MuddyPuddles

Does the name “Bertha De Blois” ring a bell with any of you.  I’ve been doing some genealogical research on my family and according to what I’ve been able to come up with, Bertha is my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great (25 times) grandmother on my mother’s side.  I’d call that pretty great.  She was born in 990 a.d. in Blois, Loir-et-Cher, Orleanis Centre, France .  (Still doesn’t ring a bell?).  Until I double checked, I was thinking that she was born in 909 a.d. and I was planning on having a 1100^th birthday celebration next year.  I had already assigned my Father-in-law the task of getting the candles together.  Now, I guess we’ll have to wait another 82 years before we can do that.  Remind me in 81 years so I can get the party planned.  In the mean time, if you see any De Bloises running around, give them the good news that I might be one of them great cousins they’ve been wishing they had.  As you probably know, we are a close knit bunch.  Thanks, Dennis

I have a list called "100 Life Goals” that I hope to accomplish or experience before my life is over.  Currently it only has 55 items on it.  Evidently I hope to accomplish 45 things that I don't even know about yet.  Some of these written goals I have are “do” goals---things I want to do in my life.  Most are “see” goals---things I want to see.  A few are “have” goals---things I hope to possess (Yes I know it’s shallow and fleeting.  But it also enables the accomplishment of many of the “do” and “see” goals.  (That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.)).  So far I’ve reached 29 of the goals I have listed.  As you can see, I’ve got a long ways to go.   

One of my long time life goals has been to write a book.  And that’s the one I’m concentrating on right now.  When I set that as a goal, many years ago, I wasn’t sure exactly what it would be about---perhaps real estate investment---but I felt like it would be a neat accomplishment if I could get it done. 

To be quite honest, it wasn’t until about a year ago, after doing this blog for awhile, that I began to realize how much I truly enjoy writing.  It’s been a late revelation to me.  I’ve enjoyed the writing part that had to do with things religious and it has served a useful purpose but I’ve also enjoyed (in some ways much more) the writing part about my personal memories and family history.  It’s not so much that I’ve enjoyed the writing part itself (though I do enjoy the challenge of painting a word picture in such a way that we can all experience the event being described).  But I mostly enjoy the fact that the memories that I’ve had stored in my brain are making their way to a medium that is more easily transferred to future generations.  They are no longer trapped in my head but they are written on paper and on hard drives and pin drives and can be saved and passed on down the line. 

When I stated doing this blog I didn’t realize that one of the side benefits would be that it would help facilitate the accomplishment of this book writing goal that I've had rolling around for so long.  I started the blog because I just needed a place to vent and to express myself.  Not only have I been able to do those things, but the blog has partially helped me overcome the book writing obstacle of having to do so much writing and compiling without the benefit of any feedback before it is finished. Your positive feedback on my posts has been such an encouragement to me that it’s made it easy for me to keep writing story after story after story.  In fact, thanks in large part to your encouragement, the first draft has been completed and printed off and put into a notebook in my office.  It's about 160 pages long.

I’ve had a couple of my good friends to critique it and they have come back with quite a few suggestions, criticisms, and some reality checks that I’m taking to heart.  I’m now in the process of rewriting, editing, researching, fleshing out, double checking facts and polishing the material so that it will be just right when it is completed.  I don't want to leave it half done.  I want it to be just right.  So that's where I am. 

They say that you have a better chance of achieving a goal if it is written down and if you tell others about it.  My goal for this year is to have the book completed and published and in my hands before this year is over.  And I just told you about it so maybe you can help me make it happen.  Thanks to all of you for the encouragement you continually shower on me.  You are such a blessing to my life.  I’ll keep you posted on the progress.  God Bless.  Dennis

