A Foundation of Hidden Strength...

We have been given a great gift. Freedom. A free nation. We are a beacon of hope and limitless opportunity to many throughout the world.

So many times we forget what we are and where we came from. We forget that our grandparents and great grandparents survived horrible things. Some of today's issues are but a shadow of what happened in their lives so many years ago. We forget the Boston Tea Party and the Revolutionary war. We forget that our forefathers were separating church and state, not personal faith, character, ethics or morals from their jobs in office. They were providing a foundation for us to have freedom of worship and freedom of speech. We tend to forget that they built this nation with their tears, sweat and blood.

Sometimes its almost too easy to forget, as we sit in our heated (hey, it's getting cold here in Michigan now) living rooms that so many have paid a great price for all the freedoms we have and enjoy. It's easy to shout how wrong they were, and are (a freedom of speech many, including our ancestors fought and bled for us to have,) to keep the wolves at bay that would claim our freedoms and try to take them away.

The somehow ironic thing of all this, is that those who defend and defended our freedom, would do it all over again, to give us that chance, that opportunity to live a better life of freedom and hope. No, I don't know all that my parents, grandparents and great grandparents worked for and gave up, so I would have opportunity. However, I do know that I would do the same for my children.

The coolest thing about that, is the grace of it. They have given me opportunity, that is so limitless, so boundless, if I had all the money in the world it would not be enough to cover the gift of freedom and opportunity, that came from their years of hard work, struggles and life. They've given me an opportunity for strength and courage.

Our ancestors gave that to all of us and to those who have come here seeking those very same freedoms. The freedom to own a business, whether you are a man or woman. The freedom to choose a husband or wife. The freedom to have an education without having to be in favor of a certain ruling system or be at a certain societal level or certain caste level.

We have been given great gifts and a great foundation of hidden strength in this nation. We may never be able to earn that grace that was given to us, but we can live our lives in honor and gratitude of it. We can hold on to that hope and strength of a future that has strong foundations and we can let the world know that it is in us and for us and that the light of it still burns bright.

Fall colors of joy and beauty

When he first woke up, his thoughts were "this is the day Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it." His second set of thoughts wondered if it was gone. He moved to sit up and sharp reminders told him it wasn't. The day then began, helping a 4 year old and 7 year old decide who got to play on the computer first, then helping them find their game. Drinking a cup of coffee and washing down a pill. About an hour later he then washed down some Advil with granola.

Later he left for a meeting. The drive wasn't as bad as usual, was this new pill working, or was he just hoping that it was so much, that it seemed like it? He changed his focus from the building pain, and started taking in the beauty of clear blue skies, with autumn leaf filled trees in the forefront. Then he started thanking God for all his blessings. Family, friends, a beautiful day, salvation. By the time he got to the meeting his focus was on his joy in Christ, not how he felt.

Bending and sitting at the meeting started taking its toll. Walking and standing it off helped some, but was somewhat counterproductive. The pressure was off his chest from sitting, but still built up, just more slowly and his foot and ankle were throbbing from running into a chest and a kids toy the week before. Standing and walking only made the foot and ankle throb more. 6 hours had passed and he could take more Advil, except.... he forgot to fill the bottle before he left that morning, so he only had one caplet, a teaser.

Driving home was hurting, both sides and his whole chest were hurting. Pain continued to ripple upward through it, into his shoulders. He tried distracting himself on the way home with a quick prayer and a couple phone calls. Entering the house, his excited children greeted him with smiles and laughter and boisterous, loud welcomes. Smiles and hugs were shared back and forth as he put down his bag and moved to the kitchen to take find the Advil. 3 more, down the hatch. Sweet relief in 45 minutes to an hour. His insides felt like a vibrating painful mush and every movement hurt, he'd waited too long and probably should've left sooner.

As dusk was falling, the kids were coming in for the night and his wife was going to the store, he stood in the kitchen, his body throbbing and watched a beautiful sunset occurring. Truly, he was blessed. A gorgeous fall sky was painted across with oranges and clouds highlighted and glowing, showing off trees and leaves of gold and red. You could almost taste and feel the burst of colors. He had to have a picture, maybe more than one.

Bending over to get his shoes on sent pain, rippling through his body. Why was he doing this? Because, people had to see this beauty, this joy of creation. Stepping out the back door, every muscle in his body hurt, the cool, crisp autumn air brushed his cheek, making him feel so alive. Breathing sent pain rolling up from his rib cage on both sides, up to under his arms and shoulders. He stopped to take a couple pictures. Walking into the front yard, he snapped a few more. Looking at the camera settings, he hoped that the pictures were coming out ok.

