Dialogue that took place right before this picture was taken.

Reese – Dad can I use a different lure?

Me – Sure, no problem.

I turn away and start looking for something else. Reese is suddenly quiet and I hear tremendous splashing. I turn around and the tip of his fishing pole is bent over double into the water.  He reels the fish up to the dock, I apply the visegrip thumb lock in the mouth of the bass and together we land the fish.  The picture is taken and we release leviathan back into his aquatic habitat.  After hugs and smiles the dialogue continues.

Me – Do you still want to change lures?

Reese – No, I think I’ll use this one some more.

Did anyone catch the new show Heroes on the national broadcast network?  Just curious as to your thoughts if you did.

Which superhero are you?  Click here to take the quiz yourself. 

My results:  Iron Man

Iron Man 85% Superman 70% The Flash 70% Spider-Man 65% Green Lantern 65% Catwoman 55% Hulk 40% Supergirl 35% Batman 30% Wonder Woman 25% Robin 15%

Inventor. Businessman. Genius.

The pressure is on Steve — are you really Green Lantern?  Greg, exactly what does GuitarCenterMan look like?  It might be fun for us to develop our own list of one anothers superhero powers and profiles.  You should be able to post your results in the comment section.

Our parent / teacher conference began with the teacher leading a prayer.  As I have mentioned this is the first time the kids have attended a Christian school.  Even though they have been in school for 6 weeks or so and there is a spiritual stream in this school it was still a surprise.  As the teacher began to pray I remember thinking "is this allowed?"

I remember back in the day my first rehearsal with the big purple (ACU’s band).  Before the rehearsal began someone was called upon to lead a prayer.  As the person began to pray I remember thinking "is this allowed?"

I’m declaring a tie between cwinwc and wfma for the sell the pot house real estate listing.  I will now, yes right this very moment, flip a coin to determine the outright winner.  Heads is cwinwc and tails is wfma.  I will be using a Mexican 20 peso coin for the flip.  And now the flip . . .the coin is the air . . . the coin has landed . . . it is . . .TAILS.  Thus, wfma is the winner.

Had lunch yesterday with a family from church.  Authentic, down home, old-fashioned Sunday lunch, or is it Sunday Dinner?  Roast, potatoes, carrots, onions, salad, home-made bisquits, and the biggest home-made strawberr shortcake roll thing I’ve ever seen.  Anybody else remember your parents having to rush home after church to save the roast?

Following the meal we stepped out onto the back porch and made our way down to the dock.  Yes, they live on a lake – in town – on a lake.  Reminded me of Florida.  We spent a couple of hours tying knots, pinching worms in half with our fingers, and catching bluegills.

They talked about a family of ducks who had some ducklings.  They said the ducklings were headed across the lake with their parents when one of them got picked off by a catfish.  The pleasant story ended with "now all the ducklings are gone."  I say that because Reese caught one of those duckling eating catfish.  The kids were quite impressed and amazed at the size of the mouth on that catfish.  You could see how easily the whiskered fish could have some duckling for lunch.

Good eats, good fishing and good folks.  We’ve found some new friends!

The real estate listing contest has been extended through the weekend.  I’m still waiting for some specific entries.

Today I’m taking a sabbath from the paying job and going to try and make a dent in the garage and a couple of rooms in the house.  Probably time to make it look like we moved in and aren’t getting ready to move out.  I’ll wait for the kids to get out of school and play some basketball with them on the 8 and 1/2 foot rim.  I’m like a bball deity at that height.

Plunked down more clams than I wanted to on a stinking lawnmower today.  The whole time I’m thinking, "man think of what I could do with this money at the Gtr Cntr."

Speaking of Gtr Cntr (as a devout follower we do not use the vowels in written form to honor our source of goodness) there is not one in Stockton.  A detail I should have investigated prior to relocating.

