Our family just ended a week’s vacation.  My wife and I saw it as a vacation  not only from work and from home but from our kids as well.  This was the first time in our six years of marriage that we did not have at least one kid with us for more than one overnight.  My parents took our two kids and two of my brother’s three kids (my youngest brother is there as well) to Camp Calumet for the week.

So my wife and I enjoyed some down time in Vermont.

Monday we celebrated our six year anniversary with dinner at Table 24 and we saw the movie Inception (which was awesome by the way).  Tuesday we went to Burlington, Vermont and had lunch at Al’s French Frys and took a walk up and down Church Street.  Wednesday we took a tour of the Ben and Jerry’s Factory, and Cabot Cheese Farm.  Thursday we hung around the house and started to prepare ourselves for our trip home, we took a tour of the Wilson Castle and awaited our kids arrival home.  Friday (today) we are headed back to our home.

It is great when you can go out with your wife and see sites like this:

It has been wonderful to reconnect with my wife — kidless.  We have talked about a lot of things that we usually don’t get to talk about because usually we are dealing with one thing or another with our kids.  Another reason we don’t have “adult” conversations is because we are so consumed with day to day life that we don’t have time to talk with one another, or we forget what we have to say to one another because something comes up.

These conversations have been great.  They also are going to lead to some major changes in our lives over the next six to eight months.  I won’t go into detail about them now but I will blog about them soon.

Even though we have enjoyed our time together we missed our kids.  We missed cuddling with them, we missed talking with them we missed how we experience what they are experiencing.  We missed so much about them and we are glad that they are home with us again.

But it warms my heart to have parents who care about their grandchildren so much that they take them out into the woods to camp for a week.  I was never really lucky enough to get to know my grandparents or my cousins that well because of I lived in Vermont and they lived in Pennsylvania.  I am glad that my kids get to know their grandparents and cousins on trips like this.  Thank you mom and dad.

Even though being a parent of two active kids can be tough at times–  how could you not love faces like these:

If you would like to read about other dads out there, and the experiences they have with their kids check outwww.dad-blogs.com

Most people want to succeed, but whose version of “success” are you trying to achieve?

How do you measure your success?

How do you know when you’ve really accomplished something in your life?

Success on other people’s terms may only mean frustration for you.  If we measure our success by goals that others think worthwhile or if we try and measure success by own personal standards, we will wind up in trouble.

For many people, success is related to money and possessions. When you have money and become rich, you are a success. When you build a big home, you are a success. When you have a nice car, you are a success. When you have many possessions, and you can sit back, take it easy, and enjoy life, you are a success…….. in the eyes of the world.

What if you do not have all of those fancy things?

What if life is more than “whoever has the most toys when they die wins?”

Life in the church is more than coming in with the most amount of money, with the best looking car, with having your life all together.  When looked at from a communal perspective, we are more interested in the needs of our sisters and  brothers, in the heart and lives of our sisters and brothers rather than whats in someone’s bank account.  Many people with eyes pointed to the cross, have a little extra, instead of going out buying someone extravagant, tend to give it away to perhaps improve someone else’s life.

Fulfillment starts within our own heart and our own soul and spreads to other people.  It is only when we start with our own hearts that we can define clear personal values to start to measure our success in life, or dare I say fulfillment in life.  If we do not start with our heart and our connection with God and a larger community of faith, then we are measuring our success by “the world’s” values which may prevent us from recognizing our own significant, personal accomplishments.

God did not create us each as individuals only to have us measure ourselves by someone else’s expectation.  God did not build us up only so we tear ourselves (or others) down but not achieving what other think we “should” be achieving.
We are created to develop to our full potential – in the direction and degree that God leads us too. It is our responsibility, though, to equip ourselves to make wise choices, choices that will help us develop into the individuals that God created us to be, and to live in the community which supports one another.

When we arm ourselves with the power of prayer, with scripture in our hands and God on our hearts and minds, we will know the true meaning of success in our lives.  When we surround ourselves with others, in the body of Christ we will have that support and love to find true success in life.

If you had only two hours to live, what would you do?

Please comment below….

*UPDATE*

If I had only two hours to live I would gather people with whom I loved close to me.  I would tell them how much I loved them and why.  I would then somehow record messages to them that they could have with them.

