Author Archives: D.R. Carlson

New Series: WIDE OPEN

fuel_wideopenMen of Fuel,

A guy that lives in my neighborhood recently told me that Belmont Country Club had this “Amazing” deal in order to get new members to join.  Apparently Belmont was slashing the initiation fee by more than half and allowing people to pay it off over three years.  Not being a member, my first thought was “You would be pretty fired up if you were thinking about joining”.  My second thought was “How pissed are the people that recently joined at full price?”

Think about it for a second.  If you had joined for full price and heard about these people having to pay much less than you, would you be thinking “I am so fired up that these people are now part of my club” or are you thinking “That’s not fair”.

What if you were the one that got in for half price, would you be excited?   What if two months after you joined they cut the price in half again?  Would you be excited new people were getting in, or would you be thinking that it wasn’t fair?

I wonder if that’s how we treat a relationship with God?  “It’s all good that I am in, but everybody better be paying the same dues as me”

Just some thoughts on a Sunday night.

Look forward to seeing you guys on Wednesday morning

“Wide Open”

D.R. Carlson


IT IS TIME

Men of Fuel

Tomorrow is the last day of our third year at Hidden Creek. What better way to celebrate than to sit around with the guys and crush a few breakfast burritos. If you have not been with us before for a year end wrap up, allow me to explain. At 6:20 hidden creek is going open up the serving trays on an assortment of egg and cheese, bacon, egg and cheese, and sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast burritos. As soon as you walk in the door, please feel free to grab a burrito and head to your table. We will give some time for the guys to catch up, before opening up the floor.

Once the floor is open, anyone is free and encouraged to stand up and share with the room. This can be something God showed you this year, something that stuck with you, something that changed you, or basically anything you want to share. At the same time if you do not want to share, please do not feel any pressure at all. Our three biggest series this year were “The Greatest Story ever Mistold, Lust Vegas, and Imagination Movers, and we (the room) would love to hear something/anything that you will take from our time together.

I know the voice inside our head tells us that no one wants to hear what we have to say, but I can tell you that is a lie. I would encourage you to pray about it tonight. Ask God to show you if there was anything this year that moved you. Cause if there was, we love to know what it was

See you guys in the am

D.R. Carlson


Imagination Movers Part II

Men of Fuel

Crazy to believe that we are but two meetings away from wrapping up our third year at Hidden Creek. Per tradition, NEXT week (5/22) will be our Breakfast Burrito Bonanza and Year End Wrap up Extravaganza, where we will open the floor to anyone who would like to share with the group.

This week (tomorrow morning) Bill Clark will finish out our final series of the year “Imagination movers”. Set your alarms and come on out as we wrap the final series of the year.

Invest and Invite


Imagination Movers: Part 1

My daughter Kasey, who will turn five this July has become completely captivated by a show called Imagination Movers (www.imaginationmovers.com/about/). I have never seen a complete episode of this show, but I do know that there are four guys who are in a band who dress is blue coveralls that encourage their young (and not so young) viewers to use their imagination to assist them in accomplishing their task at hand. Their motto: “Reach high, think big, work hard, have fun!”
I had never given it much thought before, but do young children need to be encouraged to use their imaginations? With an 8, 4 (almost 5), 2, and 9 month old, I can tell you that the use of imagination is NOT in short supply in the Carlson household. I hear stories of imaginary friends, imaginary situations, and amazing imaginary outcomes.

What happened? Weren’t we at one time those children, children that stood in the glory of all that could be……real or imagined? Maybe it’s not that children need to be encouraged to use their imagination, maybe it’s they just need to be encouraged to never stop using their imagination. Again, it wasn’t that we never used our imagination; it was just somewhere along the way we stopped using it as much as we once did.

But what if our imagination was a big part of understanding God? After all think of all of the times the Bible calls us to use our imagination. We are continually told that God is like……. Or Heaven is like………How many times when asked a question does Jesus tell a story? Why not just answer the question. Why not tell the Pharisees and Scribes the reason he was accepting sinners and tax collectors? Why in the world would he go into this long story about lost sheep, and lost coin and a lost son? Was He not compelling us to use our imagination?

Maybe we are the ones that need the Imagination Movers, to move our imaginations out of the places where we tucked them away and back to the front of our minds where they once were. Join us tomorrow morning as we start our last (two week) series of the year: Imagination Movers.

Imagine how fun it will be

See you in the AM


Lust Vegas; Questions……Part II

Men of Fuel

Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow morning. Last week Bill Clark answered a few questions that we collected over the last few weeks, as well as several that came up that morning. Tomorrow we will dive back in to the questions which I am guessing will again produce more questions. None of us have all of the answers but I can assure you that after tomorrow morning we will have more than we have today. I know that was the case last week.

I hope you can join us
D.R. Carlson