On June 12, 2007 I wrote a post called “Dreams”.  It dealt primarily with the dream that my oldest son, Jeff, had been pursuing of having his own hunting show on TV.  I talked about how, thanks to God opening so many doors, he was going to start airing on the Men’s Channel in July of ‘07.  That all did indeed take place but a couple of months later the Men’s channel went off the air.  Thankfully, Jeff was able to make a switch to a smaller, less significant channel, Fox Sports Southwest.  It wasn’t great but at least it was something.  Not many people got to see his show, however, because it was not listed under “NonStop Hunting” as it is named, but was listed under “Paid Programming”.  This was pretty frustrating for him and his hunting buddy, Daryl. It has been hard on him to be spending these thousands and thousands of dollars for travel costs for himself and his camera crew and to pay to have the shows professionally edited and to be on the networks that were not being heavily watched and with having the title “Paid Program”.  But, as in most things, you gotta pay your dues if you are ever going to break through to the “big time”.  Even “paying your dues” doesn’t guarantee that you’ll make the “big time”, but it is almost impossible to break through without it.  We knew that there was going to be a period of time---two to three years---that would be critical for the show to gain enough traction to stand on its own.  It’s extremely difficult to get the kind of sponsorship dollars you need to survive if you are one of hundreds of people who are pitching a new show to these inundated sponsors with limited advertising dollars (which are usually committed a year in advance). 

But, as before, God put Jeff in the right place with the right people at the right time.  Scott, a big whig in one of the sponsorship companies has been watching Jeff for over a year now and has kind of taken him under his wing.  He’s been a great advisor to Jeff and an encourager and has opened some other doors which has begun advancing Jeff’s cause.  Scott told Jeff that if NonStop Hunting could get on the “Versus” channel (goes to 75 million households) that his company would begin with a little money this year but would come in with a full dose of sponsorship in 2009.  Scott also has influence with some other sponsors and has received a commitment from one of those other sponsors that they will do the same thing.  So now the question would be whether or not Jeff could get on the Versus channel.  The odds were not too great for that to happen this year.  Not many slots open up each year and a lot of shows would like to fill those slots.  But without it, there would be no significant sponsorship which would make for some difficult financial choices to be looming ahead in the near future.  It’s getting very close to make or break time. 

At the urging of Scott and other influential individuals, the intermediary company that buys bulk time on the Versus channel told Jeff that he would receive serious consideration to be included in this year’s lineup if any time slots opened up but that they wouldn’t know anything for a couple of weeks.  That was a little over two weeks ago.  On Tuesday, two days ago, Jeff got the call notifying him that he was accepted on the Versus Channel.  It was a good day.  (In fact it was a great week since his sweet and healthy baby, Aubrey Grace, was born on the previous Thursday 2/14/08). Nonstop Hunting should start airing in July 2008.  (You can keep up with the latest details on his blog http://www.nonstophunting.net/.)  This breakthrough, along with Scott’s continued guidance and Jeff & Darryl’s continued efforts should get him over the hump.  When Jeff emailed Scott to let him know that Versus had accepted him, Scott sent Jeff a text message saying “Welcome to the big time.” 

Obviously, there is still very much work to do.  And there are not too many guarantees in this life.  But by any standard this was a huge breakthrough for Jeff and Darryl and the odds of them having long term success in this venture was increased exponentially.  God has truly blessed them.  Now they just need to take this wonderful opportunity and use it to God’s glory (as we all do with our own successes and failures).  God has blessed them bountifully.  I pray that he will continue to do so.  And may God Bless you as well.  Dennis       

On October 26, 2006 my sweet little grandson, JD, was born and died.  He was quite premature and had no chance to live due to medical conditions that were irreversible.  His actual due date was February 15, 2007---one year ago today. 

Last night, his little sister, Aubrey Grace, was born.  She was five weeks premature.  I guess she didn’t want to wait five weeks past her brother’s scheduled birthday before she paid us a visit.  And in fact, since the 14^th was Valentines day, she just decided that this would be the best time to make her grand entrance into this world.

This little girl didn’t mess around either.  She was born less than one hour after her momma got to the hospital.  By the time I got there, about an hour later, she was already laying in her little warming bed all sprawled out with her toboggan cap on.  She was unbelievably beautiful. 

When I saw her my emotions just immediately welled up on the inside and just spilled out of me.  I basically had no control.  Until that moment I hadn’t realized how much pent up concern and hope and desire I had for this baby to be on the ground. 

