Prayer

     I've been wanting to learn more about prayer.  A book titled A Praying Life was recommended to me a while back by Paul and Carri Sorenson.  If you were able to attend their Sunday school class at North Platte Berean, then you are familiar with the book.  It is great by the way.  Very simple and direct without being too much about mandated steps to success.  Anyway, so I am reading this book.
     I get to chapter 6, Learning to be Helpless, and as I read through the pages I am struck.  All those times that I am anxious, depressed, discourages, worried, angry, frustrated, and on and on... All those times was and is that God calling out to me? Wanting me to be helpless?  So that I will become more connected to Him? I started thinking back to all of the times that I have felt most connected to the Father.  Every time I was in a state of total helplessness.  Things turned out fine in every situation too, and I got a little closer to God.
     Now, this gets me wondering, "How often am I helpless, but don't realize it"?  In my arrogant ways, do I not see the hundreds of times each day that I have no control over anything?  Do I have control over ANYTHING?  I think that maybe I only have control over my decision to pray at each of those moments.  When I start thinking about my own helplessness in this life, and that the solution to all of helplessness' symptoms is prayer, then the whole praying without ceasing starts to look a lot more possible.

Our first Christmas in Wyoming

Amanda and I got the privilege of getting the Christmas tree for TWM this year. It was an adventure in and of itself (as most things are with me). The thermometer was sitting at -20 and the snow was a tad to deep as we set out on our tree hunting expedition. After digging the 4-runner out on three different occasions, we were loading the tree on top. As we left, it never crossed my mind that I would be back out in three days to retrieve the shovel I had left on the last attempt to get through a snow drift. It was another Christmas to remember.

Now that I look back, the tree got to be apart of some good times. We had a wonderful Christmas spent having a feast with the only two gentleman that would take us up on our offer of a free meal to anyone that was interested. On Christmas morning there was a blizzard that moved in, the freeways were closed down and there were many people stuck for Christmas. The friends we were going to have over could not make it in, so we went to all the truck stops and invited everyone over for a Christmas dinner. We only got two takers, but never the less we had a great time getting to know them, and serve them as we could.

This idea for an open dinner came on as I was looking over the blessings we had received, thinking of what the holiday is really about and thought about Philippians 3:7,8 "I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ".

One thing that struck me was some of the responses we got while inviting people over. I am finding that people are not used to hospitality, and are sometimes down right confused by it. It makes me sad to think about a world that people are not caring for each other. It takes me back to my key verses, Matthew 22:37-39, where we are commanded to love God and love others.