Jan 5 2011

…and the last will be first

Many  of you who know me know that my father is my hero.  He has worked hard all of his life to support his family.  He also has a heart of gold, and is the single most humble person I know.

Recently, I was home in Lebanon, TN for the Christmas holidays.  While we were there, my mom wanted me to help her go pick up a new shop vac for my father for his birthday, which is on January 7.  We went and picked it up, and she decided to get one that actually holds dust bags as well, so that the fine particles won’t spread all over the place.  She happened to pick up the wrong size bag.

After my father opened up the vac, he was excited to use it, but he noticed that my mom had picked up the wrong size bag.  Since these bags are like $15 or so, he was going to go back to Home Depot to swap it out.  I went with him, because I jump at the rare opportunity to spend some one on one time with my dad.  We arrived, and stepped up to the return desk.  We waited for about 4 minutes, and no one was coming to help us.  I was starting to get impatient, but my father stood there calm as could be.  I told him that I was going to run back to where the bags were, and pick up the right one, so that when we were waited on we would have the item we needed.

I left and went back to aisle 13, picked up the bag for the larger size shop vacs, and returned back to where my father was.  However, now there were 6 people in front of my father, and he was at the end of the line.  I was puzzled.  I asked him what had happened.  He told me that they had moved people from another line that closed over to his line where he was waiting patiently.  I looked at him, and told him “You know, sometimes I think you’re too nice.”  He just smiled and waited patiently for his turn, seemingly not caring that he had to wait.  Sure, it probably frustrated him, but what good was it going to do?

Then I thought of those words that Jesus spoke in his parable of the workers in Matthew19 and  20 – so those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.

I think of all the times I’ve been impatient, glaring at someone in line for cutting in front of me, becoming impatient with a server at a restaurant, or someone who doesn’t go when the light turns green.  Looking at the positives of this situation, I got to spend a few more moments with my father, and I realize that even though I live 900 miles from him and see him one or two times a year, he continues to teach me.

My goal, for this year, is to be more patient.  I have a lot of situations in my life right now where I need to find more patience.  How will I achieve this?  I plan on reading Matthew 5-7 at least 3 times a week, and preferably more.  The words Jesus spoke in the sermon on the mount have a great ability to calm even the most wound up of people.

 

Dec 17 2010

I won an iPad today. Seriously. And you can too!

Here's the package on my kitchen table. Imagine my delight when I saw what was in it!

If you’d like to earn one of these, plus help me earn my next gift, go sign up and register at http://www.YouriPad4free.com/index.php?ref=6495410

So a few months ago, I did something I usually don’t do. I signed up on a website to try to earn a free iPad. Its one of those sites where if you complete a few offers, and get a few friends to complete a few offers, you can earn a free item.

 

I had completely forgotten about it. A few months ago, around October, I signed up for it. I completed my obligatory offer, and then waited.

How it works

1. Companies (like Blockbuster, for example) are looking for new potential customers to try out their products and services.

2. Blockbuster goes to the Bonus Network and says, “Hey, we’ll give you $80 for every customer you send our way to try out our online DVD rental service.” (Some advertisers pay Bonus Network $80, some pay them $40.)

3. So Bonus Network comes to you and says, “If you try out Blockbuster’s service and refer other people to try it through us, or one of our other advertising partner’s services, we’ll split the $80 with you for each person you recruit.”

4. You try out Blockbuster’s service and get 6 other people to try it, too (or another product/service offered through Bonus Network’s site) by giving your friends and family a special link that Bonus provides for you to share. (Of course, your friends can then get people to sign-up under their special link so they can work toward a free prize, too, but know that the people they refer have no benefit for you.)

5. After your 6 friends try a product or service, Bonus Network says, “Thanks! We’ll give you $240 ($40/referral x 6 referrals) or an iPod Touch. Which do you want?”

6. About a week later, your prize shows up in the mail, or your money shows up in your PayPal account.

Here I am, with my iPad in hand!

I honestly can't believe it. Its legit!

If you’d like to earn one of these, plus help me earn my next gift, go sign up and register at http://www.YouriPad4free.com/index.php?ref=6495410

Dec 6 2010

Wanted: Evangelism. Any Takers?

There has been a large gap of time that has passed since I last posted. Let’s just say that I’ve been overwhelmed, under-motivated, and lacking the desire to write. For the three or four readers that may remain, I should be getting back in the groove soon.

I have been guilty of something as a minister, that I believe many ministers struggle with – not always practicing what I preach.

