Nonsensical Ramblings of Mark

There are a few things that I have known to be true that have not translated into concrete action: God's gift of Christ was personal, need meeting (for us), and costly (for Him) Time is the currency of the 21st century I need to imitate God in every area of my life The gifts I give should reflect His nature and reflect the great gift of His Son All that being said it is easy for me to see where I have missed it. It is very easy for me to give things rather than giving myself. It is easy for me not to invest time in things that are truly important. That being said I have decided that I am going to give some coupons to my boys this year for Christmas. Each one of them is going to get a set so that we can spend some alone time with each other, but they will be able to combine them if they want to. Only two of them (out of six) require spending any money, but I think they will like what I have put together. So, shhh - don't tell them but here they are: Movie Night in the basement (...

While we were waiting for my youngest son to come down the stairs from brushing his teeth hilarity ensued: [Unidentified noise from upstairs] Nan: "Drew? Are you okay?" Drew: "Yes, why?" Nan: "It sounds like you have a bad cough..." Drew: "Oh. No." Nan: "Well, what was that noise?" Drew: "Oh. That was my power spitting." Mark: [under his breath] "Lovely." Nan: [face palm] Yeah...it's never boring.

I am not naive enough (I kind of wish I was) to think that people are doing anything less than mocking Tim Tebow's expression of his faith in the "Tebowing" craze that is happening now. One of the explanations that I heard from a reporter of this phenomenon was (and I am paraphrasing): "Tebowing is the act of taking a kneeling position regardless of what is happening around you." That is a great explanation on a variety of levels, but it sobers me. I always "Tebow" to something or someone. Always. In fact, there is never a minute in my life that I am not "Tebowing". I would like to think that I, exclusively, Tebow to God. That would be the best wouldn't it? That God would be a part of my life to such and extent that my wife and children would be fully and completely loved, my service with His church would be reverently pure, and my work record would be spotless. I would love to think that people would be able to look at my life, my Tebowi...

Hilarity ensued as I left for work this morning:   Mark: [to the boys] "Well, I will see you jamokeses later." Drew: "Jamokeses?" Will: "Daddy, you should call us 'pisans'."   [Uproarious laughter]   Mark: "Um, you guys are much closer to 'O'Malleys' than you are to that."   Yeah...it's never dull.

I hear it all the time and even think it more often than I should: "The weekend was too short"..."My vacation was too short"..."There is not enough time before Christmas"..."The season is too short for all that I need to get done"....and on and on. The fact of the matter is that there is always enough time. Always. I know that I don't always believe that, but to think that God has, somehow, shortchanged me in the amount of time that He has given me to accomplish His will for my life just doesn't compute. To think that He has lavished such grace on me to pay the price for my sinfulness and then not think that the same grace is operating in my life in the length of days that He has given me to accomplish what He has given me to do is irrational at best. And then there is the dissatisfaction I have with Monday, and Tuesday...and every evening except Friday and Saturday. To think that where He has me at this point in time is something that I ...