The title of this blog entry was suggested by my father-in-law the other day, and I thought it would make a good sermon or blog entry. However, this isn't it. The main reason I used this title now is so that perhaps next week I can do a full entry about it. I'm not so great in the memory department, and since I've forgotten and remembered and forgotten again this title, I thought this might be my best hope. So, what to talk about today?
I guess I could get into a deep theological discussion, some high-minded and long-winded discourse on Scripture (which I am sure I'll do before very much longer, as I've missed doing that), or I could go a different route. A different route it is. I suppose I'll use this time to get some housecleaning issues taken care of, and then figure out some way to cleverly tie them all together.
Today is my wife's birthday. She's 29. No, really; this one is legit. From now on, they will be anniversaries of this one. But for now, twenty-nines-ville for her. We just returned from dinner at her favorite place, Red Lobster, continuing a birthday dining tradition far too sacred to break. I had the steak and shrimp, with some snow crab legs on the side. Boy, those cheese and garlic biscuits are great!
My sister-in-law, a senior in high school and soon-to-be 18-year-old, didn't seem to enjoy very much some of the comments I made about her in some recent MySpace surveys. I'm a jokester and so I said some things about her just because I knew it would rile her up and I knew for a fact she'd read them. She did. Anyway, she called my hand on the matter, then said, "And to think I was going to tell you that I listened to an ENTIRE sermon of yours on the way back from Washington the other day." I appreciated that, and so I told her I'd say something positive about her in my next blog entry. So this was it. Now I feel all icky.
Less than a month to go before our new son arrives. Mother-to-be is quite pregnant but still doing well in her new elementary teaching position. The doctor told her last week that the baby was going to be "big." Taking after his older brother and his old man; I'm sure the birth will be a pleasant experience.
This past week, over the course of six days, I had five friends/acquaintances/family to pass away. One was a girl I went to high school with, graduated a year before me; we used to eat lunch at the same table quite often. No one knows what happened there, but she left a positive testimony for the Lord. The son of a couple who formerly attended my congregation was killed when a tree fell on his truck during a recent storm that passed through the area. A former church member died of pneumonia after a severe injury the week before. The brother of a former member passed away. And my great-aunt, the last of that part of the family, died. So I'm pretty much "deathed" out for now.
We had one person saved at Church this past Sunday. We'd been praying for her for a while now, and after the message I just had this sense that the Lord was going to do something spectacular. He did. Whenever a person comes to know Christ it is a miracle, the birth of a new person into His family, and I am so glad that I can't take the credit for it. The Lord did it all, and I was just fortunate enough to be there when He did. I'm always amazed to see what God can do.
I have way too much to do over the next couple of weeks, and I don't know how I'm going to get it done. Starting would probably be helpful. There's still furniture to move, things to organize, other things to throw away or give away. There are visits to make, sermons to prepare, services to plan, and the list continues.
So how do I tie all this together? I will attempt to do so in two ways (as you can observe, there is nothing up my sleeves; in fact, I don't have any sleeves at the moment). First, it's not all that bad having so many things going on. It could be worse: I might not be here to experience any of these things, and even though some of them are bad, the good more than makes up for it. God is good. Second, the Lord is always here; whether it's birthdays or funerals, new babies or sisters-in-law, hectic schedules or big projects or new Christians, He is always giving guidance, support, strength, and hope. Anyone who knows Christ is fortunate to have this kind of foundation, and anyone who doesn't know Jesus is really missing out.
Well, that will do it for me. Next time I just might talk about weeds. There's some good stuff there, just wait and see!
© 2007, Chris Keeton and Soulscape Press. All rights reserved. All material printed on this site is protected by the copyright law of the United States. It may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Chris Keeton and Soulscape Press, obtainable by leaving a comment (with your request) which will be forwarded to Chris Keeton. Altering or removing any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content is not permitted. Any and all portions of material copied from the Soulscape Blog must be properly attributed to Chris Keeton and Soulscape, and cited with original blog web address.
No comments:
Post a Comment