Sweet Mara

At 4:14 yesterday morning, I was introduced to my new daughter. Mara Lynn Daniels was born! She weighed in at 8 lbs 4 oz and was 20 in long. She looks almost exactly like her older (16 months) sister did when she was born, except Mara has dark hair. Abigail (the older sister) was bald and is now blond.

Birth is a miracle. I have seen it twice now and I still cannot begin to describe its beauty and impact. As I harrowed queasiness with a coke, I was speechless and on the verge of emotional overflow when Mara finally came through. I don't know if there are words to describe the feeling, but I am sure it is unique. As an inexperienced writer I know the feeling of not being able to precisely describe a moment as I want, so that the moment will be fully communicated with words, but I get a different vibe about this. I feel like it is okay to not be able to describe this. I am comfortable with this inability to communicate this experience through words. I think that may be how it is supposed to be.

Amazed by God...again!

when is enough enough?

Just to start things off, and catch everybody up, I do not like Obama. I think he is spineless and ignorant to the real world. I think he is a great speaker with nothing to say worth listening to. I think he got in on many factors that have nothing to do with his ability to lead a country. I think he is too vague to be trusted, and I think he is too popular to be liked. I do trust a sovereign God in his election, and cannot wait to see the real legacy that is left by Obama. I am afraid that the United States of America will not be able to recover from the mess he is getting us in, but I am not worried since this is only my temporary residence.
That being said, I just read a headline to an article on google news that Obama has vowed to create a government agency for cybersecurity to control the federal database that is apparently under constant attack. I have many problems with this. I am tired of every response to every problem being, "lets just have the government deal with it...oh the government doesn't do that?..well, lets just create a new government agency that does."
How dumb. Hey, Obama, you don't have to solve all the problems. You can't solve all the problems. We don't want you to solve all the problems. Get over yourself and your big government.
Here is another one for you, consider it a bonus: I think Obama and all the Marxist left politicians are using the size of government to compensate for something. There it is, I said it. I think they recognize all of their inadequacies and have collectively decided that in order to compensate for their inability to preform in various areas of their life, they will just make the government that much bigger, and that much more powerful, and that much more intrusive, and that much more obnoxious.
Okay, I'm on a roll: the only sector that has shown a financial increase during this time of recession is the government. At first, this may offer the illusion that the government must be the only place that things are being done right. Then it hits you, the government is the only organization that is allowed to steal from its clients. They are literally allowed to threaten each and every one of us, at the risk of jail time (at least) if we do not pay them what they think they deserve. When will enough of us wake up and stop electing people who are going to steal more money from us? Do you not realize that we give them permission to do this? I'm finished.

oops!

A formal apology is in order. As it turns out, the Loganville Tribune does recognize talent when they see it, and while I do not agree with putting such a beautifully crafted letter off for a week, I am sorry for jumping to conclusions and judging the quality of your paper too soon. If you didn't figure it out, my letter did make the paper this past Friday (a week after I expected it to). Congrats to both the Loganville Tribune and me!

pizza!!pizza!!

Well, since I was misinformed about my letter making the paper, I decided that a career change was in order. As of June 1, I will be employed at a Little Caesars pizza pizza restaurant! I am going back to my roots, and boy is it exciting. I went yesterday for 'on the job training' to make sure I still had "it". I think I have most of "it", but I am a little rusty. The rust coupled with the fact that the store layout is backward from what I am used to made it interesting, but I apparently did something right. I got the gig after all! There are some exciting opportunities with this job, but I don't want to jinx them by talking about it. For now, just know that it will provide sufficiently for my family, as well as allow me to do some things that I enjoy doing (like writing). I am excited to get back to something I know and am good at. It is also refreshing to enter a domain that I have dominated in the past, already having the respect of some of my co-workers and not having to 'prove' myself. I think it gives me a good platform to silently witness for Christ. My favorite aspect of the job is that I will be working with a guy that knew me from the old days. He has already, repeatedly, verbally acknowledged the change in me. I just can't wait until he is able to experience the change for himself! He is such an encourager and has a kind spirit, to count him as a brother in Christ would be a wonderful blessing to the kingdom!
trying to serve faithfully,
nick

