Happy Thanksgiving

There are a few things from this weekend that are sticking with me.

First thing is a few lbs. I ate really good this weekend thanks to my awesome friends Brandi and Wayne McCune. Wayne got up well before the sun did and started smoking a turkey and it was delicious. Brandi cooked lots of your other traditional thanksgiving foods including a way too tasty chocolate peanut butter cheesecake. Also I was introduced to an old favorite of mine that I had never had on turkey day before, cheesy macaroni and cheese! apparently it's a staple down south, who knew? 

Later that night I got a ride home from a friend who I don't know real well but has always seemed like a very thoughtful and selfless person.  On the ride home we talked about what I have been going through since last year at thanksgiving and she shared some of her past as well. She told me about how when she was married, her family that she married into did not like or support her at all.  I felt thankful for the family that I married into, some of whom I still communicate with on Facebook and occasionally on Skype. They have let me know in words and deed that no matter what happens I will always be part of their family and for that I am very thankful.            

I need some good news

anybody got some?

Nobody said it was easy

I've been getting better at moving on with my life since it all collapsed on that sunny morning in June. The chaplain drew me a picture of what I could expect over the next year or so. It started on one side of the board where he drew a horizontal line  and wrote the word normal on the line. From there the line made a steep descent towards the bottom of the board where he wrote "bottom". He said "this is where you are going and you might feel like you're already there, but you're not." He was right, as I learned of the events that were happening at home that lead to this point in my life and recalled memories of sowing seeds of my own sin I continued to sink further and further towards bottom. I thought about those things a lot. I had several nights when I would go to bed hoping that I would not wake up and that I and the world would be better off if i never woke up.  Every morning I did wake up though, and my first thought was always "why?' Why must I re-live this awful life and think these horrible thoughts day after torturous day. I felt as though half of me had died and the other half was having to carry the dead weight and figure out how to do what the other half had done for the last eleven years. Eventually I hit the bottom, it wasn't really a dramatic splat or even a thud. The only way I knew that I had hit bottom was because I started to feel a little bit better everyday. After the chaplain had written "bottom" the line started to head back up, but it didn't stay that way. He explained to me that I would start on my way up to a new "normal" but that I would have bad days where I would go back towards "bottom". "Your going to move up and down for a while" he said, but eventually you won't fall so far and you'll move closer to that new normal. I've only had one day that I felt I was falling back to the bottom, that was on October 15 when I learned that my divorce had gone final the day before. I felt like it was probably comparable to when you have a terminally ill loved one and you know they're living their last days. When that last day comes you still feel the pain of the loss and probably more than you thought you would. I still think about Stef everyday and I probably will for a while, but I think that's a good thing for right now. I think of it like a workout for my heart, every time I do a rep my muscle hurts a little bit but I know it's the pain of getting stronger.   Eventually I will find my new normal.

How I feel is nothing new. David felt the same way

9 Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am in distress. My sight is blurred because of my tears. My body and soul are withering away. 10 I am dying from grief; my years are shortened by sadness. Misery has drained my strength; I am wasting away from within. - Psalm 31:9-10

Notes on Fear

How to get rid of FEAR:

three antidotes to fear :truth, love, faith

FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real

There are 365 "fear nots" in the Bible

WHEN YOUR WORLD FALLS APART

The Invisible War – Part 7

Rick Warren

August 13-14, 2011

JEREMIAH’S LAMENTATION AGAINST GOD

1. ______unload all my frustration on God___________________________________________

“I am a man who has seen affliction, by the rod of his wrath. He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness

rather than light; he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long. He has made my skin grow old

and broken my bones. He has surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. He has made me dwell in darkness like the

dead. He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains. Even when I call out or cry for

help, he shuts out my prayer. He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked.”

Lamentation 3:1-10 (NIV)

2. _turn my focus from my pain to God's love__________________________________________________

“The thought of my pain and my homelessness is bitter poison. I think of it constantly, and my spirit is depressed.

Yet hope returns when I remem- ber this one thing: The Lord's unfailing love and mercy still continue, fresh as the

morning, as sure as the sunrise. The Lord is all I have, so in him I put my hope.”

Lamentation 3:19-26 (TEV)

“The Lord is merciful and will not reject us forever. He may bring us sorrow, but his love for us is sure and

strong. He takes no pleasure in causing us grief or pain.”

Lamentation 3:31-33 (TEV)

3. _____get alone with God and wait!

______________________________________________

“When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions.

Wait for hope to appear.”

Lamentation 3:28-29 (Mes)

“The Lord is good to everyone who trusts in him, so it is best for us to wait in patience—to wait for him to save

us.”

Lamentation 3:25-26 (TEV)

4. __Change the things I can change_______________________________________________

“Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.”

Lamentation 3:40 (NIV)

5. _______Ask God to relieve my fears__________________________________________

“My enemies threw me into a pit and dropped stones on me. The water flowed above my head, and I cried out, ‘This is

the end!’ But I called on your name, Lord, from deep within the well, and you heard me! You listened to my

pleading; you heard my weeping! Yes, you came at my despairing cry and told me, ‘Do not fear!’”

Lamentation 3:53-57 (NLT)

6. expect Jesus to resore my life _________________________________________________

“Restore us, O Lord, and bring us back to you again! Give us back the joys we once had!”

Lamentation 5:21 (NLT)

A death with no funeral

I loved my wife more than she ever knew.

Now she's dead and her husband is too.

12/29/97 - 6/23/11

Tuesday was technically the longest day of the year. Also known as the summer solstice. Ironically though the day with the most amount of daylight is also the day that the Earth is furthest away from the sun. In the same way the shortest day of the year, the one with least daylight is when the Earth is closest to the Sun. I think we humans are much the same way. When things are going great, we feel pretty good about ourselves and have a tendency to get away from the one who is The Light. But when the days are dark and cold and we feel all alone is when we get close to the Son .

Smile!

Today I read that my beautiful niece Jasmine is leaving middle school and all it's crazy awkwardness behind. I'm so happy for her and blessed to have such a role model for daughter to look up to. Anybody who has seen Jaz knows that she has one of the best smiles in the world. If seeing her smile, doesn't make you smile than there is something seriously wrong with you.

Ever since I was born I have had crazy chubby cheeks. When I smile, they about triple in size. For some weird reason I have always been self conscious about my smile because of my chubby cheeks. Today though I saw my smile differently than I usually do. A friend of mine told me I should smile more and for some reason it clicked (for tonight at least) that this is the smile that God gave to me to share with the world. So I'm going to try and smile more often and not think about my chubby cheeks.

friends

Once in a while in this wonderful life, you'll make a friend, and that friendship will grow. When that friend says "Hi" it turns a bad day into a great day.

On a grey summer day ... take pictures

Today was supposed to be sunny (according to the weather report on Friday that is). Something strange is happening here in Germany. It seems that spring and summer have done a flip-flop! Today turned out to be a grey drizzly day, but I have lived in the NW long enough to learn to love these grey drizzly days because they make the sunny days that much better. So I went ahead with my plans and went downtown to take some pictures. A couple are from Friday.

https://picasaweb.google.com/314twin/OneGreySummerDayInGermany