A Slower Pace

As many of you know, it is my discipleship responsibility and calling to look for opportunities to serve Christ. And I have been torn between blogging about it to give others ideas and keeping it between me and God. So lately, I have not been blogging about it as much, even though I have been distributing my “business cards” liberally.

However, I always want to celebrate the victories my fellow brothers and sisters have in serving Christ. I will deliberately and persistently lift them up and share their experiences so others get ideas and are inspired.

Below is one of those stories from a fellow sister in Christ in her own words.

Ok, so for a very long time I have wanted to do something in the lines of helping troubled kids; kids who come from a hard walk, teen moms, kids who feel like there’s no hope or that anyone cares, a group home, detention center, something along those lines. Unfortunately I’ve allowed my own fear to hold me back. However, it’s been very heavy on my heart, so I’ve been praying about it a lot.

The other day I prayed and asked God to lead me where I’m needed. I don’t know where that is, but I trust that he does. I got in my car with no set destination and said “Ok God, you do the driving. Take me where you want me to be, where I can be the hands and feet of you.”

I ended up in Lyndon at the Kentucky Children’s Housing, the Kentucky Juvenille Justice. I had no idea what it was or where to go. I got out of my car, walked up to a door that was locked. I waited for someone to open it and explained that I was wanting to volunteer and give back to my community. I didn’t know what they did there or what was needed but that God brought me there.

The 1st gentleman wasn’t sure what to say or where to direct me. He asked another gentleman to come over. I introduced myself and explained the same thing. He looked at me and said “Wow, you want to volunteer? We don’t have people just showing up wanting to do that.”

He walked me into the director of the school. I explained myself again and we spoke for a little bit. He handed me some paper work to fill out and explained to me where I was; that they have the school which buses kids in, troubled kids that is, a resident facility which is a level 3, and a group home.

Instead of mailing back my paper work, I drove it there the next day but instead walked into the front door of the residential facility. I was asked if I wanted a job instead of volunteering! I spoke with one of the counselors, the drug and alcohol counselor. I asked a lot of questions about what they do there, what outside programs come in, are they in need of some volunteers. The director of that facility then walked out to get someone who was there for an interview and they introduced me to her. She walked me back asked some questions. I explained why I was there and she said she’d love to spend some time talking with me.

After that, I left and if God wants me there I will be.

She just called me to schedule some time on the 26th to come in and talk with her. We’ll see where it goes. I’m not necessarily looking for a job; I’m looking to give back.

There you have it summed up!!

I am so proud of my sister in Christ and how God has used her so far…..and will continue to use her to further His kingdom.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Almost all of us know the popular passage from scripture, John 3:16. — “For God so loved the world that he gaves his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Well, during one of my recent devotionals, I came across a passage from 1 John 3:16. It, too, was very impactful — “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

Pretty cool, huh? Well, I thought – “I wonder how many other inspirational verses are at chapter 3 verse 16 in the other books of the New Testament”. Below are ones from my research.

MATTHEW
“As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God.”

MARK
“These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter)”

LUKE
“John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

ACTS
“By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.”

ROMANS (this one doesn’t fit the 3:16 mold)
“ruin and misery mark their ways”

1 CORINTHIANS
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?”

2 CORINTHIANS
“But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.”

GALATIANS
“The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds”, meaning many people, but “and to your seed”, meaning one person, who is Christ.”

EPHESIANS
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.”

PHILIPPIANS
“Only let us live up to what we have already attained.”

COLOSSIANS
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”

1 THESSALONIANS (no 3:16)

2 THESSALONIANS
“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.”

1 TIMOTHY
“Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great:
He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.”

2 TIMOTHY
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”

TITUS (no 3:16)

PHILEMON (no 3:16)

HEBREWS
“Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?”

JAMES
“For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.”

1 PETER
“keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”

2 PETER
“He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

1 JOHN
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

2 JOHN (no 3:16)

3 JOHN (no 3:16)

JUDE (no 3:16)

REVELATION
“So because you are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

So there you have it. Wasn’t that pretty cool? I think there is something to the 3:16’s in the New Testament. They are impactful, inspirational and applicable to the narrow path we are choosing for our life.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I was blessed enough to take my daughters to a Matthew West and Josh Wilson concert tonight. I have more to blog about but I wanted to immediately post lyrics to an impactful song Matthew West played called “Two Houses”. It is about divorce from a child’s perspective. Any couples thinking about that as an option for them need to hear this song first.

