my prayer

Lots of "shocking" news swirling around lately. The death of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett on the same day had a way of overshadowing the devastating news of the extra marital affair of yet another political leader. Gov. Mark Sanford admitted to an ongoing relationship with a woman other than his wife. Lost among the hype of him being a Republican, or heading up the impeachment of Bill Clinton, or running his campaign on family values, is the fact that in the wake of this tragedy is a scorned wife, and four young sons who must now try to pick up the pieces.

Here's the bottom line. It's far too easy to look at men like the governor, ted haggard, jimmy swaggert and a whole host of others and think, "what in the heck is wrong with these people!!?" I have no idea what they were, or most likely weren't thinking, but I do know this, no one just ends up in these situations without a long trail of "little" bad decisions. There had to of been at least one point in each of their lives where the reality of what they were doing became something they chose to ignore, and that can happen to anyone. As a husband, pastor, leader, and most importantly a child of God, I have a responsibility to remain, sober, alert, and aware of the enemies desire to destroy my life. I don't sit around dwelling on the devil because greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world, but neither can I afford to be ignorant of his devices. I know that left to my own strength, I could fall as easily as the before mentioned, and I never want to bring shame to my family, church, and most importantly my God.

I believe the key to this is remaining humble. No one should climb up on their high horse and condemn those who have fallen or made mistakes. We should all in a spirit of humility, gentleness, and love, pray for restoration using the same grace you would want shown to you. I'm not saying we make excuses for anyone, nor am I saying that I'm not as guilty of judging as the next person, I just want to remember who Jesus said could cast the first stone. Let these examples be a sobering reminder that those who think they stand should take heed, lest they fall.

1 cor. 10:12-message bible- Don't be naive and self-confident. You're not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self confidence, it is useless, cultivate God confidence."

There is a simple prayer that I make almost daily, and while it should not be the only thing you communicate to God, it does reflect a simple truth I want for my life.........ready? "God, please help me today, I don't want to mess this up"

Their it is. I look at my amazing wife and beautiful girls and I pray I can be the husband and daddy they deserve. I look at the amazing privilege of being in full time ministry, and I marvel at where God has taken me by His grace. I look at my life and say God, I don't want to mess this up. I want my entire life to be about making Jesus famous. Amen.

sin rating

------christians aren't perfect. All of us at one time or another have acted in a way that you know is contrary to God's best. Maybe you have a W.W.J.D bracelet, sometimes i wear my W.W. J. L.M.G.A.W.J.O.T.I.I. W.R.S.A? (WHAT WOULD JESUS LET ME GET AWAY WITH JUST ONE TIME IF I WAS REALLY SORRY AFTERWARD) yes, i have massive wrists.

Anyways, here is where sin ratings can come in and deceive us if we are not careful. Sin ratings are much like movie ratings, designed to warn you of the severity of content. G is totally family friendly, PG may have some slightly inappropriate humor for kids, all the way up to the big R for restricted.

R rated sins are things like murder, rape, drug addiction, adultery, pornography and Donald Trumps hair, ok maybe not that last one. PG sins are often the overlooked and seemingly innocent, envy, gossip, pride, comparison, ungratefulness, and slander to name a few.

My concern is two fold

1. how are people who have either done or struggle with any "R" rated issues ever going to be set free if the church is too busy labeling them as untouchable? If you can't be transparent at church, where can you? Do we really want a congregation of people who put on their best sunday face and then go directly home to their world of struggle, guilt and shame? Jesus in his ultimate balance of grace and truth told the prostitute, "neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more". Grace equals no condemnation in Christ, truth equals allowing God to change you.

2. those of us who may not have these R rated sins in our life can become all to complacent in the battle against sin.. We assume since most of our issues are of the PG nature, we must be alright and we can sit back and judge, I mean help those who are struggling. I love the line in Hillsong''s Hosanna that says "break my heart for what breaks yours". I pray that not only concerning the injustice in the world, but also the dark areas of my own life that I have not fully surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus. Not in a legalistic look how holy I am way, but truly offering myself as a living sacrifice and being transformed more and more into the image of the one I serve.

Let's make sure we are not ignoring the PG boards in our eyes while we search out the R rated specks in others.

proverbs 8:13 "the fear of the Lord is to HATE evil, pride, arrogance and corrupt speech will not come near me"
Psalm 139:23 " Search me, O God, and know my heart;test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything that offends you, and lead me along the paths of life."

tennis part two

If anyone may have been wondering, Ava did much better this time around at her tennis lesson!! She was back to her old self which isn't exactly bold and daring, but at least she was smiling and involved. I'm not convinced tennis is going to be her racket, (sorry, terrible pun) but it sure felt good not to have the only crying child:)

uncomfortable

Uncomfortable---"a state of discomfort or uneasiness---to be conscious of stress or strain."
No one looks for ways to be uncomfortable. Try to remember the last time you watched a movie standing up. Why not? Because lounging on a couch eating chunky monkey is a much more comfortable way to view television. Uncomfortable situations can be even worse. Getting up to deliver a sermon and your zippers down or maybe the guy you work with found out you have a crush on him (both of these have happened to me, not really, just kidding, not true. Ben and I never had a bromance)

Anyways, I can only describe Ava's first tennis lesson as uncomfortable. Twenty five kids there with parents, and Ava is the ONLY one that is crying and refusing to be involved. When I say crying, I'm talking about wailing and snotting all over herself!!!(see picture of her wiping face with shirt). I didn't know what to do. I felt like every eye was locked on me to see if I was one of "those" parents. Do I force her to play, dragging her kicking and screaming to the net like a gitmo prisoner? Do I reward this action by telling her its ok and daddy won't force her to play scary tennis with these mean kids that are only pretending to have fun? Ultimately I let her hang by the fence crying while I looked for the nearest bathroom so I could give myself multiple swirlies and hope I woke up from this dream.

I wish I could say by the end she was serving aces and smashing overheads in someone's face, but not exactly. She did manage to stop crying long enough to join a group and at least pretend to participate. The crazy part was when Kendra asked her how tennis went, she said good!!!!! Lets just say I don't want to take her on one of her "bad" days!!! Here's to a better lesson two!!

can any parents relate?

2nd time around

Not a single june post may lead you to believe that little is happening in the zondervan world...........as Bart would say, "oh contrare monfrare" I plan to make up for lost time by posting more regularly this month, but I shall start out with a bit of "bad" news. Addy had her first dentist appt and lets just say her jolt cola days are OVER!!!! She had six count them six cavities at the tender age of three!!! Kendra sat there in disbelief while the dentist called social services ( not really, but that crummy parent feeling was hard to shake). I contribute our lack of dental hygiene zeal to a good old case of second time around syndrome. With Ava, we were militant in her brushing habits and made sure we were in the bathroom with her as every tooth received such tender loving care. With addy, we basically showed her once and sent her in with Ava to brush before bed. She could have been gargling sierra mist for all we knew.

I hope our image of being loving responsible parents has not been too tarnished. We have vowed to stop sending her to bed with pez dispensers and she's no longer allowed to run with scissors while sucking lollipops. What can I say, were trying.

I'll have more updates when she gets these cavities filled and hopefully they won't need to call in an anesthesiologist to get er done.