Friends

Just taking a few moments this morning to recognize the blessing that friends are in our lives.

My wife (who happens to be my best friend) and I have been fortunate enough to spend a lot of time with friends these past few weeks. An annual gathering of folks I’ve known since the late 90s, a weekend visit by a couple we know from church, another weekend visit by my wife’s friends from many years ago, playing tennis with some good folks I know, stopping in at a friend’s going away party and catching up with other friends in that group, folks who have stopped in along with some of our kids’ friends.

Friends are just a real blessing, aren’t they? Every conversation is unique yet every one is the same, in that, it is a potential memory being made. It’s just nice to be able to be yourself and enjoy the company of others at the same time. Hooray for friends! Thanks, God.

Have a great day.

Good Friday

Good Friday. It’s a day that didn’t always mean much to me, but it does now. Thinking about how much God loved me when I didn’t love Him…it’s amazing. Friends, it doesn’t matter where we are in life. He loves us – whether or not we love Him back. It’s the real deal, unconditional love. We don’t have to be “worthy enough” to receive it and it doesn’t cost us anything. The price was paid that day on the Cross. So thankful for that. 🙂

Thank you, Jesus…just as I am, I come. Hallelujah, oh what amazing love!

Every Good Thing

Don’t wanna forget or take for granted
That it’s a beautiful life we live

It’s our family, it’s our friends
It’s the feeling that I get when I see my children smile
You’re the reason for this life, everything we love
It’s You alive in us
You’re alive in us

You’re the reason for every good thing, every heartbeat
Every day we get to breathe

Listen to this once and I can almost guarantee you’ll spend the next hour (or more) saying ‘every good thing, every good thing.’

…and that’s a good thing 🙂

Love this song and its message.

Have a great day!

Restoration

I heard a message at church last weekend that made a real impact on me.

The focus was on the importance of restoration in our interpersonal relationships – whether with family, friends, loved ones, or whomever it might be. The importance of ‘making peace’ by coming to one another with love and humility instead of doing the opposite with avoidance or combativeness.

Indy

I had a good weekend.

With the exception of a few years, I’ve been going to the same Indianapolis 500 race weekend gathering with longtime friends for the past 14 years. It’s become a tradition, and it’s a lot of fun.

The house has a changed a few times and the characters have changed in some fashion every year. But, the core group of people hasn’t changed and the experience has always been a great one.

We all stay with my friend’s parents (God bless them for having all of us there every year!) The majority of us know each other from our days when we used to work together and live in the same town and what makes it cool is that we’re still doing this, even years after several people have moved away to various parts of the country.

To the outsider, there may not be anything flashy about our get-together every year. But to us, it’s perfect.

Arrive on Saturday, go to the track and walk around, grill up a feast back at the house, listen to some of the people play their guitars in the basement (or other instruments – the ‘band’ has grown in size the past few years,) catch up with each other and share stories new and old, then call it a night. Sunday morning, it’s off to the race for those who are going, and that’s that.

It’s the same thing every year…and I love that. I look forward to it and am always excited when the weekend comes around.

I’ve been there through so many seasons of my life. Thought about that this year while I was there. The first year I went, I was barely out of college. A young television photographer/reporter, in a much different phase of my life than I am now.

14 years later, I now take my sons to the event. They’ve been the past two years and they had a blast once again this year. There are other kids there and they all do their thing while the adults do the same.

Again, it sounds simple but I like the simple things in life. It was great to see my friends, great to smile and laugh, great to have the boys along for the ride once again, and great to add another chapter to this annual event.

As an added bonus, I think the kids really got into the race itself this time.

We didn’t go, but as we watched it on television and it came down to unheralded Takuma Sato nearly passing previously two-time Indy 500 champ Dario Franchitti (now three-time champ after being declared the winner following Sato’s crash during said attempted pass) on the last lap, I could see their excitement.

My youngest son had already said he wanted to go see the race in the future, andmy oldest son immediately announced that he wanted to as well after the fantastic finish today.

Can’t wait…and can’t wait to see everyone again next year.