Relationships anyone?

No, this is not an indication that I am now running an online dating service. But it will give you an idea of where this post is heading. It all started last Wednesday night (cue strumming harps and wavy pictures as we enter memory mode) . . .

The family and I went to see the Durham Bulls play Wednesday night. They're the triple-A affiliate of the major league baseball Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Minor league ball games are always great places to take the family because they really cater to families, providing lots of wholesome, family friendly entertainment. The level of play, at least in Durham, is usually pretty good and the park is just the right size so that there are no bad seats in the place. unless you're in the outfield. I don't care how small the park, if you're in the outfield, it's never a good seat. But I digress.

As the game was beginning, five women and a toddler came and sat two rows ahead of us. My wife and I waited a few minutes, looking for the men to show up. This was afterall a sporting event. Not that women can't enjoy sports, but usually when given a night out, women don't choose the ball park. No men ever showed up. It became clear it was just these ladies, enjoying a night out, even if they had one kid in tow.

At the end of the second inning, another peculiar thing happened. All five got up together and left. Lest you think I'm being chauvinistic or at least stereotypical in my judgments, my wife was the first to say, "I guess they've had enough." I joked and said maybe they had to go to the bathroom. I guess the same rule applies to the concession stand because within minutes, they returned, each with food and drink.

During the slow parts of the game, I watched the women interact. They appeared to be enjoying the game but they appeared to be enjoying one another's company more. Throughout the game, they would switch seats with one another in order to be able to converse with a different person. Guys don't do that. We stay where we are and just shout over the five people between us when we want to speak to the guy on the end. That works for us, so it's ok. Don't judge us ;-)

It's widely talked about that women are better at relationships than men. I'm not ready to agree 100% with the notion that men stink at relationships. We just do it differently. What these women did illustrate and remind me of though was the importance of healthy relationships, however you maintain them. (Healthy is the key word there) When you are on a faith journey it is important to maintain healthy relationships with other people also on a faith journey. That does not mean to restrict those relationship building times to church, Bible study, or some other "spiritual" thing. Going to a ball game, fishing, playing ball, seeing a movie, scrapbooking, sharing a meal. . . anything that gets you doing life together is important and will have immeasurable benefits.

So, anyone up for some relationships?

This stuff is harder than it looks

Last week I was lucky enough to take a few days vacation at the beach with the family. I was also unlucky enough to have leave in the middle due to a conference I had to attend while they stayed for the whole week. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. As a whole, though, the week was pretty restful and I certainly needed that.

On Tuesday the boys and I decided to try our hand at fishing off the pier. They seemed excited about it and it would give me a chance to hone my Marlboro Man skills. We rented a couple of rods, bought some bait, and headed to end of the pier with dreams of bringing home supper that night. My youngest son aspired to catching a killer whale. After about fifteen minutes of sitting there waiting for a bite, the boys started to get bored. I tried to explain that sometimes the biggest part of fishing is waiting. Within twenty minutues, one of them was ready to call it quits. And he did. After forty-five minutes, the other one threw in the towel. They went back to the camper with their mom and I stayed for another hour or so with two rods all to myself.

I came home empty handed. As I looked around me, nobody else was catching any fish either. Well, almost nobody. Two guys behind me kept catching fish. They did not always catch a keeper - one time it was a sting ray. Another time it was a toad fish. Another time it was a ribbon fish (this was kept for bait). But at least they were catching something. I looked at their rods. I looked at their tackle. I looked at the water they were casting into. For the most part, they were not doing anything any different than the other fifty or so people on the pier, yet they were the only ones reeling in fish.

Now, I have to ask the obvious question - Why? Is it because they were indeed smoking Marlboro's? Other people were smoking - maybe they had the wrong brand. That's probably not it. Was there something subtle they knew that the rest of us did not? My brother-in-law works for Hendrick Motorsports. He gave me a tour of the engine department. He explained that cameras are forbidden there because a trained mechanic could look at a casual photo and examine it to discover some trade secrets. All I saw was a bunch of metal being bored, ground, and molded into engine parts. Maybe all this is harder than it looks.

Here comes the real question that I know you are just waiting for. What if our faith journeys are the same? Is a faith journey harder than it looks? Yes and No. When we begin a faith journey, God helps us all along the way to stay on that journey and live for him. At the same time, it's not as simple as baiting a hook and throwing it overboard. There are skills and techniques that we must learn and develop along the way. Things like prayer and Bible reading are the most basic and probably most important. Sometimes they are really easy. Sometimes we have to work at it.

Now I pose a question for you. What part of your faith journey has been harder than it looked? Think about it. For now, I'm going to go see if I can improve my luck with some worms. I hope changing bait will work because I don't want to take up smoking. Just a thought.

Why am I awake?

It's 1:00 am and I'm not asleep. WHY?! I was really tired when I went to bed over 2 hours ago. I even fell asleep pretty quickly. My wife came to bed about an hour later and I woke up enough to roll over. And lie there awake. And roll back over and lie there awake. And then roll back over and lie there awake.

After 20 minutes of this, I decided to get up, check my email and check on some items I have up for sale on ebay (some vintage gen 1 Transformers that have been in storage for 20 years). Lest you think I am violating the principles of last week's post, let me explain. I got up because I know how this works. Unless I am completely exhausted, twenty to forty minutes of sleep will make my body feel likes its completely rested and ready to go. Such is the case tonight. As I type this, my mind is tired, my eyes are itchy & burning, and I hope to sleep soon if the rest of my body will cooperate.

Somewhere in this is a spiritual lesson. Like a lot of things, we want the quickest, shortest, easiest route. Those aren't always the best. I may be able to go on spurts of 30 minute naps, but eventually I will pay the price. OR the lesson may be that I am too impatient and needed to give it more than twenty minutes before giving up. There's truth in that also. OR just maybe there's no lesson at all. I could just be a guy who can't sleep and is filling his time with ramblings about his sleep patterns that nobody else cares about. Maybe there are some things in life where there are no spiritual applications. Those are my random thoughts at 1:12 am in the morning. What are yours?

I'm Back!

It's good to be home. I spent the last two weeks directing camp for 1st thru 6th graders. Click here to see some of the pics. It was a great two weeks being part of the faith journeys of 331 kids, but like I said, it's good to be home. It's good to get some rest.

Rest is an important part of our faith journeys. God didn't take a day off because he ran out of things to do. He modeled something important for us. If we don't rest, we eventually fall apart. I know a college professor at a Christian college who routinely tells his students to go get some sleep when they come to him with spiritual problems. It's amazing how a lack of rest adversely affects our decision making, even in spiritual matters.

On at least two occasions in my life, a lack of rest became a serious issue. In the fall of 2001 I hit the brick wall of burnout from not managing the many items on my plate in a healthy manner. It took several months for me to recover emotionally and spiritually from that time. Two weeks ago, as the first week of camp begin, I was teetering on the brink of going to a similar place. I had been averaging about 4 hours sleep per night over the last six months. What made this time end differently was the presence of friends who cared about me and were willing to take the reins. I gave them the director's hat and left camp for a day. I checked into a hotel and slept til almost noon the following day.

We underestimate the value of rest in anything we do. God wants us at our best, not our worn out, barely hanging on selves. As you journey, take a look at your struggles. Do you need some rest? Who can take the reins for you so you can? Just a thought.