Slow Down

"Oh, I don't want to let go
Of all the things that I know
Are keepin me away from my life.
Oh, I don't want to slow down.
No, I don't want to look around,
But I can't seem to work it out,
So help me God."
--"Slow Down" by Third Day

24Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
--Matthew 16:24-26

For those of you that don't know, I have about a 45 minute drive one way to work each day. During this time I have plenty of opportunities to listen to many different things on the radio or I can switch to a CD. Most mornings I listen to Rick & Bubba and then in the afternoons I listen to Sportscall. This morning after Man2Man at church I didn't really have the urge to listen to Rick & Bubba, nothing against them but something in me just said to listen to the new Third Day CD. My dad and I went to the Music Builds Tour in B'ham last Thursday and he bought the new CD but is letting me borrow it this week. It's awesome and I'm going to have to buy my own copy! So I popped it in and down the road I went.

At Man2Man this morning we talked about Matthew 16:24-26 and how that relates to our daily walk with Christ. One of the topics that kept coming up was how busy we can get going about our lives and how easy that makes it to forget about or ignore God. We can get so caught up in trying to make another dollar or doing that next deal that we think we can handle it on our own. We think we know what's best for us when in fact, God our creator ultimately knows exactly what we need. We need Him.

We have to slow down and let God do His thing. We have to be humble and take the time to listen to what He has to say. I'm not always the best at doing that. I get up early in the morning to go to work and many days I work late. Time is precious when I get home. It's easy to go about my day and feel very frustrated when I go to bed. I'm tired and I don't feel like I've accomplished much. I'm learning that if I just slow down, take a breath, and let God take control I will be in much better shape. It should be a simple thing for us to accept but our sinful nature trips us up. I'm constantly working on letting go and slowing down.

At first I didn't draw a connection between the song and the scripture but after I kept repeating the song it hit me. I think God was saying "you're gonna listen to this song until you hear what it's saying!" At least that's the way it struck me. You might have different thoughts about it.

A Few More Songs

What I Needed

Man2Man

Today was the first meeting at Cornerstone (our church - www.cornerstonebuzz.org) of Man2Man. What is Man2Man you might ask? It's a new weekly meeting on Tuesday mornings at 6:15 AM of the men in the church and any other men in the community that want to attend. The purpose is to bring men together to uplift them and hold them accountable for subjects and things in life that are uniquely....well, men stuff. There will be a brief message from the Bible and somebody will share a real life story each week then we'll break up into smaller groups for discussion and wrap up with prayer. Oh yeah, breakfast, juice, and coffee are included for free!

We had an awesome story and testimony today from Mark Fuller and Josh Agerton (Pastor of Connections - www.joshagerton.com) gave a brief message on The Armor of God from Ephesians 6:10-18. Any guys in the Auburn-Opelika area that might read this I strongly encourage you to attend. I truly believe God has ordained these meetings and lives will be changed.

Sweet Friends

I believe that a mark of true friendship is that no matter how long it has been since you have seen someone you feel like no time has passed. Not that you aren't sad you have missed out on events in the person's life but that their presence is always comfortable and easy. I got to have some precious (and unexpected) time this weekend with some true friends, one of whom I had not seen in over a year because she has been in Asia since last August! God has blessed me with amazing friendships and I am so thankful for them! Having even a short time with my friends was just refreshing for my soul and the distance between all of us made me value our time and our friendship even more!

Absolutely One of the Funniest Things EVER

This should probably not be as funny as it is...but it made me cry I laughed so hard at it. Call me a bad person because this probably isn't uplifting to these people but they really couldn't have taken themselves seriously. There are very few things I have ever seen that are this funny!

A little disclaimer though...I haven't checked out the rest of this blog so beyond this page I am not responsible for what you might find if you look around. You never know in the blogging world...

http://listoftheday.blogspot.com/2007/09/great-olan-mills-photos.html

Fall is Coming!

Ok, so it's hard to concentrate at work today. The first college football games of the season were on last night (congrats to Vandy on the win!) and tomorrow is the start of Auburn Football! Let's face it, Auburn should win and win big tomorrow. LA-Monroe (or ULM as they prefer to be called) will probably put up a good fight in the 1st half but we should be able to stretch the lead in the 2nd half. We usually struggle the first few series in the first game but if nothing else our depth should outlast them. I predict at least a 2 touchdown win. Maybe something like 34-17.

Meredith and I will be going to the game Saturday. We should make it to all the home games this year and plans are in the works to go to the Vandy game in Nashvegas on Oct. 4th. Cornerstone (our church) will be taking a team to New Orleans Nov. 5-9 so at least one of us will miss the homecoming game against TN-Martin on Nov. 8th. We haven't determined whether or not we'll both be able to go to NOLA, but we want to.

One quick (kind of) story and then I'll finish. Yesterday I had one of the most amazing experiences of my life while at work. As most of you know I'm a big hunter, or at least I try to be. I love deer hunting and I'm working my way into duck hunting, which I'm now obsessed with, just ask Meredith.

Well yesterday I was out supervising a crew that was spraying some kudzu. It was our last spot of the day and it was a rough, nasty one. Well, earlier in the day we had seen two spotted fawns jump up out of the kudzu and run off. If you don't know, spotted fawns will bed down and won't move sometimes even if you nearly step on them. They don't have much scent and stand a much better chance of surviving foxes and coyotes if they sit still. Anyway, on this last spot one of the guys nearly stepped on a spotted fawn. The crew is Hispanic and speaks very little English so our communication is broken at best. I knew they found something because they all started yelling but I thought it was a snake until I heard the fawn start screaming. I walked towards them and up the hill comes one of the guys carrying a spotted fawn and he hands it off to me. Before I know it I'm holding a kicking and screaming spotted fawn that's probably less than a week old! It was so cool! I didn't know what to do. I held it and petted it to try to calm it down and it eventually quit kicking but kept screaming. John, the other forester I work with, pulled up right about this time and I showed it to him. About the time we were trying to check the sex of it the thing kicked one good time and I dropped it. It popped up and took off running away into some thicker cover. It was ok but quite scared.

For a moment while I was holding the fawn it felt like the world just stopped. It looked at me and I looked at it almost as if we both said, "Why are you holding me?!" Then it went back to kicking and screaming. I have a nice little cut in the middle of my chest where it kicked me the last time but that's alright. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. They are such beautiful animals and that experience helps me appreciate them even more. I will still hunt them but I don't do it for the sake of killing. The challenge of chasing such a majestic animal and experiencing God's creation is one I hope I will always be able to enjoy. I harvest very few animals each year and I thank God each time for the bounty his creation provides.

In that fawn I saw God. I saw and held one of his wild creatures and it was incredible! God is such a wonderful maker!