What a week! And what a year! 2010 can best be summed up for me by saying, “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times,” but even the worst of times were really, really good for Southbrook Church and our future of marking the body, community and world for Jesus!
- The family and I flew in last night from a week of skiing in Colorado! I love skiing, but was reminded that no matter how long you save for these kinds of things you will still find yourself saying over and over again, “It cost THAT much!”
- Our luggage was delayed last night (Saturday) so we got home in the wee hours of the morning with Juliana and I still recovering from altitude sickness–seems we were the least prepared for a base camp (Breckenridge Village) that’s already around 9,000 feet! In fact, the highest chairlift in all of North America is @Breckenridge (over 12,000 feet with a hike that puts it near 13,000 feet!). I told myself that I was going to calm down with the radical skiing now that I have a family, but every time I get to the mountain and see the younger skiers (who still look pretty slow to me 🙂 ) the old need for speed kicks back in. However, this time my ego was definitely writing checks my body could no longer cash! Ok, that’s the last line form “Top Gun” I will use in this post–promise.
- Did I mention that some of us had altitude sickness? If anything is of the devil, that is!
- Today something happened to me @ the 9:00 service that has only happened once or twice in over ten years–I got physically ill. Seriously, I had been running on adrenaline for so long and fighting off junk that by the time I got to church (after sleeping right through my alarm, jumping in the shower for the shortest shower in history, skipping breakfast and feeling like I was going to upchuck what little might have been in my gut) it was time to step up and preach. The only problem was–I blanked out–not once, not twice–but several times. If you were our guest today, I apologize. That’s not typical and it was everything I could do to get through the message! The 11:00 was the polar opposite as I got some food in me and a friend found some red-bull to snap me out of it. Is it right to thank God for red bull?
- In case you missed it, the message was on the real “Lord’s Prayer.” The one found in John 17. There are three main things that Jesus prayed for…Protection, Progress, and the Promotion of unity. Churches and individual Christ followers have no problem with the first 2, but find all kinds of excuses for blowing off the the third one. Think about it…we sabotage unity all the time in churches today for the most immature reasons including, a love of gossip, a desire to look good, boredom, laziness (Hey, it;s easy to believe a great story but such a hassle to verify the facts), envy, bitterness, unforgiveness, jealousy. The list goes on and on and on. They seem like the little things, but they can take down the entire church (any one of them) if left unchecked!
- Yes, I’m serious, “Buckyballs” are a stress inducer rather than a stress reliever as they are billed as!
- Really pumped about our brand new series starting this coming weekend entitled, “The Resolution Revolution!” If you are among the 95 percent (and that percentage held true today @ Southbrook as well by show of hands) who have made New Year’s resolutions only to break them time and time again–then you need to be @ Southbrook for this series and learn how you can make permanent changes in your life!
It’s late–gotta go. More later!
The red rooster