My God, My Stories: A Devotional Book Based on My Everyday Activity

By Greg Woolard

Vince Lombardi Jr. said, Gentlemen, we will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence. And in Philippians 2:5, Paul tells us that we should be like-minded with Christ. We know that we can never attain the same mindset as Christ, but that does not stop us from pursuing it.

In My God, My Stories, author Greg Woolard shares a collection of devotions that have helped him get one step closer to the mindset of Christ. He takes you from the mountains of Colorado to the coastal marshes of Georgia, and from jogging in his neighborhood to coaching a championship baseball team of ten-year-olds. In his devotions he relates his everyday life to the Word of God, and My God, My Stories can offer you an enjoyable way to see how God is there in your own life as well.

With God having a role in our lives 24/7, we should acknowledge his presence throughout the day. By sharing in Gregs devotions and reflecting on your own everyday activities, you too can expand your daily vision of God and acknowledge him a little more often, continually pursuing the mindset of Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Aug 13, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973635840

Greg Woolard

Greg Woolard is an average guy who puts God in the middle of his normal day-to-day activities, and he has spent all his life working, coaching, exercising, hunting, fishing, and raising his family. He believes that God has a hand in all aspects of his life, and he desires to share his love for God with you in My God, My Stories.

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to my family. To my wife Angie. I could not have accomplished this book without your support and guidance. You are my best friend and partner, with whom I am madly in love with. Thank you so much.

To my son Jake, who is our only child by the grace of God. Mixed in among 7 miscarriages, God fingered you to survive. The love we have for you cannot be explained. Thank you for being a great son. I love you.

Greg

My

God,

My

Stories

A Devotional Book Based on

My Everyday Activity

GREG WOOLARD

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Copyright © 2018 Greg Woolard

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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ISBN: 978-1-9736-3585-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-3586-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-3584-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018909251

WestBow Press rev. date: 08/09/2018

Contents

A Filthy Rag

A Great Day

Acknowledging God

Admiring God’s Creations

Adversity

Almost Perfect

Answered Prayer

Anxiety

Be Still

Being the True You

Being Content

Being Late but Not Too Late

Buying Happiness

Chasing Perfection

Choosing Wisely

Christians Are like Champions

Coincidence or Blessing

Consequences

Disappointed

Dogs

Doing God’s Work

Don’t Pray to Win

Easy Come

End of Life

Entitlement

First Cool Morning

Follow the Path—Then What?

Fruit of the Spirit

Fruit of the Spirit

Fruit of the Spirit

Fruit of the Spirit

Fruit of the Spirit

Full Moon

God Needs Us All

Godly Men

God’s Reality, Not Our Perception

The Encounter

The Easy One

Gravel Bar

Support Mode

Bears Can Eat You

Going Home

Got Him off My Back Today

He Is on My Back

He Missed

Help

Hope

I Lifted Two Thousand Pounds

If You Believe

Inner Peace

It Was Cold

It’s Here

Just Believe

Just Wow

Jinxed

Kansas Winds

Leaders

Left Behind

Let Jesus Be Your Conscience

Let’s Go Fishing

Losing My Mind

Maintaining

Memorial Day

Missed Opportunity

Mountaintop

My Log

New Christians

No Praise for the King

No Vision

Obstacles

One Red Shirt

Our Journey

Our World, What a Mess

Out like a Lamb

Peaks and Valleys

Piled Him Up!

Platforms

Powerball

Praise for Mosquitoes

Problems

Riding on Slack Tires

River Bottom Full

Same Story, Different Day

She Got the Finger

Stepping Up

Sunrise

Talents or Courage

The Big Bang

The Business Approach

The Dark

The Decoy

The Devil’s Lurking

The Easter Bunny

The Hippo Drop

The Lord Was in Kansas

The Pine Seed

The Red Fox

The Road Less Traveled

Setting Up Is Half the Battle

The Teacher

The Tebow Effect

The Wind

The Wrong Way

Troubles

Washed Away the Blood

We Lost Baby Jesus

We Shall Never Forget

Welcome Home

What Is Time?

What’s More Important?

What’s the Point?

Wind

You Never Know

A Filthy Rag

I sat in almost total darkness as the gobbler sang his song. Usually toms don’t gobble this early, but an owl had tripped his trigger, and he was a little perturbed this morning. I was in the Ohoopee River bottom on this particular morning, and the river was flooded from recent rains. A flooded river adds different dimensions to turkey hunting—some good and some bad. It wasn’t long before I heard a hen yelp very close to the roosted tom, and knowing he had a chick, well, this fact made it much harder to get and keep his attention.

A few minutes later, I heard one fly down, and then the other followed. They pitched onto an island in the opposite direction from where I had hoped they would go. Decision time was once again in my lap. I had my hip waders on because I knew this might be an option. I slipped over to the bank of the river, which was higher in elevation than the rest of the bottom, and immediately started wading water. I had about seventy-five yards of flooded river bottom to traverse before I would arrive at the island, where I’d find my bird.

