Welcome to MoMo’s! HERE are the guidelines. If this is your first time giving your “amazing story”, PLEASE take time to read them. It will save us both a lot of time.

To join me, write a post today (or a post you’ve written from last Monday to Sunday) sharing something tht has happened to you this last week - anything funny or interesting, crazy, fulfilled, too busy, hilarious, wistful, or any number of out of the ordinary happenings that made you happy or miserable last week.  Put a link in your post to this post permalink (not my general URL) and then put the permalink of your post (not your general URL) here at the end of this post. Thanks.  By the way, I do this because I love stories.  To tell them, to hear them, and to read them.

So tell me your “Inspired by the truth” story every Monday…

Here’s mine.

This weekend was a blast.  I went to a wedding reheasal on Frday night, then went to Gibbits Grill in Groton.  Amazing food, and the groom for the wedding that I performed is one of the top chefs there.  If you’re looking for a date night restaurant in Massachusetts,GO THERE!

The wedding was held in a different establishment I had never been to, but just as well-known, and I was looking forward to performing the ceremony.  The mother of the bride seemed a bit nervous for me, and asked if this was my first wedding.  I think she was encouraged when I told her it was my 15th.  Here’s the lucky couple.  They were great to work with, and I’m excited about their future together.

Sunday finished off our weekend with a bang.  Both Carie and I were tired from the busy schedule, but we had great services at Fellowship Church and then we went to a 30th birthday party for this guy, where the band “The Black Raspberries” played underneath a tent in the rain (Pictured above).  Good stuff!  If you ever get a chance to see them, check them out.  And I couldn’t find a link to them, so anyone knowing how I can link to them via the web, please comment!

After my venture to the party in Sturbridge, we had dinner with this guys family, while watching the Celtics win the 2nd round of the NBA playoffs  So did the Penguins by the way.  Stanley cup bound!

All in all, it was a great weekend. 

Welcome to MoMo’s! HERE are the guidelines. If this is your first time giving your “amazing story”, PLEASE take time to read them. It will save us both a lot of time.

To join me, write a post today (or a post you’ve written from last Monday to Sunday) sharing something tht has happened to you this last week - anything funny or interesting, crazy, fulfilled, too busy, hilarious, wistful, or any number of out of the ordinary happenings that made you happy or miserable last week.  Put a link in your post to this post permalink (not my general URL) and then put the permalink of your post (not your general URL) here at the end of this post. Thanks.  By the way, I do this because I love stories.  To tell them, to hear them, and to read them.

So tell me your “Inspired by the truth” story every Monday…

Here’s mine.

I thought for todays MoMo’s that I would let my words to the storytelling.  I told a pretty funny story in the first 5 minutes of my first Mother’s Day message entitled, “The Golden Compass”.  Enjoy the story, and share your own story today on Monday Moments.

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Welcome to MoMo’s! HERE are the guidelines. If this is your first time giving your “amazing story”, PLEASE take time to read them. It will save us both a lot of time.

To join me, write a post today (or a post you’ve written from last Monday to Sunday) sharing something tht has happened to you this last week - anything funny or interesting, crazy, fulfilled, too busy, hilarious, wistful, or any number of out of the ordinary happenings that made you happy or miserable last week.  Put a link in your post to this post permalink (not my general URL) and then put the permalink of your post (not your general URL) here at the end of this post. Thanks.  By the way, I do this because I love stories.  To tell them, to hear them, and to read them.

So tell me your “Inspired by the truth” story every Monday…

Here’s mine.

As many of you know from here and here and here and maybe even here, last week was an amazing week, and I learned more than anything that I wanted to “live in the speed of love.” (This is a quote from Vince Antonucci’s book, “I became a Christian and all I got was this lousy T-shirt”)  But in thinking back to last week and toward the future of my life, I want one more thing.

I want to be the person who lives his life, not who watched others live theirs.