Two Houses
Matthew West

But tonight my heart has finally found a home

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Yesterday was a wonderful day. The Men’s Emmaus walk 129 started yesterday evening and I am blessed enough to be able to sponsor a pilgrim on his spiritual journey this weekend. This friend is a great disciple of Christ and will be forged into an even greater servant, husband, father and man of God. I am excited to see his transformation on Sunday afternoon.

One of the items of personal improvement I added to my short term “to do” list was to add markers along my route to and from work. These markers would remind me to be in prayer during my commute. It is consistent with recent sermons that have highlighted being a prayerful church and being in constant prayer. This was reminded to me last night at Emmaus send off and it was my intent to identify those markers on the way in to work this morning.

I had pulled into the right lane and slowed my car down deliberately so I could begin to mentally identify markers and link a specific ongoing prayer to each one (obedience, family guidance, blessings on our church, protection for our soldiers, etc). Within 10-15 seconds I spotted something up ahead on the side of the road. However, it wasn’t a marker but a pulled over vehicle. As I passed it, I noticed a woman inside and a left front flat tire. Now for me, that is a meatball softball pitch — a no-brainer chance for a home run. I try to pay special attention to women and old folks pulled over on the side of the road. While there are a lot of people that need help, I imagine my wife, my daughter or my mom along the side of the road needing help and try to do for others what I would like someone to do for them. That is not to say that there aren’t guys out there on the side of the road that need help. It just means that I try to focus on where I think the need might be greater.

So after I passed the vehicle, I pulled over and went back to see if I could help. The lady, indeed, had a left front flat tire which I offered to help change. She had a spare in the back along with the jack. She asked if she could help and the only thing I requested was for her to stand at the back corner of the car, look back towards traffic, and warn me if there were any inattentive, texting or drunk drivers veering our way. She agreed and set up position while I knelt down to jack the car up. As I raised the vehicle I said a prayer for safety, service and that the lady get to where she was going safely. It seemed like a while with all the cars and semi-trucks whizzing past us but in about 5 minutes I had the tire changed and the jack removed. Unfortunately, the spare wasn’t as inflated as it should be. I asked her where she was headed and she said she worked downtown. Not thinking the spare would survive that trip, I offered to take her to work. She balked knowing how far out of the way it was and asked “Are you sure?”. With it being Friday and my only meeting starting at 12:00pm, I confirmed the suggestion and knew it was the right thing for me to be doing.

We ushered her vehicle down to the next off ramp and secured it in a local strip mall where she could pick it up later after work. She then jumped in and headed downtown. I introduced myself and she said her name was Jenny. I gave her one of my business cards to let her know the reason I was helping her out today. She worked at a large bank building downtown and had just dropped off her daughter at school. She has lived in the Louisville area her whole life but grew up across town. We talked about the beautiful morning that was around us along with a few other conversational things. The traffic was surprisingly light into downtown and even made me ponder the tolerability of the commute if I had a job down there (as opposed to some other downtowns like LA, Frisco, Chicago or NY). Soon enough we were in front of her tall building and I pulled over to the side to drop her off. I offered to give her my cellphone number in case she needed a ride home from work. However, she was confident that she could secure a return trip home. At that Jenny said thank you and exited the vehicle only about 20 minutes late for work.

I continue to be amazed at how God can use a broken vessel like me to love others. I am happy I was able to “close the loop” and that she knows that Jesus loves her by my actions and by the card I gave her. I still need to get back to my original mission of identifying markers along my work commute. But now I know that sometimes God provides temporary and mobile markers for prayer and his glory as well.

Please pray for the men on Emmaus walk 129 throughout this weekend.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Does God say “TMIF” (thanks me, it’s Friday) instead of TGIF?

