Sevenglory Blog

God wants to shovel snow with you.....

2009-01-17T08:12:00.000-08:00

This week has been a pretty good week for me despite crazy low temperatures in the Chicagoland area. The Detroit Lions got a new head coach (not that i'm hopeful for wins), my home is warm, my kids are healthy, food is in the fridge, God is still The Creator of All and in Love with his creation, and the Gaither Vocal band has got it's best members of all time back. (sorry for the southern gospel reference there at the end)

However, just before all the crazy low temps hit I had a chance to shovel 3 feet of snow off my driveway. My whole life this has always been an enjoyable time for me. When i was a young kid I would go outside as early as I could to shovel the sidewalk and driveway. My neighbors had their snow throwers working and I would always try to get done before they did. In my younger years, this was possible, but now that I'm a little older I find myself just getting started by the time my neighbors have their driveway, sidewalk, and half my street done. :) Despite my lack of snow thrower I still enjoy getting out there and creating a cleaner driveway for my minivan.

This year my older son is 4. This is the first year that he is able to join me out in the driveway for his first lesson in manhood. The good news is that he enjoys it just as much as I did when I was young. But I couldn't help but notice a few things while we were out there shoveling. The first thing that I noticed is that I was doing all the work. :) This is not to discredit my 4 year old son, it's just that I not only had the strength to do it, but knew exactly where the driveway ended and started. I knew where the snow needed to go, and how heavy each shovel load was going to be. My son on the other hand knew only that he had a shovel and that shovel made things happen. He could hardly pick up his shovel without snow, let alone with snow in it. He didn't seem to understand what I was trying to accomplish, but he had heart. He would usually find a pile of snow on the side that I had just pushed away and get that back out and spread it around. To him he was accomplishing a lot. He just kept looking up at me for approval....which is all I needed to see.

In no way am I saying that God is happy with us just doing whatever we want. My son was out there working with me, side by side. He knew that I knew what to do. He trusted that the job was going to be done despite his efforts. He allowed me to even help him push his snow around. You see, in the end the job was done because I wanted it done. I dind't need my son, but I loved that he was there. In fact, it was easily 10 times more enjoyable watching him work along side of me. I think that is how God is with us. He is more than capable of doing things himself, but loves to work side by side with us. In comparison to him we are but mere infants. Our vision is weak, our strength is lacking, our product is often messed up. But in the end He will work it out. It's not up to us to create! That is the great news.

Keeping our heart connection with God will allow us to work side by side in such a way that we are directed by the Father. There is a lot of grace there....a lot of freedom to even mess up. It's not about us DOING it right....it's about being with Him, enjoying Him, and loving every minute of it.

I hope this is encouraging to you today. I hope you know that the creator of the universe wants to shovel snow with you.

Fred

Freezing broken water pipes, strep throat, & Crazy Kids

2008-12-24T06:20:00.001-08:00

This is the time of year where things should settle down a bit....right? Wrong...around Christmas always seems to be one of the most hectic seasons. There is shopping to do, sicknesses going around, driveways to shovel, shopping to do, random birthday parties to go to, houses to clean, relatives to prepare for, and did I mention shopping to do? That's just getting started. With all there is to do where do we find time to enjoy the the things that matter the most?

This year I entered the holiday season with much anticipation. I was very excited to show my kids what it means to give, especially around a time when it's so easy to want. Things were going great...I got my tree up a day or two after Thanksgiving, decorated the house a little, started listening to Christmas Music (thank you Buble & Harry Connick Jr.), and really felt a peace. Then some things started to happen. My kids, who are amazing, seemed to get agitated really easy for days. I figured it was because they were stuck inside so much because of the weather, but we worked through it. Then my oldest son got scarlet fever, but that cleared up in a day or two with antibiotics. Next came more weird stuff that I can't remember, followed by my daughter getting scarlet fever. I took her to the doctor, got the medicine, got her all better, then I got strep throat. I felt terrible, couldn't move, and was out for the count. Of course that next morning I woke up to see that my garage door had been left open while the temp dropped from 30 degrees to -3 (-30 with wind chill). I don't know a lot, but that wasn't good for our water pipes which are exposed in the garage. With Frozen water pipes we headed off to church for my youngest sons dedication, while I fought the chills and shivers. I got home to see that my pipes had thawed out (from a heater I placed in the garage), and they had burst- spraying water all over the place. I got the water shut off, but had no energy at all to get it fixed. We went to a friends house for the afternoon to try and get better and have running water. By night time I felt ok enough to get home and try and patch it for the night. I got the patch on, but it would need to be fully replaced the next morning. By the next morning I felt a lot better- so I took a quick lesson on youtube on how to replace water pipes. It looked like things were in the clear, then our Van was having issues that involved me walking home from a store with 2 kids, riding my bike back and forth to get the situation fixed in the freezing rain, and finally getting home soaking wet, to a wife who started feeling the same symptoms that I just had.

