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Small Town Gossip

With small towns come gossip, but the worst to me is church gossip. One thing I have never liked about living in a small town is the gossip. Most of the time if you got in trouble in my hometown your parents would know before you ever got home. My favorite story was when I was in high school, I got pulled over for speeding on my way to school and the cop gave me the option to either get a ticket or he could call my dad... If I would've had the money I would've definitely happily taken the ticket, but as it was I was as broke as Hulk Hogan. Plus I knew dad would find out anyway.. So I told him to make the call.

But back to church gossip, it amazes me that one person can open their mouth and like wildfire rumors run rampantly through town. With today's technology it's only a matter of minutes before what you say can be known across the country. When my wife and I released our news of pregnancy on Facebook it seemed as though 90% of the community knew in a matter of minutes... and then... Last week when we posted the link to The Moore The Merrier with the news we got from the doctor, within a day and a half we had just shy of 400 page views. The internet along with social networking sites can be used for amazing things... Even reuniting family members, but they can also be a very easy to use mass gossip headquarters for someone with evil on their mind. I guess what I don't understand though is why people feel as though it is ok to lie about a church and then spread it around town, and then on top of that, others just blindly take what they say as Gospel and continue the trend. I am a firm believer that you should always make sure that what someone is telling you is the truth. Whether it is your Sunday School Teacher, Your Preacher, or even Joe Blow down the street. I read a book one time (yea I know it's shocking right) but the author was challenging his readers throughout the book to not just believe what he was writing, but to go out and check it. Do the research to make sure what you are hearing is the truth!

Unfortunately I don't know how to stop church gossip. All I can say is check things out for yourself. With small towns I think this will always be a challenge, but maybe if we are more conscious of what we are saying to others it could help.

Praying for Friends

Well, as of today, our friends Adam and Annie and the four others who make up their mission team, are in Brazil for a little over a week. They will be primarily working in schools and churches while they are there. Adam has made a handful of trips to Brazil now and absolutely loves it. This week I just ask that we would all remember them and pray for them often!

Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for all the many blessings you so graciously give us. I pray today for this missions team, for Adam and Annie and their friends. I ask that you would keep them safe in their travels, and that you would help them to be the best Christian examples they could be. I thank you for their willingness and abilities to serve you, and I just ask that you would comfort and guide them through their trip. I pray for the lives that they might touch while they are there, that they would have open and gracious hearts. I pray for the friends and family members of the mission team, that you would comfort them as well in this time apart. I pray that through this time, the mission team would not only grow others closer to you, or grow closer to each other, but that they would also grow closer to you. Last and most of all, I pray that you would allow them to have fun. Let this be a time to make happy memories of sharing the gospel! Lord I love you and I thank you, it's in Your name I pray. Amen

Smokeless Faith

Being very involved in the youth department at my church this is a topic I have to bring up.. I started the occasional smoking at around 16, being in a small town you could always find the one store who didn't ID. By 18 I had a serious smoking habit, and at 21 I would smoke around a pack a day. When I moved back home from college I became active in our church band and very active in the youth program. It was the night of June 24th 2009 when I finally broke down. I was sitting outside my Mom and Dad's house on what I had designated my smoking bench having a smoke and playing my guitar. I can't remember the song I was playing, I just remember playing it over and over and all of a sudden I broke into tears and dropped the cigarette. I was an example to these teenagers and they looked up to me, what kind of example was I setting when I showed up reeking of smoke chewing a piece of mint gum to "disguise" it. My problem however comes with the different viewpoints in tobacco. Why is it that a 21 year old can understand that smoking is an obvious betrayal of true leadership and older men in the church with leadership positions view their chewing tobacco as no big deal? (Titus 2:6-8)

My biggest complaint is the double standard. If I was to take a pack of cigarettes to church and go around to the men who dip snuff after church and offer them all a cigarette I guarantee they would all look at me like I had 3 heads. Just because your tobacco can't make smoke rings doesn't mean it influences anyone any less. I challenge us all to take a look at our lives and see what kind of example we are being for the younger generations. Just because you drive a Ford pickup and wear Wranglers doesn't mean you have to have a "Skoal ring".

