Father's Day

"Happy Father's Day?"
I was told that about 70 times yesterday.

"How was your Father's Day?"
I was asked that about 7 times today.

Well, I had one son break my iPhone, dump a glass of sweet tea all over me, and destroy 2 hours worth of video editing work.  If I didn't know any better I would say we adopted Will and Nate from a remote tribe of Apache Indians.  They are as close to out of control you can get.  The word rest doesn't exist in our house.  I wouldn't trade if for anything in the world though.  Well, except maybe a peaceful quiet weekend in the Bahamas.

I am just kidding!

When I first found out I would be a father over six years ago, I was speechless.  Seriously, I didn't talk for probably an hour.  It was one of those "I am God and I'll decide when you have a kid" pregnancies.  Now, life is unimaginable without my kids.  They are my pride and joy.

To be honest my Father's Day was as bittersweet as all of them have been.  You see every Father's Day I have celebrated as a father has been without my father.  My dad died in 2005, two months before my first son was born.  I realize more and more everyday how much influence he had on my life.  For instance, I received my love for fishing from my dad.  I am now passing down that fishing fever to my sons.  To say I miss my dad is an understatement.  I long to see his face and hear his voice.  To be honest, I would give your right arm just to have him yell at me again.  My dad taught me manly things.  Things like working with your hands, fishing, gardening, discretely passing gas in public.  I have perfected that last one.  He taught me how to work until you can't move and then work some more.

My dad came to know Jesus just 3 months prior to his death.  For 3 months he was the most dedicated Christ follower I have ever known.  He truly experienced what it means to become a "new creation".  So I spent most of my Father's Day enjoying the company of my sons and wishing I had the company of  my dad.  I can remember the day I had on a white t-shirt, jeans, and a tool belt and followed my dad around the house with him wearing his white t-shirt, jeans, and tool belt.  I wanted to be like him.  For a long time I was known as "Little Ricky", not Josh.

What if we tried so hard to be like our Heavenly Father that people would refer to us as "Little Jesus".  Cheesy, I know.  I can't believe I just stooped to that level of corny-ness.  It is true though.  Just like I was striving to be like my dad and my sons strive to be like me, God wants us to strive to be like Him.  He wants to be our hero.  Fathers are the most influential person in our lives.  Some of us have had great ones and others have never even known theirs.  Whatever the case is, we have a Heavenly Father that desires to be close to us.  So let me take another step of Christian corny-ness and say Happy Father's day to the only One who has shaped me more than Richard Tillman.

Treadmill Moments

One of the funniest things I have ever seen in person was a guy falling off of a treadmill. I was directly behind him on my own journey to nowhere when he missed a step and slid his way backwards face first into the floor. 

HILARIOUS!!

People tried to help him out. Me? I just laughed. What do you expect. He fell off a treadmill.
 
Truth is it was so funny because I had done it before. Yep, I too have kissed the floor after falling miserably from a treadmill. 

I hate treadmills. Not because I fell off of one before but because I am a runner who prefers the outdoors. When I go running I like to pretend I am on an adventure somewhere. It helps me forget that I am about to pass out and die. I like to hit the open road in my Vibram's and knock out 5 or 6 miles. On a treadmill I bust my tail on to never leave the spot I started in. I can never run more than three miles on a treadmill and I have ran 30 miles on pavement before. It just so mentally draining. Any runner will tell you that running is a very mental sport. For me, treadmill running is depressive. I run 3 miles only to have never moved. 

Life is like a treadmill sometimes.  It feels like we are working hard, praying, serving God, and being faithful but getting nowhere. It's depressing. We have all found ourselves there. Trying so hard in life only to feel stuck in one place. Raise kids, love your wife, work, serve at church, chase your dreams and never move. 

