never been here before

What I'm listening to: My Restoration mix Five Qualities of an Effective Worship Leader (by Lamar Boschman) 1.) Knowledge of God (Have a large view of God) 2.) A Heart Shaped by Worship (Be a worshiper in private) 3.) Intuitiveness (Sensitivity to the Holy Spirit is essential) 4.) Pastoral Heart (Be a leader of people before you are a leader of songs) 5.) Musicality (Play skillfully before the Lord) As a worship leader, I've always felt more like the quarterback than the coach. Meaning I'm in there, with the congregation -worshipping - just as the quarterback is in there with the team. A leader, but in no way like the coach, who is just shouting instruction from the sidelines. I'm leading them, but we are working together to get down the field to the goal - authentic worship of God. I struggle with accepting that's really all I can do. Our worship band is comprised of an amazing group of worshippers. They love playing music and much as I do, but abo

What I'm listening to: Fleming and John's Delusions of Grandeur I'm running errands over my lunch break today and I've got the radio tuned to New Life Live by default - I'm usually listening to The Bridge , a local christian radio station, when I'm driving. Anyway, there was a caller asking about her marriage. Her husband had cheated on her, moved away and wanted nothing more to do with her and her question to them was "When do I give up on this marriage?" At one point, Steven Arterburn said "There comes a time when our hearts must be either repaired or replaced." So, my mind went back to the theme of restortation I've been exploring the last month. And I found this question very profound. Repair or replace? It's certainly not my place to answer this question. God knows and understands the depth my hurt, and thus can best decide what I need: A new heart or one that's patched up. I recall a moment back during my days of insomnia

What I'm listening to: Gretel's Unreturnable Dirt _____________________________________________________________ I've discovered something about myself this last weekend. When push comes to shove, I'm more of a loner than a people person. I've been snowed-in since yesterday afternoon. I love snow. I love it's beauty, the way it symbolizes Christmas is here. Snow blankets the Nebraska plains, and blankets the trees that have lost their leaves from the windy autumn. I love to pick it up in my gloved hand and smoosh it together (yes that's a real word. To me anyway). And I especially love it when it falls from my fingers and lands on my shoes. I love it way it feels in my hair during a snowball fight, I love how it makes a warm house seem so much warmer when I come inside. What I don't love is what it does to the roads and how it makes my trips to work scary. But it's such a small amount of suffering for the peace it brings my soul. It's my "m

What I'm listening to: John Mayer's Any Given Thursday I can't help it. I'm addicted to TV shows on DVD. I don't have cable. I've always seen it as an unnecessary expense, I never had it growing up, so I don't really know what I'm missing. But I kept hearing about all these great shows on the WB or UPN that I should see. So this weekend I had Friday off, and needed to paint the Christmas decorations for the women's Christmas banquet at church. I knew I'd be inside all day (which is not a bad idea the day after Thanksgiving. I get crabby when I shop this time of year. And I love to shop.) Anyway, so rented the first couple of discs of Veronica Mars I've noticed that since TV shows are released on DVDs now, it's getting harder and harder for me to get into the show I currect make a point to watch during the week. There aren't many - The Amazing Race , Grey's Anatomy and Alias . I used to be faithful Joan of Arcadia to until the i

What I'm listening to: Caedmon's Call's Share the Well Completely fascinating. Intensely shocking. Progressively moving. And I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. (That hasn't happened to me since American Beauty ) Crash is not what I expected. But I go into most movies with very little because most of what I've seen in the last few years has lowered said expectation level. However, I'd heard the film was powerful. I loved Million Dollar Baby - which earned every award it won - and Crash was also written by Paul Haggis, so I picked it up after work tonight expecting to see a good movie, but not like this. I was taken on a journey through a day in the lives of 15 or so different characters. Some I hated, some I loved. All I ended up caring about. So much so I found myself tracing the reason a person behaved a certain way back to the character that first encoutered them. It's Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia without the quirky sense of humor. An

