Dancing from the Archives

Here is a segment from a video I made for my family for Christmas. It’s from our old home videos where my sister Kari was very little. So if you know my family this may be entertaining for you. Hope you enjoy!

2 Kinds of Fear

Okay, I didn’t thoroughly think this completely through… I’m sure by the title of this post you are thinking “Dude, there are way more than 2 kinds of fear.” That may be true so just go along with this.

I’m not discussing phobias or how you run up on a chair when you see a mouse.

There is the fear of not wanting to try something and there is the fear of not knowing how things will turn out.

If you have never done something before it can be scary. Sky diving would be one of those for me. I’m the kind of person that will say to you (as I’m safely standing on land) that I would jump out of a plane to sky dive. If I were in a plane and as soon as they opened the door for me to jump I know that they would have to throw me out of that plane. It’s easy to say you’ll do something when you aren’t faced with that circumstance in that moment. So because I’ve never sky dived I can have the fear of not wanting to do it. You may have been before and you can talk to me all you want about how everything will be fine. I will still be afraid so I won’t do it. I let my fear keep me from doing something.

On the other hand, you can have the courage to try something yet still have fear. You don’t know how it’s going to turn out but you’re still going to do it. I remember the first time I went to school and it was scary. I had a great deal of fear yet I still went. This is the fear of the unknown. We’re still going to take a chance even if we’re scared.

When God calls us to do something you can have Fear #1 - where you won’t do what God has called you to do because you are afraid. You may have Fear #2 - where you somehow have enough courage to try it but you are freaking out every step of the way. You don’t know how things are going to turn out and there are some legit fears that you may have… yet you still choose to obey.

The people in the Bible that obeyed God had fear #2. Moses went back to Egypt even though he had some fears. He didn’t know how it was going to turn out. Even Jesus himself had fear. He was in the garden the night before His death pleading to God to see if there was any other way. Jesus had fear but still made His next step.

I have some fears… but I don’t want them to be fears where I won’t even try (Fear #1). I want to be able to say to God that I know I’m taking a risk… but if You said to do it, I’m going to obey you even though I don’t know the outcome.

We are fearful people which is why God tells us throughout the Bible to not be afraid. He knows that we are afraid but we can trust Him. God is working on your behalf.

One of my favorite Bible verses: “Fear not for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” ~ Isaiah 41:10 

2012 – New Things

It has been a while since I have blogged.

I have had some awesome things happening in my life. I will say that the last few weeks have been great moments for reliance on Jesus. In the past 4 weeks I have…

- Experienced one of the most emotional draining moments of my life

- Learned and got to practice Christ’s forgiveness at a level that I never thought I would need or encounter

- Been more excited about people in my life and investing in them and believing that Christ is going to do great things through them

- Really started realizing more that I don’t need to compare myself to others and think I’m good because Jesus is the One I should compare myself to

- Learned that my step that Jesus is calling me to take isn’t everyone else’s step (for example: if God told me to not listen to certain songs then I shouldn’t make that the standard for everyone else and hold them to that) God deals with different things in our life and we need to be helpful and patient with each other.

- Learned just how hypocritical I can be while wanting to judge someone. They may be addicted to drugs and I could be angry with them wandering how they could do that when at the same time I can’t put the computer down for more than 5 minutes and I’m missing out on quality time with real people (not just facebook friends) and seeking Jesus.

It’s going to be a big year of change for me. Scared / excited… plus I’ll be 30. Dang… yet a guy told me today that I looked 21. Jesus started his earthly ministry at 30 so I can begin new things at 30. Jesus didn’t marry though… I won’t be following Jesus example in that area of my life. I will say that I will not fear, but will walk through things this year with courage. ~ Joshua 1:9 (Message) “Haven’t I commanded you? Strength, courage. Don’t be timid, don’t get discouraged. God your God is with you every step you take.” 

Gratitude

Sunday I preached a message on gratitude. I had heard a message on gratitude and I needed to share some of the points with the church.

There is a difference between praise and thanksgiving. Praise is acknowledging who God is, and thanksgiving is acknowledging what He has done. Based on praise and thanksgiving we need to be grateful people.

One thing we talked about is that gratitude in never invisible or silent. If you really are grateful you’ll show it and you’ll say it. Don’t assume your spouse knows you are grateful for her, tell her and show her. Don’t assume your kids know you are grateful for them.

I’ve been thinking of ways to do this practically in my life. I had someone buy me a meal the other week and I was grateful. Since I was grateful I wrote a thank you card. I want to show it and say it because that’s what it means to be grateful.

I was actually grateful that I got to help babysit a very happy baby boy for my friends not long ago. I had my video camera and I shot all kinds of video so I could put a video together to surprise them. I wanted to show you the video I made.

Look for ways this week to practically show gratitude.

Pumpkin Carving

I spent Sunday, October 23 carving pumpkins with my cool girlfriend Ashley. I don’t normally do that. I think I carved a pumpkin once as a kid. This is probably the 3rd pumpkin I ever remember carving. I’m just not into feeling all the junk inside of them (it reminded me of the time I went deer hunting and stuck my hand in the deers gut and took out its insides- you have permission to run to the bathroom now and vomit). I wanted to show you our pumpkins. You get to see it in one minute & 30 seconds thanks to editing. You are watching 27 minutes of footage in under 2 minutes.