WifeSpeak

I'm sure I'll be in trouble for this... but it is funny and worth it!

WifeSpeak

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Band Names

I was exploring some new music this morning and it hit me... Where do these people come up with some of these band names? What statement do they make, if any? And of course, because I'm a parent, I always wonder what the band members' parents think about the band name.... Check some of these out...

Infected Mushroom / Public Enemy / Bizarre / Rotting Pumpkin / Death Cab / Dismemberment Plan / Poison (OK this one is old school from back in my day....)

What are some of your "favorite" band names??

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and friends with every word and every action.

Blue Like Jazz thought

I'm reading Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz (painfully slowly...) and ran across an interesting concept. Miller was talking with a friend who admitted cheating on his wife. The friend said when he would lie down next to his wife at night he could sense concrete walls between their hearts. He had fallen prey to lust and envy. He was living with secrets. His wife loved him, but he knew he did not deserve it. He had trouble accepting her affection because she was loving a man that did not exist. He said he was like an actor in his own home.... just playing a role

Since we've been talking about seven deadly sins at LifePoint, I have a clearer picture of Satan's goal... he tries to get us to minimize our NEED for God. He would love for us to ignore potential consequences for our unGodly actions and thoughts. The truth is, when you plant a seed, that is exactly what grows. When our words and actions "plant seeds" that are sinful, sin and it's consequence are what we will reap.... concrete walls between hearts, the ability to relate affectionately is bruised, our soul is dented.

We just talked about laziness at LifePoint and how one of the ideas behind laziness is being consumed by stuff of lesser importance that keeps us from focusing on what is important. This hit home for me last night with my kids...... I found myself consumed in a project, all good stuff by the way, but it kept me from ENGAGING my children. One daughter needed help on a homework assignment, the other challenged me to a game of ping pong, and my boys wanted me to lay down with them for a few minutes and pray with them. What did I do? Kept working on the project because it was time sensitive and important to me. I AM A DORK! What would have happened if I would have taken the extra 30 minutes to play ping pong and lay down with the boys? (I did help a bit with my daughter's homework assignment and install a new computer game for the boys... I was not a total wiener....) I probably would have realized a great joy from building those relationships. Laziness steals our blessing.... I heard a wise man say that Sunday... I do not want concrete walls between my heart and any of my family's hearts so I must be diligent to pursue relationship with God and with my family!

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action!

Griffy-Grif

Today is Griffin's 4th Birthday. We had a family party for him yesterday and it was a lot of fun. Griffin is a boy who really appreciates things. I loved watching him open presents. It was even more fun to play with him and Dawson on the new Shake and Go race track (which took me an hour to assemble...) Today is really a day of celebrating all the happiness Griffin brings to our family!

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / family / anf friends with every word and every action.

King

In a couple of weeks, at LifePoint we are going to be talking about Jesus as King. It's late (about 1 am) and I just finished charting 2 songs for the LifePoint worship team that follow this idea. The songs are King Of Glory by Third Day and Sing To The King by Passion.

What I've noticed lately is that hell is breaking loose all around... and I'm a bit P.O. d... Somehow I'm reminded of a song that Brandon has been leading the LifePoint family in... Blessed Be Your Name..... The idea that when things are great and when things suck, we are to bless God. What in the world does that mean? Since I'm not that smart, I asked Webster's what bless means.

Bless - verb

• to make holy
• to ask divine favor for
• to endow (with)
• to make happy
• to praise
• to make the sign of the cross over

Guess which one of these caught my attention..... To Praise (OK... to make happy also stirred me) I also asked Webster's about king....

king - noun

• a male ruler of a state
• a man who is supreme in some field
• something supreme in its field

So here is the bottom line.... this morning, right now, I am intentionally steering my beliefs, thoughts, and actions to praise the God who is supreme among Gods. Yep, the world is screwed up and I may not be able to FIX it.... but.... if I am playing the role God has asked of me in His story, I CAN make a positive impact. There is a King who gave EVERYTHING for us... what are we going to do with that?

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / family / and friends with every word and every action!

