There seems to be a process in love relationships. The boy’s first glance at the girl produces butterflies and excitement. A few dates later commences hours of late night talks. The “honeymoon” period finally wears off and the “fighting” period begins. Then comes friendship, companionship, and love. Yet, at some point throughout this process the words “I love you” is spoken.
I accidentally slipped the phrase “I love you” to my now wife as we were looking at yahoo maps. (Just a note to the guys out there–not smooth and not romantic!)
Although, if you ask someone when they knew they were in love many times they respond with, “I don’t know…I just knew.” Those kind of statements make it difficult to know when this word “love” is real.
Know this–love has certain emotions, but ultimately love is a choice. A choice to commit, a choice to be patient, a choice to be kind, a choice to forgive, (1Cor 13). As time moves on, your emotions will change, but your choice to love will remain.

Photo taken by Thomas R. Stegelmann

My Dad and I just went on a golfing trip south of Tucson, Arizona. If you have ever been out there you will quickly realize there is not much south of Tucson. Yet, all of a sudden in the middle of the desert there are these luscious greens. We played a bunch of golf (even though I am about the worst golfer ever) and everyone graciously allowed me to play with them. Even though I shanked every shot, and played every ball in the next fairway over.
After the second day of golf my dad took me to the border town of Nogales and then said, “Let’s go to Mexico!” Not a problem at all…Other than we didn’t have our passports! So as we are coming back into the states we are asked, “Do you have a passport or birth certificate?” “Ummmm…No.” He then proceeded to ask a bunch of questions after determining we were just idiotic tourists. He let us cross, even though we didn’t have the right documents.
It was a relaxing trip, but there were a bunch of moments that reminded me of what grace truly is….undeserved.
I didn’t deserve to be golfing with a bunch of great golfers and the immigration security definitely didn’t have to let us back in to the states. God’s grace is exactly the same way. We don’t deserve it, yet He gives it freely.

Second graders worry about what toys they own to “show off”. Sixth graders worry about what clothes they wear. Students in high school worry about what car they drive. And the cycle usually continues as adults worry if they will be able to pay their bills.

It seems as we continue to get older, the things we once thought were crucial, necessary, and “can’t live without”, seem to be less and less. Yet, it also seems, as we get older we trade our concerns for other worries. We dismiss, as time moves on, what we once thought was vital.

Does the cycle ever end? I believe it can. There is a scripture in Philippians 4 that states, “Instead of worrying, pray about everything.” Many times we pray hoping that our situation will completely change, however, many times, prayer changes us in how we think. So instead of worrying, pray about everything. Prayer can calm the present worry to be a passing thought.

Photo taken by Torley

In case you have not heard yet, this weekend we will start hosting our “First Sunday”/Easter service at the Holiday Inn Select – Intl. Airport.  The address is 77 NE Loop 410, and a map can be found here.

Service will still be at 11am with setup beginning at 9am.

We will not be allowed to serve refreshments as we have in the past, but there is a full service Starbucks inside the hotel, as well as a restaurant that serves a very good breakfast.

Have a great rest of the week and see you Sunday!

I think a lot about this question: What if you had a chance to live in heaven first?

Meaning that we lived in eternity and then came down on earth and lived our life. I can’t help to think that we would live this life differently.

I wonder if we would worry as much about the type of job we hold? I wonder if we would worry about our finances? I wonder if we would be as angry when an individual cuts us off when we are driving? Wonder if we would try to control everyone and/or everything around us? Maybe our priorities would shift?

Every time I think of these questions it then spurs to me one more…Why don’t I do this now?

What would you change if you lived in heaven first then came to live on earth?

Only one to do it so far–Jesus.

Today I sat at Chick-fil-A and enjoyed one of their amazing chicken sandwiches! I love their food and they produce a great product. Every sandwich is identical–bun with butter, hot chicken, and two slices of pickles. It is delivered into your mouth as a complete product.

Life is just the opposite of a Chick-fil-A sandwich. Life is not wrapped up in a neat bun. It’s messy. Life is not identical. It’s actually never the same. And life is not finished until our last breath.

