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.

I like starting over. When I first started to play golf with my sons they let me have 4 “do overs” each game. As you read the Bible over and over regularly you will easily notice that God loves to let people start over who are sincere and serious about growing in character. Tomorrow is the first day of a new year, a great time to start over on some things. Tomorrow as the first of a new year make a firm goal to read through the Bible using a good Bible reading plan. JBC has two plans, and they are both exceptional, and easy to use. The online (get it at JBC’s web sight, http://www.jbc.church)program is the best, with very good teaching using short video clips about each book in the Bible and major topics as you read through them. Make a prayer goal of 15 minutes each day, and have a prayer journal with the names of all the people you know in it to pray for routinely. Try using the App “PrayerMate” as your prayer journal, I use it and it is super helpful. Make a church attendance goal, a giving goal, a date your wife goal, an exercise goal, and a diet/weight loss goal. Join an accountability group and share your goals with them. Don’t continue to take the easy road in life that leads to mediocrity at best.

The goal that I am going to be most serious about is losing weight. Today I weigh 225 lbs and my target weight is 188 lbs, so I will lose 37 lbs. I will lose .25 lbs every day, 1 lb in 4 days, and 37 lbs in 148 days or 21 weeks or 5 months. I can easily do that, and I will. It isn’t going to be a complicated diet, basically eliminating refined sugar and flour from my diet. I do have a goal of fasting 36 hours once each week that will be part of this, along with my 90 minutes a day of exercise.

I have included my 70 goals for 2019 in this blog, following-

Dee’s 2019 goals

1. I will read 14 chapters in my Bible every day, majoring on Philippians and Colossians.

2. I will pray by myself for 1 hour every day using the App, “PrayerMate”, and I will keep the prayer App up to date with names and pictures and prayer needs and answers.

3. I will read 80 pages every week, 20 books for the year, 5 books will be on “Church Growth”, 5 will be on “Leadership”, and 5 on Philippians and Colossians.

4. I will pray with Patty 3 times minimum each week.

5. I will write my blog every day, working hard to improve my writing skill, and praying and asking God to bless this ministry, so that the number of subscribers goes from 68 to 100, and the total number of views goes from 57,000 to 70,000.

6. I will ride my stationary bike, lift weights, punch the heavy bag, and run for a total 90 minutes every day.

7. I will build a go-cart with James Duke and Will Doughton, two of my grandsons who are about 10 years old. I will be on the lookout for further projects to do with grandkids.

8. I will ride my bicycle on a 2,000 mile trip with Glacier National Park being the half way point, that will take 33 days to complete, and I will read and write each evening in camp, working towards the goal of having 30 messages from Philippians and Colossians.

9. I will enter and finish the half marathon in Albany on Thanksgiving Day in 2.5 hours.

10. I will take my dory boat halibut fishing off the Oregon coast.

11. I will learn how to weld using a MIG welder.

12. I will memorize the books of Philippians and Colossians well.

13. I will teach through the books of Philippians and Colossians during my Sunday 8:00 am and Wednesday night classes beginning in October, 2019.

14. I will pray for every person in JBC once each week, and maintain my prayer journal keeping current with names, pictures and prayer needs.

15. I will study, write, and prepare 12 hours of teaching content and a syllabus for a seminar for church leaders on January 20th to the 22nd, 2020 called, “Leading for Change”.

16. I will start 3 new men’s accountability groups, and hand off 3 groups.

17. I will start two satellite church’s using a video presentation of my preaching as the preaching part of the church and recruit and train two campus pastors.

18. I will work diligently with and train well Shane Perez to be an exceptionally good Campus Pastor of our first satellite church.

19. I will work closely with and train well, Brandon Morris to be the best “Follow-up, Assimilation, and Evangelism” pastor as part of the staff at jbc, on the planet earth.

20. I will improve, revamp, and organize our “Home Group” ministry so that it is incredibly effective as a place where Biblical fellowship happens, and will work with Brandon Morris to lead this ministry.

