There are just times that occur in life that blow your mind and make you say, “Wow!”  I am the father of two incredible boys, Drew (almost 3 yrs old) and Sam (just turned 7 weeks old).  Those two boys are a couple of the greatest things that ever happened to me.  God has taught me so much about Himself (and myself) through these boys.  Today was  another one of those lessons.

I had taken Drew out fishing this morning before the rain came in.  We had gotten back about time for lunch, so we were eating a sandwich and some chips at the table.  Naomi had Sam and was playing with him at the other end of the table.  Drew begins to play with Sam and mess with him.  You can already tell that these guys have great potential of being really close as they grow up.  Sam begins to smile and almost laugh at his brother’s “playing with him.”  Now Sam is not one to smile nor laugh much at this time in his life.  Something about his brother just brightens him up though.

It was in that moment, as I was scarfing down my sandwich and chips that the Holy Spirit whispered to my heart, “You feel that joy welling up inside of you because them two boys are playing well with each other?  That’s what I feel when Christians live together in love with one another.”

We may have different opinions on certain aspects of our faith, but if we are what the Bible calls “brothers and sisters in Christ,” then we had better be loving one another as family because in glory, we’re going to be doing that anyways.  Jesus’ prayer for us (John 17) was that we might be “one”.  This “one” is unity.  We don’t have to see things exactly the same way in every tiny part of our beliefs (though there are some essentials).

How are you and I doing with helping Jesus’ prayer become a reality?

As many of you know, we are expecting our second son this summer. We are very excited about the new addition to our family. As we approach the due date ever so quickly, we have began to think about some of the issues that we had with our first son, Drew. I believe that it was about this time during the pregnancy with Drew that Naomi began to have blood pressure issues. She was placed on bed rest for a while to prolong the pregnancy and give Drew a chance to develop properly. The blood pressure issues got to the point that we had to induce early. But all was good because we had a beautiful and healthy baby boy.

Today, we had a checkup and have started to notice a slight raise in Naomi’s blood pressure. The doc wants to keep an eye on it and is starting to put some limits on Naomi (not bed rest yet). I ask that you be in prayer for Naomi & baby Sam that things will be okay with them and they won’t have to go through the bed rest thing. That would be one of the crulest forms of torture for me.

It won’t be terribly long now and our baby Sam will be here (due date is July 1).

Today, I was taken to lunch by a gentleman in our church whom I look up to.  He has been so great to our family since our arrival at FBC Birmingham in April 2008.  I’m totally excited about a class that this man is going to teach in our upcoming discipleship class in January.  It is going to be on how to study the bible.  This guy has some great ideas.  I knew that he was an awesome student of the Word, but this guy is creative as all get out.  It’s going to be great to see what God does through this study.

I found out that our lunch was not to just talk about the upcoming class.  This man has served as a deacon faithfully for a while.  He wanted to let me know that he feels led to be our family’s deacon.  This floored me… Here is this guy that I see as a great student of the Word wanting to be a complete servant to our family so that we can do what God has called us to do: preach the Word and pray.  God, thank you for people like this man and his family who take your Word and their relationship that seriously.

Today, I am at the house with my son watching Fox News. I find myself just shaking my head at the headlines. First, there was the finding of the “missing link.” This archaeological find of a primate skeleton that apparently is something that is not ape but not human. This is supposed to be it? And from these few bones they found, they were able to say that it walked on four legs in the trees and two on land? Please. If that wasn’t enough, there is this scandal of David Letterman being blackmailed about relations that he had with staff members. The most troubling part of this story is the reaction of the crowd to his admitting that these relationships were true: applause.

So this is the world and culture that we are to raise our children in? Romans 1 is being played out in front of our eyes. We must be alert and deliberate in our efforts to teach our children the ways of the Lord. I encourage you to pray for parents to see and accept the call of God to be the teachers and examples for our children. Also pray that our children might see the truth of God’s word in a very crazy society.

