“O my Father, give me eyes to see, a heart to respond, and hands and feet to serve you wherever you encounter me! Make me a billboard of your grace, a living advertisement for the riches of your compassion. I long to hear you say to me one day, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ And I pray that today I would be that faithful servant who does well at doing good. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen” (Max Lucado).

I would only make one addition to this prayer:

“Help me to live in the freedom for which you died to set me free. Help me not to fall back into the yoke of slavery to approval-addiction or bitterness. May my life display your lovingkindness to everyone I meet today and every day. Amen.”

Mondays are hard. Especially after vacations.

But I found this little quote from Thomas Brooks that is a helpful reminder that God doesn’t abdicate His throne on Mondays. He’s still in charge.

I’m thankful that some Mondays are only 24 hours long.

I’m thankful that nothing that happens on any given Monday can take away my identity as God’s beloved child.

I’m thankful that when my eyes are fixed on Jesus, even Mondays can be good days.

My old boss used to say that any day without a toe tag is a good day.

I say any day when I’m covered by the grace of God is a very good day.

As much as I love going away on vacation, I equally love coming home to my little tortie furball. This time, she seems more grateful than ever to have me home for a while. She’s been more affectionate and cuddly than usual.

That’s the best part for any pet owner (in my opinion)– coming home to your pet, whether it’s at the end of the day or after being away for a while.

I love my little rescue feline. As I get older, I’m becoming more and more passionate about rescuing pets. Not that I’m completely opposed to buying a dog or cat from a breeder, but when you rescue an animal, you know they will be forever grateful. They usually end up being the best pets.

I don’t plan on going away any time soon, so little Peanut will have me around to make sure her food and water bowl are full and her litter box is empty. Also, she likes the occasional belly rubs. Basically, I’m more her servant than her owner.

But it’s a good gig. I think I’ll keep doing it for at least 15-20 years more.

I’m home in my own bed. As happy as I am to be home again, I’m always the tiniest bit sad when my vacation is over.

I’ll definitely miss those salty ocean breezes and the feel of wet sand between my toes. I’ll miss the sound of waves crashing on the beach at night and the blueness of the ocean water (except for the first day when it was full of seaweed).

But I’m thankful to have had the chance to spend time in a place and enjoyed it enough to miss it. Plus, it’s not like I’m never ever going to any beaches ever again.

I’m old enough and smart enough now to understand that you can’t live your entire life on vacation. Eventually you have to go back to reality and the routine.

I heard once that you need to cultivate the life to where you don’t live exclusively for holidays and weekends. Where you don’t need a vacation from your life but more like a vacation to compliment your life.

I have a good life. Yes, it’s good to get away periodically, but I’m content with where God has me and who I am becoming. Plus, I have plenty of photos and memories if I ever get the ol’ beach withdrawals.

This whole week has been a kind of time machine trip to the past. I’m staying in Panama City, the place where I made so many memories with my high school marching band and with my college and career group.

I absolutely recognized the Edgewater Beach Resort condos where I lodged over 20 years ago. They still look the same (at least to me they do).

The best part was going back to Captain Anderson’s where we always had the last meal of the trip before heading home. I half expected to see some of the friends I knew back then.

As far as actually going back in time, they’re still working on that one. I haven’t found any Tardis or Delorean that can take me back 20 years ago.

Still, I have memories and the places to revisit from time to time. I think that’ll do nicely.

If you want to show Christ to people instead of merely preaching Him at them, these are some good ways to do that. It might even start a gospel conversation or two.

You never know where a random act of kindness will lead. You never know who is watching. You never know when it will be you on the receiving end of a kind act. Most of all, it is how Jesus lived.

Preach absolutely, but let it be more than words. Let the good deeds prove that the faith you proclaim is genuine and the kind acts show that the person is more than a conversion quota but a human being who bears the Imago Dei, the image of God.

I witnessed another glorious sunset on the beach this evening.

While there’s no such thing as a bad sunset, there’s something special about seeing the sun sink into the ocean at close of day. It really doesn’t get any better than that.

I’m hoping that I can catch a beach sunrise (provided I can get my lazy butt out of bed in time).

More than that, I want to have my eyes open to more of the minute miraculous in my life. I don’t want to be so buried in my phone that I miss my life. I don’t want to be so consumed by past worries or future possibilities that I miss there here and now. There’s so much to see.

I want to be thankful for every moment I have left. The anniversary of 9/11 reminds me yet again of how precious and fleeting life is. 3,000 people went to bed on the previous night having no notion that it would be their last on this earth.

So here’s to more sunsets, sunrises, and eyes wide open. May none of us ever miss a moment of it. 

It almost seems surreal that I’m back in Panama City roughly 20 after the last time I was here with the Central Church college and career group. I even passed by the very Edgewater Beach Resort where I stayed way back in the day.

I love feeling sand between my toes again. I love the scent of salty ocean air, even if it feels like it’s coming out of a hot air vent. I still think sunsets on a beach are the best.

It’s hard to remember back to the late 90’s and who I was then. So much has changed around me and in me. I’m definitely not the same person I was then.

I’m looking forward to making new memories and enjoying my time away from the craziness of normal life. I hope to hear from God in these next few days.

Did I mention how much I love the ocean?

“…and it’s true — that sometimes…
the thing you never would choose for your life, chooses you for a reason.
And the thing that you’d never pick? Picks you to become brave.
And sometimes…
you get what you need — by walking through what you never wanted – 
and the thing you never wanted, may turn out to be be the thing you need most.
I hadn’t known but now believe: the thing that may make you fall a bit apart, may be part of what one day holds you a bit together” (Ann Voskamp).

I drove by my old office building today. It was the place where I was downsized from my job over 6 years ago.

At the time, it felt like it came out of nowhere. I didn’t have a clue when they called my name in the middle of the day that I was being let go. I had no idea that a lot of other people would lose their jobs that day.

As odd as it seems, I felt a complete calm about the whole thing. I knew that wasn’t where I was supposed to be. I also knew that had I not been laid off, I would have stayed there much longer because it was a safe, non-risky place. And I would have been miserable.

The next three years before I found my next full-time job were full of the usual ups and downs and highs and lows. I had quite the variety of temp job experiences and almost got hired a couple of times.

I see now looking back that God used what I didn’t think I wanted to get me to a better place physically, spiritually, and mentally. It’s still a work in progress, but it never would have begun if not for May 22, 2012.

I’m thankful for that day because that’s where God began showing up big time in my life and He hasn’t stopped.

I’m going on holiday. I like that version better than saying that I’m going on a vacation. Just another reason being British is better.

But I’m on the cusp of starting my vacation/holiday. I love that feeling. It’s the feeling that I don’t have to wake up early in the morning and make that commute to work. I get to sleep in and dream.

For the longest time, I couldn’t really grasp heaven. For some reason, none of the images I could conjure up really did anything for me. Until I read the last book in The Chronicles of Narnia series, The Last Battle. In it, C. S. Lewis describes the feeling of heaven as waking up after the last day of school and the beginning of summer holiday.

I remember that feeling. How all sorts of endless possibilities lay before me. How absolutely ecstatic I was when the reality sank in.

I’m not planning on going to heaven tomorrow. I’m planning on enjoying my week of vacation. But I know one day I will have that feeling of joy and it will never go away or grow less. That makes me smile.