The plan for today was simple. Get up early, get into the office to crank out some work, run some errands, have lunch with a friend to talk about summer camp, come home and seal my deck. Simple…until I got to the deck sealing stage of the day when everything went wrong.

After spending a ton of time prepping to paint I started fiddling with my friend’s paint sprayer, it didn’t work. His solution, hit it with a hammer (but not too hard). Needless to say, no luck there. So, we (my dad and I) were off to Home Depot to rent (or buy) a sprayer. On the suggestion of the “home depot paint expert dude” we bought a pump sprayer that “should” do the trick. Nope! After 2 nozzles and about a million “tweaks” neither dad or I could make it do more than squirt splotches onto the wood. And so…my attempt at sealing the deck was an utter failure.

My response, I’ll try again.

I don’t enjoy failure, I sure didn’t enjoy today’s, but I have learned from it and I’m committed to overcoming it.

When failure comes, we must try again, as many times as it takes, until we get it right. After all, tomorrow’s another day, I’m just sayin…

It’s Father’s Day. That brings to mind lots of things about parenting, being a spiritual leader, and a good husband. The thing I find myself thinking about the most tonight is the issue of consistency. One of the most important things that I can do as a Dad is to consistently love my kids, consistently instruct my kids, and consistently discipline my kids when they don’t follow my instruction (see this article). One of the most important things I can do as a husband is to consistently love and serve my wife without relenting to my selfish desires. And, one of the most important things I can do as a follower of Jesus is to consistently seek after Him, learn more about Him, and walk in deeper relationship with Him.

Consistency is key to excellence in everything that I do; a humbling thought. So, these are the things I want to do more consistently:

• Couples time with my lovely wife
• Quality time with my kids (individually and as a family)
• Get up at 5am every morning (got out of the habit when Ethan was born last month)
• Study the Word (there is a difference between reading the Bible and doing a real study of it)
• Journal about what God is teaching me
• Post on this blog (seems like I get on a roll, then slow down just to speed up again)
• Call friends I haven’t talked to lately just to say hi
• Exercise (I’m tired of being scrawny)
• Clean (I need to do this continually instead of letting things pile up and then doing a “cleaning blitz”)
• Read (I have about 7 books to finish between now and August)
• Minister to the poor
• Goof off (laughing is a must, if I’m not amused, what’s the point?)
• Dance a jig (this was my wife’s addition to this post – I think she just likes to see me look  silly)

What do you want to work on doing more consistently? Please share…

I have been in vocational ministry (meaning they pay me a little) for about 7 years. And, for the last 2 and a half years I have been in full-time vocational ministry. As I have said before, I don’t have formal training in ministry and have had to greatly rely on the Holy Spirit to lead during uncomfortable or new situations, and there have been many.

In the last two years I have: preached my first Sunday morning “big church” message; presided over my first funeral (and my first graveside service in the snow); preformed my first wedding; discipled an excellent young man; led a ministry (and the church during an interim time); planned, promoted, and ran many large community events; been named Garrett Middle School’s volunteer of the year for just showing up to hang out with kids and love on them; and taught the gospel with enthusiasm and passion. All of this, with no formal training, and yet, after every one of the “firsts” I have been complemented on how well I did. Why? Because I know the secret.

The secret is that I have learned to put on the right persona, or fake it. Please don’t misunderstand me here (keep reading, I will explain). When I say that I fake it, I don’t mean that I am not being genuine while preaching or ministering, or doing anything else. Let me give you an example.

When I was still in college I got a job teaching gymnastics to kids (I still teach by the way). When I first started I would get there and be worn out from studying, class, and the long drive there. But, when you are teaching kids there is no room to be tired, so an experienced coach gave me some great advice; when you are tired pretend that you have energy, fake it. So I tried it. I was dog tired but I went out there jumping around like a kangaroo on zoloft. The funny thing is, after about 5 minutes of faking like I had energy, I found that I actually had energy!

It’s the same with doing a baptism, funeral, wedding, or ministering to the grieving. Stepping into the situation I usually have no idea what I am doing. But, I ask the Holy Spirit to guide me and I step up to the plate like I’m ready to swing, then when the pitch comes my way I find that I actually am ready and I swing with the power of the Holy Spirit.

I think that we tend to be more capable than we think we are. There are many situations that you might find yourself in that you don’t feel equipped to handle. My guess is that if you step up to the plate as a willing participant with the Holy Spirit, with the confidence that He knows what He is doing, you will be just fine.