one amazing year

A year ago yesterday, I stood in front of my friends and family looking into the most beautiful blue eyes I had ever seen and telling that girl that I would spend the rest of my life with her, no matter what happened. A year later, I am still amazed that God has chosen me to be with this girl, to call her my best friend, and to share life with her as long as our days will allow us. How great is my God that he would bless me in such a way! I am grateful daily for Lydia and that she chose me as well.

We have been talking a lot lately about how quickly this last year has gone and how grateful we were how well the first year went. In fact as we were going to bed last night, she remarked "I thought that the first year was supposed to be rough!". That is an interesting thought. I guess that in the flurry of being married, I hadn't really considered that we should be having a hard time or that marriage should be really difficult. Yes, it is an adjustment and yes, you have to share space while navigating another persons personality all the while. However, I have found most of the difficulties that I have faced have been self-imposed. That is, I have learned more about myself in the last year than I ever have and that isn't always the best thing. When you are single for a long period of time like I was, you get pretty selfish in your ways and you don't realize how things might come across or how your little quirks can not always be the easiest things for others to handle. I have learned so much about myself while sharing my life with someone who is willing to let me know when I am being a jerk or when she is really happy with me.

In other words, I probably isolated myself from other people for way to long in my life. While I worked a very public job in ministry, I tended to shut myself off from others during my "off time". Sometimes I wish I had allowed people a little closer so that I could learn more about myself and them for that matter. No worries, though. God had someone in mind that he wanted me to wait a while for, that I could learn the best from.

So, here I am, learning about myself daily, living life with my best friend, and looking forward to years and years of doing this "married" thing. I am grateful and blessed.

some explanation

There has been a little confusion about the new title of the blog so I figured I would take a moment to explain. Before I do though, it would be prudent to note that I am in no way a wordsmith or witty with words. What you see as a title is about the best I know how to do. While in my little 'Chris Robey noggin' I thought it was really funny, those who read it might be scratching their own noggins a bit.

I am not gonna explain "city slicker". Seriously. But the "Ranch Style World" has significance in two ways. First of all, as Lydia and I were engaged, we bought a house out in the country that was pretty much in the middle between Granbury and Ft Worth. This house has a certain style to it that is known as "Ranch Style". For months and months the little "City Slicker" in me called it "Texas Style". After being corrected by my wife about a thousand times, I finally figured out my error.

Also, I have married a country music fan. And she (plus tons of other country fans in this area) listen to something called "Texas Country". If you grew up in the "Westoplex", that is Fort Worth and areas west of the city, you listen to your Texas Country on a station known as "The Ranch". Now, let me say this about "The Ranch": You have good music, but nothing to be arrogant about. There is an inherint cockiness about Texas Country not being "Nashville" and that everything that comes out of Nashville is crap. I have no problem with this assumption about the music, but it isn't something to be cocky about. "The Ranch" even modifies its broadcast signal so it cannot be heard in Dallas because they feel like that side of the metroplex isn't worthy of their brand of music. I wish I was making this up, but I couldn't. I am not that smart! Just look at my blog title!

So, all rants aside, that is why I used the term "Ranch Style World". While I do like the beans, I don't think they are a fitting enough reason to use them as an inspiration for a blog title. Now, coutry fried steak....that might be a good idea........

Some change

It hit me today that I haven't posted in almost a year. Most would say that they felt really bad about not posting. I could say that, but it would probably be a lie. I guess if I felt that bad about it I would have posted a long time ago.

The main reason I haven't posted is that the blog was about me living in Granbury as a single guy in a new ministry. All of those things have changed in the last year, though. I guess that it was hard to come up with posts about a life situation that dosen't exist.

So, it is time to change the title of the blog and the overall focus. The title "City Slicker in a Ranch Style World" speaks to my entrance into a new family and set of friends who are a bit more "countrified" than I am. I grew up living all over the world, never living in one place more than four years. My friends played video games, watched sports, and made stupid videos on the weekends. The only "country" thing I did growing up was shuck corn on my grandparents back porch in Alabama. That is pretty "country" if you ask me.

Yet, I married this pretty blue eyed girl from Texas whose family likes to hunt, fish, plant gardens, and listen to Texas Country music. So, needless to say, my life has changed a lot in the last few years.

This blog will simply reflect the awesome change that has happened in my life in the last year. I am now a married man with a mortgage and two acres to mow each week. I have a tire swing in my back yard and a shed. I kayak with my brother in laws and mountain bike when I get the chance. I love my wife more than she will ever know and consider myself to be the luckiest guy on the planet.

I am more than a youth minister now. That seems to be less of an identity for me now than it used to be. I am a child of God, a husband, and a uncle. I am a mentor to teens and families as well as a son and a brother. For years the title "youth minister" is what kept me going. It is what gave me my worth. I hope that from now on that will be only one of the ways someone can identify me.

So, entering this new world will be great for me as God continues to expand who he wants me to be. I am glad to be doing so coming from such an awesome family and entering into a new one.

