Mourning a Friend!

This is Bo Teske! He was in his early 30's and passed away early yesterday morning from kidney failure due to drinking. His mother died the same way about 12 years ago. He knew what he was doing, whether he realized it at the time or not is a different story.

He was a great person, and would do anything for you! I have only known him about 10 years, and we didn't really even get together very often. He and Rebecca have been friends for a long time. That's how I know him, through her. Bo is no longer with us! We had a chance to get together with him a few weeks ago, and because of me working at night and Becca being so busy with school we didn't it. It was a regretful mistake.

I don't know whether Bo knew Christ or not before he died, I do know that he had spiritual thoughts and he and Rebecca had a few talks, but he was withholding his feelings. That is in God's hands, he draws people unto himself! I hope and pray, that Bo's heart was open and received Christ's payment for our sins, I hope to see him again someday.

Bo was a great guy, and a dear friend to many and will be missed like crazy.

For those friends of mine that are lonely, hurting, and covering up your feelings with drinking, or drugging, or other things..... I want to be here for you. I can't promise you I have any answers, and I can't promise you that I can help, but I will promise you that I will be real with you about my struggles and I'll be an ear you can talk to, without judgement or condemnation. I won't preach at you, I can't promise that I won't speak of Christ and what he has done for me.

Please don't drink your life away, please don't give up.... you are loved more than you know, all of you. My number is 405-923-1418 if you need to talk, anytime, day or night.

One latté or two pair of shoes?

Here is a challenge for all of my friends out there. Most of you know, I'm a shoe-lover, so what better way to help someone than by buying them shoes. No, I'm not talking about people who don't need them, I'm talking about for people who may have NEVER even owned a pair before.



Anne Jackson, through her blog, made me aware of a huge need and huge blessing that God wants His people to be a part of, check out more of her blog here.

Don't forget to click on the banner or the title of this website to go donate. We are doing 4 pair, how 'bout you?

Traveling Strangers, Pt. 2

OK... finally spending some time updating you on my lunch with the traveler's from Massachusetts. I had lunch with them and just got to know them for about 90 minutes. They were heading out of town shortly after lunch, but showed just as much interest in me as I did in them.

Their names are Chris and Mary. They are both 17 years old, amazingly, and no, they are not runaways or in trouble with the law at all. In fact, they talk to their parents/grandparents/siblings quite often and spoke very fondly of all of them. I couldn't believe they were that young, honestly. They were very good conversationalists to be so young.

They had been on the road since August. They just decided that if they were ever going to tour the country this way, now was the time. They had traveled to Ohio and back to Massachusetts previously over a short time span and had been exposed to the road/hitchiking/strangers so they knew what to expect for the most part when they decided to hit the road again. They have no time limits nor destination limits. They are actaully headed to Austin for the winter, or at least for a while, then back to the east coast - Florida/Carolina's area, before heading out to California. No real plan though.

They have actually been staying with some people here in OKC for about two weeks. These people picked them up in Indiana and they were headed home to OKC so Chris & Mary came all the way with them and ended up sleeping in an open room they had. They moved around to a couple different houses during the time here, but still within the same group of people with no ties to any of them prior to being picked up on the road.


I felt quite odd at times honestly. I felt like I was playing 2o questions with them, bouncing from one subject to the next. One thing that was a little odd was the way I felt the waitresses treated us. Their were a couple different ones that waited on us and I'm not sure whether she was just having a bad day, or if she didn't like Chris & Mary, but that's the way it came across. They really liked it here in OKC, and plan on stopping back by when the remainder of their travels brings them back through the crossroads of America.


Although I do feel this was a God moment, nothing overtly religious happened, but both their families are pretty liberal and that's how they grew up, so through our conversations there were numerous opportunities for me to share about volunteering for churches and that I had just quit working for a church and some of the "outside" events we have been involved in through Mars Hill, so I think that was really my purpose was just to introduce them to "christ follower's" that aren't judgemental, or condemning. They had told me about not-so-good experiences in the south with "christians", but they were not hurt by them, just felt sorry for them kinda.

