As a single man, I decided to go to a singles Bible study too enrich my faith…RIGHT!  I was there to check out the babes!  You guys know what I’m talking about.  At least I admit it!  Anway, as God would have it, when I arrived I knew all of two, count ‘em, two, people.  One was a gal that I knew I would not be dating, and one was a guy I knew from school.  After the study is the time to make the “connections”.  I had been eyeing the room most of the night, and honestly, there was only one chick that I was attracted too, and the ONE guy that I knew was talking to her.  I was in luck.  I walked over to him and said, “Fred… how’s it going?  Who’s your friend?” (I was really interested in furthering my friendship with Fred, obviously).  Fred’s friend was Lesley.  As they discussed a party that she had planned for the coming Saturday night (this was on a Thursday night), I had to invite myself at least three times before she got the hint.  Finally, I got the invite I was looking for, and after about a half-dozen requests for the address, I finally got that too.  (Persistence pays off… there’s a biblical principle in there for you).

The night that I arrrived at the party, I knocked at the door and received no answer.  Since the apartment complex parking lot still looked a bit empty, I figured I had gotten the time wrong.  So I drove down to the mall to kill and hour and went back.  This time, the parking lot didn’t look much different, but I did get an answer at the door.  A distraught Lesley was there by herself.  As the night unfolded with phone calls to various people, it became clear that a former psyco boyfriend had called everyone and told them the party was being moved.  So no one came……but me!  God intervened that night to allow the two of us to get to know each other in a way that simply would not have happened without some divine intervention.  But this still wasn’t a date.

The next night, Sunday, July 24, 1988, I took Lesley to a Truth concert at a church in Spartanburg, SC.  It was our first official date.  And the rest, as they say, is history.

So, tonight is a special night.  We “met” on a Thursday night (tonight is a Thursday night) and we had our first “date” on 7/24/88 (tonight is 7/24/08).  In honor of this very, very, very special day, I’m going to take a very, very, very special woman out for a night of being together and thanking God for every minute that we have enjoyed in the years between then and now.

On the 4th of July, our family enjoyed an evening on the riverfront and a front row seat to a phenomenal display of fireworks.  Last year we viewed fireworks at Mt Rushmore on the 4th and to my surprise, little ol’ Peoria may very well have matched if not exceeded Mt Rushmore.  There was one firework in particular that was fired off several times that literally filled the sky.  It set off golden sparkle trails that looked like a giant weeping willow tree.  It was literally breathtaking.  And those in combination with many others provided a sense of wonderment and gratitude.  As I set there I couldn’t help but think that all of this was totally unnecessary.  We don’t really NEED fireworks displays.  But what a joy to have them.  In some regards it was a total waste of money, but how much joy and satisfaction did it provide for those who were there?  For 30 minutes or so, I suspended my “practical” brain thinking and just enjoyed the moment along with the rest of my family and many others from church.

As I set there with these thoughts passing through my mind, I was reminded of a phrase that I once read several years ago in a book written by John Eldredge, “The Journey of Desire“.   The phrase is the title of this post…   GLORIOUSLY WASTEFUL!

I remember the first time I read the term, I was struck by the depth of it.  It would seem that Eldredge is not the first to use the phrase.  It may have originated with the poem, Diary of an Old Soul, by George MacDonald.  But regardless of where the term originated, I am captivated by it.  What a compelling picture of God.  God loves us so much, that he is willing to lavish on us in a gloriously wasteful way.  What does that mean?  Let’s think about some of the ways God lavishes on us unnecessarily…

• Beautiful sunset after beautiful sunset
• An explosion of a rainbow of colors and a 1000 shades of green every spring
• The breathtaking beauty of fall
• Thousands of varieties of birds, fish and animals of every imagination
• Smells that arouse and delight your senses

None of these things are “necessary”, and yet God loves us so much he gives them to us to enjoy and be reminded of his goodness.  In Eldredge’s book, he shares an email from a friend that sums this up beautifully:

“We’ve had a couple of inspiring sunsets this week.  It was as if the seams of our atmosphere split for a bit of heaven to plunge into the sea.  I stood and applauded…simultaneously I wanted to kneel and weep.”

Ever had those moments?  You have if you’ve ever stopped to pay attention to how God lavishes on us.  And it’s all designed to bring us joy while moving us closer to him.  I am thankful beyond the ability of words to convey that God is such a God.  In closing, I thought I would share some pictures that go far beyond my words to describe all of this… Enjoy!

