Late Birthday Gift and Public Speaking

I celebrated my 35th birthday on Wednesday as I have celebrated every day for the past two weeks. I celebrated it with three-a-days with the soccer team. I was showered with a ton of encouraging words on facebook and over the phone. It is really nice to know that you have that many people that care.

Mrs. McGoo told me on Tuesday that she had a small gift for me, but that her big gift would be late. Now, I don't know why I heard what I heard, but something in her voice sounded weird. So my reaction to the word 'late' was something that even I didn't expect. I asked her, "late, as in 9 months late?" I could hear her smile over the phone when she responded "no Kelly, I'm not late and no, I'm not pregnant."

Thought that was worth sharing...

She also called me and told me that we have been asked by our church to go before the congregation on Sunday and speak about our trip to Ethiopia and what God was doing in our lives. I thought this was kind of neat and scary all in one. I don't think I've ever spoken to that large of a crowd before. While I know that the Lord will give us the words to say, my first thought was, "why in the world do they want to hear anything I've got to say?"

Thank goodness I got an 'A' in public speaking last fall.

Who Has the Time?

One of my favorite movies of all time is the movie "A River Runs Through It." It is about two boys growing up in Montana in the early 1900's. Their father is a pastor of a church and a novice fly fisherman. So he instills in the boys very strong values about God and fish. The movie paints a vivid picture of a place where I always dreamed I'd end up. Beautiful sunsets, running waters, vast trees, dangerous wildlife, and a quaint little house to raise your kids in.

While it is somewhere that I would love to end up, that's not exactly where God has me right now. Right now, it is waking up a 5am on Tuesdays to attend a Men's Fraternity group at our church. Right now, it is pushing through three-a-days in the summer heat. It is also about having started a bible study with some of my best friends to discuss how we can be better men after the heart of God. Right now, it is praying with my wife before bedtime and striving to be a better leader to her in our marriage. Right now, it is about preparing my heart to head back to Ethiopia to serve the "least of these."

That's where God has me right now. If you would have asked me 6 months ago where I'd be and suggested these, I would say , I just don't have the time.

Ahhh yes, the old, 'I don't have the time excuse.' Ever heard it? My heart cringes when I hear it, because to be honest, everyone has the time. They just choose to spend it elsewhere on other things. I've told people before, "don't tell me you don't have the time, you just don't want to take the time or set aside other things in order to make something happen."

By reading this blog or Mrs. McGoo's blog, you can get a feeling that we are both busy and in some instances, trying to make sense of it all. While I'm still struggling to make it all work, I'm beginning to see God starting to push out all the things that don't matter and fill my time with fruitful things that do. It's hard at first, because your skin and the world offer tempting stuff...movies, cars, tvs, sports, girls, money, and even more friends. It can be a hard balance. My mom always use to make me turn off all music, tv, and phone calls in order to study for school. I kinda see the similarities here. In order to become a little closer in our walk, we've got to turn off the annoyances that simply offer distraction.

I love this quote from the movie...

"My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him, all good things - trout as well as eternal salvation - came by grace; and grace comes by art; and art does not come easy. "

It is so true. Things don't come easy. If it is time you must give up in order to better your walk, I challenge you to do so. Our lives on this rock are short lived.

Do you have the time?

Three-A-Days

In case you didn't know or I hadn't told you, I am in the middle of three-a-day training sessions with the Memphis Soccer Men's Soccer team. These three-a-days are kicking my butt. And I'm not even the one who is training. I'm usually up around 6:30 or 7:00 and am working with the team until around 8:30.

Mrs. McGoo can attest, I basically come home and fall asleep, then get back up and do it all over again the next day.

Today, we only had one session. Unfortunately, it kept me from making church. So, I am back home resting for a bit.

Not much of a point to this blog other than to complain that I'm tired. Blah

Walking Away from Christ

Just found out my buddy from Kentucky has a blog up with an interesting poll. It deals with Christians who walk away from Christ.

My buddy David started a church just outside of Lexington (where I grew up) called Catalyst Christian Church and is exploding with the love of Christ.

It is neat to see a guy that I grew up with in church back in the late 80's and early 90's now actually a pastor and leading people to Christ. He was a pretty darn good soccer player too.

Check out his blog...

http://catalystchristian.blogspot.com/

Do You Get It?

Finally! I'm finally finished with my Sport Law class that took up the last 4 weeks of my life. I can honestly say it was the most difficult class I've had to take since I've been back in school. It takes everything related to law and applies it to a sports setting. So, dealing with contracts, legislation, stadium financing, sexual harassment and everything else you can think of. I actually enjoyed it, but it was tough.

