Men of Fuel

I was headed into the office this morning listening to a number of guys on a sports radio show talking about how the Redskins were going to get beat this week by the Cowboys. They had all kind of stats from both teams as well as team history and player injury reports, all pointing back to the simple fact that the Redskins were going to lose this week. After about 10 min a guy calls in and says “Hey guys, appreciate all of the facts for the upcoming week, but what about a little celebration for the fact that the Redskins won yesterday”, and with that I was instantly taken back to our time together last week.

Why do we find it so hard to celebrate? I have to admit that I failed miserably at our call to action last week. For those on this distro that were not with us last week, we agreed as a group to celebrate/encourage one person a day for one week. In other words we were going to celebrate one person each day until we got together again. The first day I did great. I came in to the office, and during a conversation with a co-worker I let him know that he was doing a great job. Day one I was batting 100%. Day two my average dropped to .500. Day three my son got his report card, so day three I was good, but day 4 I was back to .500. Fortunately this weakened was my wife’s birthday, so I got to celebrate her, but here I sit on Monday wondering why I can’t seem to celebrate people in my life.

A follow up challenge to the initial challenge: Let us finish strong. Two more days until we meet again. Let these be days of celebration.

We will be meeting this Wednesday at the same time (6:30). I am sure many of you guys have a light week this week, and hope you can join us on Wednesday morning

Hope to see you there

Invest and Invite

D.R. Carlson

Men of Fuel

As I sit here on Tuesday morning, I am amazed at how quickly I can fall away from the positive things in my life, and replace them with nothing more than “activity” or even “What’s next” on my schedule”. In other words, I think it’s just easier not being intentional. Take Fuel for example. There has never been a time that I have left our meetings and thought “I wish I would have slept in” or “I wish I would have just gone to the office”. Yet, after taking off last week (one week), I had to remind myself that we were getting together tomorrow. How is it that something that is so important to so many aspects of my life, can sometimes get drowned out by the noise of my life? I am sure there are a number of answers or excuses that I could use but if I am being honest perhaps part of me (a bigger part than I would like to admit) views those other things as more important.

With that said, tomorrow is our final week of “The Greatest Story Ever (mis)Told”. I find it hard to believe that we are here at week 8. It seems just like yesterday that we were putting this thing together and here we are at the end. If you have not been able to join us yet, tomorrow would be the best time to join us, as we bring this thing to a close. It has been a blast being on this journey with you guys and am excited for what’s next

See you guys in the AM

D.R. Carlson

Men of Fuel

If you have ever been to a wedding the odds are you have heard 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13 read. Heck, odds are you probably had it read at your wedding. For those of you drawing a blank on 1 Cor. 13 : 1-13, these are the verses that talk all about love. Some of the more memorable verses are below.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Now while I have heard that a ton of times, I am not sure I have really ever grasped what the bible is saying about love until I started to drill down and see if that is what love looked like in my life. (it doesn’t). Sure, all of them cause me to pause and think about how I express love, but none more than “It keeps no record of wrongs”. In other words, “Love, doesn’t keep score”. Now if that’s the case, I have a very flawed understanding of love, cause I can keep score with the best of them (which I know because I am keeping score)

Think about that for a bit. You a score keeper? Can you even answer that without keeping score? The first thing I did was start thinking about all of the people that I know that keep score and tried to see if I do it more or less than they do.……….which is keeping score.

But what do we do with that? Meaning what do we do with the score card that we have with our friends, kids, family, wife, co-workers, or anyone else that comes to mind. More importantly how do we react when others respond or are treated contrary to the scorecard that we have been keeping. How does that sit with us?

Come on out tomorrow as we tally up the score in week six of our series. If you haven’t joined us yet, tomorrow would be the perfect time to start

See you in the AM

D.R. Carlson

Men of Fuel

Ever been in a situation where you just came to the point where you said to yourself “I’m done”? I have, and unfortunately I can tell you that it has happened more than once. A whole lot more than once. However as with most things we discuss, I am sure I am not alone. How about you? It could have been a job, a relationship, or simply a way of life, but at some point, I bet, all of us came to a point where we “finally” realized that pushing the peddle to the floor was only taking us further away from where we needed to be.

Perhaps you can call it “surrender”, but eventually we all have come to the place where we realize that the end that we swore wasn’t going to happen to us, is in fact happening to us.

What then?

Do we immediately rejoice in anticipation of the reception that we are about to experience from the loved ones in our lives, or do we instead begin to dread the cost of “re-entry”?

Tomorrow morning we are in Chapter five: Condemnation or Reconciliation. If you haven’t been able to join us, tomorrow would be a great time to join us. Come on out a bit early to grab some coffee and jam out to 80’s tunes. We get started at 6:30am.

See you guys in the am.

Invest and Invite
D.R. Carlson

Men of Fuel

The Band, Expose sang about it, and tomorrow we experience it: The Point of No Return. Tomorrow will be our fourth week of our seven week series, and while this account started with a large amount of tension, Jesus only continues to ratchet it up. Last week, we looked at the first five verses of the Prodigal Son parable, starting with “A certain man” dividing his livelihood between his two sons, and ending with the young son being in “want”, and yet no one gave him anything.

Now while that was all covered in a few verses, it may have actually been months, maybe even years to cover that same amount of ground. After all, the Bible tells us only that he “journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions on prodigal living”, it never says how long that was. I think that’s because that timeframe is different for each of us. It could be months, years, or even decades, but eventually all of us will begin “to be in want”.

Join us tomorrow morning at Hidden Creek Country Club as we continue our journey through The Greatest Story Ever (mis) Told. We will start promptly at 6:30am. If you have missed the first three weeks, tomorrow would be the perfect time to join us.

See you in the AM

D.R. Carlson