The journey between emotions and knowledge can seem like quite an excursion sometimes.

Like you’re on a road trip and you’ve got to pee, but you are pretty sure that your exit is going to be coming up soon so you just try and hold it.  So the entire time you just look, and feel, miserable…but you know that the exit is coming up and you’ve just gotta hold on a bit longer.

Or like you take a dish out of the oven without an oven mitt.  You know gap between the oven and the counter is only two and a half feet, but when you pick up that casserole dish, that two foot gap becomes a chasm.  And even though it is literally cooking the flesh off your fingers and making you utterly miserable, you hold on because you know that the counter is almost here and you’ve just gotta hold on a bit longer.

So I’ve experienced these emotions and these feelings, and they are making the journey to my mind and soul where they will be properly processed, handled and relieved in an appropriate way.  And even though I’m pretty sure that this could be an almost instantaneous process, it seems like there is a 45mile-and-full-bladder type of miscalculation.  Or a this-casserole-dish-holds-heat-way-better-than-I-could-have-ever-dreamed type of experience.

So I’m just waiting.  Because I’ve acted on emotions and feelings often enough to know that sometimes it’s OK to burn your fingers a little bit, if it means you will respond in the best way.

And sometimes the best thing to do is just pee your pants a little bit.  I promise…the exit is coming up.

Should stop blogging at 2:30 in the morning,

Chris

A lot of people are quick to say that they are a pessimist or an optimist.  Some people like to exchange pessimist for the term realist. I honestly don’t know what I am.  Towards certain things it seems that I have an never-ending positive attitude.  However, there are certain situations, experiences, and people that seem to become a black hole to me.

I will seemingly get stuck in a rut and become unable to avert my attention to anything else.  Like a black hole, the person or situation becomes a vacuum that just keeps sucking all of my attention, energy, joy, passion, and…well, even my calling.

The one thing that no person, no power, nothing on earth, or above the earth, or below the earth could ever take from me.  All of a sudden I start to give it away freely.

“Here…I will trade you my passion for the opportunity to be bitter.”

“Here…I will trade you my joy because I’d rather doubt your sincerity.”

“Here…I will trade you my attention because I’d rather not focus on what you have versus what God has given me.”

“Here…I will trade you my energy because I’d rather focus on a situation that not only do I not have any say in, but is completely irrelevant to me anyway.”

“Here…I will trade you the confidence in the knowledge of what God (the Creator of the Universe, the Giver of Life, the Alpha and Omega, the Lover of my Soul) has called me to do for the fleeting chance at appeasing my temporary emotions. “

It all comes down to what I focus on and pay attention to.  When I find my self steering towards a rut, do I allow myself to continue or do I jerk the wheel?  When I launch into space, do I try and see what’s in the black hole or do I stay clear?  Because I know what is in there.

In fact, I know what’s not in there.

Nothing true.  Nothing noble.  Nothing right.  Nothing pure.  Nothing lovely.  Nothing admirable.  Nothing praiseworthy.

So today I am faced with the task of firing up my engines and pulling out of this black hole.  It’s definitely not easy, or fun.  And it definitely won’t give me the immediate satisfaction that I desire so passionately.  But at least I know my destination.  I know that I’ve been given what it takes.

So today, Philippians 4 is my song.

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

I’ve read a few books worth of material in which this band summed up in one song.

And it’s actually pretty good.  It’s from a band called Never Shout Never.

Thoughts?

(Thanks to Ben Arment for the find.)

So today as I was one foot out the door of the apartment, Es asked me if I could take the recycling out.

Apparently since I decided to play the role of “husband” perfectly, I tried to get out of it and explain how it would take so much time and I really needed to get to work.

Right as the words “You’re an idiot” started to scroll across her eyes, I realized; “I really am an idiot.”  So I took out the recycling.

It literally took me 3 minutes.

Riddle me this:

Why is it easy for me to stop and offer a homeless person a ride when it’s raining, but difficult for me to do a simple chore that is my responsibility anyway?  At what point will I get as excited about serving my wife, the rich lawyer, and the rude neighbor as I do about the homeless, the crackhead, and the orphan.

sigh.

