Fishing should start soon. Wow it has been a long winter. By the way we may start tapping some maples this weekend for the golden goodness that is Maple Syrup.
I have been challenged this week, well actual the last several weeks. Reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan for a second time I am finding it hard to feel good about my mediocrity. We just finished discussing Chapter 7 which talks about our comfort level here in western society. So here is the challenge; I am I so comfortable here in the Midwest that I don’t want to serve elsewhere or moreover too comfortable to Go Home (Heaven). My life is easy by any standard; you may take a peek and say it is not compared to how some live here in the States but I would disagree. I got up this morning drove a nice car 40 miles to work, came into a warm building with nicer amenities than my home and I get paid to sit and work. I have a beautiful, caring, awesome wife, great kids and a refrigerator full of food. There is clean water and a flush toilet in my house as a matter of fact two toilets. There is a satellite dish that receives a signal from outer space that allows me to watch anything I want while sitting in my warm, safe house. You get the point, life is easy here in America. I enjoy my life every day and the Lord has blessed us but that makes things more difficult. Do I “want” for anything? NO! Sure I want things but I don’t want for anything. Ok so here it is; Do you, I trust God enough to leave this life and serve in Asia where you live on a dollar a day? Or how about serving in a country where you are forbidden to be a Believer? Or maybe the worst could you serve in a country where “God is Dead”, you know a country where they have walked away from God all together but still enjoy all that this world has to offer. The greatest question is this if God came to you right now and said “It is time to come home and sit down at the table with Me”, would you try to talk Him into letting you stay just a little longer? I love my wife and my kids and want to be here with them until I am very old. I want to enjoy the teen years and seeing them spread their wings and become Men and Women of God. I want to hold my wife’s hand as we walk our youngest down the aisle, I want to hold my grandchildren in my arms and enjoy vacations with all of them, and sit around a campfire telling of the adventures we’ve had. But if today God came and said “Time to go”, I have settled it in my heart that He can take care of them much better than I and if my Father in Heaven wants me in His house then I know that is where I need to be. What a challenge it is to write this. To say you Love God more than this life is easy. To say that you will give up all for God is a little harder, but to realize that giving up all is ALL, EVERYTHING, well that is another thing all together.
