I was running the other night, my wife makes me….

I really do not like running.  I like how I feel after I run, but I do not really like it.  So I have to listen to music to motivate me.

Due to my ADD ADHD symptons, I cannot listen to a predisposed song list.  I have to listen to a radio station, I choose to use my Air1 app.

Very recently I had the privilege of hanging out with the guys from Addison Road and Sanctus Real.  How cool they are.  How awesome their music sounds, how cool it was to hang out with them.

So I am running, listening to Air1, and Switchfoot comes on with their new song from their new album hello hurricane.  How cool is it to imagine that they go through the same type of struggles I go through.  I made a mess of me is what I do, and what I have done.  My wife thinks that I am like a bull in a china shop, more than once we have arrived home and she “coached” me on how I should act in public.

So through some of my talks with Addison Road and Sanctus Real, I was able to confirm that these guys are real.  They miss their kids when they are on the road, they make decisions to leave their families for the purpose of ministry.  Sacrifices are always made, decisions always have consequences, some good some not so good.

When I run, I do not like the short term consequences, I Love the long term consequences.

When I listen to this music and I listen to the stories, they share their hearts with me, they share their struggles with me, they share their succes with me.  One step at a time, one quarter mile at a time, one cycle of breaths at a time.  Inspiration is found.

And God will do the same with the Holy Spirit as he encourages us through music, or when he whispers in our ear.

Oh, the experience we gain from the life we live.

I go to Moe’s.  Everybody goes to Moe’s on Tuesday, well all of the parents who live in Summerville and has Kids do.  If you do not believe me, show up at 5:00 and observe the line around the door, or throughout the restaurant around the tables.

One thing that happens (I have done it, but have been convicted of it) by observation is the saving of tables.  Yes, I have saved a table for my family in the past.  I have also observed families coming through with food and not having a place to sit.

The nice families not having a place to sit would never ask someone to get up, so they would politely wait until someone gets up to leave, sometimes to have a group of giggling kids go to save a seat for their parents just getting into line.  How discouraging this would feel.

So, now I do not save a seat for my family.

My kids, while they are standing in line with me, panic.  They are fear stricken with the thought of not having a place to sit.  They too have seen the families without a place to sit.  “Dad, they are taking all of the seats…”  I respond, “I know baby, but we will be OK.” I don’t know, who really knows right?  Inside I am feeling the turmoil, I am wondering if my family will have to walk around the restaurant with trays of food.  

Kids are clumsy, they drop things.  I am concerned.

Towards the end of the line, we notice an open table.  I am getting ready to pay so I release my kids to the table.  I notice a girl standing at a large table, a little girl.  I ask one of my children to ask her what size her family is, my family of five at the time would not fit in the already identified booth, and she replies, “four” my very smart daughter asks if she would rather have the booth and she replies, “yes” we now have a table big enough to fit our family, relief hits me.

Sitting down and enjoying our dinner together, one of my daughters says, “see dad it always works out” to which I say, “Yeah baby, it does”

Because it does.  There are moments in our life when fear can consume us, this time it was fear of not having a table.   Next time it may be concern of something else.  The lesson would be in what my daughter said.  

When we make God the center of our life, and we give him the opportunity, it will always work out