Timeout!

Please take some time to watch this video. Or at least watch the first three minutes.


Having done that, take some time to pray for this family and keep this in mind.


It's the middle of the semester. There are two or three weeks of "tax time" left. You need a break.


Call a timeout. Get on your knees. Lift this family up in your prayers. I don't know them. You might know them, you might not. It doesn't matter.


These children of God need prayer. Why are you still reading this?


Get on it Christian.


Pray. 

Bring It

A single Thought has been running through my head all day, repeating over and over and over and over. I can’t wrap my mind around it no matter how hard I try. It’s a puzzling Thought that turns the gears of my mind in opposite directions and grinds them on each other until they are tempted to turn into dust piles.

This persistent Thought sits in the corners of my subconscious and lurks in the shadows of my cranium. The Thought causes sadness as I reflect on my current state of being in light of the ramifications of the outcome of the Thought. The Thought also brings me great joy and gladness and makes me want to raise my hands and cry out to everyone who will listen to the wondrous Thought that fills my head. And then it hits me:

The Thought is in truth a Reality. A Promise. A Hope. A Motivation. But I like Promise best. A Promise to me from the One who gave me physical breath on September 13, 1990, and then gave me spiritual breath the day I trusted in the power of His death, burial, and resurrection. A Promise that is so eternal, so secure, and so unmovable.

Come at me. I dare you. I have a Promise that trumps all others. I can’t be silenced. If my praise is snuffed out there will be others who take my place, whether these witnesses be animate or inanimate. All of your threats are idle and empty when you compare them to my Promise.

I’m Heaven-bound y'all.

Bring it.

An Ornithological Expedition

emphasis on "a.m."

The alarm clock in my room read 3:49 a.m. My friend Ethan woke me up barely 4 minutes ago. I stumbled around finishing packing the necessities for the day ahead. Why am I up at 4 in the morning on a Saturday in the middle of a college semester? One word: birds.

This is my theory: unless it's illegal or immoral, you should try everything in this life at least once. You never know what lessons you might learn or people you might meet that you wouldn't have if you had been afraid to try something new. So there I went, at 4 in the morning, heading off to look for birds.

Ethan drove for about 2 and a half hours to the Santee National Wildlife Refuge in Santee, SC. The refuge is situated around Lake Marion, which is named after Sir Francis Marion or the "Swamp Fox." We arrived a little before 7 a.m. The official "bird walk" was not scheduled to start until 7:30. When the others arrived we started out.

There were three target birds: American White Pelicans, Sandhill Cranes, and a Le Conte's Sparrow. This species of sparrow is not commonly found in SC and is a great addition to any dedicated birder's bird list. We spent about 2 1/2 hours looking for the pelicans and cranes in one area of the refuge, and then went to another area of the refuge and spent 2 or 3 more hours looking for the sparrow.

We did not see any of the birds we had hoped to. However, we saw many other birds along the way. 

A song sparrow

I feel like a badger wearing a suit should live in the hole in the tree above...

The image in my mind when I hear the word "swamp"

My friend Ethan and his Nikon friend

While we were looking for sparrows one of the group found a deer antler. I wanted to keep it, but then decided to donate it to the Wildlife Refuge for the "Touch" table display. 

Lake Marion at sunrise (facing SW)

Look at the thickness...of the antler I'm holding...

So far, no pelicans, cranes, or Le Conte's sparrows. The group disbanded and Ethan and I decided to go check out the Native American burial mound. The mound is 30 feet high, 30 feet wide and almost 50 feet long. 

To give you a perspective, that's 5'9" me up there at the top

We decided to head out to where the pelicans were supposed to be one more time. It was around 2 in the afternoon and it was just Ethan and me this time, so we went quietly. We saw a lot of brush sparrows along the way. We arrived at the dock seen in the third picture of this post. We looked out across the lake, and lo and behold, pelicans!

