12 Days After

I told Becca that this was the only picture I cared about getting in this sweat factory otherwise known as graduation regalia. Just me and my kids.
That day was something else. It was the culmination of what I longed for. The rest of the day I just sat and did nothing at my mom and dad's house. Well, I guess I gourged myself on brats and chips and sweated but that was about it. It was a good day. My wife sat with her mom and mine, I got to spend time with my dad and his brother, the kids played on the swings and sand, it just couldn't get any better. But now its 12 days after and the sitting around is getting old. I want the job search to move along faster and I wish I was able to go back to school already, I really want to work on a PhD. I am tired of Wal-Mart and Shirkey's and I just want some change, and its only been 12 days.
So to keep me occupied I have been reading a lot of books. A biography of Bultmann and one of Bonhoffer. A book on marriage by Kostenberger. A Greek and Hebrew grammar. Mitchell and Metzger's lexical aids. I have been doing a timeline of Christianity for my own benefit. I have continued my greek studies in 1 John by doing translation and an inverse interlinear.
Even though I'm not in school, and I'm not working on a PhD yet, I just want to learn, I just want to sepnd time doing that which is worth doing. I want to spend my time learning about my savior and being equipped to do effectively what he has called me to do. Yeah, I've watched some TV, and I've even sat on the porch a few times with a stogie and an O'Douls, but mostly I've just thought about Jesus and the desire to love him like I never have. I 've spent the last 12 days establishing what I want to do for the rest of my life so that when I stand before Jesus Christ, the "pantekrator," I will have known that I did my best for him and his call on my life and that, my friend, will never come easy. Bonhoffer coined the term "cheap grace" among other things which depicted how many of his fellow statesmen sought to exhaust Christianity. The opposite is what the Cost of Discipleship is about. It is about the fact that knowing Jesus will cost you - all of your life. I know I haven't faced what he faced, but I want to get ready. I want to be so equipped to serve Christ that death won't scare me.
So the past 12 days have been spent trying to establish pattern and I plan on spending the next 12 days the same.

Philippians 3:10 "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings,"