there’s