I received some comments on this question on facebook.   For me connecting with people is so important that’s what I would want to do with my final hours here on Earth.  So the only other question I have, at least for myself is what is stopping me now?

I realize that I have been in a funk for awhile when it has come to blogging — actually most of my writing has taken a hit the last few months.  I think part of that is that I have been in a weird space lately.  But I also have been working on my preaching.  I have been putting more and more time in to preparing my sermons and I think that has taken time and energy away from other projects.

But now it is summer, so weekly Bible Studies have taken a hideous, Sunday adult forums are done until September and I can relax and catch up with lots of projects that have been sitting on my desk.

Here are some random thoughts to bring you up to speed with my life:

BIRTHDAY

On June 21st……I turned 32

It wasn’t one of the “major” birthdays….like 13, 16, 21 ect.  Actually come to think about it I did not even mind turning 30.  For me 31 was much harder,  I felt that I officially entered my 30′s when I turned 31.

It does feel like yesterday I was having my birthday at the “Dream Machine” arcade in Rutland, Vermont.  Then the next thing I know I am in NY, married, with two kids, a dog, two cats, a house to take care of and a professional job.  Where did the time go?  But you know what? I would not want it any other way.

For my birthday I upgraded my phone from an iphone 2G  to a iphone 3GS and I LOVE the 3GS.  I know that the 4G just came out but I am glad that I waited in getting it.  My wife’s line is still eligible for upgrade (since I gave her my 2G) so perhaps Christmas I will be getting the 4G.  We will see…..

CONFIRMATION CAMP

Last week I was the director of the local Confirmation Camp at Vanderkamp Center.  Confirmation Camp is an extension of our Confirmation Ministry at St. Mark’s.  It is a week long program and it is fantastic.  I will be sharing more about this program soon.  I have a ton of stories to share and reflections by some of the kids that were heart warming.

That’s what has been going on the last couple of weeks in my life.  I am back in the game right now.  I hope to offer more insight on the life of the church, leadership in the church and personal reflections from my family life.

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

Psalm 8

Romans 5:1-5

John 16:12-15

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The word on the church street is that most synod assemblies are kind of “blah” this year.  For those of you who do not know, the synod assembly is a time for a geographic location of churches (or Synod) to gather together and attend to the “business” side of the church.  There are resolutions made and voted on, memorials proposed, many conversation, Bible Study and fellowship time.

Before the assembly actually started, I was lucky enough to be a part of Y’ALL (Young Adult Lutheran Leaders/Links).  During the assembly itself I drifted in and out of Y’ALL, spent some time participating in the assembly, hanging out with the delegates from my church and talked with people with whom I don’t see on a regular basis.  I would like to share some thought about my time at Y’ALL and the Synod Assembly.

Y’ALL

Y’ALL was a group of six young adults between Buffalo and Albany.   We gathered and talked about discipleship.  Two of the many eye opening moments I would like to share with you.

The first happened Saturday afternoon.  We moved our discussion from who has disciple us on Friday night to how can we disciple other people on Saturday.  I group of six broke up into pairs and then we thought of a list of ten things that people in the hotel or surrounding community could do for them.  They started out with some easy questions (what is your name, where are you from, where were you born) and then moved to more difficult questions (can I have a dollar, will you take a dollar, can I pray with you).  Being an extrovert I have never really had problems going up to people I did not know and have a conversation with them.  But one of the young adults said he was more nervous doing this activity than he was going on his first date.

I gave them 30 min to complete the tasks and they all came back accomplishing their goal.  Their stories were awesome.  Some of them told stories about people who completely ignored them or gave them funny looks.  While others told stories about people really opening up to them some people asked for prayer in their life, and they told them things that they were struggling with, things they needed help with.  It was powerful to hear the stories and to see the power of conversation and prayer.

