Category Archives: Personal

Four Things I Don’t Do, But Should

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Melissa and I sat down a couple nights ago to assess the coming months. There’s a lot on the table. A lot. I’m desperate for grace. Grace for a thousands things, and especially grace for energy. Having the time to get everything done is half the equation. Time isn’t worth anything if you’re too drained to produce. I need energy. The grace of energy.

And here’s where Michael Hyatt comes in. He names ten things to do for an energy boost. Below are four of those ten that I don’t do. But, that, by grace, would like to start. . .

Excerpted from Michael Hyatt’s 10 Practical Ways to Boost Your Energy Level:

Take a good multi-vitamin. Personally, I don’t think you need a handful of vitamins and supplements every day. But a good multi-vitamin is essential. If you eat a lot of processed food, this is especially important. Most of us just don’t get the nutrition we need from the food we eat. I take Vitamin Code Men’s Multivitamin. It covers the basics. It is a multi-vitamin and multi-mineral. I take two capsules twice a day.

Drink a gallon of water a day. This is another great energy replenisher. You will especially notice the difference if you switch from soda drinks to water. It may take you a few days to notice the difference, but getting sugar out of your system and water into your system will definitely even-out your energy.I find that this also has a way of reducing my appetite. Sometime we think we’re hungry when we are really just thirsty. Drink 8 ounces of water an hour before a meal and notice how it curbs your hunger. More water will also increase your metabolism and keep flushing your body’s waste.

Get plenty of rest. Most people I know don’t get enough rest. Everyone is different, but most adults need seven to eight hours a night. Most people I know are trying to get by on five or six hours.When you don’t get enough rest, all kinds of bad things happen. You get grumpy. You reduce your ability to handle stress. And, according to some research, you may gain weight.

Perhaps most significantly, you negatively impact your body’s auto-immune system. When you get run-down, you increase the likelihood of getting sick—and that’s definitely a drain on your energy.

Eat high-energy foods. The main thing to avoid here is the bad or fast-burning (high glycemic) carbohydrates. These are the ones that your body quickly turns to sugar. You get an initial boost from them as the sugar hits your blood, but you then hit a “trough” that is lower that your energy was before you ate them.Carbs in this category include white potatoes, white rice, and white flour (or white bread). Worst of all, the energy that isn’t burned gets stored as fat.

Instead, eat slow-burning carbs like sweet potatoes, brown rice, wheat bread, etc. I also to eat more frequent, smaller meals. (I eat five or six small meals a day.) This keeps your metabolism up and your energy on an even keel.

A Bruised Cheek

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Her lip was bleeding. Blame it on Winter Solstice.

If December in Minnesota wasn’t hard enough on a three-year old’s playtime, throw in the shortest day of the year and a couple younger siblings cooped up in a two-bedroom apartment.

I’m not even sure how it happened. And it doesn’t really matter. At some point she got injured. My oldest daughter’s full-throttle energy in all things cost her.

Now, it was only a little cut. That’s all. I checked it out. But if her eyes then were telling the story now! She couldn’t eat. She couldn’t talk. She begged for a bandaid on her face.

And then she got all profound on me. . . .

Read the rest of the story in the comments section of this post. If you like it, you can ‘Like’ it in the bottom right of the text box. For an explanation of what’s going on, read this.

Like My Story, If You Do

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I entered a story I wrote about Elizabeth into a contest at The Write Practice.

The story is called, “A Bruised Cheek.”

The story is exactly 500 words. It would take about two minutes to read.

If you like the story, you can Like it in the comments section where it’s nestled on the page. The number of Likes for the piece will factor in a little on how the team at TWP pick their winner. Here’s a snapshot of how it looks. Check out “Like” in the bottom right corner…

To get there, for real, go here.

Why did you enter a contest?

The thoughts were fresh in my mind. I came upon The Write Practice via Copyblogger.com and saw the contest. I felt I had something to say, both a message and a manner of saying it. I enjoy writing. I don’t do this type of writing as much as I want. I was especially intrigued about what it would be like to put something out there in a different venue from what I’m accustomed. Will I be swallowed up? Laughed at? Might it be written decent enough to help people pause for a moment and consider something for the first time?

Are you trying to win?

Yes, yes I am. That’s partly why I’ve written this post. I hope you Like the story and thus increase my chances of winning. I want to win for all the reasons I’ve mentioned for entering the contest. Plus the help they’re going to give me and the possibility of being published in a book with paper pages. And like Abraham Lincoln said, “Competition tells us something about our hearts” (Lincoln didn’t really say that).

Do you think you have a chance?

Well, I’m in over my head (which is a good place to be). That’s where grace gets loud. I’ve been told, “you’re not a good writer.” And writers always think they’re better than they are. So let me be clear, it ain’t that good.

But I feel good about my story. I feel good about what the event and my writing it did for my own soul. So apart from this, I can’t say.

[Update: Congratulations to Lisa Burge, winner of the Winter Solstice contest. Good stories and a fun time at The Write Practice over the last week.]

What My Four-Year Old Taught Me About Prayer

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Elizabeth taught me something about prayer.

She had cut her lip. I’m not sure exactly how it happened. It was just a collateral injury related her full-throttle enthusiasm in all things. I guess you could call her dramatic: Her lip was hurt, therefore she couldn’t eat. She couldn’t talk. She couldn’t go without a bandaid on her face.

