A few weeks ago after watching this video, I began to think about all the noise in my life. Noise that I thought helped me but actually just distracts me from what is happening right in front of my eyes.

It’s sad when you realize that when your kids are talking to you, you are spending more time looking at your phone or laptop then your their eyes. I love technology but it has created this “hum” in every minute of my life, and without realizing it, I have become addicted to that noise.

So last week I decided to experiment with the noise in my life, starting with my cell phone. My phone is my second brain… my memory. It has my calendar, my contacts, my todo list ect… I can’t live without it. But on top of the things my phone does to help me be productive, I also have it set up to receive email from three different accounts, notify me whenever anyone on Twitter say’s anything about nothing, Facebook alerts me whenever anyone comments on anything I post, or if anyone likes something I post, or if anyone comments or likes anything that I already liked or commented on which leads to an endless abyss of Facebook notifications that go on forever and ever and ever. (That’s a whole different post)

Between email, twitter, Facebook, and regular old fashion communication like telephone calls and text messges, it’s not an exageration to say that my phone is constantly making noise and wanting my attention.

When I started thinking about all this extra noise in my life and if I really needed it, I was surprised by the answer, it was no.

No, I don’t need to know every time one of my friends was eating lunch, or at Starbucks or had just increased their bean crop on Farmville. I didn’t need to see the latest Twitpic of someone seats at a concert, funny sign they just passed or plate they just licked clean. And honestly, when I leave the office, there is nothing that is so important that I need to be able to read email about it when I’m with my family.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy that stuff. (except Farmville, I HATE that) I LOVE that it is so easy to communicate with my friends around the world and around the block. But I don’t NEED it. Not all the time.

So… I turned it off. Just on my phone. (Except email during business hours and only work email)

It wasn’t easy. In fact, it took a few days to break the habit of constantly looking down at my phone.

It might not have been easy, but it has been one of the best things I have ever done. You might not believe me, but the simple act of turning off those things on my phone has brought a level of peace in my life that I would have never imagined.

Am I still gonna Twitter, use Facebook, check email, write and read blogs? Yes, but I don’t have too.

Until I stopped I never knew what kind of habit I had developed.

There will always be noise in my life, I can’t control that. (I have two kids after all) But there is some noise I can control. Noise I can regulate. And from now on, I’m going to try to do a better job with the regulation of that noise.

I would encourage you to try the same thing. We all can’t move to the woods and live in a tent, but it is possible to unplug, even for just a few hours a day.

A few months ago Reese started to call me Niles. Not just every once in a while, but that is all she called me.

She knows that her mom’s name is Lindsay, but she doesn’t call her by her name. Only me.

The other day I asked her not to call me Niles anymore. She just looked at me and said, “Ok Pastor Niles.”

This is my favorite time of year.

I love it when it starts getting a little cold outside, the sky get’s a little grey, and I will admit it, I often look at the sky hoping for a little snow. (Though this never happens because I live in Texas)

The main reason that I love this time of year is that it is the holiday season, and my very favorite holiday is coming up.

What’s that?

What is my favorite holiday you ask?

Well, it was once a well known holiday that everyone in our country celebrated.

Let me give you some hints.

Turkey, Pilgrims, Indians, The Mayflower. Any idea?

I’ll just tell you: Thanksgiving.

Remember that holiday? We use to get together with our families, eat a big meal and go around the table telling everyone what we were most thanksful for this year.

Well we used to to that, before Halloween and Christmas got together one night and decided that there was not enough winter for all the holidays to share. So what did they do?

Halloween and Christmas got together with the local business owners and decided to squeeze out Thanksgiving.

“Yeah”, they told Thanksgiving, “We’ll still give you the day, but don’t expect anyone to know about it”.

And in a brilliant PR move Thanksgiving was regulated down from a first class national holiday to the one last thing getting between consumers and “Black Friday”.

I love Thanksgiving.

I love getting together with my family. I love waking up early Thursday morning and smelling the turkey cooking in my Mom’s oven, I love sitting in the living room all morning long eating cinamon rolls and watching the Macy’s Thankgiving Day Parade. I even like sitting, waiting to see Santa end the Parade.

