Our Garden

What a message today. It really tallied with some of my thoughts this past week on tending to the garden of our mind. One verse that really hit me was Matthew 13:17 : "...and righteous men have desired to see the things that you see, and have not seen them." How quickly we look at the mirror of the word and forget what we see or don't even see it. I know for me personally it's most often the cares and riches and worries of this world that choke out the joy of the gospel. I was at work and finishing the book Boy Meets Girl by Josh Harris. In the final chapters he was talking about the provision of the cross and what God has accomplished for us. I think the main point that was impressed upon me in the final chapters was the completeness of God's provision for us. It wasn't that the topic was new, but rather that it was just freshly brought to the forefront of my mind. There's a lot of places in scripture where God's people need to be reminded of old truths...we tend to forget even the most basic but important truths of the bible if we don't tend to the garden of our mind. The weeds of everyday cares and worries choke out our hope and our joy and leave us feeling barren if we don't take care to seed our minds constantly with that which is good and pleasing and brings joy. Two definitions of a weed that I found were: "a valueless plant growing wild, esp. one that grows on cultivated ground to the exclusion or injury of the desired crop" and "any undesirable or troublesome plant, esp. one that grows profusely where it is not wanted." What weeds are we allowing to grow in the garden of our mind to the injury of our desired crop of righteousness? Weeds grow fast and can quickly overcome and obstruct our vision of the desired crop. We have to be constant in our work towards santification...it's something that requires a lot of work, but luckily it's not all our own doing. God uses the rod and staff of his word, and also corrects us with our parents, those Christians around us who are seeking to sharpen us and spur us on, and the events of our lives that cause us to stop and take stock of our lives. Are we fighting for faith and for joy? If not we will not see what God has done for us and the lamp of his word will grow dim in our sight. Reading those final chapters of Boy Meets Girl just refreshed in my mind how God has provided. He gave us life and a world of ceaseless variety to subdue and care for. He gave Adam a wife and presided over the first marriage. When we sinned he made clothes for us and covered our sins. He constantly pursued His people and reminded them that he watches for them and hears their cries. He disciplined his people and then blessed them when they turned from their wicked ways and came back to his welcoming arms. Then, as if everything else wasn't enough, he sent his Son to write the law on our hearts and abolish sin with abundant grace. He poured out wrath on the perfect Son to make heirs of pedophiles, adulterers, murderers, liars, idolaters, thieves...me! What kind of God does that? How wicked of us when we doubt His love and care for us. Doesn't it make you want to focus on the important things and work to benefit His kingdom? Doesn't that make you want to stamp out the pride and other areas of weakness in your heart? Doesn't it make you want to be steadfast in reading His words for us, the words that bring life and show us how to live in His will? When I'm reading the word and spending time with my Creator the lamp that lights the narrow path seems to increase in its brightness. I know that it is always the same brightness but I feel like the sunglasses are removed during those periods and it brings illumination that brings me joy. I want to be the tree planted by waters and yielding its fruit in due season, but that isn't done by sitting back and relying on grace and being content. I have to be constantly weeding the garden of my mind so that I will produce fruit, otherwise those weeds will grow to the detriment of the desired fruits of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. I want to grow in those areas, and have plenty of work to do, but it's worthwhile work. Don't you enjoy being around people who have these evident in their lives? I know I do, but more importantly it's our Savior's desire that these fruits be present in our lives. Let's live in light of the fact that we've been purchased at a price and our not our own. Let's spur eachother on and encourage and correct one another in love...that is a life worth living!

