Thanksgiving

Whew! Thanksgiving was quite a holiday this year! We hosted about 26 people at the house and had PLENTY to eat. We deeply missed Brooke, Emily, and Kyle this year! However, what made this Thanksgiving unique was the work done outside of the kitchen. Laurie's cousin, Shane, is a gifted landscape designer working as a tree salesman at Fannin Tree Farm in the DFW metroplex. He was gracious enough to design the layout for our front landscaping. Not only that, but he rented a U-Haul, purchased the plants needed (including 3 big trees) and brought the plants down to us.

Wednesday, I had to work at my paying job so he and Laurie spent much of the day doing last minute stuff and working their tails off outlining the beds. Shane is a pro at running a Bobcat!

Thursday, Shane enlisted the help of long-time friend and fellow landscaper, Paul Wilson. It was COLD, COLD, COLD on Thursday, but Shane, Paul, my father-in-law, and I all layered up in clothes and spent most of the day doing bed preparation tilling in compost with top-soil, and other stuff like that. The landscaping day ended by planting the two big trees at the north and south ends of our beds. At this point it was actually snowing and neighbors would slow down and stare as they drove by watching the crazy people plant a tree in the snow.

Friday, that same group of folks spent Friday planting the plants, spreading mulch, and picking out flagstones (not in that order). It was cold, but not snowing at this time.

Saturday we were going to get concrete rock and spread it out in the neccessary places and place the flagstones. However, it was raining and it prevented us from doing so.

The majority of the labor was done and below is a slideshow which captures the nearly completed masterpiece designed by Shane and assembled by him, Paul, and a couple of rookies. It was a blast!





Create Your Own

God and MacGyver

I heard a guest on a radio show the other day who was supposed to be representing the Christian voice of politics. Only the tail-end of the appearance was heard, but the part that was heard included a statement to the effect of “I believe that if people pray, God can orchestrate the circumstances so that His candidate is elected.” It was probably intended to be an affirmation of God’s sovereignty despite insurmountable circumstances, or the power of prayer, but it just irritated me. We are giving way too much to ANY political party or politician who claims to have the endorsement of God. Most candidates, if asked, would probably tell you that they believe they could be God’s instrument to bring about change in this country or else they wouldn’t be running. What if there are prayer vigils held all around the country and the candidate that is “supposed to be” elected isn’t? What does that say of God or of his praying people? Was it “lack of faith”?

I believe in the awesome power, provision and protection of God (how’s that alliteration for all my preacher friends!?). I just envision in it in a different way. Which is more amazing… orchestrating circumstances so that a specific person is elected, or still achieving your purposes despite whoever is in the Whitehouse? My vote is for the latter. There is more evidence both historically and biblically that suggests God’s work despite flawed leadership. It’s kind of like how amazed we could be with MacGyver who could pull off an escape with just a Swiss army knife, chewing gum, and a piece of string. My God is too amazing and too powerful to need any one person in charge other than Himself.

My Own Private Homecoming

In keeping with my dad's tradition of getting together with college friends on an annual basis, I took a day to hang out with my good friend Kelly Wolverton. We stayed Sunday night at the "Heart of Texas Baptist Encampment" and spent all day Monday walking the campus of our old almamatur and seeing who we might run into.

Kelly is much more of an extrovert than I am, and during the years we were at HPU together, I was basically known as "Kelly's friend." He prompted us to go up to the School of Christian Studies and see on whom we could just "drop in." My first inclination was, "Why are we going to bother these people unannounced?" But I quietly followed his lead. Boy was I glad I did. The first person we saw in the door was a new friend, Rusty Wheelington, who is a Professor of Youth Ministry. He and I were acquainted last year at a conference and became friends. Then down the hall were two OLD mentors who are long-term youth ministers just up for a special class. When I was an undergrad, these guys would assist with a 2-week workshop and I had the privilege of hanging out with them outside of class. So to bump into them now and get to hang out with them for about 20 minutes was a great gift! With them was a man I respect and admire, Gary Gramling who is the director of the Master of Arts in Youth Ministry program at HPU. He was a former professor of mine in the early 90's, and friend when I served at FBC, Brownwood in the late 90's. His heart for God is tremendous and contagious.

Kelly, being the extrovert, invited the professors to join us for lunch at Gomez's! For those familiar with Brownwood, Gomez's needs no introduction. Those unfamiliar just know the term, "greasy spoon" does not even come close! Rusty and Gary joined us (check it out, I'm using their first names now!) but I was the only brave one to actually order Mexican food ("I'll have the #1... ALWAYS!).

I loved this day because the conversation was "all over the place" from light-hearted goofy stuff, to intimate sharing of internal struggles and desires for God's work.

Kelly and I ended the day visiting a 95 year old lady who is one of the Faithful at FBC, Brownwood. Her name is Pauline Moore, and we share a unique connection that developed through simple, short conversations when she would pass by my office at the church, or call to question why certain things were planned or conducted a certain way. Even with the connection, I still only call her Mrs. Moore. She has quite a life to share and actually a lot of life left for 95!

It was a great trip!