I've heard the talk, seen the news as well as the signs of an economic crisis evolving around me. There are signs of problems, but nothing that is too alarming, to me anyway. I'm sure there are people experiencing hard times. But, thank the Good Lord Almighty, I'm not one of them.
I voted for John McCain in the past election because I believed what I read about Barack Obama and was afraid he would take the country on a high-speed collision course with the apocalypse. There were all those seedy people with questionable connections to the man. But, I wasn't too crazy about John McCain before the election. I thought he would slow the course to Armeggedon and, like many others who voted for him, hoped he'd die in time to let Sarah Palin run the country - if he got elected, of course.
But, now I'm changing my attitude toward the president elect. Maybe he is a socialist. Then again, maybe not. I really don't know and I don't think anyone else who says otherwise knows for sure, either. I think a lot of people are nervous because they don't know what the guy is going to do. I think the vast majority is doing exactly what he asked, on the night he was elected, daring to hope for the best. So far he's assembled a pretty good team around himself and shown a lot of drive to do what's good for the country. It's the kind of thing that instills hope. What if the man is the kind of man to steer the country from the depths of financial crisis to stability again? What if he is the one to truly bring people together and unify a divided country? What if he's the one who can provide the leadership that's needed in such an uncertain time?
What if?!
We can only wait to see.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Another Critic of the UIL Football Playoff System in Texas
Several years ago, I wrote on this blog about being frustrated with the Texas high school football playoff system. It turns out that I'm not alone. My former little league baseball coach and local sports writer, for the Athens Daily Review in Athens, Texas, Benny Rogers, has his own bone to pick with the system & the University Interscholastic League. My complaint was more personal - based on the childhood experience of seeing my heroes get so close and to fall short - because the rules then only allowed 1 representative from the district to advance into the playoffs. Benny was one of my heroes and he experienced the frustration of getting so close to achieving the goal of reaching the playoffs, but to be denied by the system. He's also covered sports practically every year since his graduation from Malakoff High School in 1977. His complaint is more principled and less personal than my own. Here's the story in its entirity:
If you’ve checked in with me from time to time through the years, you no doubt know I am not a fan of the current playoff format the University Interscholastic League uses for football. Four playoff teams from each district in the top two classifications (there are three from the districts in the lower ones) are too many. I’ve always thought that, always will and don’t apologize for it.
But the watered-down playoff format doesn’t stop there. Oh, goodness no. Here in the Lone Star State, where we believe high school football is the best played anywhere (and it is), we crown two state champions in each classification. Yes, that’s 12 state champions in football each year, if you’re keeping score.
When a second playoff team from each district was added over 20 years ago, it made sense. There were some really good teams being left behind come playoff time and just one state champion from each classification was being crowned.
But now with the way things are, it’s gotten so out of whack that we have schools losing games on purpose to affect which playoff bracket in which they’ll compete because of the perceived strength of another school. Folks, something is terribly, terribly wrong when that happens and, to me, goes against the values athletics is supposed to help teach the young men (and women) who participate in high school football.
Surely, at some point before the UIL allows every school in each district to make the playoffs, someone will see the need to improve the system. But don’t hold your breath, not as long as there’s a dollar to be made.
The solution is really quite simple.
Basketball, baseball and softball have it right, where three teams from each district make the playoffs. The district champion is rewarded with a first-round bye and one state champion in each classification is crowned.
That makes absolute sense, which is another reason not to expect the UIL to ever use it where football is concerned.
Hey, I’m all for more kids getting to experience the playoffs, which is the argument the UIL makes to shield itself from dollar signs. But I suggest to you the experience is far more rewarding if it has truly been earned and not as a result of circumstance.
OK, I’ve said all that again for the umpteenth time. For now, I feel better.
I have to say it feels good not to be alone in the same sentiment. Thanks, Benny.
THE ROGERS REPORT: Playoff format still needs fixing
By Benny Rogers Sports EditorIf you’ve checked in with me from time to time through the years, you no doubt know I am not a fan of the current playoff format the University Interscholastic League uses for football. Four playoff teams from each district in the top two classifications (there are three from the districts in the lower ones) are too many. I’ve always thought that, always will and don’t apologize for it.
But the watered-down playoff format doesn’t stop there. Oh, goodness no. Here in the Lone Star State, where we believe high school football is the best played anywhere (and it is), we crown two state champions in each classification. Yes, that’s 12 state champions in football each year, if you’re keeping score.
