I am restoring a 1969 mustang with my grandson. When we bought it a couple of years ago, it was a total junker, everything needed to be fixed or replaced. When I go out in my shop to work on it now I have my choice; I can work on the headliner, I can finish putting in the parking brake cables, I can clean and refurbish all the gauges, I can put in the fuel line, I can install the back bumper and valence then install the backup lights, I have all the electrical to do, rebuild the door latches and window cranks, and on the list goes. When it is all finished, it will be a nice car.

I am a total junker, a 1948 junker, everything needs fixed or replaced, and the goal is that I would become like Jesus. I need my self-control to become much stronger, my pride to change to humility, and my patience to increase a lot so that I am not constantly fighting irritation. I need to become much more in control of my time so that I spend my time on important things that have significant eternal results instead of so much playing.

There are 26 character traits that I have identified in the Bible that I need to grow in. My desire is that I become like Jesus in each one of them. Using these various character traits breaks up my pursuit of Christ-like character into pieces that I can attack and can have success in. Some of the things that need done on the car are almost done, but others are just getting started. I have a picture of a 1969 mustang just like ours all finished. It looks beautiful and those who own it are asking $69,000 for it. Wow, whooooeeeeee!

In my life there are areas that I am doing good in, I have grown a lot in becoming like Jesus, but in other areas, I have a lot of work yet to accomplish. As I get up each day I can take my choice on what I am going to work on. It is nice to have a variety of things so that I don’t get bored pursuing the character of Christ, that would be bad.

Right now I am reading about and studying humility and pride in the Bible and in some books that I purchased. I want to conquer all pride in my life and walk with my God in total humility. My, oh my, talk about a junker and a long way to go, this is a major project for sure.

As we pro-actively pursue the character of Christ He will give us the power, the resources, the wisdom, the encouragement, everything we need to grow and change. He wants it in me more than I do and He will mold me like a piece of clay into the image of Jesus as I submit to Him.

I am pretty sure that Isaac and I will finish the mustang before God is finished with me.

I had a great day of fishing on the Siletz river for steelhead. The weather was perfect, a little cold but not bad. We saw zero other boats, so there was no competition. I went with a good friend so the fellowship was sweet. I caught a hatchery fish, a nice fat one that I brought home, and also a wild fish which we released. I also had two other fish on that got off after a few minutes of fighting. My good friend had about exactly the same results except his wild fish was approximately 20 lbs by measurement, 21 inches girth and 38 inches long. It was a very nice steelhead.

Fishing is one of my favorite things to do because of how refreshed, rejuvenated, and re-energized I feel after a day like today. If I could do this once every couple of weeks I probably would live to be 150 years old.

Being outdoors, on the the river, also has a significant impact on my spiritual life. I feel closer to God, my faith in Him seems to be markedly increased, and my sense of His presence grows.

Romans 1:19-20 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

I watched an NFL playoff game this afternoon between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills. It was one of the most exciting 4th quarter of foootball that I have ever seen. The lead changed hands three times in the last two minutes. Patrick Mahomes got the ball back on the 25-yard line with 13 seconds left, the Chiefs were behind, but they went on to win the game. It was back and forth, back and forth, it was crazy.

I thought to myself, the only way this kind of ending can happen is if neither team gives up, not even a little bit. Lots of people in their own life go by the statistics and probability and give up when if some effort was given things could have been different.

This is a really short blog, but I am going steehead fishing tomorrow on the Siletz River and have to get up at 4:00 am.

