I just got done reading a great article in relevant about a guy's struggle with self righteousness in terms of sin, specifically in how he views homosexuals - not in terms of right and wrong, but pompusness. I'm there (not gay - self righteous). This really struck me:

I’m certain I’m not the only person who shakes his head at the sight of two men kissing—not out of prudence but out of some pompous belief that I am above them. The only reason one is shocked by sin is because he denies his own. Jesus hated sin more than anybody, but He was never shocked by it.

I've been working out of the office all week, and have been pretty unproductive. I've accomplished a lot of little things, but no real major accomplishments. I've been running pretty hard at work, and have needed a break, but I feel like a slacker when I have these kind of days.

Next week I'm down at the University of Louisville in Kentucky for a few days, then to Park University and the week after that it looks like I'm starting a project at Okaland University - a little closer to home. I see a pattern here.

I've finally made it big-time I guess - I made the Park University web site. Park University is the project I've been working on for the past year or so down in Missouri.

Brad and I went and worked out yesterday with Dan Reynolds and Kirk Vickers. Kirk is an ex-boxer and personal trainer who owns his own gym in Novi. It's a gym much more geared towards athletes than for pumping iron. Many of the exercises are around strength, coordination and reflex training - taking a very different approacht than what I"ve been doing for the past few years. I've gotten into a real rut with my workout, and I'm hoping for something to change it up a little bit. We worked out for two hours - starting with all sorts of funky warm-ups did some crazy super-sets and then some killer ab workouts. The best part of the workout was doing it together with a group of guys. I've been working out without a partner for a while, and it's just not fun for me. I really enjoy hanging out with Dan and Kirk. Dan is the worship leader at Crossroads and is a great guy - he toured in a band for 5 years touring and is the kind of guy who can get along with just about anyone and has a dry and pretty subtle sense of humor. Looking at Kirk, he comes across as a pretty intimidating guy - built like a boxer with the nose to match. He's a great teacher in the gym, and an easy guy to talk to. I'm going to try and do this workout routine all week with them and see where it ends up.

Cath took off this weekend to hang out with my sister Susan and sister-in-law Kris, supposedly to work on their photo album/scrapbooks. Kevin and Gabe came to stay with us, and Dan came over with Andrew, Matthew and Stephen for the day. We had a great time, but I was beat by the end of the day.
They're doing some construction behind our house, so we went back there and played on some of the equipment and huge dirt piles. You can see the pictures here.

I'm in Kansas City this morning. I flew in yesterday to kick off a project down here at Park University again. We've got a large team on this, 8 people total, and a very short time line of 8 weeks. I fly out today through Lansing. Just got an e-mail that I've been upgraded to first class on both legs. Nice. Gotta love the little things in life. I can't wait to be home. Next week - NO TRAVEL.

I spent some time this morning journaling on Galatians 5:13:

It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows.

I went through and made of list of those areas that I most like to ignore God - to indulging my sinful nature, and how those prevent me from serving others.

Just read this article while sitting on the can. Interesting perspective on the nature of community and the change to more of a tribal nature in our communities.

Noel did as series called "The Hate People". It deals with the how many people have the perspective that Christianity is a faith of hate - looking at how Christians have contributed to this, and what the bible has to say about these areas. These are some of the Noel best teachings I've heard Noel give. I love hearing him teach. He has such an amazing way of critically analyzing what's going on in the world around us, in the church and in God's word. He takes these three threads and weaves them together to produce very hard hitting messages. Noel is a lot like Neo in the way he can read the code of the Matrix (these three threads) and make amazing sense of it all. He pulls humor and relevance into his messages that make them great to listen to.

There are four teachings (you can download the related mp3 by clicking on the link):
* Culture
* Morality
* Women
* Homosexuality

We went to the Pumpkin Patch today and had a great time. What a beautiful day to do it! There was this huge corn maze, which the kids loved. Only minor casulties resulting from nate accidently dumping his sisters out of the wheelbarrow. I wanted so badly to work on projects around the house - I'm really glad I did this instead.

Monkeys controlling robots! My guess - this is the key plot in the upcoming Matrix movie.

Just checking in online for my flight tomorrow. The world's dumbest question:
Would you like to upgrade to First Class on your flights from Lansing, MI to Kansas City, MO if available?

Sanctuary (our bi-monthly student worship service) hit me hard last night - thinking about my relationship with God from a lot of angles, one being faith and putting it into practice. I sat there during worship and felt so disconnected with God. Worship's always been something that connected my heart to him in a deep way, beyond my head into my heart - yet yesterday, I "felt" nothing, and it seems to have been that way for a while with worship, and it just struck me. I did a lot of dwelling on why - where my walk with God is at. I've spent a lot of time journaling, but not in intimate conversation with him. I feel disconnected with - even though I've spent time reading the bible and praying, coming to him with big and little things. Almost like a long distance friendship that's happened over e-mail - it's just missing the intimacy. Listening to music focused on Christ throughout the day was something that would continually draw me back, and I've really gotten away from that. I've gotten tired of the "worship genre" of music, but I realize that the music was an intimate part of my relationship with God .
Where is my faith right now? How have I been putting it into practice? Jason taught last night on James 2 - knowing the right words and not doing anything with your faith. When's the last time I've been in a situation where my faith has reallly been put to the test God? Am I stretching myself in any area, or just running fast in my life, but not really going anywhere? Traveling so much over the past 10 weeks, I feel like I've been living a compressed life - being responsibel for a multi-million dollar deal at work, trying to fit in my role as a dad, husband, friend, small group leader, and fusion youth pastor are all given so few cycles right now, that I'm not really able to give any of them the time they deserve. I think I'm doing the best I can with what I've got, but I'm not even sure where God is at in all of that. Is this an area I need to let him in more - and stretch myself?
The other part of J's talk focused on the fact the fact that Christ came to give us abundant life. In the midst of everything going on in my life, I am full. Even having to run at a million miles an hour, I'm not drained, and I know there's a light at the end of the tunnel. How do I reconcile putting faith to the test, and living an abundant life? Not sure.

