Memories

Those who know me well have noticed that my MEMORY sucks. However, my MEMORIES are wonderful. For some reason, today I was thinking about my childhood. One of the greatest memories I will ever have was a special present from my Grandma and Grandpa James. My older brother had bought a motorcycle and we had a summer trailer in Carlinville, IL on a campground. There was PLENTY of space, including BIG trails, to ride a motorcycle. I was always craving a ride, and Greg gave me my fair share of rides. But there was still a lot of time just sitting, waiting, and I could hear the winding sound of that Honda XR 75 for what seamed like miles.

One day, back in Granite City, during the week, I had a baseball game. I was 10 years old (maybe 11 by this point). When I got home, my dad told me to stay in the front yard. A minute later, he rolled out this Honda 50.

Dude, I freaked out! My grandparents saw how much I enjoyed riding and bought me my very own motorcycle. This bike was a 3 speed with an automatic clutch. It was bright yellow. What made my bike super cool was that it had LIGHTS! The ironic thing is that my parents and my wife all hate motorcycles now (I have a Kawasaki Vulcan 750). But I will never forget that feeling when my dad rolled out that bike and and gave it to me!!

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

Stuck In A Rut

Sunday, Bob mentioned the idea of a guy who drives his truck into some mud (must be a Redneck.... or my nephew...) gets pulled out (rescued) and then drives right back into the same rut and gets stuck again. The obvious solution in this scenario is TURN THE TRUCK, DUDE! Go a different direction. How many times do we drive into muddy life ruts and get stuck, and after being pulled out we drive right back into them again. [Editorial comment: I'm guilty!] Even if you don't regularly read the Bible, let me challenge all of you to read Romans 6. Try a really understandable version of the Bible (ie The Message or New Century Version) which can be found at http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?word=Romans+6&section=0&version=msg&new=1&oq=&NavBook=ro&NavGo=6&NavCurrentChapter=6

Here are a few excerpts from that chapter:

1 So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving?
2 I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there?
6 Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the Cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life - no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we believe is this:
7 - 8 If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection.
11 From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did
13 Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time - remember, you've been raised from the dead! - into God's way of doing things.
22 But now that you've found you don't have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way!

The bottom line is quit driving back into the rut of sin and getting stuck. What does that look like in everyday life? If you are tempted to do something that puts distance between you and God, take intentional steps to avoid that. If going to Nascar races causes me to act in a way that offends God, guess what.... I need to quit going to Nascar races.... (OK, bad example. I'm not giving up Nascar.... I feel closest to God when I'm watching Nascar... Uhhhh I can't back that up. But I'm still not giving up Nascar.) Get the idea? The plan is simple, implementing it takes courage and determination. But, as Bob always says: YOU CON DOO EAT!

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

Wonder Words

These are wonder words because they make you wonder…

Isn’t it fruitless to eat your vegetables?
Did you ever wonder why funeral starts with the word fun?
Would church music be considered organic?
What are you vacating when you go on vacation?
Wouldn’t it be more accurate to call a fireman a waterman?
In the navy, is a portly person left-handed?
Is a precaution something you get before a caution?
Could we call an abstract painting an artificial artifice?
At sundown wouldn’t you expect nightrise instead of nightfall?
Isn’t kidnapping normal in kindergartens?
Aren’t even small Catholic churches massive?
Can lay people be upstanding citizens?
How come lipstick doesn’t do what it says?
If money doesn’t grow on trees, then why do banks have branches?
If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?
Didn’t rearing children once have something to do with spanking their butts?
If you pull the wings off a fly, does it become a walk?
Instead of a personality, does a dog have a dogality?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Exactly what is so fast about quicksand?
How do you get off a non-stop flight?
Why do they call dwellings stuck together apartments?
Why are there interstates in Hawaii?
Why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways?
How come people recite at a play and play at a recital?
Why are goods sent by ship called cargo and those sent by truck shipment?
In a stadium, why do they call a place where you sit the stands?


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

Rain Blows

I'm tired of rain....Does anyone know any good "sun dances" that would get some rays sent our way??? The rain is killing some of my favorite activities.... Like riding my motorcycle and working in the yard. Vange says she has plenty for me to do inside... but I can't - I have to spray the baked beans and cole slaw out of my mowing trailer...... Let's just say the trailer is a better multi-tasker than I am! Later Gators.

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

Pork Steak?

We spent the day at a fundraiser BBQ today for our girls' soccer team. We had brats and pork steaks. What I found out about a year ago is that pork steaks are a Midwest thing...... It was cool to have so many parents out there helping out. The girls (meaning a few of the soccer moms) were hungry tonight when we got everything put away... and they did NOT want BBQ..... Go figure...... So, we headed to the local Mexican joint and enjoyed! Since I have to be back at the BBQ at daybreak, it's time for lights out. Sleep well all.

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

Brain Fun

Check out these teasers - answers are below:

Apples - A basket contains 5 apples. Do you know how to divide them to 5 kids so that each one has an apple and one apple stays in the basket?

Twins - Two girls are born to the same mother, on the same day, at the same time (Edit: of course, not both at once - one right after the other - you know what I mean ), in the same month and year and yet they're not twins. How can this be?

