Anyone Seen My Girls?

The house is a bit too quiet. My girls, Ashli and Haley, left for a week long camp yesterday. I know they are going to have a ton of fun, but I already miss them. Dawson, my 6 year old son, said "Well it's just the guys now." So I asked him "What about Mom?" He replied "It's just the guys and 2 girls... Mom and Daisy." Daisy is our Golden Reteiver puppy.

For those of you who are very used to having certain people in your life every day, it is a very empty feeling when they are suddenly gone. God has done an incredible job of wiring us for companionship. I feel very blessed to have such a great family. I can't wait for my girls to get home!

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God and People with every word and every action.

Good People

Think about all the people you connect with every week. I'm sure some of them may make you snarl.... others may make you smile..... others may generate very little reaction. Be careful.... our whole purpose is to love God and love people! (It seems I've seen that printed somewhere else......)

I was thinking about people in my life and several of them make me smile. There is a guy named Brandon who is a worship leader at LifePoint church. I'm finding that Brandon is a guy who thinks thoroughly through everything he does and is willing to do whatever it takes (sometimes on very short notice) to help people connect with God. There is a lady named Kate. She is my boss at AT&T. Kate is a great leader and takes very appropriate control of situations and projects. She is very positive in her daily approach to business. Bob is a guy who appreciates a good scooter. He also happens to drive LifePoint Church and is a catalyst for helping people step toward God. There is a guy named Lee. He is my dad and has taught me so much about life. Phyllis is my mom. She did anything she needed to to keep me in line.... including whoopin' me with whatever happened to be handy (tennis rackets, sweeper handles, etc....) Dan is a guy I trust to give me spiritual guidance and general life advice. He is also fun to hang out with at Applebee's. I do have to teach him a few things about mowing grass though.... :-) Rick is a guy who made some contacts that enabled me to get my job with AT&T. Sam and Jodi are friends and neighbors that are great people in general and help shuttle my kids to school and swimming. Vange is my sweetheart. She is my soul mate. She is the balance for me in life. A man named Jesus became God wrapped in a normal human body and came to this Earth to teach me about life to the fullest. He gave it ALL for me.

CONNECT with people - it is the legacy you will leave.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God and People with every word and every action.

Big God Stuff

YEAH BABY!!!!! (Imagine a screaming cheering crowd... maybe at a football game and our team just scored in overtime to win...) God just scored HUGE... kickin' some disease butt! Here is the basic scoop:

We have some friends (by friends I mean a family that we met a year or so ago and have been steadily building a very meaningful relationship with them) that have had their share of adversity in life. Most recently, one of them was faced with a potentially life threatening physical issue. After a few anxious days waiting for test results, the doctors confirmed God's handy work - All is well!

Psalms 103
103:2
My whole being, praise the Lord and do not forget all his kindnesses.
103:3
He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.


Isaiah 53
53:4
But he took our suffering on him and felt our pain for us. We saw his suffering and thought God was punishing him.
53:5
But he was wounded for the wrong we did; he was crushed for the evil we did. The punishment, which made us well, was given to him, and we are healed because of his wounds.

I can not explain all of God's decisions about healing. Honestly, I get frustrated by good, Godly people suffering from disease. Here is what I know... God is able to heal... period. Sometimes He does it supernaturally, sometimes He uses medical professionals that He has blessed with the gift of healing, sometimes healing takes place when He takes us home to Heaven.

Today is a day of celebration! God, You are magnificent! Thanks for wrapping your arms around us!

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God and People with every word and every action!

Fast Cars

Man, dem sum faast cers! Translation - Man, those are some fast cars. Saturday night, Haley and I went to the Nascar Nationwide race in Madison. (We drug Kyle along with us too.) It was very cool. I found myself wanting to drive a fast car...... That may be a problem since I don't own a fast car... I don't even own a "peppy" car... Rats! The night was certainly entertaining. The knucklehead next to Kyle wanted to pick a fight over who was sitting in what seat... (I don't normally bet, but I would have bet a LOT that Kyle would not have lost his seat.) That situation fizzled quickly when the knucklehead looked at his ticket again and saw his seat assignment. Then there was the girl in front of us who apparently had just got some new tattoos strategically placed on the top front of her body. She felt the need to show them off to everyone. Another girls in front of us was lying down across the seats.... apparently the heat was too much for her.

OK, aside from that nonsense, the race was sweet! Cars buzzing by at 160+ MPH is an adrenaline rush! There were a few crashes, one was bad enough to force a few cars to be towed off the track - noone hurt though. I really enjoyed the night. My favorite part was seeing Haley smile!

