Ramblings On. . .

I think i NEED one of these.

Here is the video from last Sunday. If you watch and have any feedback leave a comment.

I spoke again yesterday at Creekside.  It was fun.  But if I’m completely honest it wasn’t my best prepared message.  I had a terrible time writing an ending.  All week that was my biggest struggle.  But I also feel like I had too much content.  But I was talking about teenagers and adolescence and parenting.  So it’s a pretty big topic.

But, I did get some great feedback from people.  So it was encouraging to hear.

Youth group went well too I thought.  Particularly afterward when we were all hanging out.  There was some really great conversation.  So that was cool.

It’s been a long time since I have spend a saturday evening at Starbucks.  Judah is with Nana (brenda).  Kathy is at work.  I mowed my back yard before my mower pooped out on me.  And now I’m chillin’ at starbucks listening to the Relevant Podcast and going over my notes for tomorrow morning.

After this I am going to go home, fold some more laundry and try to clean up the house a bit.  So that’s my friday night.

Wow, got a back to back thing going on at Creekside.  This week I am talking about living with Teenagers.  I think it will be helpful and encouraging.  I don’t really have a lot of opportunities to talk specifically about students with our church.  I am praying that my heart for our students will be heard, and that parents will know that I am there to support them.  It should be good times. 

Read this post at 37signals. About Alaska Airlines and their improved check-in flow.  This process has the potential to save millions and millions of dollars for the airline and for SEA-TAC.

I flew down to California at the end of May and it was the first time that I had seen their new and improved check-in system.  And I must say, it was awesome.  It made the whole process easier and smoother.

Simplicity is the best solution.  That’s why I love Apple products.  Everything has always been so simple and easy to use right out of the box.  It took longer to get the product to the market, but it’s a more reliable and fun to use product.  Simplicity Rocks.

it’s probably a lot harder to figure out in your context what you need to simplify but in the long run it’s so much better.

Here is the video from Father’s Day. The quality isn’t as good as weeks gone by and I don’t know why that is. Maybe I should try to convince our church to invest in better cameras and gear.

I spoke yesterday at Creekside.  My first Sunday morning was on Mother’s Day.  Which is way more pressure than father’s day.  I had a really great time.  I really enjoy preaching when I can feel a connection with the congregation.  And yesterday I really felt that.  It was cool.  I was really humbled by the impact that some folks shared with me afterwards.  It’s just such a great reminder that God is in control.  The things that I think are really great, are shadowed by the little things that people catch.  That’s so God.  He surprises me all the time like that. 

I’ll post the video as soon as we get it all encoded.  Watching myself preach is not that fun an experience.  I’m really glad I went to the gym today though.  I gotta get back in that habit.  Hard Core!  You can get the audio here if you would like it.

I love father’s day because I had a great dad, and I am a dad to an amazing son.  Being a dad has just been such a great joy that I don’t think I could really express.  But it’s awesome.  And our little girl that will be here soon.  Man that’s gonna mess me up.  I just know already that I’m going to have a little princess.  And while I’m really excited, I’m also really nervous.  I’m sure it’s all going to be awesome though.

I also wanted to post this video.  Now I’m not endorsing anyone politically, I’m not agreeing with any one candidate. But Barak Obama spoke in a church on Father’s Day, and It really was a great speech.  He showed a lot of courage to talk to Fathers, and specifically call to task African-American Fathers.  He also may be the first presidential candidate to quote Chris Rock.  It’s really a great speech.  Not really a sermon because there was no scripture and only a quick reference to Jesus.  But still a great message for father’s day and for Dads everywhere to remember how crucial we are.

Read this post that I wrote almost 3 years ago.

Wow what a journey it has been.  We seem to be getting close to our goal.  I would never have guessed three years after writing the linked post, that we would still be going through all of this.  But Reading that post again reminded me that this is a journey of hope.  I can’t let go of that. 

Life is a serious of transitions.  Some transitions are really tough, some are really easy.  Some transitions seemed forced upon us, and others we long for.  

During the time of transition we can sometimes experience some kind of emotional trauma.  For example, we just this last week transitioned Judah to a toddler bed.  We were expecting this to be a really hard transition as many of our friends with young families have had difficulty doing this transition.  Many kids seem to reject the freedom of the “big-boy bed” for the security of the crib, or even mom and dad’s bed.  

Judah however surprised Kathy and I.  He love’s his bed.  He has no problem going to sleep in his bed all on his own.  Kathy and I are not perfect parents, we really didn’t even have a plan for this transition, we just did it.  And we were blown away by what happened.  And we thank Jesus for how easy it was.

So why was this transition so seemingly smooth?  I would posit (fancy word, huh?) that Judah was ready for this change and we just made it happen at just the right time and everything lined up well for Judah.  Now Judah didn’t tell us he was ready, because he can’t.  We weren’t really trying to get his opinion on this idea.  But he was ready.  We were ready.  And it worked out well.

What transitions are you facing in your life?  Family?  Ministry?  Are you trying to force it?  Are you fearing it?  Is it the wrong transition?  Transition is necessary because it’s a part of life, but the timing is really the most crucial part of the whole thing.  And I think the people who we see experiencing success after success, have seen the transition coming, were ready for them, and just at the right time pulled the trigger.  

But that’s just what we see. The truth is that before and between these successful transitions there are a few that fail, there are a few that are forced and there are few that are forgotten.  

Successful transitions require just the right timing.  Just a thought.