All in all, I was happy to get to know them, and hope to see them again. I think they felt the same, and they have my number in their cell in case they ever come back through. I look forward to planting some more seeds should God grant me that opportunity.

Traveling Strangers

So, I was driving down 30th today coming back from the Paseo when I saw a young girl and guy on the corner of 30th & Classen. The young lady was holding a sign that said "traveling, need money, hungry" or something to that degree, but it definitely said traveling. I drove right by and not even a block later, really felt conviction that I needed to turn around and go talk to these two young people. I felt compelled to give them $10 and a bottle of water and snack bar that I had in my car.

They kind of have a "goth" look going on, grunge rebel kinda. I pulled up next to them, offered the money, and the snacks and asked them a few questions. Turns out they are from Massachussets and are just traveling around the country. I don't believe they have a car, nor money, nor plans, they are just totally playing it by ear. I'm not sure, I didn't inquire as much as I would have liked, but I wished them well and left.

A couple hours later, I really felt compelled to drive back by and to invite them to breakfast or lunch tomorrow. I was on my way to work and didn't have much time, but I really felt compelled give it a shot. So, I turn from 27th onto Classen going north and I get just passed 30th and wouldn't you know, sure enough they are walking south toward 30th. I pull a U-turn and pull into the parking lot where they are walking and of course they remember me from earlier and I ask them a few more questions about their plans and timeframe for leaving OK, etc and they didn't really know, so I invited them to breakfast or lunch if they were still around. I gave them my cell phone number in case they were still in town and just told them to feel free to call if they wanted to have a meal and share their story. I was very interested and would love to know at least part of their story. I'm sure they were a little weirded out by this at this point, but who knows.

Anyway, I get a call about 8:30 tonight asking me if that invite is still open. I say sure and we setup to meet tomorrow at Jeff's Country Cafe at noon tomorrow. What's crazy is that when I caught up with them the second time, they were just returning from Jeff's after me having given them enough money to go eat, so they were already familiar with the place.

I'm not sure what God has in store, other than for me to go hang out and buy them lunch, but I am going to go do that, with no Agenda other than to love on them. Please be in prayer with me as I depend on the Lord to guide me in this new relationship.

I'll update you tomorrow on how it goes and if you are in the neighborhood, feel free to stop by and have lunch with us, we'll be there at 12:30 for lunch on Wednesday.

Have a great one,
Robert

P.S. I'll be posting an update soon on our life journey, I know it's a little overdue. I do think it's a little funny though that my previous two blogs talked about wandering and this blog, I actually have met some wanderers. God is good.

Wandering..... an update!

Well, I wanted to give a quick update to those of you wondering about my wandering. I have accepted the position with Sprint and I start on Monday. That is one of the reasons I took the position, money is the other one, another one is that it's familiar, and they are a great company to work for. They have always taken care of me (That should be a given I suppose, since this is my third time back with them. I'm sure they are thinking they hope the third time really is a charm.). I'm going to stay at Domino's, at least for the meanwhile to see how that plays out. I am NOT all about the money by any means, I want to be able to live my life, not work my life. Although a little extra never hurt anyone.

As far as a church goes, I worked my last day cleaning the church today, Saturday. I will probably visit on one fine Sunday morning very soon, just to say my final goodbyes, and of course, turn in my keys. We are looking forward to visiting some churches that we have heard a lot about. Frontline, Skyline, Believer's Church, Fusion Church, Bridgeway, First Church just to name a few. Of course, we are still part of Mars Hill, which we never know where that will lead. It's been a crazy, wild ride so far, and no reason to expect it will change too much.

Don't get me wrong, we do plan to put down some roots before too long, but at the same time, we understand the value of checking out these churches we are so curious about, and we may make it to all of them more than once, I don't know, but we are not church-hoppers although we are going to do some church-hopping for exploration's sake, not to church-shop if you will. WE ARE THE CHURCH, so even if you show up at my doorstep, we can have church in my house.... or the local coffee shop.... of the local asian restaurant....

