One of the disciplines that I picked up years ago is journaling. I write a bit about the events that occurred that day in a mater of fact way, and then I write about my dealing with the events that I just wrote about, problems I solved or didn’t solve, lessons learned, wisdom gained, and then I usually write out a prayer, praying for the people that were in my day, and for myself to be used by God to bear fruit for Him.

In my journaling I try to write reflectively, looking at my day and behavior as a third person attempting to be honest and transparent about who I am, why I do what I do, and how to grow.

Writing is a great way to pull stuff out of our sub-conscious mind that we didn’t know was there, and then writing it down with thoughtfulness and clarity is a way of owning who we are, and also gives us the insight to figure out how to change.

Writing is a discipline that few develop as a skill, but it is well worth the effort and time it takes to get good at it. God wrote the Ten Commandments on a stone with His finger the Bible teaches. If God wrote it must be important. We are created in His image and likeness and the more we do what God does the better we will do in life in general.

Another reason I journal is because I forget what has happened and the emotions that I experienced as a result of an experience. So many of the events that I have lived through are so rich, but I forget them and they get lost in the sea of experiences over the years.

Once a month I take an hour and read past journal entries. It is amazing how the combination of writing and then reading what I wrote preserves the memory of my life in my head and the lessons learned and the character gained in my heart.

I went fishing today with some friends. We drove to Newport and went surf fishing for red tailed perch. I had a wonderful day. The weather was so nice and sunny, and there is something hypnotic about standing in the ocean with chest waders and hearing the roar of the waves and seeing them constantly rising up with all this white foam. We would follow the waves out and cast out as far as we could aided by our 3 oz lead sinker, and on the 2 hooks that we had we would put plastic little worms. We got there at low tide and fished up to high tide. The fish follow the tide in because sand worms come out of the sand as the surf comes in and the fish gobble them up.The fishing was ok for the first couple of hours but about an hour before hi tide they went on a feeding frenzy, and we were catching fish just about every cast, and then as the tide started out the fishing just stopped cold, no more fish. We loaded up and went to a public fish cleaning spot and filleted fish for an hour then went to a restaurant and had clam chowder and fish and chips. What a wonderful day!

Pastor Mike is on a series in his preaching, “the top 10 fears of our life”, and how to manage them. Tonight he talked about our fear of death, and he will preach the same sermon tomorrow at both services. As he was preaching tonight I was thinking of people who I knew who had come close to dying either by sickness or accident and the wide range of reactions to that near death experience that they had. Some became almost hysterical as they faced death obviously in great fear, and then I thought of my daughter Sally and her husband Aaron who live in Hawaii who recently got a phone message from the state government that they were about to be hit with a nuclear missile and that this wasn’t a drill. It turned out to be a false alarm, but when Sally and Aaron read the warning on their cell phones they said that they felt a great peace as they faced their immanent death. I think a lot now about my death because I am getting closer to it at almost 70 years of age. I imagine what I will feel as I leave my fleshly body and head to heaven. I wonder what the first thing I will see will be. I wonder what the first words will be that Jesus speaks to me. I wonder what my first words will be and who I will say them to. I wonder how long I will be there before I see my Dad. I don’t fear death and I am looking forward to the new body and adventures, but there is the nervousness of the unknown, sort of like the first time I went sky diving. I know people who believe that when we die it is over, we cease to exist, we just turn to dirt and that is all there is. That seems so sad to me, I can’t imagine that I would be motivated to do much that required sacrifice or effort, I think I would just turn into a melancholy introvert. But an even worse scenario would be the person who acknowledges that, yes, there is life after death, but I have no clue what it will be like, where I am going, or if there is such a thing as hell will I be in it? Now, that would result in great fear if that were me. But the cool thing is that it is not me, I have an absolute assurance in my salvation and my eternal home.

The Bible has laws, rules, guidelines, and principles depending on what you want to call them. I like the word rule because that is what we call them in football, basketball, and most other sports where we compete with others. The purpose of the rules in sports is to make the event enjoyable for all, to positively enhance the relationship between those competing, and to create an environment of justice or fair play among those competing. In life the rules are made or determined by God, and He is also the enforcer of those rules. When we know the rules of God and obey them we will be rewarded with joy, peace, strength, success, awesome relationships, and we will accomplish a lot with our life. When we violate the rules of God we experience just exactly the opposite. Those who break God’s rules and are living in despair, broken relationships, and little success usually don’t recognize or acknowledge that they are reaping what they have sown, instead they blame anyone and everyone as the cause of their unhappiness.

As I discover the rules for successful living in the Bible and in life, I write them down so I don’t forget them, I make sure I understand them, and I make a commitment everyday to obey them. Several of them are so very important that I review and commit to obey them several times each day. Most of the super important rules seem at times impossible to ever keep successfully.

One of the super important and incredibly hard to keep rules is this one; 1. When someone says something or does something that hurts my feelings, offends me, or makes me angry, even a little bit irritated, I will quickly forgive them, I will not allow negative thoughts toward the person or about the violation of my personal rights to stay in my mind, I will choose to think of something else that is positive and good. If the self-pity feelings and thoughts continue, I will proactively pray for God to bless them and I will do something nice for them.

In the evening when I examine my life for sin and character flaws and confess them to God and ask for His forgiveness, this rule is the one most often broken. When I confess to God that I have messed up once again, I end the time by praying to God and making this commitment, “I will never allow myself to become offended or hurt again”. Then I remind myself of these truths, “children are easily offended, because they are children, but I am a man and I will think and act like a man”, “weak people are easily offended, but I am a man, a strong man, and I will think and act like one”, ” selfish and immature people are easily offended, but I am pressing on to maturity, so I will think and act like I have arrived”. “Oh Lord, I have no chance on my own, I declare You Lord of my life, please grant me Your strength to keep this commitment to You.”

Some question the commitment I make “to never allow myself to become offended or hurt again”, and wonder if it would be better to say, “I will try”. It is my experience that the absolute commitment results in much quicker growth, because as soon as we give ourselves permission to fail, we will.

I have been working on this boat since October 27th. I bought the plans and built it from scratch using 2×4’s, 2×6’s, plywood, epoxy, fiberglass, bondo,  thousands of screws, and paint.  It is 23 feet long, 8 feet wide, and weighs about 1,500 lbs. I was given a boat trailer but it needed some work and I just finished doing the needed repairs on the trailer. I am planning on launching it out of Pacific City in the summer, but first I am towing it up to Alaska and going to fish for Halibut out of Ninilchik on the Kenai Peninsula in July. I am going to do the maiden voyage in a local lake or reservoir this next week to see if it floats, and if it does and the motor runs good I will take it up for a spin in the Colombia. I enjoy building things and have had a blast building this boat. After taking it to Alaska and catching a bunch of Halibut I will probably try to sell it this winter and build another one for next summers fishing.

5. If you work twice as fast you will usually get twice as much done, that is really what time Management is, getting a lot done. In order to work fast and hard for long periods of time you need energy. A major source of energy for followers of Jesus is that which God gives us. “God gives strength to the weary” is a statement repeated many times in the Bible. One of the reasons I write as much as I can think of regarding my goals, and plans is because when I get everything written down, I pray over it giving it to the Lord, and asking for His wisdom and strength to do it. Psalms 37:5 says, “commit your work to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it”.

One of the lessons that I have gleaned from Leviticus is that God likes ceremony. So the presentation of my plans to God is more than just a casual “please bless my plans, Lord”.