Wet coffee in the promised land

I have always enjoyed reading the account of the Israelites crossing the Jordon River into the Promised Land after spending 40 years wandering in the wilderness. They finally made it after all that time, albeit without their leader Moses. It is always inspiring for me to think of the priests mustering up great faith to step into the water before they saw any sign of God interviening. Having faith in the midst of a promise so close, yet not knowing exactly what stepping in the water would bring... but doing it anyway because that's what men of faith are suppose to do.

I talked with a friend tonight about him having to take a great step of faith. I used this story like a good pastor should, with great enthusiasm and confidence. I was trying to be encouraging, I wonder if I was though. Would I be able to muster up the great faith needed to do the right thing if the shoe was on the other foot. If I was the one with the overwhelming obstacle in my path. I wondered after my encounter today what God was calling me into. What fear did I need to trust God with and what impossible situation do I need to get my feet wet in? My friend left with the right answers tonight, I just hope and pray they were the answers that God was interested in giving. Maybe it was more about being heard then hearing the pat answer, in that case maybe I should call my friend tomorrow and go out for coffee... because I want to be there to see my friend drying his feet off in his promised land.

Ten Years...then pain

Oh, billy, billy, billy. I made it to the first stage of heaven today (if there were stages). My wife and I had full body massages for our ten year anniversary present to ourselves. I am feeling like a jelly fish in a blender right now. Talk about getting worked over. I recomend to everyone. It hurts so good... isn't that a John Cougar Mellencamp song? Or should I say, John Mellencamp?

Giving Thanks

What I'm Thankful for:

12. Music
11. Q-tips
10. Oreos (double-stuffed)
9. Satellite TV
8. All underdogs (the little guy)
7. Friends
6. Our dishwasher
5. Pizza
4. Pillows (+ 600 count sheets)
3. My kids (every last one)
2. My beautiful wife
1. His Grace

This should give you all great insight into the make-up of my inner-person. Yes, for those of you figuring, our dishwasher does come before some of my friends. Actually, I consider our dishwaher one of my friends, I spend so much time talking with it. It knows more about me then most, so it all evens out. Hope every last one of you has a wonderful Thanksgiving Weekend.

A Better Man

Today is the day! Ten years ago today my beautiful wife and I got married. It happened at 6pm on a Saturday, at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Mountain Home, Idaho. As I told Dominique last night, these have been the best years of my life. I have been so blessed it is even hard to put it into words. I am a so-much better man because of her it isn't even funny. It hasn't all been easy; but boy has it been worth it. Happy Anniversary Beautiful!

Marriage Wisdom

Sunday was an amazing experience at the ol' church. Dominique and I preached together on the topic of marriage. It was a hoot. I love allowing for such diverse points of view. How much more diverse can you get than Dom and I; we're as different as they come (the Mars vs. Venus thing you know). We had alot of fun with it; lots of banter back and forth and great relationship humor. Our four marriage secrets were as follows: constant communication, always compromise, keep your commitments and center on Christ.

We built our talk around input from the congregation. A few weeks ago I asked for everyone's top marriage secrets; we had 322 years worth of collective wisdom that responded (13 couples = average of 25 years per couple). It could have been one of the funnest(iest) Sundays to date. I encourage all of you speakers out there to get input from those sages that are sitting in your midst. Real life examples and wisdom from those who've been there go so much further then any measly thing I can say. Dom and I had a blast; any time you want to check the temperature of your marriage/relationship, just try collaberating on a speech together sometime. Or any project for that matter.

If any of you would like to add your top three or four secrets concerning healthy relationships i would love to hear it.

Charlie's new sister

More big news from us. We were informed a few days ago that our little Charlie has a new little sister. Yes, a NEW little sister. You know what that means right? You don't? Well, we didn't either until Charlie introduced us to her new female sibling. She, is an actual he, and he use to be referred to as her little brother. Charlie now refers to Simon as her little sister. I remember growing up being referred to in the same terms at times. I think we have a picture somewhere of my older sister dressing me up like I was her little sister. What little brothers have to go through, I tell you what.