The trip started out pretty well, but as I got farther into the water, it started getting pretty deep. I was more focused on getting to the island and not spooking the tom than on the depth of the water. My focus instantly changed when I stepped in a stump hole. Nothing gets your attention like cold river water flowing over the top of your hip waders. For a second it took my breath, and then I realized my phone was in my left side pocket.

I panicked while trying to get it out; I had a LifeProof case, but the button on the side had been worn off. I retrieved it just in time to see the phone go berserk and die a slow death. I had lost my phone, and I was soaking wet.

Getting wet while trying to get to a turkey is kind of like sin. Once you are covered in water or sin, what is the downside to continuing? The hard part was over. The only thing the river could do to me now was get deeper—and it did. Before I reached the island, I got wet up to my belly. I saw the gobbler for one brief moment in this adventure. When I reached the island, he had quit gobbling and moved on. I sat there for an hour, but nothing happened. One important note for those of you who have never done this but are thinking about it: the water is always colder on the way out.

Doesn’t one act of sin often create more sin? And that leads to even more. Then you look around, and you are waist deep in it and think, Well, I am already wet up to my waist. I might as well keep going. When you come out on the other side, you are a filthy rag covered with dirty sin. The difference is, in my turkey hunt, I had only one option. I had to go back the way I came and experience everything I had gone through an hour before. Being a Christian, we don’t have to go back. We have the luxury of being wiped clean and handed a washcloth and towel, if you will, when we ask God for forgiveness of that sinful journey we were just on. Wash me thoroughly from mine inequity, and cleanse me from my sin (Psalm 51:2).

I will be honest with you; I didn’t want to walk through that cold river water again. If I had killed the bird, the trip would have been different, but I hadn’t. How often do we get in a dark place with sin and think there’s no way out? But there is always a way out. Forgiveness is a beautiful thing, and it’s extended to everyone—no matter how dirty you are and no matter how deep in sin you’ve been. You don’t need to take another step without forgiveness. Are you forgiven today? Forgiveness is in your grasp; all you need to do is believe and ask.

God’s blessings,

Greg

Philippians 4:11–12

A Great Day

N ot too long ago I had a great day. Although all days should be considered great because they are all the days the Lord has made, this one was a particularly great day. My day was consumed with angst over a meeting I had scheduled with an employee later that afternoon. It wasn’t going to be a pleasant meeting, and I was consumed throughout the day about how it would unfold. I spent a good part of the day praying for God to control this meeting. I prayed that it wouldn’t get ugly and that our conversations would stay civil.

My day started out with a call from the doctor. My son had experienced a pretty violent hit at the football game the Friday night before. He had taken a helmet to the chest. We had his sternum, neck, and spine x-rayed; and the doctor called to let us know nothing was cracked—only bruised. As good as that news was, I was still consumed with the meeting I had later that day.

During the early afternoon before my meeting, I received a text from my college roommate. He had been fighting throat cancer for six months, and this day was the day he had his first scan after completing treatment eight weeks before. The text said he was 99 percent clean. This was awesome news, and I shared with him how great it was—but I quickly started worrying about my meeting again.

Then my meeting came. I had prayed for the Lord to take control of it—and he did. The meeting went as well as it could have, and what a relief that was. Why had I been worried? I had asked God to handle the meeting but lacked the faith that he would. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours (Mark 11:24).

Then at six o’clock that evening, I received the best news of all. I got a phone call that my friend Donnie Rader had passed away. How is this good news? you ask. Donnie had been suffering for nine years with ALS. He had been communicating through blinking his eyelids. That is the only part of his body he had been able to move. The brutal fact of this disease is that though the mind is 100 percent there, the body slowly deteriorates. I had been praying for God to heal Donnie for years, and he finally did. The pastor shared the story of the four friends who couldn’t get their paralyzed friend to Jesus, so they climbed onto the roof and lowered him down through a hole. When Jesus saw their faith, he forgave the man of his sins and told him to get up, take his mat, and go home. Jesus had finally told Donnie to get up, take his mat, and come home—and what a blessing it was.

I didn’t realize what a great day I had experienced until I lay in bed that night. I think God slapped me across my forehead and said, Look at what I have done for you today! Then it came to me that God had done all this for me. How terrible it was that I hadn’t recognized this fact sooner. I thanked him over and over for such a great day, and then I drifted off to sleep. I’m so shortsighted when it comes to recognizing his blessings, but I try every day to get better. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work (2 Corinthians 9:8).

Enough said!

God’s blessings,

Greg

Philippians 4:11–12

Acknowledging God

H ow many times a day do you acknowledge God? I’m talking about taking a pause and acknowledging him for whatever is on your mind at the time. Yesterday I counted how many times I did this. That number was five. Six years ago that number would have been zero. This is something I try to work on, because the more I think about God, the better my day will be—and most important, the better I will make the day for others. Now I’m not including saying the blessing. I’m asking, Through the normal activities of your day, how often do you pause and acknowledge God?