I love watching TV, and I love watching sports, but I don’t want to waste my life watching everyone else do their thing.  I want to be used by God to live a life of action for Him (when He calls me to) and when He doesn’t, still I don’t think moving is that bad.  Things like exercise,walking up to someone I don’t know and talking to them, and taking the occasional risk are all a part of doing living a full life, and I want to be that person.

For me, more times than not, that means relationally.  I love talking to people and learning from other people who have been there and back again.  But sometimes I get slothful and would rather just sit back and watch TV.  As I get older, this is not happening less, but more, and I want it to change.

I want to actively find out about you and what makes you tick and succeed, so that I can learn something to better prepare me for ticking and succeeding.

Except on Sunday afternoons.  I still like to nap and watch sports on Sunday afternoon.

What does “Living your life”mean to you?

 
Welcome to MoMo’s! HERE are the guidelines. If this is your first time giving your “amazing story”, PLEASE take time to read them. It will save us both a lot of time.

To join me, write a post today (or a post you’ve written from last Monday to Sunday) sharing something tht has happened to you this last week - anything funny or interesting, crazy, fulfilled, too busy, hilarious, wistful, or any number of out of the ordinary happenings that made you happy or miserable last week.  Put a link in your post to this post permalink (not my general URL) and then put the permalink of your post (not your general URL) here at the end of this post. Thanks.  By the way, I do this because I love stories.  To tell them, to hear them, and to read them.

So tell me your “Inspired by the truth” story every Monday…

Here’s mine.

This last week has been really rough for me.  It started last Monday afternon when I arrived home from a trip to New York.  I noticed that my back was really hurting me.  Now this is not something revolutionarily new in my life.  Occasionally when I lift weights wrong or put too much strain on my back when I exercise, this happens to me for a while, but the strange thing about this was that I hadn’t really done anything for like 4 days that would put strain on my back.  It just started hurting.

And for 2.5 days of my week it hurt.  I had been a to a chiropractor last year, and he had given me some exercises to go through when it started hurting, so I did those, and felt only a bit better after a day or recurring back exercises.

Then on Wednesday I actually justified this to myself:  “So, If my back is hurting this bad, and that is without exercise, than I might as well exercise.”  So I went out and played basketball on Wednesday night, which not only hurt my back worse, but it also brought in flu like symptons on Thursday.

If Tuesday had been bad, Thursday was just miserable.  I was dizzy, unresponsive to conversation, my stomach hurt, my back hurt, and in the evening, I started sneezing, and my back hurt every time I did.  I even missed small group and wrote this post that evening.

I should stop now and say that through all this, my wife was on vacation and did an amazing job of taking care of me.  So thanks to Carie for her amazing patience!

On Friday – Sunday, I felt a bit better, which ushered in a new problem of a stuffy nose, which is how I finished my week of sickness.

I don’t share this with you to complain.  I share this with you so that you will help me come up with a list of things to do when one is sick.  For those of you who can sleep all the time, you’re all set – you can sleep all the time.  However, I pretty much sleep for about 6 hours a night, and about 30 minutes in the afternoon, and the rest of the day, I need to find things to do when I’m sick.  Finding things to do when I’m not sick is easy.  I’m not lazy.  But things to do when I’m sick…I need help!

Here are some things I did while I was sick and in bed this week:
Blogged
Read
Played snood, the ultimate  video game
watched season 1 of Prison Break with my wife

Come on, you can make this list better, can’t you?

 Welcome to MoMo’s! HERE are the guidelines. If this is your first time giving your “amazing story”, PLEASE take time to read them. It will save us both a lot of time.

To join me, write a post today (or a post you’ve written from last Monday to Sunday) sharing something tht has happened to you this last week - anything funny or interesting, crazy, fulfilled, too busy, hilarious, wistful, or any number of out of the ordinary happenings that made you happy or miserable last week.  Put a link in your post to this post permalink (not my general URL) and then put the permalink of your post (not your general URL) here at the end of this post. Thanks.  By the way, I do this because I love stories.  To tell them, to hear them, and to read them.

