God had different plans for my life, and I’ve been running from those plans for quite a while now. This morning, I publicly surrendered my life to preach the gospel. You can’t believe the overwhelming peace and joy that I’m feeling. I still don’t know what the future has in store, but I have complete peace that God is in control and that He will lead me each step of the way.

Here’s the way it went down: I spent this last week as the bus driver and a sponsor for our group at Daniel Springs Baptist Camp in Gary, Texas. We had an amazing week. Late in the week, the camp evangelist used an illustration of Peter jumping out of the boat to be with Jesus (John 21). He said that some of us needed to “jump out of the boat” and follow the path that God would have for our lives. It hit me hard. Really hard. I knew God was using the evangelist to talk to me.

I spent a lot of time in prayer from that point until we got home. When Saturday rolled around, I knew I couldn’t wait any longer, so I spent about an hour in the living room of Dustin Wisely, our youth pastor. After I finished talking to Dustin, I knew there was only one option for me – total surrender to the will of God.

This morning during Sunday School time, I spent time talking with Bro. David Watkins, our pastor, and when the invitation was given at the close of the service, I made it official. It felt great!

I was also excited that Zach Phillips, a young man who had also served as a church camp sponsor from our church, surrendered this morning as well! God is good!

I don’t know all of the details of the future, but I do know that I won’t be quitting my job any time soon. At the encouragement of Bro. David and Dustin, I will be looking into a seminary degree. There are options that will allow me to remain in Magnolia for the time being and take the classes through a combination of intensive one-week studies and online work. I will also be preaching my first sermon soon. I’ll keep you updated on that.

God is in control! I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow.

Stay tuned . . .

Back to this “springing forward” of the clocks. I really don’t appreciate it. Does Congress not realize how busy we Americans are these day? Can we really afford to lose an hour? I can’t. I’ve got a lot going on – trips to Little Rock for work, planning the University’s 100th birthday party (the BIGGEST party in a century), leaving for a five-day conference in Oklahoma City only two days after the party – and I don’t think it will ever end. I NEED THAT HOUR!!

I wonder what would happen if, say, you moved from the Central Time Zone to the PacificTime Zone on the night of the springing forward. Would you essentially fool the system and not only gain back your stolen hour but get an extra one, too? Maybe I need to stop thinking about this stuff so much.

While watching the news tonight (KATV, of course), I was reminded why we do this whole Daylight Savings Time thing. Congress thinks we save energy by messing with time. There are still just as many hours of daylight as there are if we didn’t switch. I think it’s all a bunch of bull.

Now on to something more productive – sleep (I hope).