21. I will work with Jason Neufeldt to produce a very good video of the existing ministries of JBC to use at a “New Comers” dinner 3 times each year.

22. I will work with Brandon Morris to plan, organize, and hold 3 “New Comers” dinners.

23. I will faithfully work with the pastors in the accountability groups, and schedule and plan 3 lunches with them.

24. I will faithfully schedule, plan, and organize 20 staff meetings that will include training, encouragement, accountability, and prayer.

25. I will attempt to identify, and recruit from JBC a faithful, available, and teachable person, and to train them to be a volunteer staff/pastor.

26. I will plan and organize a one month camping trip to the Steen’s Mts during archery season with Patty; I will hunt for elk and deer, and fish in “Fish Lake”.

27. During my one month time at the Steen’s Mts, I will read and write for 5 hours each day working at getting 30 messages done from the books of Philippians and Colossians.

28. I will start a diet on a January 1st, and go from 225 lbs to 188 lbs by June 1st.

29. I will faithfully work on Scripture Typer for 30 minutes each day, and maintain a place at 200 or better, and will increase the total number of verses memorized well to 1,000.

30. I will use old circular saw blades and make 20 good, well balanced, sharp broad heads to use in archery hunting for deer and elk this year.

31. I will plan and save so Patty and I can travel and see our kids and grandkids in Fairbanks, Alaska and Oahu.

32. I will go fishing in Soldotna, Alaska in July, and will attempt to take a son, or son-in-law, or grandson with me.

33. I will study and write 4 really good lessons on marriage, and have them finished by April 1st. To be taught at the marriage retreats planned at Odell Lake.

34. I will, without a doubt, organize my shop, super well, and keep it that way. I will develop a specific time table with rewards and consequences for success or failure of that time table by January 1st, 2019.

35. I will reroof my shop, including the back lean to.

36. I will re-side the front of my shop with Hardi-plank and paint it.

37. I will begin the 2 year goal of taking out the fruit trees and putting in a half acre fish pond on the front of our property.

38. I will diligently prepare to teach my “Men’s Leadership Class”, “Ladies Leadership Class”, “Leadership Class II”, and “Leadership Class III”, and I will work super hard to improve all aspects of all the classes.

39. I will take Patty on a date at least twice each month, and I will work hard at communicating well with her.

40. I will faithfully attempt to encourage those who have drifted away from faithful attendance at JBC to return through notes, emails, and invitations to special events.

41. I will watch the instructional DVD on taxidermy, and do a full body mount on the mountain lion I killed. If it turns out good, I will put it in the house, and if it turns out bad I will put it in my “Man Room”.

42. I will write 50 hand written notes each week to people in JBC.

43. I will work to make the Wednesday night service an effective time, and will include in it 30 minutes of teaching from the books of Hebrews, Philippians, and Colossians, 10 minutes of worship, and 20 minutes of discussion on the lesson.

44. I will pray through the JBC church family prayer letter each week, and transfer serious prayer requests to my “PrayerMate” prayer journal.

45. I will write in my personal journal at least twice each week, as part of my self-examination discipline to help myself to grow in character.

46. I will religiously keep track of my time and record it each day in my iPad.

47. I will pray at a minimum of 3 corporate prayer times at JBC each week.

48. I will pray at least 40 hours in each of the 4 “Five Day Prayer Events” that are held at JBC.

49. I will begin every day with a prayer of commitment presenting my life to Jesus, declaring Him Lord of my life, asking Him for guidance and strength for the day to please Him in all that I do.

50. I will attend a major “Church Growth” seminar and take at least one staff member with me.

51. I will give Patty and Sherri at least 2 hours of work on “Home Improvement” projects each week, and ask them to make a list at least one week in advance.

52. I will study and write about one of the 26 character traits on my list each week using it as a tool to examine my life and press on to maturity. I will rotate through the list twice in the year.