So tell me your “Inspired by the truth” story every Monday…

Here’s mine.

On Sunday night, right before my Celtics destroyed the Atlanta Hawks, I had the privilege to attend a vision meeting at Northway Church in Malta, New York.  Carie and I were in town and decided to take the opportunity to attend this meeting specifically for the volunteers of Northway.  Two blogging friends, Buddy and Brian, pastor this church in New York, and I was excited to hear what God had placed in their hearts for the future of Northway.

As soon as I walked in the door, I was awed at what God is doing in this church.  Volunteers from all 3 campuses (Malta, Clifton Park, and Colonie) were packed in, catching up and eating amazing some church provided food.  It looked from first glance that their was an excitement in this church that made the place buzz like the “Lost” island did whenever someone didn’t push that dang button every 108 seconds in the 2nd season.

After a while, the meeting started with one of the church bands leading us in some sweet music like “How great is our God”, “Shout to the Lord”, and “Let God arise”.  They were great – very professional and seemed to really enjoy themselves as they worshipped.

Then Buddy came on stage and introduced a first class video made by their production team (or whatever they call it) called “The Revolution” which highlited Buddy riding on a helicoptor and flying over all 3 campuses of Northway Church.  He shared some of the amazing things God is doing there at the church and through it all, I could see not only his passion for what was going on there, but the passion of the hundreds of volunteers looking on, obviously overwhelmed by what how God is using them.  By the end of the video, I was inspired and wanted to get in on the revolution myself.

After the video, Buddy came up to address the crowd.  he challenged them to Look back (to see what God has done), Look up (to see what He’s doing), and look forward (to see where God is taking us).  I was challenged in my own life to do these things and appreciated his authenticity as he tearfully recalled the early days of Northway, and the changes that had gone on in the process.

After Buddy finished, the band came up once again as the crowd sang “How Great is our God.”

Afterwards, I chatted with Buddy briefly and thanked him for his vision and for allowing me in on what God is doing there at Northway Church.  I believe we have a similar vision at Fellowship Church, and am more excited than ever to allow God to use us to carry it out.

How about you?

 Welcome to MoMo’s! HERE are the guidelines. If this is your first time giving your “amazing story”, PLEASE take time to read them. It will save us both a lot of time.

To join me, write a post today (or a post you’ve written from last Monday to Sunday) sharing something tht has happened to you this last week - anything funny or interesting, crazy, fulfilled, too busy, hilarious, wistful, or any number of out of the ordinary happenings that made you happy or miserable last week.  Put a link in your post to this post permalink (not my general URL) and then put the permalink of your post (not your general URL) here at the end of this post. Thanks.  By the way, I do this because I love stories.  To tell them, to hear them, and to read them.

So tell me your “Inspired by the truth” story every Monday…

Here’s mine.

This was a weekend of community.  I love community.  I’m growing to appreciate it more and more. 
Here’s the way my weekend panned out, and you can tell me whether Carie and I were communified.

Fridays are date nights, and this weekend wasn’t going to be any different.  Carie had planned on making a wonderful dinner and we were going to hang out and relax.  This was a beautiful plan,and it almost worked out.  Then Al called.  His wife had to go to the emergency room.  Their two kids needed to be taken care of, and I was the perfect candidate.  So I went to their apartment and enjoyed the beautiful sounds of their two  year old Wyatt screaming his head off because he wanted “daddy and mommy to stay with him.” 

“Frankly Wyatt, I couldn’t agree more, but we’re going to have to work this thing out, all right?”

We didn’t work it out for at least another 20 minutes when I got brilliant and put the Disney movie “Cars” in the DVD player and he was hooked for another 5 minutes until he fell asleep for 2.5 hours.  That amount of time can be translated to the amount of time that someone else had come in to take my place and watch the kids at that point.  Sweet!  I didn’t even have to change the baby.  Carie brought over pizza (she had been with Al & Erica) and we had dinner with the new babysitters for the evening, then we shared with them the news that it was date night, and we would now be leaving.