Soon to be frozen

Big day at the King household today. Our new feezer arrived! New appliances are always cause for celebration around here. There is just something about that new white - extremely heavy piece of metal that creates chills, no pun intended, down my spine. We finally gave in; with four kids now and lots of visitors we have been saving for the day when we could get a big boy - 21.4 cubic ft. Our little chest freezer just couldn't hack the amount of stuff and work any longer, nor could Dom, so now it has a big brother to carry the load.

Being Philosophically Cool (I mean warm)

Its been a pretty chilly week around these parts. We've had snow, hail, and very cold rain. My kids are loving it. I'm not sure when the cold weather became such a nusance for me (another sign of getting older I guess). I remember as a kid my favorite time of the year was late fall/early winter when sledding, skating and skiing were the top priority. In fact, just a few years ago as a youth pastor, the first snow fall had the whole youth group jumping off the docks for our annual polar bear plunge (what was I thinking). It feels as though winter is here and that means I'm looking forward to the hot turkey and warm eggnog. Which also means I'll be out on the snow packed hills warming hands, blowing noses, and teaching the art of packing a good snowball. Alright, the cold isn't all bad. If it weren't for the cold then we wouldn't appreciate the warmth right? Hmmmm... now I've gotten myself into a real pickle. Does this then mean I really like the cold because of the effects of getting out of the cold, which is all the things warmth brings. Can a person like the cold and warmth at the same time for different reasons? And if I like the cold for warm reasons do I even like the warmth at all? And what if a tree falls in the woods and there is nobody there to hear it? Obviously philosophy was not my major in college. All I know is eggnog is cool! (figuratively)

Working Under the Hood ... on my ego

Where does the time go? I spent some time working on my truck this afternoon. Being a novice with mechanical maintenance stuff I only work on my vehicles when it is absolutely necessary. And it was necessary today because my truck wouldn't start. Sometimes it has to be painfully obvious for me to get in gear with things such as car maintenance, i'm not sure why. Actually, my dad has a saying "people do what they know how to do". And since I don't know how to "do" car stuff, I don't. I have often wondered why this doesn't motivate me to learn more, but for some reason it doesn't; even when it bruises my ego to say "beats me".

So, in a very random conversation with a friend of mine I mentioned my vehicle plight. He asked the symptoms and diagnosed the problem in a split second. Within a few hours he was getting down to business on my engine (corroded battery posts) and I stood by while he did what he knows how to do, very skillfully I might add. I stood there thinking, "I should have known how to do this". But as my shame faded away I did what I know how to do, and that is listen, talk, ask questions, counsel... getting down to the heart of the matter with my friend. As he worked on my truck, I worked on him. Both took skill, gifting and lots of thought. He fixed my truck and I helped him think about life and his issues a little differently. It was such an enjoyable two hours I drove home wondering why I hadn't let my truck breakdown earlier. Then my ego spoke up... damn ego anyway.

Boo!

The wheels on the bus came off early this week. Dom was down for the count with the stomach flu. It has been a long time since she's been out of comission like that, needless to say we had a mini-crisis around here. Remember the article I was talking about last week about mom's not getting paid enough, well, I'm now writing my congressman, I've had enough of these unreasonable wages.

The kids and I managed to hold things together. Monday was the big day, Halloween without mom leading the pack. Thank goodness it wasn't raining. We went to the mall for a little bit to play games, then on to the main drag for house-to-house combat, I mean trick-or-treating. Noah did a fabulous job holding Charlie's hand and helping her navigate through all the ghosts, Harry Potter's and walking trash cans (ingenious). Charlie only took one spill walking up some cement stairs to a house, but being the tough girl she is she held on to that sacred candy bucket without dropping one piece (that's my girl). We had a fun time and will be eating candy till Easter.