The funny thing about life and treadmills is that the second you lose focus on either is the moment you fall. You can't close you eyes on and treadmill and run because you will find yourself going backwards. You will eventually land on the floor crying with people asking you if you okay and a guy behind you laughing (that's me). I run best inns treadmill when I am looking straight ahead and focused. In life and serving God focus and perspective are key. I tend to forget that while on the treadmill I am burning calories and getting good exercise. I just don't keep that in mind because I am more focused on feeling like I'm not moving. What you and I have to keep in mind in the treadmill moments of life is feeling like your not moving and actually not moving are very different. It's during those treadmill moments when we are getting stronger and better capable of hitting the road. Don't despise the treadmill moments. Embrace those 3 miles of stationary movement. 

God is the Biggest

The other night I asked my son Will how "big" he loved me. He responded by stretching his arms out as far as he could. Then I said, "I love you as big as a Wooly Mammoth.". Then he pulled out the trump card.
"Daddy, I love you as big as God!"
I said, "Well, you win because there is nothing bigger than God"
I kissed him goodnight and walked into my room and then that statement sunk in. There is NOTHING bigger than God. No problem, circumstance, situation, disease, or anything is bigger than God. We make our problems and situations bigger than God, but the truth is they don't even register on the radar next to Him. Life is about perspective and when we perceive things to be bigger than God everything gets messed up. My 5 year old son knows that God is the biggest. Inherently we all know that nothing is bigger than God. When the mortgage is due and the bank account is low our God mysteriously shrinks. When our family member is diagnosed with Giant Cancer our little god seems to be no match for it. The size of God is directly proportional to your belief and faith in Him. Life is tough. Everyday can be a battle. Hard times seem to outweigh the good times.  When you understand that NOTHING is bigger than God, life is good. Life becomes more than manageable. You can do more than just survive. You can be more than a conqueror. You can overcome because He overcame it all. 

Snow Crab Legs and Religion

My wife absolutely loves snow crab legs.  She gets pumped like a linebacker in a football game at the mere mention of snow crab legs.  Watching her take down a plate of those things takes me back to some scene on National Geographic, its quite savage.  I hopes she doesn't read this, and do me a favor and don't tell her about this or I may be treated like one of those snow crab legs.  Me, I don't really care for snow crab legs.  It's not because I don't like the taste of them because I do.  I don't like them because they take so much work to eat.  You have to crack em', peel, crack some more, pull the meat out and dip them in the butter before they ever even get to your mouth.  I like my food to be work-free and ready to insert into my mouth like fried shrimp.  I get excited for fried shrimp like a 13yr old girl at a Justin Bieber concert.  All I have to do to those things is shovel em' into my mouth until I pass out into a shrimp induced coma.  I like my food to come with little to no work involved.
That's why I like following Christ, it doesn't require work.  It's not based on following strict, rigorous laws but based on a beautiful relationship between me and my Creator.  It's not like snow crab leg religion where you have to work so hard to gain the rewards.  It's a glorious plate of perfectly fried shrimp.  Salvation is free and work-less.  Following Christ is fun and rewarding.  I truly feel sorry for those who are drudging through life cracking snow crabs trying to attain freedom.  You and I cannot earn or work our way into God's grace.  It is given to us through a relationship with His son who paid the price for us.  The choice is completely ours.   Will you sign up for strict, hard working religious practices or the free relationship found in Christ.   I invite you to  pick up your shrimp, dip them into some cocktail sauce and enjoy living for Christ.

The Art of Being Made Fun Of

My wife gets on to me quite often for making fun of people. I just can't help it though. I think it's one of my spiritual gifts. I know it's bad, but I can spot a big nose from 400 yards. I come from a long line of people who make fun of people. I have asked God to help me with it, but I have gotten nothing so far. Now, don't act like you don't do it from time to time. You are not that holy. Besides, I think it does us some good to face some criticism and joking from time to time. It makes us stronger better people. I'm not malicious moe do I persecute people. But persecution is what drove the church to grow in the New Testament. If you ask me the church of 2011 could use a little more persecution. Its when we are drawn out of our areas of comfort that we grow and become more of what God wants. I think we tend to be a little too comfortable here as the church in America. Persecution and discomfort is a catalyst for growth for the church in many third world countries today as it was in the New Testament. Now i am not advocating we be chased underground or threatened to be beaten to death, but there is something to be said of the faith of those who have had to endure those things. I think we need a little ruffling of the feathers.  And instead of it makes us ashamed and afraid it should make us proud and strong.  So at the risk of being made fun of, let's all try to get a little uncomfortable for the sake of God's kingdom.  

