It was a busy weekend this weekend- which was good.  I was able to have both my head and my heart challenged over the last 48 hours.

On Friday night, I attended an apologetics seminar held at Calvary Chapel Albuquerque, where I and my buddy Chris sat through two speaker sessions.  The first was excellent, where esteemed apologist Norman Geisler spoke on the Surd- “If God, Why Evil?”- and provided some logic for understudying how evil can exist in the world if God is all good and all powerful.  Geisler was light and comedic, but his presentation was terse and well laid out. Following him, an archaeologist spoke on his experiences, and present expectations, in locating Noah’s Ark.  What made this man’s presentation so good was the time he put in building up the significance of finding the Ark.  Essentially, finding Noah’s Ark would do wonders to make the world stop and evaluate the historicity and the reliability of the Bible- and then be confronted with its central message about Jesus and His mission.The speaker the shared with us about expeditions that had occurred the last few years that seemed to locate something very significant on Ararat, hidden under a glacial cap.  Both sessions were stimulating for mind and soul.

After the workshops and a few tacos from Taco Cabana, I went home and dove into the first DVD from the first season of “Friday Night Lights.”  I had read online that that series did a remarkable job of realistically and graciously showing men being men in a good light. In particular, the show’s lead, the coach, was lauded for his portrayal of a strong man.  I got through all 4 episodes on that disc that night.  NetFlix, next please.

On Saturday morning and afternoon, I attended a 6-hour Financial Coach training at the office of True North Ministries.  True North is a ministry piloted by Mike Cosgrove here in Albuquerque, which exists to help people to learn how to Biblically manage their money, and how to correctly view and use their resources as gifts from God for God’s work, requiring us to be good stewards of what God gives us.  The training should help me to be able to sit down with someone in challenging financial straits, and help them to both get together a budget and also make some decisions that can help them to deal with pressing money problems.  We’ll see.

On Saturday night, the Albuquerque Dance Club had a dance, so I attended that.  It was nice to just go there and see friends and dance for a few hours.

This morning, I was at church at Highland High for setup at 7 a.m.  The morning for setup went well. I enjoy seeing new friends at Sagebrush Highland each week, being involved setting up church, then taking in the morning’s service (which God has used over the last months to motivate me to change and to be more available to seek and to serve Him), meeting folks after the service is over, and then disassembling the church. We’re usually done by 1:30 on Sunday afternoons, now.

After church, I drove out to (almost) Bernalillo to visit a friend from the dance club who is a woodworker, and who is building all of the furniture that is going into his home.  It was great to hear from him how he built a few items, to see the work he had competed so far on two dressers (in progress), and to get a tour of his workshop and tools. I hope to move forward and begin a new project or two sometime here in the coming months, after making my friend’s quilt rack.  I appreciated Hank letting me tour his garage, his tools, and his thoughts about how some projects he has made have come together.

Tonight, on the heels of this weekend, I sat down and revisited my budget, and am determined to better watch how I handle money.  I want to become a more thorough steward of what God has given me. I am usually a devotee of half-measures: I sort of learn how to do some process or technique, and I then try to incorporate it into my life, ad how I get something done.  I stick with it for a little while, but because I have never learned it thoroughly (and applied myself thoroughly to its mastery), I give up on it after a while.  With money management and budgeting, I have been the same way.  I know sort of what I ought to be doing, but am a lousy practitioner of the practices that I teach.  Sigh.

It’s been a good weekend.  I have been convicted once again of my need to continually put my life and my desires in God’s hands.  I struggled several times this weekend missing a friend who has opted to remove herself from my life.  Yeah- she’s the one I have struggled with missing for months now. I keep asking God to either mend our friendship, or help me to find closure and peace so that my heart will move on.

What I do have to do is let go of those things I cannot control, let God take ad work on my heart as He sees fit, surrender myself to His guidance, and just strive to walk with Him.  From Him comes the meaning and satisfaction in my life.

It’s been a good weekend.  I am looking forward to this rolling over into being a good week.