What I'm listening to: Norah Jones' Feels Like Home My sides hurt. From laughing. I've been part of a small group bible study for almost a year now. I love it. Every Monday, we meet and go through the study we are currently on. It's all women about my age, and we have an amazing time together. I prayed for the right small group to come into my life and God brought it. I am blessed. Tonight there wasn't a study. It's the leader's birthday so we all brought junk food and played pitch. We had two tables going and it was loud. Lots of laughing, so much fun. My sides hurt and my voice is actually a little scratchy. Yes, we laughed that much. I don't deserve this. I don't deserve such a fun night with some great people. I really don't. But there it was, kind of out of nowhere. Life's been hectic lately, with my church celebrating it's 125th anniversary this last weekend, my two jobs, the holidays coming, and tons of other personal stuff. So mu

I love this picture of the Model A. My uncle (who the car belongs to - passed on to him from my grandpa) and my grandma are inside. What I'm listening to: Caedmon's Call's Back Home

Well, technically it snowed, but there was no accumulation, so my excitement was preliminary. Boo! The result? It's just really, really cold and extra windy. Boo! There's this song by Natalie Grant I'm blaring on my stereo right now called "Held". The song is about the promise that after the fall of man, we have the promise of God holding us. And I know the following interpretation of the song is probably not what was intended by writer, however I've never been one for conformity. This is what it means to be held - How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life and you survive This is what it is to be loved - and to know that the promise was when everything fell we'd be held And it occured to me the reason we hurt,the reason we have an ache inside us, is from being held . From that promise of things better, the promise of home. It we didn't know just how amazing home will be when we get there, we wouldn't hurt this way. God holding you kind o

What I'm listening to: "Restoration" mix of the following songs: Time-Chantal Kreviazuk Beautiful-Bethany Dillon The Space In Between Us -Building 429 Find Me In The River-Delirious? Much Afraid-Jars Of Clay Do You Dream Of Me?-Across The Sky Close of Autumn-Caedmon's Call Cry A River-Amy Grant Stars-(From Les Miserables ) This Road- Ginny Owens Who Am I-Casting Crowns My Father's Crown-Charlie Peacock Pour Me Out-PFR Still The Cross -FFH Be Still, My Soul- Ginny Owens I Wait For The Sun-PFR Waterdeep-Don & Lori Chaffer & Hey Ruth Tea And Sympathy- Jars Of Clay The Worst Is My Being Alone-Don Chaffer Refine Me-Jennifer Knapp Wait For Your Rain- Todd Agnew She Stumbles Through The Door-Sarah Masen Save Me- Kevin Max I'm Afraid That I'm Not Supposed To Be Like This- Waterdeep Rain All Day-Flemming & John Love's As Strong As Death ( from "Canticle of the Plains) - lead vocal by Kevin Smith Undone-MercyMe Constant-Out Of The Grey Missing

I work at a lighting company and a new product we've introduced is one-of-a-kind glass art pendants. He hand-blows them, signs each one so it really is like getting your own piece of art. And I really like the artist. A lot of his work is beautiful and he's one of the nicest guys I've ever talked to on the phone, but this pendant? Creeps me out.

What I'm listening to: Tenth Hour Calling I've been broken and beaten down. In many ways, over many years. By many people. Mostly, I've just never dealt with the brokeness. Time has done well to heal some wounds, but never have I taken time to confront the hurt head on, to open it and exposed the wound so it could heal. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it was out of unconscious need to squelch that hurt, perhaps it was I didn't think it was necessary. But I have a feeling it was because of my fear of what might be exposed. To have our pain exposed - to one person or the whole world - is nothing anyone seeks out. Our culture has taught us vulnerability = weakness and those who feel pain simply don't know how to handle the real world. Was I afraid of being weak? I think so. But I was more concerned to acquiesce the status quo, accepting pain wasn't an option,and in doing so, I wouldn't be weak. That somehow ignoring it would make me stronger. When God became man

What I'm listening to : Sara Groves' Conversations (In particular, This Journey is My Own , which is such a great song) So, I talked to an old friend tonight. Someone I haven't really seen or talked to in well over a year. We still live in the same town, he's just not my neighbor anymore. When he was, I saw him 3-4 times a week usually and as a result, we become (what I thought was) very close friends. And after almost 5 years of friendship, he disappeared from my life. When he moved, that was it. No more neighbor who came knocking at my door at 11:30 at night just to talk. No guy to walk to TCBY with on a warm summer night, no more...well, no more friend. Which, obviously, hurt me. He mentioned many times in the last few months of our friendship about how close we were and how he didn't know what he'd do without me. If not for that, I simply would chock it up to a season of friendship that passed it's time. That's common in my life, because hurting peo