One of my favorite things (next to week old Valentine's day candy and week old Christmas candy) is week old Easter candy. Actually it has been closer to two weka now. Shopping at Walmart I discovered they had candy for 75% off! That is a deal I can't pass up.

However I just couldn't bring myself to purchase any of the chocolate Easter crosses. I'm just not ready to chow down on a chocolate cross. Seeing all the chocolate crosses still left in display, I guess I'm not the only one.

-- Post From My iPhone

My dad was a man of stories. If you ever met him, you would agree. I think if you spent maybe a half of hour with him you would know that he was a man of stories.

I took this picture as my dad was telling one of his stories. For the life of me I can’t remember what it was about. I’m sure I had heard it before. In fact, I’m sure I had heard it at least fifteen times or more. You see, my dad had a tendency to tell me the same stories over and over again. It use to drive me nuts and so often I just wanted to say, “Dad, you’ve told me this one before…do you have anything new?” But I never did. I always felt if I did I would be interrupting him and that would be rude…I wonder if it is rude to share the same story over and over again…

My dad grew up in Arkansas in the Ozark Mountains. He would tell me stories about growing up there in the 20’s and 30’s. It seemed like an odd  place and an odd time to me. One time he told me that when he graduated 8th grade his parents had to send him off to high school. That seemed odd to me. I always got on a bus to go to high school or caught a ride with my friend Bruce. We rode his motorcycle once and one time we decided to stop at McDonald’s instead of going to some of our morning classes.

I guess my dad wasn’t able to do things like that because they sent him away to high school. He had to live there because there weren’t any high schools in the area. If you wanted to go to high school, you had to leave the area.

My daughter really like Superchic[k]. We went to the Prolife Music Festival in Warsaw, Indiana. Here is the lead singer signing an autograph for my daughter while holding her dog!

I've decided that since this is my 'personal' blog, I will probably start posting some posts in the "Life" and "Family" categories. I've been resistant to do this, but decided that I will try it for a while. Some of the more theological posts I may cross-post to UMSource.net and/or Missional Methodist Movement websites.

My wife and I came home to discover this hawk in our yard guarding a dead squirrel. I ran in to grab my camera and got a couple of pictures of it. I guess it wasn't thrilled with the camera and decided to fly away.

I'm discovering that it is possible to fail, yet succeed. Sometimes we try so hard to succeed at things that, in the end, just don't matter that much. The danger is that we succeed in those things, yet fail at the things that really matter. I'm discovering that it is possible to lose, yet win. That in order to save yourself, you must lose yourself, abandon yourself to the Mystery that is God.

I'm grateful for these lessons. I pray they are lessons that last and make a difference in how I plan my day and what I make my focus. After all, there is a chance that in success, I discover failure. Lord, give me the grace and the eyes to see the difference.

I was reading Looking for Jesus by Adrian van Kaam and stumbled upon this wonderful passage:

Clearly, there is no greater thing we can do than to be faithful to the work of God in the most simple events of our daily life. we must do the common work of every day in an uncommon way-doing this work in loving union with Jesus. It may sometimes seem easier to do great things than to do small ones. The grandeur of an enterprise, the excitement of a splendid project, the interest of others carries us forward. Their admiration sustains us in such moments more than Jesus' grace. We act, then, not because of him but because we feel successful, important, liked, needed. We become spellbound by praise, so much so that we no longer hear his voice in the depth of our hearts. Bewitched by the projects of people, we become estranged from the Father's work. Spoiled by success, we may become alienated from him. - pg 102.

Wow. I believe he nailed it. I find it is easy to get off track of following God's will because the pull of the 'grand plan' is so strong. Instead of being faithful to what God has called me to, I run off following my own dreams and visions. I'm not sure it is a problem just with me. How many of our plans are really of God?

Early in his ministry Jesus had to face these same temptations. Satan took him aside and started suggesting how he could make a grand statement by changing stone to bread, leaping off the temple, or even worshiping Satan himself! Perhaps Jesus knew that God calls us to be faithful, and at times that faithfulness is shown in the small matters and not necessarily in grand expressions.

Maybe it is time for me to put my dreams and my visions on hold and allow Jesus to live through me, even if that requires simple dreams and visions. As van Kaam writes, success can spoil our relationship with God and even alienate us from him.

I've decided to switch my site over to Drupal from Wordpress. I had several reasons. I'll see how this goes. Right now I have this linked to both http://fuzzythinking.davidmullens.com and http://www.davidmullens.com. Hopefully I will be able to add other types of content.

The man walked away depressed. Jesus had just told him that to gain eternal life he would have to give up all that he had and sell everything. Since he was rich, the news wasn't all that good.

As the man walked away, Jesus told those standing around how difficult it was for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. As shock was being expressed by those who were realizing what Jesus was saying, he comforted them by acknowledging that with God all things were possible.

Peter spoke up and said "We have left everything for you." When I read these passages I usually miss this statement from Peter. For Peter, the gospel meant leaving everything. Jesus responded, "no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not get back very much more in this age, and in the age to come eternal life." (Luke 18:28-30). Could it be that Peter had left house, wife, and all for the sake of the gospel? I believe that he did.

I don't know about you, but there are times when Mr. Bitterness (as a friend of mine calls 'him') shows up. I don't think that Peter was bitter in this passage, but I know I am when I say the same things to Jesus. There are times when what I've sacrificed for the gospel become very real and very painful. Then if things don't go my way it is easy to say, "Look what I've given up...."

Living in America it is easy to see what others have and begin to envy their lifestyle, what they have, where they go on vacation, knowing that you could do the same thing, if you weren't doing what you were doing for the gospel. At the same time, there are others, many others, who have given up much more than I have. They have sacrificed their families, their health and their very lives. As you read this there are those who are not sitting behind a desk looking at a monitor or laptop screen. They are bruised, broken and in jail. They have given all to follow Jesus.

There is a bitterness to the gospel. While it is definitely Good News, it also calls for sacrifice. Jesus assures us, however, that whatever we give up, it will be worth it. One day we will be so glad that we made the sacrifice, that we sent Mr. Bitterness on his way to someone else's house, and continued to give all that we could for the sake of the Gospel. Until then, we rest in knowing we are doing all that we do for Him.

As some of you know, I'm in the midst of a Doctoral program through Asbury Theological Seminary. If for some reason you would like to help me out, one way would be to use my Amazon Store whenever you want to order from Amazon. It really does help!

If you go to the "UMSource" section, you will find some books that I recommend.

Over the past month I've been researching and writing a paper for one of my D.Min classes. I'm happy to report I sent it in today! Wow. Finally. I've discovered that I like the research much more than that writing. I guess I also need to find someone to read through my papers and help me with my writing style. Any editors out there????