OK, Random writing #1 for this blog, It's 1 am on Sunday morning and I am sitting in our library listening to asian karaoke.... yes, you heard me correctly. The people across the street and about three doors to the west of us have people over and hold karaoke in their house, or out back or out front, somewhere, but it's loud. They do this about 2 to 3 times a month. Luckily, we sleep with a fan on and our house is pretty well insulated so we can sleep, that is not why I am up at this time of night. This is just one more reason I absolutely love the neighborhood we are in. (By the way, right now, it sounds kind of like native american singing) Reminds me of Red Earth Festival. OK, time for bed...

Wandering, but not lost!

I have been without full-time employment now for 23 days. I'm not fearful, not anxious, not worried about the bills or any of that. God is faithful and has blessed us financially many times, this time is not the first and won't be the last. I have taken a job as a part-time delivery driver for Domino's. Something I always wanted to try since I went through Dave Ramsey's course and now I am doing it. I am making decent money and working a few hours.

I've also been cleaning Harrah Church since the first of August for the most part. This is part-time as well. I've been doing it to help them out while they find someone else to do it since we lost our guy right before I quit the church. It's also been helping us out financially having that little extra coming in. I have had a full-time job offer for about three weeks, but that training doesn't start until the 29th of Sept. I could start tomorrow morning, because I'm on a standby team in case people don't show to training. I also have a job offer coming tomorrow or Tuesday from Sprint. Yep, my old faithful! The call center though, not retail. I am being hired, just don't know the details yet (i.e., salary, start date, etc.) So here I am working two part-time jobs, with two full-time jobs in the bag, not sure what to do right now. I'm not too worried about it, God has proven His ways lots of times long before I get around to screwing them up (thank you Lord for that).

Now, we are also wandering when it comes to planting our feet in a church. You know, I have always said that we would remain at Harrah for a while, not every Sunday, but probably half-time for a few months, but I don't know if that is going to be possible. We have a lot of good friends there, don't get me wrong. I was there for such a time as this, or that it was at least, but I am starting to understand why people actually leave the local church body after they quit working for it.

It's hard, very hard, because you still look at everything through the eyes of a staff member, except you are no longer on staff. See, all the stuff I have done over the last 19 months are not important to most people. It was important to me! So now, stuff that bugs me is being done, but when I was on staff I could make sure they were not being done, so I feel like part of where I have helped bring the church to this higher level of excellence in some areas is beginning to slip. Now to be fair, there are areas I did not excel in that are now being raised to a level of excellence I could not bring them to which was one of the big reason for me leaving. I felt like I had done what God had me there to do and helped raise the bar.

I guess my hope and prayer was, and is, that the level of excellence we had attained in the areas I was directly responsible for would continue on and then new people would bring other areas up to a level of excellence that had never been seen in other areas, thus creating and keeping the levels of excellence high.

I tend to be very critical though and my way is the right way if I'm the expert in the matter, or at least more of the expert than anyone else and in a lot of areas, I am the expert, or was.... so, it's with a sad heart that I am saying goodbye to my life of the last two+ years and moving on. I plan on staying in touch with some people, but I must move on. God has released me and I've done all I could do to pass on my knowledge and now people must take it upon themselves to keep pushing to raise the bar in areas where it needs to be and to keep the bar raised in areas that it already has been worked on.

There will always be a part of Harrah Church in my soul and I will pray that HC continues to reach people that others cannot or will not reach, but my time there is complete, satisfied, concluded and finalized. I learned a ton working with the people I have worked with and for. I have been a valued staff member and go-to guy. I have been a great leader and I have been a terrible leader. I have shown people the love of Christ and I have probably pushed some away unfortunately. I have done it all because of my desire to show people a servant's heart and a servant leader. Please forgive me if you are the ones I pushed away, while continuing that legacy if you have been helped.

I say goodbye for now until I see you again someday... on the street, in the store, or in our resting place. I will pray for you and with you, please do the same for me. You will be missed!

Not all who wander are lost! ~ J.R. Tolkien

Eating the Grain!