Even though my number the other day was five, I think my consistent number is more like one or two. I struggle with this area. At the beginning of the day, my intentions are good, but no one has ever entered the pearly gates with good intentions. Here is the deal: Our days are very busy, but they are busy because they are a product of our decisions. Don’t think the devil isn’t involved in our busy days. He is well aware of our schedules, and the more he can keep us busy, the less time we will have to acknowledge God.

My wife Angie, my son Jake, and I came off a whirlwind of travel. There was some work, and we went to our convention, and I had several meetings in Atlanta. There was also some play—we went to the beach for vacation. We spent some nights out for personal desires. Jake wanted to play college baseball, so we are hitting every camp and tournament we could find. I slept in my bed four nights out of the last twenty-six. All these trips were necessary to fulfill our responsibilities or to satisfy our desires. Necessary and desires shouldn’t be used in the same sentence, but don’t we all try to convince ourselves that our desires are necessary? My point is, we fill our days with things we deem important. God doesn’t have a problem with us fulfilling our obligations or pursuing our desires. However, he does have an issue with being put on the back burner as we try to achieve these objectives.

Deuteronomy 5:7 says, You shall have no other gods before me. Don’t be fooled by the word gods. It’s not just referring to a supreme being. Money can be your god. Baseball can be your god. Anything you put ahead of your worship with God is your god. He doesn’t command all our time, but he does require our attention, and we owe him some acknowledgment every day. So tomorrow try to count how many times you stop and give him thanks for whatever is on your mind. Remember, no matter where you are, God has already been there. Talk to him.

God’s blessings,

Greg

Philippians 4:11–12

Admiring God’s Creations

T his past December I was on my annual bowhunt in Louisiana. I had tagged out on a marginal nine point (got caught up in the moment) and was doing a little doe thinning. I had told my friend or guide to put me in a stand close to the river. I wanted to get down about an hour before pickup time and go sit on the bank of the Mississippi, drink my coffee, and eat snickerdoodle cookies. So at about nine thirty that morning I did just that. There was a small bluff where I was, so I found a deer trail that slid down through a washout in the bluff. I got down to the bank and sat on a large piece of driftwood.

I poured my coffee and reached in my bag for a cookie. I thought, Life is pretty good. Forty degrees and sunshine. My mind started to drift away to a time long ago. What had this river looked like two hundred or four hundred years ago? What do you think the first settlers thought when they looked at the river for the first time? I sat there in awe of his masterful creation, the Mississippi River. How often do we appreciate the wonders God has created?

This past weekend I went fishing with my friend Lang Rogers. We caught a good mess of bluegill and bream. Some of them were as big as they grow, but while we were fishing, I noticed a cypress tree that must have been two hundred to three hundred years old. What a magnificent tree this was. God’s creations are all around us. We should open our hearts and minds, and take them all in. Give God the credit he deserves.

Amos 4:13 says, He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind, and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth—the Lord God Almighty is his name. Take a moment each day and say, Wow, God, what an awesome ______ you have created. You fill in the blank.

God’s blessings,

Greg

Philippians 4: 11-12

Adversity

B ack in high school, one of our wintertime hobbies was setting catfish lines in the river when it was flooded. My brother Mac, Craig Threlkeld, Bine Tickle, and I normally headed down after dark because one or all of us were playing a sport. We put our boats in the flooded river swamp and traveled through the woods to a cabin the water flowed under. This was our home base for the next day or two.

On this particular night, it was about midnight before we got down there because one of us had a game. There were two water routes to take to get to the cabin. One path was down an old road, which was flooded. Even in the dark, this route was fairly easy to follow. The other was down through the woods for a distance of about a mile, maybe less. This was the shortest route, but in the dark, it was much harder to follow. Craig and I decided to take the flooded road, and Mac and Bine decided to take the woods route. I think they thought they were superior woodsmen or something. We told them that if they got lost, they should just shoot the gun up in the air a couple of times, and we would rescue them.

Making it to the cabin took Craig and me about thirty minutes, and sure enough, when we got there, no one was there. We unloaded the boat and sat there, waiting for our compadres. When you are that deep in the river swamp, it’s very peaceful and quiet. It was so quiet that we could hear their boat motor off in the distance, and we could tell they were lost. It would go in one direction for a while, and then it would go in another direction for a while, but it never got any closer to the cabin.

Yes, we could have easily gone in there, found them, and led them back to the cabin, but what fun would that have been? We weren’t going to rescue them until they admitted defeat. Craig and I sat on the porch, enjoying our midnight conversation while listening to our brothers struggle to find their way out.

Sure enough, after a short period, we heard two shots ring out through the night silence. We performed our rescue mission and, without any more adversities, brought them back to the cabin.

Second Corinthians 12:10 says, "That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.