This guy is waking me up...

I don't know what his deal is, but there is a male Red-Shafted Flicker that lands on my roof in the mornings, sqwawks a few times and then does his machine-gun thing on one of the metal pieces of my roof. It's SO LOUD and when it comes at 5 am it's a bit undesired! Jenna and I went out on the front lawn yesterday to look at him when he showed up at the more convenient time of 7:30am. I decided he's not actually trying to smash through the metal.

I think it's all about getting a chick. "Males will do the strangest things when it's all about females." That's just the way it is...

Lookin' Up, Pastarod

Living without regrets...

While preparing for a new message series to start this Sunday, I came across the following sage words from Ecclesiastes 5: 18-20...

"Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat well, drink a good glass of wine, and enjoy their work - whatever they do under the sun - for however long God lets them live. And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life - that is indeed a gift from God. People who do this rarely look with sorrow on the past, for God has given them reasons for joy."

It's a funny thing, this life...sometimes it's a joy, sometimes it's a challenge. I'll say that I want my life to be lived simply and for that which matters: walking with God, loving my wife and girls, serving people. In this, though filled with some sorrow, I'm finding there really are no regrets and much reason for joy. Isn't this God's pathway to living without regrets?

Lookin' Up, Pastarod

My church is so cool...

We had our Easter service today, just as most churches. We organized it around a creative theme from Job: When you die, Will you live? I know this isn't the normal theme for an Easter Sunday, but it was one of those things the Lord laid on my heart and it was really cool to watch the many creative people pull together an outstanding worship gathering. Many came, and we were able to creatively present Christ to them.

One of the things I think is so cool is when people, gripped in devotion to Jesus Christ, give themselves to God in any way required. When people give their talents to the Lord for his use, God does so many cool things!

I'm thankful to be a part of such a great church. Thanks, Garland, for being the gracious, loving, and talented people that you are. Keep giving yourself to God's greater glory and He will continue to accomplish great things through us!

Lookin' Up, Pastarod

Bluebirds, Goldfinches, Nuthatches & Crossbills...

I'm staying at home for work today...too many interruptions at the office make it hard to get things done sometimes and it's a particularly busy week with Easter coming.

Plus, the Bluebirds are sitting on their nestbox in the back field, right out the bedroom window where I set up my home study.
This is certainly one of the things I like best about spring - when the Western Bluebirds come back. And I'm one of the fortunate ones who is able to have these bright bursts of azure living on our property.

But that's not all! Out the back window I see not only the usual Starlings, House Finches and Robins, but also American Goldfinches at the upside-down feeder, Juncos picking at what's been dropped, a Pygmy Nuthatch at one of the other nestboxes and one of my other favorites, the Red Crossbill. I haven't seen a Crossbill all winter.

The great things about birds is they are there just for the looking...all one needs to do is open their eyes!

Thank you, Lord, for these gifts of song and color!

Lookin' Up, Pastarod

Through glass doors...

I got back in town Saturday night with an empty heart...

Through tears I had just said goodbye to my ailing father as he weakly leaned to the side of his bed at his care center in Colorado. He was propped up by pillows. He's almost empty. He's a tired, old man who is but a shadow of what he once was. Throughout the time of my visit I shaved his face and clipped his fingernails. I wiped his face to clean the sleep from his eyes and the crusty food clinging to the edge of his lips. Out loud I remembered with him the many woodworking tools and their uses as I told him about cleaning his garage at home earlier that morning. I read him daily selections from the Psalms and Proverbs. His hair is long...I would have loved to give him a haircut but he was never upright when I visited. Sad, Happy. Sorrow, Joy. He said "yes" on Friday when I asked him if it felt good for me to scratch his head. Parkinson's stinks. As I stepped out of the glass doors at his care center I wondered...is this the last time I ever see my father?

Later, with a hug for my crying mother at the drop-off and brief words of encouragement, I stepped through the glass doors at the Colorado Springs airport and...

...finally...

...stepped through the glass doors at the Spokane airport and received hugs and words of encouragement from my beautiful girls and wife. They are so wonderful, so boundlessly filled with life. Thank, you Lord...

Sunday morning I stepped through the glass doors at the church building and received from my Garland community many words of love and encouragement. So many told me that they had been praying for me...others took special time to lift me up and tell me how much they appreciated me. Another one lost her mother this last week and gifted me with her story. The music from the visiting worship band was wonderful, Terry preached a message on hope and reminded me that "when God's grief overlaps the people's grief, God acts."

