It’s been a few days since the passing of Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple, and the world is still buzzing about his life and death.  If you knew about him much at all, you knew he had cancer and that his time was short.  Only a few weeks ago, he stepped down from his post as CEO stating that he could no longer fulfill the duties of his job.  That right there was a major key that his battle against cancer had turned south.  42 days later (1 day following the first major keynote presentation without him at the helm) his fight ended.

As everyone that has loved Apple products for the past couple decades is still talking about him, I thought I would join in as well.  He didn’t invent the computer or the phone or the music player but just like the BASF commercials, he made the products that we buy better.  He lead a team that revolutionize these common everyday items and changed our world.  That right there is significant.

I’m not going to sit here and quote Jobs although there are numerous lines I could throw in.  I’m not going to throw a pity party because he is gone although there are many people in real pain because of his passing.  But to me the biggest thing about his life was that he really knew what it meant to change the world.  I don’t know how many times I have heard that phrase “change the world” tossed around (especially in the Christian community).  We want to change our world for Christ.  We put it in our mission statements.  We say it at graduations.  We preach it from our stages.

How many times have you said that?  I know I have.  But I don’t know that I ever really thought about the WORLD when I say it.  We like to throw the phrase around but so often only have a small picture meaning of it.  We aren’t dreaming big or we aren’t really believing that it is possible.  Whether Steve Jobs set out to change the world, I don’t know.  But the fact is that he was definitely not afraid to dream huge and in the process revolutionize the world.

I pray that I will have dreams bigger that what I can accomplish on my own.  I pray that we as Christians will have more than a small picture vision for what God is capable of doing through us and dream big.  Like CEO of Apple big.

September 2, 2011
8:10 am
7lbs
18.5 inches

My Guesses
7lbs 7oz
19.5 inches

PICTURES COMING SOON!

Yes.  I blogged.  Now that we are all over the shock because of my recent track record, here’s what’s up.

Despite the fact that I haven’t written here in quite some time I wanted to make sure I didn’t leave out my newest little one.  In just a mere 32 +/- hours we will be holding 2.0 in our arms and officially clueing everyone into Jessi Girl’s little sister’s name.  We are quite excited about her arrival and are very ready to get the pregnancy part over with.  And now the time is here!

The pregnancy has flown by (yet still been quite miserable in the hottest summer ever…seriously…like Pompeii hot).  I’m sure a lot of the time passing so quickly is because of Jessi.  She keeps us extremely busy now and it’s a blast.  So just in case you are lost and don’t know what’s going on with us (and actually care) here’s a short rundown of our lives.

Jessi is almost a year and a half old.  She thinks she is about 6.  Her vocabulary seems to be expanding by the hour.  She is an amazing little girl and has already started dabbling with the terrible twos.  Good times.  Jack is still here.  He still loves to sleep and be lazy and loves to sleep near Jessi (as long as she isn’t awake too).  We as a family are doing great and excited to welcome 2.0 into our lives.  I haven’t blogged much in the past 6+ months because I have a rare opportunity to spend some crazy quality time with my girls.  Even if I wanted to write Jessi would not have it.  I would be sitting too still.  Trust me.  When you have one of the most adorable little girls slowly walking away looking over her shoulder saying “dada! chase?  chase?  dada!  chase?” you can’t keep doing whatever it was you were doing.  It’s just not possible.

So tomorrow our family will become a full blown family of 4.  I’m pretty sure I will have some chasing to do in the hospital, too.  Thank you for all your prayers!  Come back tomorrow to find out all about 2.0!

Since I have been gone for so long, I thought I might give you a quick update in our lives!

We have now been living in Oklahoma for 8 months.  It has gone by so fast (despite the constant yearning in my soul to go back to Huntington Beach and California) and we have been so busy!  We are back at our church LifeChurch.tv and working rather often on a fill-in basis.  It seems like almost every week and lots of Wednesdays too!  Since moving back we have been blessed to play and visit 7 different campuses and hopefully will add a couple more in the next few months!

