The Tux Shop

I went with my brother, Jason, my mom and my nephews to the tux shop for a courtesy fitting. They're so cute. Here are the results ... in partial form.

One More Week

This tour has been the longest of my Won By One career. The reason: Erica and I are engaged! Time has passed at a monumental crawl. But that just means that it will be that much sweeter when we actually get married.

I'm in Camas, Washington right now. My parents moved up here earlier this summer and I'm having a good time with the family. It was nice to have dinner with everyone and have them at our last couple of concerts too. The boys are doing well and I can't wait to see them in their little tux's. We're going to the mall tomorrow and they're going to have another fitting. I've heard that it's hilarious because the pants are too short. I'll have to take some pictures and post them.

I pray that this week finds you especially thankful for your family and friends and that you will tell them about the love you have for them. We should also take this time to be a friend to those who don't have a loving family life. There's something sacred about unofficially adopting your friends into your own families. God bless and "love on" your family and friends, as they say at the Hilltop Church of Christ in El Segundo, CA.

Dry Bones Love

Yesterday a homeless man named Michael read 1 Corinthians 13 out loud to me. I was at Venice Beach with the Dry Bone Venice ministry. He kept emphasizing that if you have not love ... Nothing you do matters. Without love nothing matters. You can have faith and hope ... But if there's no love ... These things are worthless.

Check your heart and search for the love of God in you. Search for a compassionate Spirit that resides in you, God's Spirit.

WE LOVE OUR NEPHEWS!!

Trust in God

"Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul." (Psalm 143:8)

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." ( Proverbs 3:5-6).

There has never been a time in my life where I have had to trust in the Lord so much, and I have learned that it is one of the most difficult things to do. Yes, i have faith that the Lord is watching over me, and that He knows what He is doing with my life, but have i ever really trusted that what He is doing in my life is what truely is best for me? In the midst of a time where everything that has been stable in my life up to this point is all the sudden not so solid ground anymore, I have had to really trust that God will provide for Micah and I in our marriage. It is hard to trust in Him when everything is so uncertain, but I have learned from this that it is all I can do. It has challenged and strengthened my faith in so many ways. Everyday, I wake up unknowing of what lies ahead, but if I give it all over to Him, and trust Him with my day...my life...only then will I be at peace. When the road ahead is unclear and you can't see where you're driving or what you're driving toward, you just have to remember that you're not the one who is driving at all.

1 John 3:1

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!"

His love is indescribable. There is nothing like it. It is deep, high, wide, long and completely beyond our wildest dreams. If you seek it, you will find it.

Change is good.

"If we dare to live beyond self-concern. If we refused to shrink from being vulnerable. If we took nothing but a compassionate attitude toward the world. If we were counter cultural to our nation's lunatic lust for pride of place, power, and possessions. If we preferred to be faithful rather than successful. The wall of indifference to Christ would crumble. A handful of us could be ignored by society. But hundreds, thousands, millions of such servants would overwhelm the world. Christians filled with authenticity commitment, and generosity of Jesus would be the most spectacular sign in the history of the human race. The call of Jesus is revolutionary. If we implement it, we would change the world in a few months."

-Brennan Manning, The Signature of Jesus

I WOKE UP!

Do you realize that it is a blessing just to wake up in the morning. I've often thought of that moment when my eyes break open to be the moment I most dislike in the day. But we are blessed by God just to be able to wake up and live another day. He does not guarantee any more time for us...Yet he freely gives it to us.

Since I am blessed to live today...What will I do with this gift God has given me? How will I spend it. I deserve death...Yet God gives me life. Therefore I am compelled to search out his will for today and everyday that follows.

Father, help me to do your will. Protect me from evil and fill me up with your Holy Spirit. Guide me and direct me to the kind of daily life I long to live. A life fully devoted to you.

Church at Point Dume

In the midst of kites, rock climbers, snorkelers, scuba divers and the rest of the beach crowd...I enjoyed a small church service today at Point Dume. John Calhoun, tenor for Won By One, and I decided that instead of attending a traditional service, we'd have our own. So, we went down to Ralph's and picked up the elements for Communion and drove to Point Dume. There we sat and watched the waves crash, the people play and even some dolphins. As we shared in Communion, prayed and talked about God, I began to slowly see that this was probably a typical Sunday morning for most of these hundreds of the people at the beach today. They may not attend a regular church service anywhere and they may not even have a faith, but God loves them just as much as he loves me.

I'm just wondering if we need to get out of our boxes a little bit more and following the calling of God to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this world.

Where two or more are gathered...God is there also.

Just the Two of Us

This is a picture of Erica and I in Oregon. We love to be right next to God's beautiful creation. Sometimes we eat on the beach, visit waterfalls or take a scenic drive.

Have you ever sat back and just pondered the beauty that surrounds you? How complex is every organism and how wonderful is creation? God is truly amazing and in his "infinite wisdom" as the movie War of the Worlds puts it, God made it all for a reason. Nothing is in vain.

What do you hope for?

Let's start this blog off with a thought provoking question that I pray I'll never stop asking. What do you hope for? Really think about it. What is it that you don't already have that you wish you did? Are you bored, uneducated or sloppy? Let's take it to the next level. What do you hope for yourself ten years from now?

I was recently asked this question and it was surprisingly hard to answer. But I finally came up with this, "I hope that I have two kids (since I'll be married this summer). I hope that I'll be a full time youth minister and a great husband. I hope that I'll have written a feature length film and had it optioned or possibly made. I hope that I'll be producing several local music groups from my backyard studio. And finally, I hope that I haven't passed up the opportunity to do great things in the name of the Lord."

What do you think? I encourage you to spend some time everyday thinking about what you hope for. And when you're done with that, focus on what you're thankful for as well. For example, I'm thankful for Erica Paige Solberg (soon-to-be-Foster) and her presence in my life. I am also thankful for supportive friends and a loving family.

When you can complete these two exercises everyday, it is my opinion that life will be more enjoyable and you'll be more focused and driven to accomplish your goals.