Joel Stiff's Adventure

 

 

 

Our son, Winston, turned fourteen today.

That’s him in the picture. He’s amazing.

I don’t know exactly what God is going to use him to do, but I am excited to see what it is.

He’s unconventional. He views the world in a very unique way.

He has strength of character and a heart for the underdog.

He’s smart as they come and yet hates school with a passion. I think that’s great.

I think he is going to grow up and build a strong family. He cares deeply for us all now and would fight to defend us.

I feel that he loves me very much.

My biggest fear was that my children would be at a disadvantage because my character would be their example. 

Winston has seemed to overcome that hurdle.

I believe he is going to grow up to be a finer man than I could ever hope to be.

 

 

While future navy seals are in training, they undergo the most grueling of conditions and exercises.

The kind that take as much mental strength as physical.

In the area of their training hangs a bell.

A bell that when rung allows all of the pain to cease. A bell that when rung allows the torture to be over.

A bell that when rung means that the recruit is quitting the training program.

If you ring the bell, you are not a seal. If you ring the bell, you quit.

There is a bell in life.

Never ring that bell.

 

 

The widow at Zarephath told Elijah she was going to cook her last bit of meal.

She was out gathering sticks to make a fire.

My question is, why didn’t she just burn the barrel? Bust it up and use it for firewood.

Why waste time and energy gathering sticks?

The story ends up being miraculous.

In the end, God continues to put meal in her barrel for years to come in order for her and her son to eat.

Had she burned the barrel, there wouldn’t have been anywhere for God to put the new meal.

She would have ruined the avenue God would use to bless her.

If we want God to bless us, we have to give Him something to bless.

If we want Him to give us meal, we have to have a barrel to put it in.

God can’t bless a marriage for the man unwilling to commit.

God can’t bless the children of adults unwilling to accept the responsibility of parenthood.

God can’t bless the class of the Christian unwilling to teach.

If you want God’s blessings, you have to give Him something to bless.

 

The Spirit of God is always working on our hearts.

He is actively convicting us and drawing us to the Father.

Some are pliable and succumb to the Spirit’s promptings.

Others resist and become hardened to His working.

Someone put it this way, “The same sun that melts the wax, hardens the clay.”

It is our choice to submit or resist.

Which are you? 

 

 

 

 

Love.

John 15:13: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

 

The area we stayed this week was hit by a devastating flood last September.

Eleven inches of rain fell in six hours. 

In the mountains, this causes serious problems. For the town of Glen Haven, Colorado, it washed many homes away as well as the road in some places.

Water is incredibly destructive. To think that molecules of hydrogen and oxygen could destroy a town is amazing.

There is a more destructive force, however.

Sin.

 

 

 

 

Yesterday, we heard sirens. A lot of them. Enough to cause an uneasy feeling.

As a child, that sound is exciting.

As an adult who has had loved ones be the need of the sirens, they can be sickening.

I asked the clerk at the gas station if it was a memorial day event. She said that there was an accident in the canyon.

You could hear the sirens echoing through the valley. It was eerie.

My habit is to pray for whomever is involved when I hear the sirens going off.

 

It’s nice when a special moment comes.

You notice it immediately and remember it forever.

You can’t plan for them. They sneak up on you.

Shannon and I had such a moment today.

We were 12,000 feet up on a mountain listening to a song that captures our twenty years together perfectly.

She began to cry. (insert joke here)

I held mine back, but we were feeling the same thing.

I love her.

 

Saw this guy the other day. First Bighorn sheep sighting for me.

He has nothing to do with today’s post, he’s just cool.

You can’t see his sunglasses from this angle.

Why write every day, even when you’re on vacation?

Because you don’t need a vacation from things you enjoy doing.

Seth Godin said something along these lines. If you have a life you need to escape from, perhaps you should build a life you don’t.

Diversion is necessary. Escape shouldn’t be.

 

Been seeing some pretty cool wildlife this week. 

Elk roam the streets of the city at night, not caring that they are in your way.

They think we are in their way.

We saw the little guy above yesterday afternoon. It’s hard to catch a fox (sly, they are) in the daytime or period. This one was just walking down the side of the road.

I saw my first ever bighorn sheep come off the side of the mountain.

I enjoyed him, I really did. Still reveling in it, but now I want to see more. More bighorn, more fox and I haven’t glimpsed a bear yet this trip.

That’s the way we are, always wanting more. Always wanting to know what’s next.

Isn’t there time to appreciate what’s before us before we ask, “What’s next?”

Proverbs 27:20b: “…. the eyes of man are never satisfied.”