My nephew Vinnie…

I had the very difficult task of going to the funeral of my 3 month old nephew Vincent Charles St. George aka. Vinnie.  The truth is that my brother and his wife live in Ft. Smith, AR and I had not the opportunity to meet Vinnie.  I will devote at least a couple of posts to some things I thought about through this whole process.

The way I saw Vinnie the for the first time was not the way I would ever have imagined.  He was an absolutely beautiful little baby.  He had the St. George nose and was so amazing.  I know that he had been prepared by the funeral home, but you could see past that.  Vinnie’s dad is not a real emotional guy, but when our eyes met at the funeral home all of the pain he felt was communicated to me.  I can’t remember the last time I saw him cry, let alone like that.  But why not, as the father of six beautiful kids I was paralyzed by the prospect of losing one of my own little ones.

I do know this though, in the embrace of my brother and his wife I received a little bit of their pain to bear on my shoulders.  I don’t know how to explain it…this idea of vicarious suffering, but let me tell you this it happens.  The only thing I can do is think about how Jesus is our substitute, how he bore in himself on the cross all of my sins, and equally important is the truth that he bore all of the burden of suffering I feel.  It encourages me in this very difficult time to know that.  We do not have a high priest who is removed from suffering and pain, but one for whom suffering and pain planned and embraced.

More later on the goodness of God in the loss of a child.

New friends..

Yesterday I had the joy of meeting a great young guy.  He came to the dealership I work at to see about a new car.  I asked him what he did and he told me he was a youth pastor at a local Methodist Church.  With a little investigation I found out he was theologically in the same place as me (missional, reformed, contextual.)  I was suprised because Methodist doctrine is typically very different from mine.  He told me that there was no conflict because the leadership really didn’t mind what he taught.  The thing is that he found that there is really very little substance to what they believed, so he just taught whatever he wanted.  I guess the important thing for him is that he teaches the truth even if the other leadership wasn’t.  He told me he had the pleasure of leading several young people to Christ and has opportunities all the time of sharing the Good News of Jesus. 

Isn’t it nice to just see someone take advantage of the opportunity in front of him. 

Just a thought.

Strange feelings…

Is anybody out there?  Man I hope someone is reading.  My wife has 36000 hits on her blog I have maybe 1000.  Man I need to step it up. 

Anyway I’ve been thinking lately about the amazing effectiveness of the internet as a communication tool.  Seriously, Facebook is responsible for getting me in contact with people I haven’t seen in years, and also with family I’ve never seen (my little brother in MN).  Along with that ability to communicate comes some strange feelings though.  First, renewing relationships with family you haven’t seen in years can bring back alot of varied memories about the past:  good and bad.  Second, its a little strange when an ex-girlfriend sends you an email.  Not there’s anything wrong with saying hi and exchanging stories about marriage, kids, Church, etc. But it is a little weird.  How about finding out a friend from high school got married to his high school sweet heart (whom you once dated) and she disappeared a year or so ago.  Even stranger that they found her in her car almost a year later at the bottom of the river.  I can’t imagine the hurt he must be feeling.

Yeah, the internet is great but wow who knew it meant all of this.

Drums….WooHoo…

A couple days ago I stopped by to see my aforementioned friend John and found out that he was storing a set of drums in his attic.  I asked him if I could take them home and let my kids use them.  I know your probably thinking:  “Isn’t this the guy with six kids, he must be crazy!”   Well maybe just a little, but I have a couple of these kids that have some real natural talent on the drums.  My eldest had never played the drums and one day picked up the sticks at church and just rolled.  He has even played during band practice when our usual drummer was out and during childrens worship.  One day he was playing during childrens worship and added a great little improve roll and I almost fell off the stage I was smiling (and crying) so big.

The 8 year old is also quite good he was practicing at church a little and then went home and listened to a little Toby Mac.  He came back the next week and proceeded to start playing that new loop.  I am totally psyched for these guys and the others too.  The 17 month old also has some ryhthm.  I have wanted to get them drums for two years and just couldn’t come up with the extra.  Again, John doesn’t know how much of a blessing he is to me.

So now were working on the Family band.  Three guitars, Drums, Keys..wow.

I’m losing my mind!

God called me from darkness to light about 16 years ago.  Then he called me to share his word and work in ministry.  Things have been wild along the way.  I went to bible college and then a little seminary.  The thing is that I had not pastored a church since 1996.  A few years ago God began to transform my thinking about church and put a desire in my heart to be a part of church planting.  That is what I am doing now.  I am one of the elders at Seven Springs Church.  Here’s the deal though, I have six kids and spend a lot of time at work to the point that I think I’m losing a grip on reality.  I want more than anything to be the best pastor I can be-to my family and my church.  I am becoming increasingly convinced that God wants me to focus on the church work and the family, but that would require me to give up a lot of the time I spend working at other employment to focus on them.  Do you see the predicament?  There is a step of faith here that reminds me of when I was first married and we wanted to have kids, but I could not figure out how we could afford it, so I did the only thing I knew to do and asked my pastor.  He asked us if we wanted to have a family.  We said yes.  He said, “How big is your God?”  We now have six kids and most people wonder and even ask how we do it. 

The truth is that we Have A BIG GOD!

By the way if anyone has 30k or anything they want to invest in kingdom work drop me a line