Time of Re:flection

Do you know what bugs me? I told the guys this on our way to Alabama. I can't help but think that billboards that say "rent me" or "available" must not be that effective of billboards. While yes, I did read it, it obviously isn't doing a real great job or it wouldn't be empty... Maybe that's just how my mind works, but oh well.

Speaking of our trip though, last night both team 1 and team 2 came together to discuss our trips to Alabama for the first time for our church. We were all able to share our personal experiences and what meant the most to us in the trip. It was really good to hear the same stories I've had but from different perspectives and I really enjoyed the time we all got to stand up in front of our church and pour out our stories and thankfulness to them! I'm not sure there was a single person on the stage who grabbed that mic and after talking for a few moments weren't fighting away tears. With hundreds of pictures that were taken scrolling on the screens and each one of us sharing our own little story it was such an amazing time to truly relive our trip. I don't know if the congregation enjoyed it as much as I did, but I really enjoyed that time with the same group that we bonded with on our trip. It became a joke while we were there... One of the gentlemen who was with us, Jeff, was joking around with one of the women, Kim, and she replied to him, "Jeff, just because we go on one mission trip together doesn't mean we're going to be best friends forever." While all of us got an enormous laugh from this, it couldn't be farther from the truth. The time that we spent together in those rough circumstances did bring us together and honestly I think that anyone of us would be willing to leave tomorrow to go do it again.

Last night was a great time for me, I had a great time with the crew. The trip left tons of questions in my mind that I'll probably never know the answers to, but last night helped to reassure me that the good deeds we did up there outweigh the questions I might have.

Welcome to Hurricane Season

So, we are now in June, the beginning of hurricane season. My home town, being hit in 2004 by Hurricane Charlie, knows all too well what hurricane season can bring. The national weather team is already predicting around 18 named storms and up to 6 major hurricanes this year.

I guess I just wanted to bring this up because of the disaster that is everywhere else. Visiting Alabama reminded me so much of what it was like after Charlie for us, and it makes me want to be prepared for the worst this year. I mean I'm not planning to put the storm shutters up all summer, but I do want to make an effort to have some supplies incase we need them. It doesn't take much time or money to stock up on some of the essential items you might need, and if you don't know where to start there are plenty of resources to help you in that as well. The one item I would always suggest would be water... And not just bottled drinking water. Take old milk jugs, etc. And when you empty them, rinse them out and fill them with tap water and store them somewhere cool. Having extra water on hand will always be handy! Or... If you can afford it, get an in ground pool installed! Those are really nice when you don't have water.. Trust me!

With the victims of the Alabama storms still on mind, I just ask that you would continue to pray for them.

Sleep... I mean, Quiet. Time!

This past weekend being in Alabama on our mission trip it seemed easier than ever to get in my quiet times. I guess some would say that's because being in Alabama I was already in Heaven.. But I really did notice that being on a mission trip helped me to really focus in on my quiet time with God. Maybe it was the devastation around us showing me how blessed we really are, or maybe it was that I needed all the spiritual help I could get to be the best Christian I could... For whatever reason it was, I'm glad, and I pray that I can continue that amount of devotion. ;-) (lol devotion... See what I did there...) Why is it that we can always find time to do what we want, and when our schedules get full the first thing to go is our quiet time? We are supposed to give God our first, our best, NOT our leftovers..

I challenge you and I both to evaluate our quiet time faithfulness. If it means reading your Bible for a quick 5 minutes before you go to work, or maybe a couple verses before you get on Facebook, but make it the way you start your day. If you start your day in God's word you never know the difference throughout your day it could make. Maybe it will take a trip to Alabama to get your quiet times in order.. But I pray that whatever it takes you would be willing to do it!

Psalm 119:33-40