the furious longing of God

In today's world the world "love" gets tossed around so much it has lost much of it's meaning. I've been saying "I Love You" since I was a kid, I loved my parents, my siblings, my childhood girlfriend, etc... But did I really know what love was? Let's take that a step further, often in the church or christian circles we talk about "Unconditional Love", but what human really knows about unconditional love? We as humans can't love without condition, we want to think we can love unconditionally, but can we really?

Jesus commands us to love, and despirt our shortfallings it is still what we are called to do. Brennan Manning exposes God's love for us through stories, scripture, and thought. There was hardly a page in this book that I didn't have tears running down my cheeks in response to the love that God has for me. Regardless of who I am, what I've done, or what I'm doing, God continues to furiously long for me. I heard a definition of Unconditional Love once, it means to love, expecting nothing in return.

Later,

David

God - The Ultimate 411

I had a cool thing happen the other day and I want to write it down before I forget the details. I was working on Tuesday morning and while I was working my friend Tim came to mind. I hadn't talked with him for a while and I've been trying to listen to God's urgings when he puts someone on my mind to pray for them, and try and touch base with them if possible. So, Tuesday morning at 9:59 am I tried to call my friend Tim. Unfortunately the phone number I had for him was disconnected, yeah it had been that long. I didn't think too much about it, as I was pretty sure I had his new number in an e-mail or could possibly get it from Facebook. I went on with my work and my mind started moving in other directions, pretty soon I found myself thinking about a band I used to listen to back in the day, Tourniquet. At 10:25 am, I received a text message from a number I didn't recognize that said: "Dave, listened 2 some Ted Kirkpatrick and thought of u. Prayn 4 u 2day!." Now many of you may not know this, but Ted Kirkpatrick is the drummer for the band tourniquet, and I only know of a few of my friends who would know that, Tim being one of them. I wouldn't normally call a number I didn't recognize, but in this case I did, and my phone informed me that I was calling someone in Oregon, moments later, I was talking to my friend Tim!

Later,

David

I Don't Want Frozen Peas

Sarah told me the other day that I never write about our family stuff on my blog, so I thought I'd take a moment and do so. I'm sitting here at the table and we're getting lunch ready for Erin before she goes to school. Both girls are wanting to have frozen peas, or so it seemed. So Sarah gets the bag of peas out of the freezer and pours two bowls, one for Erin and one for Avery. She then sets them down at the table, one at Avery's seat at which point Avery begins crying that she doesn't want frozen peas because they're cold. Sarah asks if she wants to have them heated up to which all Avery can reply is that she doesn't want peas. So, Sarah picks up her bowl and begins to dump the peas back into the bag. However, the opening in the bag wasn't big enough for the peas and Sarah ended up spilling peas on the floor. Avery, seeing the peas fall to the floor bolts over to Sarah's feet and begins picking the peas up and shoving them into her mouth as fast as she can. She got them all picked up (and eaten) in no time at all.

Later,

David

My Prayer

Sometimes I feel lost. Wandering aimlessly without a clue as to the direction my life should go. I live as I want, often choosing a life of sin and hidden shame over a life of purity. I know the truth, I hold the keys, but I don't use them. I stand at the door, wanting to walk in, to enter into grace, but the chains seem so inviting. Maybe there is comfort in captivity. A knowledge of what is to be expected. I wonder if a life of freedom is really what I am missing out on. How do I free myself by becoming a slave? Am I not already a slave? What makes it better to be a slave to righteousness? Am I kidding myself? Oh God, please pursue me. Captivate me. Ignite in me a consuming passion for you. Cleanse me, purify me, take me, make me yours.

David

Financial Assistance

Maybe I'm just cynical, actually, I know I am, but I just got this e-mail from someone and it rather disturbs me. I mean, I know that God can do all things, but using God to help distribute a chain letter just seems to me rather tacky. I don't really know why, but I just got this, and all I could think about it posting it to my blog...so without further ado...

God is the biggest help in the World.

I claim it for you - now claim it for me. God has more than a thousand ways to provide for us, that we know nothing about. Here is your financial blessing! It's a simple prayer, you got 30 Seconds?

Don't sleep on this...Someone recently read this for the first time and Received exactly enough for a $0 balance on all credit cards.

If you need a financial blessing, continue reading this e-mail.