I spent the afternoon yesterday with a friend of mine who is a wheat farmer. It was quite amazing seeing wheat harvested for the very first time in my life. I hit the road shortly before noon on my way to Omega, about 15 miles west of Kingfisher. It was a quiet drive, nice, with spotted puffy white clouds in the sky. I felt peaceful, at ease, calm.

Pulling up to the wheat field, next to his big semi-truck and trailer, I felt pretty small. I got out of my car and climbed up onto his trailer. He had already dumped one load out of the combine into the trailer, so I immediately figured out that what I had thought was being harvested off of the stalks was not the actual product. (I felt pretty ignorant not even knowing which part of the stalk gets harvested, but he was very gracious in the passing on of his knowledge.) I almost felt like a little kid getting to climb all over this big semi-truck. Jeff was in the field harvesting; I could see him not far away. I'm sure he could see me climbing on his truck like a little kid on a new playground. I have to say, it almost felt like that honestly.

As he pulled the combine up next to the truck and started dumping a new load of grain, I felt the hugeness of the combine, even dwarfing the semi-trailer to some degree. As he finished dumping the grain, he welcomed me to his field, his "payday" as he put it. We jumped in the combine and took off. It was amazing, and quite weird, sitting right above the reel (which I called a sickle blade), surrounded by glass on three sides, one of which looked like you could fall right out of down in to the auger assembly. He made sure to tell me not to lean on the front glass, there was no way he could stop that auger before I entered the shoot. It would not have been healthy.

I felt like a kid in junior high as he began to tell me about the field and the grain and the equipment. I was soaking in this experience, not because it was so exciting, but because it was part of so many people's lives, including my friend Jeff. In fact, it was his life and always had been. It was his dad's life before his. Truth be told, it was exciting in it's own way. Jeff was passing on knowledge to me. He was passing on life to me, and he was passing on love to me. He was taking what he knew and sharing it with a friend. He was sharing his life in a way that he didn't often get to.

Towards the end of the day, we pulled the combine up to the truck to unload one last load to take to the elevator and then hauled it off. When we got back to the field, we just spent a few minutes walking through the field. Jeff reminded me of the story of Jesus and his followers in Luke 6:1"One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels." So, Jeff showed me hot to pull off some of the heads of the stalks and grind them in my hand so that I could sift the chaff through my fingers. He then convinced me to try the kernels of wheat, just like Jesus' disciples ate. It was kind of weird at first, but as I tried them and started chewing, I realized that it was really not bad. It was more like a weird texture of wood/nut and tasted like wheat flour and a little nutty as well.

We talked about how cool it was to experience the Bible in this way. Don't get me wrong, this was no eye-opening, WOW, experience, however it was one of those experiences I will never forget, simply because I was able to realize, and walk in and participate in the path of Jesus for but just a glimpse of time.

Spiritual Bulimia

I'm reading a book right now that is really hitting home for me. I mean, I am reading inside of this book about feelings I have had for 4, 5 even 6 years now, but I have never put into words, never thought them through. It is such an awesome feeling. I'm going to quote out of the book here in just a second, but let set this up first. Well... on second thought, I'll talk about it after this quote from the book.

Previous to this quote he is talking about becoming a believer and people telling him what Christians believed, but not teaching him how Christians live.

The Irresistible Revolution, Shane Claiborne, Pg 39
"So as we do in our culture, I thought perhaps I needed to buy more stuff, Christian stuff. Luckily, I found an entire Christian industrial complex ready to help with Christian music, bumper stickers, T0shirts, books, and even candy..... They had lists of bands and the Christian alternatives to them, so I got rid of all my old CDs. (And I must confess, I was a bit disappointed by the Christian counterfeit. Who could compare to Guns N' Roses and Vanilla Ice?) And I bought books, devotionals, T-shirts. I developed a common illness that haunts Western Christianity. I call it spiritual bulimia. Bulimia, of course, is a tragic eating disorder, largely linked to identity and image, where folks consume large amounts of food but vomit it up before it has a chance to digest. I developed the spiritual form of it where I did my devotions, read all the new Christian books and saw the Christian movies, and then vomited information up to friends, small groups, and pastors. But it had never had the chance to digest. I had gorged myself on all the products of the Christian industrial complex but was spiritually starving to death. I was marked by an overconsumptive but malnourished spirituality, suffocated by Christianity but thirsty for God."

