The Clock

On January 6, 2016January 6, 2016 By roberthansen1317In Christian life, music, timeLeave a comment

For something that only has one thing to do, I get blamed for a lot of things. You would think that I would mind, but I don’t. It really isn’t my fault for the problems in people’s lives. I mean all I do is go around in circles, twice a day. You know today what you wasted yesterday. You know today that you have the same amount of time as tomorrow to do what you need to do. How is it my fault you didn’t get it done ?

I come in many forms. Sometimes I have hands. Other times I have a digital read out. Sometimes I have numbers, sometimes I don’t. No matter what I have or don’t have, my job is the same each day. Many of you say I am only right twice a day. Good one. I have to laugh when I hear that.

Often times, no pun intended, people look at me and can’t believe how much time has went by. Other times they can’t believe how slow I am going. I am here to tell you I do neither. I am constant. Always the same. 86,400 seconds then I reset to zero. Well, there was this one time when God stopped me but that’s the only time. Unless He asks again because I will never say no to God. Would you?

Let me ask you, what is your problem with me? Never mind, let me guess. I don’t have enough time. Or is it I have too much time on my hands. Isn’t it funny that when you have too much time it seems like you don’t have enough time? How many times have you sat doing nothing when you could’ve been doing something? You think Tom Brady ever said I don’t have enough time to read the playbook this week? You think Michael Jordan ever said I don’t have enough time to practice my jump shot? They had to sacrifice other things that took up their time to make time to do what they needed to do. I bet they don’t always sleep eight hours a day. I bet they don’t watch three hours of television a night. Do you think they ever said I am too busy to do what I need to do to be successful?

Mother Teresa said “yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” You think she ever said I don’t have enough time? If she was alive today how much time do you think she would spend on Facebook? How many selfies would she take?

Anyway, back to my story. I am like God in a lot of ways. I am the same today as I was yesterday as I will be tomorrow. I will never change. I am not God. Many of you look at me like I am. Many of you curse me because you didn’t do what you had to do in the time you had to do it. Are you more mad at me or yourself? I didn’t force you to waste your time today. I didn’t force you to spend your time that way. I didn’t tell you to spend ten minutes flirting with that woman instead of spending ten minutes calling your wife. Yet you blame me for not having enough of me to give to your wife. I didn’t ask you to spend thirty minutes looking at pornography instead of reading the bible. Yet you blame me for not having enough of me to get to read God’s word.

You know what you have to do in the time you have been allotted. On your death bed you can’t say you didn’t have enough time. I have seen it happen too many times. I regret I didn’t spend enough time with my family. I regret I spent so many hours working. I wish I would’ve spent more time talking to God. I wish I would’ve donated more time to help others. I I I ……I wish, I should have, I could have. Let me tell you you can. What will you do TODAY to take care of your TOMORROWS and not live in your YESTERDAYS? What will you sacrifice? I am not to blame. 1440 minutes. Each and every day. I give it to all of you. The same amount.

Don’t be one of those people. I know I might be out of a job by telling you this but throw me away. Live your life with purpose. Do what God wants you to do! Does it matter what time it is or how much time is left in the day? If God says move, does it matter what time I tell you it is?

Now take a minute and look at me. You looked? Seriously? What will you do with the time you have left today? Tick-tock.

Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On by Jimmy Buffett –

Stop The Clock by Elle Varner –

Clock Don’t Stop by Carrie Underwood –

Before Out Time by Jon Foreman –

Time For That by Clint Black –

Ain’t Wasting Time No More by The Allman Brothers –

Time by Hootie & The Blowfish –

On The Clock by Sena Ehrhardt –

Time By Ozzy Osbourne –

My List by Toby Keith –

Time Is Passing by Dayla –

Time In A Bottle by Jim Croce –

Best Of Times by Styx –

Fly Like An Eagle by Steve Miller Band –

Right Now by Van Halen –

Life Won’t Wait by Ozzy Osbourne –

The Battle Within

On July 22, 2015September 25, 2015 By roberthansen1317In battle within, Christian life, everyday heroes, God, music, super heroes, timeLeave a comment

In an earlier post I mentioned how I like super hero movies. After an epic battle going back and forth the good guys always win. They face many challenges and there is always a time where we start to think they won’t win but they fight and overcome the enemy. I don’t think I have ever seen a movie though that I didn’t know who the good guys were and who the bad guys were. What happens when you don’t know who the bad guys are?

There is also more to the story lines than just good vs. evil. Heroes that are cheered one day, then are booed the next. You have friends that turn into enemies. Brothers who turn against brothers. Enemies that come together to fight a bigger enemy. Friends (communities) that combine to save society. The battle they fight with themselves.

The battle within. The battle we all fight every day. The biggest battle I fight is time. There is never enough but somehow there is always too much. Let me explain.

There is never enough time to do everything I want to do each day. As my youngest daughter is growing up there isn’t enough time to spend with her before other things come into her life. For my oldest daughters there is never enough time to spend any time with them. They have school, jobs, boyfriends, friends etc.. They don’t have much time left over to spend with me. There is never enough time do my workouts, write, play, spend time with wife…I can go on.

Even with saying all that there is too much time. I can look back on each day wondering where the time went, I didn’t have time to do anything but then I look how I spent my time. I spent too much time watching tv. I spent too much time thinking about nothing. I spent too much time talking at instead of talking to. I spent too much time reading a book and not THE BOOK.

