Dailymirror.us

Wow, I am not even sure how to start this post! I am as surprised to be writing it right now as you might be to read it. But I have had several people ask why I am leaving Prestonwood and so I wanted to give a direct answer.

Over the past several months, Becky and I have been praying for God to draw us closer to each other and to Him. And since mid-December, he has been consistently giving us verses on reliance and boldness. (No kidding, we do a bible reading plan that one of my volunteers made for us several years ago and over the last 4 weeks, we have been given 6-7 verses on “not fearing” and his promise of provision. )

He has also been laying an irresistible desire for full time media creation and collaboration. I know that God is calling me to make a positive change in this generation using different media outlets (both traditional and new media). One of the ways that he showed me this next step was in opening a door to be the Creative Director on the second season of TBN’s iShine KNECT. It was not something I sought after but I am SOOOO excited about doing! And initially, it looked like I could go direct with TBN in Nashville while simultaneously representing Prestonwood! It was a huge vote of confidence to have Prestonwood see fit to give me the time to pursue the opportunity with TBN. I thought this was the fulfillment of what God had been trying to tell me. However, last week God began to reveal more fully his next step for me. And to be honest, I don’t completely understand the Lord’s timing for laying this on my heart. But I do know that he has given this next step to both my wife and me and I would not stand in the way of the blessing that he is going to bring to Prestonwood through the person that will take my place nor the glory that he is going to bring to himself through me.

Over the last two and a half years, God has used my co-workers and our various experiences together to teach me so much about his love for us and his love for the children we serve. These experiences and the resulting growth will continue to challenge and equip me for all that God is calling me to do with media. On behalf of my wife and myself, I am very thankful for the opportunity to work at Prestonwood and to work with the extremely talented creative team and children’s ministry staff. They will be continuously in my prayers.

I heard a statistic in one of our staff meetings from a speaker: 77% of Americans believe that Christianity is more about organized religion than about loving people. Sadly, I wasn’t as disturbed or shocked as i should have initially been. And yet at the same time, over 66% of people are interested in finding out more about spirituality and are open to the Bible; but none of them would go to a church. The speakers point was taht we need to get out and cultivate those one on one relationships.
After thinking about it for a while, I realized how sad it was that I had not been more appalled by the first statistic. I have always felt like my face was based on a relationship and not a religion. But when an unsaved person hears that I am a Christian, he will associate that with going to church and not a personal relationship with Christ; that is UNLESS he sees it lived out daily. This impressed even more upon me that nothing is more important than my personal witness. Working at church means squat if I don’t live out the difference that Christ has made and continues to make in my life every day.

Kinda wierd to think about how many hours old I am…even wierder to think about how many of those hours I have spent sleeping…though not as many as you might think! So my Creative Team wow’ed me again this morning. For my Birthday they each submitted a song (along with the writers team and various others) to a compilation cd. That’s right baby: “big red: The Ironic T-Shirt Birthday Mix” As soon as I get the track list I will upload it.

I have been so enjoying this week!! It almost makes up for the last two weeks and I am only on the second day…For the most part, I have been able to hang and “play” with the drama team. Thanks to Kelly taking the majority of the office work, I have been able to be with Marcelle and the Drama Team who are AMAZING!!! It has been a bit of a streching experience to because I am so used to being behind the camera and not actually acting. But this week has given me the opportunity to do some improv and really develop a thirst to do more! Granted, it is me doing it so to say that it is rudimentary would be an understatement; however, I have loved getting up and welcoming the kids in the morning and wearing crazy clothes, etc. And this work with these people who are awesome at acting and improv has really encouraged me to take some chances and do some wacky stuff, and really “leave myself at the door” as Marcelle would say…

I am sitting in the the same airport, at the same terminal, and even in front of the same gate (before they moved our flight to the other end of the terminal) where I was exactly one year ago today. Becky has the same anxiousness that she had then about traveling (even though she loves to travel); I have the same exhausted look as i did when we arrived here just after our wedding one year ago. But there is one big difference: I love my wife now more than ever… and it isn’t just something nice to say or something I have to say, but rather a quite confidence in my love for her and even more our love for our Heavenly Father. There have been some sticky points and I am sure there will be even bigger ones to come; but I know that we can face it all not just because of the love we have for each other, but because our souls belong to God and because our love for Him will take first priority. There are times when I know I love Becky but I sure don’t like her very much (and vice versa!) But the core our love is not for each other but based on the eternal relationship we have with Christ. And because of that eternal assurance, I have a quiet confidence, not in ourselves or myself, but in what God has brought together.

