Wild, Wild West

I'm thinking of changing my name to Wyatt Earp.  Or Pat Garrett.  One of the two.  For half the day on Saturday and all day on Sunday I took part in a handgun course called "Tactical Dynamics: Principles, Proceedures and Protocols for 360, 24/7 Security".  I added a bunch of photos from the course just for fun.  It was a great course, and covered both basic handgun safety as well as moving quickly to get to safety, shooting from behind cover, shooting from your vehicle, etc.  I was glad that I didn't shoot a hole in my truck!  There were only eight students the first day and six the second, so we received lots of personal attention from the three instructors.  After the basic course I took two weeks ago and now this one I feel much more confident in handling a pistol safely.  The purpose of the course is to teach someone who plans to carry a concealed weapon how to handle the gun safely for yourself and for those around you, and how to use it for personal defense in the unlikely event that you - or your family - are faced with the threat of death or serious bodily injury.  Am I planning to carry a concealed weapon?  I haven't made a decision.  I will have a permit to carry a weapon in the next week or so, and I wanted to have the necessary training to handle
the gun safely.  After that, I have to make the decision as to whether I would ever find myself in
a situation where my personal security is seriously
threatened (of course, who knows when any of us
might be faced by a mugger or a rapist?).
Anyway, I thought the pictures were fun (that's me in the Auburn hat, by the way).

Daphne and I continue to hike 3.5 miles almost 
every day in the open space park below our house.
It takes us about 45-50 minutes to walk it, and as a result we have more time to talk than at almost any time in our marriage.  We just celebrated our 19th anniversary (it was an inauspicious occasion, as both of us nearly forgot the day!), and one of the things we've talked about is what we want to do to celebrate our 20th next year.  I suggested going to Alaska, and Daphne wants to go to Hawaii; we're both happy to go to either, so I imagine it will come down to which one we can afford at that time (or neither, for that matter).  It's fun to dream, in any case.

I'll be preaching for the next two Sundays at our church, and I've been reflecting a great deal on what to say.  I've always tended to speak about whatever the Lord's teaching me at that time, rather than keeping a file cabinet full of old sermons that I can pull out and re-use.  I was challenged in this area years ago in Senegal when a visiting missionary preached at the church in Dakar; I don't remember what he spoke about (ironically), but I do remember him sharing that the Lord had challenged him to throw out all his old messages and to only preach from what he was learning personally.  If it wasn't fresh and from his own experience, it wasn't worth sharing. This concept really hit me deeply, and before long I'd chucked every old sermon I possessed - and since that day almost 20 years ago I've never preached the same sermon twice.  I'll say one thing for this system:  it keeps you on your

spiritual "toes", because if the Lord isn't speaking into my life on a regular basis I'll be pretty embarrassed on Sunday morning when I stand up and say, "I've got nothing to share this morning."  It could still happen one day, but it hasn't happened yet.

The thing the Lord's been hammering home for me lately, and the frequent topic of my conversations with John or Daphne, is the whole idea of what it means to really, truly rest in the Lord on a daily basis.  By "rest" I mean simply this:  my heart and soul are at peace, and I can go about my day free from worry, anxiety and the need to gain control of everything in my life.  I believe this is what God has promised to every believer NOW, in THIS life and not just when the "Sweet Chariot" come to carry us over the Jordan River into Heaven.   However, I so seldom encounter someone who genuinely lives with this sense of abiding peace, that I have a hard time imagining what it really looks like.  On our walk yesterday Daphne said to me, "You need to paint a picture for the church of what the "Promised Land" means for us today".  When God promised rest and a land flowing with milk and honey to the people of Israel, He wasn't talking about the hope of Heaven; He was talking about a literal land where they would settle and find rest from their 400 years of slavery.  There was only one problem: the people did not believe God.  Even after the spies went into the land and came back with eye-witness accounts of the beauty and richness of Canaan, they still doubted God's promises and spent 40 years in useless wandering in the desert.  Only two of those who saw the land - Joshua and Caleb - actually entered it 40 years later.  All the others died in the wilderness. There is a promised land that God foretold in the Old Testament, and that He fulfilled through Jesus.  It's called the promised land of Freedom From Fear.

"I came that they might have life, and have life in abundance."