Ancient Franciscan Prayer

"May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, hard hearts, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live from deep within your heart where God's Spirit dwells. 

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you my reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain into joy. 

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe you can make a difference in this world and in your neighborhood, so that you will courageously try what you don't think you can do, but in Jesus Christ you'll have the strength necessary to do. 

May God bless you so that you remember we are all called to continue God's redemptive work of love and healing in God's place, in and through God's name, in God's Spirit, continually creating and breathing new life and grace into everything and everyone we touch."

God help me to live my life this way with every heartbeat. 

Being Fully Present

I spent last weekend with an amazing group of people. We worshipped together, studied God's Word together, shared life's experiences with each other, and had a wonderful time growing in our awareness of God's love for us.  To watch people come to a deeper knowledge of God's love and grace is always thrilling.  Weekends like these change lives and I am so thankful to be a part of them. 

Even though my weekend was terrific, I still feel like I missed something important. My wife and my son were not able to be with me for those three days and I missed them terribly. I struggle when I can't see them for long periods of time. It feels like a piece of me is missing. Even though I am enjoying myself, a large part of me can not fully appreciate everything because I'm not sharing it with those I love most. 

It is times like these that I am reminded to be fully present with my family.  Time goes by so quickly and before we even realize it years have past us by without our knowledge. We can't afford to ignore the time we have with our families. One day we are holding our child in our arms and the next they starting a family of their own. Being fully present means we make the most of every opportunity with the people we love. 

Our son Noah is seven years old. It seems like yesterday he was sitting on my lap and smiling with his little toothless grin. I already miss those days with him. I can not turn back time, but I can make the most of my time with him today.  My challenge is to live every day with the mindset to be fully present in all situations. I know a day is coming when I will watch Noah start a family of his own. I don't want to look back on that day and have regrets. I bet I will wish I had more time playing catch in the back yard and building spaceships with Legos. I think every parent that loves their kids wants more time, but not every parent has to have regrets. Knowing I was fully present every day with my wife and my son is the best gift I can give them and myself. 

So... I'm off to build the next space ship that will kill Darth Vader. Twenty years from now I bet I won't remember one thing I accomplished at the office, but I bet a young man will remember the day his dad came home early to build the best Lego space ship the universe has every seen.