is this thing on?

1. iPhone set up count : 2 - i know, i’m bummed. i thought there would be more this week.

2. 155 days until my wedding.

3. next weekend, the staff from Freedom is going up to Charlotte to meet with the staff from Elevation. we get to sit in on their staff meeting and get some one-on-one time with people in each of our areas. i think i get to talk with this guy.

4. tomorrow is JR’s birthday. stop by his blog and wish him a happy birthday. i’m proud to call JR my pastor. and now that he’s doing P90X with the rest of FreedomChurch (minus me), our church can beat up your church - so bring it!

EXTRA :: reading this got me all jacked up for college football season!

this past Sunday, the FreedomChurch stage got a make-over. i should have taken pictures but i was running ProPresenter on Sunday morning so i was stuck behind the pipe and drape all morning - not a good excuse i know, but still…

anyway, we got some platforms which extend the stage and we also got two intelligent lights. for those of you that really want to know, they are American DJ Spot 300’s.

now we’re looking at controllers for our lights. the controller we have now (Elation Magic 260) will create scenes for our lights but the lights are unable to move during the scene.

any body have any suggestions on a controller?

last night, Callie and i were sitting on the couch (after our 2-mile walk) and she turned on the TV. she started watching something about the Bachelorette. i was not interested so i got out my computer and started checking emails and junk like that. all of a sudden, i remembered that last night was the Home Run Derby (presented by State Farm) on ESPN. i waited until Callie was done with the Bachelorette and quickly turned it over to the HRD. we watched for a little bit and then turned over to one of our favorite shows - Hell’s Kitchen - but soon switched back to the derby and witnessed one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

last night, Josh Hamilton hit 28 home runs in the first round of the Home Run Derby. yeah, twenty-freakin-eight home runs! and they weren’t just barely over the fence. he was hitting balls 500 feet! total, he hit 28 baseballs over 12,000 feet - that averages out to 428.6 feet per home run. and to give you a reference, deep-center in Yankee Stadium is 408 feet. his longest home run of the night was 512 feet.

while that is very impressive, Hamilton’s story is equally impressive. all night on the telecast they were hinting at his story. this guy was the first overall pick in the 1999 draft. however, he never saw playing time until 2007. Hamilton was addicted to crack and was in rehab eight different times before he got clean in October 2005. he discovered a relationship with God and loves to share his story with anyone who will hear it.

this guy has a great story and i’m glad that he can go on national television, put on a display of power like he did last night, and then turn around and give all the glory back to God.

this is an article from ESPN the Magazine from when Josh was a rookie in 2007. the story is told from his perspective and it is incredible. if you’ve got time today, please go read it.

don’t have much time to write but i read a quote this morning that was awesome…

“the pessimist complains about the wind. the optimist expects it to change. the leader adjusts the sails.”
- John Maxwell

chew on that.

1. two of Callie’s friends got engaged last night. makes me think i’ve started a trend.

2. upgraded to iPhone 2.0 firmware last night. no problems yet. i LOVE the App Store.

3. i also LOVE the guys at LifeChurch.tv. here’s why ::

a. they give away resources for FREE
b. they are crazy good at coming up with new and innovative ways to reach people
c. they created this YouVersion thing that i am absolutely obsessed with
d. they are giving away a YouVersion App for the iPhone (which i’ve already downloaded)

and as a side note, i was listening to Craig Groeschel’s One Prayer message from the Elevation Church podcast this morning (confusing right? i know.) and i have a whole new idea of what “CG” does all day. i think he just goes into work and makes videos. seriously, in the 30 minutes that it took me to drive to work, CG had three videos in his message PLUS a special video personal welcome opening to Elevation Church.

i wonder if his wife (and six kids) get tired of hearing “so we went out and made a video today…”

4. we got FreedomChurch bumper stickers in this week! i put mine on my truck slightly askew - but i like it that way. come to Freedom on Sunday to get yours! FreedomGroups are launching on August 24. sign ups will start next week!

*EXTRA* FreedomChurch softball won the league championship this past Tuesday night. JR told Coach Rick when we were talking of starting the league that if we were gonna have a softball team that we had better win the thing. and so we did.