About Me

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I’m from New York but my driver’s license lists that my address is Ohio. My passport has a number of stamps in it. I’m the youngest of six, yet oldest son. I have a number after my initials, but not my name. I like music. I like coffee, beer and bourbon. I am a follower of Jesus. I watch bonus features on DVD’s. For four months each year my wife and I are the same age. “I pledge allegiance to a country without borders, without politicians.” I am an ordained pastor, but don't currently have a church. I’ve eaten raw horse meat. I’m fifteen inches taller than my wife, but I look up to her. I still prefer buying CDs to downloading music. I’m a night owl, who doesn’t mind getting up early. I like to play games. I moved to another country nine days after my wedding. I sometimes quote random lyrics. I believe in miracles. I prefer desktops to laptops. I like listening to audio books. I watch Buffalo Bills and Sabres games. I have five sons. I'm living life mid sentence.

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Growth In And Out Of The Sanctuary

Life happens. While growth happens in life, it often doesn’t happen to its fullest while facing the full bombardment that life can bring your way. A good recipe for growth is a mixture of life in the real world and life in a sanctuary. If one never retreats to a sanctuary they are not likely to see real growth in their life. But if one spends all their time in a sanctuary they are also not going to see real growth.

A sanctuary isn’t just a place of reprieve, but also a place of conditioning. A sanctuary may at times be a battlefield hospital, where one can receive the help they need for their wounds in an environment that usually is away from the front lines of the battle. While the medical staff you are surrounded by may have to cut with scalpels, the intent of their cut is to promote health. A sanctuary can also be a gym, where a soldier can lose he armor that protects them from outside attacks, and gives them a chance to condition their muscles to stimulate growth. If we depend on only the bulking up that takes place in battle we are likely to be knocked down by the first challenge that comes in our direction.

We must use our time in the sanctuary to prepare ourselves for battle, so that we will be ready to face the battles that come our way. While growth in the sanctuary doesn’t come without pain, being surrounded by our allies should help us prepare for the real battles. Our allies should be the ones that cautiously spot us in the weight room, making sure we aren’t trying to carry more of a load than we can handle, and they should also be those who skillfully use the scalpels to cut away the diseases that we have allowed to grow in us.

At times our sanctuaries seem to be just another front of life’s battles, we know that the wounds of our friends are to help us as we grow and move in the right direction.