The other day, Nov. 8th, I pulled up to a local Hobby store and not only could I see the sparkle of Christmas lights on the trees and the soft rolling fake snow on the ground of the stores window display, I could also here the sound of the bell. The bell of the Salvation Army worker standing out front, collecting donations, in her unmistakable red bucket.

As I stood in that parking lot, staring at the Christmas scene before me. Holding my latte from Starbucks, served to me in that festive red Christmas cup. Listening to the carols beaming through the parking lot speaking, playing songs like “Oh Holy Night” and “Jingle Bells” I have to admit something….

I have never wanted to kick over a Salvation Army bucket more in my life!

Thanksgiving, I will never forget you!

I came in this morning after a long night of election watching and Thereflu taking to quite a disturbing scenario.

I guess we have been having some rodent problems in the office, so they put out traps all over the building to try and get rid of the rats.

The kind of traps they set out though are those “humane” kind that don’t kill the rats, they just trap them on this paper covered in glue.

Now to say that these traps don’t kill the rats is wrong. The traps might not kill the rats, they just stick to them waiting for someone to come in with the courage to put the rats out of there misery.

So far this morning we have caught 3 rats.

Below are some pictures of the last one we caught.

It was huge.

It was disgusting.

And it refused to go quietly.

Cancer has touched my life about 5 times. Not me directly, but people close to me, people that I would consider not just friends but family. Just this last week we found out that it has happened again.

Pastor Robert and Karyn Barriger from Lima Peru, just found out that Karyn has an aggressive form of breast cancer. The doctors are very hopeful, in fact Karyn’s doctor (who happens to be the Surgeon General of Peru) has said that he thinks they can get rid of the cancer with aggressive treatment. We are really standing with Robert and Karyn, believing that not only will this cancer go away, but that this will make a huge impact on the country of Peru, as they witness God’s power in Karyn’s treatment and healing.

This news has reminded me of something that I dealt with earlier this year, and am still dealing with. A few years ago I had a friend, a very close friend, that was diagnosed with cancer. He has literally been fighting for his life for years. In the process, this friend has lost his faith in God. That has been very hard for me since he was very influential in my life as far as my relationship with God. Last year, another friend of mines wife was suddenly diagnosed with cancer.

The difference between this friend is that he and his wife are pastors of a very successful church. My friend who lost his faith is still fighting for his life. My other friend, the pastor, lost his wife earlier this year.

What really bothered me about this was not just the fact that these are my friends, but how biased I became in my prayer for them. For my friend the pastor, I went into real spiritual warfare. I fasted, I prayed, I wept, I declared healing over her body. For my friend who has lost his faith, without realising, I began to pray for his return to Christ. I prayed that he would realise his error and repent. Praying for his healing became an after thought, a prayer I would quickly say at the end of my prayer time.

When my friend the pastor lost his wife I was sad. It was hard for me to understand how this could happen with everyone who was praying. But when I stepped back, and listened to God. I was no longer just sad. I was also broken.

Jesus never showed bias toward those he touched and healed. In fact he told us not to be very care full about showing favor to one person or another. Just because one of my friends lost his faith and one was a pastor, it does not change the power of God. In fact if you study the people that Jesus healed, most of them were healed before they believed.

Isaiah 59:1 says : “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.”

There is nothing that we can do to limit the power of God. God is God no matter what we think or do. But we can limit the power of God in our lives, and that starts in our thinking.

In my mind, I gave God only so much power. I thought, if He is going to heal someone, it is probably going to be the pastors wife, not my friend who lost his faith. I think for me, this issue and many others that we might think, talk or argue about really can be boiled down to one question: I either believe God and his word or not. He is either ALL powerful, or not at all.

Hopefully in the future, when I am faced with a choice between what I think God can or can’t do or who he can or cannot touch, I will remember this.

Please pray for Robert and Karyn Barriger, their family and their church.

Also pray for my other friend, that he would be healed.