So there! Enjoy the "philosophical" Chris Robey for today. You might not see him again for a while. Check in from time to time and see whats up. Lata!

the Wims family

This post is simply to offer up a family in great need of prayer and encouragement. It is a family that I do not know very well but have some connection with through our church. Brad Wims is the son of one of my elders here in Granbury. I know Brad through a fantasy football league that I used to play in a few years ago as well, yet I have only met him in person once here at church. Brad, however developed a rare form of bone cancer last year. Here is the description from their blog:

In January of 2007 Brad was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer called chondrosarcoma. After 3 massive surgeries in a 4 month span, 2 1/2 months of stomach bedrest and hundreds of hours of physical therapy, our family continues to take each day at a time.

The Wims have not experienced a lot of success with conventional treatments so they are looking at some alternative treatments abroad. They have settled with a treatment in Germany and are making preperations to fly over there by the end of the month. This will both be expensive and time consuming, but will possibly be an answer to the illness.

Our church had an extensive prayer time for Brad on Tuesday evening. It was beautiful to see God's people show up and pray for Brad, especially those who had never met him or his family.

I want to extend the prayer circle ever so slightly through this blog. Go to www.thewims.blogspot.com to get the full scope of what this family is going through right now.

I know that it seems like there are so many people to pray for and so much sickness and hurting going on in our world right now. It probably would be easier just to focus on the hurting people in our little circles, but I encourage you to battle with us on behalf of this family.

the bullet-point update

I really need to update the blog so I figured I would do so in bullet point form without a lot of detail.

- I am married now as of two weeks ago. Married life rocks.

- There is a possibility that I will be changing directions in grad school to have a family ministry emphasis instead of just general ministry

- Lydia and I are homeowners in a little country neighborhood outside of Granbury in a town named Cresson. I have a little stream out in the back that I catch ginormous 1\2 pound perch out of.

- I will be an uncle soon (by blood). Check out my sister's blog

- This site is friggin hilarous

That outta hold you for a while........

the "bad' kids part 1

This past weekend we had our spring retreat with the youth ministries from the Tenth and Broad COC in Wichita Falls and the East Point COC in Wichita, KS. We met up at Pettijohn Springs Christian Camp in southern OK. This was a special weekend because we were able to bring in Benny and Nikki Nowell of the Sevens ministry in Boulder, CO. These three ministries coming together with the purpose of learning more about the love of the Father excited me. What was even more exciting is that I was able to bring 26 high school students, by far the most we have ever brought on a HS only retreat.

Yet this weekend was extremely difficult for me when it came to my group. I have been used to having pretty clean cut church kids who do what they are supposed to do and ones that you don't have to worry too much about. We have a large amount of those kiddos in our group yet we have a small but growing segment of teens who are rough, immature, and pretty hard to deal with. It seemed like this minority of the group really made it tough on the rest of the group.

What was striking to me about this group was that these kids (the difficult ones) are the ones that need to most love and attention yet will demand the most discipline. I am a horrible disciplinarian! What tends to happen is that I will let a lot of things slide then come down super hard on the kids when they have gone too far. I have never had a group of kids that I have to be constantly on the lookout for kids doing what they aren't supposed to do. A big part of me wants to tell them not to come. That is horrible, but it is how I feel sometimes.

I tend to heap a lot of this on me because I don't exactly know how to deal with kids who are perpetually "on the bad list". It would be easier to just love them and accept them as they are, but they become a drain on everyone else if their behavior is left unchecked. These are the things I have struggled with, especially how to keep the "balance" of discipline and love, expectation and acceptance.

I have much more to say about this so I will post a "part 2" soon. Post your thoughts if you would and we will keep the discussion going.

A quick update

A new year arrives and I didn't really know it! Life has been running at such a break-neck pace that I haven't really had the chance to take stock in a whole lot lately. So, let me get you guys a couple of things that are going on with us right now.
1. I have bought a house. Actually, Lydia and I bought a house. Now, before you dial the phone and call me a fornicator, let me explain what the situation is. A few months ago when Lydia and I knew we were going to get married, she found this house in between Granbury and Fort Worth. She knew that she would be working in Ft. Worth so it would be convienient to find a house in between where she worked and where I worked. Well, we found this house that was at a perfect location and was the perfect size. But, she wasn't working yet so we couldn't afford it. A few weeks later, she got an offer from Cooks Childrens hospital in Fort Worth. So, I called our realator and she put an offer on the house. They accepted and the rest is history. It is such a cool house! I plan to post some pics soon so that everyone can see it. Lydia will be living there for the next three months until we get married. I have moved out of my apartment and will live with one of my elders until the wedding. So, fear not my friends! We are doing everything we can to keep things on the up and up despite what it might look like.
2. The wedding date is on April 12th. That is a little more than three months! We are really excited and frankly really ready for this day. It will be a day of celebration for what God has done for both of us and our families. We hope you can come.


Things are really exciting right now! Pray for us as we continue to prepare for this life together. I hope to write more soon.