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Long day
up at 6:30
prayer at 7:00
happy birthday song to Zeke at 8:00
oil change...coffee...meetings....food...meetings...emails...phone...pick paint colors...till 5:00
home...take kids out of Alyssa's hair for 1/2 hour...pick up food for Alyssa
6:00 Advisory team meeting at El Mariachi's
9:00 home to clean house...get everything ready for vacation...pack
10:30...blog
10:45...bed
5:00...get up
6:00...head to Sac
10:30...get on plane
noon...lunch in Riverside
VACATION!!!
...the first day I saw you in the hospital and you weighed 2 pounds 11 onces.
I remember holding your hand through an incubator and knowing that you were going to be my son.
I remember the interview with your birth mom telling her that we would love you every single day of your life.
I remember the phone call when she told us that she chose us to be your parents.
I remember bringing you home with an oxygen tank and a heart monitor.
I remember the colic and sleepless nights.
I remember you being the answer to hundreds of prayers from your mom and me.
I remember it all Zeke.
I can't believe you're turning 5.
I have loved you every second of your life.
It hasn't been easy but I think easy is over rated.
You are going to be a warrior in the kingdom of God.
Jesus has had his hand on your life from the day you could bring air into those little lungs.
Look at you now Zeke. I am so proud of the little man you are becoming.
I pray you become twice the man of God that you see in your daddy.
I love you so much Ezekiel Thomas Bono Lance.
Happy Birthday buddy!
This was like 2am and we were absolutely delirious. At least the gas was cheap!
...to get seats at an event next to the Dali Lama? It looks like Rob Bell is just chillin' there with the Lama at a Lakers game. Thanks for the pic Ian. Random!
Quick note...Stirring was awesome tonight. I love that we are talking about spiritual gifts within the context of love and family. "We're different on purpose." Got to pray with a bunch of people tonight...we have a really great family!
Back to the craziness...we leave Thursday for vacation. We are spending a couple days with friends and family in Riverside then we are headed to Newport with no kids for a couple days...praise Jesus!
Why is it that everything in the whole world has to get done the few days before you leave for vacation? You work twice as hard before you leave, which means you're twice as tired when you actually get to rest. Oh well...I can't wait to relax with friends and family. If you haven't taken a vacation this year and you aren't planning on it...shame on you! Nate will get mad at me for shaming people but we all need a break. God designed us for work and rest. Plan something...put it on the calendar right now...guard that time with your life...it will give you life in return.
Can't wait!
So I sat out in the sun today with my family and watched the seniors at Simpson graduate. There were three students that all came through The Grove youth group that graduated today. Tyler, Holly, and Daniel. We were also there to see our friend Trisha graduate with her masters...you go girl!
Graduations crack me up. Old people singing weird songs...choirs...outside speaker that comes in a throws out one last don't do drugs and make sure you got good friends speech.
Seriously...Is that the best we can do? Did these students spend TONS of money and four years in classes to dress up in robes and weird hats and have someone make sure they have everything checked off on their Christian checklist? (pretty sure that was a run on sentence)
Why can't someone get up there and challenge these students to change the world by loving God and each other and the world and the least? What about the emphasis that Simpson is supposed to be about...go into all the world and make disciples. Make God's kingdom a reality in Redding and the ends of the earth. Seems like the easiest platform in the world to inspire some folk. But instead they got one last play it safe speech...bummer.
Sorry for the soapbox...if any graduates are reading my blog...go out and change the world...there are a ton of people in your city that need to know Jesus. Love people in such crazy ways that the world is forced to take notice. Don't play it safe...break all the rules...don't do it the way it's always been done...we believe in you.
Congratulations!
I found this N.T. Wright interview on someone's blog. Lots of cool content. This is the list of issues he covers in the interview.
1. On Being Compared to C.S. Lewis
2. On Eschatology Leading to Action
3. On Mark Dever’s critique of Wright’s notion of a “public gospel”
4. On Avoiding the Errors of the Social Gospel
5. On the Importance of the Ascension
6. On Hell
7. On Purgatory
8. On Doug Wilson and Third World Debt
9. On John Piper’s Future of Justification
We're in the terminal waiting to come home. Can't wait to be home and see my family. I gave a little update from our trip here.
Sat in the sun for 1/2 hour today. Don't know if you can tell but my forehead is on fire. The download of information today was out of hand. So much good stuff...so many good talks...my brain hurts. Had dinner with Nate, Bill, Jill and Tim and talked about great stuff. We laughed till my face hurt. Our hot tub at the hotel is 127 degrees...I no longer posses the first layer of my skin. Last night we went to bed at 2:40am...we planned out stuff for the Stirring for the next year...good times. I'm gonna try to get some sleep tonight.
