"Waiting For The Storm" or "Greater Anticipation"

I am sitting in my office looking out the window, waiting. The weather said that there was a snow storm coming our way and we could get a lot of snow tonight. and yet here I am at 1:00 in the afternoon waiting for what I know is coming and still hoping it gets here sooner rather than later. I have been imagining all day what tomorrow will bring with the snow on the ground and the fun we are going to have out in once it gets here. I can already taste the hot chocolate and feel the snow. I can already see the snow angels Kianna is going to make and the snowballs Mysha is going to throw at me. It has been a struggle for me to concentrate all day on the work I have to get done here in my office today because of the excitement which is to come.
I wonder why I don't feel the same about Jesus sometimes. I know He has promised great things in His word. He has promised He is going to come back and I know He always keeps His promises.I also know He wants to do great things in me and through me. And yet there are times I doubt. There are times I don't care. There are times I question and yes, there are even times I am so distracted by so many other things, I forget. Yet when He comes He promises to make all things new, not just better, but new. This is an amazing promise He has given us. When I truly sit down and think about what those days must be like I get excited about it. About how lives will be transformed in front of my very own eyes. About how people will find a life fresh and new every morning. About being around a group who are broken and humbled like me, yet feel so alive in the grace which has been given to us.
Yeah, When I think about what He is going to do, I just can't wait for the storm, His storm. So look out the window, Imagine the possibilities, and get ready because He is coming and it's going to be great!

"A Unwelcome Revelation" or "Finding Common Ground"

O.K., it's official, I am old and fat. This information hit me like a ton of bricks yesterday. I have been running with Mysha's Cross Country team, (which is where the fat part comes in), and we were trying to teach the kids about speed and determination. The coach and I tried to come up with examples of this to illustrate to the kids about what we were talking about. First we tried to use Carl Lewis, which was met with blank stares. Then we tried Michael Johnson, still no connection. Finally, we mentioned Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay, then the knew what we were talking about. Then it dawned on me that most of these kids weren't alive or old enough to see or know Michael Johnson or Carl Lewis (That's were the old part came in). They had never experienced their awe inspiring feats of speed and grace on the track. We had to find a way they could understand and not insist they go home and pull up footage of these two so they could understand what we were saying. We had to relate with them.
Today, we live in a highly unchurched popluation with people who do not know Jesus or the things He did. We are speaking to them of redemption and atonement and they don't have a clue of what we are talking about. Too many times we insist they go home and figure it out on their own but we need to be able to speak their language. We need to show them of what we believe and not try to make them just figure it out somehow. If we don't tell, who will?

"A Proud Daddy!" or "Learning the Hard Way"

O.k. I have to admit I have been a bit excited over the past couple weeks. My daughter Mykaela (Mysha) is now on the Cross Country Team at Henderson County High School. I am so proud because she is continuing a tradition of running on the Shouse family. My Dad ran for Daviess County High School. I ran for Apollo High School. And now here she is, taking the baton of legacy and running as well. It has sparked a unexpected feeling of pride and elation in my heart. She has taken something of mine and Dad's and now is making it her own. The other day we went out and ran more than 2 miles. When we got finished, (more accurately when I was finished) she went out and ran another one.
This is quite different than her initial reaction to the sport just a week ago. It was hard, difficult and tiring. She wanted to quit. I didn't understand why because I had warned her how tough it was. In fact, my exact words was that it was going to be torture for 2 weeks, then it gets easier. I told her it would never be easy but it would get easier. I also told her if it ever got really easy, she probably wasn't doing it right. (Runners know what I am talking about.) I told her of the amazing team she would apart of. There is just something about being apart of a group of people who share blood, sweat, and tears together. I told her that when she got to the meets, she would be so excited and they were thrilling. I told her about the sense of accomplishment of finished a feat of endurance. I told her of the energy she would have with other things. I told her the good and the bad of running, and in spite of all my instruction, encouragement, and truth telling, she still wanted to quit.
I was upset, mad, and a little perturbed that she did not want to finish the 2 weeks I warned her about. But she did finish them and now she loves it!!! She's hooked on it. We now have a bond which others can never understand until they go through the rights of torture we have experienced.
This experience is not an unusual one in life. I read about Isaac not long ago. In the beginning of Isaac's journey in life, he would always talk about the God of Abraham or the God of my Father. Then somewhere along the way it became "my God". Eventually it became the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But it did not start that way. Isaac had to find and discover God on his own. I know Abraham encouraged, instructed, and told the truth about God to his son but until Isaac found God himself, he never quite got it.
After he got it, though, he and Abraham had something no one could understand until they, too, found the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for themselves.
What about you? Have you found Him? Let me tell, it isn't easy. At times it will feel like torture. But as your faith grows it will get easier, but never easy. In fact, if it is ever easy, you probably not doing it right. But you have to commit yourself to doing it.
Why do those words seem so familiar????