Letter to the Editor

I wrote a letter to the Loganville Tribune, it will be in Friday's paper:

After reading the “Letter to the Editor” from Friday's paper, I think it is important that we consider a claims that has been made against Judge Brownlow. Vicki House wrote a complaint into the newspaper because her daughter had been penalized for breaking the law. Her qualm seemed to be with the Judge and the severity of the punishment he handed down. Mrs. House said, “he may think he is saving lives, but he is teaching kids and parents to disrespect the court system.” I have a problem with this statement. It incorrectly places the responsibility and blame in the wrong place.
The statement assumes that it is Judge Brownlow's responsibility to teach people to respect the court system, and then blames him for not delivering. Mrs. House, how much time have you given Judge Brownlow to work with your family on respecting the court system? If the answer is anything like “well, he had that day I was sitting in the court room refuting a traffic citation,” then you cannot blame him for the results. To clear things up, it is the judges responsibility to make sure that people are justly punished for breaking the law, which I believe he is doing.
It is, has always been, and should always be a parents responsibility to teach respect to their children. The fact that 'passing the buck' is commonly practiced does not allow us to excuse it as a problem. It's like speeding; just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean you won't get in trouble for it. I think it is very dangerous to teach children that it is okay to completely disrespect authority. Whether or not you agree with what the authority is doing is largely irrelevant. I assure you that there are many times in life when people think they are being punished too severely for doing something wrong. That does not mean it is okay for us to rebel and disrespect the authority that is doing the correcting. Just obey the law.

yeah, free press!

sports rant

Today is overcast and gloomy. The Hawks and Braves both lost last night, and Bret Favre may not be finished playing after all.

Braves first... I was really excited about baseball this year. I am a Braves fan, have been as long as I can remember. My first memory is Jeff Blauser (and his chin) laying a bunt down the third base line. He was thrown out, and they went to commercial break. That was back when the Braves, and only the Braves, played on TBS. Things have certainly changed. I am not sure that the same kind of 'station to station' baseball is popular or effective anymore. That is too bad.

The point is, I was excited about this season because the Braves seemed to be going back to what worked: pitching and defense. Wrong. I have avoided baseball for two years, and this was going to be my breakout year, but I am continually disappointed by blown leads, blown opportunities, and blown big time acquisitions. Last night they had an opportunity to tie the game or take the lead, bases loaded, not tonight. Lets see how the Hawks do in their first second round playoff appearance in 10 years.

I do not like basketball. Never have, probably never will. I think that may go back to being a Georgia fan and really never having anything to cheer for, but it may also be because I am short and white. Who knows? Anyway, I did not, and do not have high expectations for the Hawks. They are in the playoffs for the second time in a row. That's great. They took the Celtics to the seventh game last year, that's great. They got trounced by LeBron last night. Not so great.

And now... new for the 2009 NFL off season... Favre watch!!! Let's just see if he is really going to come back and play against his beloved Packers twice a year. More on that later.

stay tuned

standard shift

I think I inadvertently set a standard that I am having a hard time keeping up, so I am changing the standard.

I am not always supremely interested in spiritual things. This is unfortunate and probably to my detriment, but it is true. I am more interested in spiritual things than a lot of people seem to be, but I do think about many other things that have no relevance in eternity.

Now that I have that information off my chest, I feel like I can write more freely about some other things I care too much about. Football is one!

The NFL draft is over and, as an Atlanta Falcon fan, I am excited about what the boys in the front office are doing. They seem to be going after high-character, talented guys; great idea in Mr. Goodell's football league.