First Sherri got it, then Thomas, and now Patty. So far I am fine. Sherry and Thomas’s experience was like a bad cold, and Patty’s as well. Mostly just congestion and sore throat, and feeling a bit wimpy. Several years ago I built a sauna on our back porch after reading that it was beneficial to those with Parkinson’s. It is about six feet square lined with cedars boards and a bench. There is a heater on the wall with a bunch of rocks stacked up on top of the heater. When the rocks get hot ladeling, a dash of water every few minutes fills the room with steam. Only takes about ten minutes and you are sweating like a horse. I don’t know for sure because I never got tested, but I think I may have gotten COVID a couple of months ago. I was feeling weird so I sat in my sauna on high, making lots of steam, for 40 minutes. When I got out I took some melatonin and slept for ten hours. When I got up I felt fine. So I talked Patty into sitting in it tonight. She only lasted about 15 minutes before she bailed. We will see how she is feeling in the morning.

Reading through our church prayer letter, there are people with brain tumors, bone cancer, prostate cancer, skin cancer, kidney cancer, diabetes, strokes, heart attacks, COVID, and a variety of other ailments. About ten years ago I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and a couple of years later my bladder quit working so I have to self-catheterize three times every day. I am wondering what will be the next body part to quit working. Growing up, there were colds, the flu, chickenpox, measles, sprained ankles, blisters, maybe even some broken bones or appendicitis.

Most people learn to live life with ailments and expect more to be on the way without getting all tied up in knots. That is just the way it is, always has been and always will be until Jesus comes and then sickness, weakness, and death are over forever. Sickness is God’ tool to keep us focused on heaven instead of this life.

As I push myself to grow a little bit every day, I know that a key character trait is self-discipline. As my self-discipline grows in me so does everything else. Even though it isn’t measurable a high priority goal that I have is to grow steadily in self-discipline. My strategy to grow in self-discipline is filled with measurable goals that I am pursuing diligently.

1. In Galatians 5:22-23 are listed what are called the fruit of the Holy Spirit. There are nine of them and they are all character traits, so obviously these nine are high priority with God. The last of the nine is self-control. So every morning, in my prayer of commitment, I declare to God that I am pursuing self-control and would He please help me. I then quote Galatians 5:22-23, so I know that the Holy Spirit will grant me all the power I need to grow strong in the character trait of conquering my flesh with its passions and desires.

2. Daily doing disciplines that my flesh hates is a key to training myself and acquiring the character trait of self-discipline. I will read my Bible every day, I will memorize and review Bible verses every day, I will spend time with God in prayer every day, I will write my blog every day, and I will exercise every day. All of those daily disciplines have many rewards and blessings, but a common blessing is growing self-control.

3. The book of James in the New Testament says that if we can control our tongue that we can control our entire life. So I will not speak any unwholesome words to anybody. I will not grumble or complain about anything. I will not gossip or slander anybody. And I will rejoice always.

4. The strongest urge that my flesh has is gluttony so controlling my eating is essential to my quest for self-discipline. I will continue to eliminate sugar and flour from my diet as much as possible. I will maintain a routine of fasting that I have established for myself, and I will reach and maintain my weight at 188 lbs.

1 Corinthians 9:25-27
Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

I am not the smartest person in the world. I get emotional over stupid things. I eat the wrong foods. I don’t sleep enough. I procrastinate and I waste time. I care too much about meaningless things and not enough about important things. My ego is too big, my humility way to small. I have more character flaws and weaknesses than I can name. But I am not stuck here.

I am examining my life. I am confessing all known sin to God. I am praying everyday asking God for help, wisdom, and strength. I am fighting. I’m always fighting. I’m struggling and I’m scraping and kicking and clawing at those weaknesses—to change them. To stop them. Some days I win. But some days I don’t. But I fight with everything I’ve got: To overcome those weaknesses and those shortfalls and those flaws as I strive to be just a little bit better today than I was yesterday, every day just a little bit better, a little more like Jesus.

Matthew 17:20 And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. There is something very motivating about the phrase, “nothing will be impossible to you.” I try to live, write goals, think, and talk like it is true for me, nothing is impossible.

