Life Trekking

Like every kid, my two brothers and I loved Christmas. We loved the family traditions such as helping our mom make cookies, fighting over the turkey wishbone, and listening to holiday music while decorating the tree. There was a set of porcelain angel ornaments my mom bought that I especially loved and looked forward to hanging on the tree. They looked like little children and each one held in their arms a Christmas object like a star, or candle. Of course they were dropped, chipped, and broken until finally there was only three left all but one with broken wings. One Christmas I asked my mom why she kept those three broken angels and she said because they represent her three angels: me and my two brothers. My mother died when I was 15 and Christmas was a little sad for several years until my dad remarried a wonderful woman whom I love as dearly as I loved my birth mom. One day we came with all our children for Christmas dinner and she handed me a small box where lay three broke...

This past weekend I experienced one of those rare moments in my life; a moment that can only be described as the “fullness of joy”. I have only felt this euphoria maybe twice in my lifetime and that’s probably more than most people. It was a brief moment of time where all fears and cares of the world fade to nothing and I feel completely at peace. It’s hard to put on paper this experience. It was as if time stopped, the noise around me ceased, all thoughts left my head, and I was totally satisfied in body, mind, and spirit. I assumed immediately it was a gift from God and actually closed my eyes to say thank you. Instead of thank you, the first thought was “Lord, I am completely happy at this perfect moment, take me home right now.” As I stood in my kitchen thinking such a thought and surrounded by laughter, food, and family, just as quickly as it came, the feeling left and my regular thoughts returned. All the busyness that usually accompanies such family times as Thanksgiving ...

There are few people in this world that you can love, fewer still that you are willing to follow with your whole heart, only a few that you can trust with your life, and only a hand few in the entire world that can elicit all of these emotions the moment you meet them. This special person draws many to themselves because of the honesty and sincerity of their heart. They truly care about others and are willing to do anything to help another human being. My friend Steven Sebyala is one such person. Pastor Steven is one of these people that when you meet him for the first time you instinctively trust him, within a few minutes like him immensely, within a few days you would follow him any where. How does someone become such a leader? Was he born as such? Is there a school that teaches this remarkable ability? I know Pastor Steven’s history and there is nothing that would indicate he would ever be anything but a poor, unlearned, and untraveled Africa man; it must be the Grace...

Please forgive me, faithful blog readers, for not writing more often. Why does life get so busy? Were our grandparents in constant motion like us? Were our parents? Why is it that technology has come to help us improve our lives but all it has succeeded in doing was making us busier? I look at my day so full of car rides, talking on the phone, emailing, facebooking, bookkeeping, cooking, cleaning, reading, meetings, etc. and at the end of the day, I ask myself, what did I accomplished today? Too often the answer is nothing. I would vow this day to change, to start organizing my day better, to accomplish more, to make a difference in this world, but I know I wouldn’t change much. What I can do is promise to stop once in a while and see the others around me, see if they need a friend or a prayer. This promise I can keep and already do. Until next time, may your day be full of great accomplishments. D