Off to Atlanta

I have been busy the last few days. I am sorry that I have not posted, I have a few things that I want/need to post.

However, that will have to wait for about 5 days. I am flying to Atlanta in an hour or so and will not be back till Thursday. This will be a very important week (in my opinion) for the church and me; thus I covet your prayers.

Have a great week and I will have a lot to blog about when I get back.

Little Wonders

Message Through Song



let it go,
let it roll right off your shoulder
don't you know
the hardest part is over
let it in,
let your clarity define you
in the end
we will only just remember how it feels

our lives are made
in these small hours
these little wonders,
these twists & turns of fate
time falls away,
but these small hours,
these small hours still remain

let it slide,
let your troubles fall behind you
let it shine
until you feel it all around you
and i don't mind
if it's me you need to turn to
we'll get by,
it's the heart that really matters in the end

our lives are made
in these small hours
these little wonders,
these twists & turns of fate
time falls away,
but these small hours,
these small hours still remain

all of my regret
will wash away some how
but i can not forget
the way i feel right now

in these small hours
these little wonders
these twists & turns of fate
these twists & turns of fate
time falls away but these small hours
these small hours, still remain,
still remain
these little wonders
these twists & turns of fate
time falls away
but these small hours
these little wonders still remain

----------

This song was in my mind today. Maybe somebody needed to hear the words, see the images or relect on the lyrics.

Help Trev Win $ 21,000

One of my pals is trying to sell his house. He is listing through Century 21 and they are doing a contest for youtube videos. Here is his video. Watch it, shake your head and then go vote and help him win $ 21,000. It will help has they male a 1,000+ mile move.

Apostle Creed

Presented to you by some youth of America:

Dinner Time

Dinner time is over and the kids are outside enjoying the great weather. When I picked the kids up from school, I told them that we were attempting a new meal for dinner. I then told them; if it is a total flop; let me know and we will go and grab something to eat (I got my health check today).

Dinner was a success (for the most part) and I do not have to go out and spend any money. I had to come up with an 'official' name for the meal. When they sat down, they said, "so what are we having?" My answer was the following:

Asian Lion Loin and Garden Ranch Medley

Bethany repeated it with questioning tone .... we sat down and almost all of the meal was gone. Thus, I will chalk up the adventure as "thumbs up".

I am outside for awhile and then going to attempt to clean the kitchen up a little or I should say, pick it up a little.

Practicing Greatness

This is a book that I read this past week. The book is a fairly easy read and it is a good book. I would not call it great and I would not list it in a Top 10 list of leadership book but the book also does not belong in the trash.

When it first came out Leadership Now did a review on the book and it gives a fairly positive spin on the book. Their review can be found here.

I enjoyed his other book much better. This book is geared for Christian leaders, however much of the book can be applied across the board. I am sure that you are wanting to know about the principles.

The official title of the book: Practicing Greatness: 7 Disciplines of Extraordinary Spiritual Leaders The book is broken down into seven chapters (one discipline per chapter). Here they are:

The Discipline of Self-Awareness

the single most important body of information a leader possesses

The Discipline of Self-Management

handling difficult emotions, expectations, temptations, mental vibrancy, and physical well-being

The Discipline of Self-Development

a life-long commitment to learning and growing and building on one's strengths

The Discipline of Mission

enjoying the permission pf maintaining the sense of God's purpose for your life and leadership

The Discipline of Decision-Making

knowing the elements of good decisions and learning from failure

The Discipline of Belonging

the determination to nurture relationships and to live in community with others, including family, followers, mentors and friends

The Discipline of Aloneness

the intentional practice of soul-making solitude and contemplation

For me, the toughest one is the discipline of belonging. I am going to blog on a few of the topics in this book and how they play out in my life and my ministry concept.

If you are looking for a top-notch leadership book, this may not be it. But, it may be a great book for you if you are wanting some self-evaluation.

News from the Chiropractor

My time there is almost up. Thus, they retook the xrays and we redid the agility and strength test. The results are pretty amazing.

