A Wonderful Week of Music

Well, this has been a great week in my music life...and none of it really centered around me...(wow, I can't believe the musician in me actually said that!). Anyway, Sunday we are having our Baby Dedication ceremony at church and so I wrote a song for the occasion. I was at home working on it and Danielle came in with Emma and started helping me with it. I then got to play the piano with my daughter for the first time. (Man, I hope she grows up to love music.) Danielle took some photos of us, but the best one I had to pull from one of the videos she shot (which is why the picture quality's so bad.) I thought the lighting was great and the look of wonderment on her face was breath-taking...at least for Daddy it was. Hopefully, this will be the first of many Daddy/Daughter Duets.

And then this morning, I experienced what could possibly be the apex of my song-writing career. Honestly, I'm not sure what else could top having a children's choir (small at it might be) praise our Lord, Jesus Christ through a song that He inspired in me. I didn't want to make the kids nervous so I shot in secret from the back of the room. Plus you have to picture me behind the camera...I don't think I stopped grinning from ear to ear the ENTIRE time.

Thank you so much to Mrs. Jackson's choir at Wichita Christian School for letting me come and listen to you practice and worship God with you.

It's Official...

Well, it's official...I'm IN my 30's. No longer on the outskirts, but IN my 30's. Today I turned 31 and, well, I'm older. Danielle and I celebrated by going to the movies and then out to dinner with some friends. The evening culminated by me getting my tail kicked at the new Mario Cart on the Nintendo Wii....yeah, and I mean KICKED!!! But hey, it was just as fun as the original Nintendo64 (ahhh..... back when I was 26, when times were simpler).

Anyway, it was so much fun hanging out with our friends. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. Speaking of wonderful family....here's a preemptive "Happy Birthday" sung by my nephew Luke while Danielle and I were home for a baby shower last weekend. Pretty good, huh? If I can just get a guitar in front of him, we could hit the road. : )

Thanks everyone, especially my wonderful wife, for making this past year spectacular. On to my thirties.

This Evening's Adventure

It all started when I took the trash out when I got home from work today. After putting the bag in the dumpster, I looked around and decided to pull some of the thousands of weeds from my yard (this is another story altogether....for another time). I pulled them for a few minutes and worked my way down the fence...when I noticed a clicking noise. Not thinking anything of it...I continued on. Pretty soon, I heard the clicking noise again. As I looked up and gave my eyes time to focus on what was before me, I realized that the mound of fuzz sitting behind a leafless bush was not a pile of leaves and trash, but was a ......

are you ready for this....

an owl. That's right...an OWL!!!! About two feet from my face. And I'm not talking about a four or five inch little tree owl. I'm talking it was an over a foot tall BIRD OF PREY!!! That looked like it wanted to reach out and touch someone....ME in particular!!! So naturally, I kept my cool and assessed the situation, before doing the right thing.....wait....nevermind....the truth is I ran. That's right, I ran like a little girl away from a bullying 6th grader. And I'm not ashamed. Don't you judge me.

Anyway, come to find out, we have had a baby great horned owl sitting in our yard/alleyway since this morning. Looking back to this morning, it started with a bunch of loud bluejay's yakking on our fence at the crack of dawn...I guess they weren't too happy to have the bird that was 15 times their size in their neighborhood. Not knowing what the bluejays were upset about, our day continued.

We have since, contacted wildlife rescue services, and they have picked the owl up to take care of it until it can later be released back into the wild. The funny thing no longer than two minutes after the owl had been removed, the bluejays were back in force. There were at least seven male bluejays, three blackbirds, one male cardinal, and a little 'ole wren chirping it up on our fence and the powerlines behind our house.

Well, anyway that was our excitement for the evening. Danielle and I actually miss it. It was like a little pet...for twenty minutes. We named her Alley....cause we found her in the alley. Creative...huh?

Everyone....meet Alley. :)

It's A Girl!!!

Well, here we are four months into this thing, and we just found out that we are having a GIRL!!! We were wanting to have a girl so bad...and today we finally got the news.

Of course, we trusted that God would bless us with what was best for our family, but we REALLY hoped for a girl. It was so amazing to watch our little girl move around inside the womb during the sonagram. She's only five or six inches long, but it seemed like a world of growth from the little pea we saw the last time we were there. Wow...they grow up so fast.