They are also opening mini camp to the public, which I am, so I am thinking about going.

update

i think when you commit to doing something publicly, it becomes that much more difficult to follow through. i think it should be the other way around. maybe its just me, maybe i am the only one who has problems following through when i make a commitment, but somehow i doubt it. this post is going to have no substance, i am just writing it because it has been so long since i wrote anything. it is time to update. not much is new. i am much closer to meeting my new daughter. that's cool. i have been challenged afresh to focus on more important things. not video games and football stuff. i think i have been more prideful lately than usual and am genuinely sorry about that. i have been forgiven for it. i do think it is time to do some new things and some old things more consistently. that's all for today.
nick

change

I am surrounded by people and things that are not just the way I want them. I have friends who aren't perfect, family that isn't perfect, I work with imperfect people, and I go to an imperfect church. There is room for improvement everywhere around me, but the Bible says that before I look at the speck in my brothers eye, I ought to remove the log from my own eye.

The problem is not that I am surrounded by imperfection. That cannot be the problem, because that is not going to change on this side of heaven. I can look forward to a lifetime surrounded by imperfection. That is my lot, and yous. everything, except God, is always going to need change. Everything, except God, is always going to be imperfect...until Heaven.

The bigger issue is the log in my own eye. The fact that I cannot see clearly, even if I want to. As long as I am on earth, with everyone else that is imperfect, I will be imperfect as well. That means that as long as I am alive to complain about everyone else's imperfections, I will have my own to deal with. Not only that, but I am supposed to deal with mine before I look at anyone else's. ouch.

What is the good news? How is this accomplished? What am I supposed to do now? I think one word sums it up. This word could have days of dialogue and never fully be explained. It could be taught for years and never experienced, but rest assured, this one word is our only escape from the criticism and questions that surround our imperfect world: contentment.

I used to know a girl whose middle name was Content. That is a far cry from me wanting to name my daughter Mara, which means bitter. Either way, that is the word, content. To be content is what we need to overcome the imperfections all around us.

I just biblegateway.com-ed "content" in the NIV. wow! Philippians 4:11-2; 1 Timothy 6:6,8; Hebrews 13:5. Take a minute and see what God has to say about being content! Then do it!

antichrist...

I haven't posted in a while and now it is time. I think that after this initial ackward post, they should come more frequently so stay tuned. The thing that is most prevalent in my mind right now is this scripture I came across one morning in my quiet time. I don't really know how to express what it means to me. I think that by leaving you with the scripture and a quote from another book you should be able to connect the dots.

Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 1 John 2:22

"I am rooted in the Christian tradition,...I believe that there are many paths to the same place and that is a belief that there is a higher power" (italics added) taken from The Faith of Barack Obama p.55 by Stephen Mansfield

It sounds to me like President Obama has denied the Father and the Son as they are revealed in Scripture. Take it for what it is. The practical application, and the convicting truth, is that too frequently I live my life in a way that denies the Father and Son. I would never say the things that Mr. President says about Christianity, but sometimes I live my life as if God really doesn't exist, or worse. Sometimes I live my life like I am god.

Father, forgive me for the times that I have not lived my life in complete surrender and obedience to you. I recognize that by choosing my will over Your perfect will, I am denying you. I am sorry. Give me the strength to be obedient to You so that you may be glorified in me!

economic stimulus? take a hint!