It is so hard to watch your kids suffer.  And so much is at risk in bringing a baby through a full pregnancy.  There are so many things that can go wrong.  It seems like a miracle that any baby can make it through, much less most of them.  And if you’ve had (and watched your kids have) a difficult experience before, it only compounds your concerns and fears that you are going to have difficulties again. 

Add to that the fact that your baby is coming five weeks early and the alarm bells go off---your fears are elevated.  And then to find out that your baby is a “breach” baby (coming out backwards), the risk and worry levels go up even more.  There were some tense moments there.  We were all on pins and needles.  But Aubrey wasn’t worried.  Her first act was to moon the world---and she did it magnificently.

And now we are all reveling in the wonder of this---God’s glorious gift to us.  She is so tiny and so fragile but she shakes our world.  The reverberations we feel will impact all of our lives for a long time to come.  Her every movement is a glorious sight.  We are all convinced that this child is special.  We are all so thankful to God for this wonderful blessing (though we are concerned about the potential that her little finger may grow apart from her other fingers since she has so many of us wrapped around it already.) 

For everyone into details, she came in at 5 lbs 14 oz and was 19 inches long.  She was born at 4:22 p.m. in Providence Hospital in Waco .  She has dark hair and skinny legs.  Thank you all for your prayers on her behalf.  Please keep them coming.  God Bless,  

“Pa“        

To stay in shape (in other words---to keep most of my body parts from getting too far out of whack) I exercise regularly.  Very often I run laps around the school track.  Occasionally, while running on that track, my mind drifts back to my senior year in high school when I was on the school track team.  One of the races I always took part in was the mile relay.  This is where four guys (or gals) each run a quarter of a mile (one after the other) until the combined team completes the full mile.  The first runner would start off with a little stick (baton) in his hand and he would hand it off to his team mate at the completion of the lap who would then do likewise until all four runners had completed their laps.  We had a really fast relay team and always placed high in the competition.   

One of my favorite lifetime memories took place at the district track meet where we came from behind against the two fastest (supposedly) runners in our district.  With that win we won the meet and advanced to regionals to compete for a chance to go to state.  Even now, all these many years later, my heart gets to pumping and I can feel that adrenalin rush when I think back to that day.

While training for the regionals I “tweaked” my groin muscle a little bit.  I “pulled” it.  This was a huge bummer for me.  I knew this would probably slow me down some but I felt like I could still compete. 

Since I had been a “late bloomer” I didn’t have a lot of experience with competitive running and track.  Slow small people don’t get a lot of attention so I never went to the track meets until I was no longer slow, which was my senior year.  To make things worse, I was pretty naïve about a lot of things at the time (track and otherwise).  I was a good boy, but pretty gullible in some ways. 

My coach was primarily a football coach who was using track primarily to keep the football players in shape and to enhance their speed.  He was kind of naïve in the ways of the track world as well.  He meant well, but that and fifty cents will get you a cup of coffee.  Therefore, with our combined ignorance we did some things that, looking back, I wish we would have done differently.  I think it would have changed the outcome of the regional mile relay. 

There are two main things I would change.  First, I would have rested my leg after I tweaked it.  Instead, like everyone else I ran laps every day.  This made my strain get progressively worse.  Dumb mistake. 

Secondly, after getting my leg worked on by the Texas Tech trainers (which made it feel awesome) on the day of the regional track meet, my coach lumped me in with all of the other runners who he was telling to “get warm” even though it was several hours until my race.  By the time the mile relay came up, it was painful for me to even jog.  I did my best during the race but by the time I came around the last curve my leg felt like it was about to fall off.  It was hurting so bad.

Teams who finish in first or second place get to advance to state.  We finished just a few short yards behind the second place team.  As I came to understand the bigger picture of what took place on that day it just made me sick to think about how we blew our opportunity to go state.  We were so close and we just beat ourselves because of our own ignorance.  We should have gone.  We were so ignorant and stupid and naïve in our pre-race training and in our pre-race warmup.  As you can probably tell, it still bugs me a little.  What a waste.

