i think as humans we have a hard time grasping the concept that god can help us in whatever situation we are in because he is this divinity that lives in the cosmos.  how can god understand what we are going through.  thats the beauty of jesus.  fully god…fully human, jesus went through the same things we do.  ok enough rambling.  i haven’t even told you the scripture yet.  it was 2 chronicles 16:7-9, i guess i got a little ahead of myself this morning.  i think a striking verse within today’s message was that “not relying on god will result in one round of war after another.”  i don’t know about you but war isn’t the way i want to surround my life.  sure, its easy to say that you have undying faith and can give god control over every single situation that comes up in life – but to live it truly remarkable.  i guess any of us can talk the talk.

I just wanted to say that Bob Ross, you know – the guy that paints on PBS, is just awesome.  Anyone with a fro like that, and sick painting skills has to be the man.  I bet he can paint a mean duck, don’t you think Travis?

It also talked about how our lives are “shadows,” and that everything is actually only borrowed from God anyways. All of us tend to hold on to something (material, relational) too tightly, either because we worship it or we think it will last forever. So today, my goal is to back away from my guitars a little bit. I think sometimes I tend to get a little crazy over them. But hey, they say admitting the problem is the first step. Do you have anything you grasp too tightly?

I got up early today, in order to start my new programs. You know, the daily devotional and Fat Camp. Getting up early is the most fulfilling and exhilarating experience sucks, plain and simple. But I did it. I read the passage for today and studied the questions, and its really funny how the topic on the first day I’m doing this addressed one of the things I struggle the most with. The passage snippet was 1 Chronicles 16:23-29. It talks about how you should sing God’s praise. Tell everything and everyone how great He is each day, and proclaim His glory to all the godless nations. It goes on to say that you should do this because God is worth it for all that he has done for us. I totally agree with what I read this morning, but like I said, its something I struggle with. I’m not good when it comes to talking about God. Its not that I feel embarrassed or anything, its just that to me I feel like my faith and beliefs are a private matter that no one wants to hear about. And when I put it like that, I guess it really doesn’t matter if they want to hear about it or not. I suppose its party of my Christian-ly responsibility. What it all boils down to is that I’m a closet Christian and I need to start living it more openly. So today’s goal is to talk to one person about God, whether its something cool he has done in my life, or telling them about who He is. I wonder if tomorrow’s devotional will be this challenging.

Check back later tonight with the first installment of Fat Camp. It should be pretty entertaining.

The photo above is my new Starbucks coffee mug. The reason I chose to use the word “thievery” is because it was stolen. Yes, I in fact blatantly stole this mug right from under the nose of its owner. But now I am the current owner. So now let me justify myself. This mug was given to Emily (my lovely, beautiful wife) for Christmas. So I still seem like a stealing jerk huh? Ok, lets dive in further. It has sat in a basket, underneath a blanket, in front of the Bowflex since December 26th. Out of sight, out of mind right? The absolute beauty of this scenario is that she can not get the least bit mad at me or ask for it back, since it sat there unused for so long. So heres to Emily’s, I mean my new Starbucks coffee mug.

So I have been contemplating a couple of things for a while now and think I’m finally ready to take the plunge. Are you ready? As of Monday, February 18, 2008, I am going to begin doing the two things I really need to work on, an you are going to be the ones to hold be accountable. So what are these 2 things you ask? Well they both have to do with growth. First of all, I feel like I have hit a glass ceiling with my spiritual growth. Emily has started this new daily devotional called Solo, its by the author of the Message. Each day I am going to purposefully wake up early and spend time doing the daily devotion out of Solo. Then, I am going to blog each day about what the passage talked about and how that is relevant in my life. Pretty big stuff huh? Ok, the other growth problem I am having is my belly. I have a Bowflex and 2 good legs for running, so on Sundays each week I am going to give you a workout/weight loss update. This update will include how many times during the week I worked out on the Bowflex and how many miles I ran. I will also give you a week to week update on how much I weigh. Now get ready for this…I’m going to do my special Sunday blog via video for a fitness series I will be calling “fat camp.” Well there it is, my plans for a better me. I’ll see you guys on Monday and you can see what I’m really about.