Welcome to Nolan's World

Step by Step

"Most overnight success stories are about 20 years in the making."--Jim Collins, Author of Good to Great

It's ironic to me that our culture seems to have such a fascination with overnight sensations when it is so readily apparent that "God is INTO time!"  God has no problem waiting, in fact, waiting is often His plan. We, on the other hand, don't seem to like to wait on anything.

Traffic lights.  Waiting for a table at a restaurant.  The movie that doesn't start exactly on time. 

Remember dial-up internet access?  Enough said!

I'm beginning to wonder if one of my greater sins in life may be impatience!

We attempt to microwave ourselves through our problems.  God is more of a "crock pot" Creator, Healer, and Restorer. 

And what is amazing to me is that God has no problem allowing someone to spend years of wandering and preparing so that person can be used to in one truly amazing moment where through that person, God shows up!

Perhaps they were born for that one moment!  It just took many years to get them ready for it.

I believe that the Lord has a moment of greatness within each of us.  I wonder if we are willing to be faithful in the mundane so that we can actually be part of that moment one day!

Faith without sight seems so incomplete.  I mean, can't I have a roadmap that will tell me where this journey called life will take me?

That is one of the most beautiful and frustrating things to me about this thing called the Christian life--faithfulness simply means that I take the next step of obedience regardless of where it may take me.

I think many of us are trying to interpret the whole reason for living based upon what we see written on the script for the journey of today.  We analyze and rationalize away the truth that God is up to something in us--even when we can't see it.

I desperately want to be ready for whatever special moment that the Lord has planned for me.  That means that I need to be faithful where God has placed me today.  I need to love my wife and daughter and do what I can to care for them.  I must give my best at my job every shift that I am privileged to work.  I should add value to those in my circle of friendship and influence.  I ought to shepherd those that the Lord has placed under my care.

Waiting has never been easy for me.  The right things in life are rarely easy.

When I take the next step of obedience without knowing where it will lead, it is letting God be God in my life.

And that's the only way that I'll be ready for the moment He has waiting for me!

Book Review: For Young Men Only

For Young Men Only: A Guy's Guide to the Alien Gender is a great read for all men, but the target audience would be considered young men.  This book is full of straight talk delivered in a very practical way to help guys understand what girls are looking for in dating relationships and beyond. 

Comedian Jeff Foxworthy says this about For Young Men Only: "Guys, in your hands you hold a treasure.  Within this book young women honestly tell you what they want, need, and desire.  After nearly fifty years of trying to figure women out, even I learned a lot."

Drawing on a fresh national survey of 600 teen girls, as well as hundreds of personal interviews, For Young Men Only reveals the real truth about what teenage girls think, what they want, and how average teen guys can build healthy friendships with high quality girls. Full of surprising revelations and practical advice, For Young Men Only delivers help straight from the girls themselves in a fun, easy-to-read, easy-to-talk about format.

This would be a great book for parents to use as a resource for helping their young men grow up to be godly gentlemen.  For Young Men Only would also be a great book to use in a discipleship group or mentoring relationship with young men.  I look forward to using it in the future to help young men become who God desperately wants them to be!

Perry Noble Gold!!!

Perry Noble is one of the pastors who inspired me to start my own blog.  Here is a copy of his post from today!  HOME RUN in my opinion!  You can check out Perry's other posts at his site:

One of the lessons I’ve learned while being in the ministry for the past 17 years is sometimes what people say isn’t exactly true…things such as…

(WARNING…you will probably only like this post if you are a pastor or a staff member of a church!)

What They Say:  “I’m looking for a church that preaches the Word!”

What They Mean:  “I’m looking for a church that preaches MY view of the Word.  I think the BLANK translation should be used…I think BLANK should be talked about a lot while BLANK should be ignored.  And if you ever stop preaching my view of the Word I will leave and tell others that you don’t preach the Word!”

What They Say:  “Lot’s of people have been coming to me and saying they don’t like is…”

What They Mean:  “I basically only have three friends…and all of them think exactly like me.  The other night we were enjoying a time of self righteousness because, after all, we are right about everything…and were also slandering you (in the form of prayer requests) and thought it would be wise to approach you with our pet peeve.  We’ve actually talked to no one else about this but said “lots” because we wanted to validate our dysfunction.”

What They Say:  “I’m leaving the church.”

What They Mean:  “Beg me to stay.  If you will just ask me I will share with you several ways you can compromise God’s vision that He’s given you, thus becoming nothing more than a people pleasing pastor who is more interested in popularity than obedience.  If you don’t bow to my demands I will remind you that I tithe and that the church needs my money, reducing you to a mere preaching whore…one who is paid for a service for the pleasure of another person.”

What They Say:  “I want a church that is more focused on discipleship.”

What They Mean:  “I want a church where everyone knows me and how important I am!  I don’t want to reach people who are different from me, be it economic class or race or even musical preference.  I already know WAY more than I do…but I somehow equate spirituality with knowledge rather than application and I rather enjoy feeling intellectually superior to those who don’t know as much as me.”

