For The Sleepless

This is my first video post ever for this blog. I hope you enjoy the thoughts that I have on our vocation in this life. I usually have time to methodically plot out my thoughts via text, but I decided to take a chance and talk to myself on the computer. I had to break up the video into two parts due to it's length. The video is a total of about 21 minutes. If you can't listen to it all at once, that's okay. This is your one time that you will be able to pause me mid sentence and walk away if you want. Once again, I hope you enjoy the new scenery, because you have to stare at my face for this. mwuahahahaha. Here it is: To Be or Not To Be?    

  Speak O Lord "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30 Surrender it all. What are you waiting for? Why do you feel that you have to go through this life carrying everything on your shoulders, your burdens weighing you down and making you hardened to those around you? You secretly burn with hatred inside for things out of your control. You have so many things you want to share with someone who will listen, things that you are ashamed of but you don't know where to go. All you want is peace, to feel rested and to be aligned on the path of life. Even though we live in a world full of many different personalities, hobbies, and beliefs we find it difficult to open ourselves up to others. Deciding to hold everything in and shut off people from our feelings, we g

Last night I was watching a movie about a musician who falls in love with a deaf girl. (I must say, it was a pretty emotionally moving movie.) The main idea of the movie was to never give up because something is difficult. The theme is one that all of us must be reminded of from time to time. As the couple falls in love there are the (almost) typical obstacles that they must overcome. The turning point in the movie really made me think. I started thinking of my life. I was sitting there watching this movie with my son sleeping in my lap and my amazing wife next to me on the couch. Life was grand during this thought. (I know this next part is weird) I then started to think about what would happen if I landed in the hospital on the ledge between life and death and I had time to say my last goodbyes to my family. Once again, I know this is a morbid thought, but what would I say? Knowing myself, I would apologize for something out of my control. I would be sincere in my apologies because

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive.  And then go and do that.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."  ~Attributed to Howard Thurman Passion, this two syllabic word packs a powerful punch to the stagnate. Every day we interact with thousands of people and do you wonder if they are passionate about what they do in life? I'm sure when you are stuck in traffic you can tell who has passion. The actions that people convey can tell you a lot. Whether it's the guy cursing and gesturing his anger towards people or the other guy using the same bodily actions to sing and air guitar or drum to pass the time. How do we productively use our passions to allow us to positively come alive in this stuck-in-a-rut world.  I know that during the time of the Olympics we see tons of people from various countries gather together to show the world how passionate and dedicated they are to a healthy lifestyle, exerc

This is the final of the 3 posts where I am discussing some of the new songs off of the cd "Rhythm and Repose" by Glen Hansard. In the previous posts, I've discussed the gifts, we've been given in this life and how we should take every moment we have to use them to the best of our abilities, praising God in everything we do. The second post was how we can deal with the storms that rage in our life, and that even though they may seem impossible, we find that if we focus on God's promises, we can get through those trials. Today I want to focus on knowing when to humble yourself. What I mean by this is that we need to break down our selfish pride and know when to let others give us a helping hand. Song of Good Hope by Glen Hansard In the last post, I referred our troubles in life to storms. In today's song, Glen uses the image of our troubles being like rivers. When you look at a river, you probably think that it's not that bad as it seems. You can probab

I've decided to continue using Glen Hansard's music to talk about how we can use what's given to us to prepare for the storms in life (this part 2 of 3). Last time I talked about the gifts God gives us to either talk about God to someone, encourage other Christians, and how we can praise God by using the gifts he has given to us. In life we know that our time on earth isn't going to be an easy one. In fact, as Mr. Hansard puts it, "Get ready for the storm, it's coming. Yeah, it's coming." Glen Hansard - The Storm, It's Coming Ever since the fall of man back in the early days of the earth, sin has been a constant struggle for any and every human. We go through life facing certain challenges that may shake us off our foundations. Most of the time these challenges come unnoticed and then they hit us right where it hurts. These challenges don't just shake the person it hits either, usually other people are shaken up as well. How do we prepare f

Each year I sit down with my students and we look at the gifts God has given us. Why do I do this? I like to drive home some important points. Each of us is a special creation. God has given us certain abilities that another may not have. For instance, God has given person A an ability to share God's word or encourage  person B through their unique abilities. By practicing their gifts, I let the students know that they will have shown their thanks to God by using it to do God's will. When the students realize that they are unique with their gifts, we realize that God really does have a special purpose for us in our life. Of course, you can't teach something about God without backing it up with his word so we can see specifically where he calls us to use our gifts. The apostle Peter said, "Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one

  Jealous Kind by Jars of Clay 2 Corinthians 11: 1-7, 10-15 - The Apostle Paul speaking to the Christians in Achaia "I hope you will put up with a little of my foolishness; but you are already doing that. I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. But I do not think I am in the least inferior to those "super-apostles." I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way. Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by p

        When it comes to summertime do you like to plan out what you want to do with the time of the year where warm weather abounds and laid back activities are as numerous as little girls at a Justin Bieber concert? I know I like to start making some key choices towards the end of spring as to what my summer song will be, the beer of choice for summer hang outs, and how much lighter fluid does it really take to make a 2 story flame from my BBQ. I have an idea of what activities I would like to do before the summertime slips away. Some of these activities are: golfing, mountain biking, camping, having bonfires, getting my sandal tan, and sweating off the pounds in the Midwestern humidity. In fact, right now I sit in a humid room with a single clip fan blowing warm air on me while I drink my diet coke from a refrigerated glass bottle (the best way to drink any carbonated drink)        Now, I mentioned that I usually choose some things in the spring like my summer song, beer of choice

Today I witnessed a baptism in church. This wasn't any ordinary baptism. This baptism was for some friends of ours. They just had a baby girl about a week and a half ago and so I paid extra attention to everything that was going on. Why? Mostly because I will be the one going through this miraculous ritual whenever my little one decides to join us. As we were going through the service of baptism I realized the words that were spoken. Yes, the same words that I've repeated countless times, in a robotic sort of way. For those of us who sometimes fall into that mindset of going through the motions, I thought I would touch on some of the parts of what we say during this special occasion. First off, the Minister starts off with the confession of sins and rightly so. After all, during baptism we are drowning our sinful nature, putting to death all it's evil deeds. The pastor says, "Our Savior Jesus commanded baptism when he said: "Go and make disciples of all nations,

  Abide with Me - Libera "Help of the helpless, oh abide with me." So often I try going through this life being confident of things when most of the time it's a mask I'm wearing. At the same time though, being confident shows how level headed, or sure you are in life. It makes you desirable among people looking to hire for their specific company. It makes you wanted for marriage material. It's something everyone wants. Confidence is key to staying grounded in what you believe. It asks for being sure of what you believe, of being so confident that your roots hold steadfast so you cannot be uprooted. You stand firm against the torrent of waves that pound you, trying to knock you off of your confident position. After taking a beating for so long sometimes you do crumble a little bit. Sometimes we think, it's okay to show our weakness. To give in a little bit. You see, when roots move a little bit in the ground, it creates space to be uprooted. When waves ge