Mulligans and Do-Overs

I preach a lot about the opportunity for moving forward in the shadow of a past mistake. Sometimes, I don't listen to my own preaching. I've been told by a few people that I use sports euphemisms too often but here goes:

When you throw an interception, don't hang your head. Go back out on the field with sharper vision.

When you serve up a homerun, don't cry. Get back to the mound and throw your best stuff.

When you shoot an air-ball, don't shy away from the ball. Seek the pass and look for nothing but net.

When you strike-out, don't throw your helmet. Be calm and know you'll have another at bat.

When you miss a block, grit your teeth and slam it harder.

When you roll a gutter ball, well, you're bowling so you were probably drunk. Aim at the middle of the thirty pens.

When you hit it in the rough, figure it out.

When you miss a putt. Study it harder next time.

Never forget, curling and NASCAR, are truly sports.

Inspire your team. Be you, but, be the best you. Don't let the outside voices become the inside torture. I'm preaching, but I'm listening.

"We don't carry an 'S' on our chest. We just wear a star on our helmet and try to do the best job we can."
-Dallas Cowboys running back Emmit Smith, after rushing for just 69 yards in a season-opening 37-7 WIN over Pittsburgh, 1997.

And oh, I almost forgot. If you score a triple-bogey at Putt-Putt. Quit. Take your colored ball and freaky putter back to the counter and try to beat someone at Galaga or Pac-Man.

Sometimes... A lot of times...

I awaken in the night thinking of my family. I always touch, Chrissy, my wife, LIGHTLY...don't awaken her purposely. I walk the halls of the home and spend time praying. I call my children my kiddos, and someone recently told me how disrespectful that it was to call them such names. Wrong.
I always stop at the door and listen to them breathe, in...out...in...out...Beautiful. I pray that the room is filled with the Holy Spirit that fills them. I can't imagine the power Who was there and is still there always when I baptized them both with God's Spirit filling their hearts. I'm just glad I got to be there, and fill in. Sorry Ms. T. I know I just finished a sentence with a preposition, please don't tell the coaches AGAIN.
I'm so blessed to have the family that I have to call mine even when some yell back at me, tell me, "no," when I meant yes, or don't agree with my thoughts. Even when my kiddos get their own ideas, they're still always in my heart, BIG. That's why I stop every night at their doors, hold on tight and pray harder than I ever understood before I knew those little toots.
They'll grab your heart more than you ever figured, huh?
I thought, I crashed motorcycles, broke bones on football fields and softball fields, lost fist fights, won more fist fights, broke more bones, lost games, blah, blah, blah, blah... But nothing hurt more than seeing my kids cry, hurt, or be sick. They're just amazing.
Someday, I hope they know that their weird Dad, who stood at their door and holding on tight praying for them know I would do anything for them, and prayed to the One who can do anything through and with them. That's my prayer.
I will say, a broken know's hurt's a bunch huh?

The days that lose you....The days you lose

There are days that seem to lose you. You can't find your keys, someone's upset with you, your truck doesn't start, you rip your pants. You know those days. They're the ones that you wish would fly by so that a new, more hopeful day would fill it's place. When you encounter those days in the midst of the maze of the 24 hour delineation period we tend not to value the experience, opportunities, lessons, or much else.
I can think of numerous nights I was awakened by a crying child while mumbling to myself that it would be another sleepless night. As my teen-aged daughter approaches the time to drive, I imagine I'll have a new kind of sleepless night ahead.
That maze of the day I wish would disappear often is the crucible in which we learn the most important lessons, even if we don't want to learn. We learn the twists and turns of life and when to turn left even if we think we're right. It is in the midst of life that we learn to live, and the lessons aren't usually easy to swallow. However, in the maze of life is the One who made us, watching us struggle and stumble, walk and run, even fall. He's right beside us throughout, never leaving us alone, but he does not share our same vantage point. He walks with us, but knows the turns in the maze. Listen.

The funny thing about those days that lose us is how we react. I find that far too often I've lost a day of learning, growing, and changing while I pout about a day that lost me. I complain that it wasn't my fault. So what? I could chalk up the mistake to ignorance. Does it matter now? I could even own up to my faults and still allow the rest of the day to slip by unnoticed while focusing on the past transgressions, what good does that do?

So, when life gets heavy and you encounter one of those days that lose you, don't lose the rest of the day. I've got a prayer that I've begun saying lately that is simple:

Lord help me to move on and beyond.


Simple I know, but for me true and heartfelt. Don't lose the days that lose you, because they're valuable and filled with the promise of new. I wish I knew now how beautiful a babies cry in the night is when I was hearing them then. I guess we live and learn in the maze that is life.

Connor and Lola

I called my wife this afternoon as has become my habit to see how the day had been for her and the kids. When she answered I could tell the afternoon had not been kind. The tone of her voice indicated something was wrong but she said things were fine, I knew differently. As her voice cracked she said, "I told Connor today that we can't take Lola with us when we move." We're leasing a house and Lola is a nightmare of a one year old puppy full of love, energy and destructive ability. According to the lease we couldn't take her with us regardless, so we're finding her a good home before we go.

"Great timing Dad," I thought as I heard Connor crying in the background. In a ten-year-old's mind being separated from every friend he's ever known was bad enough but to leave his Black Lab behind was the icing on the cake of one tough day. I asked to speak to him, but he didn't want to talk. I understand, sometimes I don't want to talk either, and in his mind I was the reason Lola was staying in Lubbock as he moved to a strange new place. Chrissy put on the speaker phone and I said to him, "Bud, I know this is a tough time for you, and you can be angry with me if you want, that's understandable. But know that I love you and I always will, and hopefully someday you'll understand that we did the right thing. If I were there I would give you a big hug."