Just in Time - What occurs once in every minute, twice in every moment, yet never in a thousand years?

Photograph - I am looking at somebody's photo. Who is it I am looking at, if I don't have any brothers or sisters and the father of that man on the photo is the son of my father?




SOLUTIONS BELOW










Apples - solution 4 kids get an apple (one apple for each one of them) and the fifth kid gets an apple with the basket still containing the apple.

Twins - solution The two babies are two of a set of triplets.

Just in Time - solution The letter m.

Photograph - solution I am looking at my son.

Guitar Hero

I have a few guitar heroes that I think are incredible players. Two of them I know personally; David (LifePoint's Axe Man) and Todd (who has also played at LifePoint a few times.) The other two are not personal friends of mine, but they are great players that I love to listen to... James Hollihan Jr (studio cat and played with Russ Taff) and Steve Lukather (studio cat and was the guitar player for Toto.) There are many other smokin players, but these are some of my favorites.... Check out this little clip of Steve Lukather:





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

Behind The Scenes

This past weekend at LifePoint was SWEET! There was an interactive Journey To The Cross set up in our facility. Then, for Sunday morning, we met in a middle school gym, and brought the big guns..... so to speak. It took an incredible amount of dedication and effort to make the weekend happen. So, a HUGE thanks goes out to the creative team who spent hours imagining, building, testing , and tearing down the journey. A HUGE thanks also goes out to the people who gave so many hours to loading in equipment (that trailer fills up quick) , nursery stuff, and Kidmo stuff. Then when all was said and done, they took it back out. We had people working all week building light kites and lighted stage props, wearing out their arms on last minute cuts with dull saws, (power saws are awesome), a killer video team that came and did what they do very well, people who recently had foot surgery carrying everything they could in and out of the school, people wrapping cables and transporting 1000 stuffed animals (well, almost 1000)..... It goes on and on. My friend, Dan, spoke one time about the guy in the Bible who was crippled, and his friends lowered him through a hole they cut in the roof so he could be healed by Jesus. The twist on the story was the question "Who stayed to patch the hole in that roof?" We had some wonderful people who gave of themselves to make sure others could be "touched" by Jesus.... and some who are still "patching the roof." To top it all off, Bob put the smack down and challenged us all to be very proactive with allowing Jesus to use us to rebuild the world into something beautiful again. Do good stuff this week

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

Journey

This weekend at LifePoint, we are having an interactive experience called "Journey To The Cross."

jour·ney
–noun
1.
a traveling from one place to another, usually taking a rather long time; trip: a six-day journey across the desert.
2.
a distance, course, or area traveled or suitable for traveling: a desert journey.
3.
a period of travel: a week's journey.
4.
passage or progress from one stage to another: the journey to success.
–verb (used without object)
5.
to make a journey; travel.

What was it like that last week of Jesus' life? How did He feel? What smell was in the air? What was He thinking?

Jesus' life on Earth, His burial, and His resurrection are only a small glimpse of the journey that He is on so that we may have life to the fullest.... but it is an immensely important part!

A journey is a long, ongoing process. What does YOUR journey look like? Are you ignoring Him? Are you pursuing Him? Are you wrapped up in your little world; starring in your own story? Are you experiencing a love revolution that only Jesus can evoke..... life is short (on Earth at least) play hard (on the right team...)

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

Daisy Update

We brought Daisy home Saturday. She is getting acclimated to us and our routine. She is only 11 weeks old, but she is sleeping through the night in her crate.... next to the kids' beds. She was adopted in celebration of Haley's 12th birthday... so she is really Haley's puppy. But we all claim her. Sunday morning, after I took her out for a potty break, she came back in and fell asleep next to Haley (on the floor)... There is a really cute pic of that moment. Puppies love to chew on EVERYTHING - ponytails included. Daisy thinks it's fun to pin the girls to the ground by dragging them around by their ponytail. Last night provided a couple of great picture moments. My boys were taking a bath and splashing around... well, Golden Retrievers LOVE water. Daisy was trying her best to get in the tub with them.... I put a stop to that. Kyle and Emily came over last night to watch American Idol. Kyle was chewing on a straw and got down on the floor to play with Daisy. This resulted in a straw tug-o-war... Kyle won.





















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

(Lawn) Food For Thought

Have you ever been looking at fertilizer and wondered what the NPK numbers mean? No? Well it used to really bug me, so I got educated on the subject so I could feed my lawn properly. Here it is:

N = Nitrogen Good for Growth, Color, and Density
P = Phosphorus Good for new roots, Seedling root growth, Seedling plant vigor
K = Potassium Good for overall plant health, stress and disease resistance, cold hardiness

Your lawn needs a BALANCE of nutrients to prosper and be healthy. (That sounds like a good life principle in general...)

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

Illusion

This is very cool... it takes about 90 seconds. Nothing scary jumps out at you or anything like that.... Try it




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

Daisy

We found a beautiful Golden Retriever puppy named Daisy. The ugly part is she is 4 hours away, in Kansas City. Haley, Ashli, and I are taking off Saturday morning to go get her (man, I really must love my kids...) We are thinking about changing her name. Here are some options:

• Peanut
• Caramel
• Honey
• Twinkie
• Sundae (like ice cream... it looks like she has ice cream on her bottom lip...) What do you think? It's going to be nice having a dog again.... I'm pretty excited...