You may be thinking that time isn’t something that is within you and I can see that. But the way it makes me feel inside is the battle. The way I get frustrated if I didn’t get around to what I needed to do. The guilt I feel if I didn’t spend enough time with my family. The yuck my body feels if I didn’t work out. To me, time is very much a battle within.

I also battle with the voices in my head. The one that tells me go ahead and do this or that. Just five minutes won’t hurt anything. Next thing you know those five minutes turned to sixty and I have nothing to show for it. The one that tells me I don’t have to pray today. You woke up late, you’re rushing around, got to get dressed, get to work, you don’t have time to stop and pray. Next thing I know it’s bed time and I didn’t talk to God today.

How about the battle with temptation? God wouldn’t have made all these beautiful people if He didn’t want us to look at them right? God wouldn’t have made these donuts taste so good if He didn’t want us to eat them right? God wouldn’t have made cable tv with 350 channels if He didn’t want us to watch tv all day right? God wouldn’t have made smartphones if He didn’t want us staring at it all day right? What do we miss when we give into these temptations? We miss the beautiful people in our lives already. Our beautiful spouses and children. We miss the wonderful food God put on this earth for us to eat. Not the GMO, added sugar, added additives, added etc… We miss this wonderful world God has made. Look away from the tv and look up from our smartphones and look at this world. I subscribe to a few instagram sites with pics from around the world. There are some beautiful places out there but while I am looking at them, I miss the beauty in front of my eyes in my own backyard.

I see a direct correlation between these movies and what the Bible has taught us. Look at the picture quotes in this post and then ask yourself is there a Bible verse like this. Trust me there are. Are there stories in the Bible where the hero is cheered and then booed, friends turned on friends, brothers turned on brothers, once enemies turn to friends for the greater good, communities coming together for the greater good..etc? Yes there are.

In real life we all face the same common enemy- Satan. With that we all face the same fears, doubts, worries, that we aren’t good enough but we can all help each other through the struggles of life.

I think I should write a post every week about the Disney Channel show Girl Meets World. Last week about investing in our children, our future. This week about being a hero. You don’t have to have super powers to be a hero. Quotes from the show “There is enough dark in this world, heroes were meant to bring the light” and “When it’s a struggle between right and wrong, that’s when real heroes fight the hardest.”

In real life we all have a hero inside us. One that can choose between good and bad, right and wrong, to help or not to help. God gave us free will so that we can make that choice. Will you choose to be a hero today?

If you need help finding a Bible verse or story let me know. I will let you know what I think corresponds to it.

However, the Bible has one thing that doesn’t happen in these movies. The hero in the Bible died in order to save the villians.

Let Go by 12 Stones (from Daredevil) –

Comeback bt Redlight King (from Avengers) –

Even If I Could by Papa Roach (from Avengers) –

Dirt and Roses by Rise Against (from Avengers) –

Some Kind Of Monster by Neon Trees (from Iron Man) –

Ready Aim Fire by Imagine Dragons (from Iron Man) –

One Minute More by Capital Cities (from Iron Man) –

Bother by Stone Sour (from Spider Man) –

Hero by Chad Kroeger feat Josey Scott (from Spider Man) –

Batman Arkham Knight by TryHardNinja (from Dark Knight Rises) –

Waiting For Superman by Daughtry –

Blow Away by Breaking Benjamin (from Captain America) –

Monster by Skillet –

23 Days Down, 59 Days To Go

On June 14, 2015June 20, 2016 By roberthansen1317In children, Christian life, God, music, time11 Comments

59 days. That’s 1,416 hours. That’s 84,960 minutes left. Left of what you may ask? Summer break. Seriously, I think I might go nuts. I work 3.5 days a week and off 3.5 days a week so I am home with Kylie for 3.5 days while my wife trains in the morning. That’s with one child. I can’t imagine being a stay at home parent with two or more. Hats off to you stay at home moms and dads. Kylie is an awesome daughter and she is very independent when it comes to most things and she isn’t one to constantly be up my butt, so why I am saying only 59 days left?

It’s because I feel like I lost my freedom. I feel like I am selfish. I feel like I constantly have to entertain her. I feel like I can’t go workout. I feel like I can’t go out and run for an hour. I feel like…… I feel like I won’t have many of these summers with her left.

Those of you that have older children know how fast these times go and I know in a few years she won’t want to snuggle and watch tv with me. I know she will want to spend more time with her friends than with me. I know how I spend this time with her now will influence how she relates to other men in her life as she gets older. I know she watches me and how I handle difficult situations. I know she watches me to see if I read the Bible today. I know that when we go anywhere and she holds my hand there is no place I would rather be in this world. I know I wasn’t the greatest father to my oldest daughters. I know during the years when they were this age, I worked 60-70 hours a week. I know I missed a lot of life with them. Time I will never get back. They will never truly know how it pained me to miss that time and how sorry I am. I know I don’t want to miss it with my last daughter.

I feel like I will gladly give up my freedom because I know I will be selfish to spend as much time with her before she moves on to the rest of her life. It won’t be long until we go from “Just Fishin” to “Cleaning My Gun”. One day I will blink and wish I had 59 days, 1416 hours, 84960 minutes to spend with her.

Dear God, thank You for this time You have given me to spend with my daughter. I pray that when I get frustrated with not having enough me time that You remind me this is the time You have given me to spend with her, to bond with her, to teach her about You, to love her, and to cherish her. I pray that You help me with my older daughters to be able to speak with them, spend time with them, and make up for the time I missed with them. Thank you for my family. In Your name, amen.

It Won’t Be Like This For Long by Darius Rucker –