We are admonished by God’s Word to seek for wisdom like gold and we are encouraged to pray and ask God for wisdom. Wisdom deals with reality, circumstances and situations in real life helping us to solve problems and overcome obstacles. A puzzling truth is that faith, no matter how strong will change reality. A reality is that I am going to die unless the rapture comes first. No amount of faith is going to keep me alive forever, probably not even until I am 100. The date of my death is set in stone, so no sense in me praying to live past that date. The date Jesus is coming back to take us to heaven is set in stone, and on my best day of having faith, I am not going to move it closer. I am a male, and though the world is big into trying to change reality, I am a male.

The three realities that I mentioned are obvious, but there are many more things in life that are realities that God didn’t intend for us to try and change even with great faith. Getting older is a reality. I am trying hard to keep old age at bay, but every 365 days another birthday rolls around. With every birthday the reality is things change, and so using wisdom I am working at adjusting and compensating so as to maximize what I still have to offer to God as His servant.

Sometimes I groan and complain about the changes that at one time were encroaching slowly but now seem to be accelerating rapidly. So my new self-talk slogan is, “enjoy the ride, enjoy the journey, keep learning, keep growing, make adjustments with wisdom not resignation , and bear as much fruit as is possible.”

I love competition. I compete with anybody about anything. If you compare into competition you know that if you are going to consistently win you have to be smart. I compete with people on scripture memory, with Bible reading, weight loss, you name it. Whenever I compete with one person or many I always do better, because I am more motivated, there is something inside of me that hates to lose.

For a number of years my ability to memorize Bible verses was getting better. I keep track of everything in my life, and I would keep track of how long it took me to memorize a verse well. Every year the time got less as I consistently worked thirty minutes every day on memorizing God’s Word. But this year the time it took me to memorize a verse in the Bible increased. So I did what any right thinking person would do, I increased the amount of time I spend memorizing scripture to 45 minutes a day. It has only taken a week and I already notice a big improvement in my brain power, my ability to memorize and my ability to recall verses to my mind. It is a pretty simple formula, when my muscles start acting up and hurting I ride my stationary bike 30 minutes more and things get better. When I start forgetting things, I increase my Bible memory time by 15 minutes and I think better and remember more. Wow, my mind and my body are like a machine, it is cause and effect. There will come a day when my formula for success won’t work anymore, age will win, but until then, I will win.

A goal without a strategy is useless unless it is a little goal. Once a goal is written then thinking must be done to arrive at a strategy to accomplish the goal that is clear. Successful strategies break down the distance to the goal into small, very achievable steps. As each step is successfully taken confidence grows. A written out strategy can take pages depending on the size of the goal. My goal of riding across the United States on a bicycle.

1. Break the trip down to 60 days with approximately 70 miles per day.

2. Map out each day’s ride using a bicycle mapping app designed just for this purpose. Check the roads using Google earth to see what the shoulder width and traffic flow is. Change and adjust the route accordingly.

3. Find a campground with showers for each night with phone number.

4. Save up $2,000 which will be the approximate cost of the trip.

5. Up stationary bike riding to two hours a day on February 1st, three months before start of trip.

6. Figure out meals for every day of the trip and get purchased.

7. Make a list of everything needed on the trip such as extra tires, tubes, tools, bicycle parts, camping gear, cloths etc. Go over the list numerous times so as not to forget anything.

8. Read two separate books written by people who biked the route we are going on. Take note of any problem areas and things needed.

9. Call and make reservations at each campsite chatting for a minute to determine bicycle friendliness.

10. Take my bicycle to a good bicycle mechanic to get everything checked and tuned.

11. Pack all gear and food.

12. Starting in April ride an hour outside on my bicycle two times a week, and two hours once a week.

13. Make a BIG map with route on it to put on a wall somewhere in the church so church secretaries can mark off each day of successful travel.

14. April 27th leave on three day drive back to Virginia to begin the trip on May 1st.

15. June 30th celebrate.

I have as much fun thinking through and writing out the strategies to my goals as accomplishing them.