How many times have I encouraged people to reach out to others? To invite others to church? To teach them the Gospel? The times are too numerous to count, yet I can count the few times I recall where I actually, on my own, did evangelism like I encourage others to do.

Jesus told his followers to preach the Gospel to people all over the world. I am a follower of Christ. Therefore, in order to obey Jesus, I need to be doing the same. I’m afraid, however, that I’m guilty of expecting the evangelism to come to me, instead of me going to do the evangelism. I get caught up with work at the building, the office, with the people who are already a part of the church. Why do we do this?

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, – 1 Peter 3:15

Am I always prepared? Are you? Is the reason I’m lacking in my evangelism because I’m not showing this “hope” Peter says we should have? Am I alone in this?

I think there was a time in the US when you could approach just about anyone, and talk to them about God, and not be fearful of how people would respond. Now, it seem we all walk on eggshells about our faith, not wanting to offend, and possibly even just wanting to keep it to ourselves.

So here’s some things I try to do to evangelize outside of my office bubble:

1. I always try to say God bless to anyone who offers me some sort of service. I drive through a drive through, and I say God bless to the person taking my money, and the person handing me my food.

2. I try to be aware that the rest of the world is being pretty negative. If I can share a smile, be polite and cordial to everyone, and just do things that used to be considered “good manners”, I think it makes an impact.

3. I bring up my occupation when appropriate, not to brag, but to remind me of who I am and what I do. This makes it surprisingly easier to be an evangelist, because its almost expected to be brought up. Case in point, two weeks ago I ran into Dillards late on Saturday to buy a tie to go with a new sports coat I had bought. The lady who was helping me match my coat to a new tie seemed a bit flustered, due to all the Black Friday sales. I brought up that I needed a new tie to go with my coat because I was preaching in the morning. Immediately her spirit changed, not because she was trying to “act better” in front of a minister, but because I reminded her of what was coming. She told me that she was going to have a better night now, remember that the Lord’s Day was the next day. I don’t know where she went, or what religion she was, but she was reminded of God’s comfort.

Those are just a few things, but I want to know how the rest of you follow God’s command to make disciples. What have you found that works? I’ve seen many blogs and posts on the fact that evangelism is commanded, but not many people talk about what they’re doing, but rather about the fact that its supposed to happen.

Jul 19 2010

We’re Debt Free!


I remember being in college, driving home from Henderson, TN to Lebanon, TN, and turning on Super Talk 99.7 in Nashville. I heard some crazy guy talking about money. Seeing as I didn’t have any money, I thought maybe I should take a moment and listen to this guy. My life has never been the same.

Dave Ramsey has helped many people over many years. His ideas just make sense, at least, for some people. Some of his key points:

1. Don’t have credit cards
2. Don’t spend money you don’t have
3. Pay off debt
4. Don’t lease cars or even have a car payment

There are many other things that he recommends, but you get the gist. He hates debt. I have learned to hate it as well.

When I got of college, I decided I was going to try to adopt the Dave Ramsey suggestions. I still don’t have a credit card. I haven’t had a car payment since 2005. We paid cash for both of the cars we own now (mine has 168,000 miles on it…) and never plan on having a car payment again.

Dave Ramsey understands that paying off a home is a really big deal, and is pretty hard for most people in a quick amount of time. He encourages everyone to pay off student loans, credit card debt (which I’ve never had), car debt, etc, and after that happens, you start saving for college for kids, etc. He wants you pay off your home, but he has a systematic way of doing it.

We paid off Kristen’s old blue Honda CRV about 5 years ago. We paid off my old Ford Explorer before we got married. We paid off Kristen’s Student Loans about 4 years ago. The hardest part was my student loan. I had well over $25,000 in Student Loans. We had spent a lot of our savings on paying off the other loans, and we got a little lazy in paying off mine. We convinced ourselves that the $180 a month payment just wasn’t that big a deal, and we lived with it.

After we moved to Houston, we decided enough was enough. Once again, we lived on less than we make, and paid off my loans. Over the past 6 months, we paid off $18,000 in loans, and now, we are officially debt free except our house. You have no idea how great this feels. I’m hoping we’ll change our family tree. I’m hoping our children won’t have to take out student loans. I’m hoping that our children will think car payments are stupid.

All said and done, almost 7 years of marriage, we’ve paid off about $45,000 in debt. $18,000 of that was in the last 6 months! $3837 of it was today.

Did you know that the average car payment in America is over $400 a month financed over 6-7 years. That is RIDICULOUS! Believe me, I’ve wanted some newer cars in the past. I’ve dreamed of owning a nice truck since we’ve been married, but no vehicle is better than being debt free.

