Happy Easter!

Easter seems like the perfect time to "resurrect" my blog from a coma of inactivity. Okay, sorry for the pun...it was there and I never have been able to resist the temptation to have pun, er, fun. We had a very different (for us) Easter this year. For the last few years our niece and her husband brought their little tribe of 3 children and our good friend brought her daughter over for an Easter Egg hunt and BBQ (weather permitting) or some other kind of meal together. This year our niece and her children had gone over the mountains and through the woods to grandmother's house...to live...temporarily...while Dad is off to training to become a Medic for the Oregon National Guard. So, this year we had only one child at our house, but she's so cute she could be several kids (yes, I am biased).

Easter's celebration wasn't the only thing different this year though. I've been challenged lately. Challenged to think differently and live differently. Over the course of the last few weeks, through wildly divergent sources including a couple of radio talk show hosts (Dave Ramsey and Dr. Laura), my own quiet time with the Lord, conversations with co-workers, my wife and this morning, my pastor's sermon, I've been challenged. If I had to correlate all the different things that were said that got my attention, it would probably be summed up in two phrases. First, was the ad for Dr. Laura's new book titled, Stop Whining and Start Living - haven't read it but the title got my attention. Second was a single sentence that came to mind as I was reading Ephesians 4:22-24, "What are you willing to sacrifice?"

You see, I had fallen into a feeling of discontent with my life. I wasn't depressed, exactly, but I was definitely discouraged. I'm turning 50 later this year and while I normally celebrate that fact with great enthusiasm, it had begun to sink in that I was nowhere near some of my life's most precious goals. I'd begun, well, whining about it, to be brutally honest. It wasn't pretty. Thankfully only a very few close to me had to endure it. Be grateful if you weren't one of them.

Something changed in my heart over the last 48 hours, though. I decided that all those diverse voices and messages were right. It was time to decide what to do about the things I've said I want to accomplish in my life. I've taken on a new, more productive way of thinking about those things. I've begun by taking stock of what is truly crucial to me. As it turns out...it's relationships. All those career, financial and ministry goals are great, but none of them are worth killing relationships. None of them. So I am taking a fresh look at my life now, and for the future and weighing everything in the balance of the impact each goal will have on my most important relationships. First with God, then my wife, then my closest friends and family...and so on...you get the picture. And funny enough, I find myself excited and content again. Ain't God great?