Pots and Pans

I have been in a place of seeking God recently. I know that sounds very un-pastor like, or even unchristian. Shouldn't we always be seeking God? Of course. But I confess, I go through dry times, and I have been in one. So I have been striving to pursue God with a greater level of intensity. This practice has involved a couple of things, listening to sermons of people I respect, and reading the works of other people who challenge me in my walk. In addition, I have sought to meditate on scripture I have memorized. This morning I was sitting here in my office looking over my bookshelf for something to read. In the past, I have had subscriptions to Relevant Books, and they would send out a box with music, their most recent magazine, and several books. I tend to be a great book starter and horrible book ender, yet overall, just terribly inconsistent at reading altogether. Anyway, I have a number of books on my bookshelf that I have never read, or even opened for that matter.

My eyes stumbled upon the book, "God is Here; Connecting with him in Everyday Life" by Steve Case, and I was instantly curios. The cover even had an strong endorsement by Tony Campolo. The cover also has the statement, "A modern look at Brother Lawrence's The Practice of the Presence of God. I have heard of Brother Lawrence many times, and have many people talk about the significance of his writings and life. I even tried downloading and audio book of The Practice but never got through it. I decided I would give this book a try, at least the beginning of it.

The first chapter was a biography of Brother Lawrence, which there really isn't a ton of, but it did give some context to the challenges he faced. It was helpful. But it was chapter 2 that has really drawn me into this book, because it focused on a prayer of brother lawrence that goes like this:

Lord of all pots and pans and things...
Make me a saint by getting meals and washing up the plates.

Often I wrestle with the idea of what is God wanting to accomplish in my life, and there is a tendency to want that to be some grand thing, so great level of leadership or production, or what not. My ego causes me to want to be great in the eyes of men. Yet here is the prayer of a man who wants to be moment by moment in the presence of God, and his prayer is to the God of the big things and the little things, that he would be consecrated to God through humble and menial service...getting meals and washing plates. He goes on to express that times of prayer and times of work are no different, in that both are times of be present with God.

Oh to live that kind of life. To daily, hourly, moment by moment practice being...breathing the presence of God, no matter what I am doing. I guess that's why they call it practicing.

Here is probably my favorite of hers that I have just because she is so animated. It is from another Veggie Tales video (do we let her watch too much...nah!) Anyway, this is from Lyle the kindly viking.

Kate sings Viking Song from Perry Emerick on Vimeo.

This Weekend

So this last weekend, I ended up co-leading worship with Kim in Gilbert. I must confess that my heart was not in it very well. In fact, instead of being ready and excited to lead people in worship, I was anxious and nervous about performing a song well. That happens quite often, I find myself getting self conscious about the technical parts of a song or program and lose focus on the purpose of the day, to come be in the presence of our Lord and to present an offering of praise to him.

As a side note, our speaker this weekend was a guy named Kevin Carlson, a former staff member who went on to plant a church in the east valley. He did an outstanding job and had much for me to ponder as some of what he said I could very much relate to.

At the end of the first service, I went out to get my guitars reset and to do some stuff on stage. I noticed a young couple who had come down to the front looking for someone to pray with. Most of the prayer partners were busy, and the couple after standing around for a moment, began to turn to leave, feeling there was no one to pray with them. So I jumped down and asked them if they wanted to pray, which they did. We spent a few moments talking about what was on their hearts and what they wanted some prayer for, and I prayed for and with them.

As they left, I was reminded of the part of ministry I love...meeting people where they are at, who are desiring to connect with God and ministering to them. That is often the part that gets lost, and it was a great reminder to me of what was important for the weekend as well. God is moving far beyond a song.

I came across this verse this morning in my reading, "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better." Eph. 1:17. I think that sums up my prayer right now, that I might now him better. Hey great that we serve a God that wants to be known!

Kate Sings

All my kids love to sing, but it seems as though Kate is one who has a song in her heart all the time. So, with my new phone, I decided to start recording some of these tunes, which tend to come out at meal time. Here is the first one I recorded! More to come!

FTT

I am writing this from my mom's house in Lakeside, CA, the town where I grew up. We came out to see my mom be in a parade tomorrow in Coronado. Since we don't have FITS this year, I could actually come. Taking a little time on the web, I came across this article by Jon Orberg that I really resonated with. I think often I get either caught up with the stress of life, or the stress of ministry, and even at times complacency in ministry, and fail to recognize what God's intention for life really is. Like many of us, the day to day routine often takes away from God's desire that we not just exist, but that we truly live, which is the root of our salvation. It even brings some perspective into this very trip...to take some time and just live.

Here is a great shot I love...it is of Ben at the end of the second game. Papelbon came in and closed it out after Qualls had given up the lead in the eighth. It was so frustrating to watch Doug Davis pitch so strongly into the 8th just to have it thrown away. What is funny to me about this picture is that the guy who took it was a Dback's fan along with 2 others who had taken the Fenway tour with us earlier. One of hte ladies in that group had made the comment that she was glad Qualls hadn't come in the night before cause he would have blown the game. Ironic that the next night, he did come in and did blow the lead.
Anyway, what a great trip. We had so much fun and I have to say, I love Boston! What a great city. If you ever get a chance to go there, you need to check it out. And make sure you take a duck tour when you are there. Well worth it!

