he makes day after day throughout his life.
Who is your lord? What do your choices say about you? I hope that if Jesus is not really your Lord, if He is simply a figure-head, that you will repent and turn and seek Him. May you be like the prodigal son coming back to the father!
God wants the whole person, and He will not rest till He gets us in entirety. No part of the man will do.
Check out the bookThe Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer.
Saturday, May 22, 2004
shaken
My van broke down.
Just at the worst possible time. Just when I am at my busiest. Just when we are getting ready to move. Just when we need the extra money. Just when we need everything to be working right. Just when a broken-down-van could be the straw that broke the camel's back. My van broke down.
It was a gripe. It was a complaint. It definitely didn't fit into my schedule! But there it was, nothing to do about it except get to work on it.
My dad came over the next day and we dug in. After some fiddling and tinkering with a couple of other things, we began to accept the fact that it was the fuel pump.
Now, I don't want to go into any great detail on the mechanics of fuel pumps, but this time I think it is important. The fuel pump on a Chevy Astro, like the one that we have, is inside of the fuel tank. (Now I don't know the genius that decided to put the fuel pump in the tank, but one day I would like to give him a big pat on the back, and say, "Thanks a bundle!") The pump itself is connected to its hoses and the power through the top of the tank.
When we took the pump out, I noticed that the electrical connector was completely fried. The wires coming out of it were melted through. My first thought was, "well there's the problem!" My next thought was, "whoa, wait a minute." I mean, here I was looking at this charcoaled electrical connector, that I found inside of my gas tank. So badly burned that the wires were melted,
Why didn't it ignite? Why didn't it explode? By all accounts it should have... It should have been like a bomb. There were a couple of other guys with us at the time, and we all just stood there for a couple of seconds until one of them said, "God must be looking out for you, brother."
He was.
I was pretty shaken up by it. For me I was thinking about that fuel tank... it is located right under where the boys usually sit. I am thinking about how I kept trying to start the van before the tow-truck came, with those burned, exposed wires. I am thinking about how this could have happened next week while my wife was driving on our way to South Carolina. There are a hundred other scenarios that could have been a lot worse.
And I was griping.
Usually when things don't go my way, that is how I react. With griping and complaining. I usually get a little angry and frustrated. And most of the time I never know why those things happen.
This time God showed me the why.
Like I said before, I was very shaken up by this. Life is fragile. Every moment is precious. And I will think twice before I complain about car problems again.
Just at the worst possible time. Just when I am at my busiest. Just when we are getting ready to move. Just when we need the extra money. Just when we need everything to be working right. Just when a broken-down-van could be the straw that broke the camel's back. My van broke down.
It was a gripe. It was a complaint. It definitely didn't fit into my schedule! But there it was, nothing to do about it except get to work on it.
My dad came over the next day and we dug in. After some fiddling and tinkering with a couple of other things, we began to accept the fact that it was the fuel pump.
Now, I don't want to go into any great detail on the mechanics of fuel pumps, but this time I think it is important. The fuel pump on a Chevy Astro, like the one that we have, is inside of the fuel tank. (Now I don't know the genius that decided to put the fuel pump in the tank, but one day I would like to give him a big pat on the back, and say, "Thanks a bundle!") The pump itself is connected to its hoses and the power through the top of the tank.
When we took the pump out, I noticed that the electrical connector was completely fried. The wires coming out of it were melted through. My first thought was, "well there's the problem!" My next thought was, "whoa, wait a minute." I mean, here I was looking at this charcoaled electrical connector, that I found inside of my gas tank. So badly burned that the wires were melted,
Why didn't it ignite? Why didn't it explode? By all accounts it should have... It should have been like a bomb. There were a couple of other guys with us at the time, and we all just stood there for a couple of seconds until one of them said, "God must be looking out for you, brother."
He was.
I was pretty shaken up by it. For me I was thinking about that fuel tank... it is located right under where the boys usually sit. I am thinking about how I kept trying to start the van before the tow-truck came, with those burned, exposed wires. I am thinking about how this could have happened next week while my wife was driving on our way to South Carolina. There are a hundred other scenarios that could have been a lot worse.
And I was griping.
Usually when things don't go my way, that is how I react. With griping and complaining. I usually get a little angry and frustrated. And most of the time I never know why those things happen.
This time God showed me the why.
Like I said before, I was very shaken up by this. Life is fragile. Every moment is precious. And I will think twice before I complain about car problems again.
