Cooperland

Last week, I quickly posted my thoughts on working long days.

Lately, my job (my “real” job) has me and my co-workers working upwards to twelve hours per day including weekends.  Through all of this working two thoughts have come to mind:

1. I have a new-found respect for men/women who work these long hours on a regular basis.

In fact, it is normal for them to pull 50+ hours per week.  I’m used to 40 hours even.  No more.  No less.  But I’m learning that these long hours are tiring, but sometimes necessary.

2. “Sometimes when we ask God for a harvest he gives us a handful of seeds. Stop expecting a handout, & do some work.”

God gave me this thought on July 4th.  What’s funny is that God knows I could use the extra cash so he’s given me an opportunity to work extra hours to get overtime pay.  Wow!  God’s got a wicked sense of humor.

I really do despise long days.  What I mean by “long” is the days that I spend long hours doing something that’s mentally and/or physically draining.  Yesterday was a long day.  Today is expected to be one, too.  In fact, this entire week is planned to be long.

But at the end of these long days I can sit back and revel in the knowledge that God has taken care of me, and got me through it yet again.  Wow!  How awesome is God?

I read on Facebook earlier that a person in the U.S. lives an average of 27,375 days.  I’m not sure if this number is correct, but simple math proves that a person would live approximately 70-75 years.  So, even if it isn’t correct, it’s probably close.

This got me thinking: how many days have I lived?  The answer: 10,345.  This gives me 17,030 days left to live assuming that I’ll live for the number of days above.  The question now is how will I live these days.  The only answer I can give is the best I can while making sure that God is first in everything I do, as well as, spending as much time with Bridgett and my family as I can.

Do the math, and leave me a comment with how many days you have left and how you’ll use those days.

Something to think about before the end of the work week.

At our churches, we are always looking to do something new.  Are we really doing something new or are we doing something old and claiming it as new?

Just a thought.

What’s your take?

So true!

Makes me wonder why we (and I mean WE for our own individual lives) rationalize a problem away instead of eliminating it when it is recognized.

What’s your take?

Two words stuck out to me this morning reading Genesis 1. They were “Then God,” and I read them in verse 3. Here’s verses 2-3a,

“The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God…” (NKJV, emphasis mine).

There was no form or reason to anything of the earth. It was chaotic. “Then God” showed up. God came on the scene, and everything changed.

It got me thinking.  How many times have you thought that Murphy’s Law had just taken affect in your life?  Where everything is going to hell in a hand basket, then you had a “Then God” moment?  That miraculous moment when God seemingly shows up (although he’s always been there), and turned all of your circumstances back around to your favor.

If you’re that person who’s going through too much where it seems that you can’t handle it anymore?  Where you just need some relief from all of your problems?  Please hold on for your “Then God” moment.  God hasn’t left you, and we won’t now or ever.  And if you want me to pray for you, then please leave me a comment, and I will.

While driving to work this morning a revealing question popped into my head: “What’s my motivation?” In other words, why do I do the things that I do?  What inspires me to accomplish a task?  What gets me up in the morning?  Why do I go to work?  To church?  To anywhere?

Here’s the way I see it.  Everything gets accomplished through some sort of motivation.  We are either motivated by forces outside of our control or we motivate ourselves.  Either way, motivation is what gets us up to accomplish whatever we need to do.

Back to me.  What motivates me?  Sadly, I’m not always sure.

I know how I want to be motivated.  Simply put: to make God smile.  I just want to make God happy.  Like a son wanting to make his dad smile.  But I can’t say that this is always true for things that I do.  And, that makes me sad.

I’m not perfect.  I never claim perfection, because I know I’m fallible, and although I am a youth pastor I pray that other people will know this, too.  But that doesn’t exempt me from trying, and from here on out I’m making a life-changing choice in determining that everything I do will be influenced by one sole motivation: to make God smile.

So, chime in!  What’s your motivation?

On this month, day, minute and even day of the week 28 years ago, I came into existence. Yep. It was Saturday, March 6, 1982. My birth date. 1:22 P.M. My birth time. The point in time when God revealed me to the world in full glory. Then, He sat back, looked at me, and said “I’m done. Here lies perfection.” Ha ha! Maybe not exactly like that.

Thinking about my life brings a lot of things to my mind. A quick list would be:

• Why was I born in South Carolina?  Why not another state or even another country?
• Why did I grow up a part of the IPHC?
• How cool was it to race bicycles around my parents house?
• It was more awesome when I hit a golf ball over the same house with a sand wedge (woohoo, I didn’t break a window!).

Honestly, what comes to my mind every year on my birthday is how God chose my birth date and time to bring me into human life.  Then how he chose my parents and family.  Then how he chose where I was to live, grow up, and reside.  Then who he chose what schools I would attend.  What friends I’d hang with.  What teacher’s I’d have.  What companies I’d work for.  What churches I’d serve.  My wife.  My personality.  My likes and dislikes.  My interests.  My calling as a pastor.

Then I think about the future.  How God will direct my life day-by-day.  How many kids will I have: blood-born and adopted?  How long will Bridgett and I be alive together?  Will we ever move to another community, state, or country?  Where will God take us?  Will God allow me to become a senior pastor?

These are just a few questions that I have.  And to think of it, I don’t want answers right now.  I want experience them as the answers are provided.  I love my life, and can’t wait for what’s next.

I’m not much of a traveler.  I’ve never rode on an airplane, or a bus, or a train (unless you count the one in Dollywood).  In fact, the farthest I’ve ever been away from home is Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas while on my honeymoon, and that was on a cruise.  Driving has taken me to Virginia, Tennessee, and Florida, but that’s about it.

Even though I don’t travel much, I can say one thing.  It’s good to finally arrive home.  To see the yard and walk in the front door to find the one place I feel the safest (from a human perspective) and the most familiar.  And to lay in my bed with Bridgett beside me is the greatest.  There’s just something about arriving home.

How cool and awesome will it feel to finally arrive home in Heaven?  To walk through it’s gates, and to see Jesus face-to-face, and to get to worship my Father God for all eternity.  Sure, I can be in God’s presence here on Earth, but there won’t be anything like finally arriving home, and to know that I won’t ever have to leave.

Awesome.  Simply, awesome.

I cannot count the number of stories that I’ve heard from people about their experience of learning to swim. One of the more popular stories involves having their father pick them up and throw them into a pool or lake with the purpose of the kid’s survival skills to kick in. In other words, either sink or swim.

Over the past 4 weeks (and for another 2), I was thrown into a sink or swim situation at work. I was quickly hired in order to fill in for a lady taking maternity leave. I received no formal training; only what I could pick from the brain of the lady I would be filling in for. This lasted for 3 days. Then the baby came. From here on, I am on my own. Commence freaking out. Or maybe not.

Sink or swim situations are extremely uncomfortable. There’s no denying that. One reason is because it involves risking yourself, and risking anything brings an unknown of the future.  Will I sink or swim?  Will I fail or succeed?

It also involves hard work in order to succeed.  Nothing easy about a sink or swim situation.  If you want to succeed, then it’s time to get the ball rolling, and get to work.

As long as the person works hard to succeed, then it doesn’t matter the outcome. Personal growth is in the work, not the outcome.

What sink or swim situation have you ever been in?