Christmas to all

To all a good Christmas!

To my family and friends who are all over the world, know that I'm thinking of you.

To the friends I'm about to make in this next year, I can wait to know you.

To my fellow countryman, I sincerely take our pact  ("We the People") seriously.

To my fellow citizens with whom I have deep disagreements with on policy and politics, I will live by our motto, "From many One".

To those of other faiths and creeds who disagree on theology and faith, the old principles of human dignity and respect I will uphold.

To those who have lost a dear one from their circle, I hold you in prayer and hope to soon give you a hug. 

To the American military members serving at distant posts and aboard ship on the high seas, my gratitude to your sacrifice and pray you return home safely.

To the police, firefighters. and first responders, your probably working today and we thank you for being available when we need you the most.

To the Church abroad though out the world, weather your meeting in the public or in hiding know that the Prince of Peace is our King.

To those I've wronged, please forgive me.

To those who've wronged me, I forgive you! 

To the God of Heaven, your the greatest story teller of all. Thank you for sending your Son!

To my Lord and Savior, I owe you everything.

To the Spirit within me, your comfort and guide is my strength.

From a fellow sojourners just like you, MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

Goodness still exists in the everyday

The noise is loud and in your face with bad news and bad people. The modern ways of keeping informed with no end is relentless. You cant (even if you tried) avoid the leading blood that is splattered all over media. Thugs of Ferguson, murder, drunken debauchery, sexual exploitation of an entire generation of youth, and death. Makes you want to stick your head in the sand or at least numb the noise by joining in with a good stiff drink.

Which leads me to the following story that happened today. After many years of not having family pictures done (where does the time go) My studious wife arranged a photo shoot with a excellent photographer. She set the time for an evening shoot but failed to make it known to her employer about it and was unable to get off work around that time. So with some finagling with this acclaimed photographer was able to change the time to a morning slot. Eight a.m. Yes it is outside. Yes it is freezing. Did I also mention that we have 4 girls from 6 to 13 years of age who are always cold. When I say always, I mean ALWAYS COLD. We got everyone up at 6:30 a.m., dressed them and made up their hair. And just for the record I did help. Starting the car so everyone gets in a warm car is helping. We arrived at a record time of five minutes late. And then........

Everything went very well. Shocking, right? The girls, despite the cold, were obedient, happy, and fun to be around. No clash of sibling vitriol, no hair or wardrobe malfunctions, and no emotional meltdowns The photographer was a joy to work with and the set went swimmingly. I like that word. "Swimmingly." I bet now you like it too, huh? O yeah! I'm using that one again real soon.

So for a reward for everything going so well we decided to reward the girls by taking them to breakfast at our favorite, national chain, pancake house. Even though our "eating out" budget envelope was tapped this month. We decided that we could do without some in the Christmas fund for we realty don't need anything as God has truly blessed us. We were just not expecting how much He was about to bless our socks right off. We were guided to a table for six and the very helpful waitress (my wife reminds me her name was Amy) came by and took our drink order, after which we get the kids to decide on a menu item, preparing them to tell the wait staff their choice. Amy, came back by with the desired beverages. She proceeded to take our food order by memory. How anyone can do this with any accuracy is beyond me.I can barely remember to close my eyes to sleep. Then amid the circulation of patrons leaving and new ones taking their place, Amy came by and announced that a couple payed for our meal in full.

Yeah! that was my response. A feeling of joy, Christmas, love, and God all wrapped up in one moment. I know with all that is falling apart around us it feels that maybe everything is lost and completely upside down. But I hope this taste of human kindness comes to you as you indulge me with the following metaphor.

The house that is our culture is still here. Sure we could use a remodeling and we need that for sure starting with me. And yes some crazy nuts has started a fire in the front yard and there are those in the back suntanning by the pool trying to ignore the indescribable needs around them. But the house is still here and the foundation is sound and true. We just need to be intentional to look in the right place and somehow remember the dream that we all once had. To be a better people and to live out of our ideals and not let the screaming voices have their way.

We left a substantial tip for the courteous wait staff and I hope they have a wonderful Christmas.

Our new presents on Thumbtack

We have just added our profile with pictures of our work completed on Thumbtack. Check it out on the link below. We are so excited to have a way to share our craftsmanship with everyone. Do give us feed back on what you think. Thank you!

general contractor

Under Pressure

The other day on the radio I heard a preacher give an analogy about the struggles in life. And this one stuck with me so I thought I would give you my version of the same.

Have you ever felt under pressure, that some tragedy or life challenge has you by the throat and won’t let you go? Seems like your comfortable life is then turned upside down and drug backward. Life doesn't make sense anymore and confusion sets in. What is God up too? It feels as though he is holding you backward and adding the pressure to everything around you. Why? Surely He has and wants the best for us? He takes his sweet time and then one day without warning he lets us fly! Finally you realize what was happening. Your comfortable life was floating around in a quiver. The pressure and drawing backward is God pulling you back and preparing you with His Power. And then after careful aim He releases your arrow and you begin to fly.

