Monday Ten

1. I am so excited right now, I'm about to burst.

2. This weekend was one of the best ever at North Point Church.

3. Over the Fourth of July weekend, we baptized 440 people as part of the Freedom Splash celebration. This past weekend was the first ever Fall Splash, and 228 were baptized inside our Family Theatre.

4. Add those two figures with the 34 from earlier in the year, and NPC has baptized 702 people to date this year. That's FREAKIN' AWESOME!

5. My family and I caught one of the baptismal times Saturday night, and I saw another Sunday after volunteering.

6. There is something super-special about large baptismal services.

7. We saw kids, adults, and entire families all go public with their faith in Jesus this weekend.

8. It was really cool to see people come out of the water celebrating how Jesus changed their lives.

9. Pastor Tommy wrote about Fall Splash on his blog today.

10. I snapped several photos with my camera phone. While they're not the greatest photos, I caught one that captures the spirit of Fall Splash. This is my favorite.

The Hard Stuff

In his September 1962 address at Rice University, President Kennedy announced the ramping up of the nation's space program with plans to put a man on the moon. The most memorable phrase from that 17+ minute address noted that we choose to go to the moon and do other difficult tasks, "not only because they are easy, but because they are hard."

It's been almost 50 years since that speech, and our culture has changed to the point that we would rather cast off the hard things in favor of the easy. We especially see this in young adults who want today what it took their parents 30 years to gain.

The byproduct is huge consumer debt, an entitlement culture and an aversion to the difficult things in life.

Sadly, this has also impacted the Christian church in America. Too often we will turn a blind eye to the needs of our communities and our world, because we recognize the challenge is hard...to hard for one person.

Helen Keller once said, "I’m only one, but still, I am one. I can not do everything, but I can do something. Because I can not do everything, I will not refuse to do that something that I can do.”

In my life, I am realizing that constantly fixing the easy problems is only temporarily fulfilling. It is the hard challenges that shape my character. It is the hard things that are truly rewarding.

Recently, I have made a personal decision to not just settle for the "easy." Instead, I can really impact my world if I am willing to tackle the hard stuff -- the stuff no one else wants to touch.

How about you? What is the one or two challenges God is presenting to you? What is it that the Almighty has determined is your cause to fight -- your challenge to conquer?

Monday Ten

1. I just realized that I hadn't posted anything new since September. That's because October has been super-busy. Sometimes, you have to develop some margin in your life. This blog was it.

2. Things are starting to slow down, so I'll hopefully be back with more postings.

3. My wife celebrated her ...-something birthday this past week. (Her age is for her to disclose.) We had a blast going to a dinner theatre show and boat cruise.

4. Saturday night church was very good, although my KidPoint class was chaotic. It must have been something in the air, because the guy who taught the class after me said his group was a bit unruly too.

5. Sunday was very productive. I had a wiring project that I've been planning for some time. I was able to get it done Sunday afternoon. It required an extended stay under my house. But, in the end, it was all good.

6. North Point Church had another connect.me event, and I gained five men for my mid-week men's group. That's a stark contrast to my first connect.me when I only gained one.

7. This week will be exciting. My wife and I have been invited to tour our church's new video campus, and hear from our pastor about the vision for the church.

8. For the past week, I have been listening to and digesting the messages from NewSpring Church's leadership conference. Check out the podcasts here.

9. At that conference, Francis Chan re-told something his wife had realized. It is our human nature to try and plan out our future with three, five or ten year plans. But, when you read the Bible, it seems perfectly normal that the people in the Bible didn't know what would happen next.

10. I'm planning on blogging this later in the week, but one of the things God is showing me right now is that working the hard things results in some of the best things.

I'm Back...Sort of

October has turned out to be one of the busiest months this year, and the need for a little margin has left me blogless for several days.

But, the lack of entries could manifest itself for a couple more weeks while the business of busyness takes care of itself.