What They Say:  “Don’t take this personally…but…”

What They Mean:  “I am about to lower the BOOM on you…but you can’t get angry because I told you not to take it personally.  Even though you have dedicated your life to this and pretty much invest every ounce of energy you have to this cause…and I think about it once or twice a week…you need to receive my attacks, even when they are personal…and you cannot retaliate because, remember, it’s not personal.”

OKAY, that was fun!  I typed it all with a smile.  Trust me…I’m not mad or frustrated with anyone…I just thought a pastor or two MIGHT get a smile out of this.  :-)

Weekend Wrap Up

• I am proudly wearing my Alabama Crimson Tide shirt today...boy, it seemed like the Tide did everything they could to keep Kentucky alive in this game...it's good to be 6-0 and even better to have a bye week!
• The Tennessee Titans offense showed up huge on the final drive of the game!  I have never liked Baltimore because of the old rivalry before the Titans moved to the AFC South division.  Thought this was going to get marked down in the loss column, but Titans are 5-0 entering the bye week.
• Every team that plays for a championship has to get a little "lucky" somewhere down the road.  Perhaps that is what both my teams experienced this weekend...here's hoping anyway!!!
• Fantasy football...Team Bobbitt should come away with another victory unless Drew Brees has a monster night throwing to a New Orleans receiver NOT named Lance Moore.  
• Maddie had to stay home from school today because of a fever.  When I got home from work, we watched High School Musical, Camp Rock, and played Wii!  It was a great time for me and hopefully I scored a few Daddy Brownie points.
• Speaking of brownies, our friend Susan made some killer brownies for small group last night.
• Speaking of small group, we had some incredible God-focused discussion about how the Lord is growing each of us as disciples, which was the focus of the message at church.
• Speaking of church, we had one of the most amazing openings that I have ever witnessed in a church service yesterday!  We had the lights out and used glow sticks.  Yes, this was "big church" not a youth service.  Yes, it was awesome.  Alan, our worship pastor, had a great setup about how our light for Christ cannot truly shine until we have experience personal brokenness.  Great stuff!!!
• God has been preparing me for a time of fasting and today is the first step in the journey.  This will be a 20 day fast, so I would appreciate your prayers over the next three weeks.
• God is doing some wonderful things in my heart right now, even when He keeps throwing me curve balls! 
• It's the unexpected twists in the journey that make us appreciate the fact that God is in control!
• In case you didn't know, I think the people in my small group are amazing!  Thanks again for opening your hearts and mouths last night!
• I am going to read the book of James and both letters to the Thessalonians right now!

Day Off Thoughts

• It has been a few weeks since I had a day off where nothing was going on, but I am glad that I am in the middle of enjoying one today
• It started off early though--5 AM and I was wide awake--by 5:07 AM the coffee pot was brewing a fresh batch of Kenya
• I made cinnamon rolls for Alison and Maddie this morning before they went off to school
• I am playing fantasy football but came to the party late, which means that I got some else's team, but after a trade and couple of free agent acquisitions, Team Bobbitt is full steam ahead--I won my first week, barely
• How about my Titans and Crimson Tide???  The Tide should roll again handily this weekend.  The Titans will have a little more on their plates this weekend with a strong Ravens defense in Baltimore, but the Titans front four should put a beating on Joe Flacco.
• Speaking of beating, you did see the first half of Bama-Georgia last week, right???
• Knowshon Moreno changed his name to "No show" after the game!!!
• My family watched the entire VP debate last night...politics aside, I found both Sen. Biden and Gov. Palin to be very likable as people!
• My brother-in-law is already mourning the Cubbies latest debacle of a post-season!
• I shared my testimony at church on Wednesday night a week ago--every time I have the opportunity to share where God brought me from, it reminds me of how amazing my spiritual journey has been.
• And I continue to believe that the best is still to come!!!
• Haven't been to the movies in a while, but was very happy to see that "Iron Man" was in the Red Box at Walmart an hour ago...so we are going to have movie night and KFC this evening.
• I have to start working on my Christmas list.  Part of my discipline in doing that today was renting Iron Man in the dollar box instead of buying it.  This showed good restraint on my end so that someone in my family can buy this for me instead of me buying it for me! 
• I have four books to read and review for the blog...one has been a very enjoyable surprise that I look forward to sharing with you next week.
• Hope you have a great Friday!

My Favorite Quotation Right Now

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

My Blogging Silence is Over!!!

I have lifted my self-imposed blogging ban.  There were so many times during the last two weeks that I thought "I need to blog about that" and realized that I was on hiatus from the blog world.  The break was good for me because I was able to remember why I blog in the first place:

I ENJOY IT!

I am a communicator by nature.  I am very passionate about sharing my thoughts and ideas and my hope is that people can actually tune into this blog and have it add a little value or levity to their day.  I am a preacher as well and right now nolanbobbitt.com is my primary pulpit. 

The other reason I blog is to record my personal life journey.  I have tried so many times to keep a journal and it is difficult for me to do for some reason...not blogging, blogging comes easy for me. 

By the way, I have been keeping a running list of things I want  to blog about over the last few weeks.  Those blanks will start to be filled in over the next few days.  Work has been a little crazy for me recently so I am planning on doing some serious writing and actually putting together a little "blogging agenda" so that I hit all the topics on my list.

In the words of George Kostanza, "I'm Back, Baby."  And it feels good!