This Is My Life...

I have been really introspective lately. I dont know why and I am not sure that I like it. Not that I dont like self examination, it's just that I know it leads to change and I am not all that big of a fan of change. I really listened to the words of the Switchfoot song some time ago and the words are stuck in my head..."This is your life are you who you want to be?" So that is my question I ask myself every morning and every chance that I get now when I think of some of the parts of my life that make me, well, me. I am going to take some time here and write about them as they come to mind. Not because I want anyone to read them , but obviously I don't care if anyone does because I am posting them here, but because I want to be able to come back to what I have written and see just how I am measuring mylife. This is the Measurement of Mike afterall! I think I am really doing this because I am growing out of my comfort zone and I know I am capable of so much more and called to much more than I am doing now. I dont know what I expect to find...yeah I do i just think I dont want to see it. Here I go....

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!
Mike

Perspective

I heard this quote the other day, I forgot who I heard say it, but it has stayed with me since I heard it and this morning it is really resonating with my heart.

"To the world I am one, but to One I am the world."

What an amazing thought.
Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!
Mike

I like Starbucks--Not This Much

I like Starbucks--Alot! I pass several of them on my way to various places. I am a regular at several stores--I spend alot of time writing in the ones near my house and I chill in one while mom gets her dialysis done. Never ever would I have ever thought to hit all of the Starbucks in my area in one day. This guy did though! I think he hit something like 171 stores in the Manhattan area. Crazy Caffeine Junky! That is just a cry for help. Check it:





Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!
Mike

God--The Show Off

"There is a pattern that I see repeated throughout the Scriptures: Sometimes God won't intervene until something is humanly impossible. And he usually does it just in the nick of time." --Mark Patterson, In a Pit With a Lion On a Snowy Day

Isn't that the truth. Doesn't it always seem like God doesn't move in a situation that is rough on you until it seems there is no possible way out. It is almost like being in the deep end of the pool and not knowing how to swim and feeling yourself going under. You have gasped your last breath of air and have just about resigned yourself to the fact that this might be the last breath you will take, and then from no where someone jumps in and saves you. The bible says in Jeremiah that at just the right time God hears our cries for help and reaches down to save us. That is the hard part of this thing called faith. We have to trust that God knows exactly when that right time is. It would seem like the situations that help form our faith are the ones that are the roughest on us; the ones that push us beyond our known limits of endurance without completely breaking us to the point of no return. We come out of those situations with a deeper faith and trust in God than we had before we entered our rough times--that is if we maintain our trust in God and don't give up before we have had the chance to let God be God in our situations. I think the best part of being God must be the ability to show off when ever you want to. He lets us get to the point we are almost at our breaking point and then intervenes and puts everything back in its right place and restores order in our lives. I am Glad I serve a God like that. He allows me to get pushed out of my comfort zone and into situations where I have rely on Him for bigger and bigger intervention so my faith is built up and my relationship and dependence on Him increase.

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!
Mike

Aquafina = Tap Water In A Bottle

=

I saw this while browsing the news and a sense of justification came over me! I have been saying for a very long time that bottled water from the big soda companies was a scam. The whole selling ice to eskimos thing comes to mind. According to new reports Pepsi is now going to put the fact that Aquafina water comes from a public source. Meaning it is tap water. The only place I would feel safe drinking tap water is in San Francisco where the majority of their water comes from Yosemite and needs very little processing to make it drinkable.

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!

Mike

Tomorrow Never Comes

Driving home from an appointment today I had a random thought about tomorrow. It never comes. Yesterdays always happen. Another one is added every time we go to sleep and wake up again. It is always today. I am sitting in Starbucks right now waiting for my truck to get its new tires on--today. I am not in Starbucks tomorrow. I may plan to go to Starbucks and write tomorrow, but if I do make it there I will be doing it today again. I never get to work in tomorrow. Every time I am doing something I was going to do tomorrow, it is always today. Maybe that is why the bible says not to worry about tomorrow. Its pointless...it never comes.