As he soaked in the beauty of the crisp cold air, he thanked God for His beautiful creation. Walking purposefully, and steadily, he continued around the corner, so he could get more of the sun coming down. With each step pain rippled through his foot and ankle, pain rolled and vibrated through his chest cavity up to his shoulders. Every breath was measured, trying not to breath too deeply, as it caused pain to roll across the bottom of the rib cage into both sides and up to below his shoulders, his chest feeling like a painful weight had been strapped under his chin. The crisp air had an alive, fresh leafy and backyard fire smell to it. Ignoring the pain, his pace slightly quickened.


Rounding the corner a beautiful panoramic sky of color stretched ahead of him.

He stood and took it in, once more seeing and feeling a beauty that could not be spoken with words or done justice with cameras.

Turning to walk down the next street, towards a nearby park, following the beautiful fall sunset, the young man felt like he'd stepped into a path to another world, maybe a tunnel to Narnia. Trees and vines grew along it, sounds of football games from nearby homes, crackling backyard fires and distant voices seemed to be from another world as the street rolled on in front of him.








Ignoring his pain and continuing forward, the young man absorbed the imagery and beauty into his soul. Thanking and worshiping God for the wonder of His creation the whole time.

At the end of the Narnia-like path, he crossed the street and walked into the park. Going forward a few feet brought him to a place where the view was breathtaking. A mixture of sound, light and glowing colors, took away his breath and made him think that almost the whole sky, leaves, trees and fields were singing a glorious song of worship to their Creator together.

Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord, For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreads out her roots by the river, and will not see when heat comes, but her leaf will be green; and will not need to be careful in the year of drought or stop yielding fruit. Jeremiah 17:7-8

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27



Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

To Be Determined

It's always interesting when you hear the phrase "Well, that's to be determined" or "That's to be decided". These phrases usually mean pending some future event. "We don't know if they'll make it or not, that's still TBD."

Well, for me, I think the way that phrase tends to be used needs to be put to rest. My life isn't To Be Determined. However, my choice is. My choice is to be, determined. It doesn't matter what our circumstances are. See, we can all choose that.

So many times in life, rough times happen. As a nation, as people, we have survived tough times, World Wars, Pearl Harbor, The Great Depression, Dotcom bubbles popping, September 11th and so much more. Yet through it all, we as people were determined. We were determined not to walk in fear, but in faith. We decided to push forward no matter what. We have a heritage of grandparents and great grandparents that persevered in the face of all that, so they could give us a future of freedom. Let's not sit idly by, lets earn it, lets grasp that freedom, that future, that's been given to us and move forward.

So, in the midst of all of the current events,

I choose to be determined to not allow financial markets define how I treat my neighbor.
I choose to be determined to not allow personal pain determine my ability to smile.
I choose to be determined to not allow circumstances define my joy.
I choose to be determined to offer an encouraging word and not drag people down.
I choose to be determined to keep moving forward, no matter what.
I choose to be determined to not walk or react in fear, to be not afraid.
I choose to be determined to treat people and relationships with integrity.
I choose to be determined to keep my faith and trust no matter what life brings.

I choose to be determined to Thank God every day for all of His blessings in my life. For my children, my wife, my family, my friends.
I choose to be determined to thank the people around me for their friendship and graciousness.
I choose to be determined to give more in this life than I get from it.
I choose to be determined to make someones day today.

(By the way, I saw from Google that its Paddington Bears Birthday today. So, here's a picture of one of my mascots I was given for my birthday a few years ago. ;-)


















Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord, For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreads out her roots by the river, and will not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and will not need to be careful in the year of drought or stop yielding fruit. Jeremiah 17:7-8

Lets choose to be determined, even when we are in the tough spots in life. Lets determine to keep moving forward. Lets choose to be determined to give the fruit of hope or a smile at a moments notice, no matter what.

Light Bulbs, Perception, the Reset Button and a Laugh

So, the stock market is a mess. The financial industry is a mess. The credit industry is a mess. All the experts, naysayers and doomsayers are talking crisis. Funny thing is, it all appears to be perception.

Since my first lesson in finances years ago, (I was in a small private school where a CPA firm that visited was providing classes for us,) I was told that the price of stock doesn't really mean that share of a company is worth that much in dollars. It was only worth what people believed it to be worth.