I turned 32 yesterday on a plane flying from Sacramento to Orlando. I had dinner with Nate, our church planting coach and his wife at BJ's. Weird. Got a free pazzoki...word.
Kind of weird not being around family. I had some family and friends call me but it was still kind of weird. I remembered that it was my birthday as Nate and I were driving to the airport. I guess Birthday's become less of a deal as you get old.
All I know is Jesus was crucified when he was 33 so I got some serious work ahead of me this year. I love my life, my family, my friends, my church. Getting old is cool. I'm stoked about this year. Sucky thing is that I threw my back out getting out of bed yesterday...that can't be a good sign.
Conference has been great...I'll blog later on that. Hot tubbin' time!
I'm takin' off tonight after the Stirring. Nate and I are headed down to Sacramento to stay with his parents tonight. We get up early for a flight to Orlando. Four days out there for the Exponential Church Conference. It's focused on church planting and it should be really cool. I'm looking forward to hearing from Alan Hirsch. Some people hooked us up to go so I'm stoked. I will try to blog while I'm gone but I have no clue what my internet situation will be like. Have a great week!
Being bald is awesome! I haven't really had hair in a photo since our wedding pictures.
I am in a constant battle to make my life more simple. For years I've shaved every other day or every three or four days. But I have found that I can get away with shaving my head once a week now. I will usually shave the neck once or twice through the week but Sunday is grooming day. I have everything boiled down to about 15 minutes once a week...amazing!
Here's the routine:
1. Trim bottom of the beard with #2 extension
2. Trim sides of beard and mustache with #1 extension
3. Trim from bottom of the ear to middle of the ear with no extension, higher setting
4. Trim from middle of the ear to top of the ear with no extension, lower setting (makes for the perfect transition to the baldness)
5. Shave the head
6. Shave the neck
7. Newly added to the routine. Trim the arm hair with clippers...no extension. (This is not in attempt to highlight my guns...it's because my arm hair is out of control and there is a forest on my left arm that makes it impossible to see my tattoos. Then if I leave the forest on the right arm it looks crazy...hence...it all comes off.)
8. Periodically thrown into the mix...cut down the 3 inch stragglers that sprout from my shoulders.
And that's all folks. 15 minutes every Sunday morning. The life of a bald man. Don't be jealous.
Is your grooming process simple or crazy?
Side note: quite possibly the most random post ever on RevRock
till Alyssa pulls in the driveway. I'm not anxious or anything. To everyone in the world that pulls off the single parent thing...I salute you...you've got one crazy job! Have a great Saturday.
Oh and by the way...the dog pooped in the house again last night and peed on a couple of my friends when they came over to play poker...I found out that one swift kick + low backyard fence = less problems in my life!
Just kidding...don't call PITA on me...but seriously...I thought about it.
...CEMENT!!! Ever since we have finished our back yard with cement my dog has been pooping in the house...what the heck??!!? She never poops in the house but apparently she doesn't feel comfortable dropping a loaf on hard surfaces...she prefers carpet...unbelievable. Any suggestions besides torture and repeated kicking? I'm saving those techniques for the next time.
Alyssa just took off to spend a couple days with her closest friend Annette. They are meeting halfway between our two homes (Santa Cruz and Redding) for a girls retreat away from hubbies and kiddies. Alyssa is the hardest workin' momma on the planet and honestly I can never give her enough of these little times away to recharge. She is an amazing, sexy, big bellied woman and I am the luckiest dude on the planet!
Have a blast babe...I love you!
This is what I've been doin' the last couple days. Yesterday T.J., Brent and I brought in a ton of fill dirt with wheelbarrows to get ready for the cement. Today...instant backyard! Bring on the BBQ's.
I just got done speaking at the Stirring tonight. We're talking about the family that God has in mind and what it looks like to grow and mature in that family. I proposed that as we grow we contribute and we start to carry weight. I'm pretty sure I surpassed the normal quota of times you can say poop in a sermon. Oh well...poop is always awesome material! Tonight was a lot of fun and also super intense at times. Sometimes I struggle to find the filter when I share...it comes out pretty raw...hence the poop stories.
I'm gonna start getting some really weird traffic coming through my blog. In my last few posts I've mentioned afterbirth, Joel Osteen and poop.
Can you tell I'm tired? I think I'm gonna sleep till Tuesday. We reached 30,000...Yippee!
only 60 more visitors till we hit 30,000 on ol' RevRock. What the heck?!!? I'm like Joel Osteen...well maybe not...more like Rick Warren...yeah...me and Ricky...two peas in a supersized pod!
Did anyone see the piece that Alyssa and I put together with all the shots of people's eyes for Erase the Dark? This is a picture of my daughters eyes. They were not easy to capture...she is constantly moving. I'm not much of an artist but I love to create things and it was a lot of fun to pull this off with my wife. She had two pieces of photography that sold last night...they were both amazing. This was my favorite...
