Time with Dad

Haley had one of her showers today. So I watched TV with my dad. One of my favorite things to do with my dad is make fun of things.

First, we flipped back and forth between the Tigers' game and CNN's coverage of Obama's speech at Notre Dame. So we made fun of the Liberal Media. That was fun.

After that, we watched the Red Wings and switched coverage to FOX for the speech. We did not want to get carried away with making fun and miss any of the game.

Then, we saw a UFC fight that lasted 36 seconds. We made fun of the fact that FS Detroit had to think of what to do with the other 29 minutes and 24 seconds of the allotted time slot. They showed a lot of commercials. Guess they expected the fight to last longer.

After that, we made fun of alien hunters. This was my favorite making fun of the day. It's just way to easy to make fun of someone using a psychic as a credible source, or using an author to tell a story that cannot name any of his sources or we would "never see him again." It was a good laugh.

Finally, we watch the History Channel's program "How Bruce Lee Changed the World" and there was no making fun. We sat in awe for two hours not really saying much.

Maybe a lot of people wouldn't see this as "good bonding time," but I enjoyed it. Someday I will make fun of things with my son, but not Bruce Lee, no one makes fun of Bruce Lee.

The Green Bastard Crapped Out!

I haven't driven the GB in over a month, and Cal asked if he could use the truck so I cleared it out, and put all my tools in GB, and took it to the gym this morning.

I never got to the gym.

It got to a tow truck.

I hate that car.

If Satan was a car, and he wanted to ruin your life, and strike you when you were most vulnerable, he would be a '96 Dodge Neon. 

I feel like for the last couple weeks there has been an ever-present battle of good things happening to me, and bad things happening. Except all of the good things are of spiritual growth, and all of the bad things are of the earth, mostly financial. It would be really nice to get out of this hole, and back into my comfort zone, but the best learning and growth always happens without distractions. I feel like I've learned a lot in the last couple months, but I still have this craving. Like a fire starving for fuel. I've always had it. I've always had this internal fire, and I've thrown a lot of things in it trying to build it up, and keep it going. The things and stuff I have thrown at this fire are sticks and twigs compared to what could be fed to it. I'm really getting into this now, I think I need a new paragraph for dramatic effect...

It starts with a match-stick. It is the parent's role to bring kindling to the flame, love on it, and eventually a log is set on fire, after that you are free to control your fire. I've brought many things to my fire, some more logs mostly. I got my TV log, my Internet log, my Nintendo log, my brand new furniture log, my laptop log. Generally a lot of expensive things that I've thought are very important. Over and over I've lied to myself thinking these logs would make my life more enjoyable, make my fire fuller, brighter. All the while keeping in contact with the one who started the fire, the all-knowing authority on fire building, God. The conversation would go like this.

"Hey, God I think that this brand new flat panel TV will keep my fire burning big and strong. What do you think?"

and God says, "Well you could do that, or you could..."

"Okay thanks God! Man am I a natural at fire-building or what?"

"Sure thing Mike, I'll be here when you have more questions."

So then what happens? Ha ha well let me tell you.

One day Mike says to God, "Hey God, I know I'm really awesome at fire building and all, but it seems like my fire is limited in size and I really want a HUGE fire."

"Well Mike, herein lies the problem, your fire is so big now that I really can't do much with it. So here's what we're going to do, we're going to let your fire burn down. We're going to let it get so small that we will be able to move it using a single log, and I'm going to put it in that there forest."

"Oh..."

I just have this great feeling that even though everything sucks right now, there is still hope, because I've entrusted my fire to the One who created fire.

Git 'R Done!

Haley Here.

I guess I should give my input on this thing.. Hogey cant think he can just run the show! :o) 

My hours are getting cut at work... which I guess is ok. Good thing I just got my certificate! I need to get on the ball about job hunting, I just really dont want to settle but I feel that in these bad economic times I just might, atleast I have a positive future to look forward too.

I can pretty much always get a job, which is a nice thing to think about.

Sooo... bottom line. 

I cant WAIT to get married.

Only 53 MORE DAYS!!!!! CRRRRAZZZY!!

I cant believe it, Michel and I are so excited!

This road hasnt been easy tho.. Its harder then one might think, maybe not tho. Im sure you know. Not a day goes by that I think that this isnt right tho, this is it. This is our time, this is going to be our day.. the day that Ive spent 9mos. planning! All to celebrate Michael and I spending the rest of our lives together... whoa. 

I CANT WAIIIITTTT!!!

::EDIT::

sooo.... Michael just called me and Combs Cleaners in TR is giving them a ton of problems... errggg. Michael took adam(one of his groomsmen) and I guess "the guy that measures for tuxes" isnt there today.. How hard is it to measure somebody!? Pray they get that worked out.. cause we cant take adam down again. 

ps. adam doesnt have a car. hence us carting him around to get fitted for his tux!

HALEY IS CNA-IFIED!!!

Haley is now a Certified Nursing Assistant! YAY HER! 

Walking on Water (First blog entry!)

Today my alarm failed to go off, so at 6:17 I woke up and decided to go to the post-workout Bible study. I got to the gym just in time for a 15 minute bike ride and about 5 minutes of stretching, so needless to say I didn't get much of a physical workout. One of the things we talked about was the story of Peter's attempt to walk on water.

I never really thought much of the story other than the life lesson of having faith in Jesus, and how Peter doubted.  There's a whole lot more to it than that though. Peter didn't fall because he lost faith in the Lord. Peter always had faith, he saw Jesus, or rather he saw a figure, spoke to it, heard His voice, and realized it was Him. After that he realized Jesus was walking on top of water. Not only water, but a storm, and was unaffected by it. So Peter knew that it was possible through the power of the Lord to walk on water. The reason he fell was because he became distracted. He lost focus of what was really important and was frightened by the storm (Matthew 14:30) I mean let's be honest wouldn't you? Rumor has it that the other eleven were too afraid to even leave the boat. I can imagine them sitting there hugging their teddy bears and rocking in the fetal position. They were probably thinking "Here we are in the middle of a storm, our boat is going to sink, we're going to drown, and to make things worse here comes a ghost!" I mean I'm sure some of them were so scared they didn't even know Peter left the boat. So is Peter really the one that we should point fingers at when Jesus said "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" (Matthew 14:31 (and change) NASB) What do you think Jesus said to the others?

This was an awesome lesson for me today. One I've been trying to work on lately too, so it was a great confirmation. We as Christ followers need to leave our Boat (our comfort zone), and go out into the Water (the world). Once in a while forces will appose us, but we need to stay focused and ignore the Storm (Lucifer, etc.), and stay focused on Walking on Water (what's really important).

One of the couples in the Core Group that Haley and I go to lives out at Miracle Camp and on Sunday they talked about how people look up to them because they live a Christ centered life and devote themselves to God. They explained how they felt a lot of times like they are taking the easy way out by surrounding themselves by other Christ followers who share common goals and they never have to feel uncomfortable.

I have another friend who works at Bair Lake Bible Camp, and one of the things they teach out there is that if you feel comfortable, you aren't learning anything.

So to anyone that is reading this I challenge you to go out and make yourself uncomfortable.

In the words of Daniel Radcliffe (I know, right?),  "There's never enough time to do nothing."

Haley has her test today at 2 p.m., please pray for her.