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

Shout Your Fame

At LifePoint church, I've heard the lead pastor, Bob Robbins, use a phrase multiple times.... The phrase is some variation of "LifePoint exists to make the name of Jesus great." That is why we do what we do.... so people will connect with Jesus. It's an interesting concept to put FAITH in someone we cannot physically see or hear or touch. When I pray at night with my boys (4 and 5 years old) that is one of the things we say.... "Jesus, I'm crazy about You, even though I can't see you, I believe You're real because I believe the stories about You in the Bible."

If you only get one thing from this blog, let this be it..... I can't see the wind, but I see the EVIDENCE that the wind is real in the blowing trees, the dust tornadoes, long hair being blown.... I see the EVIDENCE of Jesus in changing hearts, broken bodies repaired, strained relationships made beautiful again, and people giving of themselves at an level that is beyond the norm.....

This weekend, we are launching a new worship song at LifePoint called "Shout Your Fame." One of the lines is very appropriate as we approach Easter: "Some say You are in the grave, but I say You're alive!" Another part is a proclamation of how we try to live "...as I live a life that shouts Your fame..." I'm PUMPED!

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

Puppy Time

Vange and I are considering getting a new family pet in celebration of Haley's 12th birthday. Haley is a dog lover Big Time! I've been doing some searching and have found some cuties.





Elana









Popcorn









Lucy






Starr






Lacey





Sally



What do you think?

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

Taxes

YUK! Last night, Vange and I were gathering info and calculating data for our side businesses and all kinds of tax considerations. Not fun. After making an appointment with a CPA and briefly discussing my lawn business, I got bad news. First, I am a likely audit candidate because of my business and personal stuff all meshed together (Great....), second, I am going to have to be much more diligent at record-keeping. It's not going to be hard, I just have to pay more attention.... which goes against my nature. Oh well, when I win (nice homonym) the lottery, I'm paying someone to do my record-keeping.... Wait a minute, when I win, I'm quitting the lawn business..... and every other business!! Go Me! (Dream BIG friends.....)

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

DOGS

I can not remember a time in my life that I did not have a dog.... until now. We lost our Golden Retriever, Sally, about a year ago.

Dogs provide some fantastic companionship, a good reason to go for walks, and opportunities for many smiles. They also need to be cared for, and cost a few dollars. We had a friend over last night who was telling us a hilarious story about their female dog in heat. You can put diapers on a dog?? Really? I guess you actually can learn something every day. Every dog we've ever had was spayed or nuetered very early.

We are considering getting another dog, if the kids convince us that THEY will take care of her. We'll see how that works out.

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

PLOWED!

Holy Shnikees!! We got some snow yesterday in the St Louis area..... enough snow that I had clients that needed their lots snow plowed. I started plowing about 6pm last night, and finished about 3am this morning. I finally got to bed about 3:30am... and got up at 6:30 am for work. Man, I am CRABBY today! The only break in the plowing was the time I took to deliver the music to the band..... of course when I say "I" it is really "we"..... Kyle went along. Of course we had to stop in AppleBees..... Lauren, our regular server, left early before we got there..... She is in trouble!

I'm blogging from the DRIVEN youth service tonight. There are 16 in attendance, and for the first time, the guys outnumber the girls.


They are divided into 2 teams and playing Guesstures.... Kyle said this is their first opportunity to be part of the "Drama Team." This is one of the LOUDEST events I've ever attended....... I like it! Can you spell INTERACTION!?

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

Giving Blood

Friday night, Vange and I gave blood in honor of of 1st grade girl who has leukemia. It is a planned event.... we signed up for this activity.

It was a very small, and basically painless "sacrifice" to be a real help to someone else. As I was sitting there thinking about losing blood, it made me wonder why Jesus would "sign up" to sacrifice for me. There is a phrase that says "Jesus shed His blood for us." What that really means is he was beaten, stabbed, whipped, and had spikes hammered through His hands and feet onto a wooden cross for us. He literally bled for us. Not only was there a physical element to His sacrifice, but more importantly, through a supernatural, God thing, Jesus "paid the price" for everything I will ever do that offends God. There is a scripture (Isaiah 53:5) that says "But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him - our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed." There is healing for the brokeness in our lives; physical, emotional, relational, financial, vocational..... WOW! That is some potent, special blood.

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

Multi-tasking?

I'm not great at multitasking... It's just (hang on, I have to answer the phone....) not one of my skills. Anyway, today I'm managing to correct order errors for AT&T (my job), listen to a streaming radio station called HAIR FLARE (it's all of the rock bands from the 80s), and I've also managed to find a short clip of an old cartoon that has been stuck in my head since one of the youth girls at LifePoint was singing it a few weeks ago...... I like to singa, about the moona and the june-a and the springa.......... kinda catchy! Thanks Haley K!