Today, our family is celebrating the birth of our son, Drew.  He turned 2 years old today.  It was so good to have family here for the celebration.  Here is some of the action…

The past five days I have spent with a group of students from our student ministry at Big Stuf Camp in Panama City Beach.  They were some great days.  I am still surprised that I didn’t get totally blistered, but I will not complain.  God spoke to each person in our group in many great ways.  I believe that the main way that God spoke to me was through 23 worship leaders.  One day of our camp, worship was led by a children’s choir from Kenya.  To hear their stories and everything was something that I will always cherish.  You had 9-13 year old children from halfway across the world who not only weren’t afraid to stand before a crowd of strangers and sing praises to the God of this universe, but they quoted from the Bible verse after verse after verse.  It was great.

I was during this summer camp that I felt released to do something that I have thought seriously about for a couple of years.  It is a dream of our family’s to one day adopt a child and show them the same love that our heavenly Father has shown to us by adopting us into His family.  We’re not at a place where we can do that right now, but one thing we can do we have.  Our family has partnered with Compassion International to sponsor a four year old child from Kenya.  The newest member of our family is George Thoya.

I’m sure that if you’ve been to a major Christian event (concert, conference, etc) then you have heard about Compassion International.  I was always a little skeptical.  I would constantly have youth wanting to sponsor a child, but would tell them to talk to their parents first.  I began to do some investigation on this group and came to found that they are very legit.  The way that they handle the money that is sent to them is very stewardly (is that a word?).

It has always been a heartbeat of mine to teach students that there is so much more than our little bubble.  There is an entire world around us that most of us have no clue about.  A world where many wonder where the next meal or shelter will come from.  A world that wonders will I be arrested or even killed for my beliefs today.  At the age of 16, I had the opportunity to go on a foreign mission trip to Thailand.  It changed my outlook on life and the world so much.  Lately, I have had a conviction that though I’m teaching students that God has put in my care to realize the bigger picture, I have slowly bought in to this “American consumerism” mentality.  The mentality that says, “well I can’t do that because I have so many bills and other financial obligations.”  That was seriously one of my excuses until God basically said, “so you love your tv more than those in this world you could help?”  (God has a way of shooting straight to the heart.)

I encourage you to take a few moments and ask God to give you a heart for this world.  Ask Him to open your eyes to the real condition of people around you and the world.  Ask Him to show you what role you can play in bringing His love to those people.

Yesterday was one of those interesting days in Alabama.  We heard the weather forecasts about snow was coming.  Being raised in Alabama, I thought the usual… it may flurry, but nothing big.  I was awoken by a very different site.

As you can see, the unusual happened here in Birmingham.  It was great though.  We got up and went outside to play in the snow as a family.

This was a picture of us outside.  This was our son’s first-ever snowball fight.  Of course, he won.  As our little one laid down at his usual time for a nap, so did us parents.  It’s not everyday that we get the chance to just stop and take a nap.  When we got up a little later, I was shocked to look out the window and see this…

All the snow was gone!  Just like it to happen that way in Alabama.  It reminded me of something important though.  Enjoy the time that you have with things.  You never know when situations will change or when things will be gone.  James 4:14 tells us, “How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.”

It looks as if this will be the last post that I make here in 2008.  Come tomorrow about lunchtime, me and Naomi will be heading off for a  little vacation… just the two of us.  We have left our little man at the grandparents’ house and are going to attempt to see what it was like some 2 years ago (before children).  I must admit, it is very weird feeling… not having the little man running around and getting into things… not having to wonder who’s going to give him a bath tonight and tuck him in.

I’ve been reminded today about just how much our Heavenly Father wants to be near us.  As I drove away and looked through the rearview mirror into an empty back seat, my heart dropped.  God reminded me that when His children aren’t where they’re supposed to be… it saddens His heart, too.

Where are you in your relationship with the Heavenly Father?