We have come so far, with still farther to go…

Today was the celebration of a man who helped to teach us that being a human is not limited by the color of your skin.  A man that spoke the words, ‘I have a dream…”, words that still, and I hope will continue to, inspire hope for a better way of living.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. helped us to rise up against the status quo and realize that a man is a man by his actions, his thoughts, the desires of his heart and not the color of his skin.  His loss was a tragedy, rightfully mourned by all.

Now, tomorrow,we celebrate the first african-american to become president of the United States.  Now, no matter where you may stand on the side of political affiliations, this is a proud day for all of us.  I myself, did not vote for Barack Obama, but, as the leader appointed over us, I will still pray for him daily.  As an American citizen, I still support his presidency.  I do not embrace all of his beliefs or his stances, but, I can still hope for him to shine and be a beacon leading our country out of the present predicament that it is in.  This is all a celebration, a celebration of hope, a celebration of watchfulness, a celebration of change.  All of the things that he held up as his goals for his campaign.

And, with this celebration of progression, there is still the recognition that we have further to go.  There are still people standing upon a platform of being a victim to explain their position.  There are still those eager to blame their station on others.  A friend of mine mentioned to me that there was talk of officially changing the labels that our society has assigned to certain ethnic groups.  I commented back to him that wouldn’t it be quite unbiased of our humanity if we were to drop all race tags?  Think about it… no negroe, no african-american, no chink, no asian, no spic, no hispanic, no cracker, no caucasian… just a person.

I am happy that I have the assurance that one day, it WILL be like that!  Whether it be here on Earth or on the next one, I do not know.  But, we will get there, I hope sooner rather then later.  For now, thank you for reading, all of my brothers and sisters, no matter which nationality or ethnicity you may share.  I love all of you, and, my prayers are for ALL of us.

Are you still dreaming?

At one time, I believed that everyone should have someone in their life that they could share their dreams with; it doesn’t matter whether they are believable or not, whether they are attainable or not.  It was only important that someone was there to listen, to laugh with the stupid ones, be awed by the brilliant ones and be the giver of ridicule for the outright stupid ones.

I now find myself in a place where I no longer have that.  I have no one to be my sounding board. This blog, my notebook, my quiet prayers, these are my outlets.  But, for right now, that is okay.  I have hope that there are things that will change, that will see me with a safe zone someday, someone to confide my thoughts to.  Until then, He is there to listen, in fact, most of the time, those dreams, they are breathed by the Spirit Himself.  Pour it out to Him!  He already knows them but He wants you to confide in Him, as a friend.

That is first, keep it in mind.

Now, dear readers, tell me about what is on your mind.  Do you have that person to confide in?  Do you still dream?  Tell me if you like, I’ll listen, I’ll pray for your dreams for you and with you.

Still following my thoughts…

Okay everyone, so, here I am in my drug induced stupor (a mixture of several different Tylenols, Chloraseptic and cough drops) I don’t know if I am actually feeling better or just in a fog… Please try to follow along with my meanderings.

So, yesterday, feeling a little sorry for myself, a little bitter, a little confused and what do I do?  I take it out on my faithful reader(s) (I believe there may actually be 3 of you right now). I apologize for that.  But, as a result of that little tirade, my buddy Brent, left me a very good comment, it kinda slapped me out of my self pity a bit.  His comment was that he didn’t think that God really cared about WHAT I was doing, in this world, but, WHAT is the condition of my soul, the part of me that is supposed to be in communion with Him on a regular basis.  First of all, thanks B for that little wakeup call.

And the second part to that is the thought…  How much patience does God have with me to put up with my selfish thoughts?

I mean really it comes down to ‘am I going to sit and complain about my life?’ or ‘am I going to take this crappy situation and see what God has in store for it?’

Nothing is too big for our God, whether it be a bad job position (in my own mind) or the best job on earth.  God will work through me in both, it is just up to me to be turned to Him versus turned only upon me.  Thanks again B, God is speaking through you brother!

Now you, my dear reader, what is God speaking to you about your situation?

Why am I where I am?

I was so excited yesterday…  new things looked like they were coming down the pike.  Then today hits!  Turns out that the marketing thing isn’t going to be exactly what I thought it was.  It actually turns out that I am going to be expected to do something that I do not enjoy for 80% of my work day and I am supposed to fit that marketing stuff into the other 20% and on my own time.  Am I whining yet?  I believe I probably am.

I just feel like at times I have really missed out on what God had in mind for me and I see that when I compare where I am with where my heart wants to be.  Is that the basis of all of this; what I WANT?

Where are you out there?  Are you where you WANT to be?  Is that where God wants you?

What does 2009 hold?…

Looking ahead, what exactly do I see?  I don’t know.  The best part is… I don’t care.  In fact I welcome the adventure of not knowing.  I trust in a VERY HUGE GOD!  No matter what the future holds, He will be with me.  And really, it may sound trite or very corny, whatever you want to call it, it is the basis of who I am.  It may not be popular or even understand by the people around me but, it is me!

Well, there are a couple of things that are on the horizon, what happens, that we shall see…

• A possible re-entry into youth ministry – the initial conversation has been had and now we will see what the Lord has in store for me.  The preliminary description of the situation seems to be primed with the chance for heartbreak and throwing myself after the kids, but, there are so many kids that could come into a real relationship with the Lord.
• And the second – a new year starting with me leading our lumber yard’s way into new marketing and communications avenues.

Whatever the route, pray that I seek out the way that God would have me go!

Oh, by the way, another one of my goals for this year is to evolve this blog into something huge!  Where that will be exactly, again, I don’t know, we’ll have to see what tis blog looks like at the end of this year!

New Years Resolution…

I am not trying to rush through the holidays or anything but stop just for a minute and take a look at what is going on in the world.  The fighting, the arguing, the killing, the starving, the diseased, the racist.  You name it, and that hatred is out there doing damage, somewhere.

What about a resolution to first try to see the world around you from the other person’s point of view.  Then we could take steps towards a better world.  Don’t misunderstand me, I am not deluded into actually thinking that we will ever have peace on this planet before He returns to set up His kingdom, here on Earth, but wouldn’t it be nice to be able to take a couple of steps?