When a second playoff team from each district was added over 20 years ago, it made sense. There were some really good teams being left behind come playoff time and just one state champion from each classification was being crowned.
But now with the way things are, it’s gotten so out of whack that we have schools losing games on purpose to affect which playoff bracket in which they’ll compete because of the perceived strength of another school. Folks, something is terribly, terribly wrong when that happens and, to me, goes against the values athletics is supposed to help teach the young men (and women) who participate in high school football.
Surely, at some point before the UIL allows every school in each district to make the playoffs, someone will see the need to improve the system. But don’t hold your breath, not as long as there’s a dollar to be made.
The solution is really quite simple.
Basketball, baseball and softball have it right, where three teams from each district make the playoffs. The district champion is rewarded with a first-round bye and one state champion in each classification is crowned.
That makes absolute sense, which is another reason not to expect the UIL to ever use it where football is concerned.
Hey, I’m all for more kids getting to experience the playoffs, which is the argument the UIL makes to shield itself from dollar signs. But I suggest to you the experience is far more rewarding if it has truly been earned and not as a result of circumstance.
OK, I’ve said all that again for the umpteenth time. For now, I feel better.
I have to say it feels good not to be alone in the same sentiment. Thanks, Benny.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Stupid People
The things people often do don't really surprise me. Really. I think people are capable of almost anything, good or bad, smart or dumb - just think about it. How often have we seen the most ridiculous stories in the news? But, I have to say I just saw the most ridiculous thing I've seen in my entire adult life today. The lady who said she was mugged and then beaten and made into wacky sort of message board (she had the letter "B" etched into her face) made the entire thing up. If the link isn't available, it's because the entire world wants to read about the dumbass who lied about being mugged and scarred for being a McCain supporter. No wonder the Democrats, who have pulled some pretty ridiculous stunts themselves, demonize the Republican Party and say "they will do anything to get elected". I guess so! Geez! With people running around like this, the idea of a free society is a joke. Apparently, she was eligible to vote before this stunt. It would be justice to take her vote away from her!
By the way, the perp in this story was supposedly from Texas and a student at Texas A&M. I doubt this will ever get back to her, but in case it does:
Whoever you are, please DON'T COME BACK TO TEXAS. WE DON'T WANT YOU HERE!
Dumbass!
By the way, the perp in this story was supposedly from Texas and a student at Texas A&M. I doubt this will ever get back to her, but in case it does:
Whoever you are, please DON'T COME BACK TO TEXAS. WE DON'T WANT YOU HERE!
Dumbass!
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
"The Circle is Now Complete..."
Everyone who grew up with Star Wars as part of their childhood has heard these words and knew what Darth Vader meant when he said them. "The Circle is Now Complete..." As an 8 or 10 year old kid, I cringed the first time I heard those words. Of course we know what happened next, too: Darth Vader killed Ben Obi-wan Kenobi. Or did he?
Anyway, I've been pondering the meaning of those words and how they relate to my life up until now. Those, who know me fairly well, know that I've suffered several setbacks during my adult life. Whether they were my fault or at the hand of someone else, the affects of these events have had far reaching "consequences and repercussions," to quote one of my favorite movies, "Life." Actually, when bad things happen, it's very easy to blame everyone and everything remotely involved for inflicting hurt on you. I'm sure others have dealt with this sort of thing. Only until recently I've been able to see just to what extent I've done this to myself.
I wrote in this blog previously about my Walk to Emmaus. I didn't go into a lot of depth about my experiences there. One of the bigger happenings that took place there was when I admitted, before God and everybody, that I had been harboring bitterness in my heart. I was bitter about things that had been done to me over the years. Bitter about things that just happened that put me on the short end of the proverbial stick. Bitter because i had been purposely wronged by people who I had previously trusted. I've told others about what happened afterwards, though I've not written it here. It was an incredible, eye-opening experience.
This all happened at a point in the retreat called "Dying Moments" when the Emmaus Pilgrims give things to God. Typically they're hurtful and damaging things. And for me, that thing was bitterness. When I knelt at the cross in the chapel, I felt like I had a ton of lead strapped to my shoulders. When I stood to my feet, it was as if all that weight had been completely lifted off of me. Literally, it was like the scene from Alien, early in the movie, where the guy has one of those things to latch onto his face and stick that sucker thing down his throat. I know, disgusting stuff. But, when I stood to my feet, whatever that thing was - it was no longer there. It was if I was breathing for myself again, seeing the sunshine and tasting the air as if for the first time.