The house we are leasing is located in a brand new development on the north side of town.  The houses are nice, big, and close together.  The neighborhood is cheap by Arlington standards but still quite expensive by our standards.  The average house price is in the low $500,000!  Don’t you just love those signs promoting a particular house development.  Now from the low $700,000!  I’m travelling in a different circle as the words low and $700K just don’t seem to fit in the same sentence.

During the day our neighborhood is a ghost town.  Everyone leaves and goes to work.  During the evenings not much happens as well.  People come home, some right into their garages, not to be seen from again.  Heard from yes, but not seen.  Remember, the houses are close together.  As a side note, Stockton made the list of most over-valued houses.  Hooray for Stockton!  Hooray for us! (He said sarcastically as he silently cursed under his keyboard).

Just the other day the fine members of the Stockton PD busted a rather large marijuana growing operation.  It seems some creative people had purchased quite a few of these new houses (They have now found 9 total in our area and are finding more as the investigation continues) and turned them into greenhouses.  The intererior of the house, every available space, was used to grow marijuana – for medicinal purposes of course.  Drip systems, grow lights, timers, dimmers, climate control, specially tinted windows they say it was a pretty impressive set up.  Each house contained around 500 mature plants.  If you’ve been doing the math that’s one expensive greenhouse. 

Two of the house are in our neighborhood.  Just two blocks away.  In fact, Beth mentioned seeing a bunch of police cars gathering on a nearby street the other night and now we know the reason for the gathering.  The creative energy and effort is to be commended.  It’s a shame that same creative energy and effort is not channeled in a different direction.  So let’s play real-estate listing agent.  At some point these houses will be put back on the market.  A creative realtor will find a way to "package" these houses and paint them in a colorful light.  Take a "crack" at writing your own listing for these soon to be available houses.

I’ll get the ball "rolling" with:  "Wide open floor plan . . ."

The most creative listing will receive a box of Swiss chocolates direct from our importers in Switzerland – strictly for medicinal purposes!  Winner must pay all shipping and handling fees.

I’ve never been on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.  I’ve seen movie portrayals and news footage.  It’s chaotic, action packed, teeming with life.  Buy that, sell this, truly a pressure cooker to make the right trade.  Coincidentally it reminds me of the school cafeteria. 

One of the perks of the job is that I can walk down the hall and sit with the kiddos during lunch time.  5th graders have a different lunch time than the 7th graders so I get to spend some good individual time with the kids and their respective classes.  Spending this time has been great.  Watching the lunch time trades has been fantastic.  It’s chaotic, action packed, teeming with life.  "I’ll trade you this for that", truly a pressure cooker.  I watched one kid trade home-made chocolate chip cookies, one at a time, for whatever he wanted.  There are some future stock market workers sitting at those cafeteria tables!  There are even a couple of kids that bring nothing but treats and snacks which they exchange for the lunch of their choice.

Can I just say I don’t get the pre-packaged, previously frozen, round peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

As I am able, I take my own lunch and eat in the cafeteria with the kids.  Right now I take my lunch in a plastic bag.  I need a lunch box.  Not just any lunchbox.  By the way, I have my original lunchbox from way back when.  I thought about using that but would not want anything to happen to the barnyard / farm animal lunchbox.  So, what are your suggestions for the perfect lunchbox?  I’ve looked in a few stores and can’t find a real old fashion lunchbox.  I’m even willing to entertain a lunchbox with ponies or unicorns.

We must not become tired of doing good.  We will receive our harvest of eternal life at the right time if we do not give up.  When we have the opportunity to help anyone, we should do it.  But we should give special attention to those who are in the family of believers.  (Galatians 6:9-10)

It’s true.  We should give special attention to those who are in the family of believers.  Not, however, at the expense of those who are not yet and so desperately need to be in the family of believers.  I’ve seen this passage used to support the idea that when church people must choose to help someone they should choose to help those people already in the church.  Joined together with 2 Corinthians 9:1 where Paul talks about a collection being taken "for the saints" it’s a powerful one, two out of context punch.  There certainly may be situations when tough decisions must be made as to who will be helped.  I’m not sure that those of us who live in the land of plenty have ever been forced to make that choice.