Why am I discouraged?

Why so sad?

I will put my hope in God!

I will praise him again--

my Savior and my God!

Psalm 42:5

After more good conversations with dear ones from Garland, I stepped through the glass doors at the church building and thought before the Lord...

Thank you, God for this treasure of life.

Thank you that I am not alone.

You know our journey...our ups, our downs.

You take away and you give.

You are the One who makes it fit together.

Because of You, where there is death, there is life.

Bittersweet.

I'll keep walking through the glass doors...

Lookin' Up,

Pastarod

Words of wisdom to live by...

"If your face doesn't match your neck, you might have a problem with your make-up."
Drew Lachey

The World is Flat...

My Lauren is growing up....

Consider the peculiar ability that is getting so common these days: I can be in Colorado caring for my parents, my wife can be home in Spokane doing the mom thing, and my oldest daughter can be in Thailand...and we're all interconnected through this thing called the internet.

Wow am I thankful Al Gore invented this thing.

Anyhow, I'm filled with a mixture of emotions as I deal with an aging father and an excited daughter, on opposite sides of the globe. I guess this is the way life is...

Lauren's certainly not roughing it...yeah, she's tired and all, but the Belle Vista resort is a place where I could have honeymooned! Still, I'm so thankful she's stepping out and serving others in the name of the Lord. My prayer for her, as is the case for all of my girls and the others on her team is that they will be gripped with a sense of mission to their lives...that God wants to work in and through them to reach a lost and broken world. It doesn't matter whether that's in Chiang Mai or Spokane or wherever God may lead. It also doesn't matter what task it is that they do. Ministry is serving in the name of the Lord, whatever the task may be...

May God bless you this day and fill you with His mission...

And go get 'em Lauren!

Lookin' Up, Pastarod

Today my dad turns 76...

My heart is filled today with an understandable mix of joy and sadness...

Joy, because my wonderful father's 76th birthday is today...

Sadness, because his life appears to be approaching its sunset.

That mind of his that was always racing in thought is dimming from the spectre of dementia. That body of his that was always itching to move and get something done is being crippled from the sting of parkinsons.

This is life...this approaching of...death.

Thank you, Father, for giving me the joy of being my father's son.

Thank you, God, for his example of loving you well and expending his life for that which lasts.

Lord Holy Spirit, comfort him, comfort us, comfort me as together we navigate these difficult days.

Lord Christ, may I walk with You as he did...

Lookin' Up,

Pastarod

Darrell Scott Picks the Buffs...

Yes! Yes! Yes! I am more than proud to announce to any soul willing to read this obscure post that the nation's #1 ranked tailback committed to play his college football for the mighty Buffaloes!

I know...you're overjoyed. Well, you should be! I mean this dude is the man...every program in the nation wanted him and he wants to come to Boulder and bring in the National Championship!

“I thought Colorado was a good fit, and I’m excited to be a Buff . ... (Coach) Dan Hawkins has a vision, and I want to be part of that vision,” said my new 18-yr old hero. Add Darrell Scott to several other stud recruits and CU has assembled a mighty bunch of marquis talent.

Everyone, start bowing to the overwhelming strength of the Mighty Buffs...

Lookin' Up,

Pastarod

I am so lame...

Hello All,

Sorry for the delay in posting to this thing. It's been so long, but life is hairy! How do we manage it all?

Today I'm in the church office and am catching up on many of the "little," but important things there are to do in being a leader in Christ's church: Lotsa email, writing thank-you's, meeting with staff over various who-knows-what and future planning. It turns out that not preaching the message I had planned for yesterday actually gives me some extra time this week 'cause I'll just do that one next week! It's all part of my eeeeee-vil plan...














I'm excited about the new worship center we're planning to build and enjoyed kicking off the Capital Campaign yesterday. I'm not into buildings that much...the church is the people! But, God's people need a place to meet, and I am excited about renewing our facilities to enable this people to reach out in this neighborhood for the next decades. Christ didn't die so we could have nice buildings...he died so we could know real life and engage the broken and doubting ones with that offer of true life. If you're a part of Garland, I invite you to give generously and sacrificially to that end.

Well, there you have it. Don't be lame...like me. Post wildly, post often.

Lookin' Up,

Pastarod