$250,000,000

$250,000,000 or 1/4 Billion is a lot of money. I bought a lottery ticket the other day and that is the winning amount. I was flabbergasted! I don't follow the lottery and I hardly ever buy tickets. I usually buy them for the entertainment of thinking about what I would do with all that money. Great for 13 hour road trips. Anyway! when your expecting a simple little 10 million, it's a shock to see an exta zero. That's a BIG zero!

I know a lot of people who don't like the lottery and would never play it, because it is gambling and it has ruined a lot of people's lives. I totally respect that point of view, but God has given me the grace to play. But! there is 1 condition. I can only buy one. It's enough for the entertainment of "what if I win" and it's an exercise of my faith in God. People usually laugh at me when I tell them the second part, but it's true. I only buy 1 ticket, because that is all God needs to bless me financially. If I buy 2 then I'm sinning, because I'm taking matters into my own hands to increase my "chances". The fact of the matter is that the odds of winning is 50/50. Either it's God's will or not.

NOW let me tell you what I thought about for a day and a half when nothing else was going on.

Let's say I won $250,000,000!
let's subtract 40% for taxes, your left with $150,000,000.
that means you'll get $625,000 a month for 20 years.

If I believe in God and tithing and want to walk in faith. Well... that means my tithe will be $25,000,000. If I'm suppose to pay God's 10% first, then for the first 40 months, (3 years and 4 months), I'll have to give $625,000 to God's church. What a testimony of faith that would be. I'd be on Fox News for sure. Especially given our financial situation.

Of course I could give $62,500 every month for 20 years, if God didn't convict my heart to do the other. Not to mention it wouldn't be a cool story.

The other realization that occured to me is this.

Fact: God loves me more than I can possibly imagine. More than I love CO and Brody combined. I only want the best for them, so God is the same and then some.
Fact: God's wisdom is so great that we cannot even imagine improving his plan in the slightest detail. It's PERFECT!
Fact: God has the power to do anything his plan call for. His plan will be executed down to the smallest detail and nothing or nobody can even delay the process through resisting.
Fact: 250,000,000 million bucks is a lot of money and is a huge blessing. I would love to give that to those I love the most.
Fact: I have a chance to win 250,000,000 million bucks
Fact: If I win then it will be the absolute best thing that could happen to me according to God's plan.
Fact: If I don't win then it will be the absolute best thing that could happen to me according to God's plan.

Fact: If I don't win then God has something better than winning $250,000,000!

That's very exciting! That is realizing the kingdom of God in every situation. It's so hard for us to put God into perspective because He is simply too big, awesome, and good.

God's band aid.

School started Monday and I wasn't nervous at all. No anxiety about speaking in front of kids. No sleeping pills the night before. No dread of having to deal with disrespectful students. I didn't have to rehearse a plan of action for the multitude of possible testing situations caused by punks and princesses. Not to mention the monotony of doing the same thing 5 times a day. AND we can not forget saying "the instructions are on the board!" a hundred times a day after having already gone over them at the beginning of class.

Instead of doing the prescribed MADNESS only gifted humans can endure. I had a nice relaxed morning with my mom and Brody. I Fixed my lunch then drove to work with the smell of salt air and suntan lotion in my nose, the sight of the sun reflecting off the open ocean that was speckled with boats of all sorts, and the cool clean breeze blowing across the bridge as I approach work in my jeep.

Just about everybody gets there early so we can drink coffee and tell stories about the day before or casually start picking on somebody just to start the day laughing. We load up the truck and drive down to Key West, to the southernmost, southernmost house(not a typo). Its driveway is 20 feet from the southernmost point in North America. The line of tourists to take pictures in front of the bouy, that marks the point, usually extends out past the driveway. It's owned by the grandson of Johnson & Johnson. The company that made $54,000,000,000 BILLION! last year. I'm one of the 3 guys building their dock. I'll just say the place is nice and the view is very acceptable.

I really believe I would do this one job for free. I'm building North America's southernmost dock. I think that fits in nicely with swimming in the Amazon River, and hiking in the Sahara desert in the afternoon. And we are building it to withstand a big hurricane, hopefully. Murray, the owner of the place I work, likes to "over build". If a nail will work he'll put in a 1/2" stainless steel bolt, and then nail it. So! if this dock holds up when the big one hits, he'll have plenty of business. Mike, the guy that is in charge of building it, feels like this is the "flagship" dock for the company. To sum it up, I love it! Strong contrast to what I could have been doing on Monday at school.

Just goes to show you that God knows how to heal a broken soul. I would say not too many things make a man feel like a man more than:
"building something to withstand a huge force, over water, only to be used for enjoyment."

The analogy is too funny. I really felt like the MAN in me had been broken or wounded after having to deal with the situation at that school for 2 years. Now God is healing me by using a big "Johnson & Johnson" Dock. God is the great doctor of the soul.

