For the next three months...

I am starting a quest. A competition of sorts. A challenge. I have agreed to do a 3 month "Biggest Loser"-esque competiton. There are four people per team and you get weighed in once a month for the next three months. I have a goal but I am not going to tell you what that goal is. This is exciting for me because I love a challenge and competition drives me! Here's to self control...

I love my wife!

Yesterday was Sarah's birthday! I was her taxi driver for the day. It started out with me cooking some breakfast for her. Then I took her for a full body massage, manicure and pedicure. Then we went and met her mom in Warsaw for dinner at Hacienda. It was a great day for a most amazing woman. She definitely holds me up! :)

What Andy is "into" right now

Hey there...I love that it has turned cold and that means that a lot of things are making me all warm and happy. I thought i'd list them for you. Welcome to Jellyville:


1. My favorite songs: The Pretender (Foo Fighters), Almost Lover (A Fine Frenzy), Love Reign Over Me (Pearl Jam), These Days (Jackson Browne), 1234 (Feist), Breathe In/Breathe Out (Mat Kearney), Refine Me (Jennifer Knapp)

2. Movies: Reign Over Me. (I love watching movies that make you feel something. This movie makes me appreciate life and brings a lot of different emotions at the same time. It is up there.)

3. Learning the guitar: I started August 27th. You see, a friend started learning how to play and I thought to myself, "if he can do it, so can I". So I have been teaching myself and practicing every day. There is something so worshipful about playing and singing at the same time. You just FEEL more.

4. Thoughts of children: I cannot wait to start a family. Nothing in the near future, but I really am longing to have a kid of my own. Not just that, but I want to have a kid with Sarah. I cannot wait to be a parent with her.

5. Hot Chocolate: I love swiss miss! MMMM!

6. Trying to let things around me teach me about who God is: Jason Tash spoke at Family Camp Teen Track and said that when one of his children were born, he asked God to show himself through the child. I am trying to see God in the little and big. The frustrating and the elating.

7. Sweatshirts: I love wearing a hooded sweatshirt. Hands down my favorite piece of clothing.

8. IU basketball season starts tonight with Hoosier Hysteria. If you know me, you know that I love IU basketball. Period.

9. My wife: I feel our marriage has really grown since our vacation to South Carolina in May.

10. My hair: I havent cut it since the thursday right before our vacation in May. It is the longest it has ever been and it sprouts wings when a hat is placed over it. I'm enjoying the scraggly look.

I hope you are doing well. That there are things in your life right now that give that cuddled-under-the-blanket- with-a-warm-cup-of-hot-chocolate- feeling. If not, find some.

Salvation...

We had an interesting discussion sunday night at youth group. We were talking about different topics and the question was brought up does doing a certain thing (cussing, smoking, drinking etc) mean that you are not a follower of Christ? Then one of our teens spoke up and said that he believes that you have to do a lot to lose your salvation (mind you, he goes to a baptist high school). I know where I stand but I just wondered where you stand. To me, this borders on eternal security.


What does a person have to do to not be able to go to heaven?

Example: If someone gossips right before they walk into a street and get killed by a car are they going to heaven? Or if someone tells a lie because they don't want to hurt someones feelings and has a massive heart attack will they go to heaven?

Let me know what you think...

Unscript me...

Hey der... my blogs posts have come few and far between. I was looking at others blogs and thinking, "Man, I really need to start posting again".

This is probably my favorite time of year. Indiana Basketball is just around the corner, the NFL is in full swing, and the playoffs for baseball are just beginning. It is October! If you have seen the commercials for the MLB playoffs, you would have heard FOX's catch phrase...October is unscripted. That brings about a sense of excitement in my mind. See, it seems that most everything that I do as a Pastor is scripted. The messages, we were taught at IWU, need to written out word for word. The service needs to be on paper so that we know what is going on. The next three months need to be planned so that we have a clear direction.

Sarah recently told me that I am good at planning and thinking about big ideas and events and the like. However, I am not great at the small minute details. After looking back and thinking about it, she is 100% right. I think that I just like some things in my life to just happen. I mean for goodness sakes, people come in sunday mornings, sit in "their" seats (which by now have their own memory foam marks in the pew) and they do whatever is on the list.

Are there other areas that are so scripted that you just do them without even thinking about them? Spending time with family? Hanging out with friends? We get neither one of them up here. Sure, we have the occasional outing with a couple or a family event that is 2+ hours away. We come to take for granted the small things in life that really arent small at all.

My prayer is that God would surprise me and do something out of MY ordinary. I am tired of reading from the teleprompter!