As I’ve reflected back on that event (thousands of times) in the years since, I’ve learned some valuable life lessons.  I’ve learned from my mistakes.  For what it’s worth, I want to share what I’ve learned with you.  Take it or leave it.  “It is what it is.”

The main thing I’ve learned is that even people in positions of authority don’t always know what they are talking about.  People who are supposed to know what’s best are not always right.  And anyone who only listens to what others are saying without challenging the logic or the wisdom or without getting a second opinion if it doesn’t seem quite right, are destined to make needless mistakes.  We are all going to make mistakes, but we don’t have to be foolish enough to make them because of our timidity or laziness or our blind faith in what someone has told us.  Even if they mean well, people are flawed.  It is foolish to be afraid to challenge what they tell you, even if you love them and even if they love you.  The Bereans were more noble because they examined the scriptures daily TO SEE IF WHAT PAUL WAS SAYING WAS THE TRUTH.  Should we do any less (in Bible application situations and in life)?

And secondly I’ve come to the realization that I am responsible for my own decisions.  If I blow it, it’s my fault.  Some may mislead me, but if I didn’t do my due diligence before making my decision, it’s my fault if it fails.  I was just a young boy back then, but if I had been more savey I know I could have talked the coach out of making me run in the days ahead of the meet.  He knew I wasn’t a slacker.  And I know I could have held off on my warming up on regional track day if I would have been thinking about what order the races were scheduled.  I’m not so naïve now.  And peer pressure doesn’t do much to me.  And timidity doesn’t affect me much.  So I’m out of excuses.  I take responsibility for the choices I make---good or bad.  And I wouldn’t have it any other way.  God Bless, Dennis    

Outreach Church

It's been awhile since I've updated you “out of towners” about Outreach Church and how it is going with us.  I know some of you must be curious.  For those of you who are new to my blog, I have pretty much chronicled a split in a Church of Christ from several months before anybody knew there was going to be a split through the split time.  I use the term “split” for simplicity.  Everybody understands that term or at least has a good idea of what that means.  What really happened in this case was not really what I might consider a split, though the effects are basically the same.  Instead, what happened was basically a situation which led quite a few members to just decide that they couldn’t go back to that church for at least awhile.  Nothing was organized about leaving.  No one rallied anyone to leave.  We just left.  Then, after not feeling that we had any good alternatives on the next Sunday, most of us went nowhere.  This resulted in a decision to just get together to fill a need (to worship God in a non stressful environment).  We intentionally made no plans to start a church.  We just needed a place to go for a cooling off period.  It was like a “red cross tent” which is set up after a disaster.  After about six weeks and after it became apparent that reconciliation was not going to happen, we decided to form a “permanent” congregation.  Ultimately we chose the name “Outreach church of Christ ”.  We also selected “Shepherds”.  That was about three months ago.  (The original separation came around the 1^st of October 2007.)

We meet in the Junior High School Library.  Each week, a different couple or group is in charge of planning the service from beginning to end.  They can get as detailed or as general in their planning as they choose.  They can bring in speakers if they desire.  They can lead the songs and preach if they want.  We never know exactly what to expect from week to week.  Our goal is to keep things fresh and to allow everyone to take some ownership of what happens and how well things go.  Since we have no paid preacher (and no building costs) our contribution can be used to reach out to those in need in the community and elsewhere.  We’ve already helped quite a few people with unconditional gifts to help them in their time of need.  We are funding a missionary in Honduras, as well .  We hope to have a mission trip there this summer with quite a few of our own members going as part of our proactive outreach. 

The past few Sundays have been so fulfilling for me personally and I think for many others as well.  We’ve averaged close to 70 people in attendance.  The lessons have been inspirational.  The men have been speaking from the heart and really making us think about our purpose here on earth.  We have songs from the “Paperless Hymnal” projected on to the screen which helps us to have wonderful and inspirational song services.  The women take turns teaching the children during the lesson time.  We partake of the Lord’s Supper each week.  After church is over it is amazing how long people stay and visit with one another.  It’s just a warm, loving, caring and sharing time of worshipping God and bonding with brethren.