Here are some of the Hair Flare bands:

• Motley Crue
• Def Leppard
• Firehouse
• Skid Rowe
• Slaughter (This band name really bugs me!)
• Winger
• Whitesnake
• Bon Jovi (And all the girls' hearts go pitter patter.)
• White Lion (Vito is a smokin guitarist!)
• Warrant
• Tesla
• Lita Ford
• Night Ranger
• Ratt
• Poison (This might be clue........)
• Quiet Riot
• Scorpions
• Stryper (Ah yes, the Christian side of 80s rock...)
• Hannah Montana (Not Really)
• Dokken
• Europe (Man I HATE "The Final Countdown")
• Honeymoon Suite (Never heard of them... great sound.)

Until next time...

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

Tournament time

I finally get to see my girls play volleyball tonight!!!! WOOOHOOOO (I'm shaking nothing...) This is a city-wide tournament, so a good chunk of Kyle and Emily's youth group will be battling on the court! I'll start my trash talkin' now.... Grigsby is going down! Coolidge Braves Rock! (Disclaimer: In the unfortunate / unlikely event that Coolidge stinks it up, I'll be removing the trash talk statement.) Take the time and effort to attend your kids' events, or your family's events.....or maybe even your friends' stuff..... The payoff is huge!

Side note - another great t-shirt: 5 out of 4 people have trouble with fractions.

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

T-Shirts

Apparently, there are days that I don't have 96 things on my plate. When that happens, the blog is full of nonsense. Like today. I found some very funny t-shirts. Some of the appropriate ones are shown below:

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

Personal Challenge

Short blog today... We talked Sunday at LifePoint about slowing down, being still, and taking effort to connect with God. As I look through my PDA and see all of the "stuff" on my plate, I'm challenged to find, or better yet - make time for that connection. We had a great discussion in our Lifegroup Sunday night and identified several things that fill our schedules. Most of it was relating to our children... I put the kids up for sale on eBay last night. (Uhhhh, no not really...) Can we find the balance of time with God, time with family and friends, and time for our selves? I sure hope so. Good luck!

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

Crazy Friday

I got to work from home again today. Vange and I went to lunch with Kyle and Emily. That means that my boys were under the watchful eyes of my girls. We got back to the house and my normally blonde-headed boys now had very red hair. On top of that, they had their fingernails and toenails painted.... each a different color. We took some crazy pictures. Lots of fun!













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

Workin' From Home

My chain of command is comprised of men who care about their people. So, with the ugly weather we are having in the St Louis area, they had our team work from home today. Having a VPN connection into AT&T's network is SWEET! So today, I sat in my PJs and worked a while. Then, Vange, Griffin, and I went to lunch (El Torrero).

Relationships are a HUGE deal to God, and they should be a huge deale to us. It was nice today to just spend time with my wife and "baby" boy. Every once in a while, I'd get up from my desk and chase Griffin around the house. I offered to chase Vnge around - she declined :-(

Side note: I'm pumped about this weekend.... it's a bit funny. We are going to be talking about slowing down and hearing God's voice this Sunday at LifePoint. When Bob and I were planning the journey for the day, we decided that the music for the day would remain HIGH ENERGY.

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

I Know I'll Be In Trouble For This...

Some things are best not shared... others, well, I just can't pass this up. When I saw this I cracked up; especially since I work in a Tech Support environment.

Dear Tech Support: Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0. I soon noticed that the new program began unexpected child processing that took up a lot of space and valuable resources. In addition, Wife 1.0 installed itself into all other programs and now monitors all other system activities, such as Poker Night 10.3, Football 5.0, and Softball 3.6 I can't seem to keep Wife 1.0 in the background while attempting to run my other favorite applications. I'm thinking about going back to Girlfriend 7.0 , but the uninstall doesn't work on Wife 1.0. Please help! Thanks, Troubled User.....

REPLY: Dear Troubled User: This is a very common problem that men often complain about. Many people upgrade from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0, thinking that it is just a Utilities and Entertainment program. Wife 1.0 is an OPERATING SYSTEM and is designed by its Creator to run EVERYTHING!!! It is also impossible to delete Wife 1.0 and to return to Girlfriend 7.0 . It is impossible to uninstall, or purge, the program files from the system once installed. You cannot go back to Girlfriend 7.0 because Wife 1.0 is designed to not allow this. Look in your Wife 1.0 manual under Warnings: Alimony-Child Support . I recommend that you keep Wife 1.0 and work on improving the situation. I suggest installing the background application Yes Dear 2.7 to alleviate your program problems. The best course of action is to enter the command C:\APOLOGIZE! because ultimately you will have to give the APOLOGIZE command before the system will return to normal anyway. Wife 1.0 is a great program, but it tends to be very high maintenance! Wife 1.0 does come with several support programs, such as Clean and Sweep 3.0, Cook It 1.5, and Do Bills 4.2 However, be very careful how you use these programs. Improper use will cause the system to launch the program Nag Nag 9.5 Once this happens, the only way to improve the performance of Wife 1.0 is to purchase additional software. I recommend Flowers 2.1 and Diamonds 5.0 WARNING!!! DO NOT, under any circumstances, install Cute Secretary 3.3 . This application is not supported by Wife 1.0 and will cause irreversible damage to the operating system! Best of luck, Tech Support

Moral of the story? UPGRADE WISELY!!!