This is exactly what I feel like I have done until the last couple of months. I feel like I have only regurgitated other peoples beliefs to my friends and families through conversations, etc. I don't feel like I knew what I believed or why. I know that I believed, but I just didn't know on my own terms, I knew, because it made sense. The problem was, I wasn't living my faith. I didn't have a chance to live my faith, I was living the faith of the authors that I was reading, or I was living the faith I was taught in church, or talked about with my friends, not because it was my faith, but simply because that was what Christians did, they regurgitated information to each other and passed it down the line so that everyone can be the good little Christian.

Guess what, I am believing now and living MY faith now, for probably the very first time in my life. There are people who don't get it, there are people who wonder what the heck I am doing, and there are people who are right where I am. I love it. Don't get me wrong, I don't have it figured out by any means, but I have a faith that is coming alive.

I feel like an artist....kinda!

I started pottery class again tonight. I took classes back in Oct, Nov & December last year and ended up making a lot of our Christmas presents. It worked out well since we participated in Advent Conspiracy. I had always wanted to try it and wasn't sure I really liked it, but then I saw how other people reacted to my pottery, yes MINE. It was a crazy good feeling!

So, why did I wait six months to start going again? I'm not sure. I almost put it off again tonight, because I have so much other stuff I need to do (like find a job), but I went ahead and went. I am so glad I did. When I last went, I was making approximately one item per night, but when I got there this evening, I already knew what I wanted to do and I jumped right on it. I was able to make three things in one night. That's incredible... at least for me. AND, I was happy with every one of them. The spoon rest is a little frufru for me, but I think people will like it.

Anyway, for any of you who are interested, I thought I would post some pics of my pieces I gave away last December. Unfortunately, Becca is working so I'm not sure where to start looking so I'll try to post those at a later date. If you are interested in classes, it's only around $60 for four weeks, and believe me, after that first four weeks, you'll know if you like it. I take classes at Paseo Pottery, down on 30th and Paseo Drive on Tuesday nights. I think he also has classes on Saturdays.

I've decided I'm going to be creating pottery at least once per week, and Rebecca and I are going to start setting up at shows to try to sell our respective art.

I know that surprises some of you that I take pottery classes so what is something that would surprise me about you?

Loving as God Loves!

I heard Andy Stanley talking about Ephesians 5:21 recently so I started reflecting and studying a little around that verse and had some thoughts that I would like to share. NIV, Ephesians 5:21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Andy talks about this verse in the context of marriage in his video study iMarriage. He talks about this, not as so many have preached in the past, but in the sense of submission to each other in reverence and awe of Christ. So, I don't submit to my wife because she has done something to deserve it, or because she has earned it, I submit to my wife because of my love for Christ and because he has told me to do this in order to love HIM. Not to love my wife, but to love Him, I should submit myself to my wife. Likewise, the wife should submit to her husband, not out of respect for him, but out of respect for the Lord. Again, not because he did the dishes for you and the laundry and fixed dinner. Or not even because he does a great job at supporting the family and protecting them and providing for them, but simply because of our love for Christ.

WOW, talk about mind blowing. Seriously, have any of you thought like this before? Have you lived like this before? Do you live like that now? Would your spouse agree? I don't know about you, but I'm pretty convicted of it. I am ignorant no longer, so now I have become responsible as it says in The Message, Ephesians 4:21 My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. 22 Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything - and I do mean everything - connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life - a God-fashioned life. OK, so no more ignorance means a changed life; knowledge transformed into actions. I am responsible for changing what I am no longer ignorant about.

Oh, I know, this really sucks, I'm not liking where I'm headed here, but I'm truckin' on anyway. In further study I come across even more great stuff, and it applies even outside of marriage. Possibly even before it applies to marriage, because if we are applying it in general terms, then it will automatically apply to our marriages. You need to use your imagination here, what would this look like in our lives if this was who we were. It is who we are supposed to be. We know that, the Bible is telling us that, so now, ignorance is no more an excuse.

