With Thanksgiving being tomorrow, I thought I’d list a few things I’m thankful for. I encourage you to think about it and make your own list!
Family. I have had more opportunity this year to spend time with my brothers, sister, and parents than I have in several years. What a blessing to have a family that loves each other, loves God, enjoys making music together and living life together, and has so much fun doing all of it. Closer to home, nay, at home, we are one more in number than we were last Thanksgiving; it’s hard to believe little Addie Grace is over 8 months old now. What a blessing to have a loving wife and precious daughters.
Skilled Doctors. This one hit home a couple of weeks ago when I had to take Becky to the ER. It was one in the morning, she was very sick, I was very concerned and tired. What a blessing to have a wonderful nurse and doctor who were skilled and kind. That someone would pay for years of education just to get a job where they have to work overnights all so they can care for hurting people? Blessings on them.
God’s Provision. The leadership at Noelridge planned and encouraged a special Thanksgiving offering this year. We were all encouraged to seek God’s guidance in what He would have us give and then to trust Him to supply it. Our goal was $12,000, which is more than 3x what we receive on a normal Sunday, over and above regular giving. We took the offering last Sunday and the Lord provided over $15,000 in the special offering, on top of the regular offering. Praise Him!
Old Friends. Lydia and I were friends back in Jr High. When our family moved to Texas it pretty much put the damper on that and we drifted apart. I last saw her in 1994, and hadn’t heard from her in several years. But she tracked me down a couple of years ago and we have corresponded from time to time. Finally, last Sunday, she and her sister Candace made the three-hour trek from Illinois to Iowa to visit for a day. It was fun to meet Candace, to introduce Lydia to Becky and the girls, and to spend an afternoon catching up.
Good Music. Did you really think I could write a blog post without mentioning music of some sort? I will ridicule all the radio stations playing wall-to-wall Christmas music already, but I must confess I have had Christmas music of a sort playing repeatedly over the past few weeks. The sort in question isn’t your traditional Christmas stuff, but rather is Andrew Peterson’s wonderful Behold the Lamb of God. (You can stream the whole album from his website. Go listen to it.) The truth of the Christmas story told in an original way. Becky and I are headed to Omaha on December 1st to see Andrew and his huge cast of friends perform it. I can’t wait.
This is only the beginning of what could be a really long list. Lord, remind me to be thankful every day, not just once a year.
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A call to develop “third places” – places outside of home and work that we can have community.
Our enemy, our captor is no Pharoah on the Nile
Our toil is neither mud, nor brick, nor sand.
Our ankles bear no callouses from chains, yet, Lord, we’re bound
Imprisoned here we dwell in our own land
Deliver us, deliver us, oh Yahweh hear our cry
And gather us beneath Your wings tonight.
Our sins they are more numerous than all the lambs we’ve slain
Our shackles, they were made with our own hands
Our toil is our atonement, and our freedom Yours to give
So Yahweh, break this silence if You can…
Deliver us, deliver us, oh Yahweh hear our cry
And gather us beneath Your wings tonight,
Deliver us, deliver us, oh Yahweh hear our cry
And gather us beneath Your wings tonight.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I have longed
To gather you beneath my gentle wings…
“Deliver Us” – Andrew Peterson, from Behold the Lamb of God: The True Tall tale of the Coming of Christ
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Good thoughts. We simply have to allow leaders to be more transparent.(tags: religion leadership)
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Good advice from Pastor Josh.
If you’re really paying attention, you’ll notice I tweaked a couple things in my blog stylesheet. I modified the blockquotes a bit so that they’re more visible, and also so they’re aligned correctly when used within comments.
This theme works really well for me, so I’m happy to just tweak it here and there to make some small improvements. 
During a conversation with Becky while driving somewhere the other night, discussing someone:
Me: “He is… unique.”
Becky: “Yes, yes he is.”
Me: “In fact, that’s the one thing you can say about every person who has ever lived – they are or were unique. Isn’t it ironic that the one thing we all have in common is our uniqueness?”
Becky: < changes the subject >
This Sunday will be my last Sunday to lead worship at Noelridge for a while. It has been a while since I made the official announcement, and I think in the interim some good strides have been made to get things organized and prepared for my departure. I’m sure there will still be some kinks to work out, some things I’ve forgotten and the like, but they’ll get the figured out, and I’ll be available to answer questions.
I’m looking forward to the break. Suddenly my Monday afternoons are free from staff meetings (though I may still attend from time to time), my Tuesday nights are free from planning services, my Wednesday nights are free from worship team practice, and my Sunday mornings are now flexible so I can attend one service of my choice. There will definitely be some schedule adjustment, I think for the better.
So, this Sunday is the last one. We’re celebrating the church’s 50th anniversary this week. We’ll have a few of the former pastors in attendance, and a bunch of old-timers. Should be a neat time.
Happy Birthday today to my father, Don Hubbs, piano technician and town clerk extrordinaire. Relationships with your parents as you get older are funny things; somewhere in there they make the move from being authorities whom you put up with to being wise older people who you can learn so much from. I can’t pinpoint the day that my perspective changed, but I know that now I am benefiting from the wisdom and example of my dad.
Thanks, Dad, for being a good one!
Those of you who know me know that I am a voracious reader. (Those of you who don’t know me just found out.) Every night for many years I have spent my last waking hour in bed reading some book or another. (If the book is too interesting, I spend a few of my last waking hours in bed… and often end up short on sleep as a result.) I enjoy many genres, but find myself most drawn to history, theology, science fiction (but not the fantasy branch of sci-fi so much), and then military/adventure novels. I was big into Tom Clancy as a kid, and branched out to similar authors when Clancy’s pen dried up.
I average 1 or 2 books per week, depending on how busy my week is. Lately, though, I have become weary of my regular diet of mindless adventure. Much of it is tired retreads. I feel like I’m wasting my time. Back at the DG2006 conference I bought G. K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man and I’m enjoying it quite a lot. But it, too, will soon join the ranks of books I’ve already read, and I’ll be looking for something else.
So here’s the deal. Do you have any books to recommend that I read? They could be fiction, non-fiction, whatever. Just something you think I’d enjoy or benefit from. Leave a comment with the name and author of the book. In return, I will find them at the local library, read them, and then post my thoughts about the book. Sound like a plan?
Those of you who know me know that I am a voracious reader. (Those of you who don’t know me just found out.) Every night for many years I have spent my last waking hour in bed reading some book or another. (If the book is too interesting, I spend a few of my last waking hours in bed… and often end up short on sleep as a result.) I enjoy many genres, but find myself most drawn to history, theology, science fiction (but not the fantasy branch of sci-fi so much), and then military/adventure novels. I was big into Tom Clancy as a kid, and branched out to similar authors when Clancy’s pen dried up.
I average 1 or 2 books per week, depending on how busy my week is. Lately, though, I have become weary of my regular diet of mindless adventure. Much of it is tired retreads. I feel like I’m wasting my time. Back at the DG2006 conference I bought G. K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man and I’m enjoying it quite a lot. But it, too, will soon join the ranks of books I’ve already read, and I’ll be looking for something else.
So here’s the deal. Do you have any books to recommend that I read? They could be fiction, non-fiction, whatever. Just something you think I’d enjoy or benefit from. Leave a comment with the name and author of the book. In return, I will find them at the local library, read them, and then post my thoughts about the book. Sound like a plan?