Heavenly Father, most Gracious and Loving God, I pray to you that you Abundantly bless my family and me. I know that you recognize, that a Family is more than just a mother, father, sister, brother, husband and Wife, but all who believe and trust in You.

GOD, I send up a prayer request for financial blessing for not only the Person who sent this to me, but for me and all that I have forwarded this message on to. And that the power of joined prayer by those who Believe and trust in you is more powerful than anything.! I thank you in Advance for your blessings. God, deliver the person reading this right Now from debt and debt burdens.

Release your Godly wisdom that I may be a good steward over all that you have given me GOD, for I know how wonderful and mighty you are and how if we just obey you and walk in your word and have the faith of a mustard seed that you will pour out blessings. I thank you now Lord for The recent blessings I have received and for the blessings yet to come Because I know you are not done with me yet.

Amen

TAKE 60 SECONDS and send this on quickly and within hours, you will have Caused a multitude of people to pray to God for each other. Then sit Back and watch the power of God work in your life for doing the thing That you know He loves.

Peace and Blessings....

Have Faith

I wonder why Dave Ramsey hasn't mentioned this method?

Later,

David

Why I Like Lawrence Freenet

I thought I'd make a post on my blog regarding Lawrence Freenet. The reason I'm posting is not so much to brag on the network, but I'm excited about what this network allows me to do. I just left work a bit early to enjoy the beautiful day with my family. As I drove with Sarah to pick up Erin from preschool it dawned on me that I forgot to clock out. I joked that if I hadn't put my laptop in the trunk I could have done it on the drive over, to which Sarah reminded me that it would be less than 15 minutes and wouldn't hurt. So we drove to the preschool and as Sarah went in to pick up Erin, I dug the laptop out of the trunk to see if I could get connected. Being that we're parked in the parking garage across from the Lawrence Art Center, I wasn't too hopeful, but I opened my laptop to see what I could do. Well, I want to let everyone know that even here, in the parking garage, I'm connected to the Freenet network with a full signal. I've clocked out, and taken the time to post to my blog, all from the parking garage.

Later,

David

Funny Spam

I received the following e-mail today, and couldn't help but post it. I found it rather amusing.

From: Danial Deal <ecologistym26@robertslux.com>
Subject: Re:
Message: Try to think of a better coreer option for you!
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I couldn't help but laugh when reading this. Even me, with my bad grammar was pointing out errors left and right. So, I composed a response.

From: David Rahija
Subject: Re:
Message: I get your massage, and is onedering if you are a creditid university. If sow I wood reallly be interested in wat you have to off her.

David

Unfortunately I received a delivery failed message when trying to respond. Silly spammers...

Later,

David

Happy Bonfire Night

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder, treason and plot,
I know of no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot

Later,

David

How Times Change

I was listening to a presentation while I was working today and the presenter was talking about the "millennials" generation. She was talking about things that she had seen come during her lifetime, that millenials have always known, things like answering machines and microwaves. Anyhow, thins reminded me of a conversation we had we Erin a while back regarding phones. Sarah and I were talking and something came up about party lines, and we were trying to explain to Erin what a party line was. As we tried to explain it, we realized that the only concept of phones that Erin has is the cellphone. It was strange trying to explain to Erin what a 'corded' phone was...

Later,

David

Stuff

I'll be honest with you, I'm not really sure what I'm about to write about. I just sat down at my computer, and going through e-mails and saw that one of my friends had blogged, and though, I haven't blogged for a while. So, I promptly loaded this page, and now I sit here writing a blog without direction. Maybe that's what I'm needing to talk about, the lack of direction I feel right now. It feels like I'm just coasting, in my home life, my job, my church. It kind of sucks. I'm hoping that things change soon, but I also can't get the words of Gandhi out of my head: "You must be the change you want to see in the world."

Later,

David

Afraid

I'm sure that as a result of me not posting anything here anymore, probably no one will read this, but I figure most of the time I'm not posting on my blog for you, but rather for me.

I met with my friend Mark today, and we were talking about what is holding me back from being what God wants me to be. He asked me if there was something I was afraid of, and wow did that open up some feelings I haven't thought about for a long time. Basically, what it boils down to is that I'm afraid of ridicule. I'm afraid of being different therefore I'm afraid of changing. I don't really want to go into it much further right now, but I'm going to leave you with this thought. We are all made differently, and that's what makes us special. If you compare a flower to a tree, you can't identify which is which by comparing their similarities. Only when you compare their differences can you identify what you have.

