Illuminate

If you have gotten to know me for very long you know that I absolutely love the fall. I love everything about it. I love the cooler weather, the color changing of the leaves, football games, the food (I am a foodie at heart after all), and throw in my birthday for extra measure. Today, I was sharing my love of fall with my wife and she asked if there was anything I didn't like about fall. At first I thought no but then I remembered I really do not like all the scary stuff with Halloween so I guess even fall is not perfect. We all have our favorite season. It may be because of the change of weather, the memories that have been formed, or the memories that we are looking forward to creating in the new season. I love that I have lived in the midwest for most of my life because if you're sick of one season, there is a new one coming. Each one has it's blessings and downsides. Come on, even winter has beauty in the morning after snow has covered the ground. You and ...

For the last two weeks, my daughter, Eden, has been learning how to swim. Her first week she jumped right in and did really well. At one point they had the kids laying face down and encouraged them to blow bubbles into the water. She did it once and then went for a second and started to get scared. She started to cry but finished her first lesson. I was so proud of her and told her how great of a job she had done. Flash forward to her second lesson. She seemed fine leading up to the lesson and even told me she was excited to go back to the pool. As soon as she placed her little feet in the water she started to cry. Nothing had changed. It was the same pool, the same people, but this time she was allowing the past experience to dictate her current experience. She was unable to get in the water and enjoy another lesson because she had one moment a fear that was now telling her she could not do it. Fear is a very real emotion we all feel all the time that the enemy uses t...

On my way back from our Alaska mission trip I nearly puked on our first flight. I have flown a lot but wow this time I felt awful. There was so much turbulence on the way down and we circled around the airport for what seemed like forever. It didn't help that someone in front of me was watching a movie that had a scene where someone's skin was being cut off! Wow, thanks for that. After a while, we finally landed and man was I glad to be on the ground. In a new album by Andy Mineo called The Arrow, he asks a lot of questions about doubt and uncertainty. At the end of the album, he shares about his own turbulence experience in the song Lost. You can read a quote from the song below. I had this moment where I was on a plane We was at LGA, it was getting ready to take off And it just looked gloomy and dark like thunder and lightning I didn't even think we were gonna take off Anyways, we started to take off, the pilot was like, you know, "Brace yourself, there's...

What is someone worth? What are you worth? Like we said in part one if we define worth as what someone is willing to pay, then how much someone is willing to sacrifice or give for someone else can give us an idea of our worth. Many times we wonder what our value is. With any transaction, you buy something to get something out of it. That is the issue with how we judge our worth today. We may get a compliment on our looks but is that all we are good for? Someone may be interested in us just because of what we have but is that all we are worth? We may get a lot of attention and accolades based on our athletic abilities but is that all that there is to a person? Not only that but with every transaction comes strings attached that now you somehow owe them something. This can be a vicious cycle until some people feel used or they feel they are not worth anything because that is what people have been willing to "pay" into their life. In some cases, because we have devalued o...

What is something worth to you? What is the value of something? I have heard before that something is worth what we are willing to pay for it. It is so interesting to me what we place value on. Many times when we buy something we are not basing that value on what it is but rather what we get from it. For example, a lot of times we don't buy shoes because they protect our feet. We buy the brand of shoes to make us feel faster, to make us "like mike", or maybe to make us feel more adventurous. Think about a car. We don't buy just something that gets us from spot A to spot B. We are buying something that is sporty, luxurious, or makes us feel a certain thing. In economics people determine value by supply and demand. How much do we have of it and how much of demand is there for it. Something could be very common and it will not have not much value. Something that is rare or is a special edition will cost more because it is seen as more valuable thing due to a low s...

Who changed the thermostat again? Sometimes it can be almost like a battle setting the thermostat in our home. I like it a little cooler and Sarah does not mind it being a little warmer in our home. Either way once you set the thermostat no matter how cool or hot the house gets the thermostat heats or cools the house to whatever the thermostat is set to. Think of your heart and mind as a home and in that home you have a thermostat that sets who you are. A lot of times we desire our heart to be ablaze for God but it always seems to be cold in our heart. At times (maybe after camp or momentum) our heart fills warmed up as if we opened the door to him but yet it cools down again. Why is this? Have you looked at your thermostat? What is setting the temperature in your heart and mind? Here is the profound truth that I discovered recently in a book called "Good or God" by John Bevere. What you seek is what you set your heart and mind on.  What if instead of see...