Some holiday humble pie.....

This is a picture of a fishing trip I took last summer to a place in Canada called Rice Lake.  I spent a week there catching walleye, bluegill and small mouth bass.  It was a great trip with good friends, good weather, and a great boat - my little 16 foot fishing boat.  We caught a lot of fish, released all the smallmouth, ate a few along the way, and took some great naps.  You know those kind of naps - the deep, restorative kind of naps that leave you feeling strong enough you feel ready to take on the world.

It's those naps I took on the edge of Rice lake that I was longing for throughout this year's Christmas season.  I caught a cold around December 9th and just recently began regaining my strength.  I lost my voice mid way thorugh one message, got locked in my office by other staff members twice to get a nap in between services, met virtually none of the visitors that visited us during the season because I was so sick, and can't remember much about all the activity of which I was at least physcially a part.

Just now coming out of the fog ( Hopefully I have my final follow up appointment on Monday) I realize how grateful I am to be a part of a team of leaders who are capable of making good decisions on weekends, able to greet people graciously in my stead, and stand in for me to wrap up when my collapsed voice could simply no longer function.  It is indeed a humbling experience to watch in silence as people you have invested in for years step up to handle things with grace and ease.  And turn the tables and invest in you when you are too weak to carry your own weight.

Now that I am through the worst of it, I believe, I look forward to re-engaging the world around me.  It is that engagement of the world around me that I hope to tell you about in this blogsite.  Thanks for joining me here as 2011 begins.  I hope to provide you regular updates about all sorts of things and thoughts and adventures.  You can look forward to hearing about everything from my ongoing struggle with weight loss, to relaying how those around me are putting off the old sinful habits and replacing them with godly life giving activities.  I will be updating my spiritual growth plan and encouraging you to do the same, finalizing my counseling certification, leading us in the development of our new mall location, processing life's challenges together, preparing for a Guatemala missions trip, and trying not to re-preach my messages to you every week.  You can listen to them at http://www.crossroadscco.com/ by the following Tuesday of each week anyway.  There will be a lot to talk about this year. 

As I close, I am about half way through a book my wife Sharon got me for Christmas by David Platt titled, Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream, where he shares a subtitle I have been thinking about:  Enjoy His grace and Extend His glory.  One supernaturally flows out of another.   I will keep you posted.

Pastor Mike Cadrette