What is your Frap?

You probably thinking well I like white mocha, caramel, or something like that.  While those are tasty frapachino that is not what I am referring to.  Do you know where the frap came from?  Basically the frap came from some baristas chilling on a slow day and started experimenting.  They thought they would take a regular cappuccino throw some ice in it and blend it up.  It was good.  So they tried flavor after flavor and started selling the tasty treat to customers.  They named it frapachino because it ain’t nothing but a frozen cappuccino. Combine the words and frapachino is born.

So I ask you what is your frap?  What are you experimenting with?  Are you trying something new or fresh?  Are you putting a new spin on an old tradition?  If the answer is no then why not?

Not everything we come up with will be the new frapachino but without trying we will never find it.

Everyday is Halloween….for some

Do you wear a mask?

Think about that question for a bit.

Too many people in this world put on masks.  They have a mask for work.  They have a mask (and costume) for church.  They have one for the in laws house and another for their parents house.  They have one for their kid’s school. They even have one when they are on the computer.

So I ask you is everyday Halloween for you?

There is a God!!!

Last week the question was posed “have you had anything happen in your life that made you realize there really is a God?”.  I have to say yes.  Big time!

Last year on August 15 my baby girl, Ashley, was born.  She was two months early and weighed in at 2 lbs 15 oz.  No signs prior to that day said we would have a baby early.  Nothing at all.  No complications. Nothing.  My wife goes in for a routine check up and boom 24 hours later we have a baby.

During this time we freaked a little bit.  I mean we didn’t even have a name finalized, the house wasn’t ready, we had eight more weeks to get that stuff done.  However there were other plans.

Everything went well and today my baby weighs over 18 lbs.  She is taking steps and starting to walk.  Wow what a year!

Recently we were in Disney World and I literally broke down as I thought about how far she has come.  From spending time in the NICU to hanging at Disney in just a little over a year.  I just looked at her pointing to parades, characters, reaching for mommy as Mickey approached, riding rides and smiling the entire time.

Ashley is just one proof in my life that there is a God.  She has been used in so many ways to bring my wife and I closer to God.  God has used her to bring my wife and I closer together.  He has used Ashley to put our lives into perspective and make us better people.  He has used Ashley in ways that are just truly amazing! How God uses someone so small to do such BIG things is simply awesome!

Friends

Proverbs 18:24 Friends come and friends go, but a true friend sticks by you like family. (MSG)

As I read this verse I thought of three types of Friends

1) FRINGE – We all have fringe friends.  These are the friends being referred to in the first part of this verse.  There can be many in this group however they may come and go. Many of these friends are the ones at work or on a team. Quite often you lose these friends when you leave an organization.  Maybe you quit a job, left a church, graduated college, or moved out of state so you lose touch and move on.  Just not a deep relationship. One perfect example of some fringe friends I have had is when I recently left an organization and all of my ‘friends’ immediately dropped my from their Twitter accounts.  Kind of funny huh?  They came…they went…

2) GREAT –You connect well with this group and have become close with this group.  The trust level here is very high.  These friends are on the list you would call when you may need something but they may not quite be at the top of the list.  They are somewhere between the verse above they don’t come and go but they aren’t quite to that family ranking.  However you love them and they love you.  They are GREAT friends.

3) CORE – These are those that fall into the sticks by you like family piece of the verse.  The ones you know you can call at anytime of the night.  These are the ones that will always be there for you.  The ones that you may not talk to for several months but when you do talk it is like no time has passed.  Many times you have known this group for many years but not always.  I can remember when my wife questioned me about why I invited certain friends to family events and my response was because they are family.  When my wedding came up I knew who needed to be there and it wasn’t all blood relatives yet it was my brothers.  Our CORE friends are who we would do anything for and they for us.

Now here is a question for you…where do you put Jesus?

Family Reunions

Recently I attended a family reunion and afterward I was hit in the face with a few observations.

In this reunion you had people from all over coming to see each other for one weekend.  It was real cool to see that many people come together to celebrate their family legacy.  We had a nice dinner and all but it started to hit me.  As I sat at the tabble I looked around I noticed eveyone is sitting with who they came with to the party.

Ok so let’s jump to the next day.  We go to a park and the same thing happens at least at first.  You look around and everyone is talking to the people they either came with or who they talk to on a regular basis.  I said to myself “self, why did we come all this way to only talk to the people we always talk too?”.  It was nice to see more conversation take place over the three day period but should it really take three days?