Why not take a moment to share when you’ve been struck by God being “Gloriously Wasteful”.

BREAKING NEWS….. IT MAY NOT BE WORKING!

That’s right, according to an article in the USA Today, it actually may prove to be counter-productive. Check out this excerpt:

The result: Little Susie has made it through four years at her respected university. Phew.

She’s ready to launch, right? Not so fast. Many of these helicopter young’uns have absolutely no blooming idea what they should do next. They’ve been so busy with their internships and tests and labs that they’ve missed the essential purpose of all that frantic activity — figuring out their passion, following a stream as it flows into a larger river and then jumping on a boat and seeing where it takes them.

And they’ve also been so focused on achievement that they miss the larger point, says Madeline Levine, a San Francisco psychologist and author of The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids. “Authentic success involves character, engagement, well-being, emotional intelligence and achievement,” she says. “We’ve got all our eggs in the achievement basket.”

“Authentic success involves character…” is a phrase you would typically expect to hear from someone in a pulpit on Sunday morning, not a San Fran psychologist. But that’s the interesting thing about God’s truth…even people who may not actually agree with it, will ultimately confirm it’s truth. All this running around usually serves to delay the growing-up process and leads to confusion about what’s really important.

Take a few minutes to go read the rest of the article at USA Today. Click here!

Here’s my question… do we as parents do this more for our children or more for ourselves? And if we are doing it for our children, does this article give any of you reason to reconsider?

Lesley has never been big on birthdays, so each year we go to one of the summer blockbusters that always come out around her birthday as an entire family. We had the chance to go see Prince Caspian on Friday and thoroughly enjoyed it. But it wan’t her birthday. So, we’re going out for dinner tonight to the Chinese buffet on University (don’t you just love being able to eat all the Chinese food you can hold down for one price?) and then renting a movie to watch at home together. For Lesley, her birthday is more about the family than it is about her. So, tonight will be a fun evening for all of us together in honor of the most important woman in the three Doughboy’s (Zach, Brandon, & me) lives.

Happy Birthday Honey! I love you!

Lesley w/Zach & Brandon

Lesley & me in front of the N.D. Badlands

One of my fav pics of my family in Teddy Roosevelt Park

Almost all the gang below…

So for those of you looking for a recommendation, that’s about as good as it gets in the Doebler household…. Ironman is in the running for movie of the year 2008.

Now…go meet my folks!

WRDW-TV video clip

It’s late Saturday afternoon and I just got a call from my mom in South Carolina (click the picture for a better view of where) that they survived a near miss from a series of tornados that broke out in GA, SC, and other parts of the South in the U.S. today. They were spared serious damage to their own home while a church across the street suffered significant damage. My folks had several outbuildings on their property that were severely damaged, but their home is in pretty decent condition although they have no electricity.

This reminds me of several key points from our message series that we are currently in - LOST:

1. We live in a broken world
2. There is often a randomness that seems to make no sense, and it challenges our faith.
3. In these crisis moments, there are some who will see the hand of God and take comfort while others will blame God and turn from him.
4. In the end, we always have a choice about how we will view our circumstances and ultimately what we will do with them.
5. It reminds me of a wise proverb that goes like this, “Fear is looking at God through circumstances. Faith is looking at circumstances through God.”

I’m glad my folks are choosing to see their current circumstances through God. Please pray for the many across the south that have been devastated by the current series of violent storms.

Well, we awoke this morning to sounds of joy within the Doebler household. The words of hope and joy that dance in every child’s mind during the winter months of the school year came true today…”NO SCHOOL“. Before we moved here from South Carolina, Zach & Brandon were so excited about coming to a place where it snows frequently. Their enthusiasm was based on the fact that in SC, if snow is even PREDICTED, school is cancelled. In other words, there doesn’t even have to be snow on the ground for school to get cancelled. So coming to a “winter wonderland” like Peoria (did anyone just spew coffee on your computer screen after reading that last comment?), seemed like a dream come true for them. Sadly, they were unaware of a horrible invention called the snow plow. Until last year, they had not gotten a single day cancelled due to snow. Their excitement for snow has turned into something more like dread…..until you get a snow day. Then all is right in the world again.

We have readers on this blog not only here in Peoria, but in many places around the country as well. It would be fun to have some of you share where you are (Peoria included) and let us know the weather where you are, and if you have any favorite snow day memories. What do you do with a snow day? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must go shovel the driveway. I hate snow days!