8 Points for the Fat Kid

 By this point in the week we are heading straight into the mid-week hump and I have to say, I wish we were already at the weeks end. Since my son was born my wife and I rarely do anything outside of the home. Marcus (our son) heads to bed around seven o'clock and Renee and I get to work doing dishes, cleaning the house, and watching “Biggest Loser” while eating popcorn. I know, eating while watching a weight loss show seems pretty cliche, but that is exactly what we do almost every week.

I have recently been reading a book which talks about viewing life as a story and I have to say it is hard to do. I was thinking about the story I have been living thus far in my life. I came to the realization that I have been living a small story. A boring story. A story that would put people to sleep if it were ever to be put into film or book.

I struggle with an immense fear of people, conversation, and failure. Once when I was ten years old I started my own lawn mowing service called “Sutter's Lawn Service”. I hung fliers around a few towns in our area with the little pull off tabs with my phone number on them and waited for someone to call. It took a few weeks but I finally got a call back. I remember that phone call like it was yesterday. My mom answered and called me to the phone and whispered to me that it was someone wanting me to mow their lawn. I took the phone into my shaking hands and put it up to my ear and said, “hellee, Helli, uh!, Hello?” I felt like the stupidest kid in the neighborhood. From that point on I hated talking on the phone and still do to this day.

There were a few years in there where I actually lived in fear of having to answer the telephone and speak with the person on the other end. My fear of phone calls translated and shifted into a fear of people. I wouldn't look people in the eye when in a conversation and rarely started one.

Looking back I can see that my fear kept me from living a larger story. My fear held me captive for far too long. Now, ironically I work in customer service at a retail store. Let's just say I had to face my fear of people head on.

Before reading this book I had not given much thought to what kind of story I was living. I was just living life, or so I thought. I'm the type of person who tries to live in the here and now, not the future. However, I do sometimes find myself living in the past. When I was in high school I played basketball on a home school team. I wasn't very good and spent most of my short lived career sitting on the bench. I was heavy set and short in stature, not a good combination for the sport of basketball, but I loved to play the game. It seems strange, but sometimes I find myself thinking back to a basketball tournament where I I scored eight point in the matter of five minutes. A career first (and last).. When I think about that time in my life I have to smile because I was such a dork.

My story at this point does have all the elements it needs to be a great story according to Donald Miller author of “A Millions Miles in a Thousand Years”. He says the best stories involve “a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it”. It is true isn't it? All the great epics portray someone overcoming immense odds to, like Frodo in the epic book and movie trilogy Lord of the Rings, getting the ring to the Mountain of Doom or like Rudy getting the hell beaten outta him by college football players.

I haven't ever faced Orcs or gotten my back side handed to me by a seven foot tall human battering ram, but I have been through my share of life conflict. I don't want to go into my past here but if you read some of my previous blogs you will discover some of the “poo” I have been through.

I'm still not quite sure what I am trying to “get” yet, but I know that it involves my family. My family is my world. I get up everyday, go to work, come back home, and do it all over again the next day for my family.

I used to think that the one thing I was trying to become was a world famous worship leader who would lead thousands of people in worship in stadiums across the country. I would travel all around the world on tour with Chris Tomlin and Louie Giglio. However, as I said in one of my recent posts I got wrapped up in leading worship at my church and kind of forgot about my family. I spent way too much time working and much too little time with my wife and son.

Stepping down as worship leader was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make. It wasn't just because I love music or that I loved the people that I was leading, but more because I had to let go of the dream. I had to lay down what I thought was important to be a better father, husband, and servant. I got distracted by a smaller side story. I took my eyes off of the real story, which I'm still not clear on, and began to focus on the side plot. Being a world famous worship leader is a smaller story. Being a good father and husband, now that is a story that I want to get wrapped up in.

So what kind of story are you living? Are you lost in the side story, back story, or the special affects? They are all things to distract us from the real story. I can't tell you what your story is, nor can you tell me mine. God has a story for each of us to live, we just have to hit the play button. So... what are you waiting for? To quote from the movie “Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, “Your journey begins now!”

If You Like Sutter Home Whine...

