Today I have a 5 year old. I’ve had a 5 year old before, but this makes my second 5 year old. Dylan Joel will celebrate his birthday with friends, of his choosing on Saturday. He’s having a monkey party if you believe it. Why a monkey party? Because he can make a great monkey face, of course! Geesh…

A few days ago someone was telling me how much Dylan loved her son, and how if Dylan ever sees him he drops what he’s holding and runs to him with arms open telling them hello in his own special way. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that Dylan does that to everyone that he knows. He’s wonderfully shy in rooms of strangers, but get him around someone familiar and there is NO DOUBT that Dylan is their friend. It’s weird actually to have such a shy, hidden, and reclusive kid be such a clown. He makes his family laugh everyday, whether be it when he’s acting like the unfortunate man who gets kicked in the groin each week on America’s Funniest Videos, or making fart sounds at the most inopportune times. But ask him to do it again, and he clams up. Not an ounce of showmanship in him!

It’s perfectly demonstrated each week on the soccer field. Dylan is a great little soccer player, however it hasn’t exactly translated to the soccer games. We’ll play in the backyard and he gets the ball and dribbles and kicks it as good as any kid his age. He’ll go to practice and for the most part do the same thing, but dress him in his blue soccer jersey and take him to a game and he turns into a zombie. He’s still the biggest fan of his team, jumping up and down when someone else scores, and handing out high-fives every few minutes. He just forgets to actually kick the ball and play the game. Other parents have watched with fascination how he gets so lost when everyone is cheering and yelling his name; but watch him in the huddle, eating bananas at half-time, or running through the parent tunnel after the game and they, like me, see a kid that is 100% enjoying himself.

So last Saturday was a special time, because for the first time Dylan took the soccer ball and started dribbling towards the goal with all his 4 year old might… and kicked the ball… through the goal for a score! When he scored I couldn’t even get to the sideline to give him a high-five. The other parents beat me there, as well as grandparents, and his teammates on the sideline. They were all so thrilled for this happy little kid to score his first goal, that they almost tackled him on the sideline to congratulate him. It almost makes me cry thinking about it.

To be in Dylan’s presence and not be happy is to not be a human. He is an absolute delight to share life with, and I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t feel the exact same way.

Happy Birthday Dyl!

Lubbock man arrested after armed threat

A Lubbock man was arrested at a youth soccer game Saturday after he pulled a pistol and aimed it at another man. Tye Burke, 25, was arrested at the Berl Huffman
Athletic Complex shortly before 2:30 p.m. Saturday, according to Lubbock Police.
While attending a soccer game, Burke got into an argument with a coach. Another
man tried breaking up the argument and at that time Burke pulled out a concealed
handgun and aimed it at the man, according to police.

Another man attending the soccer game saw Burke with the gun and tackled him. Burke was subsequently arrested and taken to jail on charges of aggravated assault,
according to police.

Every morning when I drop Ryan off at school I tell him, “Give your very best today.” Ryan almost mimics me when I say it. At every soccer practice and game, I tell the kids I coach that what’s really important is that they give their very best. That if they give their best, then they
have nothing to be disappointed in. At the conclusion of every Children’s Ministry team meeting, I always remind those in our area that it’s important that we give our best at every task we have to do.

It’s really something that’s important to me. I don’t want to be viewed as someone who does something half-way, or as someone who needs motivation to get on with a project. Then this weekend I heard this quote,

“Don’t let your BEST be the enemy of your GOOD.”

My brain begin to churn, and it hit me. When my best is limited, I just don’t do anything. When I’ve planned to run 4 miles, but sunlight gets away from me, and life gets busy I just don’t run at all. Instead what I should do is get off my butt and go do 1 mile. When things get out of my control at work and above my pay grade; I tend to just throw in the towel. Instead I need to grasp that while my best might not be happening, I can still do something good.

All this thinking led me to the parable of the talents, when Jesus tells the story of the master who entrust three men with different amounts of money. Two of the men return a profit on the money, but one buries it in the ground and returns exactly what he was given. The master calls the man that made no profit evil and wicked, and gives his money to the man who turned his 5 talents into 10. But what about the man that was given 2 and turned it into 4? I love it that Jesus was saying that doing nothing is the unacceptable response to our opportunities.

I guess the challenge is in discovering why the best can’t be done. If it’s because of factors outside of my control, then let’s make things good. If it’s because of a lack of intelligence on my part, then I need to fix that so that the best can happen.

The kindergarten areas at our church really need to be in at least 3 different areas, 50 five-year olds in one space is too much. However 3 different areas don’t exist, and they will NOT exist anytime soon. But instead of settling for defeat I need to do the good thing. Maybe I could find one additional classroom space, or maybe I can change the teaching format. While it might not be perfect and the best thing to do, it can still be good. I’m starting to process all the things that I’ve laid off to the side because they couldn’t be done perfect, and I’m beginning to see that making things GOOD could be a step towards making things the BEST.

Sunday Mornings are as busy as you might expect for a Children’s Pastor that is responsible for three services at church. One of the ways that I get a head start on what can be a long day is to get up and out of the house as early as possible. My wife rises much later and dresses the kids (after I’ve ironed their clothes the night before…), and meets me for the 8:30am service.

A few weeks ago I told my oldest son, Ryan, that if he got himself out of bed early and dressed himself that I would take him with me on a Sunday morning. Two weeks have passed without another word being said about it. Then yesterday morning I come out of my bedroom before 7:00am to see my two boys frantically trying to put on their church clothes. It seems they got up and got entirely dressed for church, but failed to realize that their church clothes were laid out in the living room. So they were changing out of their OU Sooner jerseys and soccer shorts to put on the new clothes. They looked at me so disappointed, like I wouldn’t take them since they weren’t ready. Of course I helped them get ready, and before the sun came up my boys and I headed to church.

These kids are 6 and 4 years of age, and the thought they they went to all that trouble just to spend some early morning Daddy time with me has totally blown me away. I can’t stop thinking about how disappointed they were that they weren’t ready, and started to tear up that I would just leave them there because they were not totally dressed. I’m sure I could come up with some super-spiritual point, but I’m not. I just wanted to say that I sure love these boys of mine, and I might have never been prouder they were mine.

This week my family and I are in Sand Springs, OK. Sand Springs is the town my wife and I grew up in. We attended school here, played soccer games, roller skated, went to Homecoming parades, and generally lived the life that a normal kid in Sand Springs lives. It will always be ‘Home’ for us, and when we come home we often say that “We are going home.” I’ve not lived in Sand Springs for 13 years, but it’s home. Know what I mean?

Well anyways, my 4 year old Dylan was quizzing me Friday night about where we would be going for Thanksgiving. I told him that “We are going home.” And he looked at me so confused, and said, “Daddy, we’re already home. Where are we going for Thanksgiving?”

I guess Sand Springs will always be a form of Home, but really Home is where the heart is. Now that goofy plaque people have in their entryways and kitchens makes perfect sense to me.