It's raining outside, and I just got back from Best Buy. That's right, I went to Best Buy in the rain. Not only that, I waited in the rain for over an hour before the store opened. Why? Well, it is quite simple; I value my time less than a lot of people. I think my time is worth no more than $10 per hour. Becuase of this, I spent the last two hours waiting to get a piece of plastic valued at $20 (only at Best Buy). Best Buy advertised this week that they were officially opening a new store in my hometown. To stimulate some interest, and business, they made a calculated corporate decision to give the first 50 people in the store a free $20 gift card. I like to get free money, and since my time isn't worth more than $10 per hour, I decided (along with a couple of friends) to go for it. What does this have to do with anything? I am not entirely sure, but I will work an angle. I think Best Buy is a respectable, well established company. They seem to be doing well for themselves, and they are certainly concerned about growing their business. They weighed their options and decided that it would be a good investment to put money in the hands of their customers so that they would spend that money purchasing their inventory. I don't think this is difficult economics to understand: when people have money, they spend it. I do. Everyone I know does. There are people who don't but for the most part if I hand out $100 to everyone I meet it would be spent before the week is over. Here is my point, our government just decided to spend bukoos of money to "stimulate the economy." It is very likely that nobody is reading this blog, but of you who are, you may not ever see a dime of that something hundred billion dollars. How is that supposed to stimulate the economy? I think the Best Buy executives (and W. the former president) have it right. When people have money, they spend it. If we are borrowing a gagillion dollars, use it for productive purposes, not to organize larger government run agancies which may or may not be effective. It just doesn't make sense. I know that today, Best Buy is going to improve their economic situation (at least in my hometown). Our country may or may not. Businesses wouldn't do it if it didn't makes sense on paper; they have a lot more to lose than some elected official. If my business fails, I lose my job, my benefits, my income, and countless other things that I appreciate. If an elected official blows a large sum of money on an ineffective stimulus package, they run on a different platform for their next term. Who do you trust? I can't think of a way to make this conversation spiritual, but I would like to. I guess that will be for another day. There goes my political-economic rant. Enjoy, as I enjoy my free $20!

the Rock

I was confronted by my wife late last night with an interesting comment. She told me that she had read her Bible today. I congratulated her, and was wondering what was coming next. As it turns out, I misunderstood and interrupted her in mid-sentence. What she had said was, "when I read my Bible today..." Her thought continued in a sleep induced haze "...I came across a lot of passages where God is referred to as the Rock." Again came my response, "that's good," as I waited for the epoch revelation that she certainly had coming (besides, I didn't dare interrupt again). Nothing; no epoch revelation, no continued commentary, just the information I have graced you with... The Bible refers to God many times as the Rock. I was at a loss. I take my role as spiritual leader of my family seriously, so I genuinely wanted to use this as a teaching moment to give her some insight. I couldn't do it. I was completely unprepared, as I lay in bed, to tie this Biblical principal in with everything that has been going on in our lives. I am still unprepared to do that, but fortunately for us, I am better prepared to offer a reminder based on the truth that she shared with me late last night. Application: The world today is unsettled. Bank on this, what we are told today by the media, by the president, and by other politicians, is going to be debatable if not in an hour then certainly by tomorrow. We are in uncertain times. Our footing is unsettled. When is the last time you had a conversation about how "shaky" things are, how "up in the air" it all is? How long has it been since you sat down with someone over a meal and began discussing all the terrible things going on, about how there is no certainty in the economy, about how the government seems to be spending money they don't have in order to produce a stimulus they can't guarantee? My guess is that it hasn't been long. You certainly have your own complaints about how things are going, how unsure or uneasy everything is. Here is the reminder; God alone is our rock and our salvation, our fortress where we will never be shaken (Psalm 62). Our focus ought to be so fastened on Him that the troubles of the world all dim in comparison. "Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace." The Gospel of Matthew says it best, "don't worry about having enough food or drink or clothing...Your heavenly Father already knows your needs, and He will give you all you need from day to day if you live for Him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern (6:31-33). Or for the traditionalist in you, "seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." The Lord is our Rock, He is our Stronghold to cling to, He is our Fortress to protect us. One last thing, if you believe it, DO IT!

