My wife Patty has about 18 chickens, and she likes her chickens, I can’t figure out why but she does. The fence around our chicken yard is getting old, tired, and it sags a lot, sounds like me! So it doesn’t do a very good job keeping chickens in so we have chickens wandering around our house, in the yard, in the drive way, and occasionally I find one in my shop. They mostly all go into the chicken coup at night finding their way back into the fenced chicken area. I have been promising to replace the fence, but I have successfully found other projects to keep me busy, and have procrastinated on the chicken fence. Every night the last thing I do is sit in my sauna, and nice and hot and relaxed I jump into bed. Last night I went out the back door of our bedroom to the back porch to get into the sauna and there was a chicken who had not found her way back into the chicken coup roosting on our back porch. As I went out the door I tripped over her sending the chicken into a frenzy and startling me out of my wits. So tonight I was looking for and pricing chicken fencing. As I was looking at the cost of the fencing and the time it was going to take, and the cost of the chicken food, I thought, I bet the eggs we get off these stupid chickens cost ever bit as much as eggs at winco. As I was working myself up onto a lather over these stupid chickens I thought, “Patty didn’t get to excited about my boat building project and complain that fish in the grocery store probably cost way less than the ones I brought home. Or the deer and elk hunting trips and the lack of venison in our house. Yep, I think it would be a good idea to let Patty have her chickens, and I will get that fence fixed this next week for sure.

I went and had one of those body fat, muscle, water analysis done today. This was a fairly expensive piece of equipment that did the measuring and calculations, not like those bathroom scale contraptions. The results were a bit discouraging as I saw how much of my body is fat. The Word has an ugly sound when you say it, doesn’t it? Fat ! Yuk, sounds terrible. I don’t know if discouraging is really the right word, because now I am highly motivated to get rid of that ugly word, fat! Maybe a better word would be deflated. I thought I was a macho tough guy, and come to find out I am nothing but a Pillsbury dough boy! Oh well, I guess I better get with the exercising and the dieting even more seriously than I have been, though I have been doing pretty good for a week. I guess this part of my life is just like the spiritual part, it is long term endurance that spells success, not short term endurance. Short term endurance isn’t even endurance, just temporary success that does nothing. Lots of people start well in their walk with Christ, but only a few finish well. Most drift away from total devotion to Christ because they get entangled in the world, they get weary, they get discouraged or they get just plain old lazy. Hebrews 12 says “run the race with endurance”, I intend to do that. Three key things will keep me from drifting away; (1) fear of falling away because of the ease of doing it and the eternal consequence at the Judgment Seat of Christ if I do, (2) Regular self-examination of my attitude, use of time, and faithfulness to the basic disciplines of the Christian life, and (3) good friends who will encourage, motivate, and reprove me when I need it.

A leader is an influencer of other people. Last night Clemson won the national college football championship behind the leadership and skill of their Freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence. It was a very fun game to watch as Clemson outplayed Alabama most of the game. Today I listened off and on to interviews and sports talk programs about the game and read a number of articles about it as well, and one of the things that came up repeatedly was Trevor Lawrence’s faith in Christ as his personal Savior. He has become a legend in the football world very quickly, and has a huge platform from which to influence people in regards to their faith in Christ, and he seems to be taking advantage of the attention he is getting in order to bring attention to his Lord. It is always so encouraging to me to see someone being a positive witness for Christ. As Christians we are commanded and commissioned to be a witness for Jesus, but very few do much to purposefully influence others towards faith in Jesus. Winning the National Football Championship would certainly make it easier to be a witness in the sense of people wanting to hear From you, but many a sports winner has been ridiculed and made fun of because he dared be a witness for their savior, so it takes courage to identify with Christ and speak up for Him. I think most people are timid about their being a witness because of the fear of what people may think. I pray for every person who attends JBC every week by name, and one of the prayer requests I make to God on behalf of each person is that God would give them the courage to be an effective witness for Him. I will keep praying this request for every person every week.

