on caramel pretzel klondike bars

I almost made it out of the grocery store without an indulgent treat last night.

After browsing the ice cream flavors and finding the $1 box of ice cream sandwiches from the advertisement, I chose to just skip it; until I looked up and to the right as I was preparing to leave to go to the chip aisle. And there they were; orange wrapper, blue writing, caramel pretzel Klondike bars... they were even better than I had thought they would be. the ideal combination of sweet caramel goodness, creamy malted ice cream and crunchy, salty pretzel bits.

Eating it reminded me of making good music; when all the instruments voices' come together at the right time to produce something better than the sum of the parts. Sports teams are often like that. Marriage can be like that. And the Christian church is supposed to be like that; a body in which parts work together to accomplish something which could not have otherwise been done by the individual parts.

My prayer: Father, please show me a bigger vision of what your purposes are and how the gifts and talents you have given me are meant to work within your Body. For Christ's sake, amen.

on lion chasing

I read Mark Batterson's book "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day"

It is an excellent source of encouragement and the Lord has used it to "jump start" my passion for pursuing music to the glory of God.

his blog is also a good read - www.evotional.com

on the nearness of Christ

While the evangelical culture in which I was raised undoubtedly emphasized Jesus within the Trinity (you know Catholics/Lutherans emphasize the Father, Pentecostals emphasize the Holy Spirit, Evangelicals emphasize Jesus, and Baptists of course emphasize the rules), I somehow escaped from my childhood with a transcendent view of Jesus rather than an imminent view of Him. I would not likely be found guilty of a "Jesus is my homeboy!" kind of marginalizing of the character and nature of Christ. But in my overemphasis of the "Godness" of Jesus, I had not clearly/fully seen the "humanness" of Jesus, the availability of Jesus, the friendship of Jesus, the nearness of Jesus.

Profound deep inner rest, "band of brothers" kind of strength in the face of temptation/trials, the connection my heart aches for: all of these are the part of why Jesus came as a human, so that we could relate to him as a human.

What a glorious God that would condescend to meet us face to face; Emmanuel, God WITH us!

The thought makes me smile and set my jaw to face the day and walk in victory.