Empty....

I am out of gas today. It was a great weekend! A weekend with awesome weather, which means a lot of time outside and not much time inside. I like that! Saturday morning was up early and headed to my grandmothers greenhouse business with Kyle and miss Madison. On the way up on the other side of Winston - we stopped for some dunkin donuts. Madison woke up out of her sound sleep and in seconds had jelly donut filled poweder all over her face and a huge smile. Love those little moments of happiness don't you? We worked our tails off but enjoyed the time together and I shared that evening with Madison and Kyle that I have been doing that trip every year for 15 years now - ALONE. It was an honor to have someone share it with me. I am not sure how much time is left for things to be the way they are there... but I sure do enjoy the smiles and time together even though the work is hard and my body hurts for days afterwards. Also got to spend some time on my aunt and uncle's farm - a little time spent with a worm on a hook and some brim in the basket. Nothing like just pausing in our lives and throwing a country line out while in good company like my aunt Sharon and Uncle Buster! Next stop was at my dads and Neilas. It was a quick visit but it was good to see them. Madison, welcomed by everyone just as I knew they would. Our way home was quiet as both my co-pilots to keep me awake failed miserably. Madison fell asleep in midsentance while asking me a question. I took a couple pictures of them sleeping and sent them to miss Carol and Madisons mom. Smiles for sure :)
Sunday was up early once again and off to church - a great message and time spent in front of the students at 11:00. It was good to be back and seeing everyone ... Its awesome just being a part of changed lives all around. It really does fire me up ......
Its a busy week ahead... with Carol out of town this week. She is down in Florida helping our friend Tom out with a surgery tomorrow. Please keep them both in your prayers. Kyle, Kate and I will be fine - Barbara is taking care of meals for us this week and I am even going to try and keep my schedule as well with a few appointments and LOL on wednesday evening.

So this brings you up to speed. Tired today and will probably hit the hay early tonight. I am excited to spend some time with one of my close kids tomorrow and I love listening to her heart when she is on a roll with sharing it. So even with all this taking place - I challenged my rock group this week to take 5 minutes and spend them being still. Still to the point where all we are doing is listening ...and not planning, thinking, doing, driving, talking ...but just listening. What is it that God wants you to be learning? What margins in your life do you need to create so it gives you some room? - I bet God has a lot to say about that to everyone! We all need some personal time, rest time, focus time ...and investing time.
So today where is your faith? Its either moving forward or moving away from God right? Sometimes it may feel like its going no place.... like stuck on a certain spot and hasnt moved in a long time. I dug this out of my journal from a few months ago and want to share it.
You can’t tell what’s in you by looking at you. God is establishing patience, character and concentration in the school of “nothing seems to be happening”.

I have been realizing that my faith is not some collection of things that I've accomplished. It not getting closer to gathering wisdom our of life or having the knowledge to lead someone with all the right things to say to them. Faith for me has been stripped down in such a smile way to just clinging to Christ and recognizing that its all about being that simple. In whatever moment I am really in - am I really clinging to Jesus? Am I really trusting him? Just like the woman who had been bleeding for years - took action and reached out to Jesus and she was healed. Jesus said, "Great is your faith". Its that kind of faith that I want to learn to have every single day. Just trusting in Him no matter what.

Carol, will be missing you this week but God has called you to where you are this week. Just as he called John the baptist .... Lead the way and shine like never before - there is something bigger that is coming from this. Proud of you.... I got the home front covered.