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing TODAY!
Mike

A Walk to Remember

Tonight I took a walk. This may not seem like a big deal to most folks, but I have a hard time walking and use a cane to help balance myself. Tonight's walk was something of an eye opener for me. I realize just how great is. I live in a great neighborhood, that is partially undeveloped so I was able to enjoy a lot of nature tonight. The sky, the stars, the sounds--it was just beautiful. It made me almost sad because I do live in such a good neighborhood. I realized that I am part of the fortunate few--not everyone gets to enjoy the luxury of walking around their neighborhood alone at night. Even if they did, very few have the time to walk around their neighborhood just for the sake of taking a walk. You never know what you take for granted until you almost can't do it anymore. Sometimes we just need to slow down in our lives and see the things we miss when we are going full speed ahead.

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!
Mike

Not Why But Who

"The question we need to ask ourselves when God allows us to go through hard times is not why but who? In the mind of God, pain always has two intended recipients: us and someone else. If we choose not to take what we've experienced and find some way of using it to help other people, we miss a large part of why God allowed us to suffer in the first place." --Brian Jones, Second Guessing God

This switch in the mode of thinking can be powerful. It changes our situation from "poor me" to who can I help with my my learning through suffering. It puts us into the service oriented line of thinking that we are taught as disciples. It allows us to have some power in our suffering instead of us feeling completely worked over and powerless.

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!
Mike

Tapas and Tithing

Last night I went to a bible study that some friends have in a store front . The leader said something that really made sense to me. We always hear preachers talking about giving to God and tithing. People really have it confused when they think that they are giving to God when they are tithing. God said that the first tenth of what we have is His. When we give that to God we are giving what is already His to begin with. When we have not given anything out of the remaining 90% of what we have left then we essentially have not yet given anything to God. How incredible is it that we have a hard time as the Body of Christ giving what He has said is already His, let alone giving anything that is ours to Him. I just thought that was a great point that she brought up.

We also happened upon a great restaurant last night across the shopping center where the bible study was held. The restaurant was called Honda Ya. It billed itself as a Japanese Pub. everything on the menu was like appetizer portion. I pretty much considered it a Japanese tapas bar. The food was excellent. We grubbed on California rolls, kalbe ribs, tempura, sausage tempura, and some tonkatsu. There is some stuff there for everyone. I was with my mom and she is not a big raw stuff eater so I didn't try any of that. their menu is extensive and it looks like I found a hangout.

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!
Mike

New Car Smell of Faith

I have always believed that there was more to being a follower of Christ than just saying a cute little prayer. It has been an annoying presence in my life to think that the church has failed new Christians in huge ways by not telling them of sacrifice and service. We promise them that their lives will be changed, but often times it is not the immediate change that they were expecting. They get through the honeymoon period of salvation where they tell all their friends and family that they are saved and how their lives are changed and then that feeling ends. The salvation buzz wears off and they realize that the changes they were expecting to see haven't happened yet and the miracles they were waiting on haven't manifested themselves yet. Brian Jones in his book Second Guessing God says that for him when he started having doubts it was like the new car smell wore off on his faith.

By the third page of his book I knew I had found a new favorite author. The first of the best passages in the book (and there are many) comes from a conversation between him and one of his mentors.

Brian: "My faith in God right now is like a walk on the beach. Ive taken off my shoes, and as i stand at the water's edge, the tide has started to roll across my feet. It feels wonderful. Up to this point my spiritual journey had been incredible, but in the last six months doubt has begun to paralyze me. It's like when the water goes back out to the ocean. It is washing away the sand underneath me, and my feet keep sinking lower and lower and lower. If this keeps up, there wont be anything left to stand on."

Mentor: "Brian, I have stood where you're standing. Ive felt the water cascade across my feet. I know how wonderful it feels. But Ive also had the water go back out to sea. I've felt the sand get washed out from underneath my feet...When the last grain of sand is finally gone, you're going to discover that you're standing on a rock."

That is awesome. First to know that we don't go through things that others around us haven't been through. Second to know that as deep as the sand around us might seem, we have a foundation that we have built our house and our faith on. When it seems like we are sinking and have no hope left we will hit our rock and that will keep us from sinking any further. Sometimes I think those rough times hit our lives because we need to get back to the basics of our faith and our walk with Christ. those times usually help us get closer to Him and reinforce the faith that helped us start our walk with Him to begin with.

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing