Friends
Today I had lunch with some great friends. Ministry has provided some great networks and friends. I wish I had snapped a picture of the gang today but I forgot to do so.
Friends hold us together. This week I will spend time saying goodbye to some dear friends.
A few weeks ago we had dinner at the home of some of the greatest people in Nashville. Grey and Melanie Carter have been great friends and they always will be. (Grey could be the funniest man I know.)
So here’s to friends. We love you all.
Snow Day #6 – Daddy Daughter Day
I had to drive Kristen to work but Josie was out of school. Naturally we had to stop and get a treat …
Remember…
A Prayer – for Hurting Ministers
When I was a child, my father was usually the preacher wherever we went. While it was not his full time profession, he was always preaching. I always assumed that churches were perfect, never had problems, and that ministers like my daddy were the greatest people in the world.
I never fully understood about how churches can really be a painful place until I got into full time ministry. I can’t even begin to count the number of ministers I know who have been let go, fired, asked to leave, left out of frustration….the list goes on and on. I never knew this happened. It made it all the more real to me when I saw that it did.
Churches are full of people, and people mess up. People struggle.
I write this today, because I learned today of a college friend of mine who was let go from a church this past week. In the past 2 months, I know of 10 ministers who have been let go or fired, or have had to move on. While I don’t know the specific details of every situation, I know one thing – they are hurting.
Ministers are human.
Ministers have feelings.
Ministers love their churches.
Ministers give their heart and soul for the congregation.
The church family IS the minister’s family. Your minister prays for you, and does so often. So tonight will you do me a favor? Pray for your minister, your pastor, your rabbi, your reverend…whatever title you give the guy that serves your congregation. Pray for them.
It breaks my heart to hear of a minster being let go, especially in the middle of the school year.
Encourage your minister. Lift your minister up. Send them notes of encouragement. Tell your elders how much you care for them.
Are they perfect? Nope, not even close. But, they are human.
Tonight, my prayer is for all ministers, both those who have lost their jobs, and those who will wake up to their job tomorrow morning – to be blessed.
Winter “Wonder” Land – Day FIVE!!!!! (The one where we are attacked by giant icicles…)
Today, I was successfully able to get the ice off of (most of) Kristen’s car.
In other news – check out this GIANT ICICLE that I pulled off of our front porch!
I felt like I was wielding the sword of William Wallace!!
In fact, this thing was so large, it made Josie look like a miniature version of herself:
Believe it or not – this thing was 31 inches long!!
Thursday Potpourri
Tonight’s edition of Thursday Potpourri will scan the topics of Saturday Night Live, Snow Days, Icicles, and Family.
First of all, if you didn’t catch it, SNL (Saturday Night Live) had its 40th anniversary show this past week. In a word – hilarious. Rolling Stones Magazine did an article ranking every single actor that ever appear as a cast member (not host) on the show. What do you think about it? Did they get it right? Read it here: ROLLING STONES RANKS SNL CAST MEMBERS
Second – I just need to take a second and scream. AAAAAHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!!! We’ve been in the house since Sunday night. While there have been a few brave souls venture out of our neighborhood, we have not seen them return. Okay, that’s not true, but our road is still a solid sheet of ice. I love my family, and I love spending time with them. I just wish I could spend time with them like this in more than one place! Poor Josie has cabin fever too.
This leads me to the wonders that are icicles. We have captured a few shots of ones from our roof. Its hard to get scale in the shot. Trust me, they’re huge.
These are dangling over our back door. Makes me nervous to go out..
These are dangling out the window of our bedroom:
First this giant cluster – and these are about 18 inches long:
And this one – it is at least 26 inches long, maybe more:
But oh the fun we have had, watching our neighbors, across the street and to the left, attempt to go up their driveway. Here’s a shot of Kristen and Josie watching out the window, as they made their 50th attempt up the drive. I am grateful they finally stopped and parked on the street like we did:
We were hoping to be able to get out tomorrow, but they’re calling for even more ice and snow! Fortunately it is supposed to be 45 degrees and rain all day on Saturday, so hopefully it will ALL WASH AWAY!!!
The Great Ice Storm of 2015: Day 3
Well, here we are, day 3 of the great ice storm of 2015. Still stuck inside.
I got out of the house today to walk down to the end of our road, just to see what the cross street looked like. First of all, here’s our driveway (it IS under there, I promise..):
If you look right out of our driveway, you see this:
If you look left out of our driveway, you see this:
When you get to Old Smyrna Road, this is what you see when you turn right:
And this is what you see when you turn left (Notice, the 4-wheel drive Jeep that spun off the road and sat overnight…):
Needless to say – unless there is a major emergency, we will not be getting out tonight, or more than likely tomorrow, since the HIGH in the morning is supposed to be a Canadian-like NEGATIVE 8 degrees!! That’s right, -8 in Nashville.
I did stop a brave motorist driving down our road. He did assure me that if I could get to the main roads, they are clear, however he also said that if he had it to do over again, he would not have driven out of our subdivision. The only ways in and out of our subdivision is on a crooked and hilly road.
Be safe out there.
The Great Ice Age of 2015
I’m sitting in my wife’s car, in front of our house. I decided to come out today to start it and melt the ice off. I’ve been sitting here with the defroster on for 10 minutes now and here is my windshield:
The yard looks like it has snow, but nope. It’s ice as well. Not sure how I will gracefully go down the hill back to the front door:
I’ve seen a few cars drive down the road today. Not sure what they’re thinking. It’s solid ice as well:
School is out for the rest of the week. Kristen was commenting today that it’s so sad that people can’t just enjoy being at home – that it seems like people have an itch to have to get out of the house.
Stay home. Stay warm. Be safe. Enjoy some time off, whether you wanted it or not.
21
21 Christians beheaded. This needs to stop. Prayers for their families. Prayers for God to intervene with the ISIS madness. Prayers, prayers and more prayers.
Being Changed from the Inside Out 