"You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you! - Isaiah 26:3 (NLT)

I love my wife.  I thought of this this morning when I woke up and realized how amazing she is.  She compliments me so well that I have no idea how I lived my life without her. (other than foolishly)

I love the team that I work with @ Fellowship.  They are great guys who want to see God use our church to connect and lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.  I just had lunch with 4 of the 5 and was reminded how much I love what I do.

I love my close friends.  Many of whom I can call at a moments notice if I need advice or just someone to talk to, and they are real and solid.  I won’t name them all, but you know who you are.

I love my family.  My dad and mom and sisters and extended family who have all given me solid encouragement to fall in love with God and have a good time doing it!

When you put all these people together, not in an actual physical space, but in a special place in my mind, and I begin to realize how God has blessed me in my life, and is growing me everyday by helping me get rid of the junk and see the beautiful parts of who He has made me to be – His “divine guidance” – an incredible wave of peace comes over me.

And I see that I’m right where I need to be.

Marty and Carie celebrating the "best Christmas ever" at the TCA Facebook reunion!

So all December long I felt like such a scrooge. It wasn’t that I was mean to people, but I just didn’t feel like being in the “Christmas Spirit”.  Ya know, presents and singing and parties.  And I think part of the problem was that I couldn’t have any of those things.  Everytime I was invited to a party, it got cancelled.  Everytime I was supposed to give or get a present, there was too much ice or snow on the road to get to that place of exchange.

In the end, it was just me, my beautiful wife,and this year, I put away the TV during the week of Christmas (save for a few football games that made me jolly),and read through Scripture or books that focused on either the spiritual and/or leadership.

I didn’t really feel like Christmas as I had in years past.  Shopping and gifts and parties seemed more distant than I would have liked.  But the Christ part of Christmas was more evident than ever before.  This part had little to do with external lights as much it had to do with the light of the world.  And the only gift I could think about was the one God gave me when He sent His only son, Jesus Christ to save the sins of the world.

It was the greatest Christmas ever!

Bible passage – Haggai
I really dig this book and have enjoyed reading it over and over. Not to mention looking into the history of the Jewish prophet.  Can you pronounce his name?

Book – Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Ever wonder why Two people can have an equal amount of intellectual brilliance or have an equal portion of athletic prowess, yet, one is “successful” in their careers and one is not?  Read this book and find out.

Music – Mike Dunn and the Kings of New England
I heard about this band from my boy in Atlanta (ironically enough) Dave Huey, and love their sound!  Good stuff.

Times of solitude
If you know me, you know I like to be around people and entertainment.  This little storm we’ve gone through in Massachusetts has allowed me to learn the value of getting away from the noise and spending lots of time in solitude.

Carie
There’s nobody cooler in the whole world than my wife Carie.  She’s amazing!

I saved the best for last.

7:45 pm – Carie and I are doing some work.  I flip on Fox News for election coverage.  Oh come on, for years I’ve been watching the other bias.

8:00 pm – Steve Bramlett called and said he was coming over.  Kentucky and West Virginia go to McCain.  Obama gets his first state:  Vermont

8:15 pm – Steve Bramlett shows up.  I feed him, although Carie made the meal.  Yummmmm Chicken pot pie.  Obama has a lot of the eastern states and New England states.  Not a shock.

8:30 pm – McCain gets Alabama and Arkansas, but Obama gets a big prize:  Pennsylvania.  Thats gonna leave a mark.Looks like John Kerry is going to win the senator race here in Mass.

8:40 pm – McCain win Georgia.  Bramlett says Obama win could be good for America.  He also wants me to mention he is not for Obama though. Okay.  bramlett is not for Obama.  Carie is almost done with her work.

8:42 pm – Incumbent republican senator for Georgia wins.

8:43 pm – Brit Hume stutters a lot.   I’m pretty sure Massachusetts went to Obama.  I CANT BELIEVE IT!

8:48 pm – Bramlett just commented on a gas can commercial with country folk music being the “stupidest commercial ever.”  I say its much better than the prostate commercial immediately afterwards.  Now Bramletts calling his woman, cilla.  She’s my facebook friend.

8:54 pm – while Carie gets up to look for a book to read and Bramlett continues to come over to our house and ignore us, talking to his girlfriend, I change the channel and see the Celtics are winning 14-13.  Go Green!

8:57 pm – Talking heads on all the networks are so irritating.  Should I change the channel to John Stewart and Stephen Colbert?

9:00 pm – results from several states come out now.  Wyoming, New mexico, Minnesota, Michigan, Rhode Island and Michigan goes to Obama.  A few states go to McCain like North Dakota and Kansas, but it looks pretty bad for McCain.

9:04 pm – skipping over to lifechurch.tv for a few.  Be right back.

9:07 pm – Having church at lifechurch.tv. Sweet worship!  Nice to know no matter what happens tonight, I serve a God bigger than all the hype and chaos of politics.

