“This period in your life may be the only one like it you will get for the rest of your life. It also may be the one most important for solidifying your family, your purpose, your methodology for handling uncertainty, etc.etc.”

He was right. Of course I will experience other transitions, but none exactly like this. I will never get to experience these specific battles, discouragements, victories and challenges. So…what can I do?

- Keep things in perspective

- Trust completely in God for the result

- Enjoy it!!! (this will take God’s grace, but his grace is enough)

As some of you may know if you read any of my tweets or you are a friend of mine on Facebook you know that I am a sports fanatic and I enjoy talking politics. Let me start off by saying there is nothing wrong with either one, but as I started to think about 2012 I really felt the word “focus” come to mind. As I started to pray and think about what this could mean, one of the first things that came to mind was “no tweets or status updates about sports or politics”.

At first I immediately thought I could try to limit my posts, but those are two things I really do enjoy. The problem is, I get into several debates about both. Debate and conversation are good things. However, when they become too confrontational and disrespectful as sometimes they do….they benefit no one. It becomes and ego and a pride thing. (which are essentially very bad things).

So in 2012, I will watch sports, I will watch politics, but I just won’t tweet or put a status update about them. This is going to take a tremendous amount of discipline for me as you know if you follow my posts. So please pray for me and be graceful with me as I wrestle through 2012 with this lofty goal. This may seem little and insignificant for most people, but for me it’s not. So extra grace will be needed. I hope you have a wonderful and blessed 2012.

Monday we got up and took our time getting ready and then Melissa and I headed for Denver to meet up with our friend Matt DeSmidt. We went down to the 16th street mall and then we ate dinner at Two Fisted Mario’s. It was good pizza.

Tuesday Melissa and I took Alora to the Denver Children’s Museum. We had a great time playing all of the games and going through all of the little rooms. Alora painted a picture and had a blast at the museum. Melissa and I had fun too. After that we went to the Aquarium. It was late in the afternoon and Alora had not eaten yet, so we just ate at the restaurant and Alora got to see the fish in the tank so she was happy.

Wednesday Melissa and I drove to the mountains. We went to Estes Park. I have never been to the mountains, so this was my favorite part of the trip. It was a long drive, but driving through the mountains was truly amazing. We found a little restaurant to eat at and then we walked around all the shops there. We stopped for a few photos on the way back and had a great day away together. I am blessed to be married to Melissa.

Thursday of course was Thanksgiving so we went to Rich and Jenny’s house. Jenny is Melissa’s cousin. They have 4 kids. Her other cousin Chris came as well. It was a good time. We went out on Thursday night for a little shopping and that was…..well crazy.

Friday morning we got up and watched the Iowa/Nebraska game (waste of time) and then headed for home. We had a good drive home. The girls did excellent.

God really blessed our trip with a place to stay.  Denny watched the girls for us a lot so we could go and do a lot of things we could not have done with the girls. God gave us safe travel. It was a blessed time and I am very thankful for the break.

What does discipleship look like in 2011? What do disciples look like in 2011? When does the church intentionally do discipleship? I was talking with some guys the other night and I talked about what I thought discipleship looked like and we all agreed on one thing…”the church needs to do a better job at discipleship” (the church at large).

We all talked of how we had people speaking into our lives on a regular basis. I see discipleship as a one on one thing, or maybe a group of 3 or 4. I see it as meeting on a regular basis…at minimum every two weeks. I see them going over scriptures together, praying together, serving together and reaching together.

It’s more than mentoring, it’s a person taking time out for the benefit of another person. It’s more than just encouraging someone although that should be a part of it. It’s more than “hey man, how’s it going”?

So why isn’t it happening? I believe part of it is we don’t want to put people in what might look like “superior” places over each other. Then new believers may ask “well what makes him better than me”? Part of it is we don’t want to take the time. Part of it is we think people should be growing on their own (and they should, but definitely need help).

We constantly see twitter updates or facebook status updates about how many people came to Christ this last week. How well is the church doing at discipleship for those folks? That doesn’t mean I am questioning the validity of salvation in the lives of those folks. How many of those new folks are getting the resources put in their hands and in their hearts to get them to the place where they will make disciples one day? To think that Sunday morning preaching or Sunday School gets the job done I think is a cop out.

We gotta do better at discipleship in the church. It’s time to ask the hard questions and look at our systems and see what changes we need to make to make a long lasting impact in the lives of new believers.

As I gave Melissa a hug I remember trying to reassure her that everything was going to be ok. How could I be sure though? Melissa put her trust in me that it was the right decision and that this is what God was calling us to do. We were leaving with peace, but a lot of memories. It was hard.

Melissa got in the car and I got in the U-haul. Before I even got out of town I remember calling my dad and breaking down. I could not even speak. I remember him just listening and letting me share my fears, but also my hopes that God would be with us. And He has been. I am not sure what brought this up today, but I will never forget embracing my wife, and embracing the change that God had for us.

Our days are still so uncertain, but we are certain of this….we are not alone. God has placed great friends and family around us. We are blessed.

I am not talking about the hooking up part, I am talking about telling people what they want to hear and making them feel good. That’s not what God has called them to do. Are there times they will encourage and build up…most definitely. There are times people will be in need or in mourning and will need to have words of comfort spoken to them. I am referring to pastors who tell people what they want to hear….or tell them what makes them feel good. That is not the job of a pastor, that’s what playas do at the club. Fellow brothers and sisters in Christ…we must proclaim truth in love. We must encourage. We must build up. We must be faithful to what the Word of God says when we preach the whole bible, not just the feel good stuff.

The bigger problem is this…who do they know at the church or who are they connected to at the church. If my wife and I didn’t go to church for a month…you better believe someone in our small group is going to be asking some questions. If I missed a month I wouldn’t expect a call from my pastor. Why should I? I am connected with a group of folks at my church. I am living in community. If no one at all has contacted you my question is are you really connected in community with folks? If not, then are you really a part of that church or do you just go there? (I know some folks can’t come for medical reasons and I am not talking about them at all)

Being connected with a community in your local church is vital for your spiritual well being. If you are not connected to a group of folks you have a greater risk of falling through the cracks. Get connected. Find some people who will encourage you and pray with you and do life with you. Be a part of the local community God has placed you in called the local church.

As we are in this waiting pattern here I sometimes feel as though I am waiting for a perfect church. We have had opportunities to go to a few places, but I just don’t feel like God has directed us to go to those places. There are open churches right now in Iowa (and other states for that matter) that we could go to. So why aren’t we going? Do we feel like we are too good for those churches that are open? Not at all. We aren’t going because we don’t feel led to go anywhere. I think it would be worse for us to go to a place where we didn’t feel like God was leading us. Bad for us and bad for the church.

So, we are not waiting for the perfect church. We are waiting for the right church. I don’t know where that church is? I don’t know if that church exists yet? All I know is THAT church is being prepared by the Great One and when it is our time….with God’s grace we WILL be ready.

This is very convicting. The reason I say that is because there are so many hard truths in scripture. Jesus taught about love and forgiveness and many other great things. While he was teaching about them he made statements that seem so hard to follow. There are dozens of them, but one off the top of my head would be “love your enemies”. Wow, so difficult. But think back to the saying above. Until we apply the truth, we can’t claim to believe it, at least not with integrity. Until we apply this love for enemies, we can’t claim to truly believe it, at least not honestly.

So, what’s the point? When it comes to what Jesus says in the bible we must be willing to apply it in our own lives before we just flippantly say “oh yeah, I believe that”. When the day comes when we can truly love those who are our enemies, our integrity will be before all men and they will praise God because of it.