So that has kept me from blogging because most of my time has been devoted to reading and writing. All that said, I did finish with an A and a 4.0 in summer school. I hope my parents are reading this. Yes, I got a 4.0. If someone is around my mom and sees that she's not breathing after reading this, it's probably because she's had a heart attack at me saying that.

Since I've been "away" from blogging, a lot has been going on. God has been moving very much in the McGoo's lately. I recently was thinking about all the things in life that I love. When I say 'things' I mean 'stuff.' The stuff I love is UK sports, Memphis sports, watching good tv shows, listening to good music, having a nice stereo system for the house, and other senseless stuff. I talked a while back about how God was stirring me to get out of my comfortable life. Well, that's about to happen...

God really got a hold of my life while I was in Ethiopia working with the street children and has been stirring in me ever since. Since I've been back in the states, I've seen life in a different perspective. Yes, I do love some of the things I listed, however, I've since realized that I cannot take these things with me. They are all finite and lead me nowhere. Our pastor Ernie Frey is very passionate about sending people out to preach the Gospel. I can hear him now saying, "Do you get it? Do you get it? Do you get what Christ wants of you?"

I realized that when I'm long gone, do I want people saying at my funeral, "That Kelly was a great guy. He sure did love those Wildcats and was a heck of a fantasy football player. And boy, you should have seen that stereo he had." I realized that there are more important things that God wants with me than just sitting on idle while I live the comfortable Christian life. So I decided to, for the first time in my life, allow God to direct me.

With God's direction in mind, I have accepted an internship position with The Forsaken Children organization to come on board and design and implement a sports ministry program in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This is something that I am extremely excited about. I pitched the idea to Joe Bridges, the director of the organization, and he really liked it. Basically I will spend the next few months in the fall putting together a strategy for a sports program that can minister to the children that live on the streets of Addis Ababa. I will then travel to Ethiopia in December for four weeks and spend a week initiating a sports camp for kids and then the rest of the time networking with local organizations and churches to see about developing recreational leagues. These are my ideas for the program and what it could do:

1. Potentially start sports leagues where street children can attend, be kids, and have fun
2. Through the league we can identify children that could potentially come into the Forsaken Children organization (Onesimus/Children's Home Ethiopia)
3. Share the Gospel to the children
4. Provide a place where families can be actively involved in their children's lives

That isn't in any order, but just a small sample of what my brain has been spitting out over the last month or so.

My hope is that through a lot of time, love, prayer, support, and lots of networking, that this is something that we can revisit with TFC in January and continue with them in a full-time capacity. I've had a few folks that I've told ask me how am I going to do all this. Yes, my life will be quite busy in the fall - 18 hours of school, full-time work with the Memphis Soccer team, developing this program, fundraisng for our trip, started a new bible study with some of my best friends, and still trying to be a Godly husband and spend time with my wife. Yeah, it will be pretty busy. But I'm confident that the Lord has not put all this on my plate thinking that I couldn't handle it. He isn't like that.

It is really exciting in knowing that the things God has planned for me are bigger than me. They are things that I cannot do on my own or lean on my own understanding. And for the first time in life, I'm OK with that. More like, I'm embracing that. Maybe one day, at my funeral, they won't be talking about the senseless stuff I couldn't take with me, but the lives that were saved. Not because of me, but because I allowed God to be more than someone I talk about on Sundays. Maybe one day, someone will look back and say about me, "He got it."

I aim to try

Who Wears the Pants

Been a while since I last updated. Sorry. Been a little preoccupied with this Sport Law class I've been taking. It's required a TON of reading and writing case briefings. I've finished everything except for my final which is at the end of the week. So I've got a small bit of down time before the soccer team starts preseason training on Monday. We'll be having three-a-days in this heat. Should be fun.

Last night, Mrs. McGoo and I were sitting down and both studying a little when she told me a statistic she learned in her "Family Development" class (I hope that is what it is called). Widowers are four times more likely to remarry than widows. I asked why is that, to which she replied, "Because women take care of you and you wouldn't know what to do without us. So naturally, you'd remarry sooner than women." Dang...kinda harsh don't ya think?

This morning, I got a phone call from Mrs. McGoo asking me to remember to put the pork tenderloin in the crock-pot because she *forgot.

Last night Mrs. McGoo needed help moving documents somewhere so she could print them at school. Enter Mr. McGoo that gave her a jump drive and moved them over for you. This morning, she forgot the jump **drive.

These are just a few examples of the many that I could list that proves who takes care of who in this house.

So there you have it. Statistical research debunked. I think we all know who wears the pants.






* Crock-pot was an idea by said wife who was trying to make sure her husband was taken care of for dinner since she knows he'd most likely not eat due to not knowing what I make.

** Jump drive was forgotten because said wife was making breakfast for her husband who was watching T.V.