And then she got all profound on me.

Tucking her in later that night, I knelt down by her bed to pray aloud for her and Hannah and Micah. I usually ask the Father for their rest in Jesus, both for the night and for forever. I want my children to rest in Jesus. So I began the usual…

“Father, please give Elizabeth and Han—” “Pray for my lip!” she interrupted just like this typeface looks, quick and bold.

Without missing a step I turned the prayer towards her little injury. “Father, please help Elizabeth to trust you in—” “My lip! My lip!“ now with more urgency she jumped in. She said it as if she was feared she was too vague the time before.

I chuckled inside and started again. “Please make Elizabeth’s lip to feel bett…”— “Ask him to heal it!“

This time she said it with a childlike impatience we often chastise. I didn’t say anything now. I just stopped. The only thing rebuked in this moment was how I pray.

It was a simple prayer request from my four-year old. Her lip hurt and she wanted God to heal it. And there I was appointing as many theological governors as I could. It seemed a good time to teach her about what really mattered — you know, not the healing, but faith and Jesus and loving him.

But the kid just wanted her lip to feel better.

She knew God could do it.

My reluctance to get to the point exposed my unbelief: Theological governors are great, but not when they’re used to disguise a lack of faith in God doing what you really ask.

I’m a footnote kind of guy with footnote kind of friends. We like clarity — what we’re saying and what we’re not and so forth. And then there are times when we just need to say it. Or in this case, ask it. Jesus didn’t make it that complicated. Why would we?

Elizabeth taught me something about prayer.

 

On God’s Utter Independence

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Reading theology proper has a way of exposing our deficiencies in personal holiness.

I’ve been working my way through Scott Oliphint’s God With Us. It’s my favorite kind of book: all about God and thoroughly Christological (perfect for Advent reading). I love the doctrine of God’s aseity. I love how it blows our mental capacities, how we realize that we’re just standing on the seashore, that the ocean of the knowledge of God is only wetting our feet. God is greater than that which we can imagine. And then bigger than what we can’t imagine him to be.

It is so precious to feel his bigness, to be swallowed up by it, to close your eyes and weave together some special effects in your mind of what it looks like to be engulfed by the mystery of his fellowship, to be drawn into his communion, to consider the miracle of how we can know anything true about him.

And being immersed in this vastness affects how we think about personal holiness — namely, we realize the disparity between God and ourselves. We are more enthralled by this God to Whom (and by Whom) we have been reconciled. Little thoughts that may have gone unchecked are now rotten. There is an increasing impatience that the finished work of Jesus be more prevalent in the moments of our day. We want our union with Jesus to make more of a difference.

It’s an Isaiah 6 sort of thing. Not that we’re trying to merit a relationship. A God like that won’t be impressed with our unclean lips. We see him more clearly, we see ourselves in his light, and we’re stunned by the death and resurrection of Jesus all over again.

My Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather Died in 1861

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My dad loves history, especially the Civil War era. Some of the most memorable trips that I have growing up were to old battlefields: Gettysburg once; Petersburg; Manassas; the place where Stonewall Jackson’s left arm was buried; the house Jackson died in; and of course Bentonville.

It was all interesting (I’ve written before about how this sad time in America’s story still affects Southern culture today). What fascinated me most about the war, encouraged by my dad, was the proximity. We lived all around the history. Growing up in North Carolina, the same could be said about the Revolutionary War. But apart from this geographical nearness, it’s just a page in a history textbook.

My dad had researched before about any family in the war, never finding anything. We assumed that our folks might not even have been in America.  The trail always went cold.

Well, until today.

Today my dad discovered Alsey Parnell, a member of the 24th Infantry Regiment from North Carolina. He died from disease on September 30, 1861 at 30 years old. Alsey was my great-great-great-great grandfather. With an estate worth only $20, he left a widow and three children. The youngest was an infant named John who is listed in 1900 as living with another family as their servant.

Alsey’s oldest son was Ruffin, then Eddie B., then William Leslie, then Robert Edward, then Philip Edward, then me, then Michaiah.

Now other than just thinking this is cool, I hope Alsey knew Jesus. Thanks to Philip for telling me about Jesus. I’ll tell Micah, by grace.

Melissa, Me, Love, Cardinals, Marriage, Family

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The 2006 World Series was great. It was the first time in my life that I got to see the Cardinals win, and it happened to be simultaneous to Melissa and I moving closer to engagement. I had the ring, just waiting for the perfect timing.

I proposed the day after the Cardinals won the Series…

Five years later we get to celebrate their championship with three more little Cardinals.

It’s Good to Sing Together

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I think the weekly corporate gathering of the church, i.e., the church service, has been overemphasized. For many, at least in the American South [my majority experience], the Sunday gathering is the totality of the Christian life. Sunday and Wednesday nights are bonus points. And even for those who would check the right answer when asked, the church service can still be an event that drains energy, subtly eases the conscience about Christian activity, and inadvertently distracts from mission to our neighbors.

The simple adjustment (at least in words) is to make the corporate gathering a sabbath. Make it the weekly culmination and commissioning of the church’s calling to the world. It’s very important, just not the be-all, end-all of Christian existence.

With this qualifier in place, I love what Bifrost Arts are saying and doing. . .

(HT: JT on the video)