It’s true.  We must not become tired of doing good.  We will receive our harvest of eternal life at the right time if we do not give up.  So my walk with Christ is active.  My walk with Christ is intentional.  Even though we do get tired for so many reasons.  We keep eternity in mind.  I’m not doing good so that God will save me.  I’m doing good because God has saved me.  God has redeemed my worthless life and has given me worth, meaning and purpose.  In Christ Jesus I have been created to do good things.  All that is missing is the opportunity.

It’s true.  When we have the opportunity to help anyone, we should do it.  No qualifier.  No form to glean religious affiliation.  Just a straightforward plea to help and bless others when given the opportunity.  There are enough opportunistic people who will exploit any and every opportunity.  Christ followers are opportunistic people who will use any and every opportunity to encourage and serve.  It is actually what makes the distinction between those people who talk about following Christ and those who are actually following Christ.  James says:

People who think they are religious but say things they should not say are just fooling themselves.  Their "religion" is worth nothing.  Religion that God accepts as pure and without fault is this:  caring for orphans or widows who need help, and keeping yourself free from the world’s evil influence. (James 1:26-27)

The world’s greatest evil influence may not be David Hasselhoff or VanHalen Bluegrass.  The world’s greatest evil influence might just be the idea that we are on this planet to seek self pleasure and find pleasure in serving self.  Though you could still make a pretty strong case for Hasselhoff and VanHalen Bluegrass being the greatest evil influence.  I know we must be careful of the words we say; the contents of our heart that spill out from our mouth.  I hear James telling me to stop talking about how we should help people and be a person who in fact does help people.  I hear James telling me God is not honored by words which express the need or intent to help but words which carry me into the fray to actually help.  In other words, I can’t teach about how to help or impress upon others the need to help without actually helping others myself.  It is wrong to blog about the need to help and not invest myself in actually helping someone. 

I believe in praying for the opportunity to help.  I realize the opportunities to help are many.  More so I pray to recognize the opportunities. 

God you’ve called me by your love, forgiven me by your mercy and equipped me by your grace to serve.  As the opportunity presents itself today, open my eyes, my heart and my hands to do good.  Give me the chance, today, to honor you.

The DMV was swift and painful.  We were in and out of there in under two minutes.  How can that be possible?  Which DMV did you visit?  Here are the basics of the conversation as I remember:

Clerk – Good Morning
Me – Good morning, we have an appointment
Clerk – What is the nature of your appointment
Me – Apply for a driver’s license and vehicle registration
Clerk – You will need to fill out these forms, we will need to see a birth certificate, are both vehicles here?
Me – Both vehicles are not here and I was not aware we needed birth certificates.
Clerk – Yes we need to verify the vehicles and need verification of your birth.
Me – Isn’t the fact that I’m standing here talking to you verification of my birth?

The conversation went on for another 30 seconds or so. In and out in under two minutes.  It wasn’t totally a waste of time.  We discovered a great Latin American Super Mercado and spent some time in the store reminiscing.

The day got better.  Our friend Josh Stump (aka Stumptown) called not long after our visit to the DMV and informed us his schedule had changed and was going to have some free time while in our neck of the woods on business.  We met for lunch at In-and-Out (if you ever have the chance have your fries animal style) and enjoyed catching up.  We spent the entire afternoon playing basketball.  A much needed respite from some hectic weeks.  Having Josh over, giving him a tour of the house and noticing those things not yet accomplished made us realize how busy we have been the last 5 weeks or so and that we need to finish unpacking.

And now a few words about our leadership retreat and our leadership.  It was encouraging.  It was fun.  The dinner Friday night was great – in all it’s five course goodness!  The time we spent on Saturday was truly a breath of fresh ministry air.  It is exciting to have a vision and direction for the future.