Living a Paradox

What a day! I feel like I was the source of Mark Twain, when he wrote "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times" (A Tale of Two Cities). That was how the day went.

It started out with a very slow moving computer. I updated my anti-virus protection and it dramatically slowed down my computer at church, and I have to admit, I was losing patience. Just ask Damon. What was amazing was the fact that we used to wait 15 seconds for a page to change, now that it is 1-2 seconds, waiting any longer drives us crazy. Thanks for putting up with me D.

Rita also helped me out by showing me how to make a pie chart in excel. You'll see the fruits of her labors on Sunday. We'll take a look at how we spend our lives. I felt frustrated since I wanted my message done early in the day, but it had to wait until later to finish. Had a great talk with my best friend Tim, ABC pastor in Dubuque. I would be lost without him. We talk every week about ministry, pastoring, family, life, football - especially Penn State football (Tim's from Pennsylvania).

Ernie's CD burner died, so it must have been a bad computer day at FBC.

Finally, after coming home we had been invited along with a few hundred others to attend the Colts training camp in Indy for a Juvenile Diabetes program. I didn't think we were going, since Zachary had been sick, but was better Thursday and today. What an amazing facility. We learned about a new type of computer program to help track blood sugar and to stay in touch with Riley hospital, then everyone was able to go into the indoor training facility for the Colts. Next to it is the outdoor facility. What a massive building and facility. Being on the field always gives you a different perspective. That is true in life. When we get involved, we see life in a very different way.

Joshua and Zachary were awestruck. They had balls to kick field goals, to throw passes, tackling dummies were out. Joshua couldn't believe that the artificial grass was really fake. I must admit Dad was pretty psyched, too. I punted a few, made a couple of 35 Yard punts, only about 7 yards short of the NFL average. I kicked some field goals. Amazingly I kicked a 30 yard field goal, without a kicking tee. It seemed like the ball traveled forever, it was pretty cool. Yet the pros kick 50 yarders with ease. I decided next year, I want to work on my kicking and kick a 40 yarder. Sadly, my right quad (thigh) really hurts. Talk about being out of shape. But, I'm going to work on it. It was a blast. I think I enjoyed it as much, if not more than the boys.

Well, it was a mixed bag day. I expect tomorrow to be better. Zachary has a soccer game at 9:30 a.m. and Joshua has his first football game at 10:30 a.m. He is the kicker and wide receiver. We went over blocking schemes, so the boy is ready. I remember our old junior high cheer, B-E A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E - - - BE AGGRESSIVE - BE AGGRESSIVE. That is the theme for tomorrow. I can tell he's a little nervous about getting hit, yet, I look forward to watching this once little boy continue to grow and mature and try new things.

In spite of the bad moments, overall, life is really, really good. Pictures of the boys to come in the next day or so.

Have a great Saturday, pray for Sunday, be ready for Sunday, be ready to worship . . . Jesus!!

Michael