Do you ever have one of those weeks where there just seems to be no free time at all?  That has been my week.  I have not posted for a few days and that is kind of odd for me lately.  I don’t try to post everyday no matter what.  I don’t schedule blog time into my life.  I share things when they happen and blog when I find time.  This week has been so busy that there is not really a lot to share unless you want to know all the busy details of my job doing computer replacements.

I have not written in my journal in about 5 days.  That basically means that no new crazy ideas hit me and I didn’t have time to jot down any thoughts or prayers.  I miss my journal when I do not have time to write in it.  That is my most basic way of drafting out blog posts.  All of my ideas go on the paper, but not all of them make it past the publish button.

I do have a few videos in the works.  I am playing with some new software for video editing that I will not be able to afford after the 30 day free trial is over with.  I also need to update my video card so that my video playback quality will improve.  A little at a time I guess.  Hopefully, I will get back on track with journaling and blogging and I will have more to share this week.

I think that my favorite thing about reading blogs is that it gives me the opportunity to see raw and unfiltered thoughts from other people with similar interests.  We are not writing articles that get edited and approved through Corporate Media before we publish them to the world.  I am talking about bloggers who are trying to share their lives openly in an attempt to make a connection with others who they otherwise would not have met.

I want to confess that I am far from being perfect in my life.  I am not always the best dad, husband, blogger, or a good example of Jesus.  In my last post about using a Bible tract as a tactic to bring people to church, I allowed my initial reaction and humorous perspective to come through my writing.  That is the genuine and often flawed version of myself.  I won’t take the post down because I want you to know that I am not perfect and sometimes say and do things that I wish I could take back.  I want to be as authentic with you as I can.  Unfortunately, the good comes with the bad as well.  My hope is that you will see me for who I really am and hopefully you can learn or be encouraged by my successes and failures.

Tonight we were visited by a well meaning local church member who knocked on our front door just after dinner.  He was not pushy or disrespectful, but he left us with a Bible tract and a flyer with some information about their church.  I mean no disrespect to this particular church, I just want to question what they hoped to accomplish by handing this to me at my home uninvited.  I have not been handed a Bible tract in over 10 years.  I am not sure if he would have been willing to sit down and have a conversation with me because I was too busy to find out.  Later I opened up the flyer to read it further and I feel like I am reading a church advertisement from 20 years ago.  It states within the flyer that this particular church is still using the King James Bible, singing old hymns from the Hymnal, and they are the friendliest church in town.  I probably should have caught up with the guy and told him that there is no way this could be honestly targeted at me.  I guess that there are people my age who like the traditional KJV hymnal singin church.  But I hang out with highschool kids once a week and this kind of stuff would not be grabbing their attention.  I wonder what this church believes the final result of this door to door campaign will bring.  If they are looking for the younger crowd, then I believe that some things will need to change.  I am sure that there is a nice little community there and that they are doing their best to serve the kingdom, but will they still exist 10 years or 20 years from now?  Oh and if anyone is interested, the calendar on the back shows that Ladies Hand Bell Practice is on Wednesdays at 6 PM.  Wow!!!!

I wanted to elaborate further on my experience from Week 3 of Reset.  Week 3 was about surrendering to God the parts of your life that you like to control.  It took me longer than the week allotted to finally figure out what I need to work at surrendering.  It just was not that obvious to me, but that is what is cool about hitting the reset button and spending focused time being introspective.  I have been thinking a lot about next steps lately in my job, ministry, and for my family.  By nature, I am a planner and like to be prepared for whatever may come my way.  If you know me well, then you know that God’s plan beats my plans down a lot.  The great thing about God’s plan though is that it always works out better than mine even if it makes me really uncomfortable.

As I was praying earlier this week I realized that I was spending a lot of time talking to God about the future.  I have a lot of questions and a lot of ideas of where I want my future to go.  Something clicked in that moment and I realized that I really want control over my future.  I think that it is natural to believe that I have some kind of control over my destiny.  Our culture says that if you work hard enough you can have anything that you want.  Obviously the decisions that I make do come into play with my future, but there are a lot of factors that are out of my control.  It is time to stop worrying about the future and stop trying to control it.  I need to surrender the future to God and trust Him because He has a plan for me that is way better than mine.

In the last couple of blog posts(here and here) from Family Force 5, they have mentioned a little project they are working on with a Christmas theme.  If you know FF5 as well as I do, you know that a few of them are super Christmas nuts like me.  Have you seen there video for Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer?  It is hilarious, so check it out and get ready for what will hopefully be available in record stores this fall.

I am not sure what she is singing, but she sure knows how to put on a show.

I have a few blog ideas that I am still wrestling with in my head, but nothing that is ready to publish today. So I thought that I would ask for feedback from all of you. What would you like me to blog about or share with you? What do you want to get from reading this blog? Ask away. My life is pretty much an open book.

After 22 years and more than 2000 shows, newsboys frontman Peter Furler will no longer front the band in concert. Michael Tait will be touring with the band as lead singer with Peter making special appearances throughout the year.

You can read the full announcment at Newsboys.com.

I am sad that Peter will be gone from the shows.  I guess that I understand and respect his decision because the life of a rock star is not very easy.  My biggest concern is that it will just not be the same.  Tait is a very talented singer, but he is very different from Peter.  I will also miss the drum wars at the live show.  It is good to know that Peter will still be involved in the songwriting.  I hope that maybe he will put out more music since he will not be touring as much.  Maybe there is a solo album in the works.  It will be interesting to see if Newsboys will draw the same kind of crowds to their shows.