Bring on the Morgage!

I got the keys to my new house today. I've spent the last four hours packing and now I'm beat. I'm looking forward to being in the new place, but tomorrow is going to be a lot of hard work. I think I'm going to take a break for the rest of the night, I still have to get a message ready for Sunday and it's been a crazy week.

There are a lot of scary things in my life right now with the new house, new church and new job. The strange thing is I'm not that afraid right now and I'm the happiest I've been in a long time. I could worry about losing the house or burning down the church or I could have faith in that I know I'm right where I'm suppose to be with the people I'm suppose to be with.

Being in California last week reminded me of when I first moved down there years ago. I was starting so many new things at that time that it felt overwhelming, but I knew that was where I was meant to be so I stuck through it. I made mistakes there (one of them involving a newspaper called The Daily Breeze) and at times it looked like we were going to lose everything, but I kept my faith in that I was were I was supposed to be and I stuck with the people that I knew God placed with me and we made it.

I really don't know what's going to happen with the church or life in general the next few years. I'm just going to try and take comfort in where I'm at right now and enjoy it. Hey, if everything falls apart there's always California and The Daily Breeze.

I'm Back

I'm back from vacation and just to let you know, I had an awesome time. I went to the beach everyday, saw a zoo, watched a movie, played some cards, and basically did a whole lot of nothing. I'm going to go ahead and label this my best vacation ever.

Every other vacation I ever took I had my mind on things back home and no matter how much fun I had I was always ready to get back when it was time to leave. This time I didn't think about Vegas at all, I left the church in Jason's hands and left work to just pile up and wait for me to get back. I even left my phone in the hotel room one day! When it was time to go I didn't want to leave and I felt a little sad that I wouldn't see nice weather again for awhile.

I have to go back to work tomorrow and there is a new sermon that I need to write, but it won't be so bad. I feel renewed and I'm ready to face Vegas once again come Monday, but as for tonight, I think I'm just going to start reading the last Harry Potter and spend some time remembering the really great things about this last weekend.

Californication

Tomorrow will be my last day of work before I go on vacation. I'm heading out to California to visit my old friend, the beach. It's a funny thing going back to California to relax, seeing how it was the place that nearly destroyed me. I felt so tired, alone, and disillusioned those four years I lived and went to school there, that you'd think I'd never want to see that place ever again, much less have a four day vacation there. The truth is that no matter how much I talk about how bad my college years were, there were some very good things that occurred during the those four years that makes me say I don't regret moving to California and I would do it again if I had to.

The Good Things California Gave Me:

1. Friends - If it wasn't for California I would've never met Bekah, Jason, or Maylene. My life wouldn't be the same without them and I can't even think about how miserable their lives would be if they never met me.

2. My priorities - I found out what is worth hanging around for and what should be let go of during my time down there. I lost a lot of my religion, but I found true faith and purpose.

3. The Beach - Oh, so many sick days were spent getting better on the sand.

4. Confidence - The thing about having everything falling apart all around you all the time is that you start to realize what your made of and who is holding you up. It sounds cliche, but sooner or later you begin to realize that no matter what happens God will be there in the morning.

5. Nature - Growing up in Las Vegas I never knew there were places where green plants grew and animals could come out in the day time without bursting into flames.

There are a few more, but that's enough for right now, I need to pack. I'll let you know how it goes next week, but till then I'll be on the sand once more.

O.W.L.S.

I watched the new Harry Potter movie last night. I had heard a lot of people say that this one wasn't that great, but I think it did a pretty good job considering it was pressing a 500 some page book into a little over two hours.

There were a lot of themes that the book touched on that had to be left out of the movie, but there was one thing that I loved about the book that I thought the movie did a great job capturing. Harry spends this whole year feeling alone and dwelling on the hurts in his past and the fear of what his future will bring. In the end he realizes that his friends have always been there for him and when thinks are at the darkest they are right there by his side. Furthermore, he finds that this is the one thing that makes him different than his enemy, he knows what it is to be loved.

Planting a church can be a scary thing and it's easy to feel alone, but God sends those people that will be there for you. This church would never had made it this far if it hadn't been for the people God has placed with me. If it grows and thrives it will be because of them, if it all falls apart I know there will be people there with me to pick up the pieces. This makes it doable. There is a peace that comes from knowing that no matter what tomorrow brings, you are not alone.

Ode to a Truck

Today is a sad day. I found out that the U-Haul truck that we've been using to transport our gear back and forth is no more. We will now be using a newer truck with less miles and less wear. Up until today our "church" truck was a 10 year old U-Haul with about 300,000 miles on it. It was covered with graffiti and scratches. The A/C hardly worked and the ramp took amazing acts of strength to retract everyday. Yet, it never failed us. Every Sunday we had it it did its job.

