New Beginnings

For many of us, the month of September is always a month of new beginnings, particularly since September is typically the month in which the school year begins. With new beginnings for the kids, with the first day of school, to new beginnings for extracurricular activities, or new beginnings for church ministries, or even the new television season for those of us who follow pop culture, September, perhaps more so than January or April, marks a fresh start for many.

It is therefore appropriate that my own spiritual renewal began in September a couple of years ago. God had already been at work for quite some time leading up to my moment of realization that He was active in my life, but it was in a September that I could actually feel His presence in my life. It was also a September in which I began blogging about faith and life (and musings on sports - primarily baseball).

So I find it appropriate that it is in a September that I make yet another fresh start.

After 551 posts and 2,358 comments over the past 2 years...

...I'm calling it quits...

...from Blogger...

...and moving to Wordpress...

...simplifying my blog, removing much of the extraneous baggage that is currently a part of "The Beach".

New posts can now be found at http://milefromthebeach.wordpress.com. Or if you can't remember all that, simply typing in www.milefromthebeach.com will redirect you there as well. I am amazed at how many of you check in and read my stuff, even placing me on your Blogrolls.

Thank you.

For those of you who subscribe to "The Beach" via RSS and read it in your assorted newsreaders like Bloglines or Google Reader (or any other news aggregator), the new feed is http://milefromthebeach.wordpress.com/feed. Heck, you can even subscribe to the Comments Feed if you're so inclined.

Quite honestly, I would have preferred to remain where I am. Yet I simply felt like doing this was the right thing. It is a New Beginning for me, in a month that has many new beginnings.

See you at my new home soon.

"It" Goes On, Part 2

For part one, start with Will's post over here.

When I first read Will's post, I obviously felt a great deal of sadness for him and his situation at his church. It is the church where I grew up with him, where I sang in the children's choir and rang handbells and participated in youth group...it is the church that for many years was "home". I reached out to Will offline, offering my own thoughts and prayers privately.

But tonight, I felt frustration as I reflected upon that post - not frustration at Will's situation, but at my own. Frustrated that I am in a small church. Frustrated that I am one of the 20% doing 80% of the work. Frustrated that when I've talked about prayer, like I did a couple of days ago, it is about the positive and not about the difficulties in discerning God's voice. Frustrated that when things go awry at work, or in volunteer work, or in church, that I find myself looking within at my own faults and wondering why others aren't doing the same. Frustrated that I can't seem to hear God's voice right now.

A few days ago, coming off my vacation, I was brimming with confidence, rested, ready to tackle the assignments that God has for me. Tonight I feel beat down, questioning what I've been through this past year in particular. While it has been a period of significant spiritual growth for me, it has been a period of difficult pruning and refining - to the point that I'm really starting to get annoyed at anyone who tells me I'm being refined (and annoyed at myself when I tell someone else the same!)

I know the catchphrases. I know God puts us in situations that make us uncomfortable to prune and refine so that we will grow - it is ALL OVER Scripture from Genesis to Revelations, but it doesn't mean I have to like it! I'm having a very difficult time being patient right now - I want to see the fruit of my labor NOW!

The fact is, God was very clear to me about where I am to be, and what I am to do. Of that, I have no doubt.

And to be fair, I certainly don't feel "abused" the way Will has - no one has been upset with me, or yelled at me, or anything of the sort. But I share the frustration, because I feel like we only focus on the negative, that we only focus on our fears when in fact we need to make that leap of faith and trust that God will guide us.

I, too, am having difficulty making that leap of faith. But will someone else please step up and admit that too?

We've Got it Good.

One of the books I read during my vacation last week was Donald Miller's To Own A Dragon. I read this book earlier this year, but I found myself drawn to it again as a couple of us at church were discussing potential future material for our men's group. I thought this book could be a good read for our group, and in the interest of verifying it and doing research, I re-read it while up in the Sierras.

Roughly a quarter of the way through Miller describes the following about a discussion between him and his friend John MacMurray, who co-authored the book with him:

He told me that when Terri gave birth to Chris, and he held his son in his arms for the first time, it was the closest he had ever been to understanding the love of God. He said that though he had never met this little person, this tiny baby, he felt incredible love for him, as though he would lie down in front of a train if he had to, that he would give up his life without so much as thinking about it, just because this child existed. John set this love beside other relationships, but they didn't compare. In other relationships, the person he knew had to earn his love. Even with his own father, John learned to love him; and with his wife, they had fallen in love. But it wasn't that way with his children. His love for them was instantaneous, from the moment of their birth. They had performed nothing to earn his love other than be born. It was the truest, most unconditional love he had known.

As a father, I completely related to this. I was the first person to physically touch my daughter Margaret when she was born. On that day nearly 9 years ago, I went from a father who wasn't even going to consider cutting the umbilical cord at the doctor's instruction to one who listened to the doc when he said, "Now Dad, but your left hand here..."

"...okay..."

"Put your other hand...here..."

"...okay..."

"Now catch your baby."

As she came out, I caught her, confirmed to my wife that she was indeed the girl we were expecting, and handed her to my wife, tears rolling down my face. I felt that instant unconditional love that Miller described above. It was the same with my son two and half years later.

Even more powerful, though, is what John tells Miller about this love:

John said if his love for Chris was the tiniest inkling of how God loved us then he had all the security in the world in dealing with God, because he knew, firsthand, what God's love toward him felt like, that it was complete.