God's goodness and sovereignty never ceases to amaze me. How He shapes and forms little fingers and little toes and sets into motion a little heart no bigger than the tip of a Sharpie marker. I stand in awe of His wonderous ways.

More to come.....much...much...more.

Four Weeks Ago...

My thoughts four weeks ago...

Well, today was what you would call a life changing day. After a busy week at the church, I took this afternoon off to veg out on the sofa watching a little TV. Danielle just so happened to take the rest of the day off too, so there we were.

As we sat on our respective sofas, she said, "Oh, I made you something at work today. I forgot to give it to you." I opened the small white envelope she gave me. Inside was a small, red construction paper heart similar to the one I keep in my wallet that she gave me over nine years ago. But with one small difference. On this one was written, "For Daddy."

I'M GOING TO BE DAD!!! I AM A DAD!!!! Even now God has pulled out His sovereign and creative loom and has commenced His masterpiece. He is creating our child in the womb of my wife...my child's mother. He is creating His child in the womb of my wife. This speck, no larger than the tip of a pen, will continue to be shaped, molded, fitted, and perfected. Perfected in His eyes. Every vessel in place. Full of blood, life, and purpose.

The first stroke has been laid on the canvas. A masterpiece awaits.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. Psalm 139:13

The House...Finally

Well, 1 year...4 months...and 20 days, and we finally bought a house. That's right...you heard correctly...we bought a house. God has proved Himself faithful once again. It's a wonderful 4 bedroom home on a quiet cul-de-sac in a quaint little neighborhood a couple of miles from the church.

We are so excited about about being able get our stuff out of storage, and finally settling down into a home. There are a few updates we are wanting to do, but the "bones" of the house are great. It has a cozy little covered patio that will be a great place to enjoy the afternoon shade....what little shade there is here in Texas. : )

If you want to check it out in more detail...click here.

Sacrificial Worship

What a year. It has been just a little over a year since Danielle and I arrived here in Wichita Falls…and what a wonderful one it has been. Very few days go by when I don’t feel extremely privileged to serve as the Worship Pastor for Fairway Baptist Church. This church is filled with people with a servant’s heart. A heart that is beating in rhythm with the song of our Savior.

Earlier in the year, I was reading through 1 and 2 Samuel, and I read a verse at the end of the 2^nd book that has stuck with me ever since. King David was told through the prophet Gad, to go build an altar on someone else’s threshing floor, in order to stop the plague that was reeking havoc on Israel at the time. Upon arrival, King David inquired about the cost of the threshing floor. The gentleman, in turn, offered to give whatever he had to the king for free. But the king persisted, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” 2 Samuel 24:24

What an amazing truth about sacrifice. It’s easy for us to give away something that we attained for free. But to give something away that we earned…we fought for…we went to great lengths for…now that’s a different story. Why? Because it means more to us. It has greater value to us because we put our own blood, sweat, and tears into it. Therefore, if you choose to give it away, the sacrifice takes on an even greater value to the one who is making it. And this is what King David was after. He wanted his sacrifice to his God to be of value…he wanted it to cost him. His desired was to show God that He was worth the sacrifice.

Romans 12:1 says that we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices…a life that is surrendered to Him in every way…a life lived in sacrificial obedience to our Father. It goes on to say that this is our spiritual act of worship. It’s not just music, or the Sunday morning service, but it’s a 24-7 sacrificial gift to Jesus Christ.

Other translations say it is our reasonable act of worship. When we think of the depth of His mercy, the extent of His blessing, the vastness of His love, a sacrificial life of worship is the only reasonable response. Our offering should gush forth as an overwhelming reaction to knowing His greatness. We should desire to not only offer our life as a sacrifice to God, but offer it as a joyful sacrifice to Him…just as David did. Like Paul of the New Testament, David’s heart “considered everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing his Lord.” Philippians 3:8.

It shows itself in the smile of a greeter on Sunday morning. The grunts of someone helping another load a moving truck. The soft whispers of the Fairway Family praying for each other. The patience our nursery workers. The laughter of ministry teams setting up after hours for an event. The aroma of a savory Wednesday night meal. And many, many more. They are around every corner. And for that, I am thankful…and honored to be part of the Fairway family.

God has called us to be living sacrifice…this is our reasonable act of worship.