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These things are connected: A conference, a magazine, a flight, and dogsitting.

This Fall I attended (actually served at) a brand new conference/event called STORY. I volunteered for 2 reasons: 1.) Then digital (now real life) friend of mine named Ben Arment was the founder and architect of the event. 2.) There is something about the word ‘story’, and the concept of stories that stirs something deep within my soul. I knew I needed to be at this event.

At the conference everyone received a bag with all kinds of promo, conference info, and a free issue of a magazine called Collide. This particular issue of collide had the word ‘STORY’ written on the front in a very cool font (liken it to dangling a shiny object in front of me). I liked it, but apparently not enough to read it.

I’m typing this blog on a plane via the WordPress app on my iPhone (I love technology). Up until now, my iPhone and all of its marevelous apps has merely served as means of providing a soundtrack (John Mayer, Switchfoot, Johsua Radin). This is primarily because I have been reading the afformentioned magazine. Turns out this issue contained all sorts of articles that captured my attention, and directly addressed a topic that I’ve found myself engrossed in lately: The idea of leveraging our lives to tell a story, and our participation in a Grand Story.

I think that it is no coincidence that I have chosen to read this 6 month old magazine while on a plane travelling to Florida where I’m spending the next 7 days primarily alone, at my friends house in Bradenton caring for his dogs while he is out of town. I have a full plate of work planned for these 7 days, but I’ve made the commitment to myself, to others, and to God that a primary purpose of this trip will be focused dreaming, thinking, and listening.

I’m listening to, observing, and participating in The Story. I’m confident the next 7 days will be providential for my life, ministry, and future.

Yep… I bought some new shoes. Ten pairs of shoes actually. I have no idea what they look like. I doubt they’d actually fit my feet. But that’s all okay… they aren’t for me. They are for a child somewhere that I will never meet. I bought 10 pairs of shoes for $25… quite a bargain if you ask me.

You too can buy some shoes. Here’s what you do. Just go over to the website for Souls4Soles and buy some shoes. It’s super easy to do, and instantly makes you a part of something bigger. If 720 more pairs of shoes are donated before December 14th, a donor will kick in an additional 500 shoes. Not to mention you can win all kinds of cool stuff like: an Amy Grant signed guitar (yea, not that cool, but come on…), a trip to Mexico (very cool), a keychain (spend $10), or some soothing foot cream (spend $25).

Go buy shoes! Oh, and if you need some motivation… watch this video… it’s the most motivational video ever created!

I gave birth to a sermon this past Sunday morning. I realize if there are any ladies that read my blog, you may be offended, and tempted to write me flaming comments about how I “Don’t even begin to understand…” and you’re right, I don’t. It’s probably a bad analogy, but the only one I can think of.

The short story is that God has been doing some remodeling of my heart the past few months. It’s pretty easy to trace the starting point back to my trip to Guatemala with Journey Church in August. That was the beginning. Another key landmark on this journey has been the reading of Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love. It rattled me to my core… I still haven’t dealt with all of the ramifications from this book. More recently, I came across the Advent Conspiracy video which I’ve posted on this blog twice in the past couple of weeks. I was inspired by the words, imagery, and music. I was shaken by the keynote statistic that Americans spend $450 Billion Dollars on Christmas each year, and it would only take $10 Billion Dollars to provide clean drinking water to all of earth inhabitants. The lack of clean drinking water is the #1 killer of human life in our world today. I actually planned to use this statistic as one of the primary illustrations of my talk on Sunday, and completely forgot about it. When I realized that Monday afternoon, I wished I had a time machine so I could go back and share it.

So basically, God has been working on me in this area of poverty, wealth, America vs. the world, rich & poor, and my place in all of that. This past Sunday I had the opportunity to give birth to some of what I’m wrestling with, and what God is teaching me. If you were not

 at Journey Church on Sunday, I encourage you to listen to this talk. Not because it’s me, but because the Message God is sharing with me, and wants to share with you is so important. It could change everything…

Click here to visit the CincyJourney media page and listen to the talk. You’ll find it as the uppermost link in the list of talks. You can also search for “Journey Church West Chester” in iTunes and subscribe to our podcast.

I’ve read a couple of blog posts in the past few minutes that have really struck a chord with me. I encourage you to go to the following two links and check out the posts. Don’t stop there though, go through the comments and hear what others are doing in similar situations. Post 1 from Ragamuffin Soul. and Post 2 from Joshua Griffin. Check them out!

The reality is, we live in a fascinating time. We have dozens of affordable luxuries at our fingertips daily. The question for us should not be: “Can I afford that”, but “Do I need that”. What do we really need? what could we do without? 

I’m wondering what some of you have to say about this. I’m wondering if you’ve ever gone without a modern luxury, so that you can tackle debt, be obedient to God, sponsor a Compassion child, to “Go Green”, or anything else along those lines. 