Mack, my mentor within the company is down in Kansas with me, as we're getting ready to present to the board of trustees for our customer down here. We had dinner tonight and we got to talking about famous people that we've met. Mack was in the Army for 22 years, in special forces, as a full-bird Colonel. He has been with Ronald Regan in the White House Situation Room as he has conducted briefings, he's worked with Colin Powell, met Margret Thatcher, been in combat numerous times as part of Special Ops. I'm a big fan of good stories, and he's got some great ones. He's been a great mentor - very humble, sure enough of himself that work doesn't become an ego deal for him. I'm home tomorrow evening around 8PM.

I'm in Missouri again. Flew in yesterday morning, after getting up at 4:30 AM to get to the airport. It was a long day, full of off-site meetings with our customer, followed by a late dinner and drinks. I got to my hotel around 11:30PM and collapsed, only to wake up an hour later wide awake, having to wake up at 6AM for a meeting. I couldn't force myself to sleep until about 3AM - and I'm a little groggy this morning.

I was sitting here feeling sorry for myself this morning - for traveling, being away from my family and whatever else I could find to find. As I'm standing there taking a leak, I started praying - reflecting on all of the things I have to be thankful for:
My Job - it's flexability, my great compensation, working for a great boss, in an excellent company with great freedom to be at home as much as I am, people that I enjoy working with so much.
My Family - Having such amazing kids who are so much fun and so wonderful, A beautiful wife who loves me and supports me unconditionally
My Church - A church that is so loving, so caring and values people of all kinds so much, that gives me the freedom to do youth ministry the way we do it, a church that is so authentic with such amazing leadership, grace and love.
My Friends - A group of people that love me and accept me where I'm at for who I am, who would do anything for me, and are such a blast to hang out with.

I didn't feel quite so sorry for myself after all of that. All of that while taking a leak - impressive, eh?

Interesting article on Anne vs. Carly. At least it's interesting to me. I'm also probably the only one who thinks the two should appear on Celebrity Deathmatch together.

I'm reading The Art of the Steal by Frank Abagnale. This is the guy whose life the movie/book Catch me if you Can is based on. The Art of the Steal deals with how to protect your personal and business assets from con men, but at the core are some amazing stories about cons that occur, and Frank's life and perspective on where's he's at today.

I love this reminder about prayer, and the importance of the minutae of our life to God. I know how often I feel that God's not that concerned with the day to day crap of my life, and blown away when he answers my prayer. The author of the article is new christian - I still struggle with this idea after 20 years.

Jon (my brother) came down last night, and he, Jason and I went to Nate's Karate class. You're thinking yee-ha! Attending a kid's Karate class! Jon drove 2 hours each way to attend this Karate class. It's that amusing. We signed Nate up for this class through Community Ed, not knowing much about it. It's very unique. It's a non-profit organization that teaches a form of Karate that never makes you hit another person and they start the class by hugging each student. I like to think of it as liberal karate. Everyone tries their best, and lreally, isn't that good enough? The instructor is a very nice guy who means well, but tells some hilarious stories, that he doesn't mean to be funny. Jon, Jason and I sat on the sidelines trying not to embaress ourselves by laughing too loudly. There's also a guy who looks just like Dave Matthews (Don't mention this to Jason, it makes him VERY angry). Anyways, the dave-matthews-looking-guy comes there with his son, and between them, know EVERYTHING, or so they think. They ask all the questions, raise their hands to answer all of the questions, and do every move with a little extra uumph. They're actually in another class, and come as "Visitors" to this class. They tuck a dollar in their belts, and loudly ask "Sensei - may I present my visitor dollar?" They bow low, and hand their dollar to the instructor with reverence. Reading all of this doesn't capture the humor in this class. Jason's really the only one who I've heard describe it and truly capture what goes on there. Put it this way, Jon felt like it was worth the drive from Grand Rapids, and Jason hasn't missed a week sitting on the sidelines. This was the icing on the cake yesterday - turns out it was parents day. I had to be in the class and participate, while Jason and Jon watched on the sidelines as I looked like a fool, with dave-matthews-looking-guy grinding his butt into my pelvis on one of the moves. About fourty minutes in, Nate decided that uncle Jon should participate, and Jon got to go through a hilarious sparring exercise with the instructor. Nate thought Jason should have a turn, and Jason got there in just enough time to get a hug from the instructor. Jon and I were rolling on the ground at this point, wetting ourselves laughing. This is the third or fourth week I've shown up there with another man to watch Nate in the class. I'm pretty sure they think that Jason is my life-partner, and that Nate is our adopted son. Go figure.