Brandon has achieved a goal!

I made a deal with a good friend (I’ll protect his identity here, cause I don’t have his permission to share).  He would quit smoking if I lost 30 pounds.  Well it has been a long road to the 30 pounds mark, but it cracked thios morning.  I have lost 31 pounds since making the deal back in January.

My friend has already begun his quitting and it is going well for him.  Now we just both need to stay on the wagon, he without cigarrettes, me without fast food, chocolate and Pepsi.

It all came about when I had been bugging him about smoking and killing himself.  The I thought to myself, this is a Lordship issue.  He is not submitting his choices to Christ.  Then…As God often does…I was convicted about all the times I escaped into some habit of my own.  Mostly Fast Food, Chocolate, and pepsi.  They are my comfort foods and I was addicted.  I still struggle with pangs for a cola (and I allow myself a little now and then), but More and more I am able to control my food.

Lordship of Christ is huge.  I, however, am not. 🙂

Erica’s CT scan

Erica went in yesterday for a ct scan.  It went pretty well.  We do not have the results yet, but the good news so far is that we made it through the whole day without the hospital calling and telling us they needed to get more pictures.  If you recall, that is what they did with Joshua’s ultrasound.  Not a good feeling.

Erica was very brave…after the needle was in for the IV.  She was quite nervous and put up quite fight for a while before they put the needle in.  In the CT room they provided her with lots of distractions.  She had a cloud scene painted on the ceiling, fiber optic lights hanging over head, and a projector on the top of the “donut”.  The projector showed pictures of fish swimming in tropical waters and reefs.

She thought it was great!  Afterward they gave her a ton of prizes.  She filled my cargo pocket with stuff.  Then they showed us the way out, and we headed back to Nana and Papa’s. 

 Speaking of Nana and Papa…they are praying about a job opportunity in Mississippi, Gulf Port.  The job is a good one with good pay and a good company (Weyerhauser).  He would be Manager of a distribution yard down there.  It is a good opportunity.  But it takes them away from family, their children and grandchildren, and their church home. 

It’s hard to understand how God works sometimes.  I certainly don’t get it.  I like the passages that Pastor Steve has shared with is in Psalm 73 that said when I tried to understand God it oppressed me.  I also like the passage in Deuteronomy 29:29 where God says the secret things belong to him and the revealed things belong to us.  What he has revealed and shown to us, we can own.  We can take it to the bank.  The secret things, the things we can’t understand and don’t know, we leave it to Him.  That’s faith.  We can be certain of what we hope for…which is his eventual return and setting things right…not that it will all be OK.  There is never a promise that things on this planet will be made OK until the promised return and fulfillment.  All things are working together for our good, and we wait patiently for the things God is working in us.  I recently came to a better understanding of Romans 28 where it says who hopes for what he already has.  If we want everthing to work out our way on Earth, then we will have nothing to hope for anymore.  We are hopeless.  But rather we wait patiently for God to bring us what he has promised which is our redemption.  In fact, that passage says the whole world and creation is waiting and groaning for that day.

More and more as I experience what this world has to offer, I wait and groan for His return.  The time we spend on this earth has to be about sharing the joy of the world to come with everyone we encounter.  This is all that matters.  I am not sure what to do with all the other things we pursue in this world.  I can conclude with another wise man who simply said…meaningless!

Hope this isn’t a downer.  It should be about Joy.  I am still in the process of understanding what it looks like to have joy this side of the promise.  We have seen the promise revealed, but it is not fulfilled.  Daddy has the Ice Cream, but we haven’t tasted it yet.  So perhaps joy in the anticipation of the goodness is one goal to work toward. 

I have an interview for the commissioned pastor program in a few minutes, so I better split.