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

Nothin'

Day too crazy... Can't post.... Be back tomorrow

Lifegroup Trash Talkin'

Last night was our first lifegroup hangout since we took a big group and sent it to 2 separate locations. It was a great night.... Lots of laughs, lots of encouragement, lots of honesty... We really are helping each other stay on the right path in our journey with God. (Quick ADD prayer: God, through US be the REMEDY.)

It was Mexican night last night.... Wow, Mexican candy is HOT! But at least we had 40 tacos (yes, 40) from Jack in the box to make everyone happy.... I'm having my cholesterol checked later.... Scary!

On with the trash talkin'..... We have determined (via very scientific means) that our Lifegroup is the absolute BEST! That's right baby.... We have an incredible mix of people who are learning how to best Love God and Love People. So, we are going to issue a Fear Factor challenge to the other Lifegroups at LifePoint Church. We'll be getting details out to the loser, I mean less great, Lifegroups.... All we have to say is BRING IT! What does that mean? It means that Dan, Jeff, John, Kyle, and Bob will need to prime their groups for some COMPETITION! (Our group will go a bit easy on Dan's group because they are our partner group..... but not TOO easy...)

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

Volleyball - Engage

I got to catch the last part of my girls' volleyball game yesterday. The girls' team was victorious, winning 2 of the 3 games. Then we all went to Fazoli's to eat. Our whole family went, along with some close friends. The game itself was very cool, some long volleys, some great skill. Fazoli's is always a winner too. But the thing that was so cool was that I learned some stuff:

• Dawson (my 5 year old son) is nearly uncontrollable when he has been eating sugar all day
• Haley has a great serve.... now that she steps forward on the correct foot
• Sam earned some bragging rights by scoring on his son, Ian, in indoor soccer
• Emily walked a tightrope.... several girls in her youth group play for Coolidge. She teaches at Alton... the game was Coolidge vs. Alton AT ALTON
• Kyle, myself, Dawson, and Griffin were burning up!! Alton is not afraid of the furnace!
• My wife, Vange, is as beautiful as ever!
• Ashli will be a GREAT mother some day.... like when she is 30!
• Nikki and Baylin want to be tied in to a Lifegroup at LifePoint.
• Cheri, my niece, heads back to Belgium today to reunite with her husband.
• Becky, my sister-in-law is directionally challenged (so am I).

What does all that mean? Take time and effort to engage the people in your life. It's OK to share stuff about yourself. It is also very beneficial to truly be interested in THEM. Talk about stuff, pray about stuff, don't be afraid to have a different opinion, take walks together, take your motorcycles out on the river road (Keith... I feel the wind now), scrapbook and go to the movies... or just go to the movies (you know who you are). Go to your kids' games, or go to your friends' games, invite people for dinner.

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

NASCAR Returns

I have plans Sunday. Haley and I are watching the Daytona 500. NASCAR's 2008 season opens this weekend.... I'm pumped! (I know.... that scares some of you....) We are big Jimmie Johnson fans... Go #48!! I happened to catch a commercial that cracked me up... especially because I'm not a big Tony Stewart (#20) fan.... Check this out:




Jeremy Mayfield (one of Stewart's competitors) is the guy controlling the truck. I love it!

Side note: no soda yet.... my Lent commitment is still in tact.

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

Lent - Who's idea was this?

I'm already getting crabby.... Coca-Cola is going to wonder why their sales are down! I'm giving up soda for Lent (a couple of guys I work with think it's wrong to disclose what you are giving up for Lent based on Matthew 6:16-18... but I'm just being real...). I was Challenged by a blog from Bob Robbins (LifePoint Lead Pastor) to create opportunities to be reminded of Christ's sacrifice for us. On a daily (almost hourly) basis, I will have the chance to focus on Jesus because of soda denial. Isn't that the goal? For me it is. We are singing a worship song this weekend at LifePoint called From The Inside Out (Hillsong United). Here are a few of the lyrics that hit home for me.... deeply:

Your will above all else, my purpose remains
The art of losing myself in brining You praise.....

In my heart in my soul I give You control
Consume me from the inside out, Lord....

.... And the cry of my heart is to bring You praise
From the inside out

What can you DO to intentionally tighten your relationship with Jesus?

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

Planning Ahead

This may scare you, but I'm looking 7 weeks ahead to Easter. Part of what I do at LifePoint is design and lead the worship sets. Easter is a huge deal. (I actually agree with my Dad who says "I celebrate Easter every day of my life...") I've been doing some digging for some songs that will be an excellent fit for Easter Sunday. Some of them we already do at LifePoint, and some of them would be new. I thought I'd share some of these songs with you. If you get a chance, pull some of these up on YouTube or iTunes and take a test drive.

