More on the goodness of God

I have to preach this Sunday evening. That's right our church is having Sunday evening service and saying "What Super Bowl?". They even asked the biggest football fan in the church to preach that night. So I'm on. And I'm trying to make it as different a service as I can. I'm not sure how that will work yet. But I'm going to preach on the goodness of God. This is my thoughts so far, feel free to chime in.

As I sat back and watched the Colts lose in the playoffs again I was sick. As I type this I thought back and can remember where I sat and my reactions to the last few times the Colts have lost in the playoffs. Once at Rob's in Brownsburg, once I bounced a full sippy cup off of a youth group kid's head... Anyways I sat there and realized that now I want them to win more for them than for me. This group of guys needs to win a Super Bowl. I decided that I was going to do everything in my power to see them succeed. Than I thought again. I'm 5'10 and weigh 195, Oh yeah I'm 31 too. I can't become a player and help them. So maybe I could be a coach, well I'm probably overestimating my knowledge about football and even if I was a football genius by the time I made the pro level even as an assistant these players would probably be retired. So, without committing major felonies, I really cannot help this team succeed. I don't have the knowledge or power to do it.

I'm a huge fan of the Colts. But God is even a bigger fan of ours. Romans 8:31 says that He is for us. God wants you to succeed. He is a fan our yours. How do we know that? Well he came and died for your sins. And example that Chip Ingram gives in God As He Longs For You To See Him is of an uncle that pays a ten million dollar ransom for you when you were kidnapped. Are you worried the next day how that uncle feels about you? No. You know he cares about you. God payed a bigger ransom for you. Know that He cares about you. So if God is a bigger fan of yours than I am of the Colts than what differences are there between my fandom and His.

The first difference is that He has the power to do something. God is all powerful. He is sovereign. He can bring the things into your life that will help you succeed. When we doubt God's goodness sometimes we are doubting His power.

The second difference is that He knows what needs to be done. God knows everything. He knows what you need in your life to help you succeed. When we doubt God's goodness many times we are saying we know more about what we need than God knows.

The perfect example of all this is Joseph. Remember Joseph? Joseph's life kindof starts of by being thrown into a pit. That would be bad. But it gets worse. Joseph is sold into slavery. That would be bad. But it gets worse. Joseph is thrown into prison for something he didn't do. But because of all that Joseph ends up second in command over Egypt. Egypt is the world power at that time. So Joseph is second in command over the world. Except that being second in command really meant being in command because pharoah didn't really do anything. Do you think that when Joseph sat down with his guidance counselor he said, "I want to be thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, and then go to prison."? Joseph trusted God's knowledge and power even when God was bringing things that Joseph knew were bad into his life.

It reminds me of two a days when I played high school football. I swore my coach hated me and just wanted to punish me. He made us run gassers and do monkey rolls. I hated both. They were bad things he was bringing into my life. But they prepared me for football in late October. If I had not done those bad things in August I wouldn't have been prepared to play football in October. Now if only coach had let me leave the bench and put some of that to use...

God knows what's best for us. He has the power to bring it into our lives. He only wants goodness for us. We need to trust that goodness of God through every circumstance in our lives.

whoa long post

Happy Birthday

That's right I'm now 31. I actually feel older this time. I was complaining about my knees aching while I was running and was trying to find the cause for that and someone said to me, "Well you are getting older". They are right. I am. And running makes me feel it more. I said something about being old to Steph and she told me, "You're not old, you're middle aged." You're not helping here Steph.

Gareth is sending me to jail

Ok here's the announcement you have been waiting for. Well some of you. I've done it. As far as I know this is a first time ever thing. Tree Climbers Guild on cd. That's right I've transfered the Tree Climbers, in all their glory, to cd. If you want a copy post a comment here and I'll make sure I get one out to you. I do not have a cover for it yet. Any ideas? I could try and do the original I guess, but I'm guessing it won't scan very well.

