Gone Fishin!

Beyond the headlines of those killed in action in Iraq and Afghansitan are the more than 30,000 wounded service men and women who in many cases have had life altering injuries. 21st century medical advances have made it possible that many of our combat casualties survive the most horrific of injuries. Although alive, life has become a struggle for normalcy for many. In some cases there are literally years of rehabilitation in clinics and centers, away from the their homes, persevering to return to a life that seems normal. There is an organization that takes alot of the burden off these guys and its called the Wounded Warrior Project. Today I went to a luncheon put on for our wounded warriors here in our unit. I met men there that exemplify what it really means to be an American. They have left peices of their bodies on foreign fields and are still pushing forward. They love their country and they love each other. WWP is a nonprofit that was founded by veterans to help wound...

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I really have come to identify well with the Apostle Paul's statement at the end of his life, that he had run the race and finished the task. Races are something that we all can identify with. At one point or another we have all been in some kind of race or seen one. I've run in races, traithalons, mountain bike races as well. I've watched car races and the Tour de France. I've seen sprinters destroy world records and marathoners press the barriers of endurance. In Crossfit I test myself against the clock continuously. One thing I have found is that the most difficult part of any race comes in the middle. In the begining of any race the excitment of competition is there, either the prospect of taking the tape at the end or the crowd gathered to watch, the beginning is the easiest part. The end as well is accompnaied by some of the same things, crowds screaming for the eventual winner, or just looking at the clock and knowing that the end of the pain is almost in sigh...

You've seen them, you may attend one on Sunday mornings. The latest trend is to have a really cool name for your church. After being in and around different types of ministries over the last 15 years it gets more noticeable the way we follow trends. Even the trends of not following trends. This has even affected the way we name our gathering places or the name of the group of people congregating in the name of Jesus. I think maybe these groovy names for churches came about as a reaction to to the folks outside the church walls who had become indifferent to names like 1st Baptist, or ST John's or Antioch Methodist. Maybe the new church name movement came about as a way of assigning identity to that particular group of people. It may have been as well a breaking away of religious typology. Whatever the reason now the hottest thing going that I have noticed is to name your church with one word. Not two, just one word. Something that is catchy on...

j I cannot overestimate the value of getting away. Jack and I just returned from a great trip to Alaska with my brother Steve and my dad. We spent 8 days exploring the Kenai penninsula, angling for trout and salmon, panning for gold, hiking on snow covered trails, wondering at glaciers and just plain having fun. I just got through reading a book that my friend Pete gave me called, "The mission, the men and me". Its by a fomer Delta Force commnder. I was expecting a war story book, but its so much more than that. Its a valuable book on leadership. One of the points that the auther, Pete Blaber, makes is that all good leadership and problem solving requires those "eureka" moments of discovery. But those moments are impossible without a process of discovery. The process he calls the saturate, incubate and illuminate cycle. You have to be able to saturate yourself with context and information about your mission, you've got to allow time to incubate or think abou...

I just spent the morning with my new friends Craige and Pam from Bare Bones Fitness/ Crossfit Mooresville. You can check them out at www.crossfitmooresville.com Every Saturday they have introductory workouts for anyone that would like to train with them. Their facilities are great with an ample supply of bumper plates, kettlebells, wall balls and other instruments of physical pain to get the most from your workouts. Its not like your typical gym. There are no fancy machines. Its just hard work. You'll see weird stuff like a big giant tire and sledge hammers. Ask them what a muscle up is. Its all a part of a fitness revolution that is growing exponentially. There will be no bicep curls here, only functional movements that people need in life. With obesity rates soaring isn't it time we bag the info-mercials that promise fitness without work. Our bodies were created by God to work and work hard. The great thing about Craige and Pam's gym i...

   I read all the time on Twitter and Facebook posts of all the awesome things that people are doing, especially my friends in ministry. I'm proud to know so many people making a massive impact on the world around them. I have been involved in the past in very public ministry, speaking before large crowds, teaching, travelling the world. I regret none of it.  But after being back home from Iraq for over a month now I made some decisions about my time over the next few years. One of the things that I decided through prompting from the Lord was to step back and just be. Just be a man, a husband, a dad. To just be in the mundane of life and by so doing the mundane becomes so much more, the mundane moments become sacred and holy. Let me illustrate: Today I spent the whole day with my kids. Tammy had to work so we drove up to Boone, N.C. to visit with my mother. Jack caught his first fist with a fly rod. We had awesome pizza at the Mel...