Desires fulfilled and Trees of Life.

I am literally brimming with excitement this morning.

Yes, brimming.

You see, in the last 3 days I have experienced the fulfillment of no fewer than three of my childhood/teenage dreams.

Yes, I am really serious about that.  Three in three days.

Jesus is really fun and exciting like that.

We'll take them in order of occurrence.  Saturday, Sunday, and Monday timing:

-SATURDAY-
Desire fulfilled: Preaching in a church.
        You have to understand, as I type that, I am crying.  That is a desire that has been so deep in my heart, so full of passion to teach and encourage God's people - It's really hard for me to express how much life there was in me when I walked over to the little podium.

       No, I didn't preach to thousands, it was just about 15 or 20 at my parents little country church in Childress, TX where our family's ranch is....Do you know that, that didn't matter to me on Saturday night?  Christ Jesus, my Master, spoke a message to my heart for his people, and trusted me enough to steward those words right.  The Creator of the Universe, the Love of my heart, my Lord.


Proverbs 13:12 - Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire is fulfilled, it is a tree of life.


-SUNDAY-
Desire fulfilled: Shoot a really big buck on MY OWN ranch.
       Alright, I recognize that not all of you will understand this one.  You have to know, since I was a little kid, I loved cowboy and ranch things.  When I was in high school, my parents bought our ranch...I was one step closer.

       My whole family has always been bird hunters - dove, quail, pheasant.  That's cool and all, but I wanted to shoot a big deer.  I had shot little cull bucks and does before on other people's ranch to help them maintain the eco-system balance, but I had never seen a buck worth shooting on our ranch.  We were waiting for the right one and the right time.

Sunday, the time - and the buck - both came:

Here's how it happened, if you aren't the hunter (or wife of a hunter) type, feel free to skip past this paragraph.  :)  So, we drove in the "Mom Mobile" (Our diesel Mule) over to this wheat field where we had been seeing Fred the Deer.  (Yes, his name is Fred.)  It was me, Dad, and our Outfitter friend, Chad.  We pulled up and there were 10 does...no Fred.  I was slightly discouraged.  We thought he might've been shot already by our neighbors, because we hadn't seen him in a couple of days.

Dad says, "let's drive over to this one other place that I've seen him."  We drive over to the side of this little draw next to the wheat field.  I was thinking, "It's OK.  We'll come back tomorrow.  Maybe I can shoot another buck.  It's OK.  Jesus will fix it."  (Even if you don't care, you must understand, this was a momentous occasion for me.)

Fred is there across the draw(small canyon for you non-country folks) and back up towards the wheat field .  Fred and a 6-pointer friend actually.  I have Chad's .300 Winchester Short Mag.  This is basically a small cannon.  Fred appears to be 9 points (one of his antler "tines" doesn't for like it should).  Fred is also MASSIVE.  NO kidding.  He easily weighed 300 pounds, thus the need for the cannon.

Fred begins to walk down into the draw.  We lose the line of sight.  We walk quietly, excitedly, nervously toward a fence at the bottom of the draw.  We have him again.  He's turned a little toward us (not a good profile shot) so we wait.  I cannot even begin to explain to you the agony and horrible excitement that you experience at this point.  What if he runs?  What if we don't get the shot?  It's awful.

Chad says, "He's going to walk down the draw...wait for it."  I wait.  (Chad is awesome)  Fred begins to walk down the draw.  Chad again, "I'm going to stop him, you ready?"  I find Fred in my sight.  "Yea, yea," I say.  A whistle...another whistle.  Fred stops, Chad, "now, take the shot."

BOOM!

Fred is clearly hit.  He is stumbling a bit.  He is still moving.  Chad says it was a perfect shot.  (I feel 10 feet tall at that point.)  Fred is attempting to move toward the end of the draw and the big canyon (bad news), Chad tells me to, "put another in him." so we don't lose him in the canyon (all very guyish) I chamber another short mag quickly, line him up, and pull the trigger again.

Big Fred buckles.  It's over.  Turns out, both of my shots were less than two inches apart, right in the kill zone.

