And. And. And.

After writing my last post, I was reading through it before publishing and noticed that almost every sentence started with the word "and". I went about trying to correct it and wondered if it said anything about me, other than my total lack of care for some of the most basic rules of writing.

(Kinda like the word "and" with the quotations around it up above. Why are you supposed to put the period inside of the quotations? I think that is stupid and doesn't make sense, so I don't do it, unless the period was already inside the quote.)

I decided that what it maybe says about me is that I live a run-on sentence kind of life. I move from one thing to the next, never quite finishing one place before I have to be at the next. Things just keep going and going and going and going and going. And at (dang, there I go again.)

At some point, I have to stop and find time for punctuation in my life. I run right past all kinds of questions marks, periods, and exclamation points just because I am in such a hurry to get to whatever is next. My contract at the church offers me one personal retreat day a month. I've been a pastor for about 90 months of my life. I think I've taken 4 retreat days. I think 3 of those totaled about 6 hours all together. So really, in 7.5 years of full-time pastoring, I've taken 1.75 out of a possible 90 retreat days.

No wonder I can never stop. So, this month, a retreat day it will be. Mark it down on your calendars. August 22. I'm going to stop, be still, remember, listen, and spend time with the One who gives me life.

And then these sentences can just go back to being my inability to follow basic grammar rules.

Prayer Promises

I have always tended to be the type of person that tells people that I would pray for them. And then never does. I think I kinda figured that was ok. My thought was that next time they faced whatever they were facing, they could find strength and encouragement in the fact that I said I was praying.

Did I mention that I'm a moron?

I recently decided to stop saying "I will pray for you" to people unless I meant it. Unless I was going to enter into life with them and be a part of whatever was going on. And to take the time to pray with them when we were together.

Surprise! God has been showing up in those relationships and places with amazing regularity and power. And not because I can be such a source of strength and encouragement, but because God is strength and the source of all encouragement. He is our strongtower.

I'm glad he loves morons and keeps giving chances for me to learn about, know, and serve him!