Brea and I had our first son (third child) on Tuesday, August 30 at 3:42 am. We pulled into the hospital parking lot at 2:40 am, so we just barely made it in time. Brea didn’t start having contractions until 1:00 am. I’m glad I didn’t have to deliver the baby in the mini-van because I don’t think the girls would’ve been as much help as the hospital staff and nurses were.

Everybody is healthy and doing really well!

It’s not that she can’t poop. It’s just that she won’t. At least not where we would like her to start pooping.

It’s not that she’s afraid of the toilet. She takes care of her other business easily on it. She’s been doing that for a LONG time.

We’ve tried offering incentives (that’s parent-speak for bribing). We’ve tried not cleaning her pants for a while after she goes in them. We’ve tried leaving her walking around the house kind of like a hippy. We’ve tried to ask her if she’s afraid. We’ve tried begging. We’ve even come close to yelling at her.

All for naught.

She’s 38 months old. It’d be great if she took this next step any day now.

Maybe this experience just teaches me a new saying. “You can lead a toddler/preschooler to water, but you can’t make her poop.”

Anyone else feeling our pain?

Before Brea and I had our first child, I was kind of worried about how having kids would change me. Three years later, I love every minute of it. Well, maybe I didn’t love getting puked on at Mimi’s Cafe or kissing puke on Lilyana’s face when I couldn’t see in the dark of the middle of the night, but I’ll take those few low moments in exchange for the absolute joy that these girls bring into my heart every day.

Here are just some of the things I’ve grown to love:

• Hearing Emory scream “DADDY!!!” when I walk in the door after work
• Lilyana’s uncontrollable laughter from just seeing me
• Reading to my girls and seeing the joy they have just being with
• Playground time and making sure I push Emory “higher”
• Lilyana reaching up her arms toward me

There are so many things I love about being a dad. If you’re a dad, what do you love about it?

There are some days that I wonder what our culture is doing to us. The other day was one of those days.

I was having lunch with a man from my church. He has four kids, three of which are teenagers. None of them are involved in a ridiculous amount of extra-curricular activities, but their lives are still chaotic. They’re involved in a sport that requires early mornings, extensive travel, and a large chunk of time. Their story is not unique, nor is the sport that takes up a HUGE chunk of their time.

The unfortunate byproduct of their lives the way they are now is that they have very little margin left. Almost of their time is devoted to going. Going to and from school, sports, work, internships, jobs, and . . . church.

One of the things that I love about this family is that they are devoted to their faith and the church. It’s rare that they miss a Sunday. But because of the pace of life that has been thrust upon them they’re not able to connect with others in the church at the level they want and need. And since they can’t connect the pace of life takes a harder toll on them and creates more stress. It’s a vicious cycle.

They seem to be victims of our culture’s crazy pace of life. They’re busy living life, but don’t feel fully alive.

Where do you see this happening in your life? I the lives of those around you? Is there anything that we can do to combat this?

Image by flickr user Éole

• Today was a great day. Busy for a lot of people around me, but really good.
• I don’t think I’ll ever get used to my alarm going off at 5:00 am. It’s always worth it for me, though, since I get to spend a few hours of uninterrupted time studying Scripture.
• Preached through the entire chapter of Revelation 21 this morning. It’s been a long time since I’ve covered that big of a chunk of text. Was it too much?
• Had some great positive feedback after worship. I hope the impact of my message lasts longer than the 10 minutes following the service.
• As usual, I had to cut some stuff out. One of the things I wanted to dive into more was the statement “It is done” in Revelation 21:6. It parallels so much with the last words of Jesus on the cross, “It is finished.” I wish I had more time to dive into that parallel and the similarities and differences between the finished work on the cross and the ultimate finished work at the resurrection. Cool things to think about.
• I talked a little about Joseph Kittinger’s space jump. You can read more about his crazy story here.
• Didn’t mean to, but I got an almost two hour nap this afternoon on the couch holding Lilyana. Woke up 15 minutes before Connection Group, so I ended being a little late (sorry everybody).
• Gooey butter cake will change your life. I could get used to this dessert at Connection Group every week thing.
• The insights of my group always impress me. I’ve got a great bunch of people in my group.
• Will Warfel pulled one of these this morning. And then after service he pulled this. I think he’s Jon Acuff’s alter-ego.
• I bought the most expensive electric razor I’ve ever bought yesterday. I’m tired of dropping so much cash on razor blades. I hope I get a few years of use out of this one.
• I’m pumped about going to Catalyst Conference again this year. I’m even more pumped that Brea is going! Watch out Atalanta!

Alright, that’s it for this week. Sleep well everyone!

• One of my daily highlights is Bible Heroes Story time with the family. It’s a cool book that comes with songs for each story. Emory LOVES to dance to every song. I’m gonna miss these times later in life (and it will come WAY TOO SOON).
• Played guitar in worship for the first time at BridgeWay. I forgot how much of an awesome thing it is to watch people worship.
• Speaking of worship, I don’t really miss my old guitar that got stolen any more. My new one sounds really, really good.
• Tried out YouVersion Live again for sermon notes and bible verses in worship today. I only tweeted/facebooked about it. Didn’t mention it during the service. Did you try it?
• Got linked to by ChurchCrunch yesterday. Thanks John!
• Started working on a site of what I think is going to be one of the coolest things I’ll ever create. More on that on a later date.
• I wonder how many Cowboys fans still want to get rid of Roy Williams and David Buehler?
• Had a great Connection Group again tonight. Love those guys and gals!
• The weather was so nice today!
• Next Sunday I’m preaching about the New Heaven & New Earth. Probably going to focus most of my time on Revelation 21. Got any ideas for me?