The brother who spoke last Sunday described our history as having had to go through the pains of childbirth to get here.  And he also spoke of the blessings of the new birth and the joy that comes after the pain.  He spoke of the reality that this is now our church (as in our home).  We love it and want it to continue to grow and to reach out to others who are searching for the Lord. 

Before the “split” the average attendance was approximately 156 each week and the contribution was a little over $3000 per week.  If you combine the attendances and the contributions of the two groups now, the attendance adds up to about 170 or 180 and the combined contributions add up to about $4500 or more.  I can’t speak for how the services are going over there but I know that those who go to Outreach feel more fed and inspired than they did before.  The stress that was heavy when we were all together has diminished greatly because we are apart and we don't feel annoyed by each others presence and our disagreement over style or philosophy.  I know that everything is not perfect but it just seems that more is being accomplished for the Lord because of this church “planting”. 

Unfortunately there are still a few very upset people over there.  Quite a few others are feeling a sense of loss and longing but without any animosity toward any of us.  They just miss us.  But some are very bitter and are struggling with even the thought of accepting us at all.  They don't even want anyone to be accepting of us.  I hope that bitterness can disappear because it does no good for anything or anyone.  It only causes harm to the cause of Christ in this town.   I hope that the time will come very soon that we can have healing and acceptance.  I don't think we can get back together physically, because nothing has changed philosophically.  But I do hope we can get back together relationally.  That will do nothing but good.   
I’ve heard that some good things are happening over there and they have some good things in the works.  I wish for them the best (as do all the members at Outreach).  I hope they can all come to the same feelings about us---soon.  It is my hope that soon we can all greet one another with genuine love and grace when we cross paths in this little town, and that we can speak graciously toward and about one another at the other times.  Then we truly will be doing the Lord’s work.  Let us throw off every encumbrance and run the race before us.  Sincerely,  Dennis             

I’ve been thinking a lot about waves for the past few days---you know, those ripply things that move across the surface of the ocean.  I know.  It’s weird.  But, that’s the main thing that’s been popping into my mind during my “deep thought” modes here lately.  I’ve been reflecting on life and how much impact we really have (or don’t have) with our lives.  Solomon’s “chasing after the wind” statement has been popping in there a few times as well (I’ve been figuring my taxes).    

I believe that some of us have a tendency to think that we’re making more of a difference than we really are.  (I’ve been prone to do that from time to time.)  Others of us probably think they aren’t making any difference at all. (You know who you are.) 

The reality is that to some degree we are all making a difference with our lives just like the reality is that each wave in the ocean makes a difference.  Though it’s not always easy to see, each wave changes something during its brief lifetime (sometimes for good and sometimes for bad).  That’s why the wave metaphor works.  We are all just rolling along with our lives as the days, weeks, months and years pass.  Sometimes we crest and then splash down adding a little oxygen to the water below as we march along.  This helps the plant and marine life to survive.  Some times we raise things up along our journey and sometimes we bring things down.  As waves move along, the energy is actually transferred as it goes.  It looks like the water is moving just as fast as the wave, but it’s not. It’s an optical illusion.  Something floating in the water may only move an inch as the wave itself moves several feet.  The wave, though made by the water, is not the same thing as the water.  Just like the wave we may be overestimating our own impact.  It may look like we are moving right along at times when our impact is actually moving things along significantly less.  But at least it is moving.  But don’t kid yourself.  Just between you and me, you are pretty ineffective and so am I.  (I won’t tell if you won’t tell.) 

Each wave makes a difference when it finally reaches the shore, also.  It may move a few grains of sand.  It may smooth out some footprints or animal tracks.  It may dig microscopicly deeper into the rocks along the shoreline.  After a million years, or so, you’ll be able to see the impact.  So don’t kid yourself.  Unless you are some kind of tsunami you’ll just have to settle for being a regular ol’ wave.  So ripple on now and make yourself useful.  Start making a splash and then push a few particles around.  Those little varmits are getting a little too comfortable in their private little spots anyway.  Take care.   Dennis 

James 4:14 (NIV) 

    Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.