Daily Rambles

In the words of Dave Matthews, "So much to say, so much to say..." etc. In the order they come to mind:

(1) Fatness
(2) Worship
(3) Money
(4) Travels
(5) Young Life

Fatness- Robyn and I joined Gold's Gym back at the end of January-- Robyn because she wanted something to do, me because I went above the Mendoza Line for the first (and hopefully last?) time of my life. Thanksgiving 2004, Christmas 2004, and my general unwillingness to eat reasonably or exercise assisted me in my ascent to 205 pounds. A steady oatmeal-for-breakfast-chicken-and-spinach-for-lunch-and-dinner diet plus 4 days a week at the gym helped me get down to 185 while hardening up my soft self. I was so pumped, feeling great, looking better... but the last 8 months have been back to the slow and steady decline. I just want to be healthy, but I have such a pathetic self-discipline. Gotta eat smaller portions and get back to the gym like I did when I had my success...

Worship- Friday night I checked out a service at a friend's church not far from home. Much more charismatic than I'm used to. It reminded me of my first church, except this time I found this "style" (read: intense) of worship very refreshing. My first church experience left a bad taste in my mouth, some of the folks were just... [censoring my own thoughts, remembering forgiveness, thanking God for the experience...] Back to the other night... The passion these folks had was great. They sang with their arms raised in surrender. Or at least they did when I opened my eyes after 45 minutes or so of trying to tell myself that no one else wasthere, that it was just me and God. It was a good time of just praising the Trinity. It has been a long uphill battle for me to acknowledge the truth--the Holy Spirit is a part of the 3-in-1, the Spirit was alive in the Bible and is alive today, proof found not only in the hearts of believers but also in the Scriptures. The same yesterday, today, and forever. The censored thoughts above were reminders of folks in my past that did wrongful things in the name of the Holy Spirit. I shouldn't hold a grudge against anyone, and certainly not the Spirit. Besides, holding grudges against God... would I really win that battle? Aren't my arms far too short to win that boxing match??? It wasn't the Spirit's fault that these folks were fake. Anyway, the evening was a great time of worshipping God. And yet, as I drove away, I was thinking about how the music wasn't really that good and how I bet some of those passionate folks were fakers. Amazing how I didn't really think of those things while I was focusing on lifting praises to God. What a hypocrite I am. Thank God for grace. Thank God for the patience we're given.

Money- Why do I fret? What does worrying do? How does it help? So what if the bank account is low... does it negatively impact the important things in life to not know how all the bills are gonna get paid? Faith... Need to make good decisions, but faith...

Travels- I'm stoked about the trek to NC this weekend. Check out http://aidanwarnock.blogspot.com/ and try to tell me little bugger doesn't look like his pops! Dead ringer for the artist formerly known as Guido. The pimp boat will be all gassed up and ready to cruise our wonderful highway system. It's gonna be a good time...

YL- Next Monday is the last club for me. Playing guitar at Taylor has been huge. So much fun. Great kids, great leaders, great gospel of God. Not necessarily in that order. It was sweet to give away Room 113 CDs to the winners of the skit last night. Hearing a few folks say "Man, I want one..." was pretty cool. It's nice to be appreciated. I will miss them, but I will all the more anxiously await Toby's arrival, as that is the reason for my departure from the great ministry.

(To any leaders who arereading this, Stec had a GREAT skit last night... have everyone in the room partner up. Blindfold one and have them drop to their hands and knees. The partner mounts the blindfolded "horse". Each "rider" has a cup of ice and feeds an ice cube to the "horse". Except now the horse is a cannon and the rider pulls the cannon's ear to fire the ice cube at another cannon... OK, just trust me, it's hard to explain... but it was sweet, so get ahold of Stec if you want more info...)

I feel like there is still so much to say... but so much has already been said... or at least so many words have already been typed... I need to become a minimalist.