I have a lot more motion on my left side; we are talking as much as 30 degrees more motion and my stenth (pi) is up 15 pounds+ and more great things all around.

We are 4 months into 2008 and there is a world of difference in my health, my fitness and my moveability and the lack of pain. It truly is astonishig.

There are still a few things that I need to work on and improve in and we will get there. But with my weight loss and my chiropractor work; I know that I will be on the way to accomplish the rest.

One thing that I do need to do is get in and get a full-service-checkup. I have not done that in a long time and I need to have all my numbers checked. All that is for later entries; today is to announce the miracle works that have occurred for me over at the chiropractor the last 2+ months.

Clinton ......

I have to tell you, during timeouts in the basketball game, I turned to the talking heads and was listening to their views on Obama vs. Clinton. One of the things that I hear from Clinton campaign is that they win the big states and thus, this is why she would be the best nominee. Many scoff at that statement and then they debate how ludicrous that is BECAUSE how many more states Obama has won and how much more votes he has. So, let's take a look at this. This is my 5 minute search, so please forgive a little error.

Obama has won 28 states to Clinton 15 states.

Obama has about 600,000 more in the vote count.

However, as we know from not such a distant pass, popular vote does not mean JACK. If the democrat party used the primaries as they do in the national vote - you win the state, you get all the electoral votes ...... let's see what the reults are:

Clinton - 240

Obama - 202

Clinton is ahead and it is a fight to the end with the other states just around the corner. Very interesting. I have no clue what is going to happen over the next 3 months.

Aleight, back to basketball.

A Long Day ....

It has been a long day. However, if I was honest, I think that it was a longer day in the eyes of Bethany. Let me tell you about our day.

For those of you who do not know, Stacey is on a well deserved vacation this week. She is at her moms and dad this week doing ........ Thus, I am at the house with the three kids and trying to manage our lives as much as possible without too much tradjedy.

We woke up and got the kids ready. We went with the very simple breakfast today, cereal. They (boys) got dressed and got all the items ready for school. Bethany did her preppin' for gymnastics. I attempted to do her hair and had it pulled back in a pny tail, but there was still some hair in the face. So, we went to plan B on the hair; we shaved her bald (only kidding).

We took the boys to school and then we went off to gymnastics. After gymnastics, we went to the church office and Bethany hubng out in my office while I attended staff meeting (about 90 minutes). After staff meeting, we packed Bethany a bag for her next venture.

After the bag was packed, we stopped by the house for lunch and then off to the free medical clinic. As I volunteered at the clinic for 2 hours, Bethany drew, colored and talked to the nurses. She also took candy, so she could walk around and pass it out.

Following the clinic, we went back to the office and she roamed the halls while I did some emails and did some prep work on my confirmation proposal. I have no clue how this is going to play out ..... I think that it might end with them stoning me.

After working my way through that, we went over to the school tp pick up the boys. After we picked them up, we came home and Jacob and Bethany got on their swimming gear and Isaiah got on his soccer gear.

It was early dinner time. It is Tuesday and Stacey is out of town, so I took them to Ci Ci's. For thiose of you who are unfamiliar with Ci Ci's, it is a pizza buffet joint. The great thing (for my pocket book) is that on Tuesday's, the kids eat for 99cents. You really can't beat that and let me tell you Isaiah can eat the pizza.

Then it was headed to swimming from 5:00 - 6:00. Then it was soccer from 6:00 to 7:00. After soccer, we went over to the grocery store and picked up a few items and then we headed to the youth room. On Tuesday's night, we invite any youth over to watch AI. We did it just to give a student (students) an opportunity to come and relax and for us to chat about life while the show is on.

We quickly cleaned up, came home and the kids went to bed very quickly. I read a few thoughts on the Dem Primary and Pennsylvania and the mess that situation will be in. I am making this post and then I am going to go watch the Suns / Spurs game.

The Reformation Polka

For 4 minutes of shake your head humor ....