Love is an incredible thing!  A few days ago, I was thinking about how much I love my wife and daughters!  I was away from them over night and I could not wait to see them, hold them and tell them that I love them!  Just thinking about them, what they mean to me and how they make me feel was so overwhelming that I began to cry, not tears of pain, but tears of joy, appreciation and expectation of seeing them again!  That got me to thinking about love – my love for them and their love for me.  So many times I take it all for granted, but in that moment it was the most important thing on my mind and heart.  And then I got to thinking about how much God loves me.  He loves me so much that He sent His Son Jesus to die for my sins on the cross.  He loves me so much that He allows me moments like the one I just described, moments where I am filled with emotion that words cannot even come close to describing.  He loves me so much that He shared with me those that I could love and they would love me back – how awesome!

I know what love is – because I have been given an example.  Jesus out of His great love for me – laid down His life!  He gave His life, so that I might have life – abundant and everlasting!  His love allows me to know, share and experience love and all that comes with it.  Because God has been so good to me with His love, I want to be good to others with the love that He has given me.  I want to be willing to lay my life down!  I want to lay down my attitude, selfishness and opinions, so that I can embrace others and encourage them in their walk with Christ.  I want to be willing to always give my time, energy and effort to make a difference in someone elses life, so that God who makes it all possible gets all of the glory.

Jesus is my Savior!  He came into my life and made it count for something!  It’s absolutely amazing that Jesus would save me, not because of righteous works that I do, but because of His mercy!  (Titus 3:5)  I mean, when I really stop and think about the fact that Jesus loves me, forgives me and restores me – I just can’t get over it! 

I still to this day do not know what He saw in me!  I’m not down on myself, in fact, I kinda like myself.  But I know that I am not anywhere near as good, cool or smart as I like to think I am.  Jesus does not focus on what I am – His focus is on what and who I can be! 

I can’t understand how He could love me!  I like to think of myself as a pretty lovable dude, but the truth is:  I can be very unlovable!  I don’t get out of bed in the morning – clean, smooth and charming!  Jesus sees me when I am dirty, rough and disgusting and He still loves me!  Jesus does not look at my failures and flaws – Jesus looks at my potential and appreciates me for me and all that I can be with Him!

I won’t ever be able to repay Him!  When I think about all that Jesus has done for me – I will never be able to repay Him!  I can never live good enough, long enough to even come close to giving back to Jesus all that He has given to me!  He saved me, not because of what I had done, not because of what I had not done.  He saved me – simply because He loves me and has an amazing plan for my life!  My salvation and right relationship are not based in any way on me, but all on Him and His mercy!

Because of His mercy – I don’t get what I deserve!  Because of His grace – I get what I don’t deserve!  Jesus made it possible for me to be reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit.  I just can’t get over it and I hope I never do!

I am not really good at vacations!  I love what I do and I have always said that doing ministry is my work and my hobby!  I have a calling and when I am ministering, I am fulfilling that thing that I was called to do!  Usually when I have taken time to go on vacation – I spend most of the time thinking about what I am going to do in ministry when I get back!  Most of my vacations have been trips away from where I live physically, but everything pretty much stayed the same mentally and spiritually!

 But things have changed!  Joy and I bought a travel trailer and took our girls on our first ever camping experience!  It was the best vacation I have ever been on!  It was the best vacation I have ever been on because I saw this experience as making an investment in myself and my family.  The travel trailer forced me to slow down!  When you are pulling a 30 foot trailer behind your vehicle – your racing days are over!  On the ride there I was forced to slow down and enjoy the ride, and I was able to focus on family, conversation, music, scenery and whatever caught my fancy!  We will get there when we get there!

There was some work to getting everything set up, but once the major work was done – we had a lovely week of just being together and enjoying God’s creation all around us.  We met some new friends, took in a lot of sunshine, spent a good bit of time on the sand and in the ocean and I got to read without having to be in a hurry!  At the end of the week – we all wanted to stay for another week!

The most important thing that I got from this vacation was a RECHARGE!  One of the things that the girls liked to do, was go for a ride around the campground on a golf cart.  We would ride all day and most of the night, but when we went to bed, we would plug it into a charging system.  If at any point we failed to recharge the golf cart – the next day the golf cart would take us nowhere!  If a golf cart has to be recharged, the we as people must be recharged too!

You may not be able to get away in a travel trailer anytime soon, but you can recharge!  Take some time during a lunch break to get out and away from all of the hustle and bustle and just enjoy what God has created all around you.  Take some time to slow down and spend some meaningful time with friends and family – not because you have to, but because you want to!  Take and make some time to allow God to recharge you with His energy and Spirit – you’ll be surprised at how much better life can be!