You'll love "No More Fluff". No More Fluff is a weekly devotional blog that I have started because I have never read a devotional book that wasn't complete fluff. I try to read a devotional for a few days but I cannot ever bring myself to finish one because they are all about lolly pops and sun flowers (if you get my drift). I know I need something real. Something that isn't going to always sound like Joel Osteen. If you feel the same way follow No More Fluff and get a little more out of your devotional. Simply click on the link and then follow the blog. http://nomorefluffdevo.blogspot.com/ 

Welcome to the Party

The word of God (The Bible) is such a powerful learning tool when we read it within its historical context. For so many years I have read the Bible, or parts of the Bible anyway, and read it for what was written on the page. While this is a good thing to do, there is something so much more powerful about reading the Bible through the eyes of the people who would have received it 2000, 3000, or however many thousands of years ago.
For the last few weeks our pastor has been speaking through the book of Galatians. I have just recently read through this short book myself, but I certainly didn't come up with the same line of thinking that our pastor has brought out. This is the passage that we were focusing on today.
"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-". Stop here for a moment. Paul is talking to the Jewish Christians in this passage when he is writing here. "not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ." (Galatians 1:6) Here Paul is not talking about the David Koreshes or Harold Campings of the world. He is talking about the early Church, the Christians who could have quite possibly walked and talked with Jesus and saw some of the miracles He had done. Those are the people Paul is talking to in this passage. Not that it doesn't have application for us today, but it is specifically written to the Galatians.
"But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed." (Galatians 1:8-9)
This is quite the statement isn't it? Let anyone who preachers something that is contrary to the gospel be cursed. Paul is one dude you do not want to mess around with. Paul has always seemed like the kind of guy that isn't afraid to speak his mind and tell it like it really is and I think, rather, I know that his mindset is not on earthly things, but on eternity. Let's read on and I will get to my point. Jump ahead to chapter 2.
^{11 "}But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. ¹² For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.^[a] 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. ¹⁴ But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
Do you see what just happened in this passage? The Jewish Christians in Galatia were basically saying to the Gentile Christians in Galatia that they needed to be circumcised in order to be a "real" follower of Jesus. But Paul calls Cephas out on it and tells him and his friends at the circumcision party (I hope you caught that) that they are not in step with the Gospel. Thus I come to my point.
For my entire life I have lived with the thought that it is the Gospel plus something. The Gospel + dressing up when I go to Church, the Gospel + doing daily devotions, the Gospel + being at the church every time the doors are open. But the truth is, there is no Gospel +. There can't be the Gospel + because that would mean that Jesus death, burial, and resurrection were not enough. That Jesus death, burial, and resurrection almost got the job done, but not quite, because to be a Christian you have to __________.
I have missed this scriptural truth for so long. How could I have missed this? There is nothing more than the Gospel. It is just the Gospel. There is nothing else that needs to be done. IT IS FINISHED. The work of Jesus Christ on the cross finished it. The blood of the passover lamb was shed for the last time to cover our sins. We no longer have to continue the same routine of the Gospel + because we are free. Do you get this, we are really free from the burden of sin. The debt has been paid. There is nothing anyone can do to make God love you more than he already does and there is nothing you could ever do to make Him love you less. The transaction for the payment of our sin is finished, we don't need any cash back, and God used the little magnetic pen to push yes when the credit card reader asked "is this amount ok?" "Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, but He washed it white as snow". What an amazing truth. We are free.

Happy New Year

Well, the Sutter household is starting the new year out with exciting and yet nerve wracking news. No we are not expecting a baby.
This spring I am starting school again with a one semester class to become a Certified Phlebotomy Technician. I am excited about starting school again, but I am also nervous because it means that I will have to talk with my current employer about leaving. I am worried about this because there is no one to step into my position and no one coming up to train. We have had to run on such a short staff that if one person leaves the whole thing will fall apart. Its like a house of cards and this is one of the reason I am pursuing a new line of work. I can't just stand back and watch the economy destroy the business I work for. I refuse to close my eyes and pretend like the store will be ok. I can see that there isn't going to be any recovery from where we stand right now.
All of that being said, I am so excited to start in healthcare. It is a much more stable field to work in, especially in our area. We bought a house less than a block from a hospital and there are three other hospitals within a ten mile radius. Not to mention the hundreds of clinics, labs, and doctors offices that are located all around us. As I said in an earlier blog my goal is to head into nursing, but Renee and I have decided to start off slow with the education to make sure that I am a good fit for the healthcare system and that I will enjoy the work.
We are so blessed to be in a position to be able to take these steps now in our lives. We have always worked hard at everything we do and have tried to do our very best for our employers and for that we have been blessed with great jobs.
Our hope for the new year is that we can continue to work hard to advance our careers but also that we can have more time to spend together and enjoy life.
So from our house to yours, have a happy new year. 