I didn't know it then, but that event was just a beginning for even more dramatic events that would follow. Since my walk, I've apologized to and asked forgiveness of others for how I've responded to things that have happened between us over the years. Things have been happening again and again, too, allowing me to move past feelings of ill will and hurt to real wholeness. However, with everything that's been going on, I wasn't quite prepared for what happened earlier this week.
My wife has been planning to return to college and finish her bachelor's degree. She had been trying to get back in the University of Houston, but ran into one snag after another with her previous records with their institution. I suggested to her to consider returning to the school where we met, Southwestern Assemblies of God University. They have an extension education program and could likely be the fastest course to a degree available to her. She checked into it and sure enough, it was perfect. It was the last place she had attended and she could literally pick up where she left off many, many years ago. The only issue was the fact that we just didn't like the place anymore and didn't want anything to do with it.
My wife had to go up to the campus for an orientation session, even though she would not be attending classes on campus. We took off a couple of days and went up to Waxahachie dreading the whole thing. In the course of the orientation session, one of my favorite professors, who still teaches at the university, spoke to the group of new and returning students and invited us to join him on a Prayer Walk around the university campus. "For crying out loud" I thought to myself. "I don't want to look around this place." I went along, as moral support for my wife (BTW, you owe me BIG TIME!) and joined the group. We got to the first stop and the professor began talking about God ordaining the events of the orientation, who would be there, why they were there now - all that sort of stuff. He talked about how groups of people from churches all over the country have come to the campus since the mid-90's and would pray in that particular spot for prospective students and their decision to complete their education at SAGU. He said it wasn't an accident that we were there now. He said things about why it wasn't too late to start over and how the university was a tool that God wanted to use further His purposes for this stage of our lives.
All of a sudden, it hit me - in an overwhelming flood of thoughts and emotions. When I arrived on that campus, 18 1/2 years before that day, I came there with gigantic hopes and dreams. In the course of my time there, things happened and I made choices that determined my course there on campus and beyond. During those times, I didn't confide in anyone and made decisions that had far reaching affects. Faced with those consequences and repercussions, I chose to respond with resentment and anger. From that point forward, everything was seen through those lenses. I comforted myself with those feelings of resentment because people had hurt me. They were to blame and this university was a representative of each and every one of them - overriding the good things that happened all at the same time. Pretty sad, huh?
A lot of emotion was tied up in that place, whether I wanted to believe it or not. But, there, in a moment, I was reminded, as my favorite professor spoke, that despite my experiences, the institution was not to blame for what happened to us. It had been dedicated to fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus and that was the reason that I and my wife were back there. There were and still are many good, Godly men and women who instruct young and old men and women alike as their service to God. As a result, many of our classmates - past and present - have gone on to be pastors, evangelists, missionaries, as well as businessmen and women, medical and psychological professionals and educators. We've been getting excited about possibly doing some sort of ministry thing again at some point, as God sees fit. We just didn't realize that the place that we had grown to despise would be the place that would and could serve as the launching pad for every hope and dream that continues to be renewed almost daily for each of us. The place that had so many bad memories for us had been a place of good memories before. Now, it could be a place of good memories again.
The circle is now complete, but I'm not looking to kill somebody, like Darth Vader did - or didn't exactly do. Instead now, we can get on with living out the rest of our lives to the Glory of God and leave the past in the past.
Anyway, I've been pondering the meaning of those words and how they relate to my life up until now. Those, who know me fairly well, know that I've suffered several setbacks during my adult life. Whether they were my fault or at the hand of someone else, the affects of these events have had far reaching "consequences and repercussions," to quote one of my favorite movies, "Life." Actually, when bad things happen, it's very easy to blame everyone and everything remotely involved for inflicting hurt on you. I'm sure others have dealt with this sort of thing. Only until recently I've been able to see just to what extent I've done this to myself.
I wrote in this blog previously about my Walk to Emmaus. I didn't go into a lot of depth about my experiences there. One of the bigger happenings that took place there was when I admitted, before God and everybody, that I had been harboring bitterness in my heart. I was bitter about things that had been done to me over the years. Bitter about things that just happened that put me on the short end of the proverbial stick. Bitter because i had been purposely wronged by people who I had previously trusted. I've told others about what happened afterwards, though I've not written it here. It was an incredible, eye-opening experience.
