Search results for: “good news”

  • Tired

    How is it that I’m both energized and exhausted at the same time? I love what I do and I couldn’t think of doing anything else. Yet, at the same time I’m fatigued.

    That doesn’t mean anything politically and that’s not meant in code or to mean anything else than this. I’m ready to get away and get recharged. I can feel that I need time to wander, time to dream, time to waste, time to listen and not talk, time to meet people for the sake of just meeting them, time to get lost or to not be worried about a detour, time to adventure, time to browse.

    After all, how can I lead people when I’m too tired to want to lead people?

    Good news. I have a whole week away coming up. In the words of Robert Frost, "I have miles to go before I sleep." As I think about NYWC: Cincinnati I can’t help but chuckle at the words of Mike Yaconelli. He began each conference saying something like, "We have X, Y, Z, but that’s just for your bosses. We don’t care what you do this week. Just get recharged. If you need to lock yourself in the hotel room for 5 days, go for it."

    Of course, between that respite and today there is oodles of work. It’s tough sledding for the next month. I hope I have enough energy to get there.

  • Imlay City Graduation

    For the second time in three years, I’ll be heading up to ICCS for their 8th grade graduation.

    They’ve asked me to talk to them from Psalm 5:11-12:

    11 But let all who take refuge in you be glad;

           let them ever sing for joy.
           Spread your protection over them,
           that those who love your name may rejoice
    in you.

    12 For surely, O
    LORD, you bless the righteous;
           you surround them with your favor as with
    a shield.

     

    (more…)

  • A Sirius Comeback

    Siriuslogoblu_img_lrg_5Finally! With a whole slew of good news it appears Sirius is finally starting to rebound. For a while it was down below $4 a share.

    With the lawsuit that XM has going and their restatement of lower numbers, it’s clear that Sirius will win the satellite radio wars… so when will they be rewarded for that with a big upshot on the stock?

    I think some of the problem is that Howard Stern got a boatload of stock and he’s trying to unload it… which has resulted in the market being oversold with Sirius. Put that with my buddy Jim Cramer… who every time he mentions the word "Sirius" we see the thing go down $.20/share… and you see the recent downslide.

    If they really do have a profitable 4th quarter I’m looking for the stock to get back into the $9-10 category. In fact, if I were a stock broker I’d label it a buy.

    Of course, on top of that I think it’s a fabulous product.

  • Family Update

    It’s good to be home today. We don’t have any big plans, but it is nice to have a day where I only have a little bit of stuff to do.

    Adam: I’ve got some YMX stuff to do today, and I need to get us started on our taxes. How well I planned in 2005 will determine a lot of what we can do money-wise in 2006. I hope that I’ve not messed up like I did in 2004.

    Kristen: Kristen is ready to get out of the house. I can just tell! Good news, we’re going out tonight.

    Megan: Megan is amazing me with her interest in writing letters and asking how to spell words. We’ve not pushed this and she’s seems interested on her own. One of the funniest things she does right now is when I’m working on the laptop she will often go and grab her "Barbie laptop" and sit and work on it to be like daddy. Megan is also getting good at talking on the phone and coloring in the lines.

    Paul: Paul is growing the fastest in the family! (Good to know, eh?) He’s extremely verbal and will tell you exactly what he wants. He’s also doing pretty good with potty training… more exciting for Kristen than for him I think. Paul’s biggest frustration is that he’s 2 and not 4 like Megan. He wants to do everything she can do and sometimes freaks out when he can’t. It’s funny to learn how different Paul is from Megan. He is way more cuddly than Megan has ever been, but he’s also way more physical. One of the great ways he and I communicate is by bumping heads… literally! Unfortunately for Paul, he communicates in this same fashion with hard things like furniture.

    Violet: Our friendly cat is ready for Spring. She wants out of the house in the worst possible way but it is too cold. She seems to adjusted to "life with a dog." The big change for her is that she isn’t able to sleep with Kristen and I since Stoney is in the bedroom now. But she has found Megan and Paul to be excellent sleeping partners!

