Royalty Inn

Comfort.
Whatever can usurp this goal needs to be very powerful because to many (and I include myself in that "many), this is the end of all things. To be comfortable. True Comfort includes feelings of security, absence of pain, emotional catharsis..... I recently spent a night in a hotel. I do this often as it is one of the blessings/curses of having a traveling ministry. As I enter the room I tend to always heave this big sigh of relief. I see the pillows stationed on the bed with a little welcome card from the housekeeper. As I use the restroom, I spot the little lotions and shampoos placed daintily on the handtowel that's been folded like a fluffy seashell. I spy the laminated card display of all the hotel ammenities available on the classic wooden desk. And the most prized item of all, the remote control within arm's reach of everything.
My little kingdom.
There is something about a hotel that makes people feel rich when they first get there. Finally, all the desirous things at their disposal.
"I deserve this."
For me, I usually put on my pajamas right away and then pick up the phone book to see if there are any good restaurants in the area that deliver. "CHINA PALACE" Sweet and Sour Chicken (.a common staple) with 2 Diet Cokes! A hot meal, cold soda, pajamas on, remote control in hand.....a happy King.
As a s side note, Jerry Seinfeld once said that guys don't care what's on television, they just want to know what ELSE is on. This is the micro-excercise of "the grass is greener" game that all men play. Women love to nest. Whatever it is, just nest and invest. Find out what it's about before you flip again. Guys have and instinct of what to invest in. On television, there aint a whole lot. (Just recently we got rid of our cable tv. Flipping has now reduced itself to 4 channels. "Hey, didn't I just see that guy pulling pig skulls out of chocolate with his teeth a second ago?"
After a full tummy, a relaxed body, and an hour of being committed to my lack of program investment, something shakes my little kingdom like a black, creeping, fire breathing beast.
Lonliness.
The curse part. I'm become frightened to turn the TV off.
When I do, the silence un-nerves me. I crave the sound of my little ones breathing deeply in the next room, the movement of my wife as she gets up to feed our new baby, the familiar clinking of the radiators as the heat kicks on in my home. The sounds of comfort.
A couple of years ago at the Christian Camp I work at, we had the theme "It's not about me, it's all about Him!" It's not about me. This may sound like the same song I've sung before in ohter posts, but it's a powerful truth. When it's about me, I am alone.
I don't want to be alone.
At this point of the night, this King begins to feel reduced to a scared knave. I usually pull out my Bible, read some and then begin to pray. I pray for my family and friends. And I pray that God would protect me from...me and the deceptions that I easily fall into. I thank Him for all that He has done in my life, for the Grace and Mercy that I don't deserve and for the privilege of being a part of His ministry. I keep thanking Him while I turn out the light and lay my head down and hope for a quick and peacful night.
.
It's usually at this point I wish that I had brought my feather pillow from home. :)

Welcome, Leah Joy Hoffland!

It's done! Tarah and I went in on Monday afternoon about 4:30 PM and at 10:00PM Leah Joy was born! Tarah did great..the best delivery yet. Leah was 7 pds, 31/2 ounces and 20 inches long. I haven't figured out how to do the whole picture thing on here yet, but if I do, I will post a pic of her. After watching the whole ordeal, it's astounding to me that people actually still think this all happened by time and chance. I was asking my wife, "How do they breathe in there?"
"They don't. They get all their oxygen through the umbilical cord and it goes directly to their blood. There's a valve that keeps it going to the lungs. They don't even use their lungs at all until they are born. Then, when they take that breath, the valve opens never to close again."
So if this was all developed by chance, did all those babies suffocate until that valve thing evolved? Ok, I'll get off of my soap box now. I'm just amazed at God's creation.
We all came home yesterday and had a fairly ok night, my wife was up a bit in the early morning hours feeding the little bugger. The other kids have really taken to her. Thanks for all the prayers!

Aaaarrggggghhhh!

Ok. This is the calmest moment I've had all day. My amazing, cute, little wife was due today to have our 4th child. Nothing has happened and I think we both are losing our minds. It seems like the rest of this post should just kind of trail off into jibberishiaonlfkdajldfasdjfasdhfksjdnfsdfjala. That's about the extent of my brain power right now. The real victims, (if there are any) are my other 3 kids. Tarah and I feel so much pressure to get things done before the baby comes that the other 3 are kind of left to themselves to entertain each other which lasts about a whole of 15 minutes before one of them is screaming un-intelligible, child-like profanities at another. The big mystery is why we think everything has to be done before this baby comes ....as if time will stop. Regardless of the insanity of our motives, it's been a crazy week. To top that off, I feel like I've gained weight right along side my wife. I don't understand why I just can't lay on a table beside here and plop out the extra 10 pounds I have put on during the last 2 years. (OK, wipe that image from your mind before you need therapy.)
For those out there that have been praying for us, Thanks!

cling to what is good.

On Sunday, I took my 3 kids Trick or Treating. When I was little, there never seemed to be an issue about Christians trick or treating. I never felt like, when I was going out there, that I was worshipping Satan by doing so. However, in this day, the separation of church and state has gone to the other extreme and has pulled Christians out of the world all together. My wife and I wrestled with the idea for a couple of years of whether we should take the kids trick or treating. With our knowledge of the beginning of Halloween and the whole pagan tradition, we wanted to be sensitive to God's command to abhor what is evil. However, we also realized that Christmas traditions are steeped in almost as much pagan ritual as Halloween including the tree, the mistletoe and even the date. The church later took the pagan date of December 25 and decided to use it as a day to celebrate Christmas. We came to the conclusion that as much as we are not being "pagan" by putting pretty lights on a tree in our house, we are not being pagan by walking around the neighborhood in a silly costume asking for free candy. So last year was the first year for our trick or treating trek. The outcome was amazing. We actually saw more community people in one evening then we saw in the previous 5 years we lived in Rib Lake. The kids had fun seeing other kids in their costumes and I think, as whole, we actually built a samll bridge to our community, not to mention the load of candy we acquired. Overall, it was a positive expericence. My 5 yr old, Johnny, asked me the other day what Halloween meant. I carefully told him that the at the beginning of Halloween there was a lot of bad stuff and that by us trick or treating, we were not celebrating that bad stuff. We were going for 3 reasons. To dress up cool, to get candy, and to get to know the community and hopefully spread a little more of Jesus light in it. He seemed to accept that. In fact, when my mom told hm "Happy Halloween!" He said, "No. It's Happy Trick or Treating."
I think so many times we, as Christians, twist the command to be "in the world but not of it" to "live next to the world and hope that the world will wish for what you have." There is no way that we can share God's light unless we are willing to go out there where they are. As Jesus ministered to the woman at the community watering hole, it made me wonder why we shouldn't go to the local watering holes to be a light and offer living water to those who are scared and thirsty. Jesus himself was mistaken as a drunkard and a glutton becasue he was with the "sinners." It was the religious of the day that struggled with it. Nothing has changed much since then. The imperative, however is this...Jesus did it without sinning. That is something to always keep in mind. . As I was discussing this to a friend, he said, "Where do you draw the line? Do you go to a strip club to minister?" I said, I couldn't because I would proabably sin. Jesus was also led by the Spirit, not an agenda of His own. In order to go, I have to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading. That might be to enter a place or to also leave a place when the Spirit tells me too. I have not yet braved this endeavor yet. But I think it's worth the time to talk about it as Christians and to encourage us to have such a passion for lost souls that we would be available to be led into the dark places of this world to find them.