I have been looking at my year in pictures today and I am amazed at the blessings, the laughter, the fun, the family and friends God has blessed me with. I am simply amazed and thankful. You see, I know how quickly all of this can change. My world was shaken in 1989 when my sister was murdered, again in 2010 when my brother died in a vehicle accident, and again in 2013 when my dad died from complications from a motorcycle accident. The people that we love and cherish can be gone from us in an instant. Don’t ever take people for granted.
Life is too short to try and be a people pleaser, concentrate on being a God pleaser.
Life is too short to allow people who don’t appreciate you to take up your precious time and energy.
Life is too short to allow others to tell you who you are, let God tell you who you are. You are a child of God.
Life is too precious to just survive. Live and thrive!
Life is too short to be average, take some risks, have a lot of fun, and laugh often.
Pour yourself into getting to know the one who loves you more than anyone else in this universe. Don’t waste a minute more, read God’s Word that He gave to us. Practice what you learn there, stop making excuses.
Do your job and do it well. Do it as if you are doing it for God Himself because you are, No matter what the job is. And hey listen, there will always be people who will tell you that you should do your work different. Amazingly they most likely have never done the work that you are doing and have no idea what it takes to do the job, And most if not all of them wouldn’t do your job if it were offered to them. Do your best and move on. Don’t get distracted for a minute by the people who want to tell you to be someone else or to be better or to meet up to their standards. You are a child of God, a child of the King. That should make you shout!
Rick Warren says it best, “To silence your critics, out live, out love, and out serve them.”
These are just some things that have been on my heart the past few days and I wanted to share them. As a pastor I work hard, lots of hours, lots of prayers, lots of pain for other people, lots of misunderstanding when you know that God is leading you in a direction and people are hurt or feel that you are wrong. It’s OK, it is part of what goes with being a leader. If a leader can’t take the heat they best move to Alaska. 🙂
Add to being a pastor the following. Husband of one, father of three, grandfather of three, gardener, landlord, book reviewer, and most recently substitute teacher.
As a pastor/tent-maker who works hard, I also play hard. I do everything in my power to be with my family, making moments, making memories. I spend as much time as possible with friends, making moments, making memories. Someone said to me this year, “You take more vacations than anyone I know.” My response, “Thank you.” We work hard and we play hard. As a pastor I want to be with my people as often as possible so we have to get creative and find ways to do things other than weekends many times.
In 2014 we were blessed with a camper that allows for us to hook up and and go places we have never really enjoyed before. We camped this year as much as possible and I can’t wait for Spring. We have ATVs and love to ride the trails in West Virginia. We love Pigeon Forge and DollyWood. We love the ocean and camping in state parks. (It’s cheap) We love visiting with friends in Atlanta. We love riding bikes on the trail. I love running and reading. More than anything though, I love being with the ones that I love. All the other stuff is just that, stuff. Love on your family and friends, make some memories in 2015.
In 2014 I read about 60 books, ran about 500 miles, preached approximately 144 times, grew a huge garden, purchased one rental property, and ate a lot of cake! And this brings me to my 2015 Resolutions.
Resolutions for 2015
#1. Read the Bible Cover to Cover, along with many friends from my church. (We’re not just going to read it, we are going to have a lot of fun with it. We are going to have discussions around it. I am going to preach some sermons around the most interesting and impacting passages that we read. And I will be blogging regularly about the daily readings.
#2. Read 50 New Books, this is less than I normally read in a year but this year I plan to go back and review 50 of my most favorite books of the past.
#3. Run 1100 miles. That is an average of 3 miles a day or 21 miles a week.
#4. Train and run my 9th 26.2 mile Marathon, in a really fun place. Maybe someplace I’ve never been before.
#5. Give more financially than we have ever given before. We are faithful tithers but I believe we are blessed even more when we go above and beyond the 10% tithe and give. I would love to purchase more rental properties as God brings opportunity.
#6. To fast on a regular basis and eat more healthy. This definitely means less cake and donuts. I would really like to get back to my best running weight which is about 180-185 pounds and stay there. I miss being able to keep up with the front runners.
#7. To raise and save money to go to Israel in 2016 and take a group from Out of the Box with me. If you’re interested, start saving your money. It will likely cost between three and four thousand dollars and will be some of the best money you will ever spend.
Ultimately God may have totally different plans than I do. If that is the case I will do everything in my power to follow Him and do whatever it is He calls me to do. If He calls me to something that would take away my ability to read and run, I will still praise Him. If He places me in a situation where I make less money I will be satisfied and Praise Him and if He blesses me with more, I will give more and Praise Him. The truth is, we make our plans but God’s plans will prevail. God has given me the desires of my heart and I just believe more blessings is coming.
I pastor one of the greatest churches on the planet and the greatest people. We are growing and in continual change in this modern world. We as a church need to get ready to plant new congregations and reach more people. We are launching a new ministry in 2015 called Recovery At Hillsville. It is my heartfelt believe this ministry will grow fast and large. As a church we are going to do more this year in the way of outreach, small groups, and gathering as a family. More camping and fishing trips. More retreats like Resurrection and Divine Rhythm, and lots of other fun things. We are going to love as many people as we possibly can into the Kingdom of God.
I plan to be with my family, church family, and friends as much as possible, making memories that will last through eternity.And I plan to make lots of new friends to join us.
It’s going to be a busy year, strap on your seat-belt and I’ll see you there.
Ronnie
