Friendly, but not friends

My son doesn't like somebody. It's kind of sad. He's not even three. To be fair, the person he doesn't like is a pretty annoying kid. I tried to explain that he doesn't have to be friends with everybody, but he has to be friendly. For his age that meant, you have to be nice to them.
All the time I'll talk to kids who are really nice, but they feel bad because they don't want to necessarily be friends with some of the kids in our youth group. They feel bad because they can only invite so many friends to their party, and they don't want to waste an invitation.
I just tell them that just because they are both Christians, doesn't mean that they are going to be friends. There are lots of other things that make friendships work. So I encourage them to be friendly, but not necessarily friends. JM

Psalm 61

"When I am afraid Carry me away to a high mountain".
I love mountains. Whenever I'm standing on top of one I feel like I can think better, that time slows down, and that I'm somehow closer to God. Part of it is just being out in nature surrounded by the beauty that God created for me, but I think part of it is something magical that happens when you're up there.
This is now one of my favorite verses. I love the thought that when I am afraid that God would take me away to a high mountain. That means something to me. I love that the word of God is living and active. It can speak like no other book.
JM

Car Problems

We got our car back from the shop tonight. Total bill was $916.84. Yeah, you read that right. So much stinking money. But at least now I have a shiny new distributor, cap, rotor, spark plug wires, and spark plugs. I can't wait to show them off. The cool thing about it was that I was able to write a check using money from our emergency fund, and we didn't have to go into debt at all over this. JM

Psalm 60

Ever notice that the stuff that hurts the worst is when people you trust betray you. It cuts so much deeper. It's the worst feeling in the world when someone that you care about acts as if they don't care about you. JM

Run 8

I ran 2.52 miles in 30:00 minutes this afternoon. My heart rate stayed really low too. The highest I ever saw it was 156. So at least there's some improvement.
Week - 2.52 miles - 30:00
Month - 15.83 miles - 3:10:00
Year - 17.76 miles - 3:30:00
JM

The South Will Rise Again

Sportscenter is on. My son (3 on April 19) loves to watch sports. He's in the living room right now and just told me "Daddy, Nascar is on!" I guess I'm still trying to adjust to life in the South. It was a sad moment for me. I guess next he'll get a beer belly, a rebel flag tattoo, and start referring to Jeff Gordon as a pretty boy. JM

Concert Of Prayer

Tonight we had a concert of prayer at my church for our building campaign that we are starting. Basically it's a group prayer meeting with some music. We broke up the prayer into ACTS - Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. Our pastors each had a different letter. My letter was C - Confession.
Kind of a tough assignment for me since I like to use so much humor. At the last minute I actually decided to start with kind of a joke because the person that did Adoration was a lot more lighthearted than I was going to be. My joke died a horrible death. I knew I shouldn't have done it.
I only got to talk for 2 minutes, but it was so much fun. I love doing that. I prayed that God would use what I said to impact people, and I really think that he did. I can't remember the exact number, but at least 8 people said something to me about how well I did.
I don't mention that to be like "Wow, I'm awesome" or anything, but I do think that God is using these opportunities that I have to prepare me to move to being a teaching/senior pastor.
At the end, one lady asked me if I was sure that God hadn't called me into preaching. I didn't really respond, but I'm beginning to really believe that he has. I just pray that God can use the gifts that he's given me to do immeasurably more than all I can ask or imagine. JM

Cinema

Watching the oscars makes me want to watch more movies. I really don't like a lot of movies, but I love some of them. I love it when a film can move me emotionally. I really felt that in "Little Miss Sunshine". I want to see "Adaptation", "Letters From Iwo Jima", "Flags Of Our Fathers", "Blood Diamond", and "The Pursuit Of Happyness".
It's just tough to watch movies with little kids in the house. In the last year I saw "Little Miss Sunshine", "We Are Marshall", "Cars", and "Happy Feet". That really may be it. Pretty sad.
(By the way, Happy Feet was pathetic compared to Cars. It only won the oscar because the academy liked it's don't judge people message better than the life is a journey message in cars.)
JM

Matthew 12:43-50

Sometimes Jesus seems so mean. I know that's kind of a weird thing to say, but not being willing to talk to his mom and his brothers, and then saying that his true family was his disciples. I guess when you look at why he didn't want to talk to them (they wanted to take him away because they thought he was crazy) it makes a little more sense.
I guess that's one of the really cool things about Jesus. He doesn't mess around. It's kind of like having a pine cone war. If you're going to go to the trouble of throwing pine cones at each other, you might as well count headshots, they just might sting a little.
Sorry if that didn't make much sense, but from my end, it's beautiful. JM

Matthew 12:38-42

Evil people ask for signs from God. It means that we're not relying on our faith in Him. We want proof. We want to know for sure.
But the thing is, we will never know for sure. Even if God gave us a million signs, we would still have to step out in faith. So we might as well do it with no signs, just the raw belief that God is fighting for our best interest and that to serve Him is the best decision we can ever make. JM