Three pelicans, some ducks, a seagull or two (not pictured) and some cormorants (Photo credit: Ethan Chaffee)

There they are! We were about 500 yards away looking through binoculars and a camera lens, but we found the pelicans nonetheless. This fact made the three hour drive and the insane waking hour completely worth it. 

On the way home Ethan missed a turn and was driving down the detour when he spotted a "Loggerhead Shrike" on a power line beside the road. We shot several pretty good pictures of it. To be honest the shrike was my favorite bird of the day. I love the simple black, gray, and white design. 

He was very curious as to why we wanted his picture...

...we told him it was simply for research. 

There's no moral today dear friends. Just a few pictures of birds, bird watchers, and bird brains. The last photograph is to remind you to try new things. 

You never know where the path you've always wondered about will end up taking you.

"...and I— I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference."

For the Birds

Today I got up at 4 a.m. to drive three hours to Santee, SC and go bird watching. Now, I know that your first reaction is probably along the lines of "Bird watching? Like watching birds? That activity everyone makes fun of?" Maybe you took the polite approach and said "Bird watching, wow, that's, neat, yeah, welllll I guess I'll be going now..." Quite possibly you simply said "Bird watching, how boring and lame!" Or maybe you actually thought to yourself "Bird watching, I should try that sometime..."

I will be posting later this week with pictures and such from the events of today. In the mean time I have a thought for you. There are over 140 known species of sparrows. Each species has its own distinct habitat, song, mating ritual, nesting technique, migration habit, and plumage. Every bird is unique from the others and all of them lead individual lives. I often find myself looking up at a bird and thinking, "Hey look, a bird" and then continuing on my day without considering all of the factors making that one bird different from the rest of the birds on the power lines next to it. 

I realized that I often look up from myself and see a person and think "Hey look, a person" and then continue on my day. I don't stop to consider all of the factors that make that person different from all of the rest of the people on the sidewalk. Each individual has his own habits, favorite songs, ways he looks for love, place that he calls home, drive to work/school, and style of clothing. Each person leads a distinct life.

Matthew 10:29-31 says, "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows." 

If God cares about little tiny sparrows so much that He keeps track of how many there are on the planet at any given moment, think how much He must care for each individual person. God loves us! He gives us what is best for us.

How can we help but love Him in return and reflect His love to the individuals around us?

The Wilderness

When I arrived at the book of Joshua this past week, I'll be honest, I was excited. I had conquered the Pentateuch! I was finally moving on to a book with a little more action. As you may know the last three books of the Pentateuch consist of lengthy descriptions of proper tabernacle assembly/transportation, sacrifices, cleansing rituals, worship, daily life, the law, and how to properly behave as an Israelite and child of God. Not exactly elementary Sunday School felt-board material.

The first 11 chapters of Joshua did not fail to deliver. From Jericho to the Hittites, Israel battles Canaanites left and right. One of my favorite verses is Joshua 14:12 when Caleb (an old man by this time) says "...give me this mountain...if so be the LORD will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out..." That's the spirit! Give me this mountain! I'll drive these giants out with my bare hands! King David might kill a giant, but I took out a whole mountain full of them! <fist pump>

However, there are a lot of verses in the book of Joshua devoted to describing how the Promised Land was divided up between the tribes of Israel. Here's a quick example from the 13th chapter: "And Moses gave unto the tribe of the children of Reuben inheritance according to their families. And their coast was from Aroer, that is on the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that is in the midst of the river, and all the plain by Medeba..." That right there is very specific, but in reality, how does it apply to me as I try to interact with other 21st century believers? There are 8 more verses after these two that are dedicated to the borders of the tribe of Reuben. These verses sound very similar to the passages in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy that contain lists and numbers and rules and logistics. It was very tempting to put my head down, plow through, and hold out hope that Judges contained some more explosions and car chase scenes.

And then (you guessed it) a verse (or 2) jumped up off the page, grabbed my eyes, and said, "Look! This is why all these verses!"

Joshua 21:43-45 "And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. And the LORD gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand. There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass."

