Margin

One of my biggest challenges is to keep margin in my life. Margin is that place that exists in our daily lives where nothing takes up our time. Where we are able to relax, reflect and just exist. Silence and Solitude exist here. Twenty years ago experts said that because of computers and technology, the average American would only have to work 22 hours a week. Instead, due to the demands to keep up with technology, Americans are working more than they ever have. Time magazine wrote an article a few years ago about kids having nervous breakdowns at 9 years old because of the overload in their lives. We have scheduled ourselves to death. The clock rules our lives. We rush the kids to school so they are on time, hurry off to work to put our time in. Nights are filled with events, sports, concerts, meetings, more work, more to do than we can accomplish in one day. At some point we have to say enough is enough and take time to rest our souls. People are suffering from nervous breakdowns at an unbelievably rate. Doctors offices are filled wit people who have all kinds of physical ailments due largely to stress in their lives. One of the Ten Commandants is to honor the Sabbath. After God created the world He rested on the seventh day. It was not because He was tired, but because He knew the value of stopping, resting, and appreciating what had taken place. We need to find rest for our should. We need to take the Sabbath seriously.

Reading List Update

I set for a goal this year to read 50 books. As of today I have completed 9. The last book I read was called When Character Was King. It is the story of Ronald Reagan. It was an amazing book. I grew up in the shadow of the presidency of Ronald Reagan. I can still remember the day that He was shot, watching the reports showing the event over and over again. I remember being in Science class in the 8th grade and hearing the radio reporting that the Space Shuttle Challenger had just blown up. I can still remember the speech President Reagan delivered, closing with, "They had slipped the surly bonds of earth and touched the face of God." I am not so much a fan of politics as I am of the the character and content of those people we have as leaders. I like to sift through the hard decisions that they make and find out what convictions lead them to those decisions. Reagan was a man that I believe will be judged as one of our greatest Presidents in the history of this nation. He was led by convictions, by a sense of right and wrong. But more important, those convictions were forged by a Christian mother and a life of prayer. Many times he took heat for snoozing during important times but in reality he was praying during important times. He didn't allow popularity to guide him, it was God who gave him direction and that is who he followed. I think it is ironic that he never knew his impact on history due to Alzheimer's disease. I think it also a paradox that an actor become one of the most real and transparent presidents we have ever had. He left us with so many examples of what it meant to be compassionate, loving, caring, in a nutshell; A Christian man.

Website Close

I have been looking at the proofs for the website this week and we are getting close to launching soon. Hopefully by the end of March we should be up and running. It will give us better ability to keep in touch with everyone and let people know what's going on. You will also be able to subscribe and download the sermons from the website. More details soon......