I know that was a lot of information and I am sure that many of you know exactly what that is like. Some of you have relatives overseas serving our country, some fighting illness, others facing marriage problems that seem impossible, while others feel alone and unheard. It's just important for us to reflect on those things because through it all the world keeps spinning. Whether I am faced with those things or not I am a still a child of the King, and He completely understands what is going on. The Bible talks about Jesus as a “man of sorrows acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). He knew what fear was, endured physical suffering, hunger, cold, and sorrow. He cried...and even had questions for his Father. Questioning God is not the problem.

In Habakkuk 1:2 we see a man who is calling out for God to hear his prayers, but feels like he's being ignored. He may have prayed as long as 12 years for justice without hearing from God. But He learned something during that time: That God wasn't ignoring him, he was just working behind the scenes. In chapter 1 verse 13 he asks God why the wicked around him are being blessed by God. Many times I ask God the same things: Why are others seemingly thriving, while I just get by?

In Habakkuk 2:4 it says, "the righteous shall live by his faith-." This means that we have to believe that God is big enough to see me through whatever it is I am up against. He wants to see your marriage restored, and your son from home from overseas, and your daughter brought back to the lord. My pastor says something like, "the thing we focus on the most will become all that we see." Sounds obvious...but he continues to say that if all we are looking at is this little mole hill of a problem, that "thing" will become a mountain. It will overshadow everything we do. But if we look to the Father, and see that he has better plans for us, then we can overcome anything. God can use those things as a stepping stone for a greater understanding of who He is, and where he wants to take us.

As the year runs out of days I am reminded of all that God has seen my family through. I remember thinking at the beginning of last year that this year was going to be a challenge. Looking back now I see how many great things God has done, and still wants to do. Be encouraged no matter what you face, that God wants to take you through through it all.

Check out this Blog...

2008-12-19T21:46:00.000-08:00

My wife Andrea just started writing a blog. She is a very gifted writer and communicator. And she writes with mucho better grammar than I do's.

ClickHERE

Take Luck,

Fred

Rescued

2008-12-16T08:51:00.000-08:00

I sat down to do some reading this morning when I came across a friend of mines blog who is also a musician. He shared a story that happened a few days ago on tour. In a nut shell one of the guys wife was on the road with them working as road manager. Just before her husband was to go on and start the show a security guard made some sexually inappropriate remarks to her that left her feeling very violated and hurt. Once her husband and fellow tour mates found out about what had happened they found the man who had offended her and confronted him. The man stumbled over his words attempting to say he was sorry, but the damage had been done. One of the guys told him “that badge you’re wearing means that you’re supposed to be here to protect us from people like you!” To which the man responded “You’re right, I didn’t mean to…” My friend then said these words to him , “From the mouth proceeds the issues of the heart. It’s clear what you meant. We have the moral high ground here, and you need to leave right now…”

Too many times in the church we have this idea that if we confront someone about their inappropriate behavior we are not acting in love. We are afraid that we might be seen as a bully, or "holier than thou." When in fact if these guys would not have confronted the man, the woman would have had to see this man the entire night and would not have felt like somebody stood up for her. She had been cut down and hurt. She needed to be rescued, and reaffirmed that she had value.

In fact, that night on the bus they all got together and talked about what happened. She said that her tears of hurt turned into tears of appreciation for every man on that tour who came to her rescue. They prayed that the man would find grace and be pushed closer to healing.

As I read the story I was almost in tears because of the courage that was displayed by those men. You might read this and think that it's not that big of a deal, but I would ask you to ask yourself how often you see something like that happen? How many people are left feeling hurt and abandoned because we do not come to their rescue?

Here I go...

2008-12-15T19:34:00.000-08:00

I recently read a few blog sites from other artists and was motivated to start one of my own. I am a writer by trade, but don't do all that much writing. I end up writing about 20 full songs a year, which turns into a handful that I actually like. However, there is a deep desire inside of me to become the best on writer that I can be. I know that I might never have the biggest vocabulary, or say the most clever things. But I want to be the kind of writer that says things that resonate with peoples soul. I am hoping that writing in this blog more often will create dialogue that will inspire songs and ideas that will naturally find their way into the music. At least that is the goal. Here goes nothing...