Being unemployed was definitely not my plan.  Like…well…everyone I would have dodged that for sure, but the Big Man Upstairs had something else in mind.  It has been restful, playful, and enjoyable!  I have gotten to stay home and take care of my wife who is pregnant with 2.0 and due in just about a month.  I have gotten to roll around on the ground, climb slides, swim for hours and have living room picnics with my amazing little girl.  It has been absolutely wonderful.

There are plenty of reasons I have neglected this site, but none more important that spending tons of time with my family.  It’s not the life I would have picked for us if you had asked me 9 months ago, but it’s definitely been a huge blessing and an absolute blast!  So what’s next?  Beats me!  Vacation to start August, 2.0 arriving in 5 weeks, lots of family, a little more church and then…???  I guess we will see what God has planned for this soon to be family of 4!

Well that’s gonna have to be all for now.  Gotta go change a poopy diaper and keep a toddler from waking up preggo!

Well, it is.  It is about time.  I haven’t really been on here since May.  Wow.  I blogged so much for so long (comparatively) and then just dropped off the face of the blogging world.  I have thought many times about starting back up.  I have thought about trying to rebrand.  I have thought about starting over.  But the fact of the matter is that I haven’t been doing anything so just changing the name or focus won’t do anything.

So, here it is.  Same bat time, same bat channel.  Maybe this time I will get back into a rhythm and break out of my slump.  Maybe not.  But at the moment, I’m gonna give it a shot!  So this is my current attempt to stop being a one hit wonder (loosely using the term and not really claiming that I’m a wonder by any means!).  I may even try to blog again for tomorrow.  Guess you’ll just have to come back then and find out.

Until then, enjoy this!

…All the moms in my life.  Remember back in the day when Mother’s Days were really easy because you were a little kid, didn’t really care and dad did all the work?  Funny how things change!  Now with a mother, a mother-in-law and a wife that’s a mother the day carries a little more weight.  But how do you celebrate and love on 3 different moms in one day?  Well, hopefully you aren’t just loving on them one day a year, but still.  We have split it up and are spending time with the moms separately.  The zoo with mama, Sunday family lunch with my mom and Monday family dinner with my MIL.

Moms, thank you so much for everything you do for us.  You have been there day in and day out to support, take care of and love us.  We are the people that we are because of you.  We don’t thank you enough.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you…

We love you moms!

Sunday night, after the craziness of the Osama bin Laden coverage, my daughter (2.o) was all hyped up…possibly because she will be living in a world without him…but I can’t be certain.  I guess it could have been the after dinner cookies.  She was rolling all over the place and kicking up a storm.  For those of you that don’t know, 2.0 is still 18 weeks from gracing us with her presence and up until now I haven’t been able to feel any of the efforts she has made to try to contact me.

That is until Sunday night!  She is growing and getting stronger and finally made contact!  She still responds to my voice (or so I am told) which is fun, but I still don’t get to really sense it.  But she has now grown enough that I can feel her and even see the direct results of her efforts!  Yeah!

It’s kinda funny how everything is so different with the second kid.  Yes, I am absolutely thrilled we have been blessed with kids.  Yes, it is exciting and awesome, but the truth is it doesn’t have the craziness and newness of the first pregnancy.  We have been here before.  We did already and even though the belly is growing a little bit it still isn’t the same.

But there are a few things that help me break out of that and jump back into the fun, crazy, giddy, excited feelings again.  Of course the first pregnancy test is one, hearing the heartbeat is another.  But the two biggest ones for me are getting to see the baby in the first big ultrasound and then getting to actually feel the baby moving around.

So, yeah.  I’m there.  My baby is coming!  She is kicking!  I just might have 2 future World Cup stars!

So Osama bin Laden was killed May 1st through a US strike.  This is huge victory for the “war on terror” and I’m sure an enormous victory for those across the world that have been hurt or lost loved ones because of his orders and actions.  But the reactions across the United States has stirred up all kinds of feelings and controversy.