So, if it was a light bulb company, buying stock, or pieces of a company simply meant that people believed that company was going to keep making light bulbs, because, gee... I was going to keep using light bulbs. So, this stock could be worth a lot of money, because we were going to keep buying light bulbs.

Now, these wise gentlemen explained to us that if someone convinced a bunch of people that the light bulb company couldn't make light bulbs anymore, that everyone would try to get rid of the light bulb companies stock, and noone would buy it, until the company either had no more shares and got booted from the stock exchange or it actually couldn't make light bulbs anymore and so stopped doing business.

So, I laughed, a little when I heard that traders didn't know what to do on Friday. I heard 3rd hand that some just stopped and stared at screens and couldn't figure out what to do. I thought it was a little silly.

Do you know why? I'm not an economist and won't pretend to be, but I know a couple things.

There are over 300,000,000 people in the US.

Guess what? We need stuff.

We need food for our kids. We need cars to get back and forth to work. Some of us need Internet services to work. We need computers and computer desks. We need houses to keep them in, so they don't get destroyed by the weather. We need chairs to sit in, at a home office or work office. Some of us will share germs and will need medicine to help us get rid of them. We need electricity, we need each other.

So, what does all that mean? We all have to figure out how to get stuff. We, as people, as a nation make those companies valuable. We make the stuff they make valuable. We are willing to trade our time, our creativity, our skills, for little green pieces of paper that we can use to buy the stuff to live.

So, some financial guy, a week or two ago, bought large portions of a company that makes light bulbs (among other things). All the pounding and fear aside. Darn it all, he must've known that my light bulb would burn out, and I'm going to have to go get a new one.

Sigh. I wish I was that smart. I would've bought the stock a year ago, cuz I bet we all bought a lot of light bulbs over the past year.

So... what were we afraid of again? Lol, I don't remember.

Excuse me, cause I'm going to need to find my car keys and figure out if I have gas in my car and where are those shoes I bought so my feet wouldn't get cold?

Fun with a cookie feast

There are lots of funny times that happen in our home.

All of our children have different passions and personalities. So, our 4 year old, Aaron, tends to be a light sleeper, in fact, we like to call him the night roamer. He has this nickname because he tends to wake up at 3am, 4am or 5am depending on the day of the week? We think he acquired the bad gene for it from his Dad (go figure, lol). Heather and I accuse me because she likes her sleep and I have traditionally been the 4 hours a night and how come the day hasn't started yet, person.

Well, the other night I was sleeping and our serious, almost 5, 4 year old got up during the night. Probably around 4am. He woke me up and announced that he was hungry. I decided, in my infinite lack of wisdom, that it was too early for him to eat and if he would like a sippy cup with Koolaid, would that suffice? He affirmed, at least I think he did, because I was in that half groggy state between awake and asleep where I was refusing to wake up quite yet and start my day.

I stumbled around the kitchen and got him a sippycup, turned the pre-school or toon disney channel on and laid back down on the loveseat to go to sleep. (All of this usually prompts him to play on the computer or watch cartoons.)

Well, the usual was not for that morning. It seems the evening before we had some packages of Vienna Finger, shortbread type cookies and some double stuff chocolate filling type cookie and had left them on the kitchen counter.

Well, Aaron decided that KoolAid was probably not enough, he was still hungry. So, he turned the tv down, grabbed a second comforter to tuck me in (I of course am oblivious and sawing many zzz's) and went exploring into the kitchen.

The end result was that I was getting hot and trying to figure out why the living room had gotten so quiet, if he was watching tv. So, I sat up on the love seat looking around, trying to figure out where Aaron was, and calling his name. There was no response. So I got up and walked over to the computer desk and there was Aaron, with a pile of cookie shells. He had opened every one and licked all the cream out!

I stood there, amused and dismayed and told him he needed to take the cookie shells to the kitchen table. He looked at me with big, solemn eyes, and said "Do I just throw them away, Dad, or do I save them for Ryan?"

Somewhere between laughing and getting upset about the cookie disaster (clearly, the parents fault :-P ) I said to him sternly and gruffly, as he looked up at me with eyes as big as nervous saucers, "No Aaron, you don't throw them away... You are supposed to eat the shells with milk."


He took a step back, in surprise, I think expecting to get in trouble and said "Ok". So, I poured him a glass of milk and he proceeded to dunking and munching.

