A Slower Pace

This morning I met up with some of my fellow brothers in Christ for our now routine early Tuesday morning Bible study at the coffee shop. While we meet early at zero-dark-hundred (military speak for butt early), it gets my butt out of bed, gets me early to work and, more importantly, is a consistent Bible study in that it will never get cancelled due to sports practices, Scouts, date nights, movies, concerts or any of the other after work activities that make it so hard to stay rooted in a Bible study group. I have learned that consistency and persistence are very important ingredients in my walk with Jesus.

As we progressed with the study of the book of Acts, in chapter 8 there is a story where Philip was moved by the Holy Spirit to go speak with a servant of the Ethiopian queen. He shared the good news of Christ with him and baptized him. He very likely was one of the first African Christians. And all this from him being moved and listening to the Holy Spirit. At that point, one of my buddies shared a recent event this week where he was moved by the Holy Spirit. I have struggled in the past with sharing these stories when I perform these acts of service. However, I gladly boast of them when performed by my fellow brothers in Christ.

My friend was running errands this past weekend when he felt prompted to stop by the local farmer’s market. He is a chef by trade and he knows where to get all the good stuff. As he was perusing the fresh goods, he spotted a soldier in fatigues. He was going stall to stall talking with each stall owner. He got to the stall my friend was at and asked the stall owner/farmer if he was heading towards the Elizabethtown area after the market close. So far no vendors were going that way (about 45 minutes away). It seems that the soldier had an argument with his girlfriend and was booted out of her place with no way back to base. He had to get back before the end of his leave or he would be AWOL. My friend recognized the need and stepped in to serve in love. He offered to give the soldier a ride all the way back to base right then. The soldier took him up on it and he was able to get to where he was going.

While we don’t all have time to drive someone almost 2 hours out of our way, we all need to tune our hearts to the Holy Spirit and be prepared when called to serve. I am proud of my friend and highlight him successfully being the hands and feet of Jesus.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

With all the festivities that occurred here on the property yesterday — swimming, BBQing, trailer rides, trampoline jumping, cornhole, food, fireworks, conversation, and good folks — I really needed a day to just rest and recover. Today was that day. I slept in, got up for a nice breakfast and my devotions, took a nap, played Connect 4 with K (who beat me), played Legos with D, played checkers, grilled some chicken for dinner and generally just lazed around. I am so thankful I had the day off work.

Today really was a much slower pace off the slower pace.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Our family had a great time celebrating our nation’s birthday today. Hopefully, in another post I will go off on how lucky we are, as Americans, to live in this great land. However, right now I will just highlight the amazing fireworks show I saw. This vid (which is not mine) is a small portion of the Slappy McSploder’s Fireworks Extravaganza show.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I took off a bit early from work so I could take K and D to the new Toy Story 3 movie. If you are even remotely thinking about going I highly encourage you. You won’t be disappointed. It’s Pixar after all and they have a great track record.

Later this evening, the kids wanted me to take them back to blackberry heaven on the 4 wheeler. I declined and instead, we all walked down there. This time we brought bowls and resisted the temptation to plop the berries into our mouths. Instead we started filling the bowls with the intent to make jam or cobbler out of them.

Yum!

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net