Vacation

It’s hard for me to vacation…sometimes. Most of the time I’m thinking about what’s going on at my office and what’s happening with the business of the day. But this was a different vacation. It’s because I have a Staff that I trust and believe are going to keep doing what we have planned in the way that we have planned it. I believe they are going to do the right thing because our goals as a Staff are to do the right thing according to what we believe is God’s will by His Word and by His Holy Spirit. I have a wonderful Staff and I’m so proud of each of their accomplishments and the goals they have for a bright future at our church.

So how did I spend my summer vacation? We stayed home for most of the week and we did some things that we really needed to do. Then I spent some valuable time with my wife and my children. It was fun and it was needed–I think–for all of us. So what did we do?

Well, the first day of our vacation we slept in until we woke up naturally. It was nice. I’ve heard before that most men die of heart attacks when alarms go off first thing int he morning. I believe that’s true! Just think about being in that REM sleep mode and then all of a sudden an alarm goes off. Your dream of floating on clouds seeing all sorts of colors in the skies and hearing the birds chirping and then you hear the waves on the ocean and you’re all of a sudden on a beach relaxing…then the alarm goes off! It’s wretched any way you look at it! Pure wretchedness. In fact, alarms are so wretched that they should be buried twelve feet deep in the ground, because deep down they’re probably alright!

Then we went to Hawaiian Falls. It is a water park that is smaller than Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, but it’s just the right size for me. Did I go down any slides? Are you kidding me? Absolutely not! But my two boys did and they had the time of their lives. My wife and I spent time together in the lazy river just floating around in a circle, then the wave pool, then just sitting on the lounge chairs. Then our boys wanted to be a part of the annual ice dump in the wave pool. This is where they dump 2,000 pounds of ice into the wave pool. I sat toward the shallows during that part because there was too much traffic where the ice was being dumped, but it did cool off the water quite a bit. And, by the way, it was 108 degrees outside that day.

We also went to church at Chuck Swindoll’s Stonebriar Community Church. We were able to hear Dr. Erwin Lutzer, the interim pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, Illinois. He is an author, pastor, and teacher. It was a special time of worship for our whole family. And surprisingly, they sang all the verses of older hymns and had a choir that sang an old hymn. The musicians included a cellist, a pianist, and a pipe organist. It was amazing to see the pipes for the organ! I haven’t seen pipes like that in a church since that last time I was at the Dallas Symphony Hall. Absolutely beautiful time of worship.

I also had to do something that I really didn’t want to do. I had to go to a storage unit and pick up my twin sister’s belongings that I still have not been through over the last four years. I don’t really know how many boxes I need to go through, but my garage is now full of boxes…more than before. Let me put it this way: we cannot park our cars in our garage–yet. We will park our cars in the garage after we go through all the boxes we still have. It will work itself out eventually. What saddens me is that I saw an older wedding picture of my twin sister. She was absolutely beautiful. Her smile and her wedding dress was phenomenal in my opinion. It just fit her perfectly. If only her husband had been better than what he is.

Then my wife and I dropped off our Sons at a friend’s home and they have been with that family since Thursday afternoon. We have been kid-free since Thursday. We went to a movie, we stayed up late watching movies, we left for a pastor/wife retreat in San Antonio. It was a great time with our state convention family ministries. We stayed on the River Walk and it was just really a fun time for both of us. We took our time getting up this morning and heading home today. The traffic on I-35 is just as bad as it’s always been.

So now we’re home. I’m ready to be with my church tomorrow morning and looking forward to preaching the Sunday morning message. It has been a great week!

This is how I spent my summer vacation.