Step up, step out, go big. Don’t ever let fear bind or water you down. Whether you do something that scares you, risk rejection, take a leap into the unknown, or even harness the creativity that lay within you, go big with it. If possible, do it with a smile on your face. But if you decide to let fear hold you back and would rather not go big with it, just go home… just walk away… but if you do decide to go, go as if it were the last thing you ever did… go big.
(repeat daily)
Just an attempt for the Lord’s best usually comes at the great expense of risking it all. Sure, the risks grow greater, and surrender is most often a key element (thank you for the reminder jaynie), the rewards from a lack of regret after it’s all said and done is priceless.
a love so sweet…
You know, I look forward to being 80 and still just being madly in love with my wife. No rush, of course, but imagine… that’s also how the Lord desires to have a relationship with us… with me… not a relationship where we visit him in the passing, but a relationship where we have dwelt so long in his presence, that even just a glimse of him in the room or on a walk in the park, just makes us long for him even more and perhaps even puts a smile on our face. A relationship that only gets sweeter over time.
why do i say this?: I was out of town the other day backstage at a large 70,000+ person festival. I only got backstage because I had an escort, an older gentleman in his 50s, take me to where I needed to go. We knew each other very well only because he had already escorted me half a dozen times earlier. What I witnessed next was so precious to me that I had no choice but to smile and just take it in for memory. As we walked, we had to walk by the backstage crew, and one of those was an older lady already busy. I didn’t notice my escort making a small veer in his path, until it was all over. My escort drew near and extended his hand out to her. She was busy with her conversation, but noticed him coming by out of the corner of her eye. With his hand still extended and she having excellent peripheral vision, she extends her hand and holds his hand in his passing. In addition, she briefly glances at him with the most precious smile and then lets go of his hand as he continues on to his destination. No words were spoken, no time taken, not even a hint to me that we were subtlety off-course, but something deeper was communicated.
This is where I may be working next year… In truth I would love to do several things, but I need some healthy capital (money) to take me there. My goal is to get the server position at Red Lobster (I have some restaurant history in my resume) and as of right now I have an interview scheduled with the manager on Monday. This doesn’t mean I have the job, but talking to a manager really helps. If you could, please lift up a small prayer now just asking for some favor from this place… I really like how casual the restaurant is.
In other news, I’m a little tied financially. I have enough to graduate (praise the Lord), but ironically if things don’t iron out, I may have to leave the internship anyway due to some other bills that need immediate attention. Blah. Mind you, that’s the absolute last resort. Regardless, the Lord is keeping a peace in my heart because despite whatever happens to me, I know He’s going to take care of me. I’m a man that does not like to go into debt, but wow, the Lord is really teaching me some things through this (think about it… how he has stood in the gap for all of us to pay a debt that cannot be paid). He’s also teaching me trust (big time). Despite everything, please pray for favor from this position and more importantly for financial favor (even if it means just a 3 second prayer… i would still appreciate it). I’m so grateful for all of you.
Father, thank you for your grace to take me this far. I just ask that you give favor during my job interview and that my application will be one that shines above the rest (especially if this option is indeed from you, as I suspect it is). I also ask that you bless me financially by showing me any means I have failed to see to get these debts paid… no one can help me but You at this time. Father, all I really want to say right now is I love You, and yet despite the circumstances, I will still choose to say: blessed be Your Name.
seriously…
some pictures…
Some pictures of my trip to Creation (and some bonus stories along the way)…
here’s lappy at the airport (below) with the full internet hookup off the cell phone (i’m a nerd).
and here’s the po’dunk plane I flew on to get to the middle of nowhere I flew into… (yeah, my mom flipped when she found out i went on one of these)…
and here’s a shot of inside… mind you, I’m sitting on the very last seat in the back.
in any case, i got there and set up the booth…
i tried some creative marketing strategies and had people signing up left and right…
oh, and i had to take a picture of this (couldn’t help it)… like they had to make a hat saying it.
while i was there, I found a Brio magazine (magazine for teens) and found out that my friend Angela is a Brio Girl *didn’t know that*… i think everyone on the campus knew this but me… but wow…
and here’s what you would think would be a random electrician repairing a transformer…
… however, this was a famous shot… mind you, this guy shut down the power in the middle of the concert to replace this… who was playing you ask? the Newsboys (crowd at 70,000+) The crowd waited for about 45 minutes.
Below is a picture of the mad rush I had after Ron spoke… praise the Lord I had my friends from CCM help me out, otherwise I would have been swamped.
So… on my way back, I picked up a ride with a band that played at the festival. I spent one hour on the way to the airport with them and one hour on the same po’dunk plane with them…
… the band was Kutless. Too bad I didn’t remember any of their music (they laughed at that, considering they were the main band on ATF’s lineup last year)
We stopped at Wendy’s and a restaurant and groupies freaked out as we went by (they thought I was part of the band). I asked them a lot of questions and because I was part of “Acquire the Fire”, they asked me a lot too… it was cool. I also asked who the lead singer was and the pointed to that guy in the middle. Then they asked “well, who did you think was the lead singer?”… i didn’t answer, but only attempted to laugh it off.