53. I will start on the rebuild project of my 1986 Ford pickup.

54. I will start on building from scratch the XR3, three wheeled car.

55. I will pray for Patty, my Mom, my kids and spouses, grandkids, and jbc staff and families every day.

56. I will pray for a list of lost friends, family and acquaintances every day.

57. I will subscribe to 6 blogs written by pastors and church health professionals, and read one of them each day.

58. I will re-start my aquaponics system in my green house.

59. I will use Facebook as a tool to connect with people in JBC and in the area, and I will write out complete prayers in response to problems or trials that I read about. I will keep close track of my time and will not go over 3 hours each week.

60. I will go fishing every chance I get.

61. I will make a 15X20 canvas wall tent for my one month camping goal in the Steen’s.

62. I will fast one day (36 hours) a week, and I will fast for 56 hours in each of the 4 “Five Days of Prayer” event.

63. I will drive up to Trout Lake to visit my Mom at least once each month.

64. I will install a Berkley Jet Pump and motor in my boat.

65. I will plan a 4 day family camping and fishing trip in July or August.

66. I will fix my hot tub.

67. I will pray corporately for a total of 300 hours.

68. I will learn how to sew.

69. I will listen to at least 100 sermons on “you tube” and pod cast.

70. I will read these goals every day.

Several days ago I wrote about the character trait of orderliness as I identified that as my lowest or worst of the 26 character traits that I study, read about, and evaluate my life by. I am working on that one for the next month in hopes of moving it from the bottom. The problem with moving one from the bottom is there is now a new worst. When I become more orderly in the use of my tools, books, papers etc the new bottom dweller on my list of 26 will be “Thoughtful/Gentle/Gracious”. “Orderliness” is very important in accomplishing a lot with my life, being productive, and bearing much fruit for God, but the lack of orderliness doesn’t impact my relationships with people much if at all. One of the characteristics of my life is that I am almost always in a hurry trying to get as much done as possible. There are times when I choose to shift myself into low gear and just relax and enjoy the situation and the people I am with, but I don’t do that very often. I enjoy working as fast as I can, getting as much done as possible, and checking everything off on my “todo” list. When I get my life cranked up and I am in high gear interruptions irritate me, and most often the cause of the interruption is a person with a need or a problem. It can be a simple one like my grandson, Courage’s chain coming off of his bicycle, and he wanting me to put it back on for him or it can be a much more significant need where someone sends me a text message wanting some advice on their tough marriage or their rebellious kids. Every evening I end the day thinking about the day, examining my life for sins I have committed and then confessing them to God so as to experience His forgiveness. Probably the most often recognized and confessed sin in 2018 is being insensitive to people who pop into my life all day long. I want to be a thoughtful, gentle, gracious, caring, sensitive person, but boy, oh boy does it ever take some focus, determination and effort to improve much.

Good leadership is tricky. Leaders are in front, which means they are initiating, casting vision, modeling, and encouraging. Good leaders are driven by noble, God inspired goals that change the world, if even a little bit. Good leaders inspire and motivate others to help them accomplish these noble goals. Change is a basic requirement for growth and accomplishment, but change produces stress and unrest. Good leaders initiate change and manage change with wisdom. It is like going around a sharp corner on a motorcycle, you want to go fast, but stay on the road. Good leaders value and pursue healthy relationships in those being led as a key part of leading. Healthy relationships are marked by unity and joy, as everyone rides the motorcycle around the sharp corner together with no one wobbling the bike causing a wreck. Good leaders are driven by the vision, but they are equally driven by the change and growth they can initiate in the lives of those being led. Good leadership is tricky. Good leaders think about the vision constantly, they pray about it, they plead with God for hours about it, they want it and will do most anything to accomplish it. But good leaders know God isn’t going to plop it into their lap. It will be accomplished by spiritually gifted people functioning together in unity as if they were one person, one body. Good leadership is tricky because each of these spiritually gifted people are in various stages of growth and maturity, and some of them get freaked out going around a corner fast on a motorcycle. Each of these individuals have their own ideas on how to accomplish the vision, and their ideas are important to them. Each of these individuals have their own dreams and goals, their own lives that compete for time, energy, and money with the leaders vision. Whooooeeeeee, I have made myself tired writing this, I think I will take a nap.