Connor said, "I wouldn't let you!"

Lessons come at us daily and fast paced. As I thought about Connor and the move he's looking at in the future, and the man (me) he feels is, "causing," it, I realize that I too know that I look to my Father in Heaven and know he loves me even when I'm scared or angry. But I know that God in His infinite love had his Son stretch open his arms and in so doing He wrapped his love around me.

My son doesn't know it, but his Dad's heart was aching for a boy named Connor saying goodbye to who is loved and familiar, to move without choice to a new place. But when we look back we'll know that faithfulness is the best option.

By the way, Connor did ask his Mom to call his Grandparents to see if he could live with them.

Being a Part of Greatness!

Greatness is saying that, "Jesus is the Christ, The Son of God, and my Lord and Savior."

Looking Back

I was sitting beside my Grandmother and my son Connor today waiting for the musical, "Into the Woods," to begin. My daughter Caitlin had one of the lead roles as Cinderella. I had to get on the road back to my new home in Mesquite, Texas, and was ready for the show to get on the road.
The lights finally dimmed and it was only a few minutes until I saw her. My Caitlin, in her gown fit for a ball and Cinderella slippers that made her look like, well, uh, a young lady. This was not my beautiful little chubby cheeked girl I brought to Lubbock eleven years ago. The actress, singer, and dancer was a beautiful lady closer to leaving her Daddy's home than she was yesterday. I fought back tears and watched a brilliant matinee performance. I kissed her cheek when the show was over and told her I had to get back home to work. I got in my truck to head East, and fought back more tears.
I reached Weatherford and pulled off the Interstate to get gas and a Diet Coke. When I walked into the doors of the convenience store I was stricken with a vision. Thirteen years ago I walked through the same doors of this same convenience store one very early Christmas morning on the way to Lubbock to spend Christmas with my parents. Caitlin was a 1-1/2 month old infant, sleeping in her car seat in the back seat of our Ford Explorer. I couldn't believe how beautiful she and her mother were, nor, how blessed I was to have them be my girls. I wish now that I would have understood how important it was to gather up memories and store them in my heart.
I've had more time alone lately on the road to think more than I ought, but I've learned a lot about myself and life in general in those lonely moments with only the highway and my Lord.
Nearly 11 years ago, I moved back to Lubbock with a 2-year-old and a pregnant wife. Now I've moved away while the kids finish school and Chrissy gets a house... no, a home ready sell. I miss them every day and cherish the brief times we're together lately.
I've thought about the good times we've celebrated in that home together. Bringing home a tiny son and little brother. Birthday parties. Back yard fun. Teaching kids to catch and throw. Cooking barbecue on the back porch. Building the worlds worst back fence. Loving and being loved by an awesome church in Westmont. Having my kids get to live close to Grandparents that love them unflinchingly and have a special relationship with them. Hugging my wife and kids and meaning it with more than I can express with words. There are so many good times and victories in our home in my hometown, and the adopted hometown of my wife.
I've recounted the challenges that we've been through as a family. I thanked God aloud on numberous occassions that God has brought Chrissy, Caitlin and Connor through surgeries, a terrible car accident, and craziness. I thought about the opportunities, too many to count on all the fingers in the world, that I missed as a husband, father, son, and minister. I wished for all of them back, but they're gone. Now filled with an unknown number of tomorrows. Perhaps God was reminding me to stop wasting opportunities and chances.
Chances to be the husband that my wife deserves. Opportunities to be the Dad that I must be.
Times to be the son and grandson that I should strive for often. The time to be the minister to which I'm called. I felt a sense of loss that couldn't be taken away, what I like to call, "the paralyzing power of...if only."
A big part of the regret is that I didn't fully relish my time with family, church, and friends, until I watched, as another Lubbock boy said, "Lubbock in my rearview mirror."
Speaking of rearview mirrors. I walked out of the convenience store off the Interstate in Weatherford I hopped in the truck and remembered that the same teenaged beautiful Cinderella on stage hours ago was the same one I focused my rearview mirror on all the way to Lubbock in the middle of the night. I still remember somewhere around Abilene seeing my baby girl getting restless with an exhausted wife sleeping in the passenger seat. I reached back with my right hand, putting it on her brand new little leg and she sighed.
It may not be manly, but when I thought of all behind us as a family, I cried half-way to Fort Worth. The thing is I cried out of gratitude and love, not despair. I wouldn't trade those times nor loved ones for anything, even if things have to change. A broken heart means you love deeply enough to hurt, even in good ways.
Oh, what I'd give to hear that sigh again. But, as I've said before, driving while staring in the rearview mirror can be dangerous...unless you're staring at Caitlin or a Connor with Chrissy beside you.

Grown-Up?

I'll bet when you were a child someone asked you, "What would you like to be when you grow up?" I know I've spoken to my children about what paths they will take on the road to adulthood, or as often said, when they're grown up.

I looked out at the congregation at both services on Sunday morning and saw a lot of people with varying degrees of experience, age, education, income, and more. However, I didn't see one single grown up. Not one.

The title,"grown-up," seems to indicate a finality that doesn't exist. It tends to say that someone is finished growing. As we walk with our Lord, we must continue to grow until the day that we get to finish the race that is life.

I think of my children coming home from school exhausted from the day of learning reading, writing, and arithmetic but wanting to play with their friends. We need those times of play and rest, but still school shows up the next day with more to learn. So let's make sure that even if we spend times in play to refresh our souls, we acknowledge our need to keep going to school to be filled with God's Spirit.

Someday, God will call out to us, just as my wife calls our kids, to come home. Until that time let's grow and play as hard as we can because night comes sooner than we imagine. Then however, we get to sit at His table for a banquet we can't imagine.

You're not a grown up yet...you're only growing up, until you take the seat at that table.