It hit me afterward.  We can have reunions all we want. We can get together every two or three years talk then go our merry ways.  Or we can choose to take the realtionships we reconnect with at a reunion and start to cultivate them. How much more fun can you have with everyone if are already talking on a regular basis?  No more small talk takes place like “where do you work?” or “what have you been doing?”.  Instead the conversation changes to more meaningful talk about church, college football, scrapbooking, cooking, TV shows, kids, etc.

I know what you are thinking “oh Greg I just don’t have time”  and I understand. But with today’s technology in email, texting, Twitter, and Facebook we can continue these connections.  I recently ran into someone I haven’t seen in about four years but we knew what was going on with each other because of status updates on Facebook.  Immediately our conversation was on current things not just catching up.

This past weekend we got together in Orlando with some of the family that was at the reunion.  Would we have gone if it wasn’t for the reunion?  I don’t know, maybe. But I do know that since the reunion we are communicating more with members of the family.  I know I am making a commitment to stay connected as best as I can and do better than ever before.  Yeah we are all busy but so what.  How long does it really take to update a status, type a text, or send an email?  Yeah not long so stop making excuses and start executing relationships.

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My New Church Home

A few months ago my wife and I decided to change churches.  We felt led to find a church home closer to our house and one that was involved with the community.  I want my children to grow up in a church that was making a difference outside of their walls.

Well living in Jefferson, GA there are several churches but most of them are old school / traditional churches.  So we came across New Community Church online, listened to a service or two, and decided to visit in person.  All I can say is WOW!

Soon after our visit they hosted a ‘Conert in the Park’ where they provided the community with free hot dogs, hamburgers, drinks, etc.  No strings attached.  Just showing love for the community.

Next came the Braselton ‘Movie in the Park’ in which New Community set up a booth and gave away free sno-cones and popcorn. I was honored to get to work the popcorn popper fow a couple of hours.  (Hey if I am going to want a place to serve the community and the opportunity arises to serve then I gotta serve.)

In less than a year the youth group has gone from six students to over one hundred.  Yes you read that right from six to over one hundred!  Just amazing stuff!  I am blessed to be able to serve with the middle school youth on Wednesday nights and I hope to serve on Sundays with the high schoolers soon.

Not long from now community groups start and I can not wait, I even signed up for two of them.  I love the fact I look forward to going to church each week.  I love the fact that I am fired up about Axiom Student Ministry .  I love the fact that my family is having fun at church.  I love the fact I can be a part of something that is serving others.   I love the fact that I feel at home.  I love the fact that New Community is in my community.

In closing each week Joel Osteen says get in a good bible based church, well I can say we have found an AWESOME bible based church right here in Jackson County in the form of New Community Church.

If you live in the Jackson County (Georgia) area come check us out on Sundays at 10:30am or if you just want to hear some great teachings just visit www.newcommunityonline.com and check out the sermons.

Riding Bikes…Getting Focused

Recently my five year old son was invited to a birthday party where bike riding was the focal point of activity.  So we go to the park pull out his bike and he starts riding.  He rides his bike ok but nowhere near the the ability of the birthday boy or even some of the other party participants.  See normally we never ride bikes.  He enjoys riding his motorcycle or playing roller hockey but riding bikes is just not high on his list of activities.  However while we were at the park he pushed himself harder as he watched the other kids riding their bikes.  By the time we left the party he was riding better than he ever had before.

After the party it hit me like a brick in the face;  It is all about where you focus your efforts.  See he has never been into riding his bike, yet he loves his motorcycle.  He loves strapping on his inline skates grabbing a hockey stick and playing roller hockey.  Biking has never been his passion.

This experience brought me to think about how and what we spend our time focused on. In Mattew 6:33 it says But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. This verse is saying if you focus on the Kingdom you will not have to worry about ANYTHING.  You see that?  ANYTHING, you don’t have to worry about ANYTHING.  I can look at my life over the past several years and see how my focal points have changed.  I can see how when my focus became more about Jesus my life improved.  When my focus shifted from sin to Jesus my marriage became stronger. When my focus went from pleasing others to pleasing Jesus my stress levels lowered.  When my focus went from hanging out with friends till whatever times of the night to focusing on Jesus my realtionships became deeper and more meaningful. When my focus shifted from the world to Jesus my life just became better.

When we decide to focus on something we become better at it.  If we focus on hockey we get better, if we focus on bike riding we get better, when we focus on playing video games we get better, and there is nothing wrong with any of those things.  However when we focus on Jesus, our lives and the lives around us get better.  Let’s shift our focus and see how much better we are at EVERYTHING we decide to do.