This all happened at a point in the retreat called "Dying Moments" when the Emmaus Pilgrims give things to God. Typically they're hurtful and damaging things. And for me, that thing was bitterness. When I knelt at the cross in the chapel, I felt like I had a ton of lead strapped to my shoulders. When I stood to my feet, it was as if all that weight had been completely lifted off of me. Literally, it was like the scene from Alien, early in the movie, where the guy has one of those things to latch onto his face and stick that sucker thing down his throat. I know, disgusting stuff. But, when I stood to my feet, whatever that thing was - it was no longer there. It was if I was breathing for myself again, seeing the sunshine and tasting the air as if for the first time.
I didn't know it then, but that event was just a beginning for even more dramatic events that would follow. Since my walk, I've apologized to and asked forgiveness of others for how I've responded to things that have happened between us over the years. Things have been happening again and again, too, allowing me to move past feelings of ill will and hurt to real wholeness. However, with everything that's been going on, I wasn't quite prepared for what happened earlier this week.
My wife has been planning to return to college and finish her bachelor's degree. She had been trying to get back in the University of Houston, but ran into one snag after another with her previous records with their institution. I suggested to her to consider returning to the school where we met, Southwestern Assemblies of God University. They have an extension education program and could likely be the fastest course to a degree available to her. She checked into it and sure enough, it was perfect. It was the last place she had attended and she could literally pick up where she left off many, many years ago. The only issue was the fact that we just didn't like the place anymore and didn't want anything to do with it.
My wife had to go up to the campus for an orientation session, even though she would not be attending classes on campus. We took off a couple of days and went up to Waxahachie dreading the whole thing. In the course of the orientation session, one of my favorite professors, who still teaches at the university, spoke to the group of new and returning students and invited us to join him on a Prayer Walk around the university campus. "For crying out loud" I thought to myself. "I don't want to look around this place." I went along, as moral support for my wife (BTW, you owe me BIG TIME!) and joined the group. We got to the first stop and the professor began talking about God ordaining the events of the orientation, who would be there, why they were there now - all that sort of stuff. He talked about how groups of people from churches all over the country have come to the campus since the mid-90's and would pray in that particular spot for prospective students and their decision to complete their education at SAGU. He said it wasn't an accident that we were there now. He said things about why it wasn't too late to start over and how the university was a tool that God wanted to use further His purposes for this stage of our lives.
All of a sudden, it hit me - in an overwhelming flood of thoughts and emotions. When I arrived on that campus, 18 1/2 years before that day, I came there with gigantic hopes and dreams. In the course of my time there, things happened and I made choices that determined my course there on campus and beyond. During those times, I didn't confide in anyone and made decisions that had far reaching affects. Faced with those consequences and repercussions, I chose to respond with resentment and anger. From that point forward, everything was seen through those lenses. I comforted myself with those feelings of resentment because people had hurt me. They were to blame and this university was a representative of each and every one of them - overriding the good things that happened all at the same time. Pretty sad, huh?
A lot of emotion was tied up in that place, whether I wanted to believe it or not. But, there, in a moment, I was reminded, as my favorite professor spoke, that despite my experiences, the institution was not to blame for what happened to us. It had been dedicated to fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus and that was the reason that I and my wife were back there. There were and still are many good, Godly men and women who instruct young and old men and women alike as their service to God. As a result, many of our classmates - past and present - have gone on to be pastors, evangelists, missionaries, as well as businessmen and women, medical and psychological professionals and educators. We've been getting excited about possibly doing some sort of ministry thing again at some point, as God sees fit. We just didn't realize that the place that we had grown to despise would be the place that would and could serve as the launching pad for every hope and dream that continues to be renewed almost daily for each of us. The place that had so many bad memories for us had been a place of good memories before. Now, it could be a place of good memories again.
The circle is now complete, but I'm not looking to kill somebody, like Darth Vader did - or didn't exactly do. Instead now, we can get on with living out the rest of our lives to the Glory of God and leave the past in the past.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Walkin' to Emmaus...
I just returned from what I hope is a keystone in the course of my life.
Last weekend I participated in a Walk to Emmaus, a spiritual retreat sponsored by the Methodist church. I had heard the stories - though very few. More accurately, I had several people encouraging me to go on the retreat, telling me how beneficial it would be. I left a week ago today and returned last Sunday. It was truly one of the most remarkable experiences in my life.
At the risk of sounding like a poster-child or a free advertisement for the Emmaus Community, I will say it was the most impressive, powerful, structured, efficient and effective events I have ever been associated with - in church or out. I can't go into great detail because someone might stumble across this blog and have the "cat let out of the bag" for them. I will suffice it to say that I owe a great deal of thanks to the volunteers and sponsors of this event. I wish I had gone on a Walk much sooner. I know for sure that I will be a better and more effective husband, father, son, brother and friend than ever before.