Listen to Paul in The Message, Ephesians 4:32 Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you. 5:1 Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. 2 Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that......

Read that again, just stop right here and go back and read that last paragraph and ask God to speak to you through it............

I don't love like that. I'm not sure I know how to love like that. In fact, I know I don't, only Christ through me can love like that. Christ has to be loving through us in that fashion all the days of our lives. We can't just be intentional about doing that every once in a while. It has to be who we are. Can that ever happen? Paul seems to think so, and I bet there are a few people in History besides Jesus that we can look to and see that. What if we are all capable of that kind of love? What kind of transformation can take place in my world, not just my life, but in my world, if I now act on the instruction I have received.

I am no longer ignorant, Lord, teach me to love like you!

Brooke Fraser

This is a beautiful young lady I discovered this morning. Her songs have really touched me so I thought I would share a couple of links with you. I will definitely be getting the album. This first video is the first song I listened to; the second one is the title track from her latest album that releases in the USA tomorrow, May 27th, 2008.

I do it just for you

This is a poem I wrote over on myspace back in September 07. I was reading a book called "Organic Church". I actually rewrote it a little bit and added to it while I was reading "Seeing What is Sacred" in November of 07. I am going to try to convert at least one blog a week over from MySpace to here so that I have everything in one place. If you've read it, sorry, if not, hope you enjoy it.


Did you see me winking at you this morning,
before I sent the sun over the horizon?
Did you know it was me,
or did you just see stars covered in clouds?
Did you see the depth of my sky this morning,
the beautiful pinks, oranges, reds and blues,
the white puffs of clouds rolling gently through?
Did you feel the soft breeze blowing across you skin,
and know that it was my caress?
Did you hear me talking to you,
through whispers of birds and katydids and the rest of my creation?
Did you see the trees swaying gently in the wind,
or the leaves falling so silently to the ground?
Could you smell me drawing near to you,
in the clean, cool, refreshing air?
Did you take time to notice me this morning,
in all the glory I created?
I know you think I'm all around you, even now as I speak,
but do you really see me and know that I am here?
I love you Robert, but Have you ever thought
that everything I do, I do it just for you?
Well it's true, I love you that much,
but not just you, your neighbor too.
Please help them see how much,
help spread the Word, spread my love.
Help them see me in everything around them
and everything within them.
I do love you and I did do all of this for you,
but I love them too, it's your job to let it shine through.

Dazed & Confused....

Right now, about a lot of things. You know, I was once told to put down the books, just put them down. This was in reference to my brain overflowing with thoughts so fast that I couldn't sort them all out and file them away properly. Of course, I feel like I really need to ponder those thoughts so I can see if I feel like I even need to store them, you know what I mean?

I mean, if it's not something I believe or buy into, why file it away in memory right? So... I'm putting down the books for some good ol' fashion reflection. It's hard to do, I've got some great books started right now. Exiles by Michael Frost, The Practice of Praise by Oswald Chambers, Ministerial Ethics by Joe Trull and James Carter, and at least one other one I cannot remember the name of right now.

I'm going to stop reading all of them long enough to sort through some things, then I'll continue with Exiles until I'm finished. I think what happens to me is that I get in the middle of a few books, (that's normal, see the last section of this page to read more about that), and I kind of wade through all of it at one time, but every once in a while I grab a book (Exiles) that really spins me for a loop in my thought process and I really want to absorb ALL of it. I don't do that often either. I like to absorb nuggets from books and then put them into play quickly, but this book I really want to digest, so... I'll take a few days to clear my head, then dig back into it.

Which is it for you?

Moving into the neighborhood!

I want to follow up to a comment I posted on Mars Hill.

OK, how do you move into a neighborhood. Do you move quietly in, stay to yourself, hope people approach you so that you can tell them your name, what you do for a living and that you are a good person, hoping also that they then open their lives up to you so that you can pour into them all of your great knowledge about life and liberty and pursuit of God? Or do you go to your neighbors doors and introduce yourself, maybe taking THEM some cookies, just letting them know you moved into the neighborhood and that you believe in watching out for each other, helping each other, loving each other?

