This weekend was a rare treat. I didn’t have any scheduled events, required duties or lingering commitments I could not pass on. I love weekend like this. The weather was good and I felt good. Thank you God.
Early on Saturday morning I pulled out the small single cab mule with a dump bed, I got my work gloves from under the seat of the pickup and loaded my new chainsaw. I worked on cutting a bunch of brush that needed to go. My new chainsaw worked flawlessly. I ate sawdust, sweat and strained to reach hard to get branches. Late in the day my bride invited me, dirty and sweaty to join her for a run to the frozen yogurt shop and a relaxing chat on the outside patio with treat in hand.
After church on Sunday I tackled my garage/shop and loaded a ton of trash. I swept every corner and began a couple projects. One was mounting my pastor’s granddaughter’s spike deer horns she took on a KOZ hunt with me the other was trying to repair an antique chair broken years ago. I am not all that good at any particular craft but I love that I have my shop back. I went out there a couple times last night and once this morning to just look at it, to touch the old chair and antlers as if to inspect them for quality control and stage of repair. It’s a guy thing.
But all through this weekend I got text and saw posts on Facebook with boys and men gathering across the country doing KOZ. Michael Curley with Memorial KOZ did a survival campout and had almost 45 men and boys, The Lynchburg, Va guys hunting turkey, the Dripping Springs boys hosted a fish catch tank at a community event and loved on tons of boys and girls. Ministry at its finest if you love the outdoors and KOZ.
As men, leaders in our homes, communities, churches and KOZ groups it is imperative you care for your heart. It is just as important to give everything to those you minister too, love on, care for. No is an important word for so many of us. We say yes to more than we should. We strive to do so much good that we do not excel at what God calls us to do with greatness.
So today I am rested. Today I am reinvigorated. We all need to have time to be still and quiet. To listen to the Lord, a line cast into the water, the sound of a chain saw. Do not buy the lie Satan tells us so often that we do not have the time right now to walk down the street and back with our wives, or in prayer, or read a page from the bible. He will gift you with 10X more that you need when you make Him first. I promise.
James 4:13-17, Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
The KOZ work this weekend was “over the chain”, God You are so powerful . You men, you are mighty warriors for the King, I honor you for that, you are incredible. You may not know the impact you have on the boys but I can tell you, without a doubt, that when you stand before our Father He will tell you Himself, “job well done faithful servant.” He is a proud Father right now!
