I took the scenic route to the office this morning.

Now its time for staff meeting and work.

THE END IS NEAR

I saw this guy the other day and just had to post this Sven and Ole humor.

Reverend Ole is the pastor of the local Norwegian Lutheran Church , and Pastor Sven is the minister of the Swedish Covenant Church across the road.

One day they were seen pounding a sign into the ground, that said:

DA END ISS NEAR! TURN YERSELF AROUND NOW BAFOR IT’S TOO LATE!

As a car sped past them, the driver leaned out his window and yelled, “Leave me alone, you Skandihoovian religious nuts!”

From the curve they heard screeching tires and a big splash…

Rev. Ole turns to Pastor Sven and asks, “Do ya tink maybe da sign should yust say, “Bridge Out?”

got to love it.

On a side note, I have listened to “numerology experts” my entire life and not one of the got it right….date setters to major damage to God’s good kingdom work here on the earth.

Steve Lummer

lead pastor PFA

Just sayin'

THE CHOICE TO DENY A VOICE

I just want to say something about not saying anything at all
It is a general fact that when it comes to word budgets the average guy speaks 2,000 to 4,000 words a day and the average woman 6,000 to 8,000. Interesting that there is no law (yet) that governs how many words we are allowed to speak in a day.
What would happen if we toned down the talkativeness just for a few moments of our day?
Could it be that the lost art of the “vow of silence” could help heal the hurts we think we have to talk about everyday?
A monastery in Missouri had this inscription above the entry: “an unguarded tongue dissipates the soul”. Ummm, could “momentary vows of silence” during your day give you the power over negative attitudes and controlling thought patterns that wear us out everyday.
What could possibly be wrong with disciplining ourselves to not speak about every emotion that comes over us.

Saying nothing gives us a power to:

– Deny a voice to the things that are falling apart in your life.
– Mute the habit of rehearsing negative self feedback you talk about everyday.
– Starve out toxic words by giving yourself permission to not speak about them for a change.
– Allow a peace that passes our limited understanding to invade the space that once was reserved for turmoil, anguish and anger.

Instead of feeling like we have to always give a verbal response to everything thing and everyone, sometimes it does your soul good to just smile and nod.

Being slow to speak and slow to become angry does start a domino effect inside us. It is so true that the emotion of tiring anger is closely linked to what we speak.

Give yourself permission to have the pleasure of not speaking. – Try it for a day and see what happens when you chose to not give a voice to certain things that are wearing you out from the inside.

Taming my talk

Steve

Just sayin'

TIRED?

After a weekend of a duathlon on Saturday and a big Sedona bike ride on Sunday I thought this little quote from Bob Hope was fitting.

“Today my heart beat 103,369 times; my blood traveled 168 million miles. I breathed 438 cubic feet of air, I ate three pounds of food. I drank 2.9 pounds of liquid, I perspired 1.43 pints. I generated 450 tons of energy. I spoke 4,800 words. I moved 750 major muscles, and I exercised 7 million brain cells. No wonder I’m all tired out!”

Bikes, Just sayin', Mountain biking, outdoors

Thomas Edison, Mountain Bikes and a Droid

On Thomas Edison’s 164th birthday I wanted to post a blog regarding inventions and gadgets.

I think Edison would be very proud of some of our newest inventions and gadgets we have today in our modern world.

Tonight, a group of us did a night ride on our bikes through part of the Prescott National Forest.

We are stopped for a breather when I looked up and asked, “is that Jupiter or Mars over there in the sky?” – The guy on the bike next to me pulls his Droid out of his back pack and shows us his GoogleSky app on his phone.

Here we are standing in the dark checking out our solar system off a cell phone.

I think Mr. T.E. would be very proud of our newest inventions we have pulled out of our inventive hats.

Happy 164th Birthday Mr. Edision…It was a great ride and I think you would have enjoyed the company.

Steve

Just sayin', Life experiences

Critic or Contender?

I love this quote about the difference between critics and contenders.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt

Just sayin', marriage, Ministry

RELATIONSHIPS OR RELATIONSLIPS?

Have you ever met someone that is so smart or opinionated you can’t get close to them?