De Colores!
(To find out what De Colores stands for, I encourage you to search out a local Emmaus Community and take a Walk yourself)
Last weekend I participated in a Walk to Emmaus, a spiritual retreat sponsored by the Methodist church. I had heard the stories - though very few. More accurately, I had several people encouraging me to go on the retreat, telling me how beneficial it would be. I left a week ago today and returned last Sunday. It was truly one of the most remarkable experiences in my life.
At the risk of sounding like a poster-child or a free advertisement for the Emmaus Community, I will say it was the most impressive, powerful, structured, efficient and effective events I have ever been associated with - in church or out. I can't go into great detail because someone might stumble across this blog and have the "cat let out of the bag" for them. I will suffice it to say that I owe a great deal of thanks to the volunteers and sponsors of this event. I wish I had gone on a Walk much sooner. I know for sure that I will be a better and more effective husband, father, son, brother and friend than ever before.
De Colores!
(To find out what De Colores stands for, I encourage you to search out a local Emmaus Community and take a Walk yourself)
Monday, March 24, 2008
Ahh...Spring Break...
One of the things that happened in the last six months - since I last wrote in my blog - was my starting a new job. I had been working for a large title company in Houston, working late nights and making a long commute from home to Houston and back. I got the opportunity to work a little closer to home at a local school district just across the lake from Conroe where we live. I took the job with the understanding that I would get school vacation dates (except for summers. They are our most busy time) plus sick and vacation days. This was welcome news after having a max of 20 days of vacation and sick time off in previous employment - not to mention all the time away from my family. So, I took the job. Pretty easy choice.
At the time, I didn't realize that I had the option of bringing my children with me to school in the district, which as a school employee, I had the right to do. When I started the job, I posed the question of transferring to all of my children, but only the youngest chose to make the change. Eventually her siblings decided to made their break from our local school district and now make the trip with me every day.
Now, after 6 months of going to school together, the 5 of us are getting spring break together (my wife doesn't work for the school district. She had to take off in order to spend it with us). It's the first time I've gotten a spring break since I was a student myself. We were planning to do some tubing down the Guadalupe and Comal Rivers in New Braunfels, but thanks to a cold snap, we're just going to be doing some sight-seeing for now. Of course that involves a little bit of driving and right now that means the 5 of us are spending a lot of time in a beat-up, 4-door Saturn SL1. But, considering the fact that I was spending so much time away from my family a year ago, being packed in a little car ain't all that bad.
At the time, I didn't realize that I had the option of bringing my children with me to school in the district, which as a school employee, I had the right to do. When I started the job, I posed the question of transferring to all of my children, but only the youngest chose to make the change. Eventually her siblings decided to made their break from our local school district and now make the trip with me every day.
Now, after 6 months of going to school together, the 5 of us are getting spring break together (my wife doesn't work for the school district. She had to take off in order to spend it with us). It's the first time I've gotten a spring break since I was a student myself. We were planning to do some tubing down the Guadalupe and Comal Rivers in New Braunfels, but thanks to a cold snap, we're just going to be doing some sight-seeing for now. Of course that involves a little bit of driving and right now that means the 5 of us are spending a lot of time in a beat-up, 4-door Saturn SL1. But, considering the fact that I was spending so much time away from my family a year ago, being packed in a little car ain't all that bad.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Time Slips Away
Shortly after my last post (August 2007), I turned 39 years old. Nobody told me what to expect by that age. Of course, getting older affects everyone differently. From everything I've heard, nearly everyone dreads turning 40. So, I expected that I would be melancholy before I turned 40. Instead, to my surprise, the doldrums hit me a year early. Now, some 6 months later, I'm finally coming to grips with its implications and what I must do from here.
The biggest part of the melancholy I've felt has been about wasted opportunities, failures, frivolity and whatever shortcomings that have come from the first 39 years of my life on this planet. Youth is the time of dreams and hoping for big things. For any number of reasons, certain dreams go by the wayside, yet life goes on. Many of those dreams or grand ideas give way to good sense and reason. Sometimes those dreams die a slow death. A few live on as a specter that can cast a shadow on any achievement that one can manage - raising the question of "what if?" at every turn. Was the course I chose better than any other course that could or might have been? In the words of the famous poem, The Road Less Traveled, the choice is what "made all the difference." For me, 39 was time to take stock of those choices - including the ones I might wonder about their outcome. "What if I had...?" In the words of the great king and philosopher from scripture, Solomon, "such is folly."