It was so perfect.  Then I walk up on him.  He has a front kicker.  He's a 10-point Buck, and I shot him on my ranch with my Dad.

I realize that, that doesn't strike a chord in the heart of all of you, but you must understand, that was a desire of my heart from the time I was a little kid.  God provided the ranch, the deer, the time, and the place.  It was amazing.

Proverbs 13:12 - Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire is fulfilled, it is a tree of life.

-MONDAY-

Desire Fulfilled:  Have friends like my Lone Star Marina Men.

       To say that I was short on friends through middle school and high school would be an understatement.  Describing me as unpopular would've been an understatement at times through those years.  Literally, at times all the way through high school, I was at times totally devoid of having a good guy friend.

       I literally begged God for friends, for men.  I begged God for men who I could share life with, share struggles with, share victories with, enjoy the Lord with, and enjoy everyday life with all the same.  I wanted real friends.  Not just friends that were for a certain part or piece of life, but friends that I could share all of the things that make me, me with.  Jesus, sports, food, good beer, dominoes, prayer, sin struggles, good stories, the lot.

       Monday morning at 5:30 I was praying with some of those friends.  Every Monday morning we meet in a conference call from all over the state of Texas (and one loner from Memphis, TN who needs to get his butt back here.) to pray for each other, for our marriages, for our relationships, to pray that we would endure as men who are called by the name of Jesus Christ.

       When I cried out before the Lord in my bed at 1503 S. Lamar in Amarillo, TX for all those years asking him for those type of friends, I never could've imagined a group like the Lone Star Marina.  Ben, Brad, Don, Geoff, Prothro, Daniel, Sloan, Wes, and Kyle Wood - not to mention all of the sweet women who put up with us and the many other folks who love to hang out with us.

Thank you, Jesus, for my friends.  They are truly a desire fulfilled in my life.

Proverbs 13:12 - Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire is fulfilled, it is a tree of life.




I want you to know why I wrote this blog.  It wasn't to sound like a braggart.  It wasn't to boast.  It's purpose was two fold:

One: To express my heart of thankfulness to my Sweet Love, Jesus for bringing my dreams to fruition.

Two: (And honestly the main reason.) To give YOU a three-fold testimony from my own life that Jesus gives you dreams and He will bring them to fruition.  If you will trust and follow Him, I promise you that He will always bring you a tree of life.


Whether you are waiting for your desired spouse, the desire of the right job, the desire of seeing your kids become successful, no matter what desire resides in your heart - I promise you, you have a God who loves you and longs to fulfill that desire.



John 10:10 - The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).



Yep,

A Fulfilled, Mr. Hill

The beginnings of the LSM, Tailgating, and Middle of the Night Intruders

The Hills were in College Station again this weekend to inaugurate the first Lone Star Marina tailgate in Spence park which was organized by Mr. Josh Meeh .

Now to all of our readers who have absolutely no idea what the Lone Star Marina is please let me explain.

I've gotta little story for you, Ags!

 Once upon an Aggie time there were two houses that each contained five boys where multiple adventures ensued continuously. Chris was a roommate in the Lone Star Verde. The name being inspired by the various shades of green throughout the entire house. The outside accent colors were green, the kitchen was green, the bathrooms were green, everything was green. So the house of boys took on the characteristics of the Verde - adventure happening, girl attracting, domino playing, poker gambling, ever living - ever loving queso making, Sunday afternoon "Cowgirl" watching, college boys' house. There was also another house of equal reputation and fun that was called The Marina. The Marina was named for the ridiculous number of boats that happened to hang around the house - between the boys who lived there and their crazy neighbors there were always several boats around. I also have to mention that the Marina boys could cook Giada De Laurentis and Bobby Flay right about their jobs if they had wanted. Two houses resulting in ten boys plus the several other members of this legendary group that are absolutely essential to the Lone Star Marian group [LSM] - of whom we cannot live without but did not live in either house (or lived in each house at some point. And of course what I call The Coalition of Significant Others [CSO] - the CSO consists of all the girlfriends, fiances, and wives of the Lone Star Marina boys and thus who [most obviously] complete the entire picture. So - add up all those groups of people and you get a post college group of friends who support each other, pray for each other, make fun of each other, and hang out as much as possible.