I hope this simple parable helps you draw nearer to Him! 

The Glory of Work

We normally associate work as punishment on humans because of the fall. Monday morning dread, Wednesday hump day and TGIF is grained into every aspect of our lives, and gives the impression that work is a curse. Our culture teaches us that work is a drag and just a necessary evil so we can afford to go to the lake for the weekend. I think we have missed a beautiful part of God.

“By the seventh day God had finished his work. God blessed the seventh day. He made it a Holy Day because on that day He rested from His work, all the creating God did.”  Genesis 2:2&3 MSG

What? God Works! And not only that, He took a break, kicked His feet up, and proclaimed forever more the holiday of the seventh day. Let’s remember that Man hasn't fallen yet, everything is perfect. God called it “good”! He made Adam and gave him a job naming everything in Eden. I think we need to rethink how we relate to work by looking at what did go wrong. Adams curse given to him for his disbelief was that the ground is cured with thorns and work will bring pain his whole life long. We can relate to this fact, can’t we?. It seems everything in this life is set against us. Our work is always under assault with the never ending pressure that holds us from easily reaching the goal. It is guaranteed that with every new pursuit, challenges and problems will arise. The paperwork never goes away, the laundry is never done, time always runs out, and there are always dishes in the sink. It is not the work that dries up our energy; it is the curse that follows our efforts that zaps us.

The good news is that one day we who are in Christ will witness what work will be like without the curse of the fall holding us back. A new Heaven and a new Earth will bring a new way. We will no longer look for greener pastures. Worrying, pain, and waste will not be an issue. Lots of free time to do…. Well, to do whatever is laid upon your heart. To gloriously work the way God intended. 

Forgiveness

A month ago I ran into an old employer expectantly on a project I was working on. He was working next door and I immediately recognized his voice. I had a pleasant conversation with him and we told each other stories of how old our kids were and the new happenings in our lives these past several years. On the outside it looks like any meeting of old acquaintances, but on the inside there is much more going on in my mind. You see this man owed me half a mouths pay which was due me on the day I resigned my position. I turned in my two weeks and he said to not worry about the two weeks and to give him time to come up with the money. I agreed and after many phone calls and several days passed, he never did. I had so much patience that the legal recourse I did have ran out. Never hearing from him again, it for the most part left my mind. I would have thought that chance meeting was the end of it but the next day I ran into him again in a cafe  “Mm. I wonder what is up with this.” I ask myself.

You see I suspect that Jesus is involved and has engineered this event to bring light to something. But what? A few days after that I ran into someone else whose spouse had defrauded my company out of a significant amount of money, and in turn, the business failed. Now I know something is up for sure. Truth be told I already know what He was up too. He has been impressing upon me a word of late. The word is “forgiveness”. The path that is spoken of in scripture that is hard to find was in this case not hard to see at all, just hard to walk down.  Here is the choice that is up to me. Do I forgive or do I not? Do I trust Him and His ways, or claim my rights to be upset and to harbor resentment. “Very well, Lord, I submit to You and relinquish my rights that I claim to have. I will not give in to bitterness, resentment, or anger. I will follow this hard path.” How interesting this topic came up right before Resurrection Day. When all that I owe to Death was paid in full. Completely and thoroughly forgiven with no condemnation! I submit to the path of a forgiving heart.

And now the word from Jesus is…….. “Patience!” I feel another lesson coming up ahead. 

A self-help book on failing

Sometime back I found myself at the final end, of the very last thread, on a very long rope and falling is not going to be avoided. After 6 mounts of trying to turn my fraying company around it is evident that there is no way it would. Now what? How do you do this? Its more than just starting over it’s a new purpose that has to be found. Your old business won’t go away overnight ether it will continue to have needs as it slowly comes to close. And even after it is closed it still turns up issues that will have to be dealt with and with it the sinking feeling that causes despair.  Nobody tells you how to do this. There are no idiot guides or college courses on how to fail. Someone should wright one as surly I am not the only one in history to face this. But what I have learned I will share with you.

1 Family; the ones you are close to, you will need to hold on tight. You are in for a wild ride. 2 Friends; You need them not only to support you but to also give you hope that rallying again is more that possible. 3 Jesus; your walk with God is going to be challenged and praying will need to increase. (I wonder if this is the real reason why it happened). 4 Honesty; facing facts is going to be hard and refreshing. It’s a dirty business to realize how bad it is but getting it all on the table is more than just necessary, it’s essential. 5 Beauty; you will need to find rest. Enjoying something beautiful will help relieve your mind from the strain. I find the wonder of a sunrise to be very encouraging. No matter what happens the sun will come up tomorrow. 6 Dreaming; you will need to learn to dream again. This will take time after the meat grinder is done with you. If you are to ever overcome and learn from this you need to look to the future and dream.

There is nothing in any particular order to follow but you get the point. And I probably have missed a few necessary things that may apply, but I’m still learning. I’m still in the muck of coming out of failing so I’m sure there will be more to add to this list at a later date.