by David Docusen | March 31, 2009 | Uncategorized
Ephesians 4:1 – Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.
It is so easy to read Ephesians 4 – a portion of scripture famous for its beautiful description of unity – and completely fly by the first part of the first sentence. Paul is writing this incredibly encouraging and edifying letter from jail. From jail. He goes on to give an incredibly description of the active role we must play in striving for unity. All of this from a prison cell.
This challenges me today to take a hard look at my own life when I face hard times or some trouble that seems unjust. This might be the ultimate example of making lemonade from lemons. Paul decides that he obviously has time on his hands and he is going to make the most of it. He uses this time in prison to pen letters that are still actively being circulated throughout the world to this very day.
What do we do when given lemons? In honor of summer coming soon, let’s make lemonade and trust that God will use the hard times for his glory.
by David Docusen | March 31, 2009 | Uncategorized
Max and I were out on the field throwing, fielding ground balls, catching and batting during baseball practice and a huge wave of emotion came over me tonight. I remembered dreaming of this for so long. After finding out we were have a baby boy almost six years ago I instantly began dreaming about the day that my boy and I could be on the diamond together playing a game that we both loved. It happened tonight.
He was having so much fun out there. He was genuinely excited to be running and hitting and playing. It made my heart swell with pride to see him out there having such a good time. I love this stage of life. He has turned out to be such a great, great kid and I’m proud to be his daddy. We have so much fun together.
I love my Max.
(If you are wondering where Mary was for this emotional moment, she had decided to go to the dugout and use her baseball cap to make “rock soup” during practice. I think that’s an original Mary recipe.)
by David Docusen | March 30, 2009 | Uncategorized
5am is way too early to get robbed.
I pulled into the parking lot at the coffee shop this morning and found my co-worker sitting in her car. We never enter or leave the store alone at open or close for safety reasons. Across from her was a guy suspiciously sitting in his car. I called her on her phone and told her to stay in the car. I looked across the parking lot and saw another car in the darkest part of our parking lot with another person just sitting in the car. Totally creepy.
I called 911 and asked them to send an officer to check it out. A few minutes later a THIRD car came rolling into the parking lot headed straight for us. I told my co-worker to drive away. Both of us thought we were being robbed.
Just then, the third car flashed their police lights. He got out of his car and told us that the officers were undercover and that everything was ok. Not cool.
It’s safe to say that woke us up 🙂
by David Docusen | March 28, 2009 | Uncategorized
I like to write down the things God is speaking to me so that I can look back on the process. I keep a journal (I use a program called Journler) on my computer that tracks our journey. I was reading some old entries today and I came across an entry from February 23, 2008.
“I don’t want to step outside of your path to take my own.”
I hold on to Psalm 119:105 with all my heart – “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” I have found over and over again that time spent in the Word of God is exponentially more effective than all the best plans we can make on our own.
I believe that God gives us enough light along our path to see the next step or two. In most cases, if he gave us a spotlight to see the end of the path I think we would probably get overwhelmed, lost along the way, frustrated, etc. The journey of following God builds character, obedience, trust, love, devotion and much more. If I continue to take one step at a time and follow the light of God’s word, he will bring all dreams to pass in his timing.
I am encouraged by the fact that HE wants to see our dreams come true even more than WE do. After all, HE is the author of our desires. Never stop dreaming. Never stop seeking. Never stop believing.
by David Docusen | March 27, 2009 | Uncategorized
God is faithful.
Two days ago all signs were pointing to the fact that we did not have enough money for next month’s paycheck. Yesterday $650 came in and we just received another $625 today. That brings our two day total to $1,275 of completely unexpected money coming in just in time.
I remember blogging a couple of days ago “I Believe”. God has taught Dara and I so much about trusting him and simply believing. I made a conscious decision three months ago that I would stop worrying and simply trust. God promised he would provide, so I decided to take that and believe with child like faith. It does not mean we don’t get scared or nervous, it just means we have learned that God really does remember us and he knows how to take care of us as a family.
It’s worth repeating: God is faithful. He is doing it again.
