There’s an idea that’s been bouncing around in my head for a while now about love. 

You see, I tend to get caught up in stuff; what I’ve got to do, where I’ve got to be and try and juggle a lot of things at one time.  It can, at times, wear on me, particularly when I’m not spending time with Jesus.

Recently, people have been telling me in a lot of different ways, that it’s really about love and if you can’t/don’t do things out of love for Jesus, it doesn’t matter anyway.  With that idea, I took one line of a song I was thinking of over to Tim Douty’s house (he’s one of our keyboard players in the band here) and in a couple of hours we had a pretty sweet worship song!

 It was such a cool process, writing with Tim.  I think we’re going to do more of that and hopefully, we’ll hear some of it at Clovis Hills soon!

I got to lead worship all Summer and it was awesome.  Every week I knew I would be up there singing and playing with the band and getting to do what I love most, which is leading our church in worship.  My boss Kimberly was preaching all Summer which meant I got to lead every week and now that she’s not teaching for a couple of months and since she hasn’t led, she needs to be up there.

This has given me the opportunity to do other things (more producing, learning more of the technical aspect of our worship services) and it’s been really good except for one thing; I don’t get to lead worship.

This Tuesday, though I got to lead with the band in Celebrate Recovery and it was awesome!  The band ripped, as usual, and the crowd seemed to be totally in to it.  I have to admit I was getting a little stir crazy.  It’s hard not getting to do what you love, and while the new stuff I’m getting to do is fun and challenging, it’s a different feeling than stepping away from the microphone and hearing the church sing praises to God; there’s nothing like it.

So I still have a few more weeks on the bench as it were, and that’s okay, because Kimberly is pretty fantastic at what she does.  It was just really nice to get to lead on Tuesday and it will go a long way toward me making it through the next couple of weeks.  Thanks to the Celebrate Recovery peeps for inviting us to come and for that crowd for serving up some great food and a great time of worship!

Over the last several months, I have become enthralled with all things Chuck Norris, and judging from this email I got from one of the guys in the band, it might have caught on.

The Chuck Norris “facts” are nothing new, they’ve been going around the internet for a long time.  Sayings like, “There’s no chin behind Chuck Norris’ beard, only another fist!” and “Chuck Norris’ tears can cure cancer, which is too bad, because Chuck Norris has never cried…ever!” are good for a laugh, but now it’s getting serious.

This is what Dave wrote to me:

“PS – I don’t mean to alarm you but I read this article the other day about Chuck Norris and how he was vacationing in Montana back in August and well, you know what happened when he vacationed in The Virgin Islands, or as they’re now called, “The Islands.”  So if that baby your wife is carrying kicks their way out of the womb you will know what happened.” 

Could it be?  I guess we’ll have to wait and see.  Do you think a sonogram will show a red beard?

This past weekend was my 2 year anniversary at Clovis Hills.  It doesn’t seem like I’ve been here this long, but I suppose that’s a good thing.  We got to do one of my songs for our Lord’s Supper service and so for my anniversary, I got to do, what is my favorite part of my job, play music with great people.

It was great that this weekend was the Lord’s Supper because it is one of those services that, when we do it (4 times a year), reminds me of the kind of family we have here and how lucky I am to be a part of a church that, while it is reasonably large, feels really small.

 Thanks Clovis Hills for so quickly becoming our family, for teaching me what it really means to love people and for paying my salary (that helps!).

I have loved every minute of the last 2 years and look forward to many more.  I’m hoping to have some video of this weekend up here tomorrow.

Forgive me if I get a little political for a moment (and I will do my best not to tip my hand or try and sway you one way or another), but John Mccain announced his running mate today and it is Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

This is pretty significant because now, we will either have the first African-American President, or the first female Vice-President.

While I remain hopeful, yet skeptical that either candidate can bring about the “change” that they’re both talking about, this definetely says something about how far our country has come.

Whatever side you’re on, you’ve got to admit that this Obama vs. Mccain is more interesting than people thought it would be.

Before you get too excited, this is not a celebration of my entrance into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory.  While it would be nice to have a ticket issued by the “Candy Man,” my golden ticket was issued by “the man.”

I was heading out to pick up lunch and meet my bride for a quick bite and was pulled over doing 52 in a 40 zone; not my finest moment.  I was multitasking, trying to take care of details for this weekend and for the upcoming weeks and was on the phone while not exactly using my hands free device.

Fortunately, the officer either didn’t see me on my cell phone or didn’t tack it on to the whole thing, but either way, it was not the highlight of my day.  I was speeding.  I deserved the ticket, but I was still hoping for a warning that never came.

So now here’s the question; Where do I go for traffic school?

This weekend, some of the band and I got to participate in the Christian Music Awards at Warnors Theatre and it was a blast!  There was a lot of chaos surrounding this whole thing, from a last minute change of venues to call times that weren’t exactly accurate, but all in all, it was a great experience.  We came in third place, which we’re all pretty happy about and got to meet a lot of really great people!

Here’s a recap of the experience, including the song we played (one of my originals) in about 8 minutes!

For those of you interested in seeing the entire event, it will be broadcast on the Gospel Music Channel at 9 pm on Saturday, September 20th.

My wife and I were married on August 12th, 2005.  For you math majors out there, that means we just celebrated our 3 year anniversary.

We went camping in Big Sur and had an amazing time doing a little bike riding, smore’s making, and scenic view viewing.  It was a blast.

Our friends, Micah and Erica were married the day after us and so we decided it would be fun to celebrate our anniversaries together.  This is where husband of the year action kicks in.

Jenn had never been in a limo or to Teppanyaki and since I’m all about making her dreams come true, I got us a limo and the four of us rolled out to “a meal and a show” at Tokyo Steakhouse.  We sat with another group, which wound up being Micah and my highschool choir director, which was unexpected, but fun nonetheless.

We had a great time and it was a blast to see my wife so excited about experiencing all these new things.  I’m lucky that I get to be married to Jenn.  She makes me better in everything and she’s pretty fun to hang out with too.

Happy Anniversary Jenn!