Concrete

It is great to have friends that care enough about you to get out of bed really early on a Saturday morning to wheel barrow concrete and finish my new patio in my back yard! Sam came straight from work off of a 48 (yes, 48) hour shift! (He's a firefighter...) Here are a few pics... A HUGE thanks to Sam, Greg, Dan Kyle, & John for making this happen! I'll show the finished product later...

Weak Post

OK - We did a concrete patio project at my house this weekend... but I haven't loaded the pics yet... So, tomorrowwill be the good stuff. By the way, Jimmie Johson is the NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion for the second year in a row! Rock on Jimmie!

Stupid Humor

Vange (my wife) loves suspense movies... Me? I'll take stupid humor any day! Talladega Nights, Wild Hogs, Anchorman... That kind of stuff. Well along those lines, I love Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy (from Saturday Night Live). Here are a few good deep thoughts...

• Sometimes I think you have to march right in and demand your rights, even if you don't know what your rights are, or who the person is you're talking to. Then on the way out, slam the door.
• One thing vampire children have to be taught early on is, don't run with a wooden stake.
• If you go to a costume party at your boss's house, wouldn't you think a good costume would be to dress up like the boss's wife? Trust me, it's not.
• Instead of having "answers" on a math test, they should just call them "impressions," and if you got a different "impression," so what, can't we all be brothers?
• A good way to threaten somebody is to light a stick of dynamite. Then you call the guy and hold the burning fuse up to the phone. "Hear that?" you say. "That's dynamite, baby."
• Too bad you can't buy a voodoo globe so that you could make the earth spin real fast and freak everybody out.
• The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / family / and friends with every word and every action.

Shirts-N-Stuff

Congratulations to Shirts-N-Stuff on winning the Munchkin Bowl last night! My Nephew, Justin, plays football and last night was the Championship game. Haley and I went to the game and froze our hinies off! It was a good game... lots of action... and a final score of 36 - 12. Rock on boys!

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / family / and friends with every word and every action.

Nascar Crashes

OK, as hoosier as it may be, I'm into Nascar. Jimmie Johnson is about to win his 2nd (consecutive) Nextel Cup this Sunday!! I found this compilation of cool crash clips....



Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / family / and friends with every word and every action.

Demotivators

I work at at&t in a very professional atmosphere. Scattered throughout our buildings are posters designed to motivate the workforce. Since I'm somewhat sarcastic, I found a lot of humor in this website (Despair) that has several spoof posters called demotivators. Check it out... You will laugh (or be laughed at for not laughing.....)Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Lessons Learned

Sometimes things happen in life that that just get filed under the "lesson learned" category. I was leaving church Sunday on my motorcycle and was just about to pull out onto the main road. The bike started choking and eventually died. I was scratching my head (figuratively) trying to figure out why the bike would not start again.... Then it hit me... the "AHAAA" moment. I had failed to turn the fuel back on. I didn't even think about it. I was just going on with my busy day and I guess I got sidetracked.

The lesson learned for me went beyond the physical reminder to turn my fuel on... In life, we have a "fuel" source.... God. We can get so busy that we forget (or choose) not to connect with Him. When this happens, we will simply be lacking the power we need to live big. Oh we can still do a little without the power source.... I guess I could have sat on the bike and powered it FLINTSTONE style.... No thanks - I turned the fuel on!

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and friends with every word and action.

The Jeffs

I have about 5 friends named Jeff.... 2 of them gave me reasons to take a fun shot at them (in "love" of course) this weekend.

Jeff #1

This Jeff was caught in the act of mopping the floor after a Trivia night for my daughters' soccer team. All I can say is the boy looks good doing manual labor.... hey Amanda, you should buy him his own custom mop and bucket for doin' chores around the house! Jeff knows that we are talking about Laziness in a couple of weeks at LifePoint... I think he was just trying to look good so noone would pick on him....

Jeff # 2

This Jeff really cracked me up. He is holding a gift card from Victoria's Secret for a free pair of panties! Here is the story - Sunday at LifePoint we talked about lust... Then last night we had a small group hangout at our house and discussed the topic a bit more. We were talking about the ways that our culture tends to heighten our lust levels. Jeff grabbed his wallet and said "I hate to even show you guys this..." He gets promotions from Victoria's Secret all the time... He pulled out the card and we had a bunch of laughs followed buy some great conversation. Jeff is not alone in this though, Dan, one of the other guys in the goup, also gets VS stuff.... but his comes addressed to "Daniela"... Go figure... I think the little Tender Flower is trying to hide....

