memories of the beginning

As a Christian, I have gone through certain phases. 

In the beginning, like most Christians, I read my Bible faithfully and prayed with an enthusiasm that could not be quenched.  Then after a few months or so of this, my enthusiasm started to wane.  I am not really sure why this happened but it did.  In fact, I believe that it helps to all Christians at some time or another. 

Then after year one was over, I started serving in a high impact capacity.  Leading bible studies.  Leading worship at various organizations.  Leading.  Leading.  Leading. 

Now, I am not sure that that is how I would do it if I had the chance to go back and relive those moments.  I think that I would have waited and got more grounded in my faith before leading.  Because many times, I put too much emphasis on doing and not enough focus on being.  Being centered around God.  Being obsessed with spreading the hope of the world to everyone I meet.  Being in love with Jesus. 

But this morning, I read a quote from an old blog of mine.  It might have been the very first blog I ever wrote and it said in a very-Rob Bell-esque fashion:

May we pray every day, every chance we get, for God to teach us to live missional lives, to notice people who need to be loved.  May God give us the strength to follow Him with all our hearts, all our minds, all our strength.  May we become the kinds of people who change the world with love, and not with power or strength, but in weakness, knowing that we can’t do it on our own. 

And because of this quote, I believe that I was on the right path all along.  I want the same things now that I wanted then.  The only thing that has changed is that I have gotten cultured as a Christian and I now know more than I ever have before.  

Sometimes we simply need to see memories of the beginning.

Baby Bunch Chronicles 2.4.10

The saga continues…

Yesterday Vickie had another appointment to check on Baby Bunch and she was a little nervous about this one.  Probably because I was not able to be there but also because she felt as if she was having a couple complications that scared her. 

At the appointment, the nurse/doctor/lady-who-pulls-out-babies-for-a-living checked many different things to make sure our baby and Vickie were and are healthy.  Baby was and is healthy.  Vickie was and is healthy.  No worries there.  Anxiety will not prevail. 

Hold up…

The Ms. baby-puller then checked for the heartbeat and oddly enough, she can’t seem to locate it as quickly as last time.  Vickie gets a little frightened, as anyone would. 

Then Ms. baby-puller finds the thump-thump of a heart.  But she is struck by something odd.  She is hearing two heartbeats.  And not just Vickie’s and the baby’s.

A little backstory before we more forward, we are not having twins.  They do not run in either of our families and twins are scary (watch this from The Shining if you don’t believe me).  I can’t pull a Monica and Chandler and do that.  I can’t handle one kid much less twins.  So Vickie cries because she knows that I can’t handle it (and also because she is not ready for that yet either). 

Back to the story…so then Ms. Baby-puller grabs another baby-puller and they listen and look together for the heartbeats.  They then find, in the same spot as before, two heartbeats.  

Which 
turns out to be  
only an echo of Vickie’s heart.

Whew…close one. 

After the initial scare, they comfort my wife and let her know that it is practically impossible for us to have twins because we don’t have them in either of our families and that it must have been her heart echoing off something. 

They keep searching and the baby-pullers find two distinct heartbeats.
One that is normal (about 80 beats a minute – my wife’s). 
And a second that is fast as Usain Bolt (167 beats a minute).

The Chronicles will continue…

WHJD

I used to think “what would Jesus do” was the most important question that I could ask. 

Now I am starting to realize that that question does not matter.

The question we should be mindful at all moments throughout the day is

WHAT
HAS
JESUS
DONE?

yearning for the day

I am behind on things.  I always feel behind on things.  Maybe I need to stop and figure out what I need to not do.  Just a thought?

One of the things I am behind on is reading blogs.  I love reading them.  They add so much benefit to my life.  They encourage me, strengthen me, and revive me.  To fill you in, I truly enjoy them and will always feel that I need to make a place for them in my life, as long as God allows me to keep them in their proper perspective. 

Today while trying to catch up on my blog diet, I read this from Mark Batterson:

This could be the day that God gives you a vision. This could be the day you experience a breakthrough. This could be the day God does a miracle. This could be the day the hand of the Lord comes upon you.

That is a nice, uplifting thought taken from Ezekiel 40:1.    May we all be mindful that God can always surprise us and completely revolutionize our lives.

a bad rap

Doubting Thomas has gotten a bad rap. 

Here he is.  A disciple of Jesus.  Someone who walked with him day in and day out for 3 years. 

Yet he doubts.  He slips up.  He falters.  In some people’s eyes, he has jumped ship. 

But I am not so sure I agree with them.

Yes, he didn’t believe that Jesus rose from the dead one day after the resurrection. 

But wouldn’t you do the same?  Don’t you do the same every day?  Spoiler alert – Jesus isn’t my central thought every single moment.  He isn’t on the throne of my existence as sit and joke crudely.  Sometimes busyness creeps in and I lose focus on who Jesus is. 

Is it so bad that we forget?  I think the answer yes and no. 

Yes because we always need to remember that Jesus is sovereign over the kingdoms of men.  But also no, because we are on a journey and we are not down walking it. 

That is why we need people around us to remind us of who Jesus is when we forget.  Because, let’s face it, we will forget. 

So when we forget, remind us.  Don’t judge us.  Remind us.  We all need reminding.  And maybe, when you forget, we will remind you. 

I have heard that there are two different types of teaching, one is simply teaching new material to people.  And the other, which I prefer, is simply reminding people of what they already know (hopefully in a new and creative way). 

What do you think the Church needs to be reminded of at this moment?

obsession in the best way

I am what you would likely call obsessed.  I have that nature.  And it is not just about a few things.  I obsess over most things.   