I don't know, maybe you do a little of both, but I know I am trying to figure out ways to engage my neighbors in new ways. Not in gimmicky ways, or in weird ways, but in ways that may make an impact in their lives. We cannot expect the people in our lives to just come to us and say, I'm screwed up, lead me to Jesus, please. Why does the church do this, then? The church, at least in the western world, has traditionally been a place where you went when you were ready to find God, like he was all hunched over, stuffed inside this building, waiting for you to come. The churches have made it that way, fashioned it that way to some degree, some by accident, and some on purpose probably.

What if instead the church was you and I living among the people who are hurting, the down-and-outers, the depressed, the confused, and instead of saying "come to me, I have what you need" we would say, you know what, I see you are hurting, how can I help...... then.... help! What if we went out (like Christ) and found the people who were the "worst of these", and just loved on them. Built a relationship with these people. Took an interest in them outside of their ability to help us further our vision, or our "organization". If, as Christ-followers, we practiced what Jesus practiced, the body of Christ would be a lot more like Christ intended. Instead we decided somewhere along the way, that Jesus was going to setup shop, pulling off the latest, greatest tricks in order to pull people in by the millions.

Jesus had the latest greatest tricks (miracles) of anyone in His day, but did he do that then? Then why do we think he wants us to do it for him. Do we really think that Jesus would setup shop in an abandoned arena and turn it into a 72 million dollar church?

OK, I know, I'm going a little off path again, which I do quite often. I'm getting tired and I'm getting a little perturbed as I write, so I'm going to end now and maybe pick it back up again in a few days. In the meantime, let me know your thoughts. I'd love to hear from you.

The Simple Life!

My wife and I have really been pursuing simplification in our life lately, I would say, probably the last year or so.  We have pursued it on and off for three or four years, but I believe we are really starting to accomplish some form of simplification.  

One of our driving desires in the pursuit of simplification is to live, work, and worship all in the same neighborhood.  For us, this means within a mile or two of each other.  It really includes shopping, playing, school, etc.  

We have made huge strides toward simplifying our life by accomplishing the following:

• We sold our only TV in a garage sale, and had cox cable tv turned off..... what was that.... did you gasp..... you really should try it, it is extremely gratifying and freeing.... careful with this if you have kids, but it's still a wise move I would think (we don't have any).
• We have sold our house in Choctaw, moved to NW 27th and Penn in Oklahoma City.
• We downsized our mortgage in the process by about $45,000 dollars, which in direct correlation reduced our mortgage payment by about 40%, thus freeing up resources for other endeavors (or maybe just to fully pay our bills every month, lol).
• We have downsized our square footage by about 30%, thus taking less time for upkeep, cleaning, decorating, etc.  
• We are attending a church within one mile of our house.
• Rebecca is starting school at OCU in the fall, three blocks away.  
• We shop no further than two to three miles away, but in fact, most of the time, shop only four to five blocks away.

I'm not bragging by any means, please don't think so, I just want to challenge you to think about simplification and the things you want out of life, the important stuff to you.  Can you really accomplish it living the way you are living?  

Of course, the goal of simplification is to free up resources (i.e., time, talent, money, things, etc), but the real progress starts happening when you are able and willing to start investing those resources into other people, into relationships, into building bridges into people's lives.  I'll save that post for another time.  

Are you in need of a major simplification in your life?  Are you interested in doing it?  Do you have the guts to do it?  Will you make the decisions necessary in order to free up valuable time and money for your family, friends, neighbors, and Christ?  

To drink, or not to drink, that is the question!

Wow, I'm not sure I even want to open up this topic, but it's got to start somewhere, so..... here it goes.

I am really going through some inner turmoil right now, seeking God and praying about having a drink every once in a while.  Is it bad?  Is it good?  Does it matter?  Is it a "bad witness"?  I think the answer may be yes to each of these, just as easy as it is no to each of these.  