Now believe me, we’re not rich, and now that we’re debt free doesn’t mean that we’re going to be rich. What we are is happy. Its great when it comes Christmas time that we don’t pay for it for the next 6 months. We’re ecstatic that now we can start saving for things we really want, instead of having to pay off debt.

The thing is, YOU CAN DO THIS TOO! If we can do it, anyone can do it. Many of my friends have done this, or are working towards this, and I know you can too! I’d love to answer any questions you have. You can learn a lot at http://www.daveramsey.com or by downloading his iPhone app, which has answers to lots of questions right at your fingertips!

Now, if we can just teach our politicians to live on less than they make…

Jun 17 2010

My trip to China

For the past 2 weeks, I have been diligently working on a really cool blog post full of wonderful pictures and details about my mission to China.

However, it is just taking entirely too long. So, what I did was publish all my pictures to my facebook page. If you have an account, and you’re my “friend” on facebook, you’ll have no problem viewing those.

If you do not have a facebook account, you can go view the pictures by clicking on the following links:

China Picture Album Part 1

China Picture Album Part 2

By lanewidick • Posted in China
2
May 29 2010

Home, a Great Place to be

Hey everyone. If you’re wondering why I haven’t posted a single thing in the past three weeks, its simple — I haven’t been here!

I got to spend a wonderful week at the Pepperdine Lectures with my good friend Jason Bybee, and from there I went across the world to China to spend time with my good friend Kevin Westmoreland, and several other old and new friends.

I have been working on trying to put together a review of the past three weeks, but all I can think about is sleep since I have returned. Jet lag has really gotten to me this time. I hope that during this holiday weekend, I can put together a report of my Pepperdine experience and my China experience.

So here’s to being home. Thanks for all the prayers and well-wishes. Love you all.

May 10 2010

All I Can Do

Sometimes, all I can do is pray.

And today is one of those days. I can’t really tell you why, but today is filled with much prayer. For me, for my wife, for my daughter, and several other key people in my life.

Nothing is wrong. I’m not making a major change in my life. I’m not getting out of ministry. If anything, after last week at Pepperdine and their lectures, I’m more inspired and rejuvinated in my ministry efforts. Getting OUT of ministry is indeed the last thing on my mind at the time.

No one is sick, at least no one in my immediate family. Sure there are sick people that I am praying for, but I am confident God has them under His loving care.

God, in His infinite wisdom, created us with a need to have relationships, both with Him and with others. Recently, I have learned what it is like to be alone. Even though it was on just a temporary basis, I realized that I have come a long way in my life. Back in 2001-2003 I lived alone. I was a bachelor in Houston TX, doing whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. I didn’t have any restrictions in my life. If I wanted to go to McDonald’s at 2 a.m., I could have done so. If I wanted to go on vacation over the weekend to Mt. Rushmore, I could have.

But you could not pay me any sum of money to go back to that life. Sure, it was fun. Yes, I cherish those times with the students and friends and teachers in my life.

However, there were 2 key components missing in my life at that time. God, and my family.

Okay, let me rephrase that. God wasn’t missing. God was and is always there for me. I just treated him as an afterthought. I went through the motions. God was a part of my life, but was not my life. I didn’t think of Him much outside of my lesson plans to teach Bible, putting together chapel for Westbury, or the trips to the church building. At that time of my life, God was just there, and that was about it.

The other key component missing was my wife, and now here recently I have learned – my daughter, Josie. Sure, I had friends there, and my day was occupied by my students, but I had no real relationships. I bounced around from group to group, never allowing myself to get too terrbily close to anyone.

Fast forward a few years to present day. I think God puts us in our own personal deserts at certain times, so we will be forced to take a step in a different direction, hopefully being towards Him. My steps toward having a closer, more intimate relationship with God, came about as a result from the other relationship in my life – Kristen. To take it a step further, it went even farther when Josie came along.

Being forced to be by myself this past week caused me to gravitate towards God a bit more. Its amazing how it really is true that when you shut up for a bit, and allow God to speak, that He actually has some really good things to say.

And now, all I can do is pray, for without prayer, I do not have God in my life. Without God in my life, all other relationships I have just don’t mean as much. Without God in my life, my career, my lifestyle, my passion and drive is gone. Without God, the miracle of my daughter being born into my life disappears. Without God, there would be nothing, so all I can do is pray, and let him be a part of my life.