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God and People with every word and every action.

Lessons Learned

Have you ever had those AH-HA moments when the light flipped on in your head and there was a lesson learned. Come on... remember when you learned that sticking something metal in the outlet was a bad idea? Remember when you learned that your friends are not perfect... and they even tick you off sometimes? How about when you realized that your parents actually are fairly smart? Spiritual moment warning: How about learning what a huge sacrifice God made by allowing His Son to be tortured for us? (By the way, I'm not God - and if anyone ever comes after Ashli, Haley, Dawson, Griffin, or Vange, I will take them out!)

OK, OK... My big lesson for this week has been "Make sure you accurately evaluate the other Lifegroup's athletic ability in kickball BEFORE you talk trash about whoopin' them." Sunday night, 2 of the lifegroups (small groups) from LifePoint got together and played kickball and had ice cream. Sadly, after I trashed talked Dan's group, my group lost.... by just a run or two...... or twenty - who was counting..... It was a ton of fun, even with the loss. Kyle and Emily (LifePoint's Youth Pastors) came and hung out with us and brought some friends from Texas with them... Nick and Lacey were unfortunately on the losing end of the game.

Alright, enough of that... Next week we are kicking Dan's group's butts in DODGEBALL! Oh yeah baby... bring it on! (Apparently I'm slow to learn lessons..... and, I can't promise that we are actually getting together with them next week......)

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God and people with every word and every action.

Bad Driver

A few nights ago I went to a swim meet and parked my motorcycle in a a row with some other bikes. When we came out of the pool area, we found a few of the bikes had been knocked over. After a bit of investigation, it appears that some talent challenged driver hit the first bike and they "dominoed" from there.... mine was in the middle. Fortunately, my Shadow suffered very little damage. I'm going to another swim meet tonight in the same city.... please pray for my bike's safety!! :-) Paddlers Pirates ROCK!

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God and People with every word and every action!

Variety

This weekend at LifePoint we are going to spend a few minutes adoring God with an acoustic set of songs. We are taking a Rock-N-Roll breather. Psalms 150 says to praise God with all kinds of instruments.... so we are going to use everything we can find..... the message of Christ is worth all of our creative effort!

Check out Psalms 150 from The Message


Psalms 150

1 Hallelujah! Praise God in his holy house of worship, praise him under the open skies; 2 Praise him for his acts of power, praise him for his magnificent greatness; 3 Praise with a blast on the trumpet, praise by strumming soft strings; 4 Praise him with castanets and dance, praise him with banjo and flute; 5 Praise him with cymbals and a big bass drum, praise him with fiddles and mandolin. 6 Let every living, breathing creature praise God! Hallelujah!

Wherever you are, whatever day it is, praise God with all you got (borrow some if you need to... :-)

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God and People with every word and every action.

Holy Crap!

I've been going to church a long time. A few years ago, the Pastor of a church I went to asked if anyone had a testimony (open floor time for people to stand and tell something cool that God did.) A teenage girls stood up and told her story. She was very new to a relationship with God. She wrapped her story up by making the statement "I can't believe that God puts up with all my crap and loves me just the way I am!" All of the air was sucked out of the room as people gasped.... Several people made it very apparent that saying CRAP in the house of God was wrong. She was embarrassed and felt very awkward. When she left that day her primary thought was one of discomfort.

Fast forward a few years in another church setting.... A five year old girl sat and listened to the story of Jesus feeding 5000 people with just a couple fish and few loaves of bread. In the middle of the story, after hearing the amazing details, his young girls blurts out "HOLY CRAP!" Everyone chuckled a bit, and the teacher reinforced the girl's reaction by saying "that's probably what everyone there at the time thought too." This girl left that day with a primary thought of amazement and trying to figure out how Jesus did that.

Here is the question..... What will it take - what does Jesus have to do for you to have a HOLY CRAP moment? Tonight, go out and look at the sky... all the stars.... He named every one. Think back and find a time in your life when something incredible happened and you wondered how it could be. Over the coming weeks, look for times in life that you know God puts His hand on the wheel and drives the situation. Be amazed!

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God and People with every word and every action.

Stunts Gone Wrong

How many of these have YOU tried??




Live loud, live intentionally, and love God and people with every word and every action

Paddlers Pirates

We belong to a swim club called Paddlers. 3 of my 4 kids swim for the club. Last night was our last home meet! Good stuff. Imo's pizza is always a tradition after a swimm meet.... What are your tradition? Hope you are building family memories - it is time well spent!

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God and people with every word and every action.