Tonight we had a dozen guys over to our house to watch Clemson stomp Alabama for the National Championship in College football. We had a great time with 10 rooting and cheering for Clemson, and 2 for Alabama. Everyone brought food with barbecued ribs being my favorite by far, and there was pizza, Paddington’s Pizza, taco’s, fried chicken, barbecued chicken, chips and dip, cheese salami and crackers, and a cooler full of Soda Pop. The food was great, the game was fun to watch and the fellowship was awesome. As I sat enjoying the company and fellowship, the game and the food, I thought I wonder if this kind of thing had existed during the time of Jesus, if he would attend and be part of something like this. Then I thought of the party that Levi threw for Jesus when he became a disciple of Jesus after responding to the invitation that He gave to follow Him and be trained as an evangelist in Luke 5:27-30,

“After that Jesus went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me.” And he left everything behind, and got up and began to follow Him.

And Levi gave a big party for Him in his house; and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?”

So I think Jesus would have come to my football Party, but it would have been with a very clear purpose, to influence people to follow Him as their Lord. Life lived with no clear compelling purpose is like a dog chasing his tail. So many people just live life as a victim, with no clear eternal purpose that gives them zeal and passion, and a great sense of worth and value.

My life purpose is to please the Lord in all I say and do, to serve the Lord and to do His will, and to influence as many people as I possibly can to be growing, fully devoted followers of Jesus. Every morning I declare my purpose out loud, present my life to Jesus as His servant, and ask for His guidance, strength and wisdom.

Today and last night 20 of those in the Leadership classes that I teach gave a 5 minute testimony about goal setting and about a few of their favorite goals for the year. They were very inspirational and those in JBC who were in the audience responded with great praise. Teaching these classes is the most rewarding thing I do as a Pastor, because the growth in the lives of these men and woman is so obvious. These kind of days when 20 of them all get up and share in such a clear and humble way makes me incredibly proud of them and thankful to be part of the reason for their growth. I pray extra for those in my classes that they will become champions for Jesus, and that they wont lose what they have gained and grown to become.

Men’s breakfast at JBC was this morning at 7 am. There was 121 guys there, and it was a great time of eating, fellowshipping, and hearing a motivational message from Jeff Carter on being “Strong”. I had fasted the previous 36 hours as part of my goals of fasting 36 hours once a week so I only ate a small helping of scrambled eggs and 6 pieces of bacon, and it tasted so good😀

As I walked around saying Hi to everyone, chatting, and introducing myself to the guys I didn’t know or had forgotten their name since the last time I had seen them, I thought what a good ministry and monthly event this is. Guys need good friends, but often the responsibilities and pressures of life crowd out “friend time”. Men are often “self-sufficient”, and don’t realize how important this kind of time is for inner renewal, or they just don’t want to admit that they need it. As I sat eating with some friends, listening to the message, and then hanging out afterwards I said a little prayer in my mind, “Thank You Lord, for the very special blessing that I have of so many very good, and close friends, this truly is a major source of joy in my life”!

Some might think that the reason that I have so many friends, not just close acquaintances, but guys who help me in a jamb, go fishing with me, pray for me, and spend time just talking about life, God, and goals, is because I am the Pastor. But I know lots of Pastors who have very few friends, close friends, real friends. I think the reason I have many friends is because I put a very high value on the role friends have in my life, and I in theirs. I know without a doubt that because of my friends I have much more joy in my life than I would have without them. I have a healthy soul because of the part they play in my life of giving me God’s grace as a source of strength and stability. Men who have lots of healthy relationships with other men is because they choose to, they look for friendships and they are friendly.

I had a much longer “todo” list today than normal for me. That happens on Fridays often because I have all these things that I put on my list all week long and didn’t get them done. Reminds me of when I was a kid growing up on the farm. Anything that we didn’t finish off for dinner each night went in the refrigerator and then all of it went into a stew for Friday night, so the motto at dinner was. “What you don’t eat tonight you will eat on Friday”. Well that was my day today, stew. I never minded stew on Friday as a kid, it usually tasted pretty good, and I like stew now, but I don’t like a “stew todo” list. But they were important things on the list, so how do we make this a fun and interesting day instead of boring. Cleaning up my shop was one of the items on my list, and it was on my list every day this week but I never did it, because it is a tedious and boring activity. So I decided I would do it in 15 minute blocks of time, and in between the block of 15 minutes I would do something that was fun and challenging. I had several other tedious, boring jobs on the list that I had rolled back all week long so I was spending most of the day alternating between the “Do I have to do this” jobs, to the “wow, this is fun” jobs, or goals. A major principle of time management is that most of our wasted time in a day happens during the transitions from one job to another, because momentum is lost and needs to be regained every time we switch activities. So, switching activities may be more interesting, but it has potential to be a huge time waster kind of day. As I thought about this during my second 15 minute block of time activity, I decided that when I finished my 15 minutes of drudgery in the shop I would run to the location of the next thing on my list, and the running to the next job would help me get myself in 4th gear quickly. It actually worked quite well, but I did have to resist the urge to drive to fast when a couple of times the next thing on my list required that I change locations to my office or a trip into Albany for a meeting, and then a few items at Sportsman’s Warehouse , and Home Depot😀.