• Arise - Paul Baloche
• Happy Day - Tim Hughes
• Jesus Paid It All - Passion / Kristian Stanfill
• Lord I Lift Your Name On High - Lincoln Brewster
• Mighty To Save - Hillsong United
• My Redeemer Lives - Hillsong
• Shout Your Fame - Hillsong
• Take It All - Hillsong United

Side note: I dug up some Christian Rock from "back in my day" and have been JAMMIN all morning! This stuff is from 1989 and 1992:

• WHITEHEART - Freedom
• ALLIES - Man With A Mission

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

Remedy

Great news! My God continues to wrap His arms around his kids....... I just got off the phone with a good friend of mine whose daughter has faced serious health issues her whole life. In the last few weeks, there has been positive movement in her body. Today, she is doing better than she has in the last 2 years, and her treatments have been cut in half! Yesterday at LifePoint we sang a new song from David Crowder called "Remedy." Check out these lyrics:

Here we are Here we are
Bandaged and bruised Awaiting a cure
Here we are
Here You are Here You are
Our beautiful King, Bringing relief
Here You are with us

Oh I can't comprehend, I can't take it all in
Never understand such perfect love come
For the broken and beat, the wounded and weak
Oh come fall at His feet He's the remedy He's the remedy

Yep, that brings tears to my eyes when I think about God's impact in our everyday life. I love hearing good stories.... and sharing them!

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

Paperwork

Yuk! I've spent a good amount of time today trying to get my boys' soccer team registered for the 2008 season. This includes driving by the parents' houses to get documents and signatures.... and a ton of..... wait for it....... that's right....... PAPERWORK! Rosters, waivers, registrations, Oh My! This is what it looks like when I'm doing paperwork.....












It's all worth it though..... The boys have a blast!

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

Stealing a Blog

A fellow LifePointer had an incredible blog a few days ago..... So, I'm stealing Kim's blog and posting it here. Check this out.



I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cellphone?
What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
What if we flipped through it several time a day?
What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
What if we used it to receive messages from the text?
What if we treated it like we couldn’t live without it?
What if we gave it to kids as gifts?
What if we used it when we traveled?
What if we used it in case of emergency?
This is something to make you go… hmm… where is my Bible?
Oh, and one more thing. …
Unlike our cell phone, we don’t have to worry about our Bible beingdisconnected because Jesus already paid the bill.
Makes you stop and think “where are my priorities?”
And no dropped calls!





























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

Goin' Back

I was looking through my CD collection last night (at least it was not my TAPE collection, or even worse..... my RECORD collection....). I grabbed a few CDs I have not heard for a while and listened to them today. There is some really good stuff, and some stuff that I now remember why I haven't listened to it lately... here is the stuff:

• Eric Johnson - Alien Love Child-Live and Beyond
• Phil Keaggy - 220
• The Normals - Better Than This
• Clear - Clear
• Phil Keaggy - Time 1 (1970-1993)

What old stuff do you have that when you listen to it, it takes you to another time or chapter in your life? Dig that stuff out... and turn it UP!

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

Wakeboarding

It was 76 degrees here yesterday.... and the Boat Show is in town this weekend. We NEVER miss a boat show. I just got to thinking about being on the water again. We have a Mastercraft Maristar 200 VRS tow boat.... LOVE IT! With the kids, we mainly tube behind the boat.... but occasionally I like to try my skills on the wakeboard. Since both my knees have been rebuilt (ACL reconstructions) I'm a bit leary of going ALL IN on the stunts. I found this crash reel for some wakeboarding.... It looks a lot like me.... especially the actual crashing parts!




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

Great Weekend

This weekend was super busy, but great anyway. Friday night we got to hang with some friends and eat at El Torrero..... one of our favorite places! The snow gave me a change to make a few extra $$.... I have a snow plow and snow blowers..... LifePoint had 170+ people for the 2nd week in a row. Sunday afternoon our house was filled with friends and family as we had a small group meeting after church. That was followed by a few other people coming to hang out for SuperBowl 42. The best part..... The Giants beat the Patriots!! Haley (my Daddy's Girl) and I have now become Giants fans!! Time to get back to work.... This Sunday we are wrapping up the ALL IN series at LifePoint, and I'm busy charting the newest worship song we are going to introduce this weekend (it goes great with Sunday's message): David Crowder's "Remedy."

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

Mother's love

There is stuff that a mom can get away with that noone else can... You know... when the kid's face is dirty and mom basically spits on her fingers and rubs the dirt off...... Well, in that spirit, Vange pulled a doozy today. The kids were going out to play in the snow.... Since their hands always get cold, she decided to take some socks and cut fingers out of them. So, the socks went all the way up their arms to keep the snow off their hands. Sweet!

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

Somethin' to shoot for

Most people have that person, group, or team that they want to be like. While my truest goal is to be exactly what God wants me to be, I do have people that provide a pattern for me.... One of those areas is leading worship. There are many great worship leaders... and I think they are great for different reasons. There are guys who rock, but still focus heavily on who God is.... Jeff Deyo is great at this. There are people who are very artistic and expressive.... guys like David Crowder. There are those who are great at following the sweet spirit of God and helping people follow that leading... girls like Darlene Zschech. There are bands that bring incredible energy to the art of worship... bands like Fusebox and Kutless. There are the top notch musicians bringing praise to God through their instruments... guys like Lincoln Brewster. The house band at 722 is another favorite for just all-around connection of people to God. I was watching a Hillsong United DVD tonight and thought "Man, if there is anybody who does the worship experience with excellence, it is this team!" Joel Houston and Marty Sampson are gifted and annointed leaders..... These guys give me something to shoot for.



