First of all, I can’t believe it has been this long since I last blogged.  I hope to do better.  But I was thinking the other day about getting the breath knocked out of you.  I mean in the proverbial sense.  Have you ever been just traveling through life and wham something happens and it knocks the breath out of you?  Something similar happened to me recently.  As I write this, I am thinking about the male gymnast who was doing the vault and he messed up and hit the vault table.  Here watch it for yourself.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XmoinxMAxE&feature=related  As I was watching this guy, I couldn’t help but think how many times he had practiced the vault.  Hundreds maybe even thousands of times he had run and completed the vault, but not this time.  What happened?  What changed?  Was it a lack of preparation?  I think it may have been that his steps were messed up or he just missed the spring board.  Either way, he had the breath knocked out of him and he was dazed.

In life, sometimes we get dazed.  We can be living our lives as we always do.  Doing the same things over and over, hundreds maybe even thousands of times.  We get into the habit of doing things and something happens, something changes.  Our steps get messed up.  We allow the monotony of life or the struggles of life get us sidetracked and get our attention off of the details of taking care of ourselves.  And before we know it, we do something, or something is done to us, and our breath is gone.  And at times, the breath comes right back, but other times it last and last, to the point where you think you are dying.

I remember getting the breath knocked out of me many times, but the first time I can recall I was playing pee-wee football.  I was running with the football and got tackled.  When I hit the ground, I landed right on top of the ball and it knocked the breath out of me.  It scared the bejeebies out of me.  I thought I was dying.  I couldn’t catch my breath.  I was gasping for air and going crazy at the same time.  My coaches came over and made me lay still.  They pulled my pants away from stomach by the waistband and it made my stomach relax enough to where I caught my breath.  LIFE!!  I could breathe.  That first full breath was new life. 

As I sit here with the breath having been knocked out of me, I look at the circumstances of how it happened and I was stupid.  I took some wrong steps.  And here I am gasping.  So what now.  I need to be still, take time with THE Coach and let Him give me back my breath.  He is the creator of my breath anyway. 

My Prayer:  Lord help me to be still and know that you are God.  Help me to make wise choices as lately I have not.  Please give me back what I have allowed the locust to destroy.  And please give me back my breath so I can use it for your glory.  Help me not be selfish.  Help me to put others needs before mine.  Help me to love as you do.  Thank you for your grace and your mercy and your forgiveness.  I love you Lord.  I want to sing of your praises forever.  I want to worship you with my actions, not just my words. Your Word teaches me that they will know me by my fruit.  What is my fruit?  Is it glorifying You?  Do my breath and my actions line up?  If not, knock my breath away as much as You need too, so that they line up to honor You.  Thank you for my time with You.  Thank you that you listen and that you care.  Help me to be a man after Your Heart.  I love you Lord.  Amen

Certain things in life bring us back to the reality of things and one of those things in my life is what my daughter is going through.  A week or so ago we found out that Taylor has a stress fracture in her L5 vertebrae caused by all of the gymnastics that she does.  She is an excellent gymnast and has a dream of one day becoming a University of Georgia Gymnast, better known as a Gym Dog.  With the news came the uncertainty of not knowing what a stress fracture of a vertebrae means in the whole scheme of life.  We were told that we needed to see a neuro-surgeon, not something a parent wants to hear when speaking about their 12 year old daughter.  This morning we visited the doctor to find out what we needed to do.  He told us that it is not normal for a 12 year olds back to hurt and that the worst sport Taylor could be competing in, with her condition, is gymnastics.  He said he would rather her play hockey.  Ultimate prognosis:  rest, rest, and more rest.  So, Taylor will take time off of gymnastics for about a month or so and then will resume her passion.

But during this time of not knowing, we, being me, Christy and Taylor, have had to take a hard look at what God is wanting us to learn from this experience.  Taylor said it best, “What does God want me to do because of this?  Who am I supposed to be helping or telling about God?” 

