CountUp

My 111-Hour Holiday Weekend

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date January 21, 2008

It’s the 4TH full day of my long holiday weekend, and this morning I woke up shortly after 5 AM nice and refreshed. It’s my usual wake-up time for a regular weekday morning, and even though today is a Federal holiday I decided to get back into the groove of waking up at the time that I need to wake up for the remainder of this work week.

I went to Publix – where shopping is a pleasure – shortly after they opened up for business at 7 AM. Over the next half-hour I proceeded to swoop-up what turned out to be over $73 in quality groceries. In a fact that may make my dear friends Venus and Kristine cringe that included over $35 in frozen and microwavable foods. Cooking ? What’s that ? 😉

GOOD SERVICE ALERT: For the first time ever my groceries were actually taken out to my car for me. This was the rule for years – not the exception – at the original Publix at the Homestead Towne Square Shopping Center on Useless-One, but for the other two newer Publix locations (at Oasis and at Waterstone) this ‘grocery take-out’ service pretty much did not exist. I was rather surprised when it occurred this morning.

After Publix I went to McDonald’s armed with a coupon – a free Egg McMuffin with the purchase of one. Of course using a coupon at McDonald’s threw the entire store into a mass state of chaotic confusion. All I heard was the word ‘PROMO !’ yelled over and over again, and nobody knew how to deal with such a crisis of mass proportions. Eventually a manager came to the rescue and sorted it all out. Am I the only one in Homestead who has used a coupon at that particular McDonald’s ? Let’s get it together over there ! I’m coming back later this week with another coupon for $1 off a flavoured iced coffee !

I’m back at home now. I had actually planned to do a very special edition of ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’ LIVE and on-location from Monkey Jungle; however, the weather is not cooperating, and the last place that I wish to be during the recovery stages of my cold is in the middle of a chilly windswept downpour downwind from hundreds of wet monkeys ! Maybe I’ll check out the monkeys this upcoming Saturday morning. Stay tuned.

God

Life Pointe Church Sunday Morning Tossed Salad

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date January 20, 2008
2 Comments on Life Pointe Church Sunday Morning Tossed Salad

1. It was a cloudy, chilly, drizzly, and raw Sunday morning here in Homestead – one of those rare mornings that only occurs about 3 to 5 times a year. It was a good 20 degrees colder this morning than it was yesterday morning. God decided that we needed a little bit of change in our mundane lives down here in our subtropical paradise, so He delivered Winter with a punch.

2. I haven’t missed a Sunday morning yet at Life Pointe Church due to sickness, and I wasn’t about to start today on my one-year-anniversary. It’s Day 3 of my 2ND bad cold in less than 3 months, and I could have been sick and miserable in the darkness of my home, or I could have chased the daylight of my church family. I chose the latter, and it felt great to be with everyone. I hope that I didn’t infect anyone with my cold germs. I tried hard to keep my hands and my hugs to myself.

3. I think I drank the equivalent of 4 large cups of Starbucks coffee this morning while serving during the first service. After awhile I forgot that I was sick because I was pinging on caffeine. The hot coffee went down so smoothly down my sore throat.

4. Pastor Travis was about 55 miles away this morning at the grande 10:29 AM launch of InDependence Church up in Weston Florida. Hopefully Travis and Nathan will do a ‘Sunday Wrap-Up’ of how things went up there with the official start of the brand new church plant.

5. Pastor Paul substituted for Pastor Travis this morning, and he delivered another powerful teaching to us. We are disciples. We are ministers. We are priests. God wanted all of His believers to serve as priests. There are many functions of being a priest. Here are 5:

Discipleship – to disciple to others
Intercession – to pray for others
Evangelism – to tell others about Jesus Christ
Service – to serve others
Worship – to celebrate Jesus Christ with others

If you’re not doing all of these functions then you are dysfunctional as a priest. We are all dysfuctional in one or more of these key areas, but it’s very easy to correct the situation. Maintain your strengths, but focus on your weaknesses. Never settle for mundane. Always strive for better. Look toward and move forward to those thousand points of light !

Health

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon

Sky: Mostly Sunny
Temperature: 76°F
Relative Humidity: 82%
Winds: S 9 MPH
Barometric Pressure: 30.03 Falling

My thoughts:

1. I seriously thought about canceling this morning’s walk due to my cold (congestion) and sore throat. After slipping a zesty orange Airborne wafer into a cup of Zephyrhills water and then gulping it all down I decided that another good cure for the cold is exercise, so the walk commenced.

2. With the sun shining brightly, an actual air temperature in the mid-70s, and a relative humidity in the lower-80 percentile it actually felt like it was in the lower-80s outside with the heat index – at 9 AM – in the middle of January ! The ‘sweatiness factour’ was in the high range.

3. There were a lot of walkers out there this morning. Usually when I do these walks it’s an hour or two earlier than when I did so this morning. I actually slept in until nearly 9 AM this morning – an extreme rarity for me.

4. A wise man once stated that even when you are enduring the worst of times you should react as if it were the best of times. That way when it gets better you’ll be living on top of the world. Actually I have no idea who said that, or if anyone said that for that matter. It’s what I was thinking while I was walking. I thanked God for restoring the strength to my lower back and right shoulder, and I prayed that He eject all of these nasty cold germs out of me as soon as possible. It’s been a rough two weeks for me and my health, but it’s been the best of times. Say what ?

5. “Bounce” from Canadian Christian rapper Manafest came on my iPod Shuffle while I was walking, and I walked to its steady beat during the entire 3:10 song. Its lyrics represent what this walk is all about. It needs to be the official theme song of ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’. It’s in the lyrics !

People