What's cooking?

My 2 great passions in life beyond family and ministry are cars and cooking. Cars I am pretty good at - at least when I still had money and raced. Cooking I think I am ok at. There a few things I cook really well but I don't follow recipes very well so that lends itself to going really well or going really bad when I experiment. There is probable an analogy to life in there somewhere. Anyway recently I have been getting that sense that in life something is stirring. I don't know what it is or why in the midst of one of the busiest seasons of my life I would sense that. Here lately I don't feel like I have time to sense much of anything. Even the uber-cold we have been having has not served as a distraction. But yet I still feel this stirring in my soul. I can't imagine more changes in my life or ministry or career or whatever, but I cannot shake the feeling. I crave stability and some sense of normalcy, whatever that is. In addition to the adventure of leading 2 different youth groups at 2 different locations, I get to help administer and pull off our largest event of the year, Blast, which I am enormously excited (and anxious if I am honest) about. I am helping plan and lead a trip to the Philippines in June which has monopolized my time of late, and oh yeah trying not to be a total failure as a husband and father. What more could I possible dream of? The answer is ...... I don't know. But after all these years I am recognizing the signs of my glorious Creator, the Chef of all Chef's, reaching into the cabinet and assembling the ingredients. He has a new recipe to try out and if I am brave enough to taste of it, well it may just be the most magnificent thing I have ever tasted.

We'll see, but something is stirring.

For not From

I first heard this said pertaining to money and God - He wants something for us not from us. The idea that God does not want our money but He wants our hearts which for most of us is tied to our money. I suppose that topic is a blog topic all unto itself but right now I don't feel like exploring that so much. I was meeting with 1 of my favorite people Megan and we were talking about all kinds of things pertaining to life and such noble pursuits. As we were cussing and discussing it dawned on me that God's intention for the law was the same thing. The law was not given to us so we could meet the standard and prove ourselves worthy to God. The point was that we could never meet the law and therefore to prove our need for God. He didn't want something from us - our perfection. He wanted something for us - a relationship with Him. Obviously Jesus came to bridge that gap but when we think God wants us to follow rules because we have to or He told us we must, then we are acting like God wants something from us and in this case it is something we can never deliver - perfection. When we realize the law highlights my need for His amazing grace and I turn and become dependant on Him, I receive what He has for me which is a right relationship with Him. In the moment it struck me as really profound.

Looking Forward to 2009

I think my overwhelming temptation at the New Year is to look backwards and from my disappointments or failures determine what I want in the year to come. I think I am always trying to accomplish more or somehow make amends for where I feel I have fallen short. So for me I am choosing to look forward not based on my past this year but on what I expect and desire for the future.

I hope and pray that in 2009 I will:

Make 2009 a year that is truly family first and that I would cherish the time spent with them as I watch them all grow

Lead with passion and from my heart

Be about journeys - both spiritual and physical

Invest in friendships, that in many cases have been long neglected, because I want them and need them

Make peace with what I can and cannot do

I look forward to 2009.