I Hate moving

Hate is a strong word, I know, but let me just say that I HATE moving. I have spent the past two weeks packing, loading, driving, unloading, and unpacking every chance I get. I can say that as of last night I am finally done getting stuff out of the old house. I was so glad as I shut the garage door last night. I am glad to be out, I am glad to never have to make that 13.5 minute drive again. I am even glad that CNU will be tearing it down :) Ok, maybe there is a little bit of bitterness there, but seriously, I am glad to be done. I will never again attempt to move my office and home at the same time (especially into a house that is still full of stuff from the previous occupancy). So here is what I have learned:
My Top 10 Reasons To Avoid Moving 10. You are automatically volunteered to help everyone who helped you move for the rest of their life.
9. Having kids exponentially multiplies the amount of stuff you find when you move your couch.
8. Having kids exponentially multiplies the amount of old diapers you find when you move (yuck).
7. With each box you pack, you become more frustrated that you kept that random childhood artifact that used to have sentimental value.
6. Moving causes stress, which causes arguments, which causes plates to fly at your head as you make a smart comment to your wife while she unpacks the dishes.
5. You think the remote controllers get lost a lot now! It is fun trying to remember what box you packed every controller to every electronic device you own in, only to discover that is the last box you unpack.
4. With gas prices going up, you realize that it would be cheaper to go and buy all new stuff than it is to keep driving back for another load.
3. All your friends decide to show up and check out the new house (that is full with boxes, trash, and other assorted goodies), just as you are having your nervous breakdown.
2. Somehow, all of your important financial papers and bills magically disappear during the transition, only to be found by your toddler when he decides to tackle going to the potty for the first time alone.
1. You realize how much you should take peoples advise when it comes to moving, especially when it comes to pulling your huge moving truck into the yard of the new house (which now has four lovely ruts in it where it had to get towed out).

Well, now that the move is mostly over, I can get caught up on the blog...more to come!

checking in

Ok, so it is getting harder and harder to find the time to blog. Seems like the more I desire to write, the less time I have to do so. I know that there are those in my life who would say this is simply due to a lack of time management, and well, they are probably right. So anyway, things are great all around right now. I am wrapping up a class tonight by cranking out a 10 page research paper on Martin Luther and the Reform. Fun fun. I guess I have learned a lot though by studying church history. It is exciting to read about people like John and Charles Wesley who were such amazing evangelists, even though they initially got shut down in the states. And people like George Whitefield who started movements that took the whole country by storm and turned it upside down for the Kingdom of God. I read that stuff and I start to think that maybe I am still thinking way too small. I mean, these guys saw nations changed by the gospel. And they did that by riding their horses around and preaching 5-10 times a day. They didn't have cars, television, cell phones, sound equipment, radio, multimedia software, projection screens, new buildings, wireless internet, PDA's, instant messaging, DVD's etc. Kinda makes me think we could be doing more than we are. You know. We should be able to do what they did in half the time. I mean, God hasn't changed, right. So what has? We have. It is our commitment to outreach that has diminished, not God's. He paid a pretty penny for the sins of the world, so I think He, more than any of us, isn't giving up on reaching out. We have. We have grown lazy in our air-conditioned, remote controlled, instant-access, boxes of comfort that we call life. I can remember going on a mission trip to El Salvador where we stayed in this run down hotel that had no hot water. One night I found a scorpion in my room, and I couldn't sleep the rest of the night. I kept thinking something was crawling up the covers, stinger poised, ready to strike me in the eye if I opened it :) So at about 3:30 am I finally wised up and prayed against the spirit of fear (and any little scorpions to find an easier meal), and I fell right to sleep. Well, the point is that on that trip I couldn't wait to get out of the hotel and hit the mission field. A couple of years later we got to stay in this 5 star hotel that was run by a Christian (for the same price we paid at Hotel El Scorpiano). This place was great. It had a jacuzzi on the 14th floor. It had a work out center, and cable television (and not little things crawling around). I noticed a huge difference in the team that year. Everyone got to the bus late in the morning, and everyone was ready to get back to the hotel that evening. Things were different and the trip wasn't near the same. Funny, looking at church history it seems like that is what has happened to the whole church sometimes :) Maybe it is worse in this church or that church, but I know I have a lot to think about. There are people out there dying every day who don't know Christ. Am I willing to ride a horse and preach 10 times a day to see them get to heaven? Where's the saddle.