• There are a bunch of ways that I’m weird — maybe chief among them is my enjoyment of Mondays.
• I know we’re all supposed to hate Mondays, but there’s something about getting a new week started that I find to be really fun.
• It’s even easier now that we don’t have an evening service.
• (I hope that doesn’t last too long since I know there are folks who can only come in the evening)
• Had a good weekend for the most part.
• Molly and I went to dinner on Friday night with Josh and Aubrey Watt.
• So fun to see their boys, tour their new home in North Phoenix, and drive around and see more of their neighborhood and community.
• Then we had an awesome meal.
• Just really great to be with them — super life-giving.
• We’re just a month away from Josh coming back to Gateway to preach and have a “Baby Shower” for his new plant, Redemption North Mountain.
• Will be really sweet to have him back and take some time to pray for the team.
• It’s awesome how many Gateway people have joined him and many have moved up there.
• People leave churches for a lot of reasons — my favorite is when their doing it for the sake of mission and the expansion of the gospel.
• This weekend was also a nice respite for my girls.
• They started out kind of pumped about online school, but that lasted for about… 3 hours.
• Online school — like most online stuff — is just brutal.
• I appreciate the work that their school is doing and how much better the systems and processes have gotten since last spring, but it’s still just rough.
• When you are a 6th or 9th grade girl and can’t socialize at school… dang… no fun.
• At least they have our Student ministry — maybe the best gift our church has given our family.
• But it makes the weekend much more about seeing friends.
• Also, congrats to those of you in the Queen Creek district who want to send your kids to in-person school — I hope it goes really well!
• Yesterday’s services were fun too.
• Another good turnout, and things seem to be going pretty well.
• I’m loving the Gospel of John and I think that passion is coming through.
• There’s also a level of passion that comes out when preaching to a crowd that just isn’t there online — no matter how hard I try to feel and create it.
• Watch it here in case you missed it.
• I was definitely nervous to bring up the application point I did related to the difference between Black Lives Matter (the organization) and “black lives matter” (the sentence).
• I’ve learned the hard way that even when you work hard as a communicator to be clear, it’s easy to be misunderstood.
• I ran what I was thinking to share by the elders last week and they were very helpful — both in their support of it (it articulated how they feel) as well as their suggestions on how to present it well.
• Plurality really is a good approach for church leadership.
• Despite the nerves, it was a fun sermon to preach.
• I’m just super-intrigued by thinking about what must have been going through John’s head as he was preparing to craft his book about Jesus.
• He’s simple, brilliant, bold, and clear — Seth says John designs his book the way Steve Jobs designs technology.
• This week I’m joining in with thousands of people around the Valley to pray for rain.
• Goodness gracious it is just brutal to have no break in the weather.
• In other news, I introduced my older girls to Dumb and Dumber recently (the TV version).
• Had to fast-forward through a few parts, but it was fun to help them see where so much of our family’s lexicon comes from…
• “Our pets heads are falling off!”
• “So you’re telling me there’s a chance…”
• “Move it or lose it”
• “Big Gulps, huh? Alright!”
• “Just when I think you couldn’t possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this… and totally redeem yourself.”
• “Hey, you wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?”
• They laughed through the whole thing and it was fun.
• Makes me wonder what their Dumb and Dumber will be when they’re our age.
• Still digging the sports on TV, even as I grieve the Big Ten’s disappointing decision to cancel fall sports.
• What especially makes no sense is that they’ll still be having team meetings and workouts — at the same level as if there was a season — but with no games.
• So the PR that this is about “athlete safety” sounds like hooey.
• I wouldn’t mind if they said they made the decision because of money or liability concerns — if that was the truth.
• But to say it’s about player safety and then do everything the same (but no games) just rings hollow.
• I feel terrible for the athletes — brutal to put the level of work in that they do and to have such a short window to play anyway and then have it cancelled.
• Alright, rant over… and hopefully this pandemic will be over soon too.
• Well, I’m going to keep cranking on this Monday — hope you have a good one wherever you are.
• All of life is all for Jesus.