In the spirit of full disclosure, I feel the need to say that I don’t do without any of these things. I’m not seeking to convict, just to spark conversation! Jenessa and I have digital cable with DVR. We have RoadRunner cable internet. We both have cell phones. We do NOT have a home phone, but only because we honestly have ZERO need for one. We drive two cars, but have no car payment… when we purchased a new car after totaling our old car, we stayed within the boundaries of the insurance check to replace that car.

 I actually went through a period about  a year ago where I contemplated killing the cable at our house. After thinking about it, and figuring out the money I would be saving, I determined that it wouldn’t be “worth it”. Turns out that I’m on some freaky cheap package with Time Warner Cable. I get Digital Cable + DVR + Roadrunner Internet for $85.00 per month. If I cancelled the cable, my RoadRunner internet would go up to $45 per month by itself. The nature of my work situation at Journey Church does not allow me to go without the internet at my house, so we determined that $40 a month was worth the Cable & DVR.

For the record, I could totally go without cable. There are resources & tools out there that would enable me to enjoy all of the same programming I do now, without the cost. My ideal setup would be: Apple TV + BoxeeTV + Hulu + Netflix. Now I just need someone to step up and buy me that Apple TV for Pastor Appreciation Month!  (I never thought that I’d link to CBN on this blog!)

(First off, Sorry for the blogging break. The past couple of weeks have been spent traveling, and jumping back into the full swing of the Fall ministry season at Journey Church.)

I’ve made some recent book & music purchases that have me excited about what I will learn & experience over the next few months. Check out the recent additions to my library and let me know what you think in the comments!

Music: (Loving some of these new tunes)

• OK Now – Jon McLaughlin – Just purchased Jon’s new album this morning. Can’t wait to give it a few full listens and hear what he’s created in the time since his outstanding first release, Indiana.
• The Glass Passenger – Jack’s Mannequin – In college, “Something Corporate” was one of my favorite bands. Now Andrew (lead singer) has been off on his own for a while. I love what I’ve heard so far from this 2nd album! 
• Under Summer Sun – Matt Wertz – Matt’s music was meant to be listened to in the summertime. Unfortunately, the album didn’t come out until late summer… still a great listen though!
• The Bright Sadness – Charlie Hall – Hands down the best album currently out in the “worship” genre. Charlie delivers in a big way both musically and lyrically with this gem!
• Hello Love – Chris Tomlin – Tomlin is God’s cheerleader. This album is a collection of anthems that churches all over the world will be singing in a few months. Great stuff. 

As I worked through the unread posts in my RSS reader, I came across several posts along these lines today. This one by Kem Meyer touched me the most… particularly the end. I can not say it any better, please go here and read what Kem has to say about the 9/11 tragedy, and the effect it’s had on her.

For the record, here’s my memory of that day: I was still asleep when the first plane hit (I had a pretty sweet schedule my senior year of high school, my first class wasn’t until 11:30). My mother woke me up with the news that: “A plane hit the World Trade Center”. That didn’t mean much to me… I assumed it was an accident, and proceeded to go back to sleep. A few minutes later my mom came back in and said: “They think it may have been terrorists”. In 2001, the word “terrorist” didn’t really mean what it does in 2008, nonetheless, I rolled over, and flipped on the TV in my bedroom. Casually watching the news coverage, and realizing how serious this “accident” was, I was lying in bed when the second plane hit. My mom screamed from the living room where her and my dad were watching the same coverage. Instantly everything changed, my mind raced to the possibilities of the extent of what I might see next. I remember running out into the living room too watch all of this unfold with my parents. We soon found out when the 3rd plane hit the Pentagon, and the 4th crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. 

The next few hours went something like this: We prayed, my mom cried, my dad enrolled in the army (just kidding, but he was close), my brother called home from college, we watched the news, we heard about a plane crashing into a building in Dayton, Ohio (sheer coincidence, small single engine plane, but just imagine what we were thinking), I drove both of our cars to the gas station to get gas (the lines were so long), I didn’t go to school that day.

I’ll never forget that day. One day I’ll try to convey to my children what we all felt and experienced that day. While I hope they are moved, and gain understanding from the things I’ll share with them, I hope they never have to experience themselves. My prayers tonight will be for the families of those lost in the various stages of this tragedy, and for the men & women all over the world serving our country to prevent a similar catastrophe for future generations.

You know those people that you wish you “knew”? You might read their books, hear them speak, or watch them from afar, and they just seem like they would be so cool to “know”. Like… hang out with, go to dinner with, watch football with. People that just seem like they would be a lot of fun to be around. 

Well, Lanny Donoho is one of those people. The dude is hilarious… he seems down to earth, and he’s typically brutally honest. His book: God’s Blogs is absolutely hilarious, yet utterly insightful. I wish I “knew” Lanny… that would be fun. 

You can understand why I was excited when I discovered that he had just recently began to Twitter. The excitement doubled when I realized that he started blogging a couple of months ago. He has now assumed a prominent place on the list of “Blogs I Dig” to the left. 

If you want a glance inside Lanny’s head, read his first blog post here. If you want more, add him to your RSS and enjoy the ride! In the meantime, I’m curious… who is the person you watch from afar that you wish you “knew”?