Blogelemy

Studying to be a Muslim...

Okay, I'm not really studying to become a Muslim, but I am studying to be able to communicate with students what Muslim's believe and how their beliefs differ from Christians in a series that we are currently in.  I did a similar teaching several years ago with a good friend of mine who now is a missionary to Muslims in the Middle East. 

It is amazing to me how ignorant we are to what Muslims believe.  Most of what we believe we get from what the news and Media feeds us.  It is interesting to read the history about how this once grassroots religion got of the ground.  My challenge now is to make it relevant, practical and interesting for high school students!  Here are a few interesting things I have learned:

1) Early on there was no emphasis in Islam to convert Christians or Jews to Islam. The only people that needed to be converted were the pagan, idol-worshiping Arabs, because clearly the Christians and the Jews were worshiping this same God that hew as trying to introduce to Arab culture.

2) When Muhammad first started implementing the habit of praying five times a day he had everyone face Jerusalem because he viewed it as the most holy city.  It wasn't until the Jews and Christians shunned him as a false teacher that he changed the direction of the prayer towards Mecca.

3 ) The Qu'ran is full of things that contradict each other. Islamic scholars agree, the explanation is “progressive revelation” What was revealed at the beginning may be different from what is revealed in the end. The end is how you interpret the beginning.

Qu’ran isn’t in chronological order it is in order of the length of the verses. So Muslim scholars spend their lives determining which are the earlier and which are the later revelations.

 

Counting Steps...

On April 1st the staff who started a voluntary "competition" to count how many steps we take each day.  It started as something for our Health Insurance but since the inception of the competition we have changed coverages so the competition still goes on.  I seriously doubt that I will win since there are custodians who walk miles by noon.  So for the past 20 days or so I have strapped the a pedometer to my belt and kept track of how many steps I take.  So far, I'm at 221,239 not counting the 1,678 on my belt right now.

There are a few other things that would be fun to count:
Text Messages received and sent.
Minutes wasting time.
Number of Mountain Dews.
Minutes played on the Nintendo Wii.
Dollars spent at Home Depot.
Number of "The Office" quotes shared by our team.
Minutes discussing Legos with my son.
Minutes playing Backyardigans with my daughter.
Minutes dreaming in Best Buy.

P.S.  Yeah, I took a picture of myself wearing a Pedometer. 

Wii can come together...

 

I found out tonight that the Nintendo Wii is far more fun with lots of people!  We even had some people almost get hurt!

Something that causes me to be on edge...

I learned something about myself today.  This afternoon the junior and senior high ministry hosted a Parent meeting to give details about upcoming events, vision for ministry and pleas for help in areas we are lacking.  I was definitely on edge about having everything together for it.  I was so much on edge that I railroaded some of our staff to make sure we had thought of everything!  I woke up this morning nearly in a panic that we aren't ready and probably won't be in time for the meeting.  I think that there are a couple of reasons (excuses) for this. 

1) I want to appear that I know what is going on and organized and have control over what is going on. 
2) I want to please those around me.  People-pleasing definitely can be a curse.
3) I typically like to avoid being attacked by well-intentioned (or ill-intentioned) parents.
4) I think that if I panic or carry around a look of anxiety then if something does go wrong, others will see that at least I'm not apathetic about the ministry.  (pretty twisted - I know)

I am reminded that I can't please everyone and doing so wouldn't be the best for me or the ministry God has given me.  And, that I am surrounded by competent people who are gifted and well-equipped to handle their responsibility in the ministry.

I'm sure everyone who works with me can't wait until we get to relive the next Parent's meeting!!!

Our son found worms...

I laugh every time I watch this video so I had to share it.  Here is our son describing the worms he found in the front yard.

Playing with my kids...

My son and daughter definitely have their own favorite activity.  For my son he loves to talk about, purchase, build with, create lists of what he wants to buy, scour the internet and completely exhaust everyone around him about anything having to do with Lego's.  My daughter is fixated on "The Backyardigains".  She will play with them for every waking second of her 3 and a half year-old day.   She has high expectations as you play with her and her Backyardigains, you can't just goof off, you have to do it the way she says to do it.  To be honest it can be difficult starting to play both of these things with the kids knowing that there is no way to play with them for a few minutes at a time.  Plus, I think that I have had the same conversation between Pablo and Uniqua and about the Lego Police Copter than any person could realistically have.

As I'm typing this blog, I am listening to their wonderful, caring mother play with them.  Like my kids, I am a creature of habit.  I also get wrapped up for hours into the same things that take my focus off of more important priorities.  I constantly am doing the the thing that I want to do the way I want to do it.  I'm grateful that God doesn't get bored with us the way we do with each other.  It would be tragedy if He decided that we were no longer interesting (or entertaining) to Him.  I guess it goes back to there is nothing that we can do to really impress Him.  As our Creator He has set everything in motion and has given us the ability to create in our own right.  As the ultimate Creator, there isn't anything that he is surprised or impressed by.  As our loving Redeemer he gives us the ability to delight in all sorts of things.  When we delight ourselves in Him, he gives us the desire of our hearts (Psalm 37:4).

You are here...

Do you ever take the time to realize where you are in life?  Every once in a while (this morning being one of them), I reflect on where I am, what I'm doing, what I'm not doing...  Sometimes I am amazed at how old I am, how much responsibility God has given me and where I thought I would be at this time when I was younger.  I'm pretty sure that some of this comes from reuniting with old friends on Facebook and realizing there once was a day when life didn't look the way it does now.  These "once in a whiles" also make me realize how fast my kids are (and will) grow up. 

NFL Schedule was released

For some reason I really like it when the NFL schedule is released.  It makes me realize that we are closer to the NFL season from beginning.  Get your copy of the Buc's schedule here.

Commercial Drivers License

So I am studying up to get my commercial drivers license so that I can responsibly chauffeur scores of students to various venues.  I have been trying to study for the past several weeks.  I have had a hard time studying the manual because whenever I find the time to sit down to read it, I think of something far more interesting and important to do.   Maybe I need to realize that bus drivers get free McDonald's  when they pull up with a ton of students. 

I plan on taking the test this week.  I will let you know how it goes.

The Student Ministries Office Part 3

Arkansas law change...

Thank goodness for checks and balances... Read here