Saturday morning I woke up.  Jay and Erin were moving from Spencer to Worcester, and I was helping them move.  Carie had a BIble study to attend.  So I took the next several hours (from 9:20 am – 12:30 pm to help them move their stuff out of storage into their moving truck and then on to their new home.  It was a great time, and not ridiculously hard.  In fact, what made the time even more amazing was that the weather people around the Massachusetts area hotted and hollored about the tremendous amounts of rain that would be gathering in central Mass the entire Saturday.  You could imagine our surprise when the sun came out for several hours, along with very nice temperatures.

I drove home and Carie was enjoying the beautiful New England day on our porch, allowing the sun to beat down on her beautiful skin.  I hung out with her.  Then Darren came.  Then Michelle came.  Then Jessica (Carie’s sister who lives with us) woke up (yes, it was about 1:30pm).  Then Al and Chris joined us. Then Tom and Tina came.  We all hung out.  We laughed.  Some of them (Darren, Al, and Chris) made videos.  We played “Loaded Questions.”  We ate dinner together.  We played boggle.  Basically, several of us just hung out and enjoyed one another’s community.

This morning we went to church and I had something to do with that too.  The community was great and I am so thrilled about the people coming into the life of Fellowship Church.  Amazing!

Then this afternoon Carie made an impromptu call to Erica about the people in their household coming over to have dinner with us.  So this would include Marty, Carie, Jessica, Al, Erica, Wyatt, Liam, Chris, and Joann.  I thought I’d call up Darren, Pam, and Brandon for good luck and we had another fit of community over Burrito pie and chips. We all had a great time getting to know each other more and chilling over games, food, and conversation.

It really was a whole weekend of community.  I love meeting with friends, both new and old, and I’m looking forward to growing with more people who like to build community as time goes on.  I just don’t understand the mindset of people who want to make it in this world on their own.  I look at my family and friends, and thank God everyday for who I’m becoming because of their influence.

What about you?  Do you have time for your community?

 Welcome to MoMo’s! HERE are the guidelines. If this is your first time giving your “amazing story”, PLEASE take time to read them. It will save us both a lot of time.

To join me, write a post today (or a post you’ve written from last Monday to Sunday) sharing something tht has happened to you this last week - anything funny or interesting, crazy, fulfilled, too busy, hilarious, wistful, or any number of out of the ordinary happenings that made you happy or miserable last week.  Put a link in your post to this post permalink (not my general URL) and then put the permalink of your post (not your general URL) here at the end of this post. Thanks.  By the way, I do this because I love stories.  To tell them, to hear them, and to read them.

So tell me your “Inspired by the truth” story every Monday…

Here’s mine.

Last weekend, my wife and I took a trip to my hometown.  I already posted some of the thoughts I had on our visit.  But the following is the story of why I went and what I experienced in one main point.

I received an email from the wife of my former youth pastor last month who told me of an old friend of ours who had lung cancer and who didn’t have very long to live.  She had heard of a benefit dinner their church and friends who hosting for them at the end of March for some financial needs they were having as a result of Bob’s sickness.  She wanted to know if I would consider attending.

I didn’t have to think long.

There are certain people who go through your life and are here and gone, that might leave a passing mark but who will fly as quickly from your mind as they came into it.  Bob was not one of those people.  He was always at church with a smile, telling me “I could do it,” and brightening my day each and every time I saw his wife and him.  He encouraged my service for God any creative way I wanted to serve Him, even if it meant disrupting the lives of a few old conservative churchgoers in Rural Ohio.  And he fixed my car.

My first car was a Pontiac 1000 (not a Chevette), and I paid a whopping $300 for it from a friend of my dads.  My best friend Clay and I worked hard to make a sound system out of a 6 speaker box from the 70′s and a tape cassette walkman that Clay hardwired into the car.  The first tape we played was Petra’s “This means War.”