Still trying to be better,

~chris

A little late in the week, but here are the songs we will be singing this Sunday. (If you missed the original post about why I am posting the upcoming weeks songs instead of last weeks, you can find it HERE.)

Mighty To Save – Hillsong
Hosanna – Paul Baloche
None But Jesus – United
Come Thou Fount – Trinity Grace Church
For Who You Are – Hillsong
Tear Down The Walls – United

This Sunday we are sort of wrapping up the last three months worth of series’.  We have gone through Origins, The Prophet & The Promise, and now The Gospel.  The songs that we are doing this Sunday are songs that we have done over the last three months and that the lyrics carry significant weight and meaning for the things we have discussed and challenges we have received.

Tear Down The Walls is a song that we are doing for the first time, and it really just drives home the message this Sunday.  We have some special things planned and we are really excited for the time we will share together with you guys.  We are praying and expecting that God will do great things in our hearts and yours.

As always, I encourage you to read the lyrics without the music.  Just read through them like a story, poem, or letter.  Look for yourself, and for God, in the lines. (Lyrics can be found by clicking on each song title.  MP3’s can be heard by clicking HERE.)

Here are a bunch of pictures from my iphone.  I don’t feel like writing very much right now, but much can be said through these pictures I suppose.

I kinda wanted to put captions with each picture but there is way too many, so I’ll just give you a quick rundown:

It starts off with my brother Josh and his family visiting us, and ends with the Hillsong United concert from Monday night.  You’ll find pictures of amazing family, card games, fire pits, tempting sandwiches and vests, fancy clothes, Kelsey Blessman’s art, the dog that Es thought was a deer, the tallest deck of cards ever required to play a game (thanks Isaac and Beth), the creepiest easter bunny ever, magic shell, our first coffee maker, some stage design for The Gateway Church (thanks Jeremy and Amber), really odd photos for a thrift store to sell, a chest I desperately wanted, Es very happily singing Christmas songs in April, and the two whitest and youngest rappers I’ve ever seen in person.

~chris

So this is my third week trying this out.  I think that it’s a little difficult to gauge how effective it is being this early in, but I’m gonna keep going with it.

If you missed the original post about why I am posting the upcoming weeks songs instead of last weeks, you can find it HERE.

This week at The Gateway Church is the third week in our series “The Gospel.”  I have really enjoyed the simplicity of this series, and also the simplicity of our services programming.  The whole idea is to take away all the frills, gimmicks, and flashy stuff.  Each week has consisted of worship, scripture reading, offering, and the message.

It seems silly to have to say this, but it’s amazing to see what happens when you just leave room for God’s grace to rest, God’s Word to speak, and God’s Spirit to move.

I have been trying to pick songs that lyrically and dynamically lead people to a one-on-one interaction and response to God.

This Sunday, we are playing:

How He Loves – by John Mark McMillan
Cannons – by Phil Wickham
We Fall – by Chris Kretzu
From The Inside Out – by Hillsong United
Everlasting God – by Brenton Brown

As always, I encourage you to read the lyrics without the music.  Just read through them like a story, poem, or letter.  Look for yourself, and for God, in the lines. (Lyrics can be found by clicking on each song title.  MP3’s can be heard by clicking HERE.)

If you have been following along with these posts or have found them helpful in your worship time, let me know.  Or if there is something else that I could do to help you grow your personal or weekend worship experience, leave a comment.  Just trying to figure out what works best here.

~chris

Yo!

I hope you all had a great weekend and Easter.

Per my blog post last week, I wanted to go ahead and post this weeks worship set.  Again, these are the songs we are doing this coming Sunday, April 11th, at The Gateway Church.

How Great Is Our God – Chris Tomlin
Beautiful Jesus – Kristian Stanfill
Cannons – Phil Wickham
Here Is Our King – David Crowder

I encourage you to listen to them (here, if you’d like), worship with them, read the lyrics with and without the music, and possibly even buy an album or two to support the artists.

Can’t wait to worship with you this Sunday!

~chris