The Spring of Spring

You know the season of Spring has all these beautiful connotations related to it about new beginnings, blooming, fresh starts, colors and sunshine. I'm not saying that these things aren't really nice and positive but all I can think about as we start this season is how much my head hurts.

As this season emerges into it's place on the calendar, breaking through the crusty deadness of the remnants of winter, the flaky old skin of the earth reveals itself in the form of pollen. Pollen is yellow and yellow is the color I dislike the most. But if pollen was blue, I'd still hate it just as much.

It amazes me how much this yellow powdery substance can control so much of my life. I'm in a constant state of fog and haze while the vise on my head gets tighter and tighter.

Are you feeling my pain yet?

WOW! I'm such a good blogger. haha

So what has life been doing since my thankfulness of Thanksgiving? Quite a lot has been going on. I'm not going to fill the gap of the past 4 months, just to spare you the mundane, but I'll tell you the latest.

We've entered an online challenge sponsored by my bank which has families compete to get out of debt. This is going to be hard.. real hard! But we are in such a desperate need of financial change that I'm almost willing to do anything. This is like almost anything. It'll start in a week and go for 8 months. It will have monthly challenges and families will be voted off each month. Yikes! I'll post more details because I'd really appreciate your vote. :D

God is still in control and I still want to make more use of this vapor for His glory.

Thankfulness

I really do like Thanksgiving. It's probably my favorite holiday. (Did I already blog that?) Well, it's worth saying again.

I read from Luke chapter 11 last night to the family. I've been wanting to do that for, well... for years, so it was great. I just figured it was good to talk a little about what real prayer is and Jesus explains it to the disciples when they asked him about it. Then Jesus went on to talk about how it's good to be persistent in asking and how we should ask, seek and knock. By doing that we'll receive from God our Father.

The final part that I read was about how even as a sinful and selfish father, I will do all I can to give good gifts to my kids. Well, even more so will our Heavenly Father give us being the Creator of all things and the Giver of Life. He won't withhold any good thing from us because of His great love for us.

Isn't that so incredibly awesome??!! How can we not be so grateful for Him to desire to have a relationship with us? He, God, even knew that in order to have that relationship with us that He would be our Father and we be called His children, He knew that He was going to have to sacrifice His, one and only, son. What a price to pay for a relationship with us. Us.... sinful and selfish and entirely unworthy.

Yet, He did it.

Thank you. Lord God, my Father, thank you. I'm so grateful, even this little vapor of a man.

The Vapor of Life

How sweet it is! Yes, the smell of autumn as we approach the holidays. Thanksgiving is a favorite of mine. It's not necessarily the turkey and all the trimmings. It's the gathering of family and friends together. As much as it's been the brunt of many a joke or skit, truly it's a special time.

Alright, so as father time moves on with no mercy, I've come to recognize the value of moments like Thanksgiving. Most people don't gather together with family and/or friends enough. Society has promoted and become more of an individualistic society. People aren't as welcoming to others anymore and it's understandable the way people are treating each other. The loss of respect and value of life has torn our communities apart from one another. We close ourselves off in fear.

Oh, Lord Jesus, please come. Come now by your Spirit to bring peace and to bring power to your children. Come by your Word that your presence would be real and that the world would know you. Come, just come, return again.

My life is a vapor, may it be a vapor that brings honor and praise to the one true God... Lord Jesus Christ.

Still Here

Just saying that I'm still here. Praise God! Being vapor does create a sense of urgency so you would tend to wonder..."Is he still here?"

So much has happened since I wrote my first post on this blog. But I'm sure that you could say the same thing about your life. Even though life is short, so much happens. Yes, that's the urgency of it all. It's like you blink and BAM!! Tons of things just happened. I want to be in that BAM!! I don't want to miss it.

I heard Bob Coy, the pastor of Calvary Chapel in Fort Lauderdale, talk about our lives being the dash. For instance, my father died in 2006 so his tombstone reads, 1925 - 2006. Born in 1925 and died in 2006 but his life was the dash. It seems so tiny and ... short.

I want my dash to matter. How about you?

I am vapor.

What I am.

"Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. 

You are {just} a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away". 

James 4:14

So there it is. Laid out so all can see. I'm truly transparent before the world. Yes, I am a vapor.

(vapor: tiny particles of a liquid or solid suspended in or diffused through air or gas, such as smoke or mist.)

Well, then that's me. 

Therefore, to one who knows {the} right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

James 4:17

Ouch! You know that one hurts. So I'm a sinner and a vapor. What that's telling me is that I've just got a short time on this earth to get it right. I need to make the most of my time. Here's the problem...James 4:17

I know that it's the right thing yet I fail to do it and therefore...yep...it's sin. Oh boy...this is hard!

The one thing that can save me, and I mean there is a way that this can be done, and that is the grace of God. It is only the grace that He provides freely that will make this vapor-life mean anything. It's just too short to just chase your tail and die. Having meaning and purpose, definitely breathes life into this vapor. Whoa! That is cool!

Yes, I am a vapor but a meaningful vapor.  :)