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5 Today!

5 Years ago today, I was anxiously waiting for my wife to emerge from major Cancer surgery. A radical, rare, and deadly cancer had attacked her uterus and the prospects were bleak. The whole church was praying. People around the world were praying. A pastor friend with a gift of healing had called from England minutes before they rolled Deb into surgery.

We were pleading for God for a miracle. And God answered in amazing ways. After surgery they came back and said, although it was quite "surprising" they had found "no cancer", although the diagnosis had been so clear that they had shipped tissue samples to Cancer Society.

They told us, while this is good news, don't get too excited as the cancer cells will show up in the pathology reports...after three different pathology reports of finding no cancer, they finally gave up looking. At that point they had to admit, "well maybe all that praying worked".

But they said, "Don't get too excited. This kind always comes back". Every 3 months for the first three years Deb went back to see the specialist. Finally after four years, he said, "Well perhaps this isn't going to come back".
And today is 5 years...and absolutely NO CANCER! So we praise God today on this 5th anniversary of his miracle working mercy. Jesus is Lord of my life and Lord of my wife!

An Announcement Based on a Lifetime Prayer

Do you have a few prayers you have been praying for years? The kind you know you won't see the answer to for a long, long time? Do those prayers matter? Are there some things so big that you just must keep praying for them until you see the outcome?

I just had one of those kinds of prayers answered and I must say...."How sweet it is!"; "Thank you Jesus!"

When Deb found out she was pregnant we were thrilled. We were ready for kids and our determination was to take parenting as the most serious call of our lives. We knew we must immerse our new child in faithful prayer. 

So we began before we even knew what gender our child would be. 

One of the primary prayers we prayed was: "God grant our child a godly spouse, who loves YOU and loves THEM deeply". 

When Lindsey was born and miraculously survived being "dead on arrival" and especially when we discovered we would have no more biological children, we prayed that this girl would have a divine hand upon her life.

Many evenings after Lindsey was fast asleep we would pray, "God grant our daughter a godly husband who deeply loves you and will honor our daughter." 

We, of course, did more than pray. We sat boundaries, we taught, we built relationship. As she matured we had the big "promise ring" talk in which she pledged her virginity til marriage. We had discussions about the kind of man she should marry. 

We held our breath through several "crushes". She had a couple of false starts of exploration in which we just prayed all the more. But then seemingly out of nowhere, at a point when Lindsey's heart was grieving and wondering what, if anything, was going to happen--TJ TAYLOR arrived on the scene. 

Friends at first. Deeper friends. Dating. Commitment. Then that morning in our den when TJ asked Deb and I if we would give our daughter to him in marriage. 

And there it was, the answer to a lifetime prayer...A young man (25) who highly valued our daughter and was committed to her spiritual, emotional, and physical welfare. For 25 years we had not known the name or the face of the man we were praying for...but it was his, TJ's. 

Is TJ perfect? No. But he is God's man for our daughter...prayed in with faith, drawn in by love and wisdom. We are honored to announce their engagement, their promise to marry one another and serve God's purpose for their lives in their generation. Now that's worth praying a lifetime for!! 

Mr. Frost Goes to Washington

One of my favorite movies is Mr. Smith goes to Washington...a classic movie about a bumpkin who goes to Washington D.C. only to be confronted by the twisted morals of money grabbing bankers and politicians.

Although decades removed from the farm I often still feel like a country bumpkin, so it was with both excitement and reluctance that I went to Washington. When I arrived, I was confronted with the spiritual morals of sincere Senators and humble servants of Christ.

The other folks are still there and continue to pull many proverbial strings in their own self-interest. Truth is often a rare commodity with some who are in power. But weaving in and out of the halls of rulership are the few, the brave, the good.

Men like Dan Frost, my friend who has walked holes in his shoes, walking the halls of Congress. Every ministry day he puts on his suit and tie, climbs in his SUV that has 275,000 miles on it, drives 45 minutes, parks beneath the Senate building, and starts walking for Jesus. His mission? To be a friend to people in power; to be the one man who wants nothing from anybody, to be the one person who is willing to listen from the heart, to be an encourager to those who are simply overwhelmed with the complexity of the D.C. lifestyle.

Almost invisible, which is hard at 6'7", Dan is simply there...available for those who may suddenly sense an urge for a friend...friends are hard to find in D.C. Dan is there for those who are open to trust him to pray for them. He is a burden bearer with some of the most burdened men and women in our world.

Having a backstage pass to the halls of Congress, following Dan through the underground tunnels of Congress, greeting his friends in the hallways, weaving our way between flocks of lobbyists, ascending back staircases little used except by the most knowledgeable D.C. insiders, eating the famous bean soup that's been served for nearly 200 years in the Senate dining room, praying in the small backroom chapel that Lincoln prayed in, these were my  joys in our nation's capitol.

