Get the Booger out of the way.

Dylan walks up to me this morning and holds out his pointing finger then says. "This is why I couldn't breathe. I had to get this out of the way." I turn to look and there is a huge booger on the end of his finger. He was proud to show me this big obsticle he had removed from his air passage. Being the proud father that I am, I replied "Wow, that's a big one. I'm glad you got it out ok."
Lately at my house we have been working hard at removing a nasty obsticle from our lives. We spent the beginning of our marriage building up and collecting debt. Now we are working hard to remove it. We want to be free to give and have a financial part in God's work at Garr Church. I'm not talking about tithe. I married a woman that will not even let me think about not giving regular tithe. We are talking about having the freedom to do anything God asks us to. We have been working on removing this obsticle for some time now and I have noticed something during this time. I am very ashamed to tell people about it. It's kinda like picking a booger in the car. You feel like no one can see you because no one is in the car with you, however, there are usually plenty of observers watching what you do. How hard you work at it, how deep you dig. Unlike when I pick a booger in my car, you better believe that I will hold out my finger, point it toward God, and tell all that will celebrate with me that I have removed the obsticle that was keeping me from living freely.

Something to smile about

I know it's been a long time since this blog has seen the light of day. But here is something that I saw that made me smile. Hope it does the same for you.


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Nail Biting

A while back I served Jury duty. It was quite the experience. I noticed something that really stood out to me while I was there. There were about 150 people there with me just waiting. Now don't get me wrong, they make the wait pretty nice. The new court house in Charlotte has all of the amenities you could want while you are waiting for 8 hours to see if you are going to serve on a jury. They had big screens with movies playing, popcorn, computers with Internet (although it didn't always work), Ipods you could listen to, a reading lounge, pool table, arcade games, and a snack bar. It was a very comfortable place to spend 8 hours waiting. During the day I noticed two kinds of people. There were three times in the day that they called everyone together and called out the names of the people that were called in to serve on a jury. The first type of person I will call the nail bitters. When the names began to be called they held their breath, bit their nails, and their heart pounded in anticipation of their name being picked. They were comfortable where they were. During the wait times they complained about not being able to get stuff at work or home done, but they didn't want to go to the next level and actually serve on a jury.
The other type of person I saw was antsy. Sitting in this luxurious waiting area was driving them nuts. If they were going to be gone from work and home for 8 hours they wanted to at least be doing something with this time that they are there. When the names were being called out they were hanging on each one hoping they get picked to go into action. If there name did get called they were giving out high fives and whooo-hoo's. They were excited to be doing something with the time that they have there.
One group lived in fear of being called to go on the other side of the door. The others lived in anticipation of what is next behind the door.
Hosea 13:3
3 Therefore they will be like the morning mist,
like the early dew that disappears,
like chaff swirling from a threshing floor,
like smoke escaping through a window.
We only have a set time. Are you biting your nails anticipating being called to action? Or are you the Whoo-hoo-er, and only in anticipation for what you can do?

1st thought envoking question of the year

This Intellectual thought invoking question comes from my son Dylan. How'd he get so smart?
So we are re-modeling our upstairs bathroom right now. This has entailed removing the tile flooring and wallpaper from the walls. I of course took the toilet off the floor and it is temporarily in the bath tub. So Dylan comes in and wants to help me. We began to rip the wallpaper off of the wall! Side note, this is a lot of fun to do with a 4 year old! So anyway, Dylan notices the hole in the floor where a toilet used to be. As his questions pursue I explain to him that the hole is where his poop goes when he flushes the toilet. Of course that is not enough info so I then have to explain that the pipe carries the poop underground to place with a big tank that gets all the poop and pee and keeps it there. (before you start going off on me in your head about how they process the poop and everything remember I am talking to a 4 year old). That seems to be enough info and he is quiet for a while. Then he turns to me and asks "Where does God's poop go?" I could only answer with, "That's a good question. I don't really know. Maybe rain is God peeing on us!"
So that is the Thought Invoking question of the year. "Wear does God poop?" I hope some scholar reads this and leaves an answer to this question in the comments.

If only I had...