I realized "why all these verses." My God is proving to me that He keeps His promises. He told Israel that He would give them a land that was their own if they obeyed Him. Here's the proof! So why not spend 10 chapters recording exactly how the land should be divided among the children of Israel?

Think about this with me for a minute. Israel started with a promise from God to Abraham that Abraham's offspring would become a great nation. The family survived the famine through the provision of God through Joseph. They suffered bondage and slavery in Egypt. They made it out of Egypt only to face the wilderness. They wandered for 40 years in the desert without a permanent home. They lost 36 men at Ai. And now God is showing them that after all they have been through, He keeps His promises.

When the kids of the wilderness wanderers asked their parents about the "Traveling Times," I bet more than a few parents took their children to the doorway of their homes when they were done with the story, pointed at the Promised Land spreading out before them, put their arm around their child, and said, "The Wilderness was worth it."

An Inheritance Fit for a Prince

I was reading through Joshua today and I was enjoying it. Stories of battles and God's power shown in the life of the "least of the nations." Then along came chapters 12 and 13. Chapter 12 is a giant list of the defeated Canaanite kings. Chapter 13 talks about Joshua getting old and which parts of the Promised Land were given to which tribes and a bunch of names that I can't pronounce. Trust me, its quite scintillating.

And then I reached the end of chapter 13. Here's what verse 33 says: "But unto the tribe of Levi Moses gave not any inheritance: the LORD God of Israel was their inheritance, as he said unto them."

"...the LORD God of Israel was their inheritance..."

Jehovah was Levi's inheritance!

Sorry for shouting. But think about it! All the other tribes could sit around and compare how much land they had. Reuben and Gad had even more bragging rights because they had a little community to the east of Jordan. I guess you could say they lived outside the Promised Land before it was cool. But then you had Levi.

Levi was given the "LORD God of Israel" for their inheritance. As you can probably tell this caused me to stop and think for quite a while during my reading time. How great would that have been? If the God of Heaven was my family's inheritance...I can't even imagine the joy and honor that must have been. What a privilege! And then another thought hit me. I have been given an inheritance. And it is the same as Levi's! I have been given eternal life with God the Father in heaven, bought through the precious blood of Christ and confirmed by the presence of the Holy Spirit. 

Who needs land? Who needs a new car or a big house? Who needs a pair of shoes for each day of the week? Who needs the latest phone, iPod, computer, sunglasses, book, shirt, hoody, camera, gadget, or [insert your favorite trendy possession here]? As born-again believers we have God for an inheritance! We have been blessed with the gifts of mercy, grace, and freedom from sin. We've been instructed to inform others of the fact that this inheritance is for anybody who will accept it. We've been entrusted with the responsibility of representing the God of the Universe to His creatures.

How are you investing your inheritance?

Wind

This is a paragraph I wrote in high school. The point I was trying to get across has really been hitting home with me lately. 

There was no wind. The boy paused in his rowing to catch his breath and glanced up at the small sail attached to his boat. It hung limp against the pole that did its best to be called a mast. With a sigh the boy looked over his shoulder towards his destination. Fog partially covered the island the rowboat was pointed at. Trees rose up and disappeared into the soupy air. The mist didn't move, as there was no wind to move it. The young lad wiped a gritty mixture of sweat and the thick air that surrounded him off his forehead. He lifted his hands from the paddles and rubbed them on his jacket. Blisters were developing between his thumb and pointer finger. Gingerly he massaged his wrists. Water gently lapped against the sides of the boat. Peaceful sounds of evening came across the water from all directions. Using his shirtsleeve he wiped his eyes clear. Then, once again taking up the oars, he put his mind to his work and resumed rowing. After all, no one ever got anywhere just waiting for the wind.

Hamster Cages

If you have ever owned a hamster before you will agree with me on several things. First of all, they are pretty stinkin’ cute, at least when they aren’t biting down on your finger. Second, you don’t want them loose in your house, especially if you own a cat. And third, after about a week and a half, the cage really starts to stink. And not in the cute way as previously mentioned.