I have 70 goals for the year, because I am 70😀, and they all are super, but a few of them are extra super! (1) I am going to focus on Philippians and Colossians this year in my study, I am also going to memorize both books word perfect. I am going to write 30 sermons from my study and preach them in our 8:00 am class that starts the first Sunday in October, and in our Wednesday night service. (2) A small group of us are going to leave June 1st for a 2,000 mile bicycle trip that will take one month. We are leaving Jefferson, riding to Glacier National Park, and back to Jefferson in a circular route, camping along the way. (3) I am going to read 20 really good books this next year. (3) I am going to listen to 100 really good sermons, many of them while I am riding my bicycle. (4) Patty and I celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary this year on August 24th, and on August 22nd we are leaving for the Steen’s Mts and will camp there together for one month. I will get most of my 30 sermons on Philippians and Colossians written during this time, as well as kill an elk and a deer, catch lots of trout in Fish Lake, and have hours of conversation with Patty about whatever she wants to talk about. Patty will get lots of rest, read lots of books, go sightseeing with me, and cook amazing meals for us. (5) I will start and oversee two “Satellite ” churches. This goal has me totally excited, and consumes much of my daytime thinking, and will be the focus of much of the goal of reading 20 books, and listening to 100 sermons. (6) I will write material, a syllabus, and prepare 12 hours of teaching for a seminar that Jefferson Baptist Church will host January 20th through the 22nd, called “Leading for Change”. (7) I will start on my project of building a 3 wheeled car from scratch.

The other 63 goals aren’t quite as big as these, but they are really cool. I read all 70 everyday which really lights my fire.

So, I am going to become more orderly and less messy. I am not going to become an “Obsessive-Compulsive” neat freak, or “Anal Retentive” or “Compulsive Decluttering”, all listed as mental disorders. I am going to make 1 Corinthians 14:40 my key verse in my pursuit of excellence in this area of orderliness, “But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner.” My definition for orderliness is ” keeping my work areas organized for the sake of efficient accomplishment of my goals and tasks”. The discipline or inner strength required to keep my surroundings organized will then be the discipline and inner strength that keeps my soul organized. Externally, organization enhances my productivity, and internally being organized moves me to greater accomplishments. Ideas seldom become reality, because the person who has the idea can’t think orderly enough, that is in a linear way, sequentially, so that a plan is formulated, a dream is realized.

My life often seems a great illustration of the “Second Law of Thermodynamics” which in part says, “Left to themselves things will move towards chaos and confusion, and away from order and beauty”. Which means I must exert some control over this natural tendency for my extension cords to get tangled up all on their own while laying in a drawer.

In thinking through my plan to organize my work place surroundings, I will begin by adding this commitment to my early morning prayer of commitment, “today I will end any session of work in my shop or office with a time of putting things where they belong.” I will pray that commitment every morning for two weeks and then evaluate progress, and go from there.

I have this list of 26 character traits that I have used for a number of years to help in my pursuit of character and maturity. I focus on one a week through the year getting to each one twice. For a little variety I spent the evening going over the 26 traits, and I put them in order, my strongest at the top and my weakest at the bottom. I have decided I am going to spend a month focusing on my weakest one, and see if I can move it up a few spots, and then maybe focus on the new weakest character trait after that. After thinking about each one of the 26, I have a pretty obvious bottom 5, and the winner is, or I guess a more accurate word, the loser is “orderliness”.

God is obviously orderly in nature. It only takes a little reading about the universe, the stars, their orbits to see creation is amazingly orderly. The rising and setting of the sun can be predicted within seconds years in the future because of God’s orderliness in creation.

