When somebody is on your heart, pray for them, and then maybe you will have a visit from the RedHeadRev!

So today was an interesting day. My wife and I were talking and both she and I felt like there was someone or something that we should be praying for. We didn’t know who, or what, but we knew it was time to pray. I know in Romans 8:26 it says “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” and this seemed one of those days. I felt like I needed to pray and had no words, but in my weakness in my “Infirmity”, I found that God was faithful. I began to call people that the Lord put on my heart, dropping notes of encouragement, then much to my surprise, in walks the RedHeadRev (a.k.a Mike). What a great reunion! I haven’t seen him since our friend Benjamin’s wedding, which is where this picture comes from.

It was great to see him and hear of his hope and vision for the Church he Pastor’s. I have heard this man's dreams and his heart and also shared with him my dreams and my heart and not only count him as a brother, but a fellow visionary. I look forward to the Lord’s blessing in his life for the labor he has called him to, but today my blessing started with a groaning. I am reminded also of I Thessalonians 5, which says, “In every thing give thanks…” I am so thankful for a day where my groanings were heard not just by the Lord, but also by my own heart. Moreover, thankful I got to see the every exclusive but never elusive RedHeadRev! I love you brother. You are my ambassador of Bob and all things Veggie.

So ice is the word we were worried about this weekend…not snow but ice. Being a Texan born and raised there are many things that I am not used to about living in Illinois. One of the many things is this cool white stuff that falls from the sky the Yankees call snow. All kidding aside, the worst snow storm we saw in El Paso TX was back in 1986 (I believe) where we had over 12 inches and it shut down the town for days. Here twelve inches is a walk in the park. But Saturday and Sunday this week was a different type of snow…it was nicknamed ice.

As you can see by the many pictures there was a bunch of ice hanging on the trees, and the road was literally a sheet of ice. So much so that when our neighbor tried to pull out of his driveway he slid out and when he tried to get traction his tires just spun and spun and spun until he finally got down the road. Wow was the only word that came to my mind. It has been followed by bitter cold temperatures and snow flurries over the past couple of days. But through all this I got to see something beautiful yesterday. When the sun was out it glistened on the ice frozen trees and snow making one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. Isn’t it amazing how God can make something look so beautiful?

Man...I really miss the people.

Well it has been a while since I have blogged and a lot has been going on. Well, not really. We have celebrated another Christmas, we have celebrated a new year, and soon I will celebrate my ninth wedding anniversary. All is good, but is it?

I remember once being asked what the hardest thing about the ministry was. As I pondered the question the first thing that came to mind was “the people.” But then I was asked, what is the greatest blessing of the ministry? My answer…The People. This has been on my mind and my heart over the past few weeks.

I have been “out of the ministry” since September of last year. I can honestly say this is one of the lowest times I have faced in my spiritual life. Let me preface the rest the rest of my comments by saying that my “out of the ministry” statement is not to say that God doesn’t have work to do, but for the past five years I have been working for a Church in some capacity. For the last three years I have been an Assistant Pastor and part of that was being a Youth Pastor for a great group of kids. But now…well I am sitting in a pew and it is driving me nuts!!!

I have to admit what had happened in my life with my former employer was not only shocking but left some pretty deep wounds, but now I am at the point where to wounds don’t hurt as bad, but I miss the people. I love ministering to people. I used to wake up some mornings just so excited and looking forward to sharing with them what God had told me to say. I know we had some rocky times, but even the rocky times are great.

Now I find myself waking up in the morning and going to work, coming home, going to church…shake and repeat. The best way I can express my emotion is to borrow a phrase from a movie I enjoy called “Blackhawk Down.” This is not the greatest of movies but I like one scene in particular because of its significance to the solider.

Let me set it up: the soldiers have invaded a town in Somalia and faced heavy opposition. They have spent countless hours fighting, seeing the fellow soldiers get hit and fall, others get mortally wounded. In this scene a group of soldiers have finally made their way back to base camp and are safe, but as some are rejoicing in their safety, others who just made their way back are preparing themselves to go back out into the fight…why you ask? Queue “Hoot”, one of the soldiers who was out in the fight for the countless hours and is now preparing himself to go back out into the fight...

"Hoot": When I get home people’ll ask me, "Hey Hoot, why do you do it man? Why? You some war junkie?" You know what I'll say? I won't say a word. Why? They won't understand. They won't understand why we do it. They won't understand that it's about the men next to you, and that's it. That's all it is.

I find the ministry very similar. I want to help people because they are men and women of Christ, children of God, they are my brothers and sisters and my vision, my dreams, and my talents were given because of them. Some may not understand that, but I am not a war junkie…it is just about the ones next to me. I want to be back doing something so bad I could almost explode, but for now I will sit. I know the Lord has his timing and that in years to come I will look back and see the reasoning for this time, but for right now I have a pinned up desire to serve the Lord and no ministry to see in the near future. Man, I miss the people.