Friday, May 21, 2004
still learning - #1
A couple of weeks ago my good friend, Jonathan Lambeth, asked my to prepare a testimony for Chapel. The testimony was supposed to be about what God has taught me this last year.
At first, I was like, "no problem! This ought to be easy. I have learned a lot this year." The problem was that God really had been teaching me a lot this year. So much so that it seemed that it was going to be difficult to pick one thing out.
So, I decided to do a top ten things that Mr. Harmless has learned this year type of scenario.
I would like to share all of those things with all of you via -- da blog. Only, I am not going to do a count-down. I also threw away the original paper that I had the ten things written on, so these may not be the exact same ten things.
Anyway, here is #1 -- God is good.
I could type about this one all day. I am not going to, but I could easily talk about this one. It doesn't matter what happens to us in this life, we can never say that God is not good. Everything that happens in this life is for our own good, and His glory.
There are things that we go through on this earth that would make it very easy for us to say, "God is not good!" "This is too much, This is too hard!" But those are crys of the un-seeing soul. The soul that doesn't see that God is in charge, and that he has promised us our good.
This is a little example, but I will use it.
Thursday morning in Bible class, the words, "God is good. There is nothing that will ever happen to you that you can say that God isn't good. In fact, everything that happens to you has been perfectly orchestrated to give you the optimal environment to make you the most like Christ..." came tumbling out of my mouth.
Thursday night on the main road going through town, when we were in a big rush to get somewhere with something important... the van died. Griping & Complaining immediately followed.
Then in the back of my head, like a still small voice, came the question, "is God good?"
I pretended like I couldn't hear it.
But it came again, and I knew that I needed to change my attitude. Even this trial, this frustrating, annoying, bad-timing, expensive trial, was exactly what I needed and could handle.
God is good.
At first, I was like, "no problem! This ought to be easy. I have learned a lot this year." The problem was that God really had been teaching me a lot this year. So much so that it seemed that it was going to be difficult to pick one thing out.
So, I decided to do a top ten things that Mr. Harmless has learned this year type of scenario.
I would like to share all of those things with all of you via -- da blog. Only, I am not going to do a count-down. I also threw away the original paper that I had the ten things written on, so these may not be the exact same ten things.
Anyway, here is #1 -- God is good.
I could type about this one all day. I am not going to, but I could easily talk about this one. It doesn't matter what happens to us in this life, we can never say that God is not good. Everything that happens in this life is for our own good, and His glory.
There are things that we go through on this earth that would make it very easy for us to say, "God is not good!" "This is too much, This is too hard!" But those are crys of the un-seeing soul. The soul that doesn't see that God is in charge, and that he has promised us our good.
This is a little example, but I will use it.
Thursday morning in Bible class, the words, "God is good. There is nothing that will ever happen to you that you can say that God isn't good. In fact, everything that happens to you has been perfectly orchestrated to give you the optimal environment to make you the most like Christ..." came tumbling out of my mouth.
Thursday night on the main road going through town, when we were in a big rush to get somewhere with something important... the van died. Griping & Complaining immediately followed.
Then in the back of my head, like a still small voice, came the question, "is God good?"
I pretended like I couldn't hear it.
But it came again, and I knew that I needed to change my attitude. Even this trial, this frustrating, annoying, bad-timing, expensive trial, was exactly what I needed and could handle.
God is good.
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
mister slick
About two seconds before this picture was taken,my son was just "stretching" his arms...
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Flight 207
Flight 207 was cancelled.
The cancellation of flight 207 will make me a single parent for a day. Only one day. It doesn't sound like much, but when I started thinking about all of the things that I needed to get done in order to get my boys to their proper destination, I started to freak out!
We're talking diapers, extra clothes, blankets (or "bunnas"), pack-n-play's, shoes, coordinations with the baby-sitter, breakfast, phone calls, drinks, more extra clothes, instructions, and all of the things that I am going to forget... It is mind boggling.
All of you mommies out there: I salute you!
... and please, please don't let the next flight get cancelled!
The cancellation of flight 207 will make me a single parent for a day. Only one day. It doesn't sound like much, but when I started thinking about all of the things that I needed to get done in order to get my boys to their proper destination, I started to freak out!
We're talking diapers, extra clothes, blankets (or "bunnas"), pack-n-play's, shoes, coordinations with the baby-sitter, breakfast, phone calls, drinks, more extra clothes, instructions, and all of the things that I am going to forget... It is mind boggling.
All of you mommies out there: I salute you!
... and please, please don't let the next flight get cancelled!
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