Leave it to a 12 year old to speak truth into a situation where the outcome is still unknown.  The “TRUTH” is trust God in all circumstances.  Thank you Taylor for having faith and reminding us who is in control.  I love you and am praying for HIS healing.

I absolutely love March Madness.  The time of year when anything can happen and everyone is talking about it.  Watching college kids give their all for their team, and at the end, one team is extremely happy and the other team is devastated.  And for what, a basketball game, that in the end is just that, a game.  When was the last time we were devastated because someone we knew wouldn’t come to church, or worse, doesn’t know Christ.  We will talk to them about basketball or anything else except Christ because we don’t want to offend.  And by doing so, we allow them to die and go to hell because we don’t want to offend.  Can we love March Madness and be courageous Christians at the same time?  I sure hope so.  Just a thought I had.

This will be the first of several blogs about a new book I am reading.  So stay tuned and continue to check back to see the truths that God is teaching.  And while you are at it, read Deuteronomy 6.  

I am reading a great book right now that speaks about family time.  The thing about this book, it is kicking my butt.  One of the questions in the book ask parents why they think family is important.  Some say love, fellowship, teaching, etc. But the premise of the book is that God set-up the family to be the “small group” that teaches children all about God.  But if we really get honest with ourselves and each other, are our families really “training centers?”  When I asked my family what they thought we put our energy into, they each said sports or something other than Godly training.  It breaks me because my heart and soul and that of Christy’s is that we raise our kids and be the “training center” God has called us to be.  Not that we have totally failed, but we do have our weaknesses.  And part of the solution is that we have recognized that we need to do a better job of being the initial investors in the lives of kids when it comes to their spiritual lives.  We definitely don’t need to leave it up to the church or anyone else because we are the greatest influencers in their lives.  I will stop here and write more thoughts later.

Now that I am home, I can reflect on my trip out west.  Other than the blow-out that I had on my trailer, the trip went off without a hitch.  I had a total of 4 events, Tucson, AZ, Brentwood, CA, Monterey, CA, and Houston, TX.  There were over 200 decisions in those 4 events.  Praise God.  It was definitely worth all of the driving and time away from home.  But, speaking of home, I am so glad to be back with my family.  I have four weeks without an event that will be spent being hubby and daddy.  I love my wife and kids and am so thankful that God has blessed me with them.  I am looking forward to the next few weeks.

Going back to my time in CA though, I had a blast in Monterey.  I had the great opportunity to play some beautiful golf courses and I actually played well.  And, while out west, I had the privelege of eating at In-N-Out Burgers as often as I would like.  Here is where I picked up some spiritual truths.  I had never eaten at In-N-Out until I visited San Diego.  But after I tasted that double-double, I was hooked.  I left CA for a few days but as soon as I returned I made a beeline to In-N-Out.  Reminded me about sin.  Not that In-N-Out is a sin, by the way, it is a christian owned company, but once you dabble or try sin, it pulls you in.  And the opposite is true.  When you experience the full Life of Christ, you want to lavish in it.

And playing Pebble Beach was like playing any other golf course.  You have to hit off the tee, get to the green and then put the ball in the hole.  It was a beautiful course, much more scenic than most courses, but the goal was the same.  Because of its hype, it cost more, much more, and it made me change my frame of mind.  Instead of just playing the game, I began to play mind games.  “What a course, I can’t believe I am here.  The pros play here.  It is so beautiful. And on and on and on.”  I was caught up with everything except thinking about golf.  At times I was literally hitting the ball not thinking about golf.  As I thought about that I began to think about how satan does this to us.  As we live our lives and try to walk the Christian life, he tries to get our thoughts on other things.  And if he succeeds, we don’t have our minds on Christ.  That is why God’s Word tells us in 2 Corithians 10 that we should take every thought captive. 

My question to you, “What are your thoughts?  Are they captivated by Christ are by peripheral things?”