Tornado: Yesterday our area was hit with a pretty serious tornado. I've lived in this area most of my life and I can't say I ever remember a tornado. I can't even say I ever remember a tornado warning, a watch maybe but not a warning. Well yesterday it happened.

You can read the details here Fox News Story

Kids: Nathan has a friend that lives two doors down. She's a newer friend, meaning she's just started coming over to play with him and the next door neighbor girls. This little girl's mother is german and she speaks pretty good english but with a heavy german accent. The little girl was talking to me today and every time I talk to her she cracks me up. She makes me laugh because of what language she speaks. First of all she speaks american english, most of the time. Tonight she was telling me "Nathan isn't ------(insert some word". I do pretty good talking with little kids I can figure out what most kids are saying so I ask her to repeat it and she said it again "Nathan isn't ------ (insert some word). I could tell from the context that she was meaning to say "sharing" but she wasn't. She said it again and I realized she was saying a german word. Crazy kid.

Then sometimes when she speaks she speaks with an english accent. The kid has to be confused.

Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy. My love for reading started in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades with the usual Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary books most of us grew up on. But the first grown up books I started reading were sports biographies and autobiographies. I learned all about major league baseball straight from the words of Willie Mays, Joe Dimaggio, Mickey Mantle and Dave Dravecky. It was weird how I could smell the grass of the ballpark and catch the atmosphere of the dugout from reading a book. I loved it!

So I was thrilled to find an excuse to order Tony Dungy's book Quiet Strength. I knew I would love it. First of all I know that Coach Dungy is a follower of Christ and from what I could tell it wasn't just lip service. I also saw the way he responded to his son's suicide a few years back and I was very impressed by him.

I ate this book up. I think I finished it 3 days, most of it read while holding Seth in one arm and my book in the other. It was easy reading and so much fun to read. I walked away even more impressed. Coach Dungy is a man of principle and he's stuck to those principles through some hard times. The thing I'm most impressed is that he views his life as a platform for the message of the cross of Jesus Christ both in his words but most importantly in his actions.

My Eldest: Let me tell you about Nathan for a minute. Mostly because he cracks me up almost every day. I know I'm biased but the kid is hilarious, this post is more about the hilarity of having a child.

I check my voice mail on my cell phone. On the other end is Nathan saying LOUDLY "Daddy, I pooh-poohed in the potty." *click*

At his age independence is king. He wants to do it by himself and for himself. Our help is shunned in almost every thing. But sometimes he'll forget he's 3 and he'll walk over to me and crawl in my lap. His long legs will dangle off my lap, he doesn't realize how big he's getting but I notice he takes up more and more of my lap each time this happens.

Record: Much to the chagrin of The Bridge Church's nursery workers I broke a record on Sunday. I preached for more than 50 minutes. It really wasn't planned. However I did forget my watch (forget?) and I noticed the congregation was very engaged in my message on prayer so I preached on.

We were drinking coffee and enjoying conversation after church when an almost 4 year old boy comes up to me and asks "Pastor Nick, what took so long today?" I laughed and could only reply with the truth "I guess I had a lot to say." That seemed to satisfy him.

If you've got an hour of cardio planned today you can catch the marathon message HERE

April 16, 2007:

Day of Remembrance

Trinkets: Some times I read about religion in other countries. It's always interesting to see how the rituals and traditions of one faith get mixed with the other. It's sort of as if its adherents want to make sure they are covered on all sides so by committing to the practices of two religions they have better chances that life will be good and when they ask for something in prayer it has a better chance of coming through. The anthropological term for this is syncretism.

I see people do it a good bit with christianity and astrology. For many it's a simple lack of knowledge of the roots and practice of astrology.

A few months ago I was getting my taxes done and my tax person is a Christian woman that goes to a southern baptist church down the road from my house. I got connected with her through one of their pastors. She seems like she leads a good life, always treats me great and from what I can tell walks with Jesus. We were talking and I was telling her about our new son that was to soon be born and she asked me the due date.

She then proceeds to tell me what Seth's personality will be and she bases all of this on the time of year and the date of the month that he was to be born. In my mind I'm wondering where all this voodoo talk is coming from I'm talking to a southern baptist woman. I just sort of walked away with my head shaking, I was confused.

Then yesterday we listed our house to sell. Our realtor goes to a local community church that preaches Jesus. I've talked to the pastor several times and he is well grounded in the scriptures. She came by to drop off some papers and she had this little trinket with her. She said this is St. Joseph and he's the patron saint of selling houses, you're supposed to...blah blah blah. He brings good luck.

Heather said "I'll think we'll trust in Jesus." I thought it was a great reply. I was thinking to myself. Woman, if you are a believer you are a child of the king. Why trust in a $3.95 plastic trinket when you have Jesus?

I have a motto for this trinket: When God says no trust in St. Joe.

Milestone: Every night the routine is the same. We let Nathan know he'll be going to bed soon and then one of us takes him upstairs to read a book, pray with him and then he goes to sleep. Lately he's been too busy trying to convince us he's not tired to enjoy this process but last night he was all about the routine.

He laid down and I picked out the book. I told him I loved him and that he made me happy. He started by telling me he wasn't happy because he hit Madison, his friend next door, in the face with a wiffle ball bat. I asked him if he told her he was sorry and he said yes so I told him he could be happy because he did that. I told him that Jesus loved him and that he should always follow Jesus. He told me he would.

Then Nathan asked me if his friends were going to sleep too. I told him probably. He asked if they read stories before bed too, I told him I bet they did. He asked if their stories were about Jesus, I told him I wasn't sure but he should ask his friends tomorrow. I told Nathan they would probably have questions if they didn't know about Jesus what could he tell them about Jesus.

He said, I should follow Jesus, Jesus loves me, and Jesus thinks I'm special.

This marks one of the first times Nathan has let out some of the spiritual things we try to teach him. Needless to say I was excited to tell Heather about it later.

---------

I was praying with Nathan the other night and I must have said "Father,..." and after the prayer he asked "God is my father?" I told him yes. He said "you're my father?" I said yes. That made sense to him. I was elated. Then he said Mommy is my Grandma. I said "not quite".

You can't win them all.

Sunday Preview?

PRAYER: We kicked off our new and innovative message series called PRAYER on Sunday. I'm sure it will be hard to understand what it's about so I'll just spell it out for you. The new series is about prayer.

I am perhaps more excited about this series than I have been about a series ever. In my study of prayer the past few weeks my excitement has grown and grown. There is much to be understood about prayer and there is much most of us don't know. Really it's simple, not filled with rules as the mortal interacts with the divine. But at the same time I believe we either oversimplify it or over complicate it.

Mostly I think we ignore prayer, which is not only a shame but I believe a tragic mistake. It is through the prayers of godly men and women that God works.

Last Sunday my message was from Luke 11- Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. Jesus said to them, this is how you are to pray "Our Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come." You can listen to that message by going to www.sermonplayer.com/thebridgechurch

The next 4 weeks are as follows:

April 13: Ask, seek, knock

April 20: Barriers to answered prayer; what to do with unanswered prayers

April 27: Intercession; standing in prayer for those who can't.

May 4: Either prayer Q and A or the immeasurable power of God.

April 4- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_in_the_name_of_love

As a runner this is funny to me. I don't get it too often but sometimes I'll get that look back from another runner that says "is that guy following me?"