OK, OK... after all the laughs and uncomfortable moments I did realize something significant. I have been blessed by the people God has placed in my path.... my FRIENDS. The Jeffs... and many more like them, are a great part of my everday life..... God, thanks for these guys... watch over them and their families today!

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action!

Dedication

I've been riding my motorcycle to work in downtown St Louis all year. It has been getting a bit chilly here. The last couple of mornings I have jumped on the bike in the morning it has been about 30 degrees.... Yikes - at 70 mph that gets COLD! I love the bike though, and I love saving $ because the bike gets 50 mpg. Now That is dedication.

This morning I left for work at 6:30 (on the bike) and it was 40 degrees. I was driving down the road near our high school. I saw this kid (probably 14 years old) walking with his guitar strapped around his neck and playing it. That kid must really love the guitar... and he must have a real drive to be his best. I've seen him a couple of mornings with his guitar. I think I'll stop and ask him to play something for me next time I see him. Then, I hope to see him again several months later and see what kind of progress he has made.

Side note: my kids got their hair cut last night. Dawson (5) was very careful to catch his hair clippings in the cape and wrap them in a kleenex. He brought the hair home for me so I could use his hair on my head.... My hair has been "quiting" on me the last few years and I finally shaved my head last week.... That kid is FUNNY!

Gone Country

I know... it's a bit scary but I really like the new flavor of country music.... Have no fear, LifePoint is not goin' country (ok, maybe a hint of country here and there...). I Tivo'd the 41st CMA awards last night and watched it (and of course skipped some of the lame stuff...) Some of my favorites won awards last night:


Kenny Chesney won Entertainer Of The Year

Sugarland won Vocal Duo Of The Year








Carrie Underwood won Single Of The Year AND Female Vocalist Of The Year




Rascal Flatts performed twice. They opened the show and sounded great. They also closed the show doing a song with Jamie Foxx... and it was horrible... Jamie was great, but Gary was struggling! We all have off moments.... Till next time.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and friends with every word and every action!

Who made THAT?

Have you ever wanted something simply because of who it was made by? You know... quality stuff is worth investing in. I'm a big believer in "you get what you pay for." David is the guitar player at LifePoint. His main guitar was made by Tom Anderson... what a sweet guitar! I would be inclined to buy any product made by Tom Anderson because he has shown his incredible craftsmanship on so many products. (Don't worry... I don't desire David's guitar to the point of a sinful level of envy....)

Who made you and I? Exactly.... God. Think about this; the same hands that carved out the oceans made us. The same hands that stacked the mountains formed our heart to pump blood to every part of our body. The same hands that scattered the stars in the sky carefully painted your eyes blue (or green, hazel, brown, etc). The same hands that crafted the rain forest formed our mouth so we could smile and speak. The same designer that decided gravity is cool put the ability in us to be happy, sad, scared, excited.... etc. Are you getting the picture?

SAME MANUFACTURER

Just in case you've ever wondered how valuable you are, consider your manufacturer. He has a track record of unmatched artistry and attention to detail.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / family / and friends with every word and action you have!

UGLY Wallpaper

Yep... That wallpaper sucks! And what's worse is it will not come off the wall! That was our experience on our first house.... Vange and I have some friends that are embarking on the exciting journey of buying their first house. Lots of fun! Guess what... the house is not perfect... and it needs some updates and fresh paint... you know, some adjustments to make it HOME. So here is the deal - sometimes we walk into a situation that may not be ideal. But, (there is always a "but") we are given a great opportunity to make something better / something beautiful from what we start with. It happens all over in life.... How about job changes..... you get forced out of a comfy job and end up at a new company, making a ton more money. Or your relationship with that special someone expires and you end up with the love of your life... (by the way, this is not advised once you're married... then you must fight for the relationship at all costs!). Take what the world throws at you and know that it's going to be OK... Why? In the words of the Hillsong United song "Salvation Is Here,"



I know my God saved the day and I know His Word never fails and I know my God made a way for me....


Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / family / and friends with every word and action you have!

Time

Do you think about it much? For me, TIME is so much more valuable than money. It is also, I think, the primary indicator of what is important to us as people. (The very first message that Bob Robbins spoke at LifePoint was about identifying what is important to us by seeing where our resources are spent... the resources of Time, Talent, & Treasure.) There are so many good things in life (A.D.D. MOMENT - I'm listening to Carrie Underwood's new release (Carnival Ride) and for the first time in my life I've been totally impressed by the BANJO.... Check out the track "Crazy Dreams.") ... and I'm back.... Where was I... Oh yeah, there are so many good things that we can spend our time on. I would highly encourage you to invest in key relationships above anything. The hierarchy is simple: GOD > FaMiLy > friends and others. A good friend of mine, Dan, gave me a great Biblical overview that supports this. I'll share it sometime.

Here is where I have to be totally honest. I'm not a great time manager. I have to be careful not to put other important things before my wife and kids. This is especially true for church stuff (don't confuse a personal relationship with God and activities done for His church) because it is such a passion for me. Sometimes I can jump into a project with such vigor that family time gets knocked back a notch (and this offends both God and my family.) We can not "coast" in our relationships and expect to have "relational creaminess" (ok, I'm old... I stole that phrase from the old Ace Ventura movie...)

Vange and I are doing a minor remodeling project together in our basement.... there are times when doing projects together causes a bit of..... uhhh.... well, friction. I have purposed to consciously and strategically use our project time together to BUILD our relationship..... talk, dream, and of course, redesign together. I want my kids to have a valid reason to say things like "Dad, thanks for hanging out with me today... that was fun." I want to get in the floor and wrestle with my boys (and my wife... wait, did I just think that or did I type it....) I want to go out and shoot hoops with my girls... I want to let everything else go and snuggle on the couch with Vange while we watch Prison Break (actually, she is the only one watching it, I'm just snuggling...)

Spend your time wisely. It is a limited resource and there is no lottery where you can win more!

Some People....

I have four kids... Ashli (12) Haley (11) Dawson (5) and Griffin (3). Needless to say, we have a LOT of candy ofter our Trick-Or-Treat excursion Wednesday night. The weather was fantastic. After we got home and surveyed the "stash", I decided that there are a few of the candy givers that I need to meet.... Here is a sample of what we brought home....





Look closely.... Crackers? Chips? Rice Cakes? And the kicker..... PACKETS OF HOT SAUCE?
OK - either some people have a great sense of humor (cause honestly, I find that hilarious) or they have real Halloween etiquette issues.... Of course, a bunch of people from LifePoint passed out awesome candy (we hope) and included a business card with a spider web on front that stated "Church... It doesn't have to be scary!" On the back was the church website and service times. Ashli was handing the cards to people that gave her candy.... It was cool to see people slowly backing into their house, letting the door close at a snails pace, and studying the card. Way to go Ashli!

Billboards

Sometimes I see a billboard that actually captures my attention.... and I'm not talking about the hot wing place billboards. There are those signs that provoke thought, and cause me to ponder what they say. I recently saw a group of 4 billboards that Lifechurch (in Oklahoma City) used on a sermon series. Each billboard contains a statement, it is "signed" by Satan, and it has a website listed SatanHatesLife. OK, I did not see the actual billboards, but put yourself in the driver's seat of a vehicle where you see these..... Dude, I would probably wreck the car.....

3. In our attempt to connect people with God, the leadership at LifePoint will do whatever it takes. When I see a campaign like this from a church, it makes me wonder...

• "How many people were offended (maybe it is only traditional church people that are offended by something like this).


• How many people with NO CONNECTION TO GOD were prompted to think about the difference in God's desire for us versus Satan's desires.


• Is there ONE person that could start a journey of a relationship with God because a billboard made them think. Can a "seed" be planted in a person that will grow into a beautiful walk with God all because a church dared to be real and talk about real stuff? (The answer is HECK YEAH!)

Think about it ......

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / family / and friends with every word and action you have!