Wichita, KS

I wanted to take a moment to set down some thoughts about this trip, and first, to say that it was so absolutely packed full that I did not have any time to take an awful lot of pictures, and didn't think to have someone record me speaking, which I did say I would do. I apologize, and next time I will be more prepared, in a lot of ways!

Honestly, this has been one of the most rewarding things that I have done in my life. The weather got rough right before the doors opened, and so the turnout was nowhere near where we had hoped it would be, but the people that were there really got a lot out of it, I think. I was surprised by the fact that I didn't forget any of my points, and did fairly well even without my introduction video, since the power went out and we couldn't get it off of the computer! After the event was over, I spent two hours talking and praying with people, which is always a blessing, but I think that they blessed me more with some of the things that they said to me.

The bands were great. The local act, Of The Rescue, were really a great bunch of guys with a real heart for what they do. Most local acts show up with this home turf attitude and exude jealousy toward the bigger act, but these guys weren't that way, which is odd, but refreshing. And speaking of refreshing, I can't say enough about the time we get to spend with Mikeschair. Their single "Can't Take Away" is number nine on the charts right now, and is played almost once an hour, but they have no egos, no attitudes, no rock star complexes. They have stayed true to why they started, and are the most excellent group of guys to work. It's so rare to see this that I actually kept waiting for them to break character, but they never did. They really are the same all the time.

But the best experience I had from the whole trip, and what I learned the most from, was the traveling here. I had a 2.5 hour layover in Atlanta that turned into a 6.5 hour layover. I was not excited, but I sat down, had some food, and started having conversations with people. I had the opportunity to talk about God with three very interesting and different people during that time, and I think I did more ministry there than I did the entire rest of the trip. God really showed me how I have to be prepared to share my faith in and out of season, to do as Jesus did and go to where people are at and start the conversations.

I am sitting in my hotel room, about to check out and fly home, already excited about next week, not excited about my really long layover, but then again, I probably have a lot more ministering to do before I get home to my wife. The more I live, the more I learn that we are all ministers, at all times, and more than likely the biggest changes we make in someones life will be when we least expect it....

Change is a good thing...

I have been reading a book recently that has forced me to stop and think, in detail, about the changes that God has brought about in me in the past few years. I am beginning to wonder if you can wake up as the same person two days in a row. Things on the outside change you, change your perspectives. Not only that, but as a Christian, you have something on the inside constantly working to change you as well. For instance, today I am more clam and collected than I was yesterday. And a year ago? I was very easily rattled, not to mention quite a bit more arrogant and substantially less understanding of the viewpoints of others. I was much less willing to let God have a say in anything. And ten years ago? What could be said of who I was then versus who i am now? That is like comparing two different people; I possessed almost none of the qualities that I do now. However, ten years from now, I hope to be more in tune with the qualities that God is awakening in me. Most of all, I hope I am more of a people person. 

The thing is, we have to be wide awake to life. I am very aware of the beautiful wife I share my home with, the wonderful food that I ate today, the friends, the sunlight on the leaves at the park around sunset. Unfortunately, the cost of living wide awake is that I also must feel the sting of the betrayals I face, the pain of the words that are said to me in anger, the gnawing emptiness of a lost loved one; but the cost of not living wide awake is much greater. I spend each day trying to wake myself up more and more to my life in God. We accomplish nothing when we walk through life in a trance, and we miss so much of what this world that God created has to offer. Sure, sleepwalking through the day can keep us numb to the pain, but I can't describe to you what it feels like to live and breathe and take my every moment of being from him and his goodness. You have to work on the relationship.

Now, I want to pose a thought: what would God say if you went to marriage or relationship counseling with Him? I think He would probably tell me that I put words in his mouth too much; to which I would reply that he confuses the hell out of me most of the time, which can be very frustrating. Not to mention the times when he clams up. 

The important thing with God is the important thing in any relationship: keep up the conversation...

Searching for an Everyday Sacredness...

I have always been a bit of a mystic. In the last decade of the cold war between religion and science, I have usually found myself on the side of the Divine in most arguments. I have always known that there is something out there, something beyond us, that science cannot fully explain. This has shaped my worldview at every turn of the way. 

I have always seen God, in some form or fashion, in everything. I see Him everywhere, and I realize that nothing is mundane; everything has eternal and spiritual significance. Still, people are usually polarized into one of three camps, regardless of the faith they claim to follow: either scientific secularism, extreme fundamentalism, or warm and mushy spirituality. I respect secularism for its searing question and relentless pursuit of hard fact, always wanting to get to the bottom of things. Fundamentalists are admirable for their adherence to creeds, as well as their courage, and spiritualists are to be commended for their ability to see the divine in everyday moments. Still, as Plato would so put it, the truth is in the mean. We need to be rational, while still seeking to adhere to God's tenets, and we most certainly need to see the Divine in our daily lives, but the healthy alternative is to find a balance in all three.

My prayer for my life is to find a balance, to combine the strengths of each mindset into a fourth way, to practice my faith in Christ as not only a system of beliefs, but as a lifestyle that spills over into everything that I set my hand to; to find an everyday sacredness.

I hope that you will join me on this journey. I will be including a lot of my studies, notes, thoughts, and prayers, as well as songs and sermons, that I hope will turn into a discussion that we can all have together through this blog about God and how we can get to closer to him...