Feeling like I am 5

Every once in a while, actually it's quite often that my wife tells me to act my age that I am acting like I am .... usually its around 12 but its been as low as 5. Well last night we were out driving around and it started absolutely pouring rain. It rained so hard so quickly that there were huge puddles in the low spots of roads. Yeah, you know where this is going. We sat there in the parking lot of a store eating our ice cream and I watched car after car go splashing through the big puddles. So when we finished I made a detour to get home so that we could drive through puddle after puddle. I sat there giggling like a 5 year old as we drove through puddle after puddle. I even turned around and went through them a second time. It was a blast and this morning my heart feels 20 some years younger. Ahh

In about three weeks it will one year since I began really diving into God's word and storing it in my heart. It started with a men's retreat I went on with church. I remember Jason challenging us to learn 1 John 2:14 that weekend...it had been a long long time since I was in Sunday school and had to remember a verse. I remember sitting there thinking, there is no way I can remember all those words.

I was surprised at how easy it was for me to learn that verse, I think the difference from now and then was that I was storing them in my heart. As I think back to my Sunday school days and even my 13 years of Christian education there were a lot of verses I regurgitate back to my teachers but there isn't one I still remember. I think after 24 hours those words were erased from my brain.

Fast forward 10-20 years from my Sunday school and Christian education days and I am now a man who truly understands what Christ did for me. I think it is also that I understand the importance of storing up God's words in my heart. So I slowly began putting more and more of his words into my heart. I still have a bit of pessimism in me though. Just about everytime I set the goal to learn new verses I start out thinking that I won't be able to do it.

So as I look back today, with my pessimistic side, I can't believe that in one year I memorized 20 verses...21 if you count John 11:35. A year ago, sitting around that circle of men, I never would have guessed that verse would turn into what it is...God living in me.

Hot

Holy heat. Trying to beat the heat today by staying in doors this afternoon. I will be venturing out tonight to try a little bass fishing with one of my nephews...should be a good evening to fall overboard.

I do have a story on how to not beat the heat...do not try this it doesn't work. A few years ago, when I was younger and not as bright, I was with a co-worker at our tree farm on a similarly hot day. At the time we were taking lunch in a un-air condtioned truck. We were complaining to eachother about how hot it was and how aweful it was to be outside in such weather. Seeings we had at least another 5 hours to enjoy the wonderfully warm weather we began discussing ways we could beat the heat. One idea led to another which led us to ponder; what if we took the rest of our lunch in the truck with the windows rolled up and the heat on high? Would it feel cooler outside when we returned to work? Now that I look back I can see we were definately in the early stages of heat exhaustion if we hadn't already moved into the heat stroke category. Why would you sit in a enclosed vehicle with the heat on when it is 95 +/- degrees outside. Needless to say it didn't feel cooler outside when we finished our lunch inside our 130 degree vehicle and ventured back out into the cool 95 degree heat.

These past few weeks I have really felt a tug on my heart to go deeper into God's word. I miss the group of guys I had been meeting with weekly to talk about what we were reading and dealing with in life. I look forward to the end of our "summer break" and returning to those awesome times of discovery. It has been so easy to blow off my quiet time lately, excuses flow from my brain faster than I can think. I'm late, I could use an extra 10 minutes at work, I've got to eat breakfast...surely God will understand I need nurishment. Man, what a hoser I've been. God bring me the nurishement of your words. Fill me up with your breath. Open my ears, wipe the crusties off these tired eyes, and come permeate this soul.

Dancing in the rain

I'm dancing, I'm dancing (In my best Bob Wiley voice from What about Bob)

Hopefully it doesn't stop raining until tomorrow morning...that would make me happy.

Still dancing

Still dancing and praying for rain...please rain

Rain Dance

Busy doing my rain dance...

Three day work weeks

Five days worth of work in three days is a killer. I am thankful for the long weekend last weekend but I have sure paid for it this week at work. I guess I am thankful it is Friday today...even though it does not seem like a Friday.