Too Busy to Blog?

I was asked this question recently and the short and simple answer is, "Yes."

I know I've been busy when I have over 80 posts in my Google Reader waiting for me on Monday morning... when I have too many emails to count (never mind respond to)... when I have more voice mails than finger nails...

There are seasons in everything and right now I'm in the final week of a 3 week stretch of full-on ministry with limited down-time. While I don't recommend it, I also recognize that sometimes this kind of schedule just happens. The solution? Plan ahead. Plan time off that both you and your spouse can look forward to. In fact, just last night, Dawn informed me that next Thursday we have a date... she's blocked off an entire afternoon and evening for lunch, a matinee, a fancy dinner and whatever else we can dream up all while friends of ours take care of Ethan.

We've learned that if there's not light at the end of the tunnel then you grow to resent the pace of ministry. We can handle the pace in short bursts provided we wisely plan another season of rest on the back end.

Maybe when I hit that season I'll start blogging again. :)

My Monday Office Visitor

I can't watch this enough...

Reading

I haven't updated my reading list in a while - not because I haven't been reading. Truth is, I've been reading a lot, but some of what I've been reading has been related to study which isn't exactly readling list worthy.

Today is a perfect reading day. Dark, wet and windy outside - thanks to Ike - but its the perfect excuse to ditch the yard work and catch up on a few chapters (and some College GameDay Football).

One quick note on two of the books I've recently read... Reveal and Follow Me have both received a lot of attention lately. Many have suggested that these books "reveal" that the "seeker" movement doesn't work. This isn't at all what Willow suggests - and they make it quite clear that these books are not a confession nor are they an indication that they are ceasing to seek seekers. The irony in all of this, to me at least, is that the very ones suggesting that Willow is repenting (and that Reveal proves it) are the same people who loudly criticize the tendency of others to read into the text of Scripture. Weird. Seems like if they cared so much about text, context, exegesis and eisegesis they would at the very least also try to practice the principle of consistency.

But maybe that's just me.

Never Get Tired

Stumbled across some old pictures of my little boy that I hadn't seen a while. I never get tired of seeing his little face...



how could you not love a face like that?

New Zealand

Call me late, but don't call me a liar. It only took me a few months, but at long last here are some snaps from my time in New Zealand...

Enjoy!

Solitude

I took a much needed break recently - a break from work, from life, and even from blogging. I needed to Sabbath. I needed solitude.

Solitude is one of the most underrated spiritual practices in our culture. We're so engrossed in doing that the mere thought of solitude makes us shudder. But lately I've found that life is screaming so loud that if I fail to seek solitude then often times I fail to really seek God. It's not that I stopped praying, mind you, but I found that what I was praying was growing increasingly shallow. And it wasn't that I didn't seek God, its just that I was spending more time seeking answers from Him than I was seeking Him as the answer.

So not long ago I took a day off of work - a personal day - and I went to a small chapel in Dallas relatively undiscovered by the populous and just talked with God. I prayed. I worshiped. I journaled. And there in the quiet of that stone walled chapel I realized how desperately I needed that time.

I left with a new commitment to seek solitude like this once a quarter. It brought so much clarity to my relationship with God, to my focus in life and my focus in ministry that I simply cannot afford not to seek it out on a regular basis.

Looks like it's true what they say, "silence is golden."