Someone so brilliant or so set in THEIR way that not even God is allowed into their world?

I have a personal theory as to why some people cannot stay in a long term relationship.

It might be that selfishness is in the way of allowing others to be included… (Ya think?)

If we have no room for God in our lives, we most likely at some point will not allow anyone else in our lives either.
Here is a diagram that I drew on a napkin for someone once to help explain how every relationship we have here on earth has to be a “relationship triangle” or it won’t work. This applies to every relationship; husband & wife, boyfriend & girlfriend, parent & child, brother & sister, etc. No matter how hard you try to get close to each other, you will never get closer than the opposite sides of the wall that divides you. The only way to get truly close to each other is if each person in the relationship is focusing on their personal relationship with God. As you both grow closer to God, you will both grow closer to each other.

The closer each person is to God, the closer they get to each other.

The further away each person is from God the further away they get from each other.

God has a way of ridding us of selfishness and therefore we become more compassionate of the differences in the people we have in our lives.

A real smart guy said it this way. “My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.” –

“Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.”
“I want to know God’s thoughts; the rest are details.”

Albert Einstein

Just sayin.

Steve

church family, Just sayin'

Love The Foos …Become The Foos

I have played more foosball on Wednesday nights than any other night of the week.

What a great game to connect with people from all ages and gender.

This is tonight at family night.

What is foosball?

Basically foosball is what you see here. A table with 8 rods and ‘table soccer’ figures all over with a ball and some handles. There is a goal at each end and a place to serve on each side in the middle. Each player/team uses their handles to move their men to strike the ball into the opposing teams goal. You always go to your right and defend at your left. The tables are very cleverly build to provide different kinds of rods with different spacing between the men. The game is fast and funny and everyone cheers and laughs. You can play for years and never get board. Don’t be surprised if you get so excited you sweat a little bit from the excitement.

Objective: Use your figures to pass and shoot the ball into your opponents goal while blocking the ball from going into your your own goal. You serve (foos) it, you pass it and you try to score. Always shoot to the right.

Game: A typical game is played to 5 points. Don’t get too caught up in this though, some people play to 7 points or 9 or whatever. A match would normally be best 2 out of 3 games, or maybe 3 out of 5.

Tournaments: The pro’s play for hundreds of thousands of dollars ($100,000) all over the world. At a tournament the pro’s play the same game as anyone else would. They simply do it much faster and with very strict rules. A typical tournament last for 3 to 6 days during which they play for 12 or more hours a day with up to 1000 players involved.

Rules: Foosball rules can be simple or they can be complicated.
-The simple rules would be: Hit the ball into the goal. Your goal is on the left, you try to score to the right.
-More advanced rules would include: No spinning. If you score, the other team serves. Be polite, no swearing.
-Want to see more rules? Check this page of rules.

http://www.foosball.com/content.php?page=89

How to play: Okay, this could get long. Maybe you better check the foosball university later.

http://www.foosball.com/content.php?page=3
Serve: Try to push the ball over to your figures. This can be tricky so practice.
Hitting the ball: Never spin. The best way to strike the ball is with a flick or snap of the wrist and hand. Give it a couple trys then you can get it.
Passing and catching: Be soft, absorb the impact. Don’t over react to the ball. Sort of guide the ball, don’t fight it. Use the ‘force’, don’t think or try to hard.
Shooting: Move the ball along the table before you shoot. Everyone will stay in front of you on defense so you have to move it one way or the other quickly then snap or flick it into the goal. Don’t do a big wind up before you hit the ball. A flick motion is the answer, it just takes a couple try’s to get the knack of it.
Defense: Think of all you men as a team. They move together to make a larger ‘wall’ of defenders. Try not to over react and stay in front of the ball. Remember, the ball will be shot where it is, don’t follow the man.
Blocking slop: Balls roll into the goal on even the best players. The key is to stay calm. Block the corners of the goal with you goalie tilted back. Move to the ball in a steady manner, like playing pong on an old computer game. Don’t jump around the table, be smooth.

Gonna get another table for the house or office soon.

Steve

Just sayin'