OPPORTUNITIES MISSED

Taking responsibility is one of life's greatest opportunities. However, it is an opportunity that is more often than not ignored in our society.

People would love to come up with their lists or items they feel you should be responsible for, but I'm refering to those basic and good and honorable areas of life that as humans, we have the opportunity to take responsibilty...to own.

I have found it interesting to watch this whole Hatfield (Seattle and Co.) and McCoy (Bennett and Co.) feud heat up revolving around the Sonics. He said. She said. They said. Good faith. No faith. Recission. It all comes off at times like immature teen-agers name calling on the playground.

Our benchmark for behavior should never be as low as being demonstrated by the afformentioned groups. Yuk!!!!

Rather, we have the opportunity to step up and take responsibility for some wonderful things in life like:
Being a great spouse
Being a great mom or dad
Being a great teen-ager or young adult
Being a great neighbor
Holding up our end of the agreement
Saying kind words and not hurtful words
Being a great employer or great employee

You get the point. So, let's not miss the opportunities we have right in front of us in the area of taking responsibility for things we should!

MTC!

Mark

DRIVEWAY CRASHING

Having spent six years in SUNNY, WARM, even HOT Cali, I picked up a few lessons on life that were really quite fun!

One of those lessons was how to hang out with your neighbors and just talk and be neighbors!

I'll never forget turning the corner into our court on one SPECTACULAR, SUNNY, HOT late afternoon, and being totally surprised to see my neighbors in their beach lawn chairs, sitting in the driveway. The dude was checking out the latest PotteryBarn catalogue!!!

My first thought was total Blue Collar TV type thoughts. Who in the world sits in their driveway in lawn chairs!!!!!!!

Bret and Juree and the kids became some of our dearest friends. You know, life-long, deep, rich in relationship, kind of friends.

But, my buddy Brett taught me the art of driveway crashing. Just grab a cold beverage of choice, a beach lawnchair and crash. Hang out. Chill. Talk. Laugh. Philosophize. Good times!

One day, Brett and I were DC'ing and we were evaluating people who were coming to check out the house that was for sale across the street from his home. Absolutely hilarious!!!!

I do miss DC'ing with my good friends, and I think that is one thing we lack miserably up here in the Western WA because of our cold weather.

I'm hoping for a hot summer and I plan on transporting the whole DC'ing concept to my neighborhood.

Thanks Brett for the schooling!!!

MTC!
mac

WHAT DO YOU DO?

Have you ever had anybody ask you that question? And then you try to explain it.

Some jobs are pretty obvious as to what is invovled: garbage truck driver, fireman, policeman, dentist, doctor, teacher, professor, banker, etc.

How 'bout....church planter!

Now there's one for the old, 'what in the world do you do all day????" file! Trying to explain this to people is like trying to have the farmer explain how he goes about germinating the corn crop!

A new church, ex nihilo, being made out of nothing, is much like planting a garden or shrubs or lawn. It takes time, care, protection, nutrients, patience, attention, focus, determination, an ability to shrug off discouragement, proper maintenance, and time. Did I say time???

Before stepping out to do this 'church planter thing', the supporting cast around me was quite large. All that to say, there are no other departments to handle this requisition or that, no media department or graphics department.. it's just the planter and the people that have made the huge decision to jump on board and see this thing through! God bless them!!!

All in all it is a daily dose of faith and function squashing out the fear! God is so cool. He is in this! It's a far cry from a human perspective from being in front of 4,000 people each week, but I wouldn't trade it for the this world!!! For sure, the next one!

So, what do you do?

MTC!
mac

TAKEN FOR GRANTED

Everyone of us understands how life really can grind to a halt when we lose our health. It might just be the common cold or worse, the dreaded stomach flu. When it really gets tough are those prolonged medical situations that everyone dreads.

I'm amazed at how often I take my good physical health for granted. What an incredible creation the human body is. It functions without me having to think about it and I just keep on living. I don't think about breathing or walking or talking or swallowing or how to regulate my temperature...make up your own list of amazing things that you take for granted related to your excellent physical health.

I'm grateful today to God for my excellent health and I apologize for taking it for granted!

Have a great day!!!

MTC!
mac

BOWLING AT MIDNIGHT

Last night we went bowling with a bunch of the students from the church. What a riot!! I would starve on the PBA...if they even still have one!

The kids were totally cool. We all laughed at each other and everyone had a blast. The highlight for me was when one of the chaperones, Casey hit the hardwood after a mighty hefty release of the ball!

What was really great was just hanging out with the kids. They are really great!! Sharp. Intelligent. Good looking. Funny. Their future is exceptionally bright.

For all the stuff you hear about in the news and read in the paper about how today's youth are all jacked up, well, if you could have been bowling with us last night at midnight, you would have seen some great kids heading in the right direction in life...not on the lanes, however!!!!

MTC!
mac

GREAT PEOPLE

There are certain people in life who make your day brighter and better. They come in all shapes and sizes and personalities. They are the kind of people who have learned from life that you don't need every question answered ahead of time and that sometimes you just figure it out as you go. They have experienced enough diversity and adversity in life that diving in and helping is the point, having 'every duck lined up in a row' is not.

My car broke down the other day, the heater core (now I know what that is!) sprung a leak and I had coolant dripping inside the car. I was in rush hour coming from Bellevue back to Maple Valley. I had the windows down and the steam was belching out of the car. I'm sure somebody was wondering when the car would explode.

Made it home just fine. I was calling around trying to figure out how and when to get it fixed when my wife said I should call a friend of ours..H.C. So I did. He said, 'great! Bring it over.'

H.C. is really a gifted guy. Great mechanic. One of those guys who can look at it and know what everything does and where it goes. I'm looking at it wondering 'what in the world is the first step?' H.C. get's after it and after a few hours of wrestling with a metal bear, get's everything put back together and it runs like new!

H.C. didn't ask 'how', 'why', 'what if', he just said 'Bring it over!'

When we can and we know how to help someone in need, we should.

Thank you H.C.! You rock!!!!

MTC!
Mark

April 1

1. I'm amazed at how fast time flies by.

2. There are good people everywhere.

3. I need to listen more.

4. Getting in shape always used to be easy.

5. Every day I thank God for how He has blessed me with such a wonderful wife and kids.

6. Each day I am more aware of my need for God in the best of ways.