Slow Down

"Oh, I don't want to let go
Of all the things that I know
Are keepin me away from my life.
Oh, I don't want to slow down.
No, I don't want to look around,
But I can't seem to work it out,
So help me God."
--"Slow Down" by Third Day

24Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
--Matthew 16:24-26

For those of you that don't know, I have about a 45 minute drive one way to work each day. During this time I have plenty of opportunities to listen to many different things on the radio or I can switch to a CD. Most mornings I listen to Rick & Bubba and then in the afternoons I listen to Sportscall. This morning after Man2Man at church I didn't really have the urge to listen to Rick & Bubba, nothing against them but something in me just said to listen to the new Third Day CD. My dad and I went to the Music Builds Tour in B'ham last Thursday and he bought the new CD but is letting me borrow it this week. It's awesome and I'm going to have to buy my own copy! So I popped it in and down the road I went.

At Man2Man this morning we talked about Matthew 16:24-26 and how that relates to our daily walk with Christ. One of the topics that kept coming up was how busy we can get going about our lives and how easy that makes it to forget about or ignore God. We can get so caught up in trying to make another dollar or doing that next deal that we think we can handle it on our own. We think we know what's best for us when in fact, God our creator ultimately knows exactly what we need. We need Him.

We have to slow down and let God do His thing. We have to be humble and take the time to listen to what He has to say. I'm not always the best at doing that. I get up early in the morning to go to work and many days I work late. Time is precious when I get home. It's easy to go about my day and feel very frustrated when I go to bed. I'm tired and I don't feel like I've accomplished much. I'm learning that if I just slow down, take a breath, and let God take control I will be in much better shape. It should be a simple thing for us to accept but our sinful nature trips us up. I'm constantly working on letting go and slowing down.

At first I didn't draw a connection between the song and the scripture but after I kept repeating the song it hit me. I think God was saying "you're gonna listen to this song until you hear what it's saying!" At least that's the way it struck me. You might have different thoughts about it.

A Few More Songs

What I Needed

Man2Man

Today was the first meeting at Cornerstone (our church - www.cornerstonebuzz.org) of Man2Man. What is Man2Man you might ask? It's a new weekly meeting on Tuesday mornings at 6:15 AM of the men in the church and any other men in the community that want to attend. The purpose is to bring men together to uplift them and hold them accountable for subjects and things in life that are uniquely....well, men stuff. There will be a brief message from the Bible and somebody will share a real life story each week then we'll break up into smaller groups for discussion and wrap up with prayer. Oh yeah, breakfast, juice, and coffee are included for free!

We had an awesome story and testimony today from Mark Fuller and Josh Agerton (Pastor of Connections - www.joshagerton.com) gave a brief message on The Armor of God from Ephesians 6:10-18. Any guys in the Auburn-Opelika area that might read this I strongly encourage you to attend. I truly believe God has ordained these meetings and lives will be changed.

Sweet Friends

I believe that a mark of true friendship is that no matter how long it has been since you have seen someone you feel like no time has passed. Not that you aren't sad you have missed out on events in the person's life but that their presence is always comfortable and easy. I got to have some precious (and unexpected) time this weekend with some true friends, one of whom I had not seen in over a year because she has been in Asia since last August! God has blessed me with amazing friendships and I am so thankful for them! Having even a short time with my friends was just refreshing for my soul and the distance between all of us made me value our time and our friendship even more!

Absolutely One of the Funniest Things EVER

This should probably not be as funny as it is...but it made me cry I laughed so hard at it. Call me a bad person because this probably isn't uplifting to these people but they really couldn't have taken themselves seriously. There are very few things I have ever seen that are this funny!

A little disclaimer though...I haven't checked out the rest of this blog so beyond this page I am not responsible for what you might find if you look around. You never know in the blogging world...

http://listoftheday.blogspot.com/2007/09/great-olan-mills-photos.html