This time of year is always a time when finances are at the top of everyone's list. If your house is like mine you are having lots of conversations with your wife about the things you wish you had. A bigger house to have a Christmas party in. More money to buy those extravagant gifts for your kids. But all you end up doing is getting depressed about what you do not have. Don't read this and think that I am above this in any way. This is something that I am facing now. In both my house and it seems we are facing it at our church. "We don't have the finances to do that!" is what we hear or say in our creative meetings. Then something (God) comes along and rocks your world!
While we were rehearsing and preparing for service yesterday a gentleman walks in the door. He obviously was homeless. He asked for some help and we asked if he would stay for the service. He did. His name is John. John was traveling (walking) from Pennsylvania to Georgia. I invited him to lunch with my family and at first John declined. I had to convince him to come with me. I got to spend about 2 hours with John and realized quickly that John did not decline my lunch offer because he wanted to go get drunk or anything like that. We asked John if there was anything we could get him for his trip, coffee thermos, sleeping bag, etc. John declined all of it, he said he has everything he needs in his bag and anything else he would just have to carry with him on his walk. John was completely content with what he had. He had an old sleeping bag, a little food, and the clothes on his back. That is all he needed for his journey.
I am so blessed. I have a beautiful wife, and 4 awesome kids. My God has given me everything I need for my journey. Any extra stuff would just weigh me down and I would have to carry it on my journey. It would then be baggage that slows me down.
Are you gathering baggage this Christmas? Or are you concerned about your journey?

Thanksgiving in Charleston S.C.

7 kids plus 7 adults (if you actually count me as an adult) equals a bountiful time! We had a great family time in Charleston S.C. A special thanks goes out to the family that let us use their house to gather in. I have so much to be thankful for.

Girls are smarter

So I am back from my blog sabbatical, and you would think that after a hiatus like that I would come out swinging with some powerful post. To the contrary I have to share a funny story that happened yesterday. I will procrastinate on powerful for now.

Yesterday morning I am driving my girls along with two boys of friends of ours to school. The boys are close in age to each of my girls (6 & 10). Somehow, I am sure I started it, the conversation got into... "Girls drool and boys rule!" "No Boys drool and Girls rule!". My daughter Starr, who must always win a debate, chimes in with these statements.

Starr "Girls are smarter than boys because they don't have to think about sports and stuff"
Sam (boy, age 9) "Yeah, but boys get to rule the house cause the man is the head of the house"
I so wanted to give him a pound and say amen. I didn't because his argument was with my daughter and that would probably look like I was taking his side.
Starr "Yeah but I'm smarter because I'm smart enough not to have babies. Cause you know babies don't come out of the mom's belly. They come out of their butt!"
Sam "That's gross!"
Starr "I'm smart. And I don't want to get stitches in my butt, so I am not going to have any babies. But I love my baby Riley though"
Sam "That's gross! Starr"
Me "Let's talk about something else Starr"

At this point it is all I can do to keep from pulling the car over, getting out and laughing hysterically. However, once again, that would look bad because this young boy just had some of his innocence scared for life. So, I waited till they were out of the car and I was back on the road before laughing out loud and calling my wife to share the story.

A realization at midnight

I was preparing for my sermon this Sunday and I realized something. My sermon is on the Heart of a Champion. Your physical heart pulls blood in, processes it, then pumps it out. If any of those three things are not happening then there is a big problem and you could be dead! Your spiritual heart should be doing the same three things or else you are spiritually dead! Pull in God, Process and apply to your life, then pump it out!
You'll be hearing this statement on Sunday also, but I needed to get that analogy out cause I thought is was good.

Prep your sub-floor!

I am in the process of laying down laminate flooring. Now you must know something about me. I am a glutton for punishment. I would rather research and take the job on myself than pay someone to do it for me. Many times I say it is to save money, but many times after I buy the tools, supplies, and take off of work, it would have been cheaper to pay somebody.
So in the process of researching and getting price quotes on 520 square feet of press board with a picture of wood glued on top, I continually get asked the same questions. What kind of floor are you putting it on? Are you on a concrete slab or sub-floor? Then as I research on installing this laminate flooring, everything I find says make sure you prepare your surface well before you lay the floor down. Make sure it is clean. Make sure it is level. Make sure there are no nails that are, or will, poke out and damage the floor.
So I get to Friday night and I begin to rip up the carpet in the living room. I start tearing away the stained, and dirty carpet and padding. Come Saturday afternoon I am finally done cleaning and prepping the surface to put my floor on. In a matter of a few hours I have the new flooring down in the living room. It took me all Friday night and half of Saturday to prep. Then only half a day to install.
It got me thinking about what my sub-floor looks like. If my sub-floor is not cleaned of any dirt, nails, staples, and pits then the beautiful covering on the outside will wear out quickly. You will start to see imperfections and when it is put under stress it will begin to crack. Am I spending twice as much time on my sub-floor as I do with everything else that people see? We may look good on the outside, but if our heart is not been cleaned then we will crack quickly.
On the flip side, everything I read said that if you take the time to prep the sub-floor and install it right. Nothing beats the look and durability of laminate flooring. So spend more time on preparing our sub-floors. Then nothing will beat the result and durability of your life with Christ.
Matthew 23:27-28