Later,

David

Hair Cut

Just thought I'd post a little update to let everyone know what I've been up to. For those of you that don't see me regularly I'm now sporting a new hair style. On Saturday night Sarah helped me cut my hair, and now I'm officially sporting a mohawk. On a funny side note, on our way to church on Sunday morning Sarah was talking to Erin about it, and asking if Erin wanted to get her hair cut like this. As all loaded questions backfire when asking a 4 year old, Erin responded, "Yeah, but instead of a mohawk, I want a jayhawk!". Poor Erin though, the next day I didn't spike it, and just wore a hat, at lunch Erin asked me what happened to my "hayhawk". She's learning...slowly.

On a completely different note, I'm getting sick and tired of Google and Blogger. I was frustrated when I had to switch my account to run under a google account, as I don't really use a google account for much of anything else. Now, everytime I go to log in to Blogger, my login takes me forever because I have to spend so much time trying to figure out what my login info is...Thanks Google.

Later,

David

David Who?

Many of you may be asking yourself, "who is David"... I know it's been a while, a fact my wife has been reminding me a lot recently. Maybe I've been gone because I haven't had anything I felt like blogging about, or maybe I've just been busy, but none the less, I haven't written for a while. Well, my wife also reminded me that I do have stories to share, such as the story about the free mustang, or dumpster diving with Matt, but a story she didn't remind me about is the one I want to share. In fact, this story happened after her reminder and I think it's only fitting I share, because when it happened, a light came on in my head and I thought 'I should blog about this...' So...without further ado...

We've started taking the girls to the library for story hour this summer. The theme for the summer reading program is "Get a clue at your library". Sarah in describing the program to Erin mentioned that all of the books have clues in them, and we need to find them. So...yesterday they went to the library to begin the search for clues. Well, Erin, being the sleuth she is, found a clue and she was so excited to share it with me, thus begins our dialog...

Erin: Dad, look at this book...I found a clue in it.
Me: Wow...what is the clue
Erin: Well, there is a picture of a leg wearing a shoe, and the leg is furry
Me: Is it Mommy? (Sarah was in the room, so I was poking a little fun her way.)
Erin: No, Dad, Mommy doesn't wear red shoes...

Then, Sarah and I both burst into laughter as Erin's first response wasn't that Sarah didn't have furry legs, but rather she didn't have red shoes. I hope this brings a smile to your day, as it did ours.

Later,

David

Walking Back To Guatemala

Prior to my trip to Guatemala I had been doing some more walking. Some might believe I was walking in preparation for my trip, however, truth be told, I was walking because I had to get out of the office. In a way it was my sanity break. While there are plenty of cars in Guatemala, there are many people that don't have them, so there are a lot of people that walk everywhere they go. I liked this concept, although the walk to our job site was a long walk, and mostly uphill the entire way. One comment that Jeremy said many times was that we're here to connect with the people, and since the people walk everywhere they're going it won't hurt us to walk while we're here. I thought that was a cool statement, and upon my return I wanted to find a way to keep walking. Well, now that we've moved I know what I'm wanting to do. I've decided that if the weather will permit it, I'm going to walk to and from work each day. I think it's about a mile and a half or somewhere in that neighborhood. So, since today was the first day I'm back at work after moving I walked in to work this morning. It took me just about 25 minutes to get here. I'm excited for the benefits I'm getting from it. One, I get to have some down time that I'm not being bothered, time for me to reflect on my day, or just relax with some peace. Two, it is healthy for me, and according to State Farm (another story) I can stand to lose some weight. Three, it saves on expenses of driving the car. I'm excited about it, and I think it's a great way for me to remember my time in Guatemala.

Later,

David

Welcome Matt

I've learned of another friend that is blogging. Please give a warm welcome to my friend Matt Z. Notice I'm having to distinguish between Matts now. Matt is one of my best friends from back in my days at Emporia. Matt and I used to work together at Emporia State, as well as hanging out a lot. Many of you have heard me talk about my friend that I used to go dumpster diving with, trips to the junk yard, and building a go-kart together. I don't have the pics anymore, but maybe he can throw some up somewhere on the web. He also has a sweet Mustang that he's trying to sell, so if you're interested...check it out. Don't forget to go and leave a comment on his blog to encourage his writing more...

Later,

David