Last night after my son went to bed my wife and I settled in on the couch and watched a one hour discovery channel special on one of my favorite topics; the North American Ape (also know as Bigfoot or Sasquach). I don’t know why this subject hold so much allure for me, but I always find myself mesmerized by the idea of Bigfoot. Maybe it’s because both my mother and brother have had personal experiences with such a creature, but then again maybe it’s my curious nature; either way, I’m interested.

What strikes me the most about such a creature is the base of believers that it has generated. Here’s an animal that no one has ever captured, killed, or even found dead and yet there are millions of people who willing spend a lot of their time and money investigating its existence. They are willing to dedicate, in many cases, their entire life to researching something that may or may not actually be real, and they are okay with that.

Here’s the real reason for this post. I find it even more amazing that many of these same people would openly defy the existence of God because of lack of evidence. Now let me stop right here and clarify. I am in NO WAY comparing God to Bigfoot, and I am in NO WAY suggesting that every Sasquach chaser is an atheist – now we can move on.

What I am saying is that I find is tragic that so many people are willing to waste their time and energy on things that may or may not be truth, but never give a second thought to using their time and energy to serve God who has provided us with an abundance of evidence that He is truth. And even though I love watching specials on Bigfoot this thought ruined it for me last night. There are lost people in this world that go to Hell every day. Yet, there are people who put more time into searching for Bigfoot that preventing the demise of their fellow man. IT BLOWS MY MIND (if there were anything bigger than capital letters I would have used it here)!

Just my thoughts.

On the way to work again this morning the radio was promising winter storms for today, this time with more ice than snow, and I couldn’t help but get discouraged. I love living in the Midwest, but I really HATE the winter time. Other than the select few days when you can enjoy the fresh snow and marvel at the beauty of it I can’t stand the cold, dark, long winter. It just does something to my psyche.

It may sound stupid, but when I let that little bit of discouragement, even about something as dumb as the weather, seep into my brain it effects everything I do. It effects my enthusiasm for my job, it effects my attitude toward my wife, and it effects my passion for my faith; three things that I can’t afford to have a bad attitude about. I guess what I’m saying is that we should all pay attention to what is effecting us and how it is effecting us. If there are things that regularly discourage you, tear you down, or leave you with a bad taste in your mouth then you need to find a real way to deal with them or get them out of your life all together. It might only be one thing, maybe a tiny little thing that seems insignificant, but it can and will work its way into your entire life if you let it.

My solution: crank up the heat in the house and pretend that it’s July!

This past weekend was definately wild and crazy. The entire Horizon staff team, my wife, our son, and myself basically spent the entire weekend in Highland Heights preparing, brainstorming, and networking in anticipation of our fall launch date. We also had our first interest meeting where we were able to share the vision for this church with 15 people. How cool is that?!?!

Even though I am dead tired, and will definitely be taking a Sunday nap, this has been one of the most exciting and encouraging weekends of my life. Just to be able to see God working in so many different people’s lives at the same time for the unified purpose of starting this church was awesome! I have been blown away by the doors that have been opened and the resources that have just been tossed in our laps by God.

So, upon brief reflection I have seen that through all of the hard work, stressful feelings, and anxiety that is within me, God is still very much in control of it all. The success of this project has nothing to do with my abilities or drive. It’s all about God’s plan. And to me, that’s the most comforting thing about it.

Well, this week something happened that hasn’t happened all winter in Louisville. IT SNOWED! And judging by people’s reaction you would think that no one had ever seen snow before. Schools were canceled, grocery stores were overrun with frantic citizens stocking up for the year, and no one dared to leave their house; all because of the supposed “White Death”. When I left for work on Tuesday morning there was not a single track on the virgin snow. Not a single sole, other than myself, had attempted to leave the community where I lived. It was weird, but I liked it. I was the only one brash enough to brave the storm, and I worked in the office alone that day. I guess growing up on the back roads of Adams County Ohio prepared me for just such an occasion. And trust me there are not many situations where you can say that.

So, the moral of this story is: DON’T BE A “WHITE DEATH” CONTRIBUTOR.

Coming up this Saturday, February 16, is our first meeting for anyone interested in becoming involved with the Horizon Christian Church plant project. If you have no idea what I’m talking about see this post. The meeting will be at 1:00pm in Northern Kentucky University’s University Center (Rm 330). I am very excited to get to share my vision for this church with our first group of interested people and can hardly wait for Saturday to be here. If you would like to attend and need more information please feel free to contact me.

Today I had to take my wife’s cell phone to the store to get it looked at. She told me that it was doing a few minor things that weren’t really effecting the way it operated, but they were really starting to get annoying. The clock would freeze up and show the wrong time making her alarms incorrectly go off. The screen would get frozen and she would have to take the battery out to fix it. So, when I shared these problems with the phone tech at the store they immediately replaced the entire phone. I thought that was kinda harsh. I mean, the phone was pretty new and only had a few minor problems, yet it went straight to the recycle bin. OUCH!

As I was driving home with the bright and shiny new phone I thought about how many “small problems” I had. When you look at it we all have dozens of small problems in our lives that need to be correctly, and yet most of the time we just let them slide. But when it comes to things like our cell phone’s we can’t tolerate one ounce of malfunction. This really encouraged me to take the time and really reflect on the stupid little things I do everyday that need to be corrected and start minding them a little closer.

Thank goodness we serve a God who is more forgiving than the cell phone companies or we would all wind up in the recycling bin!