Olympic Success

While at work the other day we were watching one of the swimming races that Michael Phelps was in. We have a few different television screens so we've been keeping NBC, MSNBC and USA on different screens so we don't miss anything. It was the 100 m Butterfly race that he barely won, and before the race most of my fellow watchstanders were hoping that he would lost because they were tired of hearing about his success (and the coverage was getting ridiculous because why is it that I know he has "a 6'7" wingspan, is 6'4" tall, has size 14 shoes and hands like dinner plates?"). One thing that even the casual observer couldn't get around was every newscaster talking about Phelps' diet (or lack thereof). Apparently the guy burns so many calories that he eats 8-12,000 calories a day just to keep up with his metabolism. Well, people were getting tired of hearing about Phelps' success and tired of hearing about 6-8 hours in the pool training everyday. I asked one of the trainees why he wanted Phelps to lose, and he really couldn't give me a great answer other than the usual "I'm so tired of hearing about him." It reminded me that I often resent the success of others, if not on the surface than somewhere inside. Rather than applauding them for their success we belittle them so we can compare ourselves more favorably. The other week I was playing golf with Clay and Wes. One thing I can't stand is losing in anything, and I'm admittedly somewhat of a poor sport when I don't win. Anyway I started to lose and my attitude about it was horrible...and of course I criticized his game rather than just admitting that he was outplaying me that day (speaking of losing, it reminds me of playing Lizzy in something called "Speed Scrabble." I couldn't form a word because she was yelling "draw" every two seconds after completing a new word. If you want to work on humility I recommend playing that game with Liz and her family). As Christians this criticizing of one another's success has to be stamped out of our thinking. We should be encouraging and helping one another, "sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" (Prov. 27:17). Even though we are told to encourage others in love, I feel like I spend more time dulling the blades of others than I do sharpening them. Have you ever used a really dull knife? It's not a very useful object although it might look cool. I'm not saying that we shouldn't help others in areas where they struggle or have blindspots, but our motivation should be to help them improve, not to bring them down. Sharpening can be painful and abrasive at times, but it's goal is to yield a sharp, useful instrument. Let's be encouraging and correct one another in love, seeking the good of others instead of seeking our own glorification. "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love (1 John 4:7-8)."

Pictures!

Alright, time for some pictures...they're pretty much all Coast Guard related, mostly from my days at the good old CGA.


This picture is from down at the docks at the Academy. We would take out these 70 ft WWII era "T-Boats" and practice docking, man overboard drills, etc. I think this was the same day that my instructor wasn't happy with our approaches (even though they were going along fine) and said he was going to show us how it's done. He proceeded to ram the dock at nearly full speed (I say nearly because at the last second he realized he was going way to fast and yelled "all back full") and took out on of the pilings on the dock. Luckily those boats are indestructible and we didn't break the boat in half. This was the same instructor who backed over a buoy and got the buoy chain wrapped around the propeller. Your tax dollars at work!I don't know if you've ever been to Mobile, but there's not a ton of things to do there. We went thrift store shopping and found these gems and decided to wear them on the flights back to the Academy. I felt a little sorry for the lady sitting between me and the guy in the orange on the flight back. We told her we were high school football coaches on the way back from a coaching clinic. She probably believed us because who else but high school coaches would wear those shorts? Didn't everyone have a coach who wore these growing up? Yeah, they're pretty ridiculous.

This is my roommate Joe. We roomed together most of the time at the academy. For some reason, they thought it was a good idea to make us switch rooms every semester, which was a huge pain that took all day.

Junior summer we spent a majority of the time training the incoming class. It basically involves walking around and looking angry and yelling a lot. There's no air conditioning there so needless to say it gets a little hot and humid in the barracks when you're doing PT. Not only that, but I have the distinct memory of the stench that we would give off because they didn't let us do laundry often enough.


Most of my swab summer (first summer, we called the freshmen swabs, probably because it's just about the most demeaning term you can use legally. A swab is the "nautical" term for a mop, and that's mostly how you get treated) was spent standing on the bulkhead, looking straight ahead and trying to memorize material that they required us to know. For your entire freshman year you were required to memorize three meals in advance, which really required 4 meals because after breakfast they would ask you about breakfast the next day. Yeah, I know, it's pretty insane.The best part about the Swab Summer was the week spent on the Barque Eagle. It was a prize of war from Germany after WWII. There were still some Nazi symbols on the wall in the engine room. My favorite part would be sail stations when we would climb up in the rigging and set the sails. You haven't seen a sunset until you're up on the Royal (it's the top sail on the mainmast that's about 140' in the air) at sea.