And I pray that you will allow Him to be part of yours as well. All I can do is pray that you will see that. All I can do for you is pray. All that I am, all that I have, all that I will be is because of Him.

May 8 2010

To All the Mothers in My Life

I’ll be the first to admit it. When I was growing up, I was a momma’s boy. I loved my mother so very much. I didn’t want to do anything without her. She was a source of comfort and was there for me. There’s a picture of she and I on our front porch swing when we lived on Trinity Circle in Lebanon, TN. Its one of my favorites, and I know one of hers.

My mom and I on our front porch swing when I was around 4 or 5 years old.


My mom has always been very protective of me, and she hated it when I made my first real decision out of college to move to Houston. She supported me, though, and is very encouraging.

My mom is the best cook in the entire world. Being a Home Economics major helped. My favorite dish of hers is her pot roast and her mashed potatoes. Also at the top, as many of my friends from college could attest, would be her homemade chili. I can’t tell you how many she fed with that. My mom is also a great seamstress. She was responsible for sewing the giant bomb costume that John Bates wore in “Canadian Catastrophe, eh?”.

My mom chose a long time ago to stop working when we were in school, and made sure she was there for me. When I came home, she was there, up until High School when she was needing to go back to work. I’ll always value that. She is the wife of an elder and minister, and is a wonderful God fearing woman who has always made sure to put God at the front of our family.

My mom in law, Sue Sims, is also a great mom. She has always been very accepting of me into her family. Even if I drive them crazy sometimes, shes always been kind enough to laugh at my jokes, whether or not they were funny, and she has always been very easy to talk to. Its obvious through the lifestyle that Kristen values that her mother gave her a wonderful upbringing. Josie absolutely adores her “Nanna”, or even as she has been saying recently, “Nanny”. I’m honored to have her as part of my family, and honored that she is the grandmother of my child. Recently, when they came to visit our home, and our Sunday School teacher for Josie’s class woke up sick, she volunteered to teach. She is a Godly woman.

I have to end though, with the best mother in my life, and that is mother of my child, my wife, Kristen.

I will not be with her on Mother’s day. I’m out of town for a bit, and sadly will not get to spend mother’s day with her. However, I am confident in saying there is no better mother than Kristen.

Kristen is so wonderful with children of all ages. She has such a joy in her face when she is around children. However, there is a special joy in her eyes when it comes to Josie.

She’s already responsible for teaching Josie her ABCs, her numbers 1-10, all of her shapes, major colors, and many other things. I sit in awe of Kristen as I see her patiently work with our daughter and many other babies in our church. She is so passionate about making art projects for them all to do.

Josie will learn from her mother how to be a God fearing woman. She will learn that there are many ways she can serve her God. She will learn the power of a praying woman.

Kristen is the epitome of what a mother should be, sacrificing when necessary, praising when deserved, and disciplining when needed. If there were more mothers like Kristen in the world, it would be so much better of a place.

Kristen and Josie enjoying a picnic at the park.

To all mothers everywhere, happy Mothers day. May God continue to bless you all!

Apr 17 2010

Me and My Girl

My little gal in the Texas Bluebonnets

Me and Josie at the zoo in front of the "Zehbrahs"

We were looking at the elephants

Apr 5 2010

Arms of love

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?
– Psalm 22:1

David wrote these words long before Christ muttered these words while hanging on the cross.  David was obviously feeling the sting of a moment in time where it seemed like God was not with him.

Christ felt the same sting, while hanging on a cross, saving the very people who were killing him.

David, being a man’s after God’s own heart, feeling like God was no longer there for Him.  Christ, being God’s own Son, feeling forsaken by His own father.

Tonight, while holding Josie in my arms as was innocently watching her pre-bedtime Wonder Pets episode, I prayed over my little girl.  I prayed that God would never forsake her, that He would never leave her, and that He would protect her all the days of her life.

I also prayed that I would do the same thing.  That I would never leave her, never forsake her.  That I would protect her all the days of her life.  I want her to know that I love her more than anything.  But I also realize, there will be times when she, just like I did with my parents, will stray away from the ones who love her more than anything.

The one thing I don’t ever want my child to think is that I don’t love her.  Which makes me understand even more that the one thing God wants us to know is He will never cease to love us.

The song “Arms of Love” comes to mind.

I sing a simple song of love
To my Savior, To my Jesus
I’m grateful for the things you’ve done
My loving Savior, my precious Jesus

My heart is glad, that you’ve called it you’re own
And there’s no place I’d rather be

Than in your arms of love.
In your arms of love.
Holding me still, holding me near
In your arms of love.