It’s been a LONG time since I did a Sunday Night Decompress…and it’s been a while since I darkened the door of a church.  And since I went to church this morning, I thought I might as well drop a little decompress on you!  Sometimes you don’t have ANYTHING to say, and sometimes you have STUFF to say…today is that day…

So without any further adieu, here goes!

• Have I mentioned lately that it’s FOOTBALL SEASON!!!???  Thank you Lord, and Hockey season is coming!
• I went to New Walk Church today – one of my favorites and several friends have been attending lately.  As always, great music, great speaking, and great to see so many old friends!
• After church Sid and I spent some time at Smokey Bones for lunch.  We had received some gift cards way back when, and finally got around to using them!  I *heart* good BBQ!
• We spent a few hours running SUPER SECRET errands…more on that MUCH later.
• It’s Sunday in Fall, so that means football and ANOTHER day of the Bucs sucking their way through a game…BUT my Dirty Birds (Falcons) pulled an upset in New Orleans! WOW!
• It’s Sunday and that ALSO means taping a nap with my lovely bride in the afternoon…  Ahhhhh life
• After we woke up it was time for our late night run: 3.1 miles at an 18 minute pace – not great, but better than a year ago.  (A year ago, I was a couch potato…so ANYTHING is better than last year, and NEXT year will be better than THIS year!)
• Got home and had a little dinner and Undercover Boss – INSPIRATIONAL!
• Heading to a really much needed sleep!

LOOKING AHEAD

• On Friday Mom and Jim come in for a few weeks in FLA (we’re spending 3 nights at Disney, which is AWESOME!)
• Saturday AM Mom, Sid, and myself will be running/walking in Mickey’s Halloween 5K and then in the late PM, Sid and I will be running in the Wine and Dine 1/2 Marathon Relay!  Prayers are VERY welcome.
• Sunday night the whole family is attending Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party in Magic Kingdom – very excited!!
• Sid starts working in Orlando on Wednesday – which will be great and nerve wracking all at once.  She’s commuting and starting a job custom made for her.  It’s truly a blessing.
• I hope to be blogging more…I have some topics to unpack, but it may be uncomfortable for me to write and for you to read.  We shall see…

I’ve come to a place in my life where I believe that I’m really over myself.

I’ve had so many conversations with people, friends, leaders, pastors, counselors, and people on the street about life and living that I’ve come to this conclusion:  I need to pull my head out of my own ass. (Apologies to all my Christian brothers and sisters)

I found this video and thought that I needed to heed it’s invitation.

So, as of today, May 1, I am Fasting from Negativity, in my words, thoughts, and my every day life.

“I am not my own, I am bought with a price, I belong to God. I choose to grow in and put on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,and self-control.” -Trevor H. Lund

SO…I’m done.  I’m done with the negative thoughts, negative words, negative actions, and the negative self-condemnation.  I’m done with it all.  I know I will stumble, but over the next 40 day, with God’s grace and strength, I will succeed in fasting from negativity.

I am asking for your prayers, your grace, and support.  This is a HUGE undertaking for me.  But I do not walk this path alone…I have the Holy Spirit to guide, Jesus to sustain, God to empower, and people to walk with me.

I WILL do this.  I have to…

“We are all worshipers…of something.  Bur are we spending our lives and filling our days with what matters most?” – Louie Giglio

This is a great book for people who wish to grow a deeper understanding of what true worship really is.  The Air I Breathe is conversation and extremely thought provoking.

It’s also a great resource for a small group study, especially a worship team.  It should also be mandatory reading for all ministers, pastors, and church volunteers!

Quotables:

• “Worship is the activity of the human soul.”
• “Worship should matter to you simply because it matters to God.”
• “I’ve got to keep making sure that what matters most, matters to me.”
• “The things we champion-the values we serve-are not choices made in a vacuum.”
• “There’s a war raging for our worship, and it’s been that way since before there was time.”

Writers have used millions of words to bring thoughts, ideas, emotions, and memories to life.  They’ve used words like: “amazing,”"awesome,” and “thrilling.”  And I would be guilty if I didn’t use those words to describe this last weekend.

