Is that a Spade?

A few weeks ago I called someone out for being a professing Christian but not having Christ in his heart. I didn’t say this to the actual person. I’m not so solid in my faith that I feel I have the right to correct people yet. At four years a Christian I feel I am still learning and developing my relationship with Jesus. I am a child in Christ. It’s not my place to correct people that have been Christian’s for twenty years. The other probably more dominant reason is that I don’t know that I have the guts to do that (yet).

This issue came up in conversation with someone else. The reason I said that this person did not have Christ in his heart is because he has not forgiven - and according to the person I was talking to never will – someone for a incident that happened well over a year ago. If I’m sure of anything about Christianity it is that grace and forgiveness flow freely from Jesus. He calls us to forgive everyone for everything. Some may say that the person who is in the wrong has to ask for forgiveness first, but I think that is wrong. Jesus is actively seeking us. He wants nothing more than to forgive us. There is a big difference between Jesus forgiving us when we accept Him and a human being holding onto their resentment while they wait for someone to right a real or supposed wrong.

I felt somewhat bad for calling this person out. As noted above I’m a very young Christian. What do I know? Sometimes I think you have to call a spade a spade though.

Correction

Apparently I don't know my own truck. She's a 1970 Dodge not a 1974. I thought my parents bought it two days before I was born, but that was the blue Charger my Mom drove when we were kids. That's right my Mom is so cool she drove a Charger while raising three boys.

Just too much

I have the next three days off. I’m taking a mini-vacation while my client is on vacation. I need some time to work on cleaning my garage and documenting my IDP hours. The garage because I want to get my Dad’s 1974 Dodge truck down here before he decides I’m never going to get it and takes it to the scrap yard (btw I don’t think he ever will, but just in case). I need to work on my IDP because apparently there is a July 1 deadline to document your hours or you lose them all. There may be some exceptions to that, but it’s about time I did it anyway.

Thinking about this time off I’ve had all kinds of thoughts of other stuff I’d like to do. I am starting to appreciate life’s limits though and at least realize I always try to do too much. I just can’t help it though. So while I watch last night’s Craig Ferguson I’m going to write a list of all of the things I’d like to do while I’m off.

Clean the garage
Document all of my IDP
Install the second toilet
Mow the yard
Finish Kay’s plant protection screen
Vacuum the house
Clean off the back porch
Clean the kitchen
Clean up the dog poop
Smoke a cigar each day
Give the dogs a bath
Write blogs
Go to a coffee shop
Read the Bible
Pray
Bible Study
Clean the big closet out so I can put the file cabinets in the garage in there
Catch up on laundry
Take a bike ride
Run at Walnut Creek

Does anyone else think like this? I hope everybody doesn’t. It kinda sucks. It’s not even remotely realistic to think I could get all of that done in the next three days. I’ll post this weekend about what actually got done.

She Speaks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgpTTpQ4QD4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoDp8ZgCHdY

Easter Pics

Finding Balance

Why is it so hard to find balance in life? What is it about the human condition that makes us go to extremes in one area and then ignore another almost completely? For example the classic struggle of working too much and ignoring your family’s needs. That is certainly one of my struggles.

Is it that we try to do too much? Is the equation more complicated than twenty-four hours minus sleep minus family minus work? Do we try to add more things? For myself I try to add cycling, writing this blog, Facebook, reading, television, church, friends. Don’t forget about house work, yard work and our budget.

We do not accept the limits that life and God have put on us. We think we are supermen and women. We are not. We can only do so much in the twenty-four hours of each day. Contrary to popular belief we can’t really multitask either. In any specific moment you can only do one thing. We can change between tasks rapidly, and I am a master of this. Fundamentally though I am only doing one thing at a time.

I don’t like it, but I think the answer to finding balance is cut. Cut everything that isn’t really important. Figure out what matters and focus on that. Also, don’t try to do too much in those areas. For example, cycling and being in shape is important to me. Is it important that I race though? Not really. I’m raising a child and have a demanding job. Now is not the time to spend twenty plus hours on the bike. I can ride and be in decent shape though.

My answer - accept our limits.