My Family

Like Father Like Son...

Undo-Rush of Fools

This is the song I can't seem to play enough lately. Looking back -my life seems to follow this pattern. Some self destructive tendency to take all the good in my life and throw it away only to wake up in the slop with the realization that every good thing I had came from God my Father and I squandered it. In that moment, the last Person I want to see is the ONLY One who can help me. The only One who can undo what I've become....

www.rushoffools.com

I've been here before, now here I am again
Standing at the door, praying You'll let me back in
To label me a prodigal would be
Only scratching the surface of who I've been known to be

Chorus

Turn me around pick me up
Undo what I've become
Bring me back to the place
Of forgiveness and grace
I need You, need Your help
I can't do this myself
You’re the only one who can undo
What I've become

I focused on the score, but I could never win
Trying to ignore, a life of hiding my sin
To label me a hypocrite would be
Only scratching the surface of who I've been known to be

Chorus

Make every step lead me back to
The sovereign way that You

Chorus

My Favorite Sound in the Whole World....

Maybe its because I am 10 weeks out from being a Daddy but this little clip makes me feel like I am 10 weeks away from witnessing the most incredible miracle of my life. Next to my Jesus and Kim...I can't think of anyone else who I have been so excited to meet than this little guy who I can feel but not yet see. There is something about the laughter of children that rings true and good in a world broken by sin and evil. Adulthood is sooooooo overated! I think it was G.K Chesterton who once said, "We have grown old and our God is younger than we..." So laugh a little and enjoy the healing that it can bring.

Peter Piper Picked a Peck of.......

If you have EVER spoken in public, especially from the pulpit to a group of people who are there to hear a word from God...you can appreciate this. I am glad that most of my sermons were never videotaped and have to remind myself daily that if God could speak through the mouth of a donkey than I might just have a chance of speaking truth into someones life this week. Enjoy!

The Latest Evidence That The End of The World As We Know It Is Near

As I was thinking today about the important things I will be teaching me new son it occurred to me that I am faced with a major paradigm shift that will be difficult to explain to my son. The Saints are going to win the NFC Championship game ( there I said it and I believe it! You gotta BELIEVE...right?!) So, among the things I will probably have a hard time convincing my son were actually true at one time are the following:

The Saints actually used to lose...allot.

(I know son, they won the Superbowl the year you were born and have won it almost every other year of your life since but Saints fans were wearing bags way before they were bagging games!)

I used to be cool.

(just ask your mom...on second thought... scratch that.)

I used to have hair.

(Even the most docile Saints fans are doomed to premature hair loss but watching the Saints go to the Superbowl, paying taxes, new-parent-sleep-deprivation and graduating all in the same 4 month period did me in son.)

I worked at McDonalds once.

(This will put me far ahead of other Dads for the first few years until my son realizes life is more then happy meal toys and Ronald McDonalds effigy is burned around the world as protest a against the evil capitalist regimes attempts at worldwide globalization.)

I used to have a triple digit golf score.

( I hope I have to explain this to him...I haven't seen so many grown men obsessed with the 70's, 80's and 90's since I was a kid growing up in the 70's,80's and 90's! : )

There used to be an organ in church.

( and it wasn't a kidney, liver or heart)

I used to have a six-pack

( the kind you wear before it morphs into a 'mono-ab')

Of all of the above, the fact the Saints used to be losers might be the hardest to explain to my son. However,for those of us who have been around for the last few decades- the fact that they are playing this deep into January has to make you think that Satan has started watching the Weather Channel and the demons are buying parkas- my forecast for the next 2 weeks? ICE...allot of ice.

Ceteris Paribus-Leaving Everything The Same

As I consider what to post in the aftermath of the life and death struggle that is commonly referred to as "the Holidays"I cannot allow January of 2007 to expire without reflecting on 2006.

Ahhh...2006! There are so many years that go by that I find myself saying, "I will truly never forget this year!" Whether it is

the Challenger falling from the sky,

the Titanic rising from the sea,

the first time I kissed a girl( which my wife claims never happened),

the first time I kissed a woman( That would be to my Kimmer...see baby...its just sematics) ,

September 15th,2001,

August 9th 2003( The day I made the best decision of my life next to a relationship with my Jesus- this is the day I married my Kim)

Yes, I have been blessed in the midst of a broken world but you know what? I said "Never forget!" an awful lot over the years but for the life of me I cannot remember what I was referring to the other times. That said I won't have a problem with remembering 2006. Why you ask? Simply this...2006 will always be the year that Kim and I experienced one of the most incredible miracles known to man. 2006 is the year that I found out that because of a collaborative effort involving God, Kim and I...we were having a child.

A son.

Wow.

(if you repeat that last word about 30 times and throw in a few "Are you sures?" and a smattering of "Oh my goshes!" you have pretty much recreated Bryan Rhineharts first monologue as a Daddy.)

We are spastic parents thus far. A typical conversation in the Rhinehart household goes something like this:


Bryan(gushing): Oh Baby..I love you so much!

Kim( lovingly): I love you too Baby..You're going to be a Daddy!

Bryan( freaking): Oh my gosh! I'm a Dad! Wait! That makes you a Mommy!Oh my gosh! Your going to have a baby Kim! Can you believe it!?

Kim(pouting): Oh noooo! I am going to have to give birth! It's not fair!You don't have to do anything!

This is then followed by allot of laughter, at least one failed attempt to lay next two each other on a couch that didn't cooperate when there were only two of us much less three, and then the comical sight of two newbie parents trying their best to sing nursery rhymes to the "Bump" on Kim's tummy. I have butchered a few nursery rhymes already...my apologies to Mother Moose.

Thanks for the memories 2006....I wouldn't change a thing!

Dig-Digger

I heard about an interesting study tonight that was performed to prove that the chief reason people choose to work is not to make money as much as it is to find some sort of fulfillment or purpose in what they are doing.

A study done by Berkeley in the 60's aimed to prove this by employing a large number of
people to dig ditches all day for the going rate of about $5/hr. Since unemployment was high, they were able to employ a number of people to participate in the study.

On the first day, they were told to dig a deep ditch but after it was finished they were then told to fill it in. When questioned about the purpose of this exercise in futility they were told that it was part of a research project. Everyone was paid at the end of the day and asked to show up to work the next day.

The next day 40% of the workers failed to show up. As a result, everyones wages were doubled and they were asked to peform the same task. Again they were told to fill in the ditch after spending all day digging it and again they were paid at the end of the day and asked to return the next day. This time they were told that they would be paid an hourly rate 3 times what they earned the first day.

The next day an additional 40% of the workers failed to show up even though they had been promised wages far higher than the rest of the job market at that time. Amazing isn't it? The fact that their high pay was not enough to keep them on the job shows that purpose trumps pay more often than not. We were made FOR SOMETHING and even when we don't know what that something is...no amount of money will cause us to give up the idea that IT is real.

Infancy

You are most high and You do not change.
Nor does "today" ever come to a close for You.
Yet because of You each day does come to a close for us.
The day finds its closing in You, for it has no way to end unless you uphold that ending.And since Your own years never come to an end, all of Your years are one "today".
How many or our years and our father's years flow through Your "today"?Your present is the measure and mold for each of our succeeding moments.
many moments flow by, and each will have the mark of Your mold of being.
And through all things tommorow, You are still the same.
Beyond and behind all yesterdays, You stand. All has been done during Your Today.
-St. Augustine from The Confessions of St. Augustine