The price of HOPE

Who has seen the red white and blue Barack Hussein Obama picture with the word Hope below it? (image search "obama hope") As it turns out, this popular picture is the cause of some controversy. The guy that rendered it into the popular picture that we are familiar with, the "Obama looking up, as to the future of hope," is being sued for copyright infringement or something. If you are interested in that story, there are other places to look. I am here to share a different story. Kerusso, a popular Christian t-shirt company has re-renderd the popular image to fit a Christian message of hope. Instead of Hussein Obama Kerusso has used a similar image of Jesus Christ wearing a crown of thorns. Instead of simply HOPE at the bottom, the shirt reads "Jesus is our greatest HOPE". Ah, now we are getting at something we can work with. I do find the story about the man being sued fascinating simply because his message was hope, and now he is recognizing that there is a cost associated with that message. There is always a cost associated with that message. Hussein Obama wasn't particularly clear about cost when he was campaigning, but we now are beggining to see a bit of the price with his new "economic stumulus" or "government growth" plan. My concern is that we are able to associate the true cost of hope with the true source of Hope: Jesus Christ. Yes, He is the cost (or the price that was paid) and He is the Hope. The message is clear, Hope has a price, He paid the price, we can have Hope. But how? I do not think there is a more important question that anyone can ask right now. How can I have hope? As you ask this question, the first step is complete; you must recognize your need for Hope, apart from Christ we are hopeless. If I do not have Christ, I do not have hope. If I need Hope, I need Christ. Having recognized your need, the next step is to turn from that hopeless life toward a life of Hope, to introduce yourself to the relational Christ who decided that He would pay the price for you so that you could have Hope. The Hope that He offers is the best Hope, because it is the most expensive Hope. It cost Him His life. Cherish this gift. Return the favor by entering into a relationship with the God who gives Hope. I pray that God would quicken your heart to the truth of His Word, the reality of His relationship, and the need of His Hope. In the Hopeful name of Jesus Christ, the Savior!

It's a Girl!!!

I'm 25. I have a wife, a daughter, my wife is expecting, and we have two dogs. Do you want to know what I don't have? A full-time job, benefits, a savings account, a retirement account, a house, or any plans for the future. This is my story; I hope you are as interested in reading it as I am in living it. If not, forgive me. As you know, we have a daughter and are expecting another child. My wife found out she was pregnant when my daughter was about 9 months. She was not ready to birth another child at all. I think she is now (glory to God). I was not ready to have the first (the aforementioned lack of everything that I "ought to have before starting a family"). I am absolutely ready to have number two, and cannot wait to meet it. Of course, I bought into the idea of the nuclear family and was fully expecting to have a football player coming into the world. I do not know a lot, but let me tell you what I do know. I know that God doesn't necessarily care about a nuclear family, and I know that my plans are not always in my best interest. You know how I know these things? Because... it's a girl. Of course, If God cared about the nuclear family; I would have a football player coming into the world in early June (proof). I planned on having a boy; I had everything planned...already. Of course he was going to be a football player, I love football. He was going to be named after me and this really cute name that my wife and I picked out. There really is no point in mentioning it, he doesn’t exist. See, I am not the only person who doesn't know what is best; my wife is on board with the nuclear family too. We were going to have a boy, a girl, two dogs, and live happily ever after. As it turns out, we will still have the girl(s), two dogs, and live happily ever after (Romans 8:28). I guess two cheerleaders will work, I think I can still get into most of the important games for free. So, how do I know that my plans are not always in my best interest? Two reasons, 1) The Bible; Romans 8:28 (God's plan always works for good for those who are called according to his purpose), Jeremiah 17:9 (who really knows how deceitful and wicked the human heart is?), and the fact that it's a girl. You see, since I don't have a full-time job, it is going to be increasingly difficult to provide for my family. This means it will be incredibly difficult to buy another wardrobe to clothe both of my kids as they grow, but... Since it's a girl, they can share clothes! Praise God for His rich benefits and glorious provisions. You see, not only does God not care about the nuclear family, and not only are all of my plans tainted, but God has a perfect plan, and all I have to do is obediently trust Him for all of my provisions.