About 2 months into the infatuation period between my car and me, the red clunk broke down. I had very little money and no car knowledge, but Bob stepped up and said that he’d fix my car, and all I’d have to do was pay for the parts.  The cost for my parts came to about $2 less than I had at the time.  ($36)

Bob was at church and at youth group, where he helped the youth pastors faithfully for several years every Sunday with a smile and a word of encouragement.  And now he was in need…and sick…

It didn’t take me long to think.

I talked to Carie, who said that it would be an okay weekend for us to go back to the homeland, and I booked to airline tickets, apparently just in the nick of time.

There’s a lot I could talk about now, like the 50 people or so that I hadn’t seen in about 15 years, who meant so much to me, many of whom had poured their life into my own.  Or the new church that Bob and his family attend now, that I believe is making a tremendous impact in this small community for Christ, and that found it in themselves to host this amazing event for a family in need.

But I think I’ll focus in today on being able to fly over 1000 miles across 3 states, and see someone who had poured there life into mine for what now seems to be such a brief season, and be able to tell them (and show them) how much they meant to my life, and how much his example showed me how to follow Christ in a way that I believe Christ wanted to be followed – quietly, humbly, joyfully.  It was also important to me to look into his eyes for what I knew would be the last time and share with him just exactly what he meant to me.

It’s my opinion that we all need a Bob in our life. It seems that we have plenty of people who are constantly talking, convincing, prodding, and even sharpening.  But we also need a Bob – someone who quietly and gently just loves God and us with a smile that could encourage a baptist to clap.

Now, I’d love to hear your story.  Read the guidelines.  (if you don’t know how to particpate in a blog carnival) and let’s swap some stories.

Today will be a break for Monday’s Moments because I am in my birthplace in Ohio and couldn’t seem to find internet until today at noon and don’t have enough time to put it out there.  Poor planning on my part – and of course this does not constitute an emergency for you!  See you next week at Monday’s Moments,and I’m looking forward to hearing your amazing stories.

By the way, Does anyone know who won the basketball games this weekend in the NCAA?  It would appear that I’ve been out of the loop.

Until next time…

Welcome to MoMo’s! 

HERE are the guidelines. If this is your first time giving your “amazing story”, PLEASE take time to read them. It will save us both a lot of time.

To join me, write a post today (or a post you’ve written from last Monday to Sunday) sharing something tht has happened to you this last week - anything funny or interesting, crazy, fulfilled, too busy, hilarious, wistful, or any number of out of the ordinary happenings that made you happy or miserable last week.  Put a link in your post to this post permalink (not my general URL) and then put the permalink of your post (not your general URL) here at the end of this post. Thanks.  By the way, I do this because I love stories.  To tell them, to hear them, and to read them.

So tell me your “Inspired by the truth” story every Monday…

Here’s mine.

My Easter was special for even one more reason than it already is this year.  It was a typical Easter, though for the first time I was doing the preaching on Easter Sunday.  I became the lead pastor of FC about 5 months ago, though I had been here at this church for about 8.5 years.

And the service was great!  After the service, I did the typical thing and talked to a lot of people, Fellowshippers and Guests, and had a blast just chatting away.  Then like usual, I walked home, where Carie had made an amazing dinner we were able to share with some family and friends.

Before dinner this year though, I was able to confer a degree.  Ever done that on Easter Sunday?

You see, though my father-in-law, Tom, lives in New York, some of his mail, for whatever reason, still comes here.  And this week, his degree came from Liberty University. 

I knew that he had worked hard over the last few years on his MBA,and that he was doing it online.  And last July he finished his course work.  So in the mail, all the way from Jerry U. came this cardboard cylinder that one would only put something of value that coudn’t be bent or destroyed in.

So before our services on Sunday morning, I “conferred” (yes, very much intended) with Tom’s wife, and we decided to have a ceremony before our Easter dinner that day.

