Sunday, July 27, 2008

even better weekend

This weekend was even better than last. My 4th son, Jude Bennett Fitch, was born last night at 9:56pm. I'm sitting in a cold hospital room getting ready to try and catch up on some sleep. Sara and Jude are way ahead of me.

The way I see it, my kids are really God's kids who are on loan to me. I want to do a great job raising God's kids to become God's agents of change in this short life we live. Thank you, Lord, for entrusting the training of another of your agents to Sara and I.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

great weekend

This weekend was great family time.

Saturday we took a trip to Hollabaugh's (word's greatest fruit market) and then went to my parents' house for the kids to play on the inflatable water slide. I think they did it for about 4 hours - literally. Followed by some pool time at home.

Today we went to church and came home and played outside. I went to the gym and had a great workout and spent some time with my friend, Frank. I came home and played outside (in the pool,of course) with the boys. I'm watching a wonderful veggi-tales movie now and Sara is out spending some time with her friend, Layla.

Liam has learned how to swing on the swing himself and Colin is not far behind. I love my family and I'm looking forward to my 4th boy, Jude, being born very soon.

He's due in 3 days. Please join me in praying for him to come asap.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Black Coffee!

I can hardly believe I forgot to post this last night. I have finally successfully switched over to drinking black coffee. I'm doing it right now and I love it. Makes me feel like a man.

This is all tongue in cheek, but I have wanted to switch for a while. For no other reason than to skip all the calories and sugar I was dumping into my coffee everyday.

Judges

I just finished the book of Judges and the last statement in the book says it all . . . “Judges 21:25 - In those days Israel had no king, so the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.” That book is just a collection of stories containing the most bazaar and disturbing human behavior I can imagine. Not that I haven't heard of worse, but what makes it so strange is that these people actually had themselves thinking they were doing right. What a lesson for me as I go through life. I usually feel like I know what to do, but often what “seems right in my eyes” is the opposite of how God ends up having me move. I'm so thankful for the close relationship that's available to God through Christ. I'm sure I'd have been dead long ago if I was still just doing what “seemed right in my own eyes”

Thursday, July 17, 2008

long day

It's late (11pm) . . . well, late for me. I'm almost off to bed. The last couple days have been long. I feel tired, but it's a good tired. Feels like I've accomplished something in my family and in my work for God. I'll finally get to the gym tomorrow morning. Looking forward to that.

I have some new vision churning around inside me. Some vision for a new thing I've never done before. I'm looking for some clarity, because the thought of it scares me just a bit.

Only 6 days until Jude's due date . . . counting down.

Well, time to let Marty out and go to bed.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

so cynical

Today is almost certainly my last full work week before my 4th little man enters this world. Whenever I think of the phrase "enters the world", I think of all the scared and short-sighted people I hear who say things like, "I'd never want to bring a kid into this messed up world". Well, that's not much of a solution to our messed up world.

I read a blog of an old friend this morning and the writing was really good. But I couldn't enjoy the good writing because the attitude behind it was so cynical. It was the exact same attitude about life that I used to carry and it really struck me how far God has brought me in the last 14 years since I've slowly (way too slowly) turned my life over to Him. I used to be that person who did not trust and thought everyone and everything was fake. I guess the truth was that I was a fake.

Lord, let me remember each day that the things I despise in others are the very things at work in me.

Friday, July 11, 2008

pain in the neck

You guessed it. I've got a lot of pain in my neck this morning. Would you pray for healing for me? This neck pain has been a real battle for the better part of a year now. I believe God is healing my neck and making it strong, however.

Funny how life feels when you know you have a new family member about to join you and the rest of the world any day. Life is just in a holding pattern. Every appointment I make has the tag line, "see you then . . . unless Jude is born between now and then." I know Sara's really ready for him to be born. So am I.

I'm also asking God for a financial miracle. Summer giving in churches is not traditionally good and the last 2 weeks have been rough. I'm very concerned that some staff on my team will not get paid this go round. I'm asking God to bring in funds miraculously for that.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

work is fun!

