We grew up around Arkansas and so have my kids.  Because of that, we’ve never really done any snow skiing.  I always water-skied and also went to the beach in Florida, but my family never went north in the winter.  So I got a “wild-hair” this weekend and the boys and I got up at 5:30am on Saturday and drove into the Sierra Nevada mountains above Yosemite to a ski resort called Dodge Ridge.  Our plan was to hang out and ride sleds around and get the feel of the resort.  Well, when I got there we were so excited that I signed Myself, Carson and William up for lessons.  We did two hours of lessons, then ate some real expensive pizzas, then spent a couple of hours on  the slope.

The boys did great (as did I).  More than that, we fell in love with skiing!  Carson and Will can’t wait to go again….and they are both real good!  That is one thing cool about living in California.  We have the ocean and beaches one hour west and great skiing 2-3 hours east.  The other cool thing is that it actually gets warm during the day, so many people ski and snowboard in short sleeves or light long-sleeve shirts.

My day off is Monday….I may go again, by myself, so I can try some stuff and fall alot…without anyone seeing me that I know.

   Carson showing off

   William “Billy the Kid” Smith

  Carson “zooming” by…

The Christian Coalition recently named a pastor named Joel Hunter as president.  He surprised everyone by stepping down a few weeks later citing a difference in priorities from the board of directors.  It seems he wanted to expand the scope of what the Coalition lobbies for to include poverty and the enviornment.  The “Christian Coalition” said, “these issues are fine, but they’re not our issues; that’s not our base”.

How freakin sad!  They are so narrowly focused on abortion and gay marriage that they’ve forgotten to take care of first things first.

Good for Joel Hunter though!  He said, “these are issues [poverty and the environment] that Jesus would want us to care about. There ought to be more than just gay marriage and pro-life issues, because the Bible is concerned with all of life.  We need to do everything we can to heal the sick and to protect the earth.”

I wish we could start a lobby to get the Christian Coalition to change its name!

It seems the older you get, the longer your list of resolutions each new year.  Mine include:

- Lose weight

- Stay within a budget

- Make better use of my time

- Accomplish ministry goals

….to name a few.  But as I think upon the ever-increasing list as I approach 45, I’m left with two things that shine above them all:

1. Find my rhythm with God

2. Live well with my wife and children

Life can feel so hectic at times, and right now, it seems that way.  There are many unanswered questions on the horizon having to do with my ministry and life in general.  With so much uncertainty surrounding me, it can be easy to forget that God is not uncertain…that He knows what to do, what I should do and what will happen.  If I want to feel some certainty in a sea of uncertainty, then I need to my rhythm to connect with God, not with my life events.  So my main resolution is to find a better rhythm in my relationship with Jesus.

Next to my life with Jesus, my life with my family is the most important thing to me.  As I set up for the next phase of life, I want to make sure that my time with them is the best it can be.  I’ve finally come to the realization that time with my kids and my wife is worth more than success.  So I search for a balance of career and family…a balance of time at the job and time with them.

These two will be measured as great success if I can accomplish them this year.  I hope you are able to accomplish yours.

Happy New Year! 

A guy I’ve gotten to know at church invited me to join him and his motorcycle club on a ride this morning.  So I got up early and fired up my Victory Kingpin to meet them at Starbucks.  We went south toward Monteray into Watsonville.  We had around 30 bikes with us and it was a blast.  The sound was huge with that many bikes going through the streets of Watsonville.  We even had some Hells Angels pass us going the same direction….they didn’t seem to notice us “part-timers”.

The interesting part of the experience was the community that these guys/gals share.  It reminds me of what the church is supposed to look like.  Everyone comes from different backgrounds and different walks of life, but when they put on the leathers and share a common vision, goal and identity, they become one unit.  They truly care about each other and what’s going on in each other’s lives.  They don’t hide their identity as a bike club, they wear it proudly but don’t force it on others.  Seems like some in the church could learn from a group like this.  Maybe we should start wearing “leathers” at church???

 It was a great way to spend the first day of 2007…