So before dinner yesterday, we all sat down and I asked Tom if he would stand up, and that I had big news.  Everyone kind of got nervous as I stood and smiled, probably for different reasons.

Tom probably thought “grandchild”.

Carie probably thought “emergency”.

Our guests probably wondered what the heck I was doing.

But in the end I was able to hand over to Tom his MBA degree from Liberty University, an accomplishment I know he worked hard on, and I was honored to be able to give the diploma to him on Easter Sunday 2008.

Welcome to MoMo’s! 

HERE are the guidelines. If this is your first time giving your “amazing story”, PLEASE take time to read them. It will save us both a lot of time.

To join me, write a post today (or a post you’ve written from last Monday to Sunday) sharing something tht has happened to you this last week - anything funny or interesting, crazy, fulfilled, too busy, hilarious, wistful, or any number of out of the ordinary happenings that made you happy or miserable last week.  Put a link in your post to this post permalink (not my general URL) and then put the permalink of your post (not your general URL) here at the end of this post. Thanks.  By the way, I do this because I love stories.  To tell them, to hear them, and to read them.

So tell me your “Inspired by the truth” story every Monday…

Here’s mine.

On Sunday night my wife, Carie and I threw a welcome home party for my friend Steve MacArthur, who recently returned from Iraq to Massachusetts.  We had a great time at the party and all of Steve’s friends brought an italian dish for a brilliant dinner full of pizza and meatballs and other cheesy foods.

One of Steve and I’s old friends joined us for the occasion.  Her name is Darlene.  Darlene is like a 2nd mom to Steve and I and another mutual friend of ours named Ruben.  She is an amazing person, and we quickly reminicsed about some good old times.

One of the times she reminded me about I had somehow forgotten, but evidently she had not, and we had quite a laugh at the expense of this ”old time”.  Basically she was going away for a week or so and got the bright idea to ask Ruben and I to house sit for her.  To give you some brief background information, she had a beautiful house in a wooded area of Massachusetts, complete with a lake, a full bar, a large screen TV, and a hot tub.

Ruben and I were 23 years old.

We started off the week getting a feel for our surroundings, enjoying the comfort of relaxing in a house we could call our own for a short time.  But later on in the week, being the relational people we were, we decided to quench our desire for a more people-oriented environment, and started to invite people over.  

The first thing we did on Wednesday was to invite a group of our guy friends over to get acquainted with the house.  Now one thing I should mention was that it was March in New England and as such there was still snow on the ground.  Also, Ruben was a bible college student from a school in Boston and all the people we invited that week were students from the school.

We chilled for the major part of the day and then decided to do something semi stupid.  We decided to play truth or dare, which by the end of the game, had us all somehow making snow angels outside with a limited amount of clothes on our bodies.  This was very cold. 

From there we ran into the house and jumped into the hot tub.  Unfortunately, our friend Chuckles was with us and tried to get in.  Chuckles is an amazing guy, but he was a bit on the heavy side, so everytime he tried to get in, the water would overflow and run onto the floor. This damaged some of the carpet.  

Later on, we invited several of the females from the school to join us at the house. Amazingly enough, there was a snow storm that hit the area that night, so the crowd of students that normally had a curfew, now could not make it back to their dorms without fear of getting into a car accident on their way home.

So for those of you who are not getting what was happening up to this point, we were basically having a Christian sleepover, something my alma mater at a school in Pensacola would not have approved of. (and possibly for good reason)

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and a few of my friends (who will remain nameless) found themselves in the hot tub with a few of the females from the school.  Which would not have been a big deal since it was still a pg-rated situation, except that one of the females had a boyfriend who did not get invited to the party and told his girlfriend that he would tell on them if she did not.

So everybody got demerits except me, because I had been graduated from my particular Christian college for about 2.5 years.

Also, at the party on Sunday night, Darlene reminded me that her electric bill had gone through the roof that month (like around $1500 through the roof).  Not sure how that happened, but I bet it had something to do with the amount of times the hot tub was used.