What's next you ask? Well I've already started on SporkChild's, aka Mattman, Somewhere in a Box cd.

Two miles

I ran two miles yesterday. I think I'm going to add the Proclaimers I would walk 500 miles to Steph's mp3 player so I can listen to it while I run.

Running

I don't think I've talked about it yet on the blog but I've decided to enter a foot race. I guess it isn't called a race it's a "run". And the way things are going I doubt I'll be doing much running. Maybe a jog here or there.

My brother-in-law, Dan, ran in this "run" last year and inspired me to give it a try. He now, to me anyways, is a running superhero. I used to be in about the same shape as Dan. That is before he started running. We'd play basketball and football and both be winded. Now Dan runs circles around me. And I don't like it. So I started running. I started January 7th. I take Wednesdays off. I can now run a little more than a mile and a half. I'm going to try 2 miles in the next week or two. My first goal is to run well in the "33rd Annual Dexter-Ann Arbor Run" on June 4th. There are a few long races there but my goal is the 5k. Here's a quote from the website, "NOTE: There is no minimum pace requirement for the 10K and 5K events." That's good for me. I've looked at the calendar and that race is on a Sunday. There goes my first goal. I guess I'll have to find another 5k around June.

Then my goal is the Great Turtle 5.7 mile run. It's on Mackinac Island. We had fun going up there last October to watch Dan. This year I hope to run as well. I'm not sure if Dan is going or not but I'm planning on it. I have a running partner who is planning on trying to run in it as well. I'll try to keep you posted a little on it as I go.

"Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet"

I thought I'd share my notes from Sunday School and Youth Group yesterday.

This song has been stuck in my head for more than a week now. Jars of Clay first heard it as a 70 some minute recording of a homeless man singing it over and over again. They used it as an example of people going through extreme suffering and how their faith can seem so m;uch stronger than ours. As I was thinking about it and my various insignificant woes, I thought "Why should I take advice from an insane man." My prejudice striking right away reasoned that if a guy was homeless and singing the same chorus repeatedly for 70 minutes he'd have to be insane. (I've since learned that it was looped and that he didn't actually sing it that long) Then I thought more and decided that maybe he seems insane to me because he doesn't fit into my logical comfortable box. Maybe said homeless dude is more sane than I'll ever be. I can learn from his faith. "Lord, I believe: help thou my unbelief".

God is good and wants goodness for us. We need to trust Him and remember He has never failed you yet. I'm not to the place yet where I'm able to completely let go and let Him handle everything. And I'm not sure where the line between trust and responsibility truly lies. For example, I hate planning for retirement. I'm 30. Who knows if I'll even ever retire. I could die. Christ could come. I hate that responsibility. So if I just say "I'll live by faith", will I ever be able to retire? I hate all the Christian money people these days. Probably because I don't yet know the line between faith/trust and responsibility. I do know that I've been through some tough times financially and still "Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet". I think I need to learn more about God's goodness and how He only wants good for me. This will help my faith. This will impact my decision making. This will change everything.

Romans 8:28-31

I'll have more on God's goodness later this week.

What I'm listening to

This song is laugh out loud funny. It's about a boy who thinks he's good looking. So he goes to his mom and she says,
"She said,
'Son, well, you know,
you're an ugly boy.
You don't really look like him

In this long line
There's been some
real strange genes
You've got 'em all
You've got 'em all
With some extras thrown in'"

The song goes on and ends up like this,
"Now I'm here with you little darling
And you say, 'You're beautiful as you are'
And I've managed somehow to survive

You arrived in my life like a fragrance
You helped me find a way to laugh
Now I know a so-called beauty lies

God gave him a face
Then he gave me something above
God gave me grace
Man, he gave me a sweet, sweet, sweet love

You make me feel like I'm a real good looking boy
I feel I'm a real good looking boy"

With grace all of us are good looking.

The song is Real Good Looking Boy by The Who.

These lyrics may not be 100% correct. I'll check them soon.

