Books, Busyness, Buddies and Bo Bice

Books -- I have done a lot of reading in the last couple of months... and I think that every "modern" Christian should read all of these books. They are not just for seminary, theology types.. I think they are expertly written and address teh real issues of living in our world today.

everyone should read, I recommend this order.. if you want some good thought provoking, but easy reading for the Summer.
---A new kind of Christian : Brian Mclaren
---The story we find ourselves in : Brian Mclaren
---The last word and the word after that : Brian Mclaren
---Waking the Dead : John Eldredge
---The Present Future, Six tough questions for the church : Reggie Neal

Trust me.. buy them.. and read them in order I listed them..... it will put you on a roller coaster ride and enliven your heart as well as your mind. I am going to reread all of them.. just so I am sure that I understand what I think about them..

Busy business
My schedule has been too busy this week to allow me to think and write.. It seems like I have run from one thing to another but I am hard pressed to tel you what "real" good I did in the past few days... I took my oldest daughter on a field trip today and we had a good time... What did I do..? I know that I did a lot of things in teh past few days, and I even thought about writing some of them down, but interestingly, my mindset of business(read that busy ness) blinds me from my own actions and thoughts. i took no time to reflect, I took almost no time to thank people.. not to mention that by personal prayers were largely superficial, and mostly "institutional".. there was little passion or intensity...
Thought: by becoming busy, we enable Satan to take us away from our God, our family, and ultimately our jobs... We burn out, and ultimately become ineffective. He is "scary" good at this.. and we are "scarily" unaware of this silent demon manifesting in our daily actions. Even the church is to blame sometimes.. Do we teach people the value and importance of the Sabbath, of rest, of focus... or do we just seek to build another program in the hopes of attracting another young couple and getting them to join the club and do even more..

I talked at length with a good friend about a technology metaphor for God.. He is like a network tied to a supercomputer with unlimited bandwidth, unlimited processing power, and zero latency.. Whatever we ask of him.. He can provide it, yet we insist on personal upgrades.. We waste our time trying to upgrade our processors, and our computers, when all we have to do is plug in.. Just think, God's grace is the ultimate wireless network.. We are always connected.. no matter what we do on our end.. he is there..

How often do we connect? or do we try to do all of the work on our own..

Buddies
I miss my buddies. People who tell me what they think no matter what... I have no fear of losing them as friends no matter what I/we say or do.. There aren't that many.. maybe 2 or 3.. I am ashamed, I don't stay connected enough... Somehow, my lack of constant singing engagements these days coupled with my overly busy schedule, is some sort of badge of humiliation. I was the "golden boy" with all of the talent, all of the strings, and I know some of them think that I have thrown my chance away, to just be a dad, and minister, and friend...And worst of all, I have "sold out" and joined the evil corporate culture of America... I guess the answer is YES.. I did, but it was the right call and i would do it again. How can i connect back to some of those folks when I have failed them.. or me, or maybe both? I am reaching out to them even now.. Tracee and I will make a schedule and we are going to make these connections more frequent... we can do it if we try. Even if the effort is one-way, we have to at least try.

re: American Idol.. Bo Bice should have won hands down.. I hereby commit to everyone.. America let him down. By choosing the pretty girl over the singer with real soul, integrity, and the guts to be himself.. we have exposed our lack of understanding of the "art" of singing yet again.. Singing is about exposing your soul.. a good voice helps, but the trick is honesty and a willingness to bare your soul.. accepting both the praise and the rejection equally. Bo is a singer, he is up there in front of us all.. Carrie is a a wonderful singer, a beautiful girl, and very talented, but she isn't in Bo's league.. Bo will be a huge star.. I think Carrie is a flash in the pan...