Heavy Revy…

When we try and prepare for the future, it always seems the testing comes through the things we missed along the way. For those that do not already know, Megan (my wife) will be giving birth to our baby girl near the end of August. It seems like there are so many factors envolved and the more we prepare the more it’s dawning on me that things we “miss along the way” will in fact affect another human being. Most everything she learns from us, she will teach to her offspring, and so on to the generations to follow. The responsibility is beyond words to describe. Although, only a mere ripple, it is eternity in the making. Selah.
Ecclesiastes 3:11
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Gotta Practice What I Preach!

Yeah, so yesterday was pretty rough…

I woke up in the morning similar to the way I wake up every morning with a “God please help me today cause I’m not gonna make it without you” kind of prayer. As we all know time is truly a valuable thing. I’m learning more accurately its worth as of late. When I crawled out of bed at 5:30am yesterday I went straight to the practice room to get ready for Chapel in the morning (for worship) and touched up on some backlogged homework. I somehow got ready and was off to the Church by 7:30. The rest of my day until 6:pm was committed to interning. Thats when I left for Middleburg band practice. I got home just before 10:pm exhausted and as I collapsed stretched out on my living room floor, my wife, who I hadn’t seen since Sunday afternoon (awake at least), greeted me on the ground as I went into this “woe is me” dissertation on how of all the bazillion things that I needed to get done that day I probably finished two things. The bad part is, the things I did finish, didn’t even need to be done yet.

So whats my point?

I need to back track first and explain how earlier (the last time I had spoken to my wife in person) Megan was working through the weekend on a huge court case that had trial this week all the way out in Green Cove. She was feeling overworked and was explaining to me very stressfully all the things that she needed to get done around the house, but couldn’t. So what did I do? Well, I scripture whipped her from Proverbs, Romans and Hebrews for being discouraged and not ” finishing the race” with excellence. She took it like a champ! …thankfully!

So back to last night. I’m laying on the floor, beat up from the long week and overly worried about how I’m going to finish everything and still meet all these deadlines. Then it dawns on me; didn’t I just address this same issue with Meg earlier in the week? So gradually all my worries took a step back and were replaced with a healthy dose of embarrassment. Megan had the grace to listen to me anxiously explain my circumstance without any direct reply to the subject.

I woke up this morning with one objective; to finish the race and practice what I preached.

So I built a Telecaster Electric Guitar Today…

  Well, lets just say I spent entirely too much time on this little side project 

Really! I ordered all the parts through the internet and assembled this thing myself. It took about 8 or 9 man hours over the last two months to physically build.

Optimistically Overwhelmed

When God takes you to that place inside your own heart and reveals exactly where he has you, is it not mind blowing!?!   A great example is when you get married and a couple  of weeks after the honeymoon you roll over in bed and everything inside you comes to this realization, YOU ARE MARRIED! Wow!  Well this morning was one of those mornings.  I woke up around 5:45am, the alarm had not gone off yet and I was going over all the things I had to do this week and weekend.  It went like this, o.k., I need to get ready for this morning’s EDJ chapel worship, I’ve got Middleberg band rehearsal this evening so I need to learn this new song before 5pm, I still need to work on getting comfortable with Saturday’s LateNite  at OP ’s set list, not to mention I really want to be spiritually prepared for Saturday night and Sunday morning leading worship so I need to stay regimented in the word and disciplined in my alone time with God. Can you see a common denominator?

How good is God?  All my life I had this desire to practice, practice, practice music and one day the Lord began to use that desire for his Kingdom.

I try not to think about it too much, where God has me. The human nature inside tends to get big headed and the last thing I want is to steal glory from my creator.  Every time I do, I wind up being bombarded with shame and guilt for not playing a perfect set or maybe even deeper, like starting to struggle with a certain areas in my life.  You can always bet the formula is always consistent; my glory (the things I take pride in doing on my own) seem to always bring the most shame into my life when I mess up.

But still, God brought me there this morning and I felt every ounce of my being line up as I lay there in my bed.  Out of all the years of my life’s wanderings and searchings I never experienced these kinds of “self realizations.”  I know that particular term is used in the secular community a lot, I’m just at a loss for explanations.  Could I say I felt the cosmos lineup this morning… yes.  Could I say I felt the Holy Spirit bringing peace to an almost chaotic schedule…yes.  Could I say its more of a “God’s will for my life realization”… absolutely.

My heart is optimistically overwhelmed. God has truly given us a life of exciting adventure!  I feel the peace on me. I can only hope I take in everything God has for me and my house in this season.

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The Pouring Out and The Pouring Into.

For anyone that doesn’t know out there, this past weekend was the Celebration Church’s SHINE Womens Convention. All I can say is wow. There was so much to do to pull the convention off, on top of maintaining the normal intensity level for the regular services. I was absolutely amazed in seeing God do his work in and through everyone that had anything to do with this huge event. To be totally honest, I didn’t realize how much everyone had put into it until 5:00 am Sunday morning when I was on my way to the Middleberg Campus and my entire body from head to toe ached incredibly. I thought about everyone else and how they must have been feeling too.  There were seriously hundreds of people working as hard they could all week and weekend… mind blowing.

Sunday morning service was absolutely positively an episode of God’s glory being revealed. Physically, emotionally, and spiritually stretched to our limits God provided the sustainment, it seemed, for an absolutely ecstatic worship experience and life +- CHARGING-+ service. I can recall explaining to someone why I attended Celebration Church almost four years ago; “every time I go, I leave there really believing God exist, knowing that I’m saved and ready to take on the on slot of life’s challenges”. It’s still true today.

Sunday afternoon was such a blessing. I truly felt empowered in the spirit more than ever. My wife and I both were literally smashed! It was a high higher than any high I’ve ever felt before. Just to think; I used to pay a lot of money for that feeling. The time that I didn’t get to spend with my wife through out the past couple of weeks was multiplied to the nth degree that afternoon and the next. God has given Megan and I so much more and brought us so much deeper than we ever dreamed. Selah.

Here is what I’m taking away from this weekend:

Investing ones life in the house of the Lord, pays back huge dividends and when it doesn’t seem so, it’s still always worth the sacrifice, because in everything, God works for good for those who love him. So when we feel we’ve poured our last drop out, know that our cup always overflows and God’s plan for us is good and his mercy is forever!