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

Taking Advice

I am blessed that God has placed so many quality people in my path.... People who genuinely care about me. I had a chance to hang out with one of those friends recently. We got talking about the approach I have been taking in one of the areas that I get a chance to influence people. He offered some ideas that may help me do things in a way that would better benefit people. I felt very comforted and took the advice to heart. For me, this was a simply spiritual moment: Proverbs 23:12 says Listen to instruction and do your best to learn.

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

172 - Yeah Baby!

Went to the Doc yesterday... got PLEURISY.... it SUCKS! That's why it kills me to sneeze and cough. Doc hooked me up with lots of drugs.... Big Dog drugs too! Should be feeling better soon.

So, yesterday I mentioned that there were some positives to what was an overall crappy weekend for me.

1. 7 youth from DRIVEN went to Winter-Jam (I went too). Watching their interaction was very cool! (Although I think they may have been sleeping during MercyMe.) Taking a youth group to McDonald's late on a school night is always a treat! Continue to build those relationships.....
2. Sunday morning, LifePoint had 172 people in attendance. That is huge! There were 3 brand new families this weekend. People are being relocated to the Glen Carbon / Edwardsville, IL area for their career, and they are finding LifePoint on the web!

My fingers still hurt... so I'm done for now.....

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

Goin' to the Doc

OK - The sick thing keeps kickin' my butt! I'm getting ready to leave work early and go to my doctor.... I'm fearing I have a touch of "PEW-MONIA". The weekend was a tough one... and on top of that... Winter-Jam was a disappointment.... (which could be partially due to me feeling like crud!) (Side note: Skillet Rocks!) There were some positives though.... they are for tomorrow's blog.... my fingers hurt!

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

Sick

I feel terrible. This is what my blog looks like when I feel terrible.

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

Date Night - Revisited

OK - so our wives, and our friends (Brooke), are concerned about the boys hanging out on Tuesdays. We have a plan.... spend more time with our wives.... and continue solving world problems during Tuesday's Date Night. Sound good? (The best solutions are usually the simple ones....) Last night, Dan, Kyle, Alan, and I hung out. Here is the list of important activities we accomplished:

• Ordered food


• Discussed possible service times for LifePoint


• Helped Lauren (the waitress) work through her anger


• Ate food


• Talked extensively about midgets..... don't know why


• Got several soda refills


• Solved world hunger - told noone..... not really


• Left a huge tip

It was a good night.

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

Friday Night Prep

LifePoint started using a new presentation software package this weekend... By the way, it was SWEET! So, anytime there is a shift in the tech world for LifePoint, it requires some preparation and attention to detail. This is what an exciting Friday night looks like when we are gearing up for an incredible Sunday morning journey.

There are a lot of people that work hard to make LifePoint a great place to connect with God. I continue to learn that anything worthwhile takes EFFORT and PREPARATION! Don't play safe... go ALL IN and see what God does because of your obedience!!

Side note: coming soon..... great shots of cool outfits.... maybe even a neat BAND HAT!

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

Hold Your Breath

OK - try this little experiment. Hold your breath as long as you can.... go ahead, I'll wait. Did anyone pass out? No? Maybe you aren't trying hard enough.... just kidding. Did you notice your body's sense of urgency for you to breathe? Air is critical for life. Yep, you can make it for a short time without air, but eventually you pass out, or even worse.... DIE. There is a song we sing at LifePoint called The Air I Breathe. Several artists have recorded it... Rebecca St James has my favorite version. The song metaphorically refers to Jesus as the air that we breathe. It goes on to state that "I'm desperate for You.... I'm lost without You."

What would happen if we treated our relationship with God / Jesus as that critical? To be honest, I'm just another screwed up guy... but I'm becoming more and more intentional about my journey with my savior; about every action I take and everything I say. I've had to be very real with Jesus the last few days.... The prayers have went something like this: "Jesus, today I'll have the opportunity to make you smile by what I do. I'll also have the chance to screw up by @&*$%#((&$%^! Please help me make wise decisions today that keep me far from making sinful choices. Thanks. Talk to You later.)

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

DRIVEN

I got the chance to hang out at LifePoint's youth service last night. It is called DRIVEN. Last night was the first time that the DRIVEN band got to play live..... I was super stoked! They did great! After the band finished, Kyle (the youth pastor) talked about facing your fears... He challenged the kids to find an opportunity this week and overcome a fear by acting with boldness, understanding that boldness comes from God. Good stuff!!

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

DATE NIGHT

Every Tuesday night, a group of guys go hang out at Applebee's in Edwardsville near SIUE. Our wives call it "date night".... and they are a bit concerned actually..... We have been building a relationship with one of the waitresses. We've talked about silly stuff, relationships, her boyfriend, our wives, fights at the bowling alley, LifePoint..... She is a graphic artist, so we have been taking in the series cards from LifePoint for her to see.... and talking about maybe her doing some art stuff for the church. I look forward to the Sunday that her boyfriend and her pop in on a service at LifePoint and start a life changing journey.

