My hip replacement surgery is on Monday. Several people have asked me if I am nervous. Not so far; I have hardly thought about it until someone asks me a question. I no longer get nervous, worried, or anxious about much of anything. Years ago, I used to get nervous and apprehensive about almost everything. On Saturday nights, I would get sick to my stomach and often throw up from nerves about preaching the following day. In February of 1989, I went to my first Pastor’s prayer summit. That four-day event and the dozen books I read on prayer in the next six months changed my life. At the summit, Joe Aldrich said you can tell if you are praying enough by your anxiety level. Pray until you have peace that passes all comprehension. I have followed that guideline since then, so if I feel nervous, I pray some more. It works very well for me.

I start every day with a to-do list I wrote the night before. I usually put more things on my list than I get done, so I will push to try and get everything done, but today, I got everything crossed off. I finished working on my sermon for Sunday, I got my boat uncovered and ready to go fishing, I drove to a friend’s house and picked up a bunch of fishing equipment they were getting rid of, I split firewood for an hour with my grandson’s help, I reviewed 150 Bible verses, I did all of my basic disciplines including exercising, and I took my wife on a date, we went and saw “Mission Impossible.” Whooooeeeeee, that movie will wear you out! With my achy hips, I am good for about 30 minutes on my feet, and then I need to take a break. I usually do that in my chair and review Bible verses while sitting. I said I reviewed 150 verses, but that was 30 verses at a time in five different rest times. I came in and sat down seven times, but I took a short nap in two of them. Back in the days when I ran marathons, I would run for ten minutes and then walk for one. That system worked well for me and allowed me to finish strong. I have been pastoring for 50 years, and I have had someone else preach for me ten different times each year. I have faithfully taken at least a day off every week from any ministry work. I went to our kids’ concerts, basketball games and fished regularly. In his book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” Stephen Covey calls one of the habits “sharpening your saw.” He said that you can keep sawing wood even when your saw gets dull because you don’t think you have the time to stop sawing to sharpen it, but pretty soon, you are getting very little wood sawn because the saw is so dull. Wise people know when and how to sharpen their saw.

Energy, motivation, and strength all get to be more of a challenge as I get older and as I get more ailments such as arthritis and bum hips. I have developed a seven-part plan to manage my personal energy crisis. 1. I try to read my goals every day. I have my year goals, my monthly goals, and my weekly goals. Often, my low energy is just a result of a lack of mental focus and motivation. Reading my goals works well for mentally stirring me up to get out of my chair and do something. 2. God strengthens those who ask for it, so I ask a lot. I ask first thing in the morning as I try to get my internal motor started, when I sit down to rest and stay in my chair longer than 15 minutes, and before I start a complex project like splitting firewood. 3. Whenever I finish any task or project, I thank God for the strength He gave me to accomplish what I just did; the more we say thank you to God, the more He will respond to our requests. 4. I exercise self-control and don’t verbally complain about being tired. Complaining makes whatever we are complaining about worse. 5. On the flip side, I say out loud, I can do this. It might take me a little longer than it used to, but I can do it, piece of cake. I acknowledge that weariness is primarily a feeling, and I don’t have to act the way I feel. 6. I ride my exercise bike every day. 7. I stay faithful to all of my daily basic spiritual disciplines.

Tonight is my last night in Soldotna, Alaska, at “Funny River Fishing Lodge.” I have been on a diet for the previous three months and have lost over 20 pounds. I thought I might gain a little this week, but I have been doing well on my eating, so I decided to splurge just a little bit tonight. I popped one microwave popcorn bag and put half a cube of melted butter on it. I am eating it slowly, one kernel at a time, and enjoying the moment!

This week, my goal was to get my boat all fixed up and ready to take out in the ocean with people in it to catch halibut. I put a new Honda motor on it and a new floor in the boat. When removing the old floor, we removed the wiring under the floor, which ran the boat lights, horn, bilge pumps, and fish finder. Yesterday, I tried to rewire everything but could not get the bilge pumps to work. I worked on it for several hours and was so frustrated that I finally went to bed. In the middle of the night, I had a dream and rewired the bilge pumps perfectly. They ran like a charm. When I woke up, I immediately wrote down what I had done in my dream. I knew it would be gone if I waited even a few minutes. I went out and wired the bilge pumps the way I had in my dream, and they worked perfectly. In the past, I have written blogs in my dreams and even wrote an entire sermon once. Many Bible characters had dreams of God and of the future. But I have dreams about wiring bilge pumps. Oh well, it was fun.

Tonight is my last night in Soldotna, Alaska, at “Funny River Fishing Lodge.” I have been on a diet for the previous three months and have lost over 20 pounds. I thought I might gain a little this week, but I have been doing well on my eating, so I decided to splurge just a little bit tonight. I popped one microwave popcorn bag and put half a cube of melted butter on it. I am eating it slowly, one kernel at a time, and enjoying the moment!

This week, my goal was to get my boat all fixed up and ready to take out in the ocean with people in it to catch halibut. I put a new Honda motor on it and a new floor in the boat. When removing the old floor, we removed the wiring under the floor, which ran the boat lights, horn, bilge pumps, and fish finder. Yesterday, I tried to rewire everything but could not get the bilge pumps to work. I worked on it for several hours and was so frustrated that I finally went to bed. In the middle of the night, I had a dream and rewired the bilge pumps perfectly. They ran like a charm. When I woke up, I immediately wrote down what I had done in my dream. I knew it would be gone if I waited even a few minutes. I went out and wired the bilge pumps the way I had in my dream, and they worked perfectly. In the past, I have written blogs in my dreams and even wrote an entire sermon once. Many Bible characters had dreams of God and of the future. But I have dreams about wiring bilge pumps. Oh well, it was fun.