Isn't she awesome?
I finally got to watch the first episode back of The Office...amazing!
450+ people in a gym
6 amazing musicians
6 great films
100+ pieces of art
The best food even eaten
$5500 total raised for Cypress Elementary and Eagles Soar after school program
Our first Erase the Dark music, art, and film festival was a huge success.
Thanks to everyone that made it happen!
...how long it takes to hang and light 100 pieces of art in a gym and make it look cool? I do! You've gotta come to Erase the Dark tonight. I'll post pics tomorrow. It's like Anthem on steroids. I'm not exaggerating...there are 100 pieces of art. It's gonna be fun.
Here are two of the most important people in the Lance universe. Steve and Karen were up for a few days to hang out and it was awesome. They are amazing friends and we miss them like crazy! Can't wait to see you guys again in May.
This is what happens when my son goes to the garage for a few minutes. He jumps in the car...sees that the sun is shining into the car...finds a CD...places it strategically where the sun is shining...and creates this amazing rainbow on the ceiling! He seriously blows me away. He's turning 5 at the end of this month and sometimes I think he's brighter than I am. Seriously...what kid does this. Ezekiel is going to be an amazing man of God. I also have this crazy feeling that he is going to do some things as an engineer or scientist that are going to change the world. I'm praying his ridiculous passion for fans is going to drive him to use wind to power countries that don't have it. I love the mind that God has placed in my son. I better go get him out of the garage!
Alyssa is off to women's retreat. It's me and the kiddos for a couple days. They miss mama but we're gonna have a great time. I like the daddy time I get with my kids...they're awesome. Blogs might be sparse for a couple days. Pray for the women at the retreat.
You got the guy that lets his mom wake him up and he keeps saying 5 more minutes.
There's the "stay up till three in the morning dude" that goes through phases of being less asleep until he emerges for dinner in a state that resembles awakeness.
Of course the annoying guy that is up with the sun every day.
You got the "hit the snooze guy" that does it so much that the button no longer works and he has to buy a new one.
There is "sleep in guy" that you know you can't call before lunch.
I used to be the "set my alarm at the same time and get up everyday guy."
Now I'm the "pray that my kids sleep in but they never do and when they wake up I take turns with Alyssa in getting up even though she does it more than I do and on those days that I don't get up I get an extra 1/2 hour of sleep guy."
My point being...you can tell a lot about a person by how they wake up. I find that when I wake up to an alarm I'm more disciplined. It's weird but all these things tend to happen when I get up to an alarm: I spend more time with God, I am disciplined with working out, I eat better, and I feel less stressed. My first choice of the day is to be proactive and the rest of my day follows suit.
When I wake up based on my kids I am starting my day based on the circumstances of others. The rest of my day tends to follow suit. I tend to let other peoples priorities consume me and I'm not led by the things that I know I should be doing.
Conclusion...I'm setting my alarm clock tomorrow.
How do you wake up? Does it affect the rest of your day?
My wife goes to womens retreat
Steve and Karen come to visit (can't wait guys!)
Erase the Dark (our first music, art and film festival) goes down. It's gonna be amazing!
I lead worship a few times
I speak twice. We've officially launched our "We are family" series
Nate and I go to a conference in Orlando
I turn 32
My son turns 5
We go to Riverside for a week of fam, friends and the beach
Creepy floating baby will have less then 100 days in the countdown.
What the heck???!!?
Bring it on!!!
I'm about a 100 pages into this book. This morning I read this portion that was in response to Matthew 25:31-46. Those who have ears...let them hear!
Jesus lives next door. He's an eight-year-old girl and her three-year-old brother. The Son of Man looks like those starving Ethiopian children. He only gets breakfast and lunch at school, when he makes it. His mama is a crack whore. Nobody knows where his daddy is. I heard his mama lets her "Johns" do things to him.
Jesus is two houses down and has six children. Now he's pregnant with the seventh. I don't know if he hasn't figured out what birth control is, or what, but how does he expect his husband to feed all those babies on that salary? And you know with all those kids the Lord of Lords can't work. That means hard working taxpayers' money has to go for Christ's food stamps! He needs to get fixed.
The Lord is a crazy man-paranoid schizophrenic . If he doesn't take his medication, he walks up and down the street cussing and spitting on everybody he passes. He's homeless. Nobody knows where his family is-if he's got one. Digs out of the trash cans for food. Somebody ought to get him off the street.
Jesus is nothing but a nuisance.
I'm starting to see the Son of God everywhere I go. He's always crying or begging or looking pitiful. Why doesn't he pull himself up by his bootstraps? This is America! Makes me mad. He's ruining our neighborhood.
Somebody ought to do something about him.
Somebody.