There seems to me to be several areas of orderliness, and I am weak in one and strong in the other so as I pursue growth I would like my weak area to match my strong area. One would be our physical surroundings that we use to accomplish our job, duties, goals, and hobbies. Orderliness would be “a place for everything, and everything in its place”. Orderliness would result in increased efficiency and production, and would reduce frustration and stress. Things are where they are supposed to be and little time is lost trying to find something that is needed. The opposite of orderliness would be disorder and messiness. I am a very messy person if you look at my shop, my office, my fishing tackle box, my Man room, and the trunk of my car. I have made several attempts to organize my stuff, but tend to revert back to my messy self when I get in a hurry doing something and the effort to put everything back where it belongs seems like more effort than it is worth.

Another area of orderliness would be our mental life. An orderly person would have a clear set of priorities in life that would control how his time was spent. They would mentally manage time so that important things got done, and they would accomplish a lot with their life that mattered because their thinking was not confused or disorderly.

So my goal is to become as organized in the use of my physical surroundings as I am in my thinking. The reason would be to become more productive with the use of my time, but another significant reason would be the personal pleasure from seeing things look good. When I build something it is very rewarding to look at it and to think “good work, that looks nice”. God looked at His creation at the end of each day and said, “It is good”.

I tend to think like most in their weak areas, “that’s just who I am”, and it is just easier to function in the default setting, but a I know that is the attitude of a loser, so I will conquer it, but whooee I am not looking forward to the number of days I am going to lose on this one before I get it down. It is just so comfortable being messy.

I got up at 6 am and went steelhead fishing with one of my sons on the Alsea River. We bank fished from day light until 9:30 am, and caught nothing, but fishing is always fun, then we headed home. Kids and grandkids showed up about noon and we ate, opened gifts, ate, played with gifts, ate, talked, ate, watched NBA basketball, ate and everyone went home. During the giving and opening gift time Patty asked all the grandkids why we gave gifts, and they answered with a variety of great answers from God giving Jesus as a gift to us, to the wise men giving gifts to Jesus. The grandkids all play together amazingly well, truly enjoying each other’s company and fellowship from the oldest to the youngest. The boys ran around outside having “air soft” wars, and drove the go cart in hundreds of circles in the field, the girls did face painting, “dress up”, talked, cleaned out an old attic room full of junk for their “room”. I wasn’t involved much in most of what went on except the eating, I contributed a little to a few of the conversations, but mostly listened, observed, and took cat naps. In spite of the low activity and involvement on my part these kinds of days are at the top of my list of favorite days. Not much makes me feel more fulfilled and blessed than days like today. Thank you Lord for blessing Patty and I with such a wonderful family. Help us and use us in the lives of many in JBC to teach, encourage, model, and pray for them so that marriages improve and grow stronger, parenting skills improve, and unity and love in families and relationships grow stronger and abound in love more and more in the days ahead.

A question I get asked often is how do I honor a person who hurt me, wronged me, who hates me. In the Old Testament, the prophet Ezekiel was told by God that his wife was going to die that night, and God told him that He wanted Elijah to not mourn or grieve over his wife’s death, she did die and Elijah says, ” I did as God commanded me”. Whenever I read that passage I wonder what I would do if God said to me that Patty was going to die unexpectedly, and He wanted me to act normal, with no grief or sadness. I think I could do it, in spite of how I would feel from the great loss, because God commanded me to do it. There are certain rules and laws in the New Testament that are very counterintuitive, and therefore we feel justified in doing things our way instead of God’s. Here is a classic one that Jesus says in Luke 6:27-28 “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Here is a similar command from the apostle Paul in Romans 12:20-21 “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

If we are truly followers of Jesus Christ, doing hard things ought to be what we do, that’s who we are. God has infinite power available for us to live life with great strength, faithfulness, and obedience to Him, but if we are going to do the easy way, the world’s way, our way we are on our own.