Husbands, love your wives...

Every time I read Ephesians 5 and get to the admonition: "Husbands love your wives", I can't help but think about the start of a Nascar race: "Gentlemen, start your engines". But I digress...

Although I have not done this nearly enough in my 21 year marriage, I am convinced of the great value of farming out the kids and getting away with your spouse on a regular basis. For Maureen, this is one of the most practical ways for me to show her how much I love and adore her. 

So, tomorrow, on our 21st wedding anniversary, we are heading over to Annapolis, Maryland to "get away from it all" for a little while. No pets, no kids, no jobs, just us.  And thanks to Hotwire we get to stay at a four star hotel at a roach motel price. I look forward to making this investment into my marriage this weekend.

What are you investing in this weekend?

Someone is probably watching...

Check out this LINK.

And the moral of this story is, don't sell bumper stickers at your church.

This is funny stuff...

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Ed You

ng

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

I like it when a totally legitimate pastor gets air time on a great show like Colbert!

Are you with me?

I'm seriously considering a half marathon this year but am enjoying the easy pace of my morning 5k.

I've been in this place spiritually as well and know that sometimes you have to shake things up to make it fresh. Maybe a different routine, praying in a different place (or out loud), engaging in a fast, or memorizing whole chapters of the Bible.

Whatever it is, if you want to reach big goals, then you have to do some radical things. For me to reach my half marathon goal, I will need to increase my morning run distance and to gain more of God's heart, I will change how I pray by praying through some of the classic Scriptural prayers and making them mine.

How about you?

Also known as the elevator test...

I'm reading through a pdf copy of Tony Morgan's new book Killing Cockroaches and came upon this question on page 29:

At Destiny, I think we have this one down: 

-From your Sunday morning experience, you can head to 101 to learn more about Destiny or to Starting Point to engage in conversation about your growing faith. 

-From there you can connect with others in a more social Married Life Live event or at a Men's or Women's event. 

-And then, the place where we hope everyone can grow, is in our message-based Life Groups where we go deeper with Sunday's message together in groups of 10-14.

Now, would you like paper or plastic?

I'm a sucker for something free... VII

After every high school swim meet, my daughter's swim team converges on our local Ihop. I wonder if they have a meet on Tuesday, February 24th? (which, as everybody knows, is Free Pancake Day at Ihop). 

Give a little cash to the Children's Miracle Network and enjoy your stack of three pancakes....I'm guessing the swim team will.

Would you use your coffin as your luggage?

I'm reading a book by Mark Batterson called Wild Goose Chase and in the Chapter 7 (Coming out of the Cage of Fear) he talks about a group of early 20th century missionaries called "one way missionaries". They were called this because they packed all of their earthly belongings into coffins and purchased one way tickets when they departed for the mission field. They knew they would never return home.

The story is told of one such missionary named A.W. Milne who felt called to a tribe of headhunters in the New Hebrides. All the other missionaries to this tribe had been martyred but that didn't keep Milne from chasing the Wild Goose. He lived among the tribe for 35 years and never returned home. When the tribe buried him, they wrote the following epitaph on his tombstone:  

"When he came there was no light. 

When he left there was no darkness."

How will my epitaph read?  How about yours?

2009, The Year of the Budget

My wife and I have spent 20 years in and out of family budgets. Ok, mostly out of. We've not gone bankrupt or lost a home but we have not been wise stewards either. That stops with 2009.

My short term goal is that by the end of this weekend, we will have a workable budget that will help us to save and give more. I'm looking to Joe Sangl to help us through this process and I'm looking to God to guide our decisions and give us discipline.

What are you doing this weekend? Wild Card Football?

New Year, New Moleskine

"No one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.
-Jesus in Luke 5:37-38

As 2009 starts, I'm 201 pages into my current 236 page Moleskine notebook. The good steward of our planet in me says to go ahead and use up the 35 remaining pages but the New Year equals new beginnings thinker needs me to break open the cellophane on a new notebook.

I've chosen the latter and as I begin this cathartic experience I'd like to invite you to ask God what he has for you in 2009. Dream big and write those dreams down so that you fill the pages of your life with the richness of an overflowing relationship with God. 

After all, He is the one who said "I came that they might have life, and have it to the fullest." My prayer for  you is that your 2009 is full.