God continues to bless us and to challenge us.
The past six months have been spiritually and emotionally rewarding just as they have been intellectually and physically draining. During my pastoral residency, from which I graduated two weeks ago, there was not a day in six months where I didn’t produce some form of intellectual output, be it the Podcast, weekend national radio or papers and reports for the residency.
I am taking a break this week; the team has picked out some of the most downloaded episodes we have had as we near our 1,000th. It’s always fascinating to me when I see data on which episodes are the most popular. When I return to doing new shows next week, I have some pretty big news to share on both the Podcasting and the radio fronts. Very big, actually.
This is my style of vacation:
As someone who has flown all over the place in corporate America, my style of vacations is different than many people choose. I define a proper staycation this way: I am at home with with my family where I have no schedule and no expectations, if I God calls me to seek solitude, my family endorses my abiding in Him.
Visiting.
My family likes being home. I rarely get quiet time with them in the house where I can just be relaxed. Unless we structure a game night, or go out to eat (which we all enjoy), we don’t have a lot of free-range family time. I miss those days and will hope to have many this week. (Yes, it’s an old photo).
Sweating.
My break actually began on Friday when I hosted my friends for a challenging workout at one of North Idaho’s beautiful lakes and a private pizza party and my beloved Embers. My darling and brilliant daughter was on hand doing childcare (sorry, no modern-day pics of the family, they aren’t public people). You will be seeing a few of these folks in a venture we are launching together in the next few months.
For those who are curious, here’s the workout (which I tested two-days prior with my coach on hand to confirm the results). The fastest finish was 37:00, which is smoking fast.
With 80# (m) / 60# (f) sandbags
5 man-makers to squat cleans
5 walking lunges with sandbag on left shoulder
5 man-makers (with 4 mountain climbers) to squat clean
5 walking lunges with sandbag on right shoulder
5 man-makers (with 4 mountain climbers) to squat clean and thrusters
5 bear hug lunges
1,200 yd. Swim
50 hand switch push-ups on the end of a sandbag
The push-ups were mind-blowingly hard after the swim
A good number of my friends are swimming “The Crossing”, a 2.3 mile swim across Coeur d’Alene Lake in August. Monday, I am testing myself to see if I feel comfortable on a 2+ mile, open water swim as my swim technique has a lot of room for efficiency creation (that is a polite way of saying I can muscle through the water, but it’s not the beautiful skimming of the surface it can be with practice and coaching). If I can swim 1.5 miles alone on Monday, I can do 2.3 with friends. (For people concerned about safety: I uses a swim buoy for visibility and emergency flotation and I swim parallel to shore.)
I hope to get in a few more hike with friends
Reading.
I owe Karl Payne a note about his book, Spiritual Warfare, which he was kind enough to get to me with a wonderful note inside. He’s a man I can’t wait to get on the show, if he is willing.
I also owe Mike Neil a note after I finally get to read this!
Praying.
God has so richly blessed us. He has more work for me to do. I am praying He will show me how He expects me to do it all.
Show prepping.
“Life is show prep”, said the Maha (God rest him). Indeed, it is. My prep-file are getting a lot of use. I will have a lot to say when I return.
God bless you all and, please, Go be well, be strong, be kind and please make every effort to be right with God.
As much as we love listening to your words of wisdom daily, enjoy your time away as we all need some downtime.
Daily listener who loves you!
I would pass on having Karl Payne on. It’s been a long time since I read his book, but you don’t need a bunch of ritualistic “steps” to combat the demonic realm. All you need for spiritual warfare is Jesus Christ and putting on the full armor of God as listed in Ephesians 6. You should look at Pastor Billy Crone’s messages. He used to be in the occult before he accepted Jesus and is currently a pastor in the Las Vegas area. His church opened up their own medical clinic where he only half jokingly said “a clinic where the doctors are not trying to kill you (in reference to the Covid response)” He does a lot of speaking on current events (WEF, Klaus Schwab, the evil Covid response, AI etc.) and relates them to what Scripture says. We heard him speak at Cornerstone Bible Church in Lake Stevens. His website is: https://getalifemedia.com/