You Should Be a Country Music Singer

Last night I had a lady tell me that I had such a deep manly voice. To which I said "Yeah I do".  She then told me that I should be a country music singer.  I immediately saw myself on the big stage.  The lights, the crowd, and myself in tight Wranglers and a cowboy hat twirling my guitar like Garth Brooks. I sing in the car, at work, and I can nail a county ballad in the shower.  Then I remembered the one time I sang in public.  I was the youth pastor of a small country church and we were having a youth night for the adults (who I don't even think liked youth, or Jesus for that matter) We did not have a worship band so I made an executive decision to make myself a worship leader and scrap together a guitar and bass player.  After it was all sang and done I was asked to never sing in the church again (yes, they said that). C'mon, I was making a joyful, tone deaf noise.
Now, some people after being told they should sing country music would quit their job, put on their tight fitting denim and march right down to American Idol and show the world how crazy they are.  You see for some people it doesn't take much to alter the course of their life.  A few words here or there and they chase after what sounds good.  I have come to know and understand the purpose for my life and it's not singing "Achy Breaky Heart" in front of 10,000 13yr old girls.  The sad thing is that most of the people on this planet have no direction for their life and it's because they don't know the one who has mapped out their lives.  Let me encourage you to stop chasing empty dreams and ambitions and follow the One who has it all mapped out.

Against the Flow

A couple of weeks ago I was at my son Will's K-5 graduation.  It was a proud moment for me as a dad.  I don't know if I was more proud of him graduating or of him not picking his nose while on stage.  Will has a history of doing embarassing things at big events. Like the time he laid down and started spinning while on stage at his aunt Sarah's wedding, or the time he was crawling up the steps during a children's Christmas production.  So, I held my breath while he walked across to get his diploma in case he decided to slap the principal on the butt.  After the ceremony there was a mad rush to retrieve children and make it to the stage to take pictures.  As I battled through the crowd, pushing and shoving older men and women on my way to parental glory, a man was going in the opposite direction and said, "It's probably safer to go in the opposite direction".  He probably didn't mean to but that man said something very profound.
In life we may think the best, safest way is to go the way of the crowd.  Spare me for a moment while I give my paragraph speech about "going against the flow". All of Jesus' teachings are based around the thought that the way of the crowd is wrong.  It may be easy to go in the same direction as everyone else (have sex, drink, do drugs, get in debt, get divorced) but it certainly isn't the safest way.  Jesus was different, his teachings were different and if we want to attain true abundant life we must live different.  The safest way is against the flow

What To Do When You Don't Want To

I like that new song by Bruno Mars. You know the one..."Today, I don't feel like doing anything...I just wanna stay in my bed".  That is how I feel some days.  I don't feel like getting up, getting dressed, going to work, writing, or doing anything that takes more effort than changing the TV channel.  There are days where I don't feel like reading or praying or being a Christian for that matter.  You can try to act holy but you probably have days where you feel the same way. These days don't come very often for me but they come often enough.  I am sure you have the same type days in your life.  Leave the PJ's on, eat Ramen Noodles, watch re-runs, and let the gross bodily functions flow.  Those days where you don't have to dress to impress or please everyone can be refreshing.  So what do you do when you don't feel like doing what you need to do?  Do you just fake it? Do you just smile and go through the motions? Do you send God a few courtesy prayers and read a one verse devotional?  What do you do on those days where the inspiration and motivation to be great just aren't there?
Maybe you can just take the day off and forget about Jesus for a while? Or you could just ignore your life's purpose for a day?
No!!
Here's what you do.  Suck it Up! Push past it all and live the life God intended.  Find inspiration in the Word. Get motivation from God's whisper.  People depend on you. They need you to be great. They need you to help be the light in a dark world.  There is no time to flop around in the world of mediocrity.  Be great!