"I'm just saying, Don, if God is our Father, we've got it good. We've got it really good."

And it struck me that if I as a father, love my daughter and son as intensely as I do, and would be willing to lay down my life for them, how amazing is the love that God has for us that He would become human and lay down His Life for ours?

Yeah, we really do have it good.

How Do I Pray?

Cindy, in the comment to this post, invited me to join a synchroblog regarding prayer. And who am I to turn down an invitation to discuss this topic, which I know I've discussed over the past couple of years here at the Beach (particularly here)? But in re-reading what I wrote nearly two years ago, I also realize that my approach to prayer and the struggles I have had with it have changed as I've grown in my own spiritual journey.

One of the things that I have learned in the past year is how to be silent in my approach to prayer. That is, I have learned to clear my mind, to "take a bath" as my pastor says, prior to entering a concentrated period of prayer. That silence washes away any thoughts that might distract, and allows me to enter a frame of mind in which my focus is purely on God. I have found that in a group prayer setting, this "bathtime" has been cleansing and I find myself remembering more of the things that I want to discuss with God, and hearing the things others are discussing with Him, as well as praying with them as they vocalize their thoughts to Him.

On my own, however, it is a different story. My approach is more conversational, more casual. I find myself driving to the local train station just talking out loud, as if I were talking to an imaginary friend (to use Donald Miller's words - or, if you prefer, looking like a guy talking out loud with a Bluetooth earpiece on his cell phone, sans earpiece). I often end it with asking Him to "show me what You want me to learn today" - in reference to my Scripture reading as I sit on the train ride to work.

And there have been those moments recently in which He specifically answers prayer, almost immediately. In this post, I talked about how Jeremiah 42:10-12 was a specific answer to a question I asked Him mere moments prior - a "random" flipping of the pages took me to that passage...the first one I read when I stopped turning pages.

Yesterday, as I thought about some concerns I had about recent events at church, one of our members handed me an envelope which on the outside said "Read 1 Kings 17 - 19 before reading the contents of this letter". In reading the passage and the subsequent letter, what spoke to me were the doubts that Elijah experienced in chapter 19 - and God had given Him rest before sending him on yet another mission. Relating that to my own life, God had given me rest this past week on vacation, and was readying me for another mission, and reminded me not to worry, because He is in control. I didn't realize that I had been "praying" as I thought about my concerns, but God stepped forward and comforted me through that letter.

So...how do I pray? I am finding that the "how" isn't what matters. Whether I pray silently, by myself, in a group, or out loud, God is always listening. I am finding I need to listen carefully, because He uses a variety of methods in which to answer - and often, the same answer comes from a variety of different sources, whether a friend, my wife, my kids, and/or Scripture. I am often blown away when I get that answer - not by the answer itself, but by how clear His response is to me.

Listen. Listen carefully. The answer is there.

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There are many others out there participating in this synchroblog on prayer. For a complete list of participants, check out Cindy's post here with all the folks contributing their thoughts on prayer. Definitely check it out...there's some good stuff there.

We're Baaaack

We're home, having safely arrived back on the California coast on Thursday evening, leaving the Sierra foothills (the town of Arnold, to be exact) where we spent the bulk of our time the past few days.

We hiked a fair bit, particularly at the Calaveras Big Trees State Park, toured a couple of caves nearby (Mercer Caverns and Moaning Caverns), did a bit of wine tasting at Twisted Oak and Ironstone, and even hit up the Sierra Nevada Logging Museum on our way out of town yesterday. If we'd had more time, we probably would have gone up to Bear Valley for some biking, but that will await another day.

Given that my mind is still on vacation, I thought I'd share with you a few pics from this sojourn. Deeper thoughts will be forthcoming after I decompress a bit more, as I read through three books this week. And this weekend was spent with extended family, as my parents, my sister and her family were in town to visit and joined us at church this morning.

More to come...


The Washoe Fire at Lake Tahoe, as seen from the east side of the lake.


The kids and I in front of one of the large cut logs at Calaveras Big Trees Park.


One of the formations from Mercer Caverns.


At Big Trees, inside a tree carved out for cars to drive through in the early 20th Century. The tree was cut short above, as this entry way effectively prevented the tree from growing any more.


White Pines Lake outside of Arnold, as seen from the Sierra Nevada Logging Museum.

Enjoying Our Break

Greetings from the Sierra foothills! We're enjoying our time away as a family, and man, I have to say that there's going to be much to blog about in coming days. I only have a few minutes, but I do want to thank you for your prayers, as we got out of Tahoe City on Saturday a half hour before our neighborhood had a mandatory evacuation from the Washoe Fire. (The fire was stopped 3 blocks away from the house where we stayed).

More to come when we get home later this week!!!

A Respite and Prayer Requests

It will be an early morning, heading out of the door before the garbage collectors pick up my weekly trash. I will be at the office early, wrapping up the final items this week in anticipation of our family's trip to the Sierras this weekend and the surrounding foothills later in the day.

It will be a much needed break, an opportunity to rest and recharge before the new school year begins for the kids and the ramp up to the end of the firm's fiscal year for me.

The book stack is large - selecting the books to read will not be easy.

No matter, however. The key is rest, and time with the family.

::

So with that, I fully anticipate limited blogging over the next several days. While I will have my laptop with me, I don't expect to be online much. I ask for your prayers for a safe journey.

As to you all out there...any prayer requests? Any Praise Reports?

See you on the other side...