Random thoughts and bad drivers

I'm about to cross the George Washington bridge in New York City. I'm sitting in stop and go traffic and there are big signs saying that the right lane is going to end. So, every intelligent person goes ahead and gets in line and waits patiently. Then some Yahoos start racing down the right lane to cut in front of everyone because I'm sure that where they are going is so much more important than the hundred cars they are squeezing in front of. With every car that passes my blood pressure goes up a couple notches. I'm beginning to visualize how I'm going to block these people when I get to the front of the line and wave my Christian Surfers sticker at them and say something like didn't your mom teach you to wait in line...
Then I start to think about all the crazy stuff Jesus taught. Things like; love your enemy, do good to those that harm you, don't return evil for evil. So, I start feeling a bit bad about all the Chuck Norris maneuvers I'm dreaming of using and start feeling a little compassion for the "bad drivers". I begin to have utopian thoughts about how maybe if I let someone in then they will let someone else in and we'll end up making a sequel to "Pay It Forward". But, I've been around long enough to know that there will always be bad drivers. Then a verse that I heard this weekend comes to mind: "Children obey your parents in the Lord, FOR THIS IS RIGHT..." I started to think about how maybe I should let these guys merge in because Jesus said to be kind to them and simply because it's the right thing to do. Later I was looking at this old church and thought how God is building something and we need to do what is right because HE has a plan and requires our obedience. Oh yea, I let the guys (plural) in and thought about how Jesus hung on a cross for those people. It's kind of foreign thinking today to do something just because it's right but God's still into it.

Staff Retreat

The purpose of our staff retreat this year was to see our intimacy increase with God our families and other CSUS staff. Our guests, Thom and Carolyn Cunningham from New Tribes Missions shared with us about ministry being the overflow of a reality that Jesus is producing in our homes. The staff for CSUS consists of Daniel and Allison Felton, Denis and Lynn Weiler, Casey and Jen Cruciano and Dean and Amy Plumlee. Of course all the children were present as well. It was a great time of revisiting the basics and allowing God to use each of us in each others lives. Oh yea, and we caught some really fun swell in New England.

Sk8 Hotel

We awoke this morning in a hotel in Delaware looking at the weather Channel and listening to the reports talk about where we just came from. A massive storm loomed the entire time we were at the ESA Easterns and now has unleashed. Our boys were disappointed to be staying in a hotel having just left a perpetual Never, Never Land. We were staying in a skate park were they could run, slide on ramps and, most important, not break anything.

Talk story about Jesus

The other night we spent the evening with some great old friends – Joey and Kristen and their two kids. Joey is a great surfer and came out of a pretty rebellious, surfer lifestyle as a young man and gave his life to Jesus. It’s amazing to see a guy go from a tumultuous life to the peaceful world of being a great Dad and example to others in the water. The guys a barrel magnet too!
We stayed up late into the night talking about how good it is to follow Jesus, an experience that seems to get crowded out by life as we get older. If I were a doctor, I’d write a prescription for everyone to burn the midnight oil talking about Jesus every now and then.
BTW, that’s Kristen’s art on the wall.

Slaves - good or bad

Jesus said that even HE didn’t come to be served but to serve others. It’s interesting the joy that a person gains from serving and yet how the natural man in each of us resists serving. Think what a bummer our world would be without willing servants. I was watching the heads of the ESA and the directors and the “tent setter uppers” and thinking how weird it would be if there were no ESA. What if the people that serve in all the organizations that made it possible for so many to enjoy themselves said, “no more, I’m done”? So, maybe you should go thank someone that runs a local contest or the shop owner that tries to stoke people out or whomever you notice serving so that others may be blessed.

Who are some individuals that you are thankful for the way they serve others?

First string players

Our next stop is ESA Easterns, the East Coast championships. It’s kind of funny, I often wonder if the people that receive the most crowns in Heaven will be the people that no one ever heard of on earth. I look at the many, many people in Christian Surfers who aren’t famous or even in ministry “vocationally” and yet, these are the people that God seems to use to be the glue to hold it all together. People like Chuck and Ana, Todd and Laura, Chris and Amy, Mike, Bill and Kate… All people that are here, at Easterns serving surfers out of love. It’s a cool thing…

Small town surf

Today we drove from St Augustine, FL to Atlantic Beach, NC. About 10 hours and the kids did pretty well. The surf culture in areas of North Carolina, like this area, is classic. It’s not about the flash and name brands. It’s just about surfing – kind of refreshing. You see a guy with only huntin’ and fishin’ stickers on his truck go out and destroy a wave. You ask him what he thinks of Kelly’s run this year and he responds, “Kelly who?”

Where’s your favorite place to surf in the Carolina’s?

On the road again...

Sept 16, 2008
Where’s Waldo? is a cool kid’s book where you search for a guy named Waldo. Sometimes I feel like him. I wake up in the morning unsure as to where I am and what state I’m in today. Come on our newest adventure and follow the family around the country for the next month.