Just finishing up church staff meeting and I'm just bursting with vision and excitement for the future. Not much more to say on that, but I can hardly remember being so excited for the future in ministry and family. I can feel a new season coming on.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Day Off

Today was a day off. It was a great day. I mowed the grass, cleaned the pool, went to church for a while to see the kids off to camp, went to Hollabaugh's for some fresh fruit and then came home. I took the guys swimming in the afternoon and for a walk after dinner. I did a lot of stuff today and still feel deeply rested. Thanks God for a sabbath once a week.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

The Shining

Ever seen the old Stephen King Movie "The Shining"? Well, unfortunately, I have. If you know me, you know I hate horror movies, but I saw this one a few times before I was intelligent enough to decide to stop watching stuff that scared the begeebies out of me.

Anyway, last night as I'm falling asleep, this movie enters my thoughts. So I'm half asleep and thinking of this movie so I'm just creeped out - mostly from the kids in the movie (the two twin girls who had been murdered years before and the little boy who had "the shining"). So, like I usually do when I'm having a bad dream or if I'm in a half-sleep / half-dream state, I can get control of my thoughts and tell myself, "just wake up". So I did.

One problem. While I was getting all creeped out by these little kids (twins) in the dream, one of my twins had made his way into my room and was just standing by my bed in a half-asleep state himself. So, when I opened my eyes to be rid of the dream, this little boy is standing in front of me staring at me.

It's funny how quickly your body can move when you think you're in danger. I had my hands on his shoulders and was sitting up in way under a second. Funny thing is that he wasn't startled at all. I guess he was too sleepy. I put Colin back to bed and finally fell asleep myself.

Besides being pretty funny this morning, the moral of this story is that the stuff I take into my brain and spirit matters. I wish I didn't look at and listen to a whole bunch of stuff . . . but I have. No use crying over that, but at least I can do a much better job as the gatekeeper of my own mind and spirit now. A wise man once told me, "Never look at something you think you might want to forget."

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Vision Day 2.0 (afterglow)

This student ministry vision day was great! There was a ton of vision and personality developing in our youth and kids ministries quite separate from yours truly. While that feels a little weird and I'm not sure what to do with it yet, I know it's right and I know God is setting me up for something new and exciting in the future.

For now, the challenge on the horizon is a boy who will be named Jude Bennett Fitch. He's due to join us in less than 3 weeks and I'm ready to get acquainted.

On the home front, Liam was up every hour (literally) last night with a fever and upset stomach, so that meant he felt the need for me to up with him. Funny how he's not the least bit tired today and I feel like a truck ran over me. Go figure.

Well, I must confess, Liam did sleep through the 3am hour, but my cat, Marty, took care of the wake up then. How kind of him. You get the picture of what last night was like.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Vision Day 2.0

Today is our student ministries vision day where we begin to tackle the process of clarifying wins for the kids and youth we minister to. I'm about to hit the shower and get down to the building to set up and pray up. I'm feeling a little tense about today and I'm not sure why. I'm asking for my pray-ers to pray with me and for me today as I lead our team to what I believe will be another level. Peace.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Vision Day 1.0 (afterglow)

Vision Day yesterday was great. I feel like our team is really focusing more and more and I'm becoming aware that we've been more focused than I thought all along. I'm just loving my new and developing role as a coach to younger and newer leaders. All the while I'm learning like crazy. Two goals we came out of yesterday with . . .

1. All our ministries get together, define their "wins" and publish these in the next 6 months.

2. That our church attendance average for Dec 08 is a solid 1400.

I have some new and very scary vision stirring up in me, so please pray with me that God clarifies that for me soon.

Student ministry vision day is tomorrow. I'm even more excited for this day. Pray with me for some big system-wide breakthroughs.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Vision Day 1.0

Today is our church's mid-year vision day. I love stuff like this and I'm so looking forward to it. I think today is significant because we will be working through a leadership / systems concept called "clarifying the win". I hope we'll make some great progress here today. I'm praying for our collective thinking as leaders to come up to a new level and for much of it to start today.

We have a student ministries vision day on Thursday where we'll work on this concept in a more pointed way for our particular stuff we do to connect with youth and kids.