My sisters and I kept our hamsters in fish tanks. We would put a layer of fresh small animal bedding on the bottom, place the water and food dish side by side, and include some objects for the lil’ guy to climb on. A slide, an empty toilet paper tube, and the ever necessary hamster wheel. My hamster was a black and white dwarf named M&M. I have never met a friendlier hamster. She lived to be so old that she became blind and her joints grew stiff. When I realized she was blind I made sure to put every object back in her cage in the exact same spot as it was before so she could find her food and bedding despite not being able to see.

When you clean a hamster cage, you need somewhere to put the little creature until you are done. You cannot let it run free in your house. If you did that someone might step on it, it could get stuck under the refrigerator, it might mistake the electrical outlet for a snack, and if there’s a cat around...*shudder*. 

If you are like me, you grab that handy dandy plastic ball made especially for miniature creatures. You unscrew the lid, plop the hamster inside, return the lid tightly to its place, and set the ball on the ground. The hamster then proceeds to run into every chair leg in the room and aimlessly wander around and around until you have completed the cage cleaning process.

At this point in my life I feel like a hamster.

God is “cleaning out my cage.”

It’s almost as if God came along and took me out of my comfort zone and put me in a plastic ball. He started taking away my familiar bedding. He threw out that food I liked and replaced it with new food. He cleaned out the insides of the cage and is rearranging everything. 

It’s scary. 

I want to run the plastic ball of my current circumstances up against the glass of my cage and see what exactly it is God is doing. “Are you taking my favorite slide? Don’t do that! That’s MY slide! And the new toilet paper tube?? You just put that in there like two weeks ago! What will I do without it? I won’t have any fun with whatever you replace those familiar things with!”

Philippians 4:19 says, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.” (emphasis added) Every need! God knows my every need. If that’s the case, why do I care what He takes away? He’s going to supply my every need. Right now all He wants me to do is to run into chair legs, and trust Him. He’s got this covered. He’s been cleaning cages since before the world began. He knows exactly what I need. And He’s promised to give it to me.

Are you trusting God with your “cage?”

Quotient Quotables

Here are some of my favorite quotes from people I know. Some of them are famous and others are not famous...yet.

"Young people, the simplest things in life are often the most profound." - Dr. Bob Wood

"A life without sprinkles is a life unfulfilled." - Jeremy Knudson

"I miss the wind trying to steal street signs as it drags us along by our scarves down the leaf littered pavement." - Torie Brame

"Who's up for the book: "Relationships: A Mess Worth Making"?" - Janell Knudson

"If you are seeking the Will of God, He won't hide it from you." - Nathan Crockett

"Creativity is the ability to see the connection between the disconnected." - Dr. Lonnie Polson

"Even if the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, it still has to be mowed" - Unknown

"Let's go boys!" - Marcus Wilkes or Jeremy Knudson

"Always behave like a duck. Keep calm and unruffled on the surface--but paddle like crazy underneath." - Mr. Moose

"The thing to keep in mind is that every person you see, regardless of race, social status, mental abilities, or gifted-ness, it really doesn't matter, they are still an image-bearer of Christ." - Nathanael Ferrari

"When it comes to loving, ones actions and attitudes toward others reflect their true doctrinal foundation." - a book my Mom was reading

"I guess we're finding out that God has a bigger and better plan for all of us." - Jeff Hammer

"I love you." - my Dad

Just A Dream

I will be the first to admit that I have experienced my share of nightmares. The following dreams are four in particular that I can remember vividly. Only one of them occurred more than once.

(Bear with me on these. Remember, they are dreams, and I was young.)