That’s it for this week!

• It’s a weird feeling to drive by an ambulance then find out you know the person who it’s there for. I’m praying that Zach doesn’t have any major injuries and that he will be completely healed.
• Our new tool The City allowed us to spread the word for people to pray for Zach really efficiently and it was really cool to see people responding that they were praying (over 18 people said they were praying within the hour!!!).
• Skipped out on the 11:00 service today to go to the Bears game (since they won I can say it that way for sure now). I didn’t like not seeing everyone at that service.
• Information and conversations happen so rapidly before and after services. I need to tweak my system of collecting info to keep up. I can’t seem to type fast enough into my iPhone to capture everything I need to remember.
• Art had a great start to the sermon series on heaven this morning. It’s going to be a great next six weeks looking at what the Bible really has to say about heaven. Check out Randy Alcorn’s book Heaven if you want to get more out of the series.
• The Cowboys Stadium is an awesome venue for football. I’m glad I didn’t have to spend $1.4 billion on it, though.
• Even though we only had one other couple at Connection Group tonight we still had a really good time. Great insight from Scott tonight about how mind-blowing it is that the New Jerusalem is about 1,500 miles HIGH. That’s crazy tall and you can get a perspective on it by remembering that airplanes only fly 6-8 miles high. Crazy!!!
• It was awesome to get out of town for a few days with Brea. Chicago in late summer is really nice. Wrigley Field is a really cool venue for concerts. The John Hancock Observatory has much better view of the city than Sears Tower.

That’s my thoughts from today. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Let me know what you think.

• Bugs. Bugs everywhere!
• I’m wondering if trying to do our own bug spraying is smart or if we should hire some professionals?
• Asked someone new to do the lawn mowing at church. Old guys haven’t mowed for two weeks. I should probably let them know Monday their services are no longer needed.
• First half of Cowboys game has been BORING…right up until the last play.
• Switching the church to the new kiosk check-in system will be really, really good in the long run. Right now it’s kind of a pain. I’m glad we have some great volunteers to help out!!!
• We got our connection group back together for the first time in months tonight! Had a great time, but I wish everyone could’ve been there. Looking forward to getting some momentum going.
• Having a lobby/foyer that’s too small for your church is not great, but it’s awesome at the same time. It’s not great because there’s not enough room for people to hang out. It’s awesome because there is a TON of energy when the place is packed!
• The barista at the Kroger Starbucks seemed bummed. Praying he finds some joy this week.
• My wife is awesome at hospitality. She had a great idea for a snack that was super simple to make (I think, she made it) and added some nice personal touches to the house to make it feel more warm and welcoming.
• Forgot to bring a snack for Emory for between services. Would’ve been bad if BridgeWay didn’t have an awesome, ready for anything Children’s Minister in Lisa Rowland!!! The church is blessed to have her.
• It’s cool to see friends from our old church at our new church.
• Christians should look at others with the eyes of a doctor, not a judge. Great challenge from Art tonight.

Okay. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. What did the day look like to you?

I’ve been blogging for five and a half years now, so I’ve done quite a few posts. I realize that some people I know are somewhat regular readers here, others jump in when I post something they’re interested in, and then there are the random visitors who find my blog on Google. Whoever you are, this post will hopefully help you get a better feel for what this blog has been all about. I was prompted to write it by the 7 Link Challenge over at ProBlogger.

1. My first post: Backing Up DVDs
   What’s weird to me about piracy laws is that it’s perfectly legal to have a digital archive of movies you legitimately own, but it’s not legal to break the encryption on DVDs. You’d have to do it in real time using some sort of digital to analog converter, which would be a pain. That means that I was encouraging illegal activity on my blog. Great start, don’t you think?
2. The post I enjoyed writing the most: Four Ways to Be More Consistent in Your Bible Reading
   There were a lot of things I really liked about writing this post, but I was especially happy with the end result. I could have also put is under most helpful post link, but I really enjoyed writing it a lot.
3. The post which had a great discussion: Is God a Republican or Democrat
   I wrote this on the day of the the 2008 Presidential election and it got quite a few people to comment on it. I don’t blog much about politics, but I think this was one of my best posts and since it got so much discussion you might agree.
4. A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written: The Death of the Weekly Program/Bulletin/Newsletter
   Tim Schraeder wrote this post on his blog and it created a lot of buzz. Best quote from the post: “know the primary way your audience receives information and communicate to them that way.” It’s a move they’ve stuck with and made improvements to in the two years since they made the switch.
5. My most helpful post: Motivation: Finding the desire to workout when I really don’t want to do it
   This was a reflection of how I stayed motivated to workout during the months after my first daughter was born. I think it was really helpful for most anyone who’s looking for tips on staying motivated in exercise.
6. The post with a title that I am proud of: The Biggest Flaw in John Hollinger’s ESPN NBA Power Rankings
   I’ve never been a fan of Hollinger’s Power Rankings, probably because I am a Mavericks homer. But this post’s title sums up what I think is most wrong with the system and then I decided to elaborate for a few hundred words or so.
7. The post that I wish more people had read: Delighting in God (OR a theology of worship taught by a seven month old)
   Having kids has definitely given me more perspective on life and what it means to have God as our Father. This post was a reflection on how all people should be more engaged in worship.

So, those are my 7 links. How about you? If you have a blog (that’s more than just a couple days old) why don’t you do this on your blog? Or are there some posts that I’ve done here that you think would fit better than what I listed above? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Image by jessica r