Mr. Smith stood for integrity and for service to others and he impacts Washington D.C. and leaves you cheering for the good guys. Mr. Frost stands for integrity and service to others and for the good news of God's love; he also is impacting Washington...and leaves me cheering for this good guy and for God. Cheer with me!

How to Be GREAT

Yesterday, we took the staff to hear some of the great leaders of our time. Condolezza Rice, Colin Powell, Microsoft's President, Zig Ziglar, athlete Michael Phelps, and others. It was inspiring to hear their tales of sacrifice, hard work, lucky breaks, dedication, and climbs to greatness.

Two common themes I heard were these: Focus and Passion. Focus yourself on the goals that really matter and then passionately pursue them. People who accomplish extraordinary results have a clear focus and a tenacity to take enthusiastic action in the direction of their dream.

I love these kind of presentations. It's in the way that I am wired. BUT I think they need to be always with the wisdom of 1 Corinthians 13 and with the words of Mother Teresa. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 reminds us that we can do great things but if we don't do them with great love then they are actually NOTHING. It's how much loving for God and for people that you put into the DOING that creates the GREATNESS of the deed.

Also I think we miss the "greatness" of our ordinary lives if we are not careful. Mother Teresa said, "There are no great acts, only small acts done with great love". And Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Anyone can be great because anyone can serve". To see Christ in the people we meet everyday and to reach out to love them as we would love Christ...this is the greatness attainable by all people.

I want to be a GREAT MAN in God's eyes. "Lord, help me to simply faithfully love with your great love today and let my greatness be determined by you!"

OUCH! Bike Wreck!

I was racing home from the gym with a front tire on my bike that was deflating faster than the U.S. dollar in a recession.

I thought I could make it and was within a block of home. As I roared around the final corner by tire slipped off the rim, launching me head first over the handlebars onto the pavement in the middle of the street. Blood was spurting everywhere...I wasn't sure my left eye was still working...I rolled over, jumped up limping, and yanked my bike to sidewalk. I laid down and placed compression pressure over my eye to stop the bleeding
(That's NOT me in the picture but I looked a little worse than that!) .

I immediately began first aid procedures..."Help me Jesus! Heal me Jesus! In the name of Jesus (repeated quickly and painfully 20 times in a row". 5 minutes later Deb came rolling up and at first thought I was laying in the grassy median leisurely waiting for her. But then she saw the blood and it was yet one more time in our 32 years that I was glad she had taken two  years of nurses training.

I hobbled home pressing a towel to my eyebrow. I had knee lacerations, a partially dislocated thumb, a three inch gash over my eye and couple of other smaller head wounds. Deb cleaned me up and upon hearing my resistance to go to urgent care, ended up butterflying my eye gash.

Of course I drew some practical and spiritual analogies from my painful experience. Practically speaking, I think helmets are a good idea. Personally I believe an angel caught me in midair. At the speed I was going my brains could have been and should have been laying in the road. I think the angel caught me and then dropped me a little to teach me, "Buy a helmet dummy".

Spiritually speaking, I thought about how people can have bad leak in the their lives, the Spirit of God leaking out of a problem they really need to deal with. But they are racing through life thinking oh it's not that bad, I can make it, there's always time to get it fixed. Then bam! A sudden blow out occurs and they are on their face needing the Great Physician to put them back together again. Don't ignore the leaks in your spiritual life.

My head hurts and so does my ego, but God gives new wisdom to the humble.

My "To Be" List

My strengths as measured by the Gallup Strengths Finder Test are clustered around "ACTION!"-
Achiever, Activator, Maximizer, Positivity, Futuristic.

I am the guy with the TO DO list. My yearly GOAL list is exhausting just to look at.

I like the way I am wired. I like shooting for the stars, even if I just hit the moon.
I would rather burn out than rust out. I often say, "I have all eternity to rest".
Jesus said, "Work for the night is coming when no man shall work"
I grew up on the farm where harvest time meant we put it into overdrive.
In the land of the gospel it's always harvest time.

But God is always calling me away from my "To Do" List and calling me to His "To Be" list.

A "To Be" list is an aspiration toward character traits that reflect Jesus. It's a reminder of the kind of man I want to become. It's cleaning the "inside of the cup" so that the "outside of the cup" is pure. It's a yearning and burning for the fruit of the Holy Spirit to be clearly manifest in my life.

My "To Be" list is more important than my "To Do" list. Why?
Because if I "DO" a bunch of stuff but DON'T have LOVE...it profits me NOTHING! 1 Cor. 13
If I DO stuff but it leads to PRIDE instead of HUMILITY then I am destroying myself through my accomplishments.
If I DO stuff but it makes me so BUSY that I do the WORK of the LORD but NEGLECT the LORD of the WORK then my BUSYNESS is leading only to BARRENNESS.

Lord, I ask that today and everyday you would set in front of me my "TO BE" list so that I more earnestly pursue YOU and your MOTIVES and your CHARACTER....THEN and ONLY then can I really get after my TO DO list!