Scared!

My oldest son loves to scare people. I am often met around corners by his daunting, gleeful surprise. Usually I see it coming, but from time to time he will jump out from around the corner and let out a loud "RAAAAAAH" only to make my heart stop. I am not scared easily but there are definitely things I am scared of. When Ap and I were first dating I once made the ferris wheel operator stop so we could get off the ride... I'm terrified of heights. Unfortunately it wasn't enough for her that I tried to overcome my fear of heights. She usually reminds me of that night once or twice a year. I am also deathly afraid of suffocating. I have a real claustrophobia thing that causes me to panic from time to time. Then every once in a while my son scares me. Sometimes its because he jumps out from around the corner and sometimes its because he is growing up way to fast. The thing that scares me most... he starts Jr. High in the Fall. Hold on while I go jump off the ferris wheel!

What scares you most?

Scooter

I've been getting a lot of questions about my scooter so I thought I would post a picture today. I found it on craigslist.com from a young guy in a nearby town. It's a United Motors Matrix 150. It's basically a 150cc scooter with some cool little features. It's max speed is about 55 (no wind) so its definitely not a highway bike. I can pretty much go anywhere I need to around town and it saves me TONS in gas. I get about 80 mpg and it only takes about $5.00 to fill up. Last month I saved about $175.00 in gas money. Let me know what you think...

Soul Food

"Who feeds your soul?" That was the question PC (Pastor Charlie) asked this morning in our weekly staff meeting. His reminder was for each of the staff members to make time to attend one of our weekend worship services but the words he used resonated in my mind. Have you ever been so busy during the day that you forgot to eat a meal? I do this all the time. Then I get to the end of my day and wonder "dude, why am I so hungry?". I think the same can be true of us as ministers. We get so busy doing the work of the Lord that we forget to spend time with the Lord of the work. We often find ourselves wondering, why am I not more spiritually nourished. I wish I was better at the whole quiet time thing. I really appreciate people like PC and Matt who constantly feed my soul. They are constantly pushing me to be and do better as a worship leader, a Christian, father, and husband.

So, who feeds your soul?

Quicksand

Quicksand. That's what I call it. I can't take credit for it though. I actually got it from a movie I watched on TNT some time back. It happens at the worst time too. For me it is usually Sunday morning. No matter how many hours I spend in meetings, no matter how carefully we go over all the details of the service, something unexplained will happen and then I find myself in it... the quicksand. I call it quicksand because it sucks you in. The harder you fight it the more it fights back. We've all been there, we make a mistake and the more we try to correct it the more mistakes we make. The harder you fight the worse it gets. I hate quicksand.

What do you do when something goes wrong at the worst possible times?

Home

Back home. Whew! That was a blast! Here are some pics from the week.











THANKS CAMP CYOKAMO!!

Tired

So sleepy... I love it though! Yesterday, I drove back to O-town to do a quick meeting with my WLT (worship leadership team) and then rehearse with my Sunday morning band. We also had some new video team recruits that were training during rehearsal so I wanted to take some time to meet with them and introduce myself. Afterwards we began what should have been a 2 hour drive back to camp. After missing a couple of exits and stopping twice for coffee and DP to fight off sleep, it ended up being more like a 3 and a half hour drive. We made it back to camp around midnight and then up again at 6:00. I don't function very well when I am tired. April says I shouldn't talk when I am tired... she's probably right. What makes you tired? How does it affect you?

Like A Child

There is nothing like passionate worship from on fire youth. Kids are amazing! Pics coming soon.

One Last Time

I have jokingly deemed this summer my "farewell tour". For years I have spent the majority of my summers months leading worship for youth summer events, camps and retreats only to return to the home church to lead our congregational worship on the weekends. It is one of my favorite times of the year. I've noticed, however, over the past couple years that my mind, body and spirit are not holding up as well as they used to. I'm usually worn out by the weekend and have little to nothing left to give to my family or lead the church when I get home. Growing older, well... it sucks! So, my wife and I decided that this would be the last year I accepted invitations from camps and youth events and would begin to focus more on our local congregation and overseas missions durring the summer months. It will also be nice to be a parent to my kids at the youth events we participate in. So it begins tonight with worship at camp CYOKAMO for about 300 Jr. High students from KS, MO, OK and AR. I will be with them all week and then back home on Friday. I have three more week long events between now and the end of July with a few one nighters mixed in. I am tired already...

Writers Block!!!

Writers Block! I hate it... maybe its appropriate that this is my first official post. Some people are amazing writers. They can write non-stop and the words jump off the screen with passion and intrigue. I on the other hand get through about three sentences and my words seem to die out like the flowers I bought for my wife on Mother’s Day. Question: How do you stay consistently creative and keep the ideas flowing?