As soon as the story broke all over the news channels and Twitter, large groups of people started gathering in several different places in full on celebration.  If you just saw the video without knowing what was going on you would think we had just won the Olympics World Cup (the celebrations weren’t that big).  People chanting U-S-A.  Crowds singing the national anthem, Na-na-na-na hey-hey-hey Goodbye (whatever that one is called) and We Are The Champions.  Obvious job and relief as the FBI’s Most Wanted criminal has come to his end.

But there are also many others who are cringing at the sight of these celebrations.  Frustrated at videos of Americans dancing in the streets at the death of an enemy oddly similar to those we have seen of terrorist groups celebrating after victories.  Christians devastated that there is such celebration of the death of a lost human soul.

My take?  As a Christian we should mourn the loss of any soul that doesn’t accept and receive the salvation through Jesus Christ.  But I also believe that we should be looking to uphold justice.  Would it have been better to capture bin Laden and put him on trial?  Maybe so.  Many would argue yes.  He would get his fair trial and then be sentenced to death.  It would have given him some time to think about his imminent doom.  Would he have changed his mind?  I doubt it.  Could he have changed his mind?  With the power of Christ, yes.

I while I am tempted to say that I am sad that he has no more opportunities to turn to Christ, I am also reminded of all the times throughout the Bible that God had individuals and whole nations wiped off the face of the earth because their hearts were wicked and they wouldn’t turn from their evil ways.  Bin Laden strikes me as one of those.  Doesn’t mean that I’m going to go sing We Are The Champions, but it does give me relief and satisfaction that his evil is stopped, freedom’s fight against the evil of terror took a major step and that there has been justice served for all of the countless families (American and otherwise) that have been devastated and caused such pain because of him

So what say you?

-Interesting Fact-

Bin Laden’s death was announced on May 1st, 2011. Hitler’s death was announced on May 1st, 1945.

-Best Tweets of the Night-

@sugaranddots: Osama Bin Laden, CHECK! Next on the list: 1. Waldo. 2. Carmen Sandiego.

@treykerby: BREAKING — Osama’s mansion was built by the Bluth Company.”

@stoked88: Now I think we all know why there was no season 9 of 24. Well done Jack… well done.

@lizzwinstead: Can we travel with big shampoo again??!

@crownasty: “Sorry it took so long getting a copy of my birth certificate. I was too busy killing Osama Bin Laden.” #ThingsObamaIsThinking

One thing that drives me absolutely crazy is when churches are constantly competing or trying to outdo each other. Instead of working together, many times you may hear from your pastor about why you shouldn’t go to so and so’s church or how this church is wrong or that church doesn’t really care about anything but numbers and offering. Seriously, it is no wonder that people outside of the church think Christians are crazy and hypocrites!

But then on the other hand, I LOVE to see when churches are all about the Kingdom of God and not just how many people they can get in the doors of their own building! Churches do this in many different ways. Some team up for big events. Some do mission trips together. Some give their resources to other churches. But this past weekend for Easter I saw a great example of this.

The lead pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC, which has been one of the fastest growing churches in America, is quite the blogger and tweeter. This past Easter weekend instead of spending all his effort trying to convince people to come to his church he spent time trying to get people to go to church! Check out his tweets.

Maybe you’ve got family in town this wknd & Elevation isn’t the best fit for them? Check out Forest Hill, Transformation, Renovatus…

…New Birth CLT, Southbrook, Carmel, Hickory Grove, Freedom House, Central, University Park, FBC Indian Trail..so many great churches!

…Steele Creek, Charlotte South, Church @ Charlotte, Ridge Church, Center City Church, Forest Pointe…could keep going-but I’m outta time!

Ok, just a few more Kinetic, Threshold, New Life Fellowship, The Cove, Weddington Community, Weddington Church…really gotta stop now:)

Seriously?  He just offered up 23 different churches for someone to check out if his church isn’t the best fit.  It’s not very often you see that kind of attitude.  I love it!  Imagine if we all approached life and Christianity like this!  What if we spent more time making sure people where loved on and taken care of then whether or not our church attendance is up +/- 1?  What if we loved them enough to want the best for them and not the best for us?

Check out Steven Furtick’s blog and follow him on Twitter.

Weird, because normal isn’t working.