I wear plaid. I'm a blogger.

The past two weeks I have spent at CIY Move, a high school conference designed to engage teens in a deeper walk with Christ. There have been some truly inspiring messages, worship moments, and devotional times and many teens have made commitments to Christ throughout both of these weeks. I love to be a part of things and learn what is "popular" among teen worship services and also to glean ideas from CIY. As I sit back and try to procure ideas, I find myself critiquing what they do more than I ought to. I have found that CIY does a great job at two things in particular: 1) Putting on a show. Technically speaking, these guys pull out all the stops. It is a rock concert gone Jesus! Smart light fixtures, moving color washes, triplewide environmental projection, on stage props, and IMAG up-tight camera shots. 2) Not putting on a show. All of the worship leaders do a great job of deflecting the cheers towards God after songs, speakers remain humble, and they make sure to put...

Psalm 8:2 says, " Through the praise of children and infants      you have established a stronghold against your enemies,      to silence the foe and the avenger." and Jesus quotes this verse during the triumphant entry in Matthew 21 . I have always liked the imagery of this verse--of kids giving God praise and of babies understanding an element of worship that adults don't get.  But just this past couple days, I have listened to Isaiah start to talk. Well, talk might not be the best word to describe it. Babble isn't quite it either. He speaks in jibberish. Baby jargon that no one can make heads or tails of. He is just talking to talk. And I love it! I love to hear his voice babbling away because it reminds me that he is made in my likeness and he is learning to express himself through speech.  And as I was listening to Isaiah "speak", I remembered Psalm 8. "From the lips of children and infants..." wait a minu...

A couple weekends ago I committed to run a half marathon (13.1 miles) which marks the farthest run I have ever completed by a long stretch. It was a strangely telling experience of much of my personality and the process of completing the race taught me a lesson or two along the way.  The telling part of my personality is that I do much better when I am in community with people than when I am by myself. In this case, I would not have finished the race in nearly the time I did (1:56:06) had I not been running with Brian who was coaching me the whole way and cheering me along with his presence. I think anyone who runs (or doesn't run) will gladly admit to you that running in community is much more enjoyable than running by yourself. I will testify to that. There were several times I wanted to stop. Specifically at mile 8 and 10, I could feel my legs really starting to weary themselves with the monotony of the repetitious movement of the run. As my legs told my brain that they...

Since the creation of facebook and twitter, funny stories that occur throughout the day are lost in 120 character posts that are buried underneath themselves. The following are a few highlights of the past couple weeks: -Today, I ran out of milk and only realized so after I boiled the mac and cheese. The logical thing to do? Just add water. The taste bud's response? Gross. -Had a great conversation with Zach Steever about wood today. -Took the top off of the MooMobile and found out that it looks like he is taking care of business, while taking care of business.... -Taught my son how to toss a ball. This one is not funny, but very sweet! :) -Aaaaaand, I'm sure there are more, but now it is time to finish preparing worship plans and get ready for tonight's softball game against Parkside #1

I ran 11 miles this morning after being invited by Brian and Don to join them on the second leg of their training run this morning. This marks the longest run I have been on to date, and while it wasn't easy, it's amazing how I was able to stay with the pace we set out on when I knew that I had an experienced runner who was on my side, by my side, rooting me on. Application? It is good to be in step with someone more experienced than yourself (perhaps in a mentor/mentee relationship) in order to push yourself further than you would be able to go alone. 'Nough said.

Everyone needs a good dose of humility every once in a while. Especially me. Sometimes that happens unexpectantly. 

I recently read an article  that addressed the idea of gluttony as sin. All too often we, as American Christians, find ourselves in a compromised situation where we have to say 'no' to our flesh even though the availability to indulge in greed is constantly bombarding us. The article's gist is that selfishness, lust, greed, and gluttony are all acceptable forms of sin in a North American context. No one bats an eye at things like obesity or excess material wealth but we will get bent out of shape over drinking, sex, or rock n roll. I find myself daily struggling with this same pattern of selfish desires and greed and usually failing to it. Because amenities like food and comfort are readily available to me in my day-to-day life, it is difficult to turn them down. If I want more of "that thing", then I take it. I eat it. I wear it. I do it. It is easy to feed my addiction of comfort. What's more, it is easy to think that I deserve it. For instance, last n...