Here we are September 1, 2008.
A year ago, going into Labor Day weekend, I had determined after work I would go home and lay on the sofa all weekend and watch NASCAR and football.
I recall having that weekend to myself and desiring to do nothing!
I received a phone call from a friend (Nat) I had not seen since high school (over 20 years) that Sunday afternoon. He invited me to a Bible Study he was leading and out for coffee at Starbucks afterward.
Well, there went my plans for the weekend. Little did I know - all of my plans for the rest of my life were about to change.
You see, that night was a set up. Yep, I met Lori that Sunday night.
As we were leaving Starbucks, Nat asked if I had plans for Labor Day (There goes those plans too!) I told him I didn’t and he invited me over to his house for a cookout and to swim… Lori was there. He didn’t tell me she was going to be there but she was… I got her phone number… we got married a few weeks later… well, the rest is history.
Here we are a year later… MARRIED! I’m getting on her nerves (educating her) with Fox News, NASCAR, and College Football. I’m showing her how helpless I am with my piles of clothes, inability to take care of myself, etc. You know what? I think she really loves me through all of that. She’s been God’s richest blessing in my life. I was praying for a new Jeep and got a wife! Still dreaming of the new Jeep.
It was this time last year God had begun to do some incredible things in my life as well as Joel’s! I think I will celebrate this time of year for the rest of my life. God filled my life with Lori and he broke through a lot of darkness in my life. I also saw God move in Joel and Kathy’s lives at the same time as they awaited the birth of Abbie. I had been having many long conversations with Joel about how the Holy Spirit was at work in our lives. I would not trade September 2007 for the world!
As I begin the month of September 2008, I want to…
Keep my [your] eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed- that exhilarating finish in and with God – he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!” (Hebrews 12:2-3, The Message).