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

American Idol Returns

We've been bitten by the American Idol bug..... Vange, Ashli, Haley, and I love to Tivo AI and watch it together with some popcorn and a good cold Coke. I wish they would condense the"horrible / idiots" section to just one night and get on with the talented people.... but that's just me. Have fun, and remember, just because they are CALLED American Idols does not mean they are to be worshipped.....

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

No Way

A good friend sent me this video compilation of humorous things that have happened at church.

LifePoint had a bit of humor this weekend also..... one of the set design pieces that was hanging from the ceiling fell while Bob was speaking..... Gotta laugh sometimes.

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

Crazy Mac

Friday nights are made for FUN! I got home tonight and the family was playin' with Photo Booth on the Mac. Here is my crazy family.




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

Let Love In

So many times I say or do something that contradicts my basic values in living by Godly principles. So, I ask myself (all the time) am I looking for ways to be like Jesus to those around me? In the Bible there is a story (Matthew 25:31-46) about taking notice of people in need... and actually doing something about it. On top of that, what is my attitude like to my wife and kids in simple everyday life? Ephesians 4:32 says "Be kind and loving to each other, and forgive each other just as God forgave you in Christ." One of the principles that we are teaching our kids (over and over) is to treat others the way you would like to be treated. Romans 12:10 - "Love each other like brothers and sisters. Give each other more honor than you want for yourselves." Matthew 7:12 says "Do to others what you want them to do to you. This is the meaning of the law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets."

So what will our world look like when we really allow these Christian lifestyle principles to flow out of our everyday life? Let's find out. Let Love in.

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

Addicted

No great revelation today, no analogies, no video clips...... Today I got to work from home. I got to just be around my wife, Vange, and youngest son, Griffin. I got to feed my addiction. Yep, the more I'm around them, the more I want to be around them.... all of them.... my family that is.... (...and Kyle & Emily..... :-) This is what a guy looks like when he is working from home and realizes all he is blessed with:



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

Air Guitar Hero

I've tried Guitar Hero a couple times... not so good...... I actually play real guitar... And I think I'm getting messed up on GH because I have only tried the EASY setting. I'm hearing more than is showing on the screen.... Maybe I should try a harder setting. My argument may not hold water though.... David, the guitar player at LifePoint, was smokin' the first time he played GH. Oh well... I think I've found my solution.... Check this out:



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

Influence

This past Sunday, Bob was talking about investing in key relationships. One statement he made was "We all influence people - is your influence positive or negative?" If you are a Christ follower, do you take effort to engage people who are not like you? Do you have only Christian friends, hang out in only Christian bookstores, use a Christian auto mechanic, attend only Christian concerts? Check out the 4 Gospels in the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and get an idea of the kinds of people that Jesus engaged and the places he went. Check out Matthew 9:9-13.

The relationship with Jesus is the most incredible thing I've experienced... and I would love to infect others with that opportunity. If you are part of a local church, think about this: When unchurched people walk through the doors of your church, do everything you can to show them applicable principles from God's word. If we simply regurgitate lifeless, theological points, they will shed you like sun-scorched skin. Spend time with real, normal, unchurched people. Understand their perspectives, their needs, and be a part of life-change.



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

Game Night (DORK)

OK... I've never claimed to be that smart..... Here is the story. Vange, Ashli, Haley and I decided to play Scategories last night. It was my first time, so I was slowly soaking it in. Basically, in the game you must name several different things from listed categories that all start with the same letter. On our second round, the letter was "C" and a few of the questions were:

• Name a famous female


• Name a character in the Bible


• Name a junk food

You get the idea. Well I started off great... Chelsea Clinton. The rest of my answers started with P, not C. I have no idea why. On round 3, the letter was "A". Haley helped me out by adding the huge "A" to the top of my answer sheet for that round. I am a DORK! We had a lot of fun though, we laughed and played well together.

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

Mentor

Do you have someone in your life who has really shown you the ropes in one area (or many areas) of life? In the last few days I've had the chance to do a couple of home improvement things in other people's homes. One of them asked me "Where did you learn to do all this stuff?" I've had the benefit of a mentor in my life that has shown me how to do a lot of stuff.... automotive stuff, home repair and improvement stuff, sound reinforcement stuff, business relationship stuff, and how to critically think about what is happening in your environment (intuition). G, thanks for all you do! Invest HEAVILY in PEOPLE and accept readily their investment in you!

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

Christmas Card

I was hanging out at a friend's last night and saw a Christmas card that cracked me up. I was trying to chuckle under my breath, but that did not really work. Check this out:

The caption reads: If Santa had named the reindeer while drinking Nog...


In case you can't read the reindeer names, they are:
The Brown Dude
Horn Head
Stinky Butt
Spot
Horn Head #2
Lloyd
Poopy
Horn Head #2 (Yes, there are 2 named Horn Head #2)


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

Be a Leader

As much as I dislike reading, I love knowledge. I bought this book a year ago at the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta. I just started reading it a few days ago. John Maxwell teaches how to be an effective leader at every level of an organization. I'm looking forward to gaining much insight from this book.... which may take about 6 months for me to read......

Keep this in mind: We will have opportunities to exercise influence in all directions: UP (to the boss or your leader), ACROSS (among your peers or equals), and DOWN (to those you lead).

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