9:11 pm - Anybody have an idea where else I can surf while I’m ignoring the election?

9:26 pm – Bramlett just said that Craig Groeschel’s voice sounds like a candy bar.  WHAT?!

9:30 pm -Craig Groeschel “Pracitcal atheism – a belief in God with no real fear of Him.”

9:32 pm – McCain wins Louisiana!  Too late.

9:39 pm – I’m all about the underdog, but this race is over.  Congrats President Obama.

9:40pm – Steve Bramlett, Carie, and myself, all say good night!  Thanks for joining us.

Are you happy or miserable about the outcome?

My mentor Lonnie, taught me a lot.  One of the things he taught me was knowing when to react and when to not react to any given situation.  The dude breathed focus and no emergency seemed to phase him.  “Things would go on and happen whether I choose to do something quick or slow or even not at all.”  Internally I never believed him, because I had been trained since the early days of my life to run when someone else says “run” and to jump when someone else says “jump.”

I realized the problems with this, but it was just so hard for me to say “no” or turn my back on something that supposedly required MY attention.  “But”, Lonnie would say,”sometimes it is not your attention the situation requires.”

Recently a situation like this arrived.  I had gone on a long walk with my wife and then I had some plans, and I had left my phone back at the house.  As the Voyager lay there, lonely and wanting, several calls came in vying for my attention.  “This requires your attention”, the voice said and “BIG TIME EMERGENCY HERE DUMMY!  WHERE ARE YOU!”  (Paraphrase and emphasis mine)

So when I finally did get to my phone, my stomach was sick as to what “hitrocities” I had imposed on innocent people by not being near my phone.  How could I have been so selfish?  How could I have been so thoughtless?

Thankfully Carie, my lovely wife/girlfriend/princess did some checking for me and everything had been taking care of.  Someone else was near there phone.  Someone who was actually close to the emergency in a relational way, and not just a token “preacher man.”  And the emergency wasn’t quite the emergency I had assumed it was.  The truth is, things went on without me.

This is the point of the church.  Not the pastor doing everything, though he or she certainly has an important task of leading in Scripture and by example.  But people in the church actually being the church.  And though it would be nice for me to be everywhere all at the same time, occasionally…

I have my phone surgically removed from my ear.

Last night I met Carie, my wife,  at her place of employment as the school had an open house for parents.  We met early so we could have dinner before the big event.  She asked what I felt like, I said quickly and methodically, “Chinese.”

She said she knew just the place we could go.  The Fung Wong in Clinton.  The following is my story:

The Fung Wong sits immediately off route 110 where Clinton and Lancaster, Massachusetts meet.  It looks like a trashy  bar, and at least at 5:15 pm mirrors one in every way.  As Carie and I walked in, there were 4 people at the bar, and no one eating in the restaurant.  I quickly learned why.

The decor screamed 70′s with the walls all tore up and the seating had cuts and scratches all over it.  I was beginning to figure out this place was staying in business from take out.

The people at the bar were drunk and loud, with one woman using the “F” word repeatedly about the other men in the bar, when they all shooshed her because “this is a restaurant and there are people over there,” she quickly said “F!@#$% that, I don’t care.”  Later on, her high school aged daughter came in, and it didn’t get quieter, it got louder.  This went on for about 20 minutes while we waited for our food.  We would have left, but by this time we didn’t have enough time to go somewhere else.  Oh well, at least we had each other.

By the time my food came out, my stomach was unsettled enough where, although it was decent, I just couldn’t eat much of it.  Teryaki chicken doesn’t taste quite the same in the midst of chaos and nastiness.

Later on, one of the guys was talking to the owner and they were talking about remodeling the place.  In my head I thought, this place doesn’t need to be remodeled, it needs to be torn down. It’s a dump, and it will stay that way with this kind atmosphere.  The conversation reminded me of when some church leaderships get together and talk about cosmetic changes that really need to be complete makeovers.

They think to themselves that if they change this or that, get some drums or grow some flowers out front, everything will be better.  But the truth is that people looking in from the outside know there is something not right about about what’s going on here.  So they don’t want to come back.

And I will never again go to Fung Wong.

My wife Carie and my cousin Jake at Moe’s

Today I watched and participated as my cousin Jake, entertained and lead our church in worship.  It was amazing!  Jake is so talented and I have been enjoying having him around so far this weekend.  If you haven’t heard his music, I’d encourage you to check it out.

Today I was able to preach on Proverbs 9:10 – “The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Today I rapped (actually a lip sync) in front of a group of parents and their children as Fellowship Church presented their first shared worship experience called, “The Family Experience”.  This afternoon I received this email:

I just wanted to thank you all for the wonderful FAMILY EXPERIENCE today.  Thank you for loving our kids…for sharing God’s love with them….for doing it joyfully…I can’t say enough about what it meant to me today.  I also had the opportunity to use a lesson learned as we were leaving and ___________was telling me how a kid at school hit her with his backpack after she mistakenly dropped hers on his foot.  I didn’t go through with all Carie’s “motions” , but was able to talk to her, and apply what we’s just learned TOGETHER …as a family.  __________ was talking about how much she loves our church with some neighborhood kids whose family has stopped going to church because it’s too boring(they’re Catholic).  They said how our church sounded great, especially when we shared with them that our pastor came out as a rapper(__________ loved that part and the neighborhood boys really wanted to see that!)