I once gave a keynote speech at the National Museum of Naval Aviation. Only 2 of my classmates listened but let me assure you, it was a masterpiece. I think I saw tears a few times.


Cadets at the academy have to stay in shape. This was probably my 1212th rep.


The best day of any cadet....graduation day. Most college students miss their days at school, and while I miss being with my friends every day, I don't miss that place one bit!


Doing fisheries boardings in the North Atlantic. I wish I had pictures from on the fishing boats (you see some weird fish onboard), but it's kind of unprofessional to be inspecting their vessel and taking pictures at the same time. I think I saw the Old Man in the Sea on one boat. He was the captain of the vessel, and was 77 years old and still fishing. He was probably the most grizzled person I'd ever seen.


A CG Jayhawk helicopter. If you've never ridden Coast Guard Airways I recommend it.

I thought it was a good idea to hold the monkey in Roatan, Honduras. I probably took 15 showers after this picture was taken.


Swim calls were always a good time during long patrols. We would just stop the engines and go swimming, although we only did it a few times in the two years I was on board. Jumping off the flight deck was fun so I decided to move on to bigger and better things....
Jumping off the ship near the bridge seemed like a good idea at the time, but this picture didn't end well for me. After this one I stuck to the flight deck for future swim calls.


Finding a good barber underway can be difficult (barbers are usually bad enough, and when you factor in a ship that's pitching and rolling and a novice barber it's pretty bad), so I just shaved it at the beginning of the patrol. I'd just shave it now but Liz won't let me!

My last watch underway as the sun was rising. I miss seeing the sunrises and sunsets, and the amazing night sky that you can only see out to sea where there aren't any lights to blot out the sky; however, waking up at 3am to stand watch is highly overrated. Overall I'd say getting stationed on land is definitely preferable.

A little background

Well, if I do this blog I guess I should give a little background with some pictures (more pics to follow). I grew up in the Annapolis area my entire life until I left to go to the Coast Guard Academy. My dad was in the Coast Guard and still works for them as a civilian, but we never had to move from the street I grew up on...very unusual for a military brat to have that stability! As you can tell from the picture at the left I was a complete angel growing up, as my mom will attest (actually I was pretty good as a kid but had my moments as a teenager...luckily I had parents who were wise and who prayed). I left home in 2001 to go to the Coast Guard Academy. July 2nd, 2001 is a day I'll never forget. Hours of standing on the bulkheads "braced up," staring straight ahead and studying the indoctrination package we'd been given. I know at least one of my "classmates" dropped out of the academy on the first day. It must've been demoralizing for his parents to still be on the campus when he quit. Of course, there were times I wanted to quit the academy (about 28% of my class dropped out or were kicked out during the 4 years), but there was no way I was going to go home as the guy who couldn't I hack it. The great thing about the difficulty is that I built some incredibly strong friendships with my classmates. I still talk with many of them on a consistent basis and we make it a point to get together during vacations. I graduated in May of '05 and went to the CGC FORWARD, a 270' cutter out of Portsmouth, VA. I was the Weapons Officer for the first year on board and I felt like I was thrown to the lions. My division was very antagonistic at the beginning but by working with them and spending a large portion of my time with them we developed a great working relationship by the end and I still keep in touch with them via email. While on board I was able to visit a lot of countries: Colombia, Panama, Honduras, Guatamala, Guantanamo Bay (not really Cuba), Haiti, Curacao, Bermuda, and the Bahamas. Getting to transit through the Panama Canal was one of the highlights of my tour on board. I have a few pictures of that below. Another highlight was a search and rescue case off of the Dominican Republic. There was a sailboat with 42 people on board that capsized and all of the people went into the water. We arrived on scene about 12 hours later and rescued three men holding onto a gas can just before sunset. That night I was on watch as the OOD (Officer of the Deck, basically responsible for driving the ship while captain is down below) and we heard voices off the port bow. I slowed the ship down and we were drifting towards them. We adjusted the speed to keep them in our lee while we piped "Man Overboard" to wake up the crew. We picked up three more survivors in that group. That night around 2 am we found another group of four people. Three of them were uninjured and were able to hold on to the cargo nets while we pulled them on deck. The last one was cut and injured and unable to hold around, and there was a shark swimming around him. We lowered the small boat and I went with them to haul the guy out of the water. We quickly pulled him on board which is a moment I won't forget. During the next three days we rescued another 8 people, each time it was exhilarating to be saving people. We picked up our final survivor on the last day of the search, 96 hours after the boat had capsized. He lacked the strength to hold on to the nets so we sent in a swimmer who put him in a harness and he was hulled on deck. I've never seen someone so exhausted and dehydrated. He just laid on deck while we put him in blankets (he was hypothermic despite the warm water temperature) and he was slowly given water and later food.

