Seriously

I just read my last post. Wow.

I would like to be a writer. I've talked of that in this space before. I would like my writing to inspire people to dream. I want individuals to be deeply changed after reading what I put before them. I desire for people to see the image of God, the creator of the universe, shining through the words that I put together.

So I wrote about poop.

That's an inspiring, life-changing, never-be-the-same kind of topic, isn't it?

I have found myself working long hours lately and I come home very tired. I have dinner, play with the kids for a short time and put them to bed. I seem to be constantly thinking about things I need to do at work. I seem to have lost some humor somewhere along the way. I don't wonder about things. I don't play much and when I do, I feel a little guilty about it. I don't think I laugh as easily as I once did.

I think I need more poop stories in my life. I need to have rambling conversations with my four year old boy. I need to tickle my daughter until she gives up that deep, belly laugh that starts somewhere near the center of the earth. I need to play basketball and talk trash with my ten year old son.

I have seen it happen in people around me. I have worried about it happening to me. There comes a time when poop stories aren't funny anymore. (As I understand it, poop stories aren't ever very funny to the female portion of the population. That's a separate post.) I don't want to get there. I want to laugh about things that might be slightly inappropriate for an adult to laugh at. I want to have the joy and imagination of a four year old who thinks that something is trying to escape his body and is prevented from escaping by other things that will eventually try to escape in their time.

We have to laugh. If we don't laugh, life becomes a drudgery and a duty. Jesus said He came to give life and life abundantly. I believe that includes laughter. I need some more laughter these days.

Got any good poop stories?

Peace.

4-Year Old Brain

Declan Jett: "Dad, I had a poop that was trying to come out when I was outside."

Me: "It was trying to come out?"

Declan Jett: "Yeah, but the other poops pulled it back in."

Me: "Is that when you went inside to the bathroom?"

Declan Jett: "Yeah. The other poops were holding it in and then it broke."

I couldn't make this up if I tried.

Peace.

Beaches

When I lived in the midwest, a trip to the beach was something that I didn't really think about all that much. I loved to go to Florida or Alabama and see the ocean but I wasn't thinking about it much when I wasn't there. Now that I live 20 minutes from the beach, if I don't go for awhile, I really start to miss it. In the winter sometimes now, I tell the kids that we need to run by the beach and make sure that the ocean is still there. Jett is the official taster to check the saltiness of the water.

We went to the beach today for the first time this season and it was great. The ocean has such a calming effect and it puts my own little life in perspective. There is so much going on in the water and across the water that my issues seem to shrink a bit. Life is so much more than my small world.

It's good to be reminded of that occasionally.

Peace.

Craziness

Let's see, the last seven days...

Wednesday left for Greensboro, NC for a conference on after school programming. Good stuff there; inspiring, infomational, fun.

Home Friday to see the fam. It's amazing how much I miss them in such a short time. It's nice to have one night of quiet to get to chill a little, but then I need the noise that those other four incredible people bring into my life.

Saturday brought three soccer games stacked one after the other and an end of season party to follow the last one. Between the last game and the party, we took a quick trip to Urgent Care so we could get Kendall's scalp stapled back together. She basically fell out of a tree and smacked her head. No concussion, just two staples in her head for about ten days. Went on to the party, picked up the obligatory "we finished the season" trophy and finally went home.

Sunday brought finishing up the talk for church Sunday night. And lots of laundry. Farmed out two kids to various locations and went to hang out with our friends that we haven't seen in two weeks. I really miss the people from church when I don't get to see them much.

Monday and today both saw ten hour work days and home for the night.

Crazy, but a great life.

Peace.

Champs

We went to Charleston, SC last weekend for Brady to play in a soccer tournament. He was a guest player on a U11 team and he was the youngest on the team. They all played some great soccer and won the tournament for their age bracket. Nice work Port City Storm!!

Click the post title to see the team picture of the champs. Brady is the brutally handsome little dude with glasses. Please note that he is sporting a Missouri Tiger wristband that only comes off when he takes a shower. I think he has worn that thing every day for about a year and a half. That's a solid ten year old boy move.

Peace.

Still Here

Oh, I don't have any excuse except, to quote Lane Meyer from "Better Off Dead", "My little brother got his arm stuck in the microwave. So my mom had to take him to the hospital. My grandma dropped acid this morning, and she freaked out. She hijacked a busload of penguins. So it's sort of a family crisis."

So it's not really that bad, it's mostly just busyness that has prevented new posts. That and procrastination. And laziness. But I think I have fixed all of those issues forever so postings should pick up soon. By soon, I mean in the next month at least.

Peace.

Inspiration

I love inspiration. I love the thought of people being gripped by a thought, a dream, a possibility. I love to be the inspiration for others. I love to provoke people to think about where they are in life and how they approach it. I want to help people achieve the fullest of their God-given potential. I have run into a bit of a problem though.

How do you inspire those who don't want to be inspired?

Some people either never had or have lost the ability to dream beyond where they presently are. It doesn't matter if they are 14 years old or 70. Male or female. The foresight and hope are not there. And they seem to be fine with it.

I was thinking about church in relation to inspiration. How many times do we walk out of church and say "What a great sermon" or "Worship was really good today"? It may be a conversation or a message or a song, but we leave with something more than we went in with.

I think many times we get something because we expect something. We go in with the thought that there will be a moment that will push us a little further down the path in the right direction. The same is true when we take a class, go to a conference, read a book or give ourselves to any other learning experience.

What if you don't expect anything though? What if your life is what it is and won't ever be anything else, so you think? That is a hard place to be and I am struggling to know how to bring hope to some of the people I meet that live in this hopeless state.

I thought about writing some ideas about how to bring some inspiration but two things stopped me from actually putting them into words on a screen. First, I am at a loss when it comes to articulating what I am thinking. Secondly, I am not exactly sure what I am thinking.

Any thoughts?

Peace.