I have the tendency to want to be involved in it all.  I also have the tendency to need to be right (which irritates my wife more than any other fault of mine).    But the obsession that takes over every other one is LOST. 

This show has meant so much to me over the years.  It is not a TV show for me.  It is an event.  Call me crazy or weird.  I honestly don’t care. 

But last night, as I was sitting there watching the premiere of the final season of my obsession, it hit me. 

Will this live up to my expectations? 

I honestly don’t know.  It has shattered every single expectation I have ever had.  So I think it will.  But what if it doesn’t?  And for the first time, I think LOST is teaching me how to live my life. 

Over the years of watching this show, I have come into it weekly expecting answers.  Expecting results that would drive my thoughts deeper.  And most times, I didn’t receive those answers, or at least not in the way I desired.  It simply made me ask more questions.  The same is true in life.

In my 26 years here on earth, I have seen a lot of questions answered.  But more than that, I have asked more questions.  I know less than I did a couple years ago.  Don’t get me wrong because I know more about some things, but less about the overall picture.  And that is why this season of Lost is inspiring me. 

It isn’t frustrating to me to ask questions.  It is actually an eye-opening adventure.  And for that reason, I am going to watch this season of Lost not expecting anything (as best as I can).  But you know what, I am going to try and do the same with my life.  I am not going to expect things to go my way, because rarely do they turn out my way.    I am simply going to enjoy the journey. 

You can call me obsessive or weird.  Okay, that is fine.  But just know that now I am obsessed with the journey before me.

original

How come ever time I try and be original, it looks like everyone else?

I am not sure why this is but it is usually true for me.

The days I find myself the most creative, are usually the days that I end up making something that looks like something else.

I guess it is true that there is nothing new under the sun.

This, I believe, is an insight from watching the Grammys.

Baby Bunch Chronicles 1.18.10

This is the first of many entries into a new span of my life. 

I call it the Baby Bunch Chronicles.  I hope you enjoy. 

1.18.10

Vickie and I went to the OB/GYN today and we got to ask all kinds of questions to our doctor/midwife.  It turned out to be quite the ecstatic experience.  I don’t know why but for some reason I was not excited about this beforehand.  Maybe it was nerves.  Maybe it was my anxiousness to know about the health of our baby.  Either way, I was not as excited about this as I could have ,or probably should have, been. 

We had to wait outside in the waiting room which always makes me anxious and talkative.  Vickie had to tell me a couple times to hush because I was, in her words, “letting all the other people in on our conversation.”  I guess I am more open than most people.  Oh well.

After the waiting game, we went in and did some tests.  All turned out great.  Positive or negative, depending on the best outcome.  (Having something turn out negative makes me feel like Michael Scott on the Office when he was told that Kevin’s skin cancer test came back negative.  Michael started crying because he thought Kevin was a goner.) 

Then the doctor/midwife pulled a little baby monitor thing (not the technical title) and put it on Vickie’s stomach.  She showed us Vickie’s heartbeat which was at about 80 (my baby is perfect).  Then she showed us a heartbeat that was at about 180 and that sounded like a humming bird.  The doctor/midwife said that it was chirping.  I could swear that she said “their heartbeats,” meaning twins but Vickie says that I was hearing things.  Time will tell.  Please not twins.  I can’t handle a dog right now much less two kids. 

Hearing a little heartbeat is awesome.  My dad said that it is a life-altering moment.  I can’t believe that God let Vickie and I have this.  The doctor/midwife told us that our baby (too soon to tell for the gender) is healthy.  She was even a little surprised that she could hear the heartbeat that loud and clear almost instaneously.  If you know me, my baby is going to be a loud and vocal kid.  It was like Baby Bunch was saying, “Sorry world, hear me roar.”   

More to come. 

 

Bobcats 102, Rockets 94

I went to my first NBA game last night. 

Not really a Bobcats fan but I was excited to be there just the same.  I am still not convinced that the NBA can compare to NCAA basketball.  There was definitely not any real die-hard fans there last night, except for Mike (but he was going for the away team). 

Mike even said that he wanted to start to cheer for the Bobcats because it was so quiet.  You could hear the air conditioning last night.  So sad.  It reminded me of my high school basketball team’s crowd. 

Also it was sad to see that Mike’s team lost.  I think he cried. 

Recap here.

‘10 can’t compare with ‘09

I thought about sharing my thoughts on how to make 2010 a better year than last year. 

I was going to focus on the things that I could improve and the things that I could stop doing altogether. 

But I didn’t, as you can tell. 

The reason is because I do not think that 2010 can compete with 2009. 

Gasp.  Yeah, I said it. 

‘09 had some of the best things in the world happen to me.  Yeah, I started off unemployed and lost without a cause but as the year progressed, I became a car salesman, a better worship leader, a husband, a houseowner and a soon to be father.  I was even entrusted with finances through my church and organization at my job.  Things I never thought would happen happened.  And I am doing quite well, if you ask me. 

2010 won’t compare to 2009. 

Not really because it is better, but simply because it isn’t supposed to. 

I am tired of reviewing my past to prepare for the future.  You can’t do it.  You can’t improve upon it.  You simply have to leverage your past to stay on the journey God has for you in the future. 

So I am not going to review the past year.  Not because of any lack of regret or frustrations at my own incapabilities but simply because I  have so much going for me at the moment.  I don’t want to get sidetracked. 

The past was pretty great. 
The future is going to be greater. 
Yet the present is the greatest of all.   

Live each moment fully.  That’s what I plan on doing.