Even though life is not like a product many times we attempt to live it as such. We tend to place problems in our lives on hold, because we don’t want to deal with the reality of them. We act like our problems are a product, completed, but life continues to move forward.

Ever have an order at a restaurant that was delayed being delivered to you? Did it taste cold? Maybe stale? Imagine a Chick-fil-A sandwich that has been sitting out for years. That sandwich would be nasty! I don’t think many would want to eat that sandwich…but that is exactly what our problems in life would look like if we could see them. Think about your problems in the same way. What is the problem that you should have addressed long ago?

Whatever problem you have placed on hold, let God give you the courage to face and eat it!

If I gave you a car in Los Angeles and told you to travel to New York City, I would be confident that you would be able to make the journey. You could possibly pass through Interstate 40, or you could use Interstate 70, or you could take the southern route of Interstate 10 and then head up Interstate 95. There would be many routes to arrive in New York.

Now, imagine the same scenario, but this time I put you in a car in the middle of a desert in the United States and I don’t tell you where you are. Would it be difficult to find New York? I could even hand you a map, but you still would have a very difficult time finding the Big Apple.

The point is simple–you have to know where you are if you want to head in the right direction. And just like the example, once you know where you are, there are probably even multiple ways to that destination. Take for example, a bad marriage wanting to arrive in love. You could start on the interstate of ’serving’ (your spouse), or you could head up to the interstate of ‘listening’ (to them), or you could go down to the interstate of ‘quality time’.

God brings about clarity on your reality. He also puts you on interstate ‘heart change’ so that you will have the ability to change. Without clarity we would have no clue which direction to move.

Photo by Wolfgang Staudt

Most of us attend grade school, move on to junior high, and eventually high school. I am not sure, if you did, but out of all the classes I took, math, history, and chemistry, not one of them included a financial class. Most of us, including myself, have learned our financial lessons from the school of hard knox.

Today the average American holds around 8,000 dollars in credit card debt. Forty three percent of Americans spend more than they make. I found an article that stated the number one reason for divorce, in a study conducted by two Utah State professors, was a financial problem in their marriage.

There are a ton of methodologies to help get people out of debt. Yet, all of them include two things.

The first is a plan. I have heard that if you can’t tell someone your financial pictures in under a minute then you need a better plan. It is important to know what comes in and what goes out. If you sit down and write it out, you will find that it does not take long.

The second is sticking to the plan. Make a plan that you can actually follow. Only eating top ramen is a great, cheap plan on paper, but rarely followed. Make a plan that you can stick to month to month.

If you follow the plan of not buying stuff you can’t afford that is a great start!

Proverbs 21:5 Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.

Have you ever gone to a party and been asked several times, “So…What do you do?” It is interesting to me that this is one of the very first question that people ask. There are so many questions that we could ask, but for some reason we ask that question.We believe we can discern so many things from a persons job–how much money they make, where they might live, and maybe even their hobbies. We try to find out who they are by what they do…

I wonder if God will be more impressed with the stock broker or the hamburger flipper? Will he be wowed by the teacher or the city worker? Will he be more taken aback by the engineer or the salesman?

Honestly, I think none of them.

We place too much importance on what we do and too little importance on who we are as a person.

Jesus was a carpenter, but no one seems to remember Him for that…

Have you ever been in a conversation with an individual, but you felt as though they said something else than the words they actually used?

For instance, this happens in marriages often. A wife will say, “You always do that!” That is when the husband immediately thinks, “That’s not true, I did that twice last week.” That is because we don’t often say what is true, but we say what we feel.

Our desire should be to match words of truth to our feelings.

So the statement sounding like, “You always do that!” should be, “It really hurts me when you do/don’t do X.” Statements that sound like, “I was never in love with him/her,” really are “I have been hurt so badly, I don’t think I can do it anymore.” Or others like “We just fell apart,” really are “I started to put work over him/her.”

We have a real fear to speak to others what we are truly feeling.

How do we overcome it?

Two things: 1. Know that you are the one that has to confront your fear. 2. Know that God will give you the courage and humility to face it.