I Can’t Believe It’s Thursday Already

Apr 20, 2006

Yesterday went by so fast that when I woke up this morning the first thought that crossed my mind was, “Oh my—it’s Thursday—ALREADY!”

Yesterday morning began with a leisure 10 mile run. I did enjoy the run; however, I am not sure the best thing to do after a run like that is to hop in a car and drive to the ATL.

Oh yeah—in my quiet time yesterday I was reading in the book of Nehemiah and I got to the part where his enemies were trying to distract him and get him to quit the work he was doing and come down off the wall…and his reply was, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down!” YEAH BABY! That is why I refuse to get caught up in debates about methodology—because I feel like I am doing a great work…and to debate with people who don’t even want to understand would be coming down off the wall!

Anyway, so lunch with John Maxwell was awesome. WOW—the dude has wisdom. I asked him questions for about two hours…the thing I love about John is that he shares his successes and his failures with me…and he challenges me. It was so cool because I spoke to him specifically about dealing with criticism and he told me that a secure leader never feels like he has to defend what he is doing. WOW…AND…OUCH! (That was so cool—God got me in my quiet time and then John was calling me out on it as well.)

Oh yeah—it looks about like a 90% possibility that John is going to come to speak at NewSpring this fall!

On the way back I stopped at Starbucks. Let me just be honest—it’s not fair. Atlanta has a Starbucks everywhere…and Anderson has ZERO! If there is someone in Anderson looking for a business opportunity—please—hear me…open a Starbucks! I am begging you! I get so jealous when I read Scotts blog and he has a post about Starbucks—dude, your killing me—it’s not fair!

So I walked in and told the dude behind the counter that I needed something to keep me awake for my two hour drive back to Anderson…his solution was FIVE SHOTS of espresso over ice. It worked—not only did I stay awake for my drive back—but I also rearranged the living room in my home and mowed the yard of everyone in our neighborhood! (Actually I didn’t—but felt like I could have! WOW—that was a SHOT of energy!)

On the way back from the ATL there was a slight traffic issue on 285…everyone was hitting their brakes…I wondered what was going on until I saw it…there he was…a white dog playing “dodge cars.” (Relax—the dog didn’t lose!) Once again though I learned a lesson, I had this thought in my head. “Perry—dogs will slow you down…don’t slow down for the dogs!” Then this verse popped into my mind, “Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh.” Philippians 3:2

That verse is referring to those who, at the time, were claiming to be more godly because they were circumcised. (Aren’t you glad that isn’t an issue anymore?!?!?!) Translation—don’t let people who claim they are godlier than you because they do or don’t do certain things slow you down!

Last night was incredible—we had a creativity meeting for mothers day…I met with 15 women from our church and asked, “What do women need to hear?” Seventeen hours later we were done—JUST KIDDING…WOW…the insight I gained was amazing. I can say this—women are complicated—but in a godly sort of way! :-)

The question of the night that I found most interesting was when I asked, “How are women impure? I know how men struggle with impurity—but how do women deal with this?” OH WOW, HOLY COW! And that’s all I’ve got to say about that!

We did video the entire session…you will be seeing clips from it soon! I said all that to say this, you don’t want to miss Mother’s Day!

My head hit the pillow last night and I was OUT! All in all it was an awesome day! We did the five mile run this morning and I am taking tomorrow off in preparation for our 20 mile run on Saturday! Sound fun?

One more thought…I love it when God totally gets my attention on something and will not let it go—Nehemiah, John’s comments, the dog in the road—amazing! Thank you Jesus for being so real!