Bell's Palsy Day 14 (week 2) Helpful Hints

A Day in the Life of Someone With Bell's Palsy

Today I was thinking back to before I was diagnosed with BP (Bell's palsy). Life was easy to be certain. Everyday living is so different right now for me. This is a day in my life with Bell's palsy.

Everyday just like before I wake up at 5:30 am and get myself ready for work. I pull myself out of bed after being so rudely awakened by my God forsaken alarm clock. I drag myself to the kitchen to start the coffee pot.

Once back in the bathroom, this is where the "fun" begins. I start by trying to shave. This is probably the hardest part of my morning. What I once was able to do by moving the muscles in my face I now have to do with my hands. One of the hardest things about shaving is try to relax the good side of my face enough to be able to shave it without hacking it up.

After shaving I move on to the shower. The shower isn't too bad if you like getting soap and water in your eye that doesn't close completely. While washing my face and hair I do my best to use one of my hands to hold my eye closed while I wash with the other. Before BP I used to love taking a shower. I would spend half my morning in the shower, now, I basically try to get in and get out.

So at this point I have shaved and cut my face in three different places, and shower which now has made my one eye blurry and painful. At this point the back of my head in throbbing from a painful nerve.

After a few minutes I can finally see again and I continue my morning routine. After finishing in the bathroom I move back to the kitchen to make my breakfast of two fried eggs and two pieces of toast. Nothing hard about that other than I can only see out of one eye because the other one is watering so bad it looks like I am crying.

After breakfast I pack my lunch and head to work. I always hope for a cloudy morning when I head to work. Have you ever tried to drive into the sun when your eyes are watering. Yeah, not a good idea, basically because there isn't so much seeing go on when your eyes are watering. When the sun is shining I have to wear sunglasses otherwise I can't see. I remember going to church last weekend I when we were going out to the car I had to hold someones hand because I couldn't see enough to find the car.

Finally at work I deal with my watering eye all day long which also basically rubs my eyelid raw because of always wiping my eye. I use eye drops a few time a day to make sure that my eye doesn't dry out. By mid morning of work my jaw feels like it is going to kill me from talking to much. I have to communicate with the customers, but it really takes a toll on my jaw.

Leaving work I deal again with the watery eyes which by the end of the day has given me a wonderful headache. The nerves on the back of my head are screaming at me by this point. My evening continues with dinner which Renee usually creates. Eating after a day of overusing my already sore jaw makes eat very painful.

The rest of my evening is spent trying not to talk and trying to rest up to do all of this again tomorrow.

And that is a day in the life of a person with BP.

Bell's Palsy Day 7 (1 Week)

Bell's Palsy Day 4

This is Where We Are

Hey everyone, I know it has been a very long time since I have written a post for you, but the Sutter family has been extremely busy this summer. To bring everyone up to speed on what we have been up to I will backtrack a few months.

June:
In June Renee and I met with my parents (Jim and Mary Sutter) and we became marketing executives for Melaleuca The Wellness Company. We have been working to build our business and we aren't doing to bad with it. So far we have made just over $50 with the company. I know that seems low, but if you consider that we spend only a few hours a month on it, we aren't doing too bad. I was also promoted to store manager at Gift and Bible Center in Lansing, MI.

July:
The month of July was a much busier month for us. We signed up our first customer with Melaleuca and we also purchased our first home. Up until this point we have always rented. We just didn't have the money to purchase a home, but with Renee getting a raise from her job and me getting a raise from my promotion we were able to save just enough to purchase a really nice home in downtown Lansing. We love owning our own home. I (Aaron) have already started working on a few things that needed fixing around the house. My friend James and I worked on getting some doors to latch, and I have been working on resealing the glass panes in our wooden windows on the first floor. I love being able to do whatever I want to the house. If I want to paint a room a different color I can do it without having to ask a landlord for permission. We want to give a big thank you to all of the people that helped us move from Grand Ledge to the big city!! You all are the bomb!!
Renee and I also ran in our first ever 5k race at our church. Renee and I have both lost about the same amount of weight which is about 40 lbs each. Running is our exercise of choice.

August:
In August we enrolled another two customers to Melaleuca our friends Mike and Faith Fischer and my cousins Nathan and Rebecca Sutter. We are so excited for them to start using the best products known to man.

