One Pastor's Perspective

I am reminded, over and over, that Jesus Himself told us not all who claim to belong to Him really do. I pray that in the end I will be found faithful. I also pray that for you. I believe it takes great courage to stand up for Christ and Paul set a great example for us in his life. Over and over he took a stand for what is right, even in the face of the law. Not that Paul would purposely thumb his nose at the law, but when it came to his relationship with God or the law of man, he chose God. Over and over again.

I am also reminded there are “Christians” in name who, when given such a choice, will choose to hide behind the constructs of man instead of standing up.

WHICH WILL YOU DO TODAY???

SUBMIT

Yep, that is how Roy Williams, the Tarheels, and all of the Carolina Blue feel today. Kansas hit hard and often and rolled through. WOW . . . and I figured it would be close.

On the up side, Krissy has a game in Columbia on Monday, so I wouldn’t have been able to watch it anyway. It will be a great game and I might be wrong, but I think Memphis will win. But, then again, I picked UNC and UCLA to be in the final in all of my brackets, so what do I know???

My blog today could almost be identical to yesterday . . . WE WON AGAIN!!! To quote one of my favorite coaches, Lou Brown , “We won today. If we win tomorrow, that is called a STREAK.”

I just hope the streak continues tonight!!!! This will be a tough one, not only because it is South Florence, but because all of our hearts to out to Coach Herb and Coach Denise (and certainly Donnie and Trudy) in the loss of Charles Carter (Herb and Donnie’s dad). The visitation is tonight and funeral tomorrow. Pray for them!!!

A few weeks ago I blogged about leadership and team play. I have purposed myself NOT to blog too much about WF Softball this year, although it has a big piece of my heart right now.

This morning, I am glad to report that we won last night and it was a great game. What a difference made by positive attitudes!!! In the words of Forrest Gump, “That is all I have to say about that.”

Last night, Drew had a game at Maple. It was late starting because of the game before it, so I ended up watching the game on the other field with Keith and Ethan Pettigrew (ETHAN was scouting the other team). I don’t know the names, and I don’t know the people. But what I saw was a coach the knew the rules and knew how to exploit them to win a game for his 7 and 8 year olds. Yes, he was nit-picking and doing some ridiculous things to try to garner the win for his team. WHY NOT JUST LET THE KIDS PLAY AND STOP PLAYING MIND-GAMES WITH 8 YEAR OLDS AND TEENAGED UMPS????

I think it is a shame that grown men and women take all of this so seriously, but, then again, maybe THAT is why I am no longer coaching at Maple Park.

It is 6:51am . . . I AM ON!!! About to go to prayer breakfast, and then a busy morning and a 10:30 funeral. Then, an appointment, and then, IF I am good, I get to work on my sermon!!! Oh, man, do the people of EBC hope I get to do that!!!

Things look a little brighter today, but I DO wish the rain would go away so WF could play a little softball this week.

One of the hardest parts of being a pastor is to be “ON” 24/7. Because, no matter what is going on around you or in your personal life, you have to be ON. Everyone has a bad day, and who you gonna call?? Maybe your pastor (at least, BEFORE you read this). And he had better be there for you, and be ON.

When you think about the fact that everyone is human, then it makes sense that everyone has a bad day. Everyone has times when life gets tough and everyone deals with it in their own way. I will admit to you that there are times when I need to withdraw . . . Just be quiet and think through things. And, that is almost impossible when expected to be ON 24/7.

Not to whine, but I had a rough day yesterday. On several levels. And when a rough day occurs on Sunday, it is four times worse, because IF a pastor is allowed to have a bad day, it had better not be on Sunday. So what does a pastor do?? SUCK IT UP AND MOVE ON. That is all you can do. And that, in itself, is tough at times.

Pray for me today . . . in all of this, I am starting to (GULP!) like watching Bobby Knight on ESPN. There must be something wrong with me.

Weapon of Mass Destruction

Yes, there IS progress happening on our New Facilities project. Progress will be hard to see in this first few weeks because of the types of things that are happening. Our architects have issued contracts that are now being reviewed. Once these are reviewed, they will get to work FIRST on the youth assembly building and then on the overall project.

Randy Fails and I met with our RSI rep last night and started the wheels rolling with the fundraising process. We are now in the stage where strategy and planning begins. One of the keys on our end will be to COMMUNICATE, and I promise to do my best to help that happen.

One of the greatest things I have EVER seen is how God is working in all of this (I know that might not be grammtically correct, but I am at a loss for how to express this. It really IS breathtaking)