The other eye opening moment for me was our conversation with the Bishop.  We cooked dinner for the bishop which included chicken parm, steamed veggies, and rice all cooked in a microwave (it was pretty good).  For dessert we had angel food cake with strawberries.  During dessert the Bishop answered questions we had for her.  There were two categories:  Serious Questions and Silly Questions.  This is where I was very impressed with the group.  There were questions revolving the future of the church.  They wanted to know where the bishop thought that the church was headed, not only Upstate NY but the entire church. It did not revolve around the few churches leaving the ELCA because the decisions about the acceptance of clergy in same gendered relationships or the blessing of couples in same gendered relationships that the ELCA made last August.  It was about mission and vision.  That really warmed my heart to see these young people in our church interested in the church, the current status of the church and the future mission of the church.

After dinner I left to lead worship at my church then next morning.  But I drove back to the hotel to attend the Synod Assembly.

Synod Assembly

One the one hand I really enjoyed the Synod Assembly because I felt like the assembly was all about mission and vision.  In some ways the assembly seemed very “blah” because of the major excitement and passionate opinions that were expressed last year.  But I loved the focus we had on business at hand and the conversations that I was engaged in did not have to do with sexuality, but mission.  I really enjoyed having scripture shared throughout the assembly and I would like to share some of my reflections about the Bible studies that I experienced during the assembly.

The assembly was blessed with Bible Studies given by three very passionate yet different leaders in the church.   Sunday night Pastor Chuck Schwartz and his son John started us with our Bible study of the book of Philippians.  We actually discussed the entire book of Philippians over the course of the assembly.  I was so glad that we started with Pastor Chuck because I love listening to Pastor Chuck, he has a passion about scripture and the preached word I would love to bring into my own preaching.  The thing that really impressed me was the difference in how I heard scripture from when I just listened to Pastor Chuck tell the Bible Story vs when I followed along with Pastor Chuck as he read scripture.  The major theme Pastor Chuck shared with us was how the concept partnership and sharing. Just as Paul invited those in Philippi into a deeper relationship with God and with each other, Pastor Chuck invited everyone to hear God calling them into a partnership both within their own communities of faith and with God in Christ Jesus.  I liked this because I think this is a large part of my call in Baldwinsville.  I am asking the people of the church, how can we dive into a deeper relationship with God, with one another and with our community.

The next day we started out with a Bible study from Pastor Dean Hunneshagen who had more of an intellectual Bible study.  He posed questions to us and lead us down a road where we talked about how we are the body of Christ and sometimes we feel disconnected from that body but we are drawn back in to go deeper in the joy we find with Christ.  I don’t know about you but I feel that way a lot.  Sometimes I feel that way because someone said something and I questioned my faith, or why I am part of the church.  Other times it is brought upon by my own internal dialogue.  Whatever the reason, the one thing that brings me back is a community of faith.  There are so many people who I look to when things are tough and I thank God everyday for those people.

Our third experience with Philippians was not a Bible study but a sermon. Bishop Jerge preached on Philippians during worship.  She began with a narrated poem punctuated with the phrase “I know how you can get.  I know how you can get when you haven’t been out drinking love,” and conversely, “I know how you can get…when you have.”  This is from the book Saved by a Poem: The Transformative Power of Words.  She used this imagery to depict the body and blood of Christ shared in communion.  It was very powerful and moving.  I know the way that I can get if I am not able to share with the community of Christ, if I am not able to share in communion with my brothers and sisters in Christ.

So we started the assembly with a Bible study of passion then we moved to a Bible study of  intellect, we  joined together for communion and we listened to a powerful and moving sermon and we ended the assembly with a Bible study from the heart.

Our last Bible study together was with Assistant to the Bishop Amy Walter-Peterson.  I have to be honest, I don’t remember too much with what Amy said, but I do know how I felt and the others in my group felt.  She got us into a place where we were able to share from our hearts, we were able to share deep inside of ourselves and I know tears were shed in many of the groups around the assembly hall.

Thank you Upstate NY Synod for a great and moving assembly, focused on God, scripture and mission.

For awhile now I have been wanting to record my sermons and post them on this blog.  Here is a sermon from May 16, 2010.  While most preachers post their transcripts online, I would much rather post something you can listen too.  I believe that the preached word needs to be heard, not read.

So please enjoy!  I will be trying to set up a connection with itunes so you can download the sermons from there as well.  Before you listen it might help to start with reading the lessons for the day.

Acts 16:16-34; Psalm  97; Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21; John 17:20-26

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