Real quick before I get off the free wi-fi and get a bite before heading to home, here is a picture of the first pitch of the Monday night game that the Dbacks won. It was a great game, a great pitchers duel between Haren and Beckett. We were sitting in grandstand section 31, row 9 and had a really nice view of the stadium (not that there is a real bad view). We were in a section with several Dback fans, and to tell you the truth, I was surprised by the number of Dback fans who were there. There was a father and son from Awatukee, as well as a father and son from NorCal who were fans. Anyway, it was cool to have a few others to cheer with. Only had one Sox fan curse me under his breath as Ben and I walked back to the subway station. Other than a short rain delay, it was a great night of baseball! We loved it.

Just a quick second post from DENVER...All I can say is I don't like American Airlines! We were stuck in Phoenix on the way out, and then on the way back, we had an on time flight from Boston to DFW, but then they pulled the plane for maintenance issues and canceled the flight from DFW to PHX. They initially had us re-booked to PHX at 10:40 that night, but were able to get us home by 6:45 by flying us through Denver, and then Frontier to PHX.

I suppose I can't complain too much...I didn't pay for it! :)

Here is a picture of Ben and I from grandstand section 31 during game one when they beat Boston 2-1! What a great game!

We Have Arrived

Well our adventure began at Sky Harbor at around 12:00 yesterday. We checked our bag at the self check-in, dropped it off for scanning and then headed up to the gates. There was only 2 people in line ahead of us, so getting through was a breeze. So far so good. We get to gate 4, and there is a bunch of people there and a long line at the counter, so I go ahead and get in the line because I don't have seat assignments yet (we flew American Airlines which I have never flown before). I look at the monitor behind the gate agent and all I see is DFW delayed until 8:00 and get real nervous all of the sudden. I eventually figure out that it is the flight scheduled to leave my gate before my flight. So, I continue to stand in line thinking that I still need to get my seats and they will just move this plane. Come to find out the plane sitting at the gate has mechanical problems, which was why the flight was moved back to 8 that evening. So, everyone is scrambling to rebook while Ben and I are just standing there waiting.

Finally, the gate agent announces that our flight has been moved to gate 6, so we stroll over there (while a bunch of people bolt over there hoping to get standby) and again begin waiting in line for our seat assignments. Well, there is no attendant at this gate, and we end up having to wait there for about 15 minutes until a guy shows up and starts going to work on the computer, but not talking or looking at anyone in line. He punches away at the keys for what seems like forever, but was probably less than 5 minutes, all the time with a very serious, if not at times strained look on his face, before he finally decides to make an announcement. He tells us that the flight is full, explains standby rules, and then says if you are already checked in, he will call your names when your seat assignments are ready. I have never heard of this before, but I go ahead and sit down anyway and watch the world fall apart on CNN. I realize how long at has been since I have watched the news when I have no idea what is going on and a lady from the midwest is explaining to me that NoCal is on fire and the midwest if flooding. She and her husband came out to Phoenix for the weekend and were heading home. She complained about the heat and it was better to live in the cold cause you could just put on more layers (yeah...but snow) and she was looking forward to getting back home. Eventually, the gate attendant calls my name and we get our boarding passes and seat assignments...row 8, front of the plane!

The plane shows up, they unload, and then 15 minutes later than they said, they begin boarding passengers. I take advantage of the kid rule and Ben and I get on early. Our flight was to leave at 1:35 and by the time we start loading, it is already about 1:30. So, the people begin piling on, and at the time we were supposed to leave, the kind flight attendant begins to push everyone over the intercom to get seated quickly. She even comments that this is the time we were supposed to depart, so the sooner everyone get seated, the sooner we can leave. She goes so far to say, "you all know when your connecting flights are, so we need to hurry up." So, we all finally get seated about 1:45ish, and then just sit there. Finally, the captain says to us that there are 2 sensors, one on each side of the plane that measure temperature, one is in the shade, one is in the sun, and because of that the temperatures are different, and the unit basically shuts down. So, they are going to try and cool the one down so that they can get going. So we sit there for 20 minutes waiting for this thing to get right, which it never does, so they basically have the mechanic sign a document saying it is legal for them to fly with just one unit measuring right, which then leads you to ask, why were we waiting than, especially after our verbal beat down by the flight attendant. We finally get airborne almost and hour after our scheduled departure. And the only thing on my mind is that I had a 40 minute layover in DFW. You can do the math.


So, to make a long story longer, the pilot was able to make up some time in the air and we touched down in DFW about 30 minutes before my next flight was to take off. The announced that we would be at gate C-11 and that our flight to Boston would be out of gate A-21 - a whole different terminal. Meanwhile, it took almost 20 minutes for them to finally get to the gate and for us to get off, and we were at the front of the plane. Ben and I raced upstairs to the terminal train, which seemed to take forever to get there, and then rode it to the next stop, which our terminal was right in the middle of two train stops, so we took the first one and ran all the way across the terminal to arrive at gate A-21 with about 3 minutes to spare.

Frantically trying to catch our breath, we are casually told by another lady standing in line that the flight had been delayed until 8:00. All that running, and we had time to spare. Good times! At last though, at about 8:15 we took off for Boston, and after a slightly bumpy flight because of weather in Boston, we arrived at around 12:30 in the morning Boston time.

All in all, it was not too bad. At least we got there. Next long post will be day one. In the meantime, here are a few pictures.

PS...no free wi-fi until Denver...yes Denver. Will explain on a later post.

Twitter

For those following along, you can catch more frequent updates on our trip at my Twitter page. Enjoy!