Anyway I just wanted you to know how much we truly appreciate the time & care put into today’s event!  We look forward to more…

Today I received this text message:

Congrats.  Today was amazing.  I’m so proud of you and what you’ve done with our church.  Blessed be to God.Today was a good day!

I’m back from vacation. Carie and I had an amazing time hanging in Cape Cod, and specifically Eastham, Massachusetts. I have a lot to write about, but for right now I’m going to stick with the facts.

Where: Eastham, Massachusetts est. 1644
When: Saturday, August 16th to Saturday, August 23rd
How: By car, the 2003 Nissan Altima
Who: Carie and I, along with our two close friends, Ray and Joanna Pierce

A Highlight Breakdown by day
Saturday: Carie and I arrived at the cottage, located about 3/10 of a mile from the beach. We walked to the bay, and drove to the National seashore (Atlantic Ocean). A cool, distant thunderstorm shot lightening from the sky over the Ocean. MIchael Phelps pretty much showed himself the man.

Sunday: Carie and I drove to Cape Cod Church in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Then we went to the beach. Beautiful day! In the evening, Carie established her dominance over me at Rummikub. I told her she could have it.

Monday: Went to the beach but it was too hot. Carie coudn’t hack it. Ray and Joanna finally made it (they were at her sisters wedding), and we spent the evening talking and watching the Olympics.

Tuesday: It was a dark a stormy day. Winds up to 50 and 60mph in the cape. We played games, talked, and read.

Wednesday: Joannas family has this terrific camping place up in Provincetown where people bring their self contained campers to the beach So we spent the day there soaking in the rays, swimming in the Atlantic (where the pilgrims landed) and eating clams. Amazing! The evening we went to the shops in P-town. That was different.

Thursday: We were all tired so we chilled and read and watched the Olympics. Hey, it’s vacation! I also ran every day on the beach here in Eastham. It was beautiful but today I hurt my knee a bit.

Friday: Marty’s Birthday! I turned 33. In the morning Ray and I laid around reading while the ladies drove to the Atlantic Spice Company. Later we went to the beach one final time. For my birthday dinner we went to Red Barn Pizza and Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream (I ran all week, lay off me) and I was surprised by Carie as she had invited our friends Steve and Amy MacArthur to join us for the evening. I was totally surprised. We hung out the rest of the evening, talking and laughing. Thanks to Facebook for reminding so many people it was my birthday.

Saturday: We packed up and went home. It was a great week.

Books I read on my vacation
The Appeal by John Grisham
The No Complaining Rule by Jon Gordon
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus by John Cross

More tomorrow! I missed the blog world, but I loved vacation.

Last night Carie and I drove with Carie’s sister Jessica to Enfield Ct. where Carie’s dad Tom is staying for the week because of work.  We took the opportunity to go to the Olive Garden, and enjoy an amazing meal.  I was hungry.
One of the more interesting things that happened while we were there happened with Jessica.  She’s a waitress at Via’s Italian Table in Worcester, and so she’s very particular when she goes into another restaurant.  During the course of the evening, she ordered 4 different drinks (not just at Olive Garden, but also at Starbucks):
Red Wine
Bottled water
Cappacino
Cappacino

As you can imagine, her bill was up there, but on to the point of the story.
First of all, our waitress was new and there were some pretty awkward moments throughout the evening.  Like we would ask her a question and she wouldn’t know the answer (this happened several times), or we would ask her for something and she would forget (this happened two times).

I didn’t mind so much, but the last straw for Jessica was when her cappacino didn’t have any foam.  yes feel free to read that sentence again.  No Cappacino.  As you probably know, there are worse things to happen in life and we all had a laugh at the expense of Jessica because it appeared she was taking this personal.  Later on we had to go to Starbucks in order to get a real Cappacino with foam!

I write all this because it makes me think about how much I have as an American, and how I need to treat people who serve me in some way with respect.  I know I’m paying for service, but bad servers not withstanding, I need to treat everyone I come across like I would want to be treated.

Serve first, eat second.

Check out this post.

Thats me, the fourth from the front on the left
I am so busy relationally right now, I can’t even believe it.
And I have no clue how to slow it down or even if I should slow it down.
My schedule is filled with people, people, people.
From people at Fellowship, to people in the Central Massachusetts area, to friends visiting from out of town.
I haven’t had a busier two months (July and August) relationally since college, but don’t tell anyone I went there.
A shout out to my beautiful wife Carie (third from the front on the right) for her patience and love through the busyness.

And all thanks to God!  I love my life!