Powerful Stuff from the Russian Nightmare and The Total Package

This past weekend I attended a ‘Christian’ pro wrestling event in Griffin, GA.  My good friend Marty told me about the event months ago and I knew I had to be there.  One selfish reason was because Nikita Koloff and Lex Luger would be in attendance.  For those too young to remember Nikita was a bad dude in the NWA throughout the 80’s and part of the 90’s and Lex was a HUGE star in both the WWE and WCW. Anyway I grew up watching Nikita and Lex and wanted to sieze the opportunity to see them talk about their faith.

Yeah that’s right they were there to speak about their faith and how they became Christians.  So here is a crowd of several hundred listening to two stories of men who had it all but were unfulfilled until they accepted Christ into their lives.  As Nikita spoke he told the crowd that no one was there by accident. That there was a reason they were brought to Griffin, GA on that very night to see wrestling.  He did an invitation that laid out about this being a serious commitment. No sugar coating here. After his invitation 118 people gave their lives to Christ!  118!!!  It was AWESOME!

Afterward I was able to meet both Lex and Nikita.  Both were extremely nice.  I asked Nikita for a pic and he asked me to wait a few minutes which was no big deal as he took care of some other commitments.  I figured I wouldn’t be able to get the pic due to all of the people gathering so I just stood in the back but before he left he looked for me and made sure we got that picture.  Cool stuff.

It is such a blessing to have been there.  Seeing both guys was awesome then seeing them talking about their faith just made it even better.  Not to mention witnessing 118 people give their lives to Christ.  Plus I got to reconnect with some friends. I wish I could have been at there the next day to see Lex and Nikita give more details about their stories at a local church but my friend says he will hook me up with a DVD of the event.

Visit Nikita’s wesbite here:

http://www.nikitakoloff.com/

http://www.nikitakoloff.com/powerhour/index.htm

Are you weird? I think so.

Do you think you are weird?  I know you are weird.  Doesn’t even matter who you are, you are weird.

You may read that and got a little upset so now let’s dig a little deeper.  Weird is really relative to where you are and who you are around.  Think about that for a moment.  Let it sink in.  If you place someone totally different than you in your life you will look at them a little strange and think to yourself they are weird or they are ‘not normal’.

The Harry Potter movie will come out tonight at 12:01am.  There will be many people in line to see this movie.  Many of them will be dressed up in their Hogwart’s attire.  They will have robes on, they will have their wands, glasses like Harry, and beards like Dumbledore.  You on the other hand may see this on TV and think “wow those people are weird”.  However to their surroundings and the other people there at the premiere they are ‘normal’.

Those same Harry Potter fanatics will look at you on a fall Saturday and think that you are weird as you dress up in red and black from head to toe.  You pack coolers, grills, and drive for miles to go sit in a stadium to yell and scream at a bunch of 18 to 20 year olds.  You get emotionally tied to what happens on that field.  Your mood is affected by a win or a loss.  And this is normal to you.  Why?  Because you are around several thousand others doing the same thing.

I am weird and I am proud of it.  You are weird too, embrace it, enjoy it.  Understand that just because someone isn’t like you doesn’t make them weird, it just makes them different than you.  It sure would be a boring place if we were all the same.

Next time you say someone is weird just remember they probably are thinking the same thing about you.

Somebody has to be the lead

I have been on several teams over the years to calaborate on everything from quality measurements, scheduling of associates, how to run an event, and even decor for a wedding.  Each one of these teams has had it’s own set of challenges yet each one has many things in common.

These teams are put together to accomplish a specific goal.  That is the short of it.  Most of these teams have members from various departments that bring their own agenda to the meetings.  Unfortunately as these teams are put together no one places one person as the ultimate head of the team.  Not someone that leads every meeting or power trips but someone that has the final say.

When things come to a stalemate (and they will) you need someone to break the tie and make a decision.  It may not make everyone happy or be the most popular decision but at least one is made and the team can move forward.

I can not stress how important this point person is to a successful team. Let me give you an example.  A few years ago the company I was working for rolled out a new system to four separate sites.  Each site was allowed to come up with their wish list.  Instead of merging these wishlists and have one consistent message they allowed each site to have their entire wishlist.  So one system into four sites has four distinctive looks.  When you went into the system you had the same exact code representing four different programs.  Very confusing.  Guess what was next?  Yep a new team was formed to take the lists from each site and merge them together.  Had we placed one person in charge the first time we would have save a ton of money and a lot of man hours.

In short I say; put someone in charge, allow them to make decisions,and see how productivity improve.