Now, after spending at least 6 months considering these frivolous ideas, I think I'm ready to proceed on with the rest of my life. I'm at peace with the fact and reality that I won't die a rich man. Though I had aspirations of being a successful artist and musician, I will likely never reach a pinnacle of success that I dreamed of as a young man. And that's OK, too. After all, I didn't make the sacrifices that those who have succeeded in their crafts made.
But, as a young man, I did make a choice. I felt, at the age of 20 that I had been called by God to be a minister of the Gospel of Christ. At the time, that appeared to be something like what I was familiar with - a model of a man dutifully preaching in a small, local church assembly week after week, month and year after year until I could do it no more. I made the choice, at that time, to leave the small, mid-western college I was attending to attend a Bible college in my home state of Texas. In pursuing that dream, it led me, my wife - who joined me while this dream was still in its infancy - and our family in a course that we never could have planned or conceived. It led us through those small assemblies, as well as large ones. I chose to cast off those other dreams to pursue the one with no recourse or no sort of back-up plan. It was either all or nothing.
In the time since, my family I have experienced a full spectrum of emotions, triumphs and hardships, successes and brutal failures that we likely would have not faced had I chosen another way. To my delight, I have been able to experience the joy of experiencing some of the dreams I had as a young man peek into the other world that I chose. I've been blessed to play music on foreign soil, write and publish (well, I'm still working on that part) my own songs and experience what I think church and Gospel ministry was intended to be. Of course nearly all of this didn't look anything like I imagined it as a younger man. I suppose it takes an older man to reconcile the two and make the most from it. I also know that at this point in my life, if I choose not to stay this course I have chosen, all that I have done to this point of my life was for nothing. That is why, at this point of my life, it's best to stay the course. But now, to do so with the renewed vigor that only an older man can, pursuing a dream that a young man might have.
The biggest part of the melancholy I've felt has been about wasted opportunities, failures, frivolity and whatever shortcomings that have come from the first 39 years of my life on this planet. Youth is the time of dreams and hoping for big things. For any number of reasons, certain dreams go by the wayside, yet life goes on. Many of those dreams or grand ideas give way to good sense and reason. Sometimes those dreams die a slow death. A few live on as a specter that can cast a shadow on any achievement that one can manage - raising the question of "what if?" at every turn. Was the course I chose better than any other course that could or might have been? In the words of the famous poem, The Road Less Traveled, the choice is what "made all the difference." For me, 39 was time to take stock of those choices - including the ones I might wonder about their outcome. "What if I had...?" In the words of the great king and philosopher from scripture, Solomon, "such is folly."
Now, after spending at least 6 months considering these frivolous ideas, I think I'm ready to proceed on with the rest of my life. I'm at peace with the fact and reality that I won't die a rich man. Though I had aspirations of being a successful artist and musician, I will likely never reach a pinnacle of success that I dreamed of as a young man. And that's OK, too. After all, I didn't make the sacrifices that those who have succeeded in their crafts made.
But, as a young man, I did make a choice. I felt, at the age of 20 that I had been called by God to be a minister of the Gospel of Christ. At the time, that appeared to be something like what I was familiar with - a model of a man dutifully preaching in a small, local church assembly week after week, month and year after year until I could do it no more. I made the choice, at that time, to leave the small, mid-western college I was attending to attend a Bible college in my home state of Texas. In pursuing that dream, it led me, my wife - who joined me while this dream was still in its infancy - and our family in a course that we never could have planned or conceived. It led us through those small assemblies, as well as large ones. I chose to cast off those other dreams to pursue the one with no recourse or no sort of back-up plan. It was either all or nothing.
In the time since, my family I have experienced a full spectrum of emotions, triumphs and hardships, successes and brutal failures that we likely would have not faced had I chosen another way. To my delight, I have been able to experience the joy of experiencing some of the dreams I had as a young man peek into the other world that I chose. I've been blessed to play music on foreign soil, write and publish (well, I'm still working on that part) my own songs and experience what I think church and Gospel ministry was intended to be. Of course nearly all of this didn't look anything like I imagined it as a younger man. I suppose it takes an older man to reconcile the two and make the most from it. I also know that at this point in my life, if I choose not to stay this course I have chosen, all that I have done to this point of my life was for nothing. That is why, at this point of my life, it's best to stay the course. But now, to do so with the renewed vigor that only an older man can, pursuing a dream that a young man might have.
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