Happy Friday, y’all! Also, goodbye September and welcome October.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Today was a busy day on a very quick business trip. I had flown in last night to Philadelphia and made my way over to King of Prussia, Pennsylvania where my one night hotel was for the following day’s conference. I was up early, read my devotional, grabbed breakfast and was on time at the seminar site. The all day conference was very educational and worthwhile.

————– Tangeant on ————–
I know you know this, but conferences can be a real crap shoot. I have been to some really suckie time sponges that weren’t worth the glossy paper the summaries were printed on. In fact, I could have done just as well just by reading their promotional brochures. And then others are pseudo worthwhile. And few others are well worth your time – along with the travel expenditures.

I have my own personal perspective on seminars and conferences. I believe that you can always find SOME kind of gold nugget to take back with you. It might be an idea, a concept, the way something is done. And sometimes it doesn’t necessarily come from the conference. It might be because you were out of your box; doing something different. But there is always a take home prize if you open your eyes enough to find it.

Anyway, conferences are like a box of chocolates…..
————– Tangeant off ————–

The conference ended early and I decided to turn to one of my past actions. You see, many years ago in a past job I used to travel 3 to 4 weeks out of the month. I flew all over the place for business. But I rarely saw much past the airports and hotels. However, whenever a job was finished early, or I had spare time, I really went out of my way to “see the sights”. I remember one time I had a half day available that I killed in south Florida on an airboat Everglades tour. It was very cool and I have never been back so I am glad I took the opportunity to get out and see stuff while I was there rather than rest up in a boring old hotel room.

So today with the conference finishing at 3:30pm I had a bit of time to kill before my 9:30pm flight. So I headed to the Valley Forge National Park. If you have never been there you must go. What a beautiful place dripping with history. I enjoyed my own private showing of their 18 minute movie in the theater building. And, because I was alone, I was able to slowly make my way through the Visitor’s Center and read every single little historical placard and fact – something that drives my wife and kids crazy any time we go to museums or such.

While in the Visitor’s Center right before they closed at 5pm, there were 3 very obviously Muslim men along with 2 completely clothed ladies with 3 children. The group piqued my interest and I observed them carefully from a distance. The men were heavily bearded, had the traditional skull caps on, and wore flowing robes. They were not unlike some of the pictures we have seen lately of those who have been attacking our country. The 5pm closing time gave me an excuse to depart the building and begin my outside self guided tour.

If you have never been to Valley Forge National Park, I highly encourage you to go. It is a beautiful expanse of 3400 acres devoted to retaining the feel of what General Washington’s encampment there the winter of 1777 was. The car tour takes you to many highlights throughout the park and all over there were people jogging, couples walking, deer eating the grass and staring, and tourists snapping pictures.

As I went from point of interest to point of interest, I would run into the same folks again and again. We would smile and say “hi”. I even offered to take a picture of a couple of work colleagues in front of the huge arch in the park. And I was able to snap some very grainy but very close pictures of the over tamed deer in the park. At one point I was able to roll my rental car up, roll my window down and “talk” to the deer 8 feet away just staring at me. They obviously weren’t Kentucky deer because they #1) run away and #2) get shot.

I was lollygagging and needed to speed up my self guided tour so I could make it to PHL for my late flight. So I told myself that General Washington’s headquarters house would be my last out of the car stop. I parked and walked down the gently sloped hill to the several buildings down by the creek. Wanting General Washington’s house to be last, I proceeded clockwise around the walking path – first with the General’s security staff huts. These were the first original Secret Service. The to the very nice statue of George. His family even said that this statue, which is a replica of one that stands in the Virginia Capital, is the most representative and lifelike one of him. It was here I said a prayer of thanks and for continued guidance for our country. I believe our country is very special because of the religious freedom which was one of the things being sought. This country has very spiritual roots and we need to continue to acknowledge them, not deny them or water them down.

I continued on to some support barns and out buildings. When I arrived in front of General Washington’s headquarters house I had a deep sense of feeling; like I was brushing history. As I stood on the front porch steps, I presumed General Washington probably did something similar about 233 years ago. I touched the stone walls as he might have and scanned the creek laid out in front of me. I circumnavigated the house and imagined all the activity back then.