September:
And this brings us to the month of September; and what a month it has been so far. The first weekend in September Renee found herself in the ER with an unknown pain in her side. Nothing came of the pain, but it does seem to be gone. We are so thankful for that. The next weekend we took a family vacation to Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island. We had a wonderful time. It was a week of complete bliss and relaxation. We had been there before when Marcus was just 9 months old, but we had horrible weather and Marcus was too little to enjoy it. This time Marcus had a blast. We took our bikes up with us so we could ride around the island. We actually rode around the island twice in one day. Once when we arrived on the island and again when Marcus needed a nap. It is 8 1/2 miles around the island so you can imagine that we slept great that night.

We took Marcus to a lumber jack show while in Mackinaw City. He loved it! Ever since all he wants to be is a clain saw. We also visited a working water powered saw mill that has been fully restored. I really enjoyed that one. It was amazing to see how people figured out how to harness the power of water to power such a huge operation.

We also visited the U.S Coast Guard Ice Breaker Mackinaw Museum in Mackinaw City. When we arrived on the icebreaker we ran into a man who Renee works with at Jackson National Life who lived on the Icebreaker Mackinaw back in the 80s. I really enjoyed this museum and the history of the ice breaker.

While in Mackinaw we stayed at a campground called Mill Creak Campground. They had wonderful cabins to stay in which is what we chose to do. The only drawback was that the bed's were so hard that after the first night I had a pretty sore back and eventually needed icehot to help with the stiffness.

All of this brings us to this week. On Thursday September 12th I woke up with half of my tongue feeling numb and one side of my lips loosing some of their feeling. I didn't really think much of it. I thought maybe it had something to do with the way I slept the night before or something I ate. Thursday night after the numbness getting worse (and at the urging of Renee) I decided to go to urgent care to see what was wrong. I went in having a pretty good idea of what was wrong, but I wanted to be sure. After seeing the doctor my thoughts were confirmed, I have Bell's Palsy.

It is affecting the right side of my face. Bell's Palsy is basically nerve damage and is usually not permanent. In fact 80% of those who have Bell's Palsy make a complete recovery. So a few days into my diagnosis and there really hasn't been any change other than it seems to have gotten slightly worse. It seems that the paralysis is worse in the morning and slowly relaxes a bit as the day goes on, but when I say slightly I do mean very, very slightly, hardly noticeable in fact. I am optimistic however that I will make a full recovery. I am doing some exercises and things to stimulate the nerves on the right side of my face to help with the paralysis. I am hoping that it will be healed quickly because it is rather annoying. My right eye waters almost constantly because my eyelid doesn't completely close when I blink. I also have frequent stabbing pains in the back of my head behind my right ear. Today when we went to church it was super sunny out and I could hardly see my way into the church because I can't squint my right eye and consequently both of my eye started watering as though I was crying.

I will be tracking my progress with BP on youtube to hopefully help others who are struggling with it.
The following in the first video I did. Also I will be doing another post with pictures we took while on our vacation.

So, I hope everyone has a great day and keep our family in your prayers. God Bless

This is How the Church Should Work

Yesterday as I was leaving work I checked my email one last time and happened to see a video about a little boy with cerebral palsy who had the courage to run in a race with his classmates. I was so blessed by this home video of this amazing young man that I had to write about it, but first, here is the video I saw…

As the race got to about the half way point tears began streaming down my face. This little boy was running with all the strength on legs that didn’t seem to work right and with arms that couldn’t seem to flow in motion with his body. He struggled against the exhaustion of a mind that had the will but a body that seemed to fail him.

Then something amazing happens! Matt’s coach runs up and tries to help him along. If you listen closely to the video you can hear Matt’s mother say “Matt really looks up to his coach”. Them when all his other classmates have finished the race they gather around Matt, who is still running, and begin to cheer him on. Matt finished the race that he started with the encouragement of his friends and his coach.

After watching this video I got a picture of the way the church should work. You see, Matt is like a Christian. He started the race strong, like any Christian, but he quickly slows his pace as he starts to struggle. Our sin nature slows us down, just like cerebral palsy slows Matt down. Just like Matt who’s mind is normal, but who’s body doesn’t quite work the way it should, our minds and hearts are being transformed, but our body’s still don’t work the way they were intended too.

However, here is the cool part; God is like Matt’s coach. He comes up alongside of us and encourages us. God tells us over and over again that we can do it. That we are doing great, “you’re almost there”. Then, if the church is working the way it should, its people filter in behind and around God (the coach) and surround the one who is struggling and they all start cheering us on to help us finish the race.

What a great picture of how the church should work.

Way to go Matt; for teach us how to never give up and thank you to his classmates for teaching us how to encourage the people around us who are struggling.