Oh, and in the post below I mentioned how I almost delayed David Crowder’s release date for his new CD… Well I picked up a ride from Creation (the festival folks) back to my hotel (35 min away) to pick up a package that had arrived for me. On the way, they said they needed to pick up David Crowder’s wife and I asked if it was alright if we could go 5 min out of the way to pick up some table cloth form a local party store. Well after picking up Mrs. Crowder, and we were on our way to this party store (mind you, 5 min out of the way), she mentions that she needs to go pick up some files from David at the festival (35 min away + 5 min away for this party place) and then come back to her hotel (35 min back) to FedEX everything to their main office so they can rush production on this. After doing the math in my head with the deadline for FedEx, I realized that this table cloth could very well jeopardize everything! Alas, when it was all said and done, they just made FedEx by catching them as they were leaving. Talk about close call! Had I not known the directions to the party place, I would have delayed the release date altogether… phew!
So after many, many stories (and there are some good ones, including some great time with Ron), my trip was over and I came back on campus for the 4th of July. Due to the great marketing that I was able to do at Creation, they’re sending me out to the remaining events for the summer (woot!) and with some friends as well.
creation fest ’05
Day 2 (of 4) completed of creation fest and i am plum wore out. I’m operating the teen mania “battle cry” booth here in Pennsalvania and the booth is bombarded with people left and right wanting information. A nice highlight of the day was finding CCM (yep, they’re here too…. although they drove and I flew). It was nice to see some family on campus and they cooked me some great food to help set things over.
I left my cell at the hotel today, so when I came back I had a dozen messages including half of them from heather erickson, my wonderful travel agent and temporary “mom” for the week (she’s kind of my boss right now). She’s great, although I should probably call her tommorow
. Oh, and a side note…. I think I’ve written the most xanga replies ever in the history of me writing xanga replies… I’m away from home and rather than spending quality time with those that are dear to me, I can only fill in the time by replying to xanga sites… sheesh, it’s so nice to catch up on everyone’s lives and even get to know people simply through what they share on their journals (and wow, it buys so much time!).
On a serious note… I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to talk with countless people who have no idea what the BattleCry is about and get them interested and into buying a book. Folks, the need is out there. Just today at the booth, I was able to talk with a mother who caught her son viewing pornography on her office computer. My heart broke. I felt like closing the booth and just sitting down with her to talk about this. It just made me mad how the enemy is just stealing the freedom from the lives of Christians and how Christians just give it to him easily. We had a great discussion, but it just helped my eyes to see how sin greatly affects those we love. Praise the Lord that we, Teen Mania, have a shot at reaching this generation. I’m glad to be a part of this ministry.
On an embarassing tidbit… I almost single handedly caused David Crowder’s new CD to not make its release date. Yep… good ole me. Details soon.
random observation
Ever been searching for something and the available options (on a scale of 10) are usually ranging from 1) Poor to 10) Excellent… but then you see an option that is not even on the charts: 11) God’s best…, 15) God’s excellence, 20) God’s good and perfect gift… then when you’re not looking at all you suddenly find off-the-chart blessings (not always original available options) going up to 25 and 30… it’s as if the Lord just keeps showing us there’s more to just excellence… there’s His best which makes “10) excellent” look like… well… not excellent. I can’t describe it, but I feel as if the Lord is blessing me in the 23-25 range right now and although I’m not rushing on anything, and things around me honestly look 2) Poor, I just have to sit there and smile because I can’t believe the Lord can bless me like that, even when I don’t deserve it.
a love so intimate…
What if you could take that moment that you experience in worship… that moment where everything just vanishes, everything just falls before at His feet and then… suddenly, without a glimse of uncertainty, you find yourself laying before the very throne of the Lord, worshiping Him. That hiding and intimate place where sleep no longer matters and you’re just overwhelmed in His love… that place of rest… what if you could take that moment, that secret place, and linger just a little bit longer. Is it possible? What if next time in worship you just begin to meditate on His glory, His promises, His beauty. What if you just meditated without expected anything in return…. what if you whispered how great He is… right into His ear. That’s His song. Some seek this all their lives and never find it.
the ladies in my life…
The Lord is so beautiful. I sometimes just get caught up in how the Lord just continues to bless me throughout the seasons. Throughout it all, I also get to hear updates from the family back at home. They recently sent me some pictures that just made my day…
this is my little sister, Viviana (5)… pictured to the left
here she is smiling to the camera with Idania (20), my other sister
… and she just graduated from pre-school… w000t!! (kindergarden, here we come!)
here’s a great picture of my beautiful mother that she sent
Here’s a picture of my other sister Hilliary… she’s going into 7th grade
here she is posing with a friend in front of Idania’s new car
well, that’s the family… here they are waving good bye to all of you!