I've really been reading and praying over 1 Cor 8 the last few days and I do believe I'm seeing that topic in a new light.  For some reason, call me weird, I always thought that chapter was about not causing someone with an issue to fall back into an issue, (i.e., me having a drink, causing someone who is an alcoholic to think it's ok to have a drink, etc.)  Of course, it may be ok for me, but not ok for them, that's up to God, but I believe what's being said is that if it could cause offense or confusion, or any doubt among the people who see it, then I probably shouldn't be doing it.  Not because it (the drink) is wrong for me, but simply because it may impeded someone's relationship with Christ.  I'm not a theologian, in fact, I barely read my bible sometimes, in fact, I probably read other books much more than the bible, anyway, back to topic.  

I don't have a problem having a beer with a pizza, or having a margarita at Chili's over dinner, or having wine at Olive Garden, etc. I don't think it's right to do in front of anyone that does have an issue with it either, though, even though I have freedom in that.  Of course, that's a totally different issue, freedom in Christ, and that whole new "movement".  Not saying it's good or bad, again, trying to figure out what I believe.   I'm just looking to solidify my values/beliefs about alcohol.  

I would love to hear some thoughts on this.

Re-Starting

Well, I'm actually going to try this again. I figure if I really want to be consistent I should blog at least every 4 months or so. Of course, we are going on 5 months now, but who's counting right?

Short blog, but concise, it should be worthy of at least a few diggs.

Starting!

OK, so here I go! My first official post on this blog. I've been using Myspace for blogging, and it's ok, but I wanted my blogging to mature to some degree so I figured this is the next step. I've been toying with starting this blog for several weeks, and I figured I just need to do it. My goal will be to write a couple of times a week.

I really just want to keep it real, tell you what's happening in my life, not because I need your advice, or your encouragement, or your correction, or even your pity, but simply just to let you be a part of my life, therefore, letting me be part of your life. That's what this is really all about, opening myself up, being an open book, for all to read.

I'm so tired of living life all bottled up, afraid to ask a stupid question, or to let people know what's really going on in my life. Don't get me wrong, I don't plan this to be a pity party for Robert all of the time, but by all means, I want to be able to tell you when I'm angry, or hurting, or sick. I want you to be part of my life. So for now, I'm going to leave you with a post from Myspace, back in April of '07. It speaks to this same issue to some degree, it may be a little confusing at first, but bare with me, it'll start to make sense soon.

OPEN OR CLOSED?
I find it so weird that as I look back over my blog the last few weeks, and even some of my friends blogs, that our emotions, are always up/down. We're never steady for a period of time then go down for a period of time, it's the yo-yo of life I guess. Actually, some people would say it's the yo-yo of being unstable and I often think that. I try to write consistently in my blog, but I haven't done it real consistently this week because I have noticed that, and I'm not sure I want people thinking about me, what I think about myself sometimes. I think that i am mentally unstable, simply because my emotions rise and fall like the tide. Do you think that of me? What about of yourself? I talk about being all open and honest, and that is what I long for, a time when I have good friends that know ALL about me, instead of one BEST friend that knows most. I want my good friends to all have the same knowledge of me, I want them to know my inner thoughts, my emotions, stable or unstable. As one friend has said, though, when that starts happening, judgement and condemnation are easy to creep in, because you start thinking that "wow, they have it made, what are they so messed up for", or maybe you think, "Man, they have no real clue of what life is all about". You get the drift. It is easy to be non-judgemental in theory, but it's a lot different to be non-judgemental in practice. I know, my theory has held up many times, until I try to put it into practice. I just want to love people for who they are, not who they pretend to be, because if I can't even do that, how can I expect others to do it. I guess my hope is that I will find those people that do provide that and can lead me in that direction, but instead, most of the time, I find people who are so overprotective of themselves that they are running the opposite direction. So... my hope is that as I work on becoming an open book to my friends, that I can influence some of them to become an open book, but if that doesn't happen, I have to remember that it is not my calling to open them and read them as freely as I hope to let them read me. It is only my calling to open MY book and let them read me, period. I hope I'm getting better at this, but I know some of you who are reading this are thinking weird things, and some of you are thinking, "that strikes a chord". Which is it for you?