In a way I think that truck fit our church just right. Here's to you old friend, rest well, you've earned it.

Revisting The Past

I tried a Big Mac today and although I'm not a huge McDonald's fan and I don't understand the third bun in the middle it, I have to say that I see why it's so popular. I had one once as a kid and didn't like it, so I'd never tried it again until today. It's kinda nice to rediscover something that you wrote off long ago.

I recently did the same thing with coffee. I used to drink it back in high school, but over the years I just stopped and forgot about it altogether. I tried it a couple months ago and it was like looking up an old friend that I never fully appreciated before. Although I'm taking a break from coffee right now, I'm really happy I have a new morning friend there when I need it.

This led me to think about other things I haven't tried since I was a kid that might deserve a revisit:

1. Acid Wash Jeans
2. A Big Wheel
3. Watching Charles in Charge
4. Chasing Girls with Doo-Doo on a Stick
5. Slip and Slide
6. Listening to M.C. Hammer
7. Playing Street Fighter
8. Trick or Treating
9. Feety Pajamas
10. Shoes with Velcro and He-Man on the sides

What Did You Do Last Saturday?

Yesterday, was 7-7-07. This was the day that everyone wanted to get married. The MGM did 63 weddings and I lost 12 hours of my Saturday joining couples together in the joys of matrimony. What made it even stranger was that on the same floor I was performing weddings there was a martial arts convention going on. My day was filled with ninjas and bridesmaids.

By time my last wedding rolled around at 10 pm I was beat (not by the ninjas) and didn't want to think about weddings anymore. I have to say I'm done with weddings for awhile. I have a few more to do this year, but I'm being very selective about what ones I take from now on. This was nice as it will more than pay for my family vacation this year, but the time with my family and friends is a little more important to me right now than money.

I have a month before my next wedding and I think I need it. The brides and black belts will have to get along without me until then.

Screw It, Let's Go Watch TV

So, I've been stressed out over my sermons lately. I'm one of those guys who likes to have his sermon down to the tiniest detail. I like to have days to think out my illustrations, look for the right texts, and find just the right transitions and flow.

All of this was no problem when I had weeks to get my messages ready, but now things are a little different. I get up at 5am and don't get home from work until about 4:30pm. Then, I take care of my 2 year old and my newborn until I get them both to sleep somewhere around 9pm if I'm lucky. This leaves me about a half an hour to an hour of alone time before I have to be in bed for my seven hours of sleep before the next day of work. This means that the only time I really have for getting my sermon ready is Saturday, which happens to be my only real day off. For the last couple of months I've been locking myself away on Saturday from morning until sometime in the late afternoon to get my messages ready.

So basically, I was working straight through the week and still not feeling my messages were good enough. The idea of preaching has been weighing on me through out the week. I started getting easily bothered by things that never have bothered me before. I began to dread the weekends. Can you imagine wishing it wasn't Friday sometimes?

This Saturday I woke up dreading the day because my sermon was no where near done. I decided I'd had enough of this and planed to do something about it. First, I forgot about my sermon and hung out with my family for a few hours. Next, I continued to forget about working on my sermon and instead went and hung out with my pastoral staff, aka my best friends, and told them what was going on with me. Then, we went and loaded the church truck and continued to hang out and do nothing for the next four hours. Then, I had to perform a wedding, but I decided to take my family with me and after I was done, we went out to dinner together. We went home and instead of worrying about the sermon that I put off all day, I went to sleep. That's right, I managed a real day off and it wasn't a half bad one at that.

I woke up this morning planning on taking the amount of sermon I had done and going off to work on it alone after we set up and while the band was practicing, like I always do on the Sundays I preach. This didn't go quite as I planned it. It was Bekah's first Sunday leading vocally for us and as I was about to go down the hall and I noticed that she seemed a little nervous. I thought about it for a second and decided I should just hang out in the cafeteria and listen to her instead. I don't think it helped her at all, she was doing awesome and she had Tyson and Autumn there listening to her anyway, but it just felt like it was more important for me as a Pastor and a friend to be there showing support, rather than to work on a sermon that may or may not come together anyway. So, I said screw the sermon.

When, it was time I went up and preached. It went fine. I said what needed to be said. I didn't fall apart. No one lost their salvation.

I'm going to try not to stress about my messages anymore. I'm going to use the half and full hours I get during the weeknights to work on them and I'm going to take real days off. My sermons might not be the masterpieces I want them to be, but I think they will be better if I actually have a life to talk about. They might be a little shorter than what I'm used to, but I talk too much anyways. There are more important things than having the perfect sermon. The imperfect ones will have to do.