Ummm.... can you say "left turn at Albuquerque"?

I'm going to Los Angeles next week for some seminary classes. Saw this article, and suddenly I'm double-checking my flight itinerary!

Aim for Sydney, Australia....

Find yourself basking in the wonderful Montana winter!

Drummer Boy

Wrote this last week, but since my brother reads this occasionally, didn't post until now...


My Mom knew I was going to be buying a bunch of books on Amazon.com for some classes I’m taking in January, so she asked me to order another one for my brother while I was at it. The book arrived the other day, and I just had to… It was short, and looked good, and I couldn’t help myself... I read my brother’s Christmas present!

It’s a Christmas story called Drummer Boy by Ted Dekker. (Not quite his usual suspenseful type of book, but it’s good.) I’m glad I read it. It’s about this little boy who’s given a small stage prop drum. The kicker is, the story happens in the future, where Christmas has long been forgotten (even made illegal, along with any mention of the birth of Jesus) and replaced by The Holiday (to celebrate the world’s prosperity).

Inside the drum, he finds the song of the first Little Drummer Boy, a promise from a young boy to his father to once again play the drum for the king, and the story of Jesus’ birth so long ago. The boy reads, for the first time, the story of the King who came and loved and healed. And he knows he must play that drum for the King.

As I read, tears welled up in my eyes. I read it again later to Emily, and several times choked on the words – and their implications for my own life. I must play my drum for the King. You must play your drum for the King. We live in a world that is forgetting. If we don’t play our drum, our children will live in a world where He’s been forgotten. As hard as it might be for you to hear, YOU have neighbors who have never heard the true story of Christmas. Play for your King and let them hear.

This isn’t about protesting stores that say Happy Holidays, not Merry Christmas. It’s not about words at all. It’s about playing the song that God has put in your soul, however feeble you may think it is. It’s about living for the King and inspiring the world to hear and join in His Story.

Radio

I’m kind of an explorer/investigator at heart. I like to go new places. I like to try things I’ve never done before. I like to take unfamiliar things apart and discover how and why they work.

Last week, LuAnn had a pump that dripped a type of local anesthetic into her incision following the c-section. We left the hospital before the pump was out of medication, so the removal of the 'soaker hose' contraption was up to us! After gingerly scraping tape and what is basically superglue away from the punctures where the hose entered her abdomen, she pulled them out and I had fun deconstructing the entire pump!

Also, this past Saturday, I also got to jump into the previously-unknown-to-me waters of radio. In January, KCMI (96.9) here in Scottsbluff will start airing a program each Saturday night from 8-12 called Cutting Edge. The basics of the show will be a youth minister and a few students coming in to run the show on Saturday nights. (There are four of us local youth pastors who will rotate.) It will be 4 hours of great music and conversation aimed at the students in our valley. I’m really excited about this great ministry opportunity aimed at students.

So, back to Saturday night… I met Ryan, Brian, and Travis (the other youth ministers who will be hosting the shows) at the station at 8:00 for kind of a trial run of the show. Brad and Lola from KCMI were there to get things going and show us which buttons to push (and which ones to avoid). To put it shortly, it was a blast. We haven’t done any radio before, and really haven’t even all been together much, but there was a great sense of camaraderie among the group. We all shared a little excitement at doing something new, but more than that was a sweet sense of working together on a worthwhile project that will impact students' lives.

If you like your music with a little more kick than what’s normally played on Christian radio, check us out starting in January (if you happen to be in the area). If you know students who think there’s no Christian music they’ll like – listen with them and prove them wrong. And if you’re a student who wants to come in and help run the show, let me know… we can try something new together! If you've got something you're just dying to hear, let me know that too...

Overwhelmed?

I really like the idea that I can 'cast all my cares' on a God who is big enough to handle them. It would be easy to get overwhelmed by life if I didn't know, that it's not my life I'm living. And since I'm living His life for me, I don't have to be overwhelmed by circumstances. I've just been kind of struck lately by the immensity of who/what I am to be. These things might overwhelm me if I did not have that assurance:

- responsibility for another life - having a new baby in the house.
- preparing for 6 hours of seminary in Los Angeles this January.
- learning to do a radio show that will also begin in January.
- being a father of 4 kids.
- being the husband my wife deserves.
- exploring new potential avenues for our student ministry.
- 2 youth trips on the same weekend (which happens to be the day after I return from class).
- spurring friends on to grow.
- correcting wrong assumptions that many students have about what the church is and does.
- leading students to discover the life God dreams for them.

These are huge things, and I take them very seriously. But if I get all wrapped up in what I have to do in each of these situations, it's so easy to lose focus on the One who sustains me and has led me to these places in life. May God help us all to keep our hearts aimed at Him and to rely on Him to be everything we need.

Elizabeth

Today, we went in to the hospital at about 7:30, and at 10:34, the newest member of our family was blasted with more sensory overload than she ever would have guessed was coming her way. Rudely plucked through an incision in the finely insulated walls to her erstwhile comfortable home, she notified all parties present that this was not her idea of a good time. The 6 lb. 13 oz. bundle of fury seems to have calmed greatly now that the poking and prodding and shocking brightness of the world have subsided. Her brothers and sister are eager to show her to her new (though much less efficiently insulated) home. (Lizzy's the small one, btw!)