Ariel and Superman

"There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin." - Linus

It's My Pleasure

You gotta love Chick-fil-A. Asking for extra ketchup is not a burden to them...it is their pleasure. When people ask things of me, is it my pleasure to accommodate? Honestly...not all the time. I love helping people who help me, but I struggle sometimes helping people who do not help me.  Matthew 7:12 says "Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them." (THE MESSAGE). This is an offensive behavior...not a defensive behavior. Tim first taught me this. I should always be the "host" in every circumstance...initiate the conversation, ask questions, lend a hand, do everything in your power to make the other person feel so important. If I would try to outgive others, I won't have time to be sitting around thinking about why someone isn't helping me. I need to do a better job of "hosting" the people in my life. Care to join me?

Try being "the host" for a day and tell me what happens.

Attitude

Todd asked me today to think about someone I respected as a leader...and then to think about how much of my respect for them was based soley on this person's attitude about life. I have to say it was a HUGE percentage.   Perry has been doing some great stuff on this lately. I spent a couple of hours with my mentor last week and he inspires me to have a positive attitude about everything. I think that is why I am so encouraged when I am around him.  Yeah, he kicks my tail a little (which I need) but he makes me want to embrace life with a "YES I CAN" attitude...to say,"Sure, whatever it takes - I can make it happen."  That is the kind of person I want to be.  I want to embrace my marriage, my kids, my ministry, my music, my relationships with that kind of "YES I CAN" attitude.

Do you want to be a "YES I CAN" person? What's holding you back?

History

 I  spent close to 36 hours with people I haven't seen in years and time was irrelevant.  We are all the same but have kids (as Kim said!) Most of the members of my era at LU on Sounds (1992-95) were in attendance. It was 3 days of stories, pictures of bad hair, music, lies, and more lies.  The band still feels inferior to the singers and the singers are still amazing singers (who still can't find "1", but I digress.) We have seen each other at our best and our worst...we know what we are good at and what we stink at...we would never have crossed paths except for this wonderful bond...we were on a team.   "Boss", as we call him, brought our lives together for a brief time and forever changed our musical landscape.   It was awesome to hear everyone share what God is doing in their lives and we all expressed how grateful we are for Liberty, Thomas Road, "Doc," and the friendships (and spouses!) that we gained during our time as a team. Sometimes having a history can be a really good thing.  Check out the video here...

Past meets future

We safely arived at LU tonight (despite a wrong turn and Todd getting a $185 speeding ticket in Society Hill, SC) It is a little weird driving around here in my mini-van with 2 kids. I feel like Marty McFly being in my own future.  Todd and I realized that the first time we drove up 29 North was 18 years ago on our way to a College-for-a-Weekend as Seniors in High School.  Not much has changed (on 29 that is).  We were both at the same CFAW and never met...till 1 year later:) We have a ton of friends to see, meetings about interns for LCC, and football, baby! Time for bed...

Watch out below!

I had several different people from my former church in Atlanta, NorthStar, send me this link...I think I bought that shield...

Divine Interruption update

I blogged about this last week and I wanted to update you on my progress. WOW!  It keeps happening...which is one reason I haven't been here for a few days.  Obviously, the current economic conditions and the pending election are making for great conversation and people feel very uneasy (at least those I've talked with this week). But, man...some GREAT spiritual conversation has been happening as I have been"interrupted" this week with some people in my life.  One person said that they would not be thinking about this stuff before because their spiritual life has not been such a priority...Maybe this season in our lives will make us sit up and re-think our priorities?  Maybe there's more to this life than our bank accounts (or lack thereof)?  I'm thinking...

Are you having "Divine Interruptions?" 

Worship and Avril Lavigne

I have gotten into a pretty steady habit of going to the gym now about 3-5 times a week.  The TV's are all running the news and it's KILLING me because it is so depressing so I created a mix for my ipod that gets me through the treadmill and my weights routine (I start with "Livin' on a Prayer, baby!). One song that I include is about half-way through my hour workout called "I'm with You" by Avril Lavigne.  The fact is that it is one of my favorite mixes of cello with acoustic guitar, but that's not why it is on my ipod.  This song speaks to me about how I feel about my relationship with God and how I have hope.  If you click the link above, you can sense the hopelessness in her music video.  For me, I feel tremendous compassion on those who have no hope and I'm reminded that I HAVE HOPE. I'm not going to get into the theological break-down of this song (and there is one word in the song that will offend some of you),but when I hear that song, I worship God and I pray for those who come to mind who don't know God and feel there is no hope.

What song speaks to you that everyone else would think is crazy? Come on, you can tell me...

Sunday Recap

I'm a part of the Sunday Setlist Carnival!

We kicked off a new series yesterday called "Foundations" exploring key elements of our faith for the next 8 weeks.  We did a survey at our original campus of key doctrinal issues asking people what they understood about their faith. This series will answer a lot of their questions.  I did a 2 minute countdown video with music from Indiana Jones with some of the questions that we will be exploring and John did a great Message Bumper that took us on a journey to uncover the power of God's Word as our foundation.  We kicked off yesterday with understanding the importance of basing our lives on the truth of God's Word as the standard. I chose songs that focused on God's attributes and the power of His Word.  I picked all familiar this week so that people could really worship.  Here was our setlist...
"There's No One Like Our God" - Beeching
"Alleluia (More than Worthy) - Carr
"Forever"  -Tomlin
"Ancient Words"  - MWS version
" How Great is Our God" - Tomlin
I used cello, viola. and flute with keys or acoustic and drums.  It was nice sound and very worshipful.  It was just a wonderful day of worship in the midst of the torrential rain storm all morning!

Sean's smack down

I usually share videos on our family blog, but this was SO funny that I had to share it with all my readers at cheval glass...