FRIDAY
Sid and I loaded the truck and headed to our 2nd home: Walt Disney World, and prepared for a great weekend of friends, food, and 5K’s but I don;t want to get TOO ahead of myself.

We arrived at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports complex to check in for the Royal Family 5K that we would be running in the next day.  It was truly amazing.  The entire complex is, from a purely architectural sense, gorgeous.  And to see SO many venues available to pro and armature athletes, it was awe inspiring.

Inside the Jostens Center, we got to walk through the expo and meet hundreds of other athletes before our competition.  Sid and I have never felt so excited to be apart of something like this.  We were definitely inspired to start training for a much longer/harder race than a 5K.

After the expo, we spent some time walking around the other complexes.  Like I have said before, “Disney NEVER does anything half-way, they do it right!”

After walking around, we bounced over to Disney’s Boardwalk for a late dinner with our friends, with whom we would be spending the night at one of the Disney Resorts.  I think that I enjoy spending time at Boardwalk almost as much as visiting one of the theme parks….almost.

SATURDAY
5:00 am came WAY to early for Sid and myself.  We got up, got dressed, and headed out to EPCOT to compete in the Royal Family 5K, our first foray into competitive running.  To say I was nervous would be an understatement.  But I had nothing to fear, because I was met with an amazing cacophony of music, cold air, friendly people, and that Disney Magic that we all keep talking about.

Sid and I met Princess Tiana from the Princess and the Frog, and then we loaded the chute to launch into the race.  3…2….1..GO!!  And we were off…I knew that if I could just get into World Showcase (mile 2-3) I could survive, but would my times be good enough to last…

And then I say my first character…  They stationed characters along the

route, for pictures…  We were never meant to run this 5K like a ‘regular’ race, this was all about fun…  I felt the nervousness and tension melt out of me…I was GOING to run it, I was GONG to finish, and finish well.

Actually, 53:27 was a horrible time for a 5K, but it was my first 5K, and there was plenty of things to look at in EPCOT and it slowed my times considerably.  But I succeeded, and achieved one of my 2010 goals: To run is a 5K (I walked a good portion of it, but I DID run some of it.)

After a shower and some breakfast, we were all off to Animal Kingdom for a little Expedition Everest, and then BACK to EPCOT to meet up with Lou Mongello, author, blogger, and maintainer of WDWRadio.com, my FAVORITE Disney related website.

As always, Lou was amazingly friendly, personable, and gracious.  he spent a lot of time talking about our shared passion (Disney) and discussing ideas, opinions, and dreams, just like most Mickey Mouse-obsessed people do.  When I introduced myself, I got a remarkable reaction…he KNEW my name!

After I picked my chin off the ground, we started up a little conversation about a review I had done on some of his material, and how he needed to send me an email.  With everything that had been going on in his life recently, I couldn’t even imagine that he would be self-aware enough to remember that he owed me an email.  Wow, I was amazed, floored, and thrilled beyond belief!

On another side note, I got to me ANOTHER of my favorite authors as well, Steven Barrett, author of the Field Guide to Hidden Mickeys. He was gracious, signed my book, and we talked about some hidden Mickey’s we THINK we found at Animal Kingdom!

SUNDAY
This was going to be one of the longest, and best, days of 2010.  Common Ground, the church where I work, was going to 2 services, I was drumming, we were premiering a new series, with new video and images, I had to hang new banners, that I had created, AND we were trying to getthe services UNDER 70 minutes…something that had not been ever been done at Common Ground.

Everything came together and was just awesome!  You could tell that we were still riding the momentum we had built up in the last few weeks, and we came in UNDER 70 minutes BOTH services.

After church Sid and I came home and crawled in to bed for a good afternoon nap, very content in knowing that we had experienced things that weekend that very few people get the chance to.  We were blessed.  We thanked God and crashed.  Besides, the Academy Awards was on, and Disney/Pixar had to represent!!