I cut away from the concrete walkway to meander across the grass to the train station while watching the nearby mother doe and her two fawns grazing. And I saw one of the Muslim men carrying a boy walking towards me. I smiled as he approached and said “Good afternoon”. Accent-less, he responded likewise and asked if I knew which house was General Washington’s. I pointed behind me and then started talking and walking that way with him. It was completely out of my comfort zone. However, I had a different feeling than I had at the Visitor Center. This was my opportunity to learn. To represent. To act upon a quote I had heard Monday from Max Lucado – “If you have the chance to build a bridge, build it. If you have the chance to tear down a wall, take it.”

So I learned that his name was “Mohammed” and he was visiting from Illinois. He was well groomed and well spoken. He had not been to Valley Forge before and was visiting on his way back from Washington D.C where his local priest had been meeting and who was a part of the group I saw earlier. I did find it peculiar that he used the term priest. He was carrying his priest’s child who was a young boy of about 2 years old. They were taking in the old homes of the self guided tour like I was, as well as letting the kids get views of the deer, squirrels and birds in the park.

After a few more nice words, I left them to enjoy the scenery and began my walk back to the rental car. During that walk, I came across the “priest” in the group who was with his other two young boys. I said hi and introduced myself saying that I had met his friend and his son over by George Washinton’s headquarters. His name, too, was Mohammed and I said hi to his two young boys and then continued on up the hill to the parking lot. It was a very different experience and pushed my envelope.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I am so excited. The business cards I ordered are finally here for me to put to good use.

Jesus Loves You!

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” — John 13:34

If you don’t know what I am talking about, go check out my previous post — the Last Mile — from about two weeks ago.

I’ll blog post on how this goes. Also, for anyone who wants to do something similarly on a shoestring budget (under $5), go check out www.vistaprint.com .

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

With today being Sept 21, we say goodbye to summer — in date and calendar only. Mother Nature and the weather man sure don’t know it. In fact, when (not if) we hit 90F degrees tomorrow we will TIE a record set back in 1895 of the most days in Louisville over 90F degrees. Thursday we break that record and Friday we will add some icing to the record.

Contrast this with our mild weather last summer where the whole month of July did not see a day with a temperature starting with a “9”.

And because of our 4-5 weeks without rain, our Fall leaves are going to go strait to brown and then the ground. Fall colors really won’t be.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

My son recently started playing flag football. I have been spending time with him teaching him the different aspects of the game I love. We have been out throwing the pigskin, talking about professional football teams, and discussing the game basics.

So this evening, my son has been by my side watching the Saints-Niners Monday Night Football game. I used the DVR to stop plays, point out play development (fakes to the running back, long passes to receivers, etc) and discuss the hard concept of first downs. Now, remember, he is 10. And now with my guidance, he knows more about some of the basics than I did at his age.

While he and I were watching the game, the TV cameras panned the crowd. Someone in the crowd had the traditional “D” fence sign. My daughter turned to me and asked “What is D gate?”.

I cracked up and had to explain to her that the “gate” part was a fence and to try saying it. She said “D – fence” and then smiled knowing the innocent mistake she made. And then, of course, my son had to jump in and give her a hard time chanting “D-gate”, “D-gate”, “D-gate”.

I laughed again. Pretty funny.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Now that Fall is officially here (as assessed by the falling leaves, not the calendar or weather) our family has been in full swing of our daily, weekly and monthly calendars. We have had so much going on lately that my wife made the comment today that we were not doing a slower pace. And her observation is very accurate. Below was what was on tap each day last week.

Monday – wife’s Bible study and evening Emmaus Formation (she is preparing for the October women’s walk where she is on the agape team)
Tuesday – Scouts
Wednesday – church youth group
Thursday – football practice
Friday – football game

And this last Saturday we had a college visit for R to Georgetown College, had to drop off my son for an overnight Scout campout at Taylorsville Lake, and the wife and I had the Ohio dinner cruise that I posted pictures from. And this pace doesn’t look like it will be letting up through Thanksgiving.

What do y’all think — do I need to look into getting the “notaslowerpace” internet domain?

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net