News update:
I have a job interview with Heatcraft refrigeration products division in Tifton, Ga. Friday. CO has one in Tallahassee, Fl. on Friday also. So! we're going to Moultrie for the weekend. I'm real excited about the job, it's a mechanical engineer position that will double as a 2nd shift supervisor. A great opportunity! CO's job is for an environmental engineering company, and she is kinda excited, but nervous about not staying home with Brody. We will only accept one, but it'll be nice to have a choice and more important it'll be nice to feel wanted and valuable.

If I get the position and move to moultrie I'll miss the Keys terribly. BUT! the fact that I'll have my career back and we can be with my family outweighs my love for the keys. If it didn't, we wouldn't be moving. We will probably have to live with my parents until we sell the house, which is good and bad at the same time. We get along great with my parents, but we won't have "our" stuff, so it'll be difficult and could last a long time, so we'll need prayer to enjoy the situation and focus on the good not the bad.

Proclamation

I hate to write over the last post because I thought it was so good. But I'm drinking coffee and that is fuel for the expression side of my brain. CO didn't want to post the previous blog because it came from her diary and is so personal. But we believe this blog has turned into a way of holding ourselves accountable and proclaiming the goodness of God.

Everybody writes books and tells stories of how God helped them and blessed them through tough times AFTER the fact. We want to proclaim the goodness of God before the deliverance. It makes me wonder how much more interesting the story of Noah would be if it was his diary during the boat building years. And we all know life is about making great stories that gloriy God.

Anyway... this one verse has been stuck in my head for 5-6 years and has really been tattooed on my consciousness the past few weeks.

Listen to me, you islands. Pay attention, you people far away. Before I was born, the Lord chose me. While I was in my mother's womb, he recorded my name. He made my tongue like a sharp sword and hid me in the palm of his hand. He made me like a sharpened arrow and hid me in his quiver. He said to me, “You are my servant Israel. I will display my glory through you.” Isaiah 49:1-3 (God's Word)

This verse is for me as much as it was for anybody else in the past, present, and future. I know I'm not the Israel Isaiah knew when he prophesied this verse. But God knew I would be adopted into His family through Christ and therefore I believe I'm as much "Israel" as Israel himself. SO! that verse is for me and I claim it as MINE!

God will be gloried through me and my house one way or the other. We are simply being sharpened right now.

Iron on the wet stone, and it hurts like a mother. The English Standard Version says "a polished arrow". God's using some elbow grease with 200 grit sandpaper right now, but before he puts us in his quiver, we'll be ready to fly true and stick hard. When the time is right and that specific target walks out into the open. He'll simply draw us out, load us in his bow, breath in, breath out, release. After a nice solid "SWAK!" he'll sit back with a smile on his face and say 'Well done, good and faithful servant'.

Then we'll all go home and share amazing stories with each other around the bombfire... forever.

lots of playing, lots of smiling, and then down to the rough stuff

and now that you are enjoying the pics, on a more serious and deep note:

Will we stand with Paul? God says yes.

IRS says we owe $560 from 2005
We have run through our savings and cannot pay our mortgage anymore
We have no job prospects even though we have applied for tons of jobs
Brittan may have cancer - and we have no money to treat it
We have no health insurance - this is temporary, 3 more weeks
We ran over our minutes for Verizon…we owe $100 more this month
Our windshields are cracked – both of them
Our house is still not even close to being sold
BUT –

We have God… and He is far better than any of this.

“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
Ph 3:7-11

“The very credentials people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash- along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privelege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant – dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ, and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ – God’s righteousness.”
Ph 3:7-9, The Message

Well, I am sure I have prayed for this to be done in my life, in fact, I know that I have prayed for a deeper understanding of what this verse looks like in my life. And, in thinking through all that has come about lately, I can’t help but think that God is teaching us about this verse, demanding that we put our money where our mouth is when it comes to faith. He wants us to own our faith, to be confident in who we believe in, regardless of the circumstances. He wants us to believe that when the world appears to come crashing down around us, we will be ok because he is our Provider and Protector. He wants us to throw away all we unnecessarily hold dear, and grab hold of him. And I must say that this week, our circumstances have been so overwhelmingly bleak that all I want is to be taken up to him, and escape, even if for just a brief moment, and be at peace.

So as Paul is speaking this to the Phillipians, I am thinking God is jealous for us, and will take things away until there is nothing left if needed, and see if we will say the same thing. And how timely the situation with Drew, and how sad Adam is for his loss of faith. Coincidence? Never – not with God. He wants us to see – we don’t need to trust in our own capabilities, our plans, our stuff, our insurance policies, our education, our bank account, our common sense …He is ALL we need. And faith is our greatest asset right now. And He wants to make sure we see that, plain as day. So – I will declare that God has a plan for us, He is all we need, He will open the doors needed, and that He loves us so much, so we need not worry about anything. Simple, right?

I think it is a slap in his face when we complain and feel sorry for ourselves, because he has given us so much, and when some worldy strife comes, we grumble. How selfish. But, we are working through this. We are holding onto our faith. We are praising God in the midst of all this. But it is difficult, and not always pretty. I hope we are growing, and that God strengthens us through this, and even in the middle of all this people may see a difference in our characters. I know I do, and He does. Praise God.