I enjoy going to different churches as I travel. Today, we went to Soldotna Bible Chapel. I have been at this church half a dozen times over the years when we were here fishing. It is a relatively large church of about 400 people this morning. The preaching is solid, and the worship is about half hymns and older choruses. I enjoyed it very much. I have been to every kind and flavor of church imaginable and enjoy most of them. Several people greeted us, and one fellow talked at length about where we were from and what we were doing. A lady there grew up in Trout Lake, and I was her youth pastor for a year. It was just by chance that she saw me. It was fun talking to her. God’s blessings in our lives are conditional. His blessings are rewards for living for him and obeying His Word. One of the significant reasons He blesses us is because we love His Church and are involved in making her beautiful. Jesus loves the church; the church is the body of Christ, the Bride of Christ. It is a good area to consider: what are we doing to make our church healthier? What is our general attitude toward our church and the church in general? Don’t ever do or say anything to create disunity in your church; that is a quick way to get in trouble with Jesus.

One of the most amazing statements in the Bible that overwhelms me with its sheer absurdity is that God thinks about me often, and in fact, He thinks about me more often than all of the sand of the sea.

Psalms 139:17-18 How precious are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is their sum! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.

When I think about the number of people in the world right now, God can focus on just me and think about me more times than all of the sand on the seashore. When I have selfish or bitter thoughts or say thoughtless things to people, I wonder what He thinks about me. When I think about making the Lord sad by my behavior, it grieves me. My desire to please Him is the driving motivation of my life. The problem is that I am much more familiar with what makes Him sad than what brings Him joy.

I woke up this morning at 3:00 am, and it was broad daylight. I didn’t know it was 3:00 am, but I was alarmed that I had slept in. But when I checked the time, I was happy that I got to sleep for another 4 hours. I am sleeping in a room with my two grandsons from Fairbanks, who are here. They are good boys, and I enjoy my time with them. I worked on my boat all day with my son-in-law and had a great time with him. I love Alaska and my time up here with my family, fishing, and building. I am limping around with my bum hip, but that will be fixed soon. I am diligent to make sure I get my Bible reading done, my Scripture memory done, and my prayer time in. God has blessed me with a great family, ministry, and remarkable experiences. God promises to bless us if we honor Him by reading His Word and giving Him time in Prayer. I don’t want to ever take His blessing for granted. Spend time with Him in prayer and His Word.

I am writing this blog from Soldotna, Alaska. I am working on my fishing boat at Funny River Fishing Lodge for a week.  My goal is to put a Honda 90-hp motor on it and do some work on it so it is a better and more comfortable boat to go halibut fishing out of in Cook Inlet. I have built five boats of various sizes and enjoy doing that work. They are wood boats encapsulated with fiberglass. It is easy to be creative with wood and make it strong with fiberglass. The scenery was gorgeous as we flew to Anchorage from Portland in a jet and to Kenai from Anchorage in a small eight-passenger Cessna.

I kept thinking about how creative God was in all of His Creation as I looked out the window. We have been created in God’s image, and we enjoy making things as well. Artists paint pictures, some people build houses, some sow clothing, some build boats, and some write songs. My most enjoyable creative activity is writing sermons. Trying to teach the Bible accurately in a way that is easy to understand, holds people’s attention, and changes their lives for eternity. Whatever we do, there is a better way, a faster way, a more productive way, or a more enjoyable way. People are constantly inventing new things and improving old stuff because we are creative by design. I was thinking the other day that I am 76 years old and tired most of the time, so why don’t I just put it in cruise, take it easy, and stop trying to catch more fish, build a bigger church, kill a monster buck, or build another boat. I am pretty sure that would be a dull life with little joy or excitement. We were created by God always to be dreaming, pushing, climbing, inventing, learning, and creating. It may be as simple as a paint-by-number picture, but we can all make something. If you are bored with life, take up photography, write a novel, paint a picture, learn how to weld, plant a garden, or write an encouraging letter to someone you see that needs encouragement.

Communication between two people is a tricky thing. The communication can be spoken or written. I am reading, “Moby Dick.” It was written almost 200 years ago in England, so the writing will have some gaps between what Herman Melville meant to say and what I understood when I read it. He is dead, so all of the effort to understand what he wrote is on me. I have to look up the meaning of words and reread passages that make no sense to me. When I talk with Patty, I try to speak so that she understands what I want her to know. If I don’t, she can stop me and ask me questions. Over the years of talking, we should get increasingly more in tune with each other and understand what we are trying to communicate. Over the years of doing marriage counseling, it was surprising to me how many married couples communicate very poorly; they don’t understand each other very well. The reason was that neither worked hard at communicating, speaking clearly, and listening attentively. Over the last 50-plus years of teaching and preaching the Bible, I have worked hard to become a clear communicator of truth. I preached this morning at Jefferson Evangelical Church, and all the while I was speaking, I was trying to determine if my audience was hearing me, that they understood the truth of the Bible, and if what I was saying made sense to them. I work at my teaching diligently. I have operated as a preacher over the years with some guidelines and some laws. A major one is that God must speak through me; he must grant me a special anointing of His Spirit for my words to be life-changing in those who hear. He has conditions established for who He will do that through. I need to meet those conditions. One is that I need to study and prepare well. Another is that I must pray diligently, asking God to work in the lives of the listeners and me as I speak. Another super important rule is that if I am careless when talking to people all week, God will not use me in a thirty-minute sermon. I blow this one so often. I forget and get caught up in the moment and say things in anger and irritation, thoughtless things that are mean and hurt, and allow my emotions to control my words.