One of the things that I teach when I teach goal setting is that you want a couple of B-HAG’s (Big Hairy Audacious Goals), to stretch you, get you out of your comfort zone, and to add some energy to your life, but is also good to have a couple of goals that will be quick wins so that you get motivated to keep pursuing the rest of them. I had written several that I anticipated that I would put in the win column fairly soon, and I did, but one I expected to be a grind, and a possible loser, has turned out to be a big win, at least in the first 4 days. It probably isn’t really a valid win because there is so much time to go before I am a conqueror, but I am super excited by the early success anyway. So far I have lost 7 pounds on my diet goal!!!🤪 My goal was to lose 1 lb by now, 1/4 pound per day. I know, I know, I can hear you say it, it is just water loss. Listen, if you are going to be involved in helping me accomplish my goals you need to be positive and encouraging even if you know it is bogus loss. I am so stoked right now I know I am going to conquer this one. I haven’t really been doing any real hard dieting, just eliminated sugar, flour, potatoes, and rice and I am staying conservative on my portions. So my goal was 37 lbs, and Now it is 30 lbs, super. Another one of my goals was to fast 36 hours straight once each week, and I haven’t done that one yet, so I am anticipating that I will pick up an extra pound of loss when I do that one tomorrow. Actually, official start time is 7:00 pm tonight and then I will eat breakfast at “Men’s Breakfast” at JBC Saturday morning. Great way to break a fast, 15 pieces of bacon and scrambled eggs!!😀😀

A tough person is someone who experiences very painful and difficult circumstances, feels all the emotions that come with hard trials, but doesn’t run off the road, that is he doesn’t stop acting responsibly, continues to love his wife, read to his kids, go to church, read his Bible, and call his Mom. He does what he is supposed to do even when he doesn’t feel like doing it. It seems like toughness isn’t a character trait that is taught or encouraged much any more. It is interesting the way values change in a society. It is sort of like watching the Northern Lights as they weave and bob around for no apparent reason. The way the culture around me changes so rapidly and most of the change going down hill it is so easy to get melancholy sitting in my recliner thinking about it. As a Pastor and leader I am supposed to be a change agent, that is I initiate change for the better, but it is getting more and more difficult to do that. Now it seems like instead of initiating I am being forced into adapting. It would be so easy to heave a big sigh and say, “whatever” , and give into that adapting mentality, and lifestyle. But if I am a tough guy I will recommit every day to being salt and light, looking for opportunities to make a difference, to change things for the better, to influence people to faith in Christ. It happens in our self-talk, the thinking that we do that is about us. I have to stay on top of what is going on in my thinking all the time. Just a few minutes of negative, critical thinking and I am back in that melancholy mood, totally unmotivated to do anything. In reality the difference between being a tough guy and a wimp is about 10 minutes of undisciplined thinking.

When I rank the 26 character traits, my strongest and best one at the top, and my worst one at the bottom, “Thoughtfulness, Gentle, and gracious” comes in second from the bottom, but when Patty ranks the 26 it comes in dead last. This has been the bottom or close to it most of my life. I have tried very hard to improve in this area of my life over the years especially since I am a pastor and work with people who are often going through trials and difficulties in their life. It seems like the harder I try the worse I get. That isn’t true, it is just my frustration at improving so slowly in something that I am working so hard at. I am pretty sure the problem is in the fact that my pursuit of growth in this area is driven by my understanding and knowledge of what is right and good, and what I ought to do, but the fact is I am pretty comfortable with who I am in this area. Being thoughtful, gentle, gracious, sensitive is something that I acknowledge that I ought to be, but not something I really want to be. I have seriously considered changing my list of 26 to a list of 25 and chucking this one so I don’t have to feel guilty about it anymore.