    Stoney: Stoney has slowly become part of the family. He still does same bad things every once in a while, but overall he’s a good family dog. He too is ready for Spring so he can be in the yard most of the day instead of in the house. He is obviously in the "hybernation" mode as he sleeps most of the day and is far less active than when it is warm outside. I am sure he is ready for the warm weather so he can play endless ball in the backyard.Now if only he would get along better with the cat. It’s good that he doesn’t try to eat her, but if he would just not chase her we’d be happy.

    Marble: The fish swims, we’re happy about that. Best behaved animal in the house!

  • Founder Week Day One

    It’s been a long but good day. I woke up at about 5:30 this morning and it’s now 11:20 PM and I am sensing the pillows call.

    All-in-all it’s been a solid day. Everything has gone according to plan and on schedule. I love it when a plan comes together.

    Here are some thoughts from my first day here.

    Moody is a great place. I know I am an alumni, so it is expected that I would feel this way. But it also is worth noting that I wasn’t a big fan of the Institute all the time. In fact, most of my time as a student was spent not liking the place! But today was another story.

    As I sat in the massive auditorium of Moody Church I kind of felt the sense that my alma mater wasn’t the great place I had been told it was while a student. I started thinking about it as a dying breed and frankly stuck about 10 years in the past compared to what I see every day. My mind filled with a sense of "Am I really associated with this?"

    About half way through the session tonight I discovered that I liked the place afterall. It wasn’t the music, it wasn’t the patting of the back of one alum to another… it was a sense of togetherness for a purpose that drew me to the place in the first place and somehow I felt like coming to Founder’s Week was "checking in" to that togetherness. If the purpose of MBI is to train a generation of church leaders, I have reported for duty.

    I have no great plan. As I listened tonight to a fantastic message by Andy Stanley it came to me. I will never stand on that stage and preach to this audience and I am perfectly fine with that. I think at one point in my life I had hoped that my ministry would one day progress to a national stage or some sort of spotlight. It’s not that "the dream" was a bad thing… it’s that I don’t think that is something God will have for me. I don’t want to focus on the future so much that the present doesn’t matter. Right now, it is far more important to me that each day I do the best I can and live to the most glory of Christ that I can.

    P.S. I received good news tonight. A student of mine recently came to know Christ. That is very exciting.

  • discipline issues

    There are a lot of places in my life right now that I am having discipline issues.

    The kids That’s right, my perfect children can be a royal pain in the neck. Now these are really good kids, don’t get me wrong… But sometimes a 4 year old and a 2 year old will drive you nuts. Take this morning for example. Kristen and I were looking for the keys [see the next story!] to the car and Megan and Paul were at each others throats. Megan was mad that Paul touched her toy. So we told Paul to wait his turn. Then she was mad that Paul touched her toy ring. When I told Megan that Paul could play with the ring until you let him have the puzzle… She went nuclear. So in the midst of looking for the keys, I had to take Megan upstairs to her room. Good way to start a day!

    Dogs and cats Our beloved dog Stoney and our beloved cat Violet still aren’t getting along. The big problem is our dog Stoney. Apparently, we aren’t giving him enough attention and he has been acting out bigtime. Over the weekend he managed to dig two bog holes in the yard, eat a grill cover and all our grill utensils, dig out all my landscaping lights, and eat the hose. Not bad. Yesterday and Monday he was fine as I paid him lots of attention. But this morning while I was taking a shower and Kristen was getting the kids dressed… He decided to eat Kristen’s purse. Now he didn’t destroy everything, he just pulled everything out and hid it different places. So… 30 minutes later when I was getting ready to leave the house… We couldn’t find the keys. It took us about 20 minutes but we finally found them in his bed. On the cat side… Violet is staying inside a lot more these days and she is getting into everything. How much longer until Spring?