This month has been a killer. The First week we were working on the WD set trying to finish it before the onslought happened; we didn’t. The second week brought all of the prep for the next two weeks which was intimidating to say the least. The third week brought VBS with it’s 4500 kids (thats 4500 per day) and 2 1/2 story beakers (it was a science theme). The third week brought Camp WOW (kids camp) in Stuart, Oklahoma which was a blast and exhusting all at the same time. But the fourth week brings Becky and I to DFW airport where we are headed to Mexico for a week long vacation and celebration of our 1 Year Anniversary.

This has been a “loaded” week as one of the volunteers observed. Kelly’s first week to start with the creative team so the week was filled with bringing her up to speed (and she is absorbing it really well) My grandfather was very very sick on tuesday evening which was immediately followed by Robyn’s father passing away and being with the family on late tuesday night. Wednesday was filled with trying to help with Robyn with anything she needed for the memorial service on top of the regular work. Then Friday morning (which is my day off) I was called in to work for a late morning emergency meeting to find out that one of the minster was arrested for terrible, grievous actions which were heart-breaking for the entire church family.

But…

God is so good! Here are just a few of the blessing…

Kelly’s grasp of all we are throwing at here is incredible…my grandfather was doing better within 48 hours and on his feet by this last weekend…..I was able to finish the shoot early and get down their to see them and help them with some errands….Robyn’s fathers funeral was a truly awesome occasion and a testament to the difference between the hope of a Christian going to heaven versus the hopelessness of a non-believer dying….we were able to share some scenes in WD which starred Robyn’s father where he was playing a man who was terminally ill and getting ready to die; it was an amazing tool for those who saw it but were not believers…..on friday morning, Becky had taken my car because her car had a nail in the tire and yet God held it together so that I was able to make it all the way to Plano to be at the church and then take it to get the tire fixed which included spending time with Becky on her lunch break and that is always a blessing…and the way we as a church are responding has been encouraging as well. It also opened the door to some amazing conversations about God constant grace and the importance of staying in the Word and vigilant.

I am so thankful for these weeks…

I wrote this whole entry out the first time and then in the upload everything but the title got lost…kinda ironic when you read the first part of the re-written entry.

I can’t stand the entry titles I come up with…sound so full of themselves! As if “Something Kinda Cool Happened” is suppose to make you want to actual read the post; as if I had something intelligible to contribute to the blogosphere; as if all I needed was the title and the rest is just gravy for anyone who might be passing by on my blog. Anyway…

Self-criticism is something that I desire in an almost masochistic manner. A couple of days ago, I was sitting in a writers meeting with some volunteers and a co-worker. As usual with our creative meetings, we have spurts of getting a bunch done, sandwiched between tangents of nothingness. in one of these boughs of meaningless conversation, I turned to my co-worker (whose biggest strength/weakness is directness) and said, “What is your biggest criticism of me?”. (I will preface this by saying that I felt comfortable asking this person this question because I know that she genuinely loves me as a brother and would never say anything out of malice to hurt me.) Her reply was, “You don’t let people finish what they are saying or their thought-” to which I (no kidding) interrupted and said “i don’t think that is true…” Then I immediately realized that I just proved her right.

The more I thought about it, I realized that I cut people off allot…and I think it is directly tied to my pride. I either don’t think what the other person is saying is worth listening to or I think that I know what they are going to say and my response is more important than letting them finish. Then after even more thinking, (needless to say my head was hurting at this point) I came to the shocking (but true) conclusion that not only had I uncovered an area of huge self-pride, but I also was a horrible listener. At least I was a horrible listener anytime I felt like I had something to contribute (pretty much all the time).

I guess the only solace is that I am able to recognize it and ask for strength in that area of my life. The Father keeps bring this verse to mind: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore i will boas all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9