Today is the beginning of the rest of your life.

This morning I woke with the ever to familiar disheartening feeling that the world is going to end. Daily I worry, even if for only a few minutes, that something terrible is going to happen and civilization and the world as we know it will be no more. Some days its the threat of nuclear war and other days, more humorously its the zombie apocalypse. But regardless I find myself worrying. I have noticed a lot of doubt in my life as of late and real fear of death has set in. This is a subject that I am not entirely comfortable talking about and nor is it something I want to think of for more than a few seconds, since the feeling I get is intense more than a few seconds of it makes me sick. The thoughts happen every where. I live about 5 miles from the San Antonio airport and my apartment gets a lot of air traffic. In fact my patio window, while giving a beautiful view of the back of a Wal-Mart, is perfect for watching planes coming and going. When I watch them its almost like I am waiting for them to crash. I don't really understand these things. Life just ends, sometimes faster than it begins and we rarely have any control of it. We can attempt many things to try to extend our lives but our time will come.
This is where the warm fuzzy live life to the fullest message should be inserted...
SORRY FOLKS!
Im not there yet. I don't think I can begin to feel that way until I get over the looming death and destruction of life.
THE END

Doubtful of a Purpose

Daily I struggle with a constant almost looming idea that there is no purpose for us to be alive. We live a life of work and then we die, and in all that we try to think of things that will make us feel better about the end. I have an enormous religious back ground and I can't seem to understand why it doesn't seem real to me anymore. I have lost my faith.

Time is something that we talk about all the...well, Time. We can’t go through the day without wondering “What time is it?”, “Where has the time gone?”, or maybe “Am I on time?” We focus so much on time that is causes stress in our lives. Time is something we can never control. It will continue pass by no matter how well we manage it or attempt to slow it down. Today a friend of mine asked me if I was going to attend my 10 year high school reunion next year. I hesitated for a second and couldn’t believe it had already been 10 years. Throughout our time here we go through different seasons. When we are young we go to school and live the life of a child. Once that has ended we move on to the next season. For some its college, and for some its work and for others it’s a mixture. Then for most there is a long season that is life. A career and a family are usually the product of this and it flies by as your family grows and grows up. Life continues on from this point and time continues to pass. Albert Einstein once said “The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” If life happened all at once we would we would miss out on so much. In Ecclesiastes the writer tells us there is a time for everything. “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.”

Throughout life we experience such a complex mix of emotions that all come and go during different seasons of life but those emotions make life what it is. Everything has its time. At the end of this month I will be leaving Covenant. The next season of my life is about to begin and I will be moving to San Antonio Texas. I want everyone at Covenant to know that I have enjoyed the last 2 years serving as youth pastor. I have been very blessed by the relationships that I have built here and I hope that they will be lasting ones. I appreciate the opportunity to work with your students and many of you. Once someone told me that, “Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.” Thank you so much for your TIME Covenant. I have been blessed more than I have words for. It really is true, “Time flies when you are having fun. Thank you all for everything.

In Christ,

Matt Walker

NEW PHOTOS

Hello Blog followers! Please check out the wedding photos over at www.mattwalkerphotography.blogspot.com

Take me out to the....Thunderstorm?

My favorite Minor League Baseball team is the Corpus Christi Hooks, and for good reason, my girlfriend is from Corpus Christi. Personally I don’t really follow Minor League sports and for that matter neither does she, but whenever I am visiting her and the Hooks are in town we go to a game. On the Southwest side of San Antonio, far away from the Riverwalk and the Alamo in a very undesirable part of the city, sits Nelson W. Wolff Stadium. Wolff is your average AAA ballpark, very simple and very small only seating 4 or 5 thousand. Most of the South side of San Antonio is very flat and you can see for what seems like miles. As we began to sing “Take me out to the ballgame” during the 7th inning stretch I noticed lightening far off in the distance. As more lightening flashed through the sky I noticed that the wind was beginning to pick up. In every direction I could see flashes in the sky that looked like outstretched fingers reaching but for only a second and then they were gone. The wind was stronger now; my program and empty soda cup were both blown off the top of the dugout that I had used as a tabletop. I was so caught up in the commotion I forgot the game was still going on. I couldn’t believe we were all still sitting there watching the game as if nothing was happening around us. I’m not one to worry about storms since I was raised in Alabama but I was beginning to grow a little concerned. As the storm grew even closer the game entered the 9th inning. The flags on the center field wall were whipping so hard from the wind I thought they were about to be torn off and blown away. Unfortunately the Hooks went 3 up 3 down and the Home team was up to bat. The storm was right on top of us. With lightening and thunder all around us the game continued. We began to head for the car when we heard it. A crack so loud it could have been thunder, but it wasn’t, it was a bat. The batter for the San Antonio Missions hit a walk off homerun to end the game with a score of 1-0. Just as he rounded the bases and headed to home plate the bottom fell out.
I know we can all relate to this. I’m not one for sports metaphors but we have all been in situations like that. Life can be difficult sometimes. Storms rage all around us and it seems like there is more pressure than we can handle. I know that batter must have felt enormous pressure. My mother always quotes this passage from Proverbs, “Trust in the LORD with all you heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” My prayer this week is that we begin to trust God through the storms in our lives and know when everything is crashing in around us he is there and he can be our strength through it until the end.

www.mattwalkerphotography.blogspot.com

Please go check out the new photos at www.mattwalkerphotography.blogspot.com

Jesus 4 Sale

As I flipped through the some 500 channels, that digital cable offers, I noticed that 3:00 A.M. had come and gone. “How could that infomercial have been 2 hours long?” Honestly you have to love the story line of the infomercial for the Magic Bullet. Mimi and Mack, a young couple, invite some friends over for breakfast. They are all hanging out in the kitchen, which for some reason has a live studio audience and looks a lot like a T.V. studio. Several of their friends come in including my personal favorite Hazel. Hazel was decked out in a colorful house dress, a pair of 50’s style glasses, and a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. For some reason Mimi and Mick are surprisingly perky, I suppose it may have something to do with the studio audience in their kitchen. They go on to entertain this small group of friends with the magical wonders of the tiny, bullet-shaped food processor so eloquently named The Magic Bullet. While Hazel and the rest of their guests look on in amazement, the Magic Bullet whips up smoothies, grinds coffee, scrambles omelets, and so much more! Sounds to good to be true, but millions of people called in and willingly read off their credit card numbers so they could receive this wonderful culinary creation. I did a little research and in the first year, The Magic Bullet made of a quarter of a billion dollars. This particular infomercial has been translated into dozens of languages and has been sold in 60 different countries. I can’t believe that I spent so much time watching this infomercial, and I also can’t believe I could remember it so well. I was so captivated by the terrible acting and cheaply made miniature food processor, that I lost all track of time. We have all been there, watching T.V. late at night and being overwhelmed by these amazing products. The Flowbee, the Thigh Master, or even Ronco GHL formula #9 spray on hair have kept people just like me up all night in awe and wonderment. When was the last time you were lost in the awe and wonderment of your Savior. Paul writes this in Colossians, “I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself. In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Jesus doesn’t have to try and sell me a product or make a flashy infomercial. His life, death, and resurrection are so amazing and so awesome, that it is a mystery to me why I don’t spend more time captivated by Him. Jesus came to Earth and completely changed it forever without selling a thing. I pray that this week we spend more time in awe of our great Savior as we continue to celebrate his resurrection.
In Christ,
Matt Walker