South Texas and the Call of God

A good friend recently invited me to hunt with him in south Texas. It's a part of the world that really recharges and refreshes me every time I'm there. It is rough country, but it has a beauty that is raw and rugged. They say that down there if it doesn't bite you or have thorns, it's a rock. And that's pretty accurate.

I've wondered a couple of times what it would be like to earn a living as a writer living on a ranch in south Texas. It wouldn't be any easier than what I get to do now, but it would certainly be less complicated. Get up early, write until mid-morning or noon, and then spend the rest of the day managing the ranch for maximum deer growth, quail habitat and whatever else came to mind.

Whenever I have those thoughts, God reminds me that I'm right in the middle of what I was created for. To be Julie's husband, Emily & Joseph's dad, and pastor of LHC is as full a life as I can even imagine. I would so miss the communities that our family gets to be a part of, that we're strengthened by. I'd miss the beauty of Christ's Bride as she lives out through the people of LHC. I would miss the leadership opportunities to see and sometimes facilitate an intersection between people's gifts and passions and the needs and opportunities of the church.

Author Seth Godin relates a telling story that I think captures this idea:

It's four a.m. and I can't sleep. So I'm sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Jamaica, checking my e-mail.

A couple walks by, obviously on their way to bed, having pushed the idea of vacation a little too hard. The woman looks over to me and, in a harsh whisper a little quieter than a yell, says to her friend, "Isn't that sad? That guy comes here on vacation and he's stuck checking his e-mail. He can't even enjoy his two weeks off."

I think the real question--the one they probably wouldn't want to answer--was, "Isn't it sad that we have a job where we spend two weeks avoiding the stuff we have to do fifty weeks a year?"

Hit the COMMENTS button below and let me know what you love about what you get to do every day.

Berming

So the Richard women are out of town. Gone on a girls' weekend with Julie's mom, her sisters and their daughters.

Joseph and I are back home batching in the ATX. Driving to school and listening to a morning sports show, the guest is Reid Ryan, CEO of the Round Rock Express. They're the AAA affiliate of the Astros. When he says their home opener is Friday night, Joseph & I look at each other and we had our plan.

I dropped him at school, came home and bought two tickets to sit on the outfield berm ($6 per!) to watch the game. It was an absolutely perfect night...Not a lot of cash and a lifetime of memories and male bonding. Joseph created a new verb, berming, to describe sitting on the berm watching baseball.

I hate it when Julie's out of town. But Friday Night Berming definitely took the edge off missing her.

Check Out

...these other blogs:

Ed Young -- this has absolutely no purpose other than a great laugh and an insight into a very unique mind. Part of what I love about Ed is his passion and sense of humor. This has ample amounts of both.

Swerve -- Swerve is the blog of Craig Groeschel and Bobby Gruenewald, Pastor & Exec. Pastor respectively of LifeChurch. Their mother ship campus is in Edmund, OK and they have multiple satellite locations across the nation. Check this one out on Monday for a unique, God-honoring ministry initiative that is going to blanket the nation this coming summer.

ANTI-Septic (or "Not Coming Up Roses")

For those of you who think that life's always coming up roses for Christians, check this out...

We are putting in some new grass, and yesterday we found a little puddle in our backyard (you can see where the dirt goes from dry to wet in the picture). No big deal...except that our back yard is where our septic field is located and the puddle is apparently a septic field issue. Good times...good times.

What an opportunity for perspective. I'm not excited about a septic field problem, but in a grand-scheme-of-things, big-picture perspective, this is one of those things that everyone gets to deal with from time to time.




PS I think I have my opening illustration for a sermon series called "Overflow" that we're kicking off this weekend! See how good God is! ...although, I'm not sure that this is exactly what Jesus had in mind when he talked about giving us "LIFE to the full".