From The Texas Hills - maybe this really is "God's Country"?

That's me, down by the Guadeloupe River, where I enjoyed a long talk with a good man from Fort Worth. The photographs in today's post are from my Texas trip this weekend. I'll try to include a smattering of the best this week - so long as they support what I'm writing about - DEREK

Monday morning. Good to be home. It's always good to be home! But, I did enjoy another inspiring and encouraging weekend away; this time in Texas.

The more I travel, and the more I enjoy the opportunity to talk with other people about their lives as God's children, working out what it means to be faithful disciples in all the details of life, the more convinced I am that this huge risk we took several years ago (when I gave up a decent paycheck teaching and made the commitment to follow my writing muse) was no risk at all; but simply engaging my natural pathway as a follower of The Way.

There are some who would take a look at my income as an author and speaker and question my conclusions. "The math doesn't work for me," they might say. "I'll admit you didn't make a fortune teaching middle school... but I know people who are unemployed who pull in more than you do now!"

"Well your math is flawed," I'd likely say in return. "Your methods of calculating are far too narrow and limited in scope. I receive income you can't measure."

Case in point. Yesterday morning, right after sun-rise at the hill top, sharing the bread and the wine with a great group of men, I take my breakfast tray and plonk it down at a table with five men already chowing down. Three minutes into the conversation one guys says... "Hey - you're the fellah wrote that book." That's an exact quote, this is Texas.

It turns out all five gentlemen at the table are in a men's group that's studying GET REAL! And here's the funny part, they've been at it almost a year now and the group has made it maybe two-thirds of the way through!

"Well," one of them explained. "We read us a page - or almost - and then get to talking about it; you know there's easy enough to chew on for one meeting."

Then there are the one-on-one times of rock solid sharing I get to have with guys who are either wrestling with faith, or frustrated about what's going on in their church, or anxious about their role as faithful men in their home, or on-fire for God and ready to take it to the next level but no-one seems quite ready to walk with them....

I had all those conversations this weekend - and more. What a privilege.

Stay tuned - DEREK