Refuel was awesome. This is how I lose my voice…

This Sunday night is ReFuel! I’m pumped! Feel free to contact me or Pencil Boone if you have any questions. Here is the link to the details post:
http://www.ignitionmaine.com/?p=74

Do you notice any difference?  Maybe not.  The design hasn’t really changed all that much but there are some major changes to the backend.  For you technology geeks we’ve switched from asp.net to wordpress.  For everyone else, just know there is one major difference.  You can now comment on our posts!  Please let us know what you think of the site!  (and anything else for that matter).  We’d love to hear from you!  Thanks!

Standing Still and Listening Over the past week or so an old friend of mine-no wait-a friend of mine from long ago who just so happens to be vintage like me, well, we were catching up and exploring the many paths in life that we have taken, paths we didn’t take and the uncharted paths that lay ahead of us both. Each of us declared at some point wishing that God would make certain paths crystal clear. I think we both felt remorse at paths taken that didn’t work out so well, and perhaps regret at the ones that we could have taken but didn’t. So I think that what we have viewed as past mistakes has given rise to a level of apprehension about the future and being able to clearly discern God’s plan for each of us. During one of our discussions, my friend mentioned the idea of standing still and listening for God. It really hit me as we continued that that can be a really difficult thing to do. Being a fan of the outdoors, I thought about what it is like to take a walk through the woods in the late fall. The ground would likely be covered with dry, brittle leaves discarded weeks ago by the now mostly barren trees at the approach of winter. At times the leaf cover is so thick that even the most deft and able-footed still raise a considerable ruckus while strolling through the wilderness. The noise is so great at times that it can be difficult for two people to carry on a conversation without a many “What’d you say?”. I think we both began to see that while we were making some of the not-so-great choices we had made in life, we had been walking knee-deep in dead leaves and having trouble hearing God. So what are the leaves in our lives? They could be many, many things. Addictions, selfishness, victim-mentality, materialism, friends, family, church, music, internet, cell phones, Facebook, dating, school, abuse, food, sex… Obviously if I had the time and will power to do so, I could rattle off pages of potential distractions and noise that come between us and God everyday. Honestly I could come up with pages just for me, let alone the rest of the world. If you’ve ever been one of those two people walking and talking in the woods, you’d figure out that the most sane way to carry on a conversation is to stop and stand still. When you do that, not only can you clearly hear the person you’re conversing with, but you can hear so much more as well. The sound of the wind moving over the ridgeline, the trickle of a spring hidden nearby, even the beating of your heart. So as we wander through the woods of this life, let’s stop, and stand still and listen for God. Maybe then the plan He has for each of us will be crystal clear since we can hear Him clearly, without the distracting noise of our lives. I encourage you to take some time and honestly look at your situation. What is crunching around your feet and deafening your ears from God? Then work on developing a mindset of being able to put on the brakes, silence all the other stuff, and then standing still and listening for God. Peace, Dave