Colleen plays the piano

I haven't talked about my kids much here on the blog but my younger daughter, Colleen, is in the picture with me there on the beach under the "Who is Weaves". Here she is playing the piano.




If you have dial-up it may be slow, but it's there. I'm trying to figure out how to stop the autostart on this. It's annoying.

Congratulations Andrei Kirilenko

In honor of AK-47 getting a triple double for my fantasy team I gave myself a mohawk. He's the first Russian born player to get a triple double in the NBA. Congratulations Andrei!

The follow up to a Beautiful Day

Is a bummer.
I overslept and didn't get my ritual shower. I took one last night at 10:30 but if I don't have one in the morning waking up is different and not a good different.

Nothing went right at church.

I annoyed Steph until she yelled at me, believe it or not that doesn't happen often (the yelling not the annoying, I'm good at the annoying).

My running partner cancelled for a hair appointment. By the way if you are going to have something scheduled with me and then cancel it, make sure it's not for something like a haircut.
It's half raining half snowing out.

And to top it off God is convicting me because I have such a good life but don't appreciate it enough. Way to pile it on.

Beautiful Day

Ah yesterday was great. If you don't know, Thursdays are my day off. So yesterday I slept in. Then I went golfing, it was close to 50 degrees. Oh and golfing is free November to the end of March if you are a Canadian Lakes property owner. I have ways of looking like I'm a property owner. After golfing I ran. After running I played basketball outside. After basketball I played Tiger Woods golf on the PS2.

It was a beautiful day.

What I'm listening to

It's not very often that I get a cd that I tell others about. I bought this cd for Stephanie for Christmas and I cannot stop listening to it or telling other people about it. It is a bunch of old hymns remade with more modern music. Don't read that wrong and think this is a bunch of rocking out. The music here never overwhelms the lyrics. Some of the songs (man this is hard to type and admit) have a country type sound to them. We prefer to call them folk songs in our house. A couple of the songs have the Blind Boys of Alabama on them and at least one of the songs has a banjo. Man, as I type this I can't believe that those things can be on a cd and I would like them. At the same time I cannot stop listening to the cd. My favorite songs on the cd are "Nothing But the Blood", "It is Well With My Soul", and "They'll Know We are Christians by Our Love". But having said that I pretty much like every song on this cd. If you think you would like an old Jars of Clay mixed with Third Day singing some songs with great lyrics check this cd out.

New features on Weaveswrites

I'm going to try and add some new features to the blog. Every week I'm going to try and tell you what I'm reading, what's I'm listening to, and I need some ideas on other things. Each weekday will have a different topic. For example today will be what I'm listening to. So please leave me some feedback on other things you'd like me to include.

Uganda

I'm not really a political guy at all anymore. The whole political process just really frustrates me. I have never in my life written my senator or any other politician. None that I can remember anyways. But I will bust off an e-mail after reading the article linked above. Joseph Kony is an evil evil man. He must be stopped. I'm not big on the U.S. being the policeman of the world but someone needs to step up and defend children. It might just take a decent reward offer.

So I'm encouraging you to do the same. Write your senator, congressman, whoever it takes to get something done.

As I've written this post I've discovered stuff that has ticked me off even more. I admittedly know little about politics and am learning this stuff from biased internet sites. However, I'll try to be as unbiased as I can. Apparently Joseph Kony has been indicted by the ICC, International Criminal Court. The U.S., under President Clinton, signed the original charter for the ICC. However later fears that American servicemen could be charged for service to their country in the future changed the minds of our legislators. I appreciate that fear and understand it needed to be addressed. Unfortunately in their zeal to distance themselves from the ICC, they passed a bill that makes it illegal for the U.S. to aid the ICC. Which means that the since the ICC has indicted Kony the U.S. cannot offer a reward through the Rewards for Justice program. Our intelligence agencies cannot even pass on information they might receive on his whereabouts. Please correct me on this if I am wrong.