After finishing my tour on the ship I was given orders to the LANTAREA Command Center. I was disappointed with my orders to say the least. I had requested to transfer out of the area and expected to be moving since the detailer didn't call me to consult about my orders; however, I think in retrospect that it was divine providence. In Ruth the bible uses an unusual phrase, in some versions it's "it just so happened." It just so happened that I was re-stationed in the Portsmouth area. It just so happened that I started going to Sovereign Grace. The "it just so happened's" are endless. I was on shore and had plenty of time off. I got plugged into a great church where I've been able to develop some great relationships and have been given sound teaching that has helped me in my Christian walk. Remember the guy we picked up after 96 hours in the water? That's what I felt like spiritually when I came to Sovereign Grace. I felt malnourished and exhausted from walking alone. I've been fed well spiritually in the past year and am looking forward to establishing myself in the community down in Pensacola. For those of you who feel alone and discouraged the best thing you can do is get involved in your local church. Find good people there and sacrifice your time to develop relationships with them. For those who are already in a great church and have those friendships and do feel well fed I hope you look for people on the fringe. There's a lot of people who go to church and leave...they're in and out and don't have the supportive community that you have. I know we tend to talk to the same people week in and week out, but we need to be seeking out others and inviting them in. I've felt very welcomed in the church, and I hope you continue to welcome others.

And so it begins...

I suddenly remember what it was like at the Academy, preparing to write a paper and opening up Office Word to see the little line blinking at me as if to taunt me. The only way to silence the blank page is to being to fill it with something, to begin moving towards a completed work. Often this would necessitate going back over what I had previously written and completing substantial revisions, or scrapping it altogether. Isn't that similar to our experience in life at large? We have tasks set before us that seem so daunting "15 pages, double spaced, 1 inch margins," and we don't know quite how to begin; however, we begin by seeking guidance through reading, prayer, and consulting others (or extensive research if you're still hung up on the paper analogy), and then begin to walk. The steps are often slow and hesitant at first, yet we learn and eventually begin to run towards the prize at the end. "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it" (1 Cor 9:24). Athletes are concerned about nutrition, they know it's essential to be well fed by the right foods in order to run their race effectively. Are you watching what your eyes and ears are feeding you? I'm weening myself off the "McDonalds Spiritual Diet" slowly, and trying to seek the right foods...scripture, Christian friendships, and prayer are all great sources of food. Athletes also have trainers who help them develop. Do you have counselors who will give you godly advice? If not seek them out and it will benefit you greatly!


I don't have it all figured out, and I'm learning how to run the race just like you. I hope future posts encourage you and help you as you seek to run your race. I only have this life, and I don't want to waste it walking or staring at the blinking line.