Solos, Sweat and Silliness

My Life Lately

Wednesday I had the privilege of seeing Lincoln Brewster in Castle Rock, a town a half an hour north of Colorado Springs. The show-held at The Rock Church-was both worshipful yet personable. Lincoln Brewster did just as much talking as he did singing making people feel like they really got to know him simply by being in the audience. Towards the middle of the set the band left and it was just him and an acoustic (a cedar top Larrivee, most likely an L model) and he would tell stories about his family and church and use them to lead into songs. The set list was splattered with guitar solos both in songs and in between songs. I think his appeal for Christian guitarists isn’t just his amazing ability but the validity he gives guitar in worship settings.

What God Has Been Showing Me

The Christian life seems to be filled with instant gratification versus long term reward. This is an interesting tension: one feels good now and feels awful later, the other feels awful now and feels great later. Let me give you an example, I am writing this blog when I really should be at the YMCA working out. Writing this just seems more enjoyable than going to the gym to see how fast I can run a mile and a half. I keep thinking of Hebrews 12:2 “…who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” This is the ultimate example of putting the greater future ahead of the mediocre now.

Here are three things I keep in mind to help me work toward long term reward rather than instant gratification:

1. Think about the reward of doing it rather than the consequence of not. I always seem to do better when I am motivated by something I want rather than what I’m afraid I’ll end up with.
2. The idea of doing it is always worse than actually doing it. I have noticed that I will think about how bad something is, like running, than when I actually do it I wonder why I made such a big deal about it.
3. Make time for rest. When I am reading a required and boring text I will take small breaks during the reading to check my facebook, play guitar, or challenge my computer to chess.


Uganda Update

What do you do if you want to minister to children you don’t understand? Be goofy. We just started practicing our dramas last Sunday and they serve the sole purpose of getting people stop what they are doing and laugh at us. The dramas are silly, pointless and a whole lot of fun. We are hoping to get footage of us performing them in Uganda so we can post them on blogs and social sites for everyone to see. Practicing these has really made this trip real for me. I really am going to a place where there are no showers to build a huge wall and get really sweaty. I can’t think of a better use of my time.