My New Amputee Hero and My New Foot

So, the curly girlies and I were at the in-laws' house last weekend trying to escape SnowLanta, when a quick news clip came on CNN Headline News about a young brother named Sean Reyngoudt out of the Florida Keys. At first, it sounded like my story: Man injured in forklift accident...loses his left leg and injures his right foot... We were like, "What?", then they told the story of this fellow who is now a professional kite boarder, who happens to also be an amputee. Check out his videos below. He also has a show on Discovery HD Theater called "Catchin' Air". Be sure to check it out.

Below are some more videos of Sean in action.

http://vimeo.com/3876070

Google list of videos on Sean

Also, guess what! The prosthetist took a cast of my left stump and is in the process of building my new leg. For information on the foot component, which is probably the most interesting piece, click here.

Lord willing, in the next week I'll be up on two limbs again. Thank you so much for your prayers and support throughout this effort.

Doug

Places to Go Before I Die

I'm sitting here watching an old episode of "The Office" (the one where Jim and Pam get married at Niagara Falls). So fun! The wedding party does the same thing you see on the popular YouTube where the wedding party does a very white dance down the aisle to Chris Brown's song "Forever".

So, why am I talking about this? Well, I would love to visit Niagara Falls before I die. My grandmother went there during her days of traveling with the "NOY" club as she called it, which stands for "Not Old Yet (NOY)". I'm sure there is a bit of that old school feel to the place, but I'd still like to take my family there one day.

Another place my lady and I have always talked about visiting is New Orleans. Seems like a really cool place with lots of culture and really, really good food. It's so sad to think of the damage Hurricane Katrina delivered to this great city, but I am so happy they are working to restore it.

Other places on my list include Hawaii, Bora Bora, Fuji, Denver, Aspen, London, and NYC. I visited NYC when I was a young teenager before 9/11 occurred. I'm sure I won't get to visit all of these places. And, of course, none of them compare to the glorified heaven that I have to look forward to, but it's fun to think about.

Where would you like to go before you leave this world?

How He Loves Us

Had a great personal worship time this morning where the Lord spoke to me through a song by David Crowder called "How He Loves" that drew me to tears as I realized how much the Lord truly does love me. I sent an email to two of my dearest brothers in the Lord about it (see below) because I had to share what the Lord was saying to me.

The Lord has been SO REAL in my life the past few weeks, speaking to my heart, teaching me to that I can truly "believe Him" and not just believe in Him, revealing sin and idols in my life, and freeing me from bondage to sin that I've struggled with for years, which is an ongoing process. I cannot express or even capture all of it here, but a few other things he has been teaching me are this:

• What I "do" for a paycheck really doesn't matter. A job will never give me the source of significance, safety, and security that I am longing for; only He can do that for me, and HE wants to be that in my life.
• I have idolized fear of man for most of my life, trying to prove myself to others to ultimately get a sense of love and approval. This has just left me bewildered and discouraged, sometimes motivated to do a good job and other times not.
• I work for the Lord. Yes, even putting together a PowerPoint presentation or a training deliverable…things that seem to have little, if any, impact on eternity…somehow - and I'm still learning from the Lord on this one - somehow, I can glorify God by doing these things well. Not because they may look pretty or please others or not; no, simply because (as we are taught in Ephesians 6) "it is the Lord Christ whom we serve", so I want to serve Him well and stop worrying - fearing to the point that it drives even greater insecurity and often a sense of paralization. I know our emotions are fickle, and our situations change quite frequently, but today I truly feel secure like I've never felt before at work. I see myself as truly working for Him, even when completing what seem like the most mundane tasks.

I can't tell you how freeing it is. It makes me want to cry tears of joy.

Brothers,

I'm sure you've heard the song "How He Loves" by the David Crowder Band. It's one of those songs the Lord is speaking to my heart through at the moment, and I just wanted to share the lyrics with you from this modern day hymn in the hope that it might encourage you today as well. To think of his love like a hurricane and me, a tree, bending beneath the weight of his mercy...to somehow grasp an inkling of the fact that he is jealous for me just brought me to tears this morning. The God who made everything, including all the billions of people that scurry about the earth like ants when you see us from above (and to think that even from just a few miles above, we are invisible)... He loves us and is a fierce, loving, jealous God who often whispers and sometimes screams at us (especially in our suffering) how much He loves us. I found myself this morning weeping as I listened to this song over and over, finding my heart saying, "Yes Lord, I really do believe you. You really do Love me. Your love truly is what I'm searching for - the fullness to fill the emptiness of my heart that I clutter up with so many things that just leave me empty and void. please take away my idols like fear of man, lust, and want for security and significance in other things. Please come fill the void."

Friends, I know I can't convey to you what my God is speaking to my heart, but I just wanted to shoot you a note to hopefully encourage you somehow. please take a quick moment to read these lyrics and personalize these truths for yourself (and if you don't have this one in your personal worship library, I encourage you to get it).

How He Loves by David Crowder Band lyrics:

He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us oh,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

And we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

That He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

Love you guys,

Doug

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=100479325

More Than Conquerors

Romans 8:28 - 39
28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:

"For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I had a bitter sweet lunch with a dear friend and brother today. It was sweet because our conversation was real. We were real with each other. We talked about our sin, our God, and how God has been breaking the both of us that we might be freed from the sin that keeps us from being truly free people; free to really live and experience the joy that our Father in heaven wants all of us to experience. Many times, we find ourselves, at least I do, caught up in a spiral of sin, despair, and frustration with life.

As I was just journaling, a song came on that used the line "we are more than conquerors", and so I pulled up the scripture above from Romans 8 to remember what it says. See how the focus is really not about "us as conquerors" but rather how the love of Christ has overcome all, and because nothing can separate us from his love, for that reason, and that reason alone (not anything that we do or don't do) are we "more than conquerors". Praise God!!!!

I can be so phony, putting on the front of feeling confident and having my life together, when the truth is that I'm putting my hope in the feeling of being loved and approved by others, which always fails. How sweet is the brokenness and freedom that my heavenly Father brings me through that I might experience that joy, that salvation, that hope that we claim as Christians to believe, even though we don't...even though I don't so often.