Halfway through as I'm sitting in the living room again (not going back to sleep this time!) I hear his voice, all matter of fact and as if you had asked him the cure to world hunger, muffled by a mouthful of cookies and milk saying "You know Dad, this is really good with milk!"

Calm, peace and joy in the storm

Have you ever met someone with that infectious can-do attitude? How about that "the sky is falling, I'm giving chicken little a run for his money"? Who do you want to spend time with? Who do you spend time with?

So many industries today have reasons for negativity, layoffs, off-shoring, shaky money markets... All of these make people uncomfortable, nervous and worried. Many pundits (important talkers about stuff) report the sky is falling. It's good for their jobs. Chicken Little, real or not, sells. Should we be buying? Why are we spending our time with Chicken Little?

As a community, as a nation, as a free world we can't afford to buy the fullness of that story. We need to shake it off. Buying Chicken Little isn't about money markets and banks rippling in trouble. It's really about our peace in the midst of a storm. Markets stabilize. In the case of the US, our Congress realized the need to infuse cash and that is taking place.

That infusion made some people more secure. The emotions and feelings of people running stock markets, banks and insurers turned more positive, and they started buying again. And now, everything will continue along the tracks that give us confidence in our nations monetary stability.

So, how do you stay calm in the midst of that storm? The clouds were big and black, banks consolidated quickly in days and weeks that normally would have taken years. Some banks got hit by the economic lightening and were sold in the resulting fire sale. Now the US markets are shaking off the ash and dust, and some of our foreign friends and neighbors are picking up their firefighting equipment, because the storm has moved.

Criticism of how the US is handling and has handled this financial storm, is rippling everywhere. We made decisions, acted on them and are moving forward. So, now many analysts will pull out their pencils, dust off their keyboards and tell us everything we've done wrong and are doing wrong. But, we are going to keep moving forward. In spite of all the talk.

There are still brushfires here. There are many who are personally in the storm and have been for a while. Before the market and bank problems even began, and for multiple reasons. There are so many critics. So many Chicken Little's. Some know our lives and some don't. Many say they would do something else, what we are doing is wrong. But, in spite of all that, do we walk in peace? Do we walk in the calm and joy that is so infectious and can change the minds and hearts of men?

While everything around us may not cooperate, or the storms and complexities of the moment may seem overwhelming, whether hurricanes, destroyed homes, health, troubled financial and housing markets, gas prices, layoffs, offshoring, downsizing, foreclosures and whatever else you can think of, there is peace and joy available.

See, troubles come and go and come again. They have since the beginnning of time. There is a foundation that is stronger than time itself, that no manner of turmoil can shake.

This is where my peace, my joy comes from. It comes from Christ. It comes from the joy of my salvation! My confidence, peace and joy comes from who God is in His word and in me. See, the great mystery is this, God's plan is not for condemnation or judgement, its one of salvation. We feel condemned because of sin.

For some, that self condemnation, is that nagging feeling that follows them around that something just isn't right. For others, it gets down to a dragged down, self-loathing, knowing that something is horribly wrong inside and wishing it could change. God sent His son, Jesus, blameless and without sin, to become sin for us. To take the punishment for our sins. He did this, not so we would continue to live in this horrible loathing of ourselves, waiting for the big stick to bop us, but that we would have life and have it more abundantly!

As a Christian, I can tell you that I walk in the joy of my salvation. I want to share that joy, that peace, this ultimate gift with you. And, as some things in this world get scarier and more troublesome, I want to share Jesus with you, not some wavy, ghosty image, but the Christ, who wants to give you life and joy and peace in the midst of your storms. The Christ who died on the cross for my and your sins, the Christ who wants to live in our hearts and give us true peace and joy, not founded in the things or circumstances around us. He is the one who rose on the third day.

It's simple. It's not rocket science, its not stock and bank analysis. He wants to take all our baggage and carry it for us, to give us rest.

This is the success, calm, peace and joy plan I'm glad I took a long time ago. That if I would speak with my words Jesus is Lord and believe in my heart, that God raised Him from the dead, I would be redeemed and He would come to live in my heart.

After that, walk in the joy of your salvation. Being a Christian isn't about moping around in defeat, its about walking in peace and joy that supersedes our circumstances, even our health, finances or foolishness. Share that peace, that joy with people and you will be giving them something that is stronger than any oil consortium, any financial market any personal or national crisis.

In our weakness, He is strong. 2nd Corinthians 12:9 "And he said to me, 'My grace is enough for you: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.' ...."