    Ministry stuff I know, I have the most perfectest ministry situation in the world. At least that is what I tell myself. But it is messy because it works with people… And lately I’ve been getting messy trying to keep it all sorted. I’ve had typical Drama Queen problems lately, though they are resolving themselves more and more quickly and with less and less pain. But one person does take up too much of my time and the net result is a loss to everyone else and that is frustrating.

    Operation C update: The gang in on the case. They are praying more and more for this case. But at the same time they are having a hard time even tracking C and getting to talk. The good news is that all of my “operatives” saw C yesterday and are learning C’s habits. Sometimes the shepherd has got to get to know the sheep before he can find them.

    Some good news: One of our sophomore girls has advanced to the State Finals this weekend in Jackson. She finished 9th overall in her regional competition. That is very exciting! I hope she does well at State this weekend and I wish I could go. Maybe I’ll find a way to do it?

    I’ll be spending the next few hours at my favorite coffee joint preparing for tonight’s talk. Luke 4… tempation… sounds like a good one.

  • 99% there on the house

    I did something at Light Force that I never ever do. I checked my voice mail. Something just told me that between water games last night that I needed to check it… so I did.

    On my phone was a message from our realtor letting us know that everything was now clear for us on the house on Bailey. [YES!] The other people who had a contract on it backed out since their house hadn’t yet sold. So we know that our good news is their bad news. Since we’ve had our house dreams crushed before we know how hard that is to swallow… ugh. I feel for them.

    We are supposed to sign the final paperwork today and get an inspection done over the weekend. If that goes well, we are 100% done. We’ll just need the bank to do their thing and start the long waiting period. [Since the seller sold the house so quickly, 13 days, they haven’t even found a new house yet. We may not move until mid-November!]

    Here are some pics…




  • holding our breathe now

    Some good news from the realtor. The seller has agreed to our offer and we are just waiting for the final documents now. The only bad news is that the house is still under contract with another party. If they don’t come up with the money in 24 hours… the deal is sealed!

    So… please pray for us that we might get our slice of the dream. I am so excited and so scared at the same time. YIKES!

  • spring’s hold-out

    My goal of playing golf in March 2005 is now in serious jeopardy. We awoke this morning to a fresh blanket of 2 inches of snow with a lot more forecasted.

    What is going on?
    So much for global warming, eh? This winter has been long and sustained cold. Sure, we’ve never dipped down into the -30 degree below 0 mark or anything like that. But since late November it has been chilly. I don’t think we’ve had a single day above 60 since November 1st. I actually can’t remember a winter as cold for a sustained period as this one. Generally there are at least a couple of breaks were it gets into the 50’s – 60’s.

    In other news
    I will be busy today making all the preparations for the Napoleon Dynamite nite this evening. We’ve sent out hundreds of flyers… So there is a chance we could see some visitors. In Sonlife-speak…. This is a seed planting event. While we are not presenting the gospel, we are communicating to visitors that Christians can have fun, are OK people, etc. It’s all part of the process.

    More good news
    I sat down for a couple of hours with a parent of 3 of my students. We’re going to start meeting regularly for prayer, accountability, and learning hermeneutics. Pretty cool.

  • What scares you?

    This is a question I am asking myself today…



    What scares you?



    Last night I came home and during the course of LF last night, I think I realized something. I am afraid to really grow the youth group. I give lip service to it… But I subconsciously am doing things that are inhibiting growth. To summarize what I mean by that, I am not putting out my best effort each Wednesday night.”



    There is a huge spiritual component to this. It’s much more than “I like the gaggle of students we have in our ministry,” it’s much more an issue of “Do I really trust you God to transform this community through me?”

    The good news is that once I recognize a fear, I chose to find a way to conquer it. (Except with snakes, snakes are nasty.) I’ll highlight my plan to overcome this fear in upcoming posts.

    So… What is it that’s scaring you from getting where you need to go? (Jobs, relationships, education, personally.)

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