The first one happened when I was 5 or 6 years old. My family lives in a storefront. The street goes on without end when you look to your left. Strip mall style stores line the sidewalks. If you look to your right you will notice that the stores end abruptly in a wall of jungle. A little path goes back behind the storefront across the street from our house. I am sitting in the window watching the world go by. Suddenly a fistfight breaks out in the middle of the street in front of my house. It grows and grows until there are about thirty people fighting each other. For some reason, my Dad decides to go outside and stop the fight. As soon as he gets there, the fight breaks up and soldiers appear out of nowhere. They haul my Dad off to be forced to become a soldier in the army of a ruthless dictator. A friend of the family runs out of our house to try and stop them, but he gets hauled off too. I wake up crying and thinking I that might never see my Dad again.

The second dream came when I was 7 or 8. We are in a strange city (Seattle I think, except I’ve never been to Seattle. However, I would like to go there someday. Not because of this dream, but just to see it). My Mom and Dad leave me with my siblings and tell me not to let them out of my sight. We are staying in a two-story red brick apartment building. There are two guys in the apartment who are totally cool and let us play with their model cars and airplanes and all of their other cool toys. They have a black-and-white cat, or a skunk; I can’t remember which. The animal gets outside through the second story window and my youngest brother and sister go outside to find it with the promise that they will be right back. As soon as they get outside the two older guys turn on the TV and find out that a flood is destroying the city. When we run to the window there are hordes of people streaming by carrying everything they can and running from the water. I run down the stairs and try to find my siblings in the crowd. I search and search, I see so many faces, I see so many people, but I can’t find either of my siblings. When I look back towards the flood I see a huge suspension bridge towering over the city with water pouring over it. It hasn’t reached us yet but it’s only a matter of minutes. I run back inside and the two guys hand me the phone: it’s my parents. “I can’t find them” is all I can say and I repeat it several times. I run back outside and the dream ends with me finding the cat (or skunk) that my siblings were searching for, seeing my parents walking towards me with their suitcases, water still pouring over the bridge in the sky behind them as I sit on a log holding the black-and-white animal and crying.

The third dream is short. Once again I’m about 7 or 8 years old. I’m in my old house at N Poe Street, and my brother is outside on playing on the front lawn. I’m watching him and a green tractor drives by on the road. All of a sudden I look up and there is a 50-foot glowing skeleton coming from the direction of Worlds of Fun. I scream to my brother to get inside and start to run outside but its too late. The skeleton sits on him before I can get to him. I remember pulling his head up and his eyes being closed. I look up and the skeleton is walking towards downtown Kansas City and that’s when I notice the other 25 or so giant glowing skeletons that are all headed the same direction. Apparently somebody disturbed a burial ground. I remember going upstairs to check on my brother after I woke up from that one.

(There’s another dream attached to this one, I think, where my family is walking through the mall and there are alligators in the fountain and one grabs my sister and I wake up as I’m pulling her away from the alligator while its pulling her into the water.)

The last dream happened twice. We go to visit my Dad’s parents and for some reason they live in a glass house. This house sits on a corner lot, except the street on either side of the lot is a highway. It’s an elongated triangle, with the point being about two football fields from the front door and not quite a football field across at the bottom of the triangle. In both dreams I remember wandering through the house and then going outside to play on the front lawn. Right as I get to the door I look up and see my siblings on the lawn. All of a sudden a tractor-trailer starts to lose control at the far end of the yard. Its wheels ride up on the curb and then the grass, and then the entire vehicle is careening full-speed towards my brother and sister. I’m stuck in slow motion and the dream ends right after the truck hits them.

I don’t know what these dreams say about me, but I’m happy to report that I haven’t had one in quite a while. I’ve heard dreams are the minds way of cleaning house. I most certainly hope so.

When Nobody is Listening

If you own a Facebook or Twitter account you have probably seen “What I Am Doing At This Exact Moment” updates such as these:

“On my way 2 the gym, gonna get big today!”

“Just had a chicken sandwich. Who else likes chicken sandwiches?”

“Driving 2 the carwash with my bestie!”

Or maybe your news feed is full of “This Statement Is Directed At Someone In Particular But Only I Know Who” updates like these:

“What gives you the right to do this to me?”