All that to say this previous weekend we had the "Inagural Aggie LSM Tailgation" as former students where the boys actually got the spot in Spence Park the night before, and we all had to find somewhere to sleep because no one lives in College Station anymore.  The next morning we piled everything we own into a truck and set up shop on campus. During college I always saw the tailgaters and did not necessarily think it was that big of a deal - ya know there are some people who have been tailgating at Aggie games for decades. I had NO IDEA that tailgating was an exact science that you almost need an apprenticeship for. No, seriously. Tailgating requires a lot of planning, group involvement, and lots of electrical creativity. Needless to say we somehow managed to set up shop, play dominoes, grill foods, and play some games - but MAN WAS IT HOT AND MUGGY. Heat and humidity is what really complicates a tailgate and where the real tailgaters are able to show their true expertise. To successfully tailgate in the heat and humidity of September College Station everything from the food to the drinks to the games to the power generation must be planned properly. I must say the LSM needs to improve in all of these areas. Thankfully we possess all the right people in order to accomplish such a task - yet until this weekend I had absolutely no idea that Tailgating is a professional sport in which the right amount of training is absolutely necessary. The old grandmothers of Aggieland definitely need to have a post college "discipleship" class for all the CSO women who have tailgating as a definite part of their future. Gracious it was HOT!

On to another story of this weekend ---- our blogger friends Evan and Julie who are also part of the LSM group shared a funny story on their blog this last week.  Julie shared what happens when the husbands leave the wives alone at night and the women are forced to combat all things scary by themselves with the proper training required for such moments. Last night an event happened in the Hill house hold which definitely related to the Prothros blog, as we had some pretty scary noises wake us up last night. Thankfully, Chris was home and in bed with me, or I would probably still be laying in bed or underneath it paralyzed with fear. After Chris and I had been asleep for several hours a really, really loud noise startled both of us so much that we both sat up straight in bed and went into defensive action before we even knew what had happened. The noise sounded like someone was breaking into the barn with a bulldozer. Chris immediately pulled out his gun and flash light and began the sweep of the upstairs first and then the downstairs. I immediately grabbed the cell phone and opened the door upstairs to see if I could hear or see any intruders outside while I texted my Dad so he could watch from the Big House. Please note that Chris and I have not stopped to even consider that we are awake in the middle of the night - we are adrenaline pumped and totally on the sleepy defensive. Chris is sweating profusely and in navy seal protection mode. We manage to conclude that no one is in the house or is trying to get in the house - relief. But we still have to look outside in the actual barn part of the barn to check on all the equipment and vehicles and make sure no one is hiding in all the thousand places they could hide out there. Chris goes out and makes me lock myself inside the house so that no one can get me while he is out there with some perpetrator by himself. We conclude again that no one is trying to kill us or steal anything - relief again. But we are still pretty riled up - when Dad comes to save the day in his Ralph Lauren pj's while carrying his massive gun and flashlight - no shirt of course. Dad does his sweep - robbers beware you will get shot and mutilated if you come on the property by a designer wearing Daddy - and we both feel much better that we are protected by Dad the navy seal. Chris and I go upstairs and get back in bed hearts still pumping. We have absolutely no idea what that sound was - I think it is some daddy deer trying to attack us - Chris rationally tells me that was not the case. As we lay there attempting to calm down Chris decides he has to take a shower before he can go back to sleep. As he gets into the shower he figure out what the noise was. His shaving mirror - which is made out of metal - had fallen down inside of the shower. The shower in the loudest thing on earth so that even when a bar of soap falls down in sounds like an atomic bomb is going off, so it was no surprise that it sounded like we were getting bulldozed from the outside in when the mirror fell.

So - I am not sure if our mirror intruder beats the Prothros gerbil intruders - but it definitely makes for a good story and an interesting night - not to mention two very tired Hills!

To the people of LSM please feel free to provide more descriptions of the LSM group and its beginnings!