“Oh OK, so that’s how you want to be, I see, I guess that makes perfect sense considering your past actions...”

And I know we all have a friend who wants to post a status that gets 100+ likes and 57 comments so they go with “Witty” or “Completely Random” updates like:

“The waitress asked for a tip, so I told her never to plant her crops while there was still frost on the ground”

“Wow! I was waiting in line at the grocery store and this guy comes up and he’s like ‘is this your koala’ and when I turned around he was holding a bunch of bananas!!!! I was like ‘no...’ and then he turned around and left! Creepy!!!”

Finally, you always have that one friend who constantly updates with no meaningful content. You eventually block this friend from your news feed, and forget they inhabit your Friend List until the day they “like” your profile picture. You then spend 15 minutes browsing through the last three months of their life until you read a post that makes you think, “Oh yeah, that’s why I removed them from my news feed.”

Sadly I have only covered about 1/3 of the normal types of updates you may see on any given day on your social media forum of choice. I didn’t even get to go over Song Lyrics, Relationship Announcements/Status, Inside Jokes With Only Four Other Friends, Inspirational Quotes, Actual Updates From People I Care About, or Bible Verses. Anyone with Internet access and an email address is bound and determined to make their voice heard.

By now you’re probably thinking, “Is David just fed up with his Facebook friends and decided to rant about it on his blog?” (And maybe, “Am I one of the aforementioned people he blocked from his news feed??” If you are, it’s nothing personal, I just would caution you. Proverbs 10:19 says “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise.”) But, dear reader, as much fun as it would be to continue describing the current members of society and their use of social media, that is not the intent of this post.

Have you ever thought of a great Facebook status, typed it into your phone or computer, pushed “post,” and then watched as the “likes” piled up? Isn’t that a great feeling? There are people outside of your blood relatives that care about what you have to say. You are a meaningful individual, with an important opinion and a real reason for living, who just made a difference in 16 people’s lives.

On the other hand, I’m sure you have thought of a status of seemingly similar magnitude, hurriedly posted it online, and then sat and waited for the likes to come. One, maybe two random friends will acknowledge your genius. Most of the time, however, no one “likes” your status (for the record, mothers and grandmothers don’t count when tallying the most “likes”). You stare at the wall, with a silly feeling inside, wondering if you misspelled a word or accidentally offended some one by what you said or if, heaven forbid, nobody actually cares about what you have to say. Yet you return to the online world, day after day, seeking fulfillment, satisfaction, acceptance, and love from people that you sometimes only see via profile pictures.

Psalm 40:5 gives us the following promise. “Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.” God thinks about us more than we can even begin count. He thinks about you! He thinks about me! He thinks about each one of us individually, making a note every single time you finish shampooing and the three hairs still stuck to your hands wash off and go down the drain. He then subtracts three from the total number on your head before you got in the shower. That’s how much God cares about you. This is the God of all creation, the Ruler of every nation, the Author of your salvation and King of the final destination! He is the I Am, the One Who has always existed and Who has no end. The Mighty God cares for you!

John 9:31, Exodus 16:8, 1 John 4:6, and 5:14 are all verses that talk about God hearing your prayers. If you have confessed your sins, His ears are open. If you are His child, His heart is turned towards you. If you ask in faith, He gives to you and then even more than you ask for (James 1:5). If you believe in Him, His Son intercedes before the Throne on your behalf. Don’t you get it? God has permanently “liked” your status! He has given you an entire Book of comments on your life. He knows what you’re going to pray to Him about and He wants to hear it anyways!

If you are still with me, thank you so much for reading this entire post. Here is what I’m driving at: if you have God on your side, Who can’t wait for the next time you talk to Him, Who thinks about you all the day long, you ought to take time to “update” Him. Get on your knees. Tell Him your heart. Tell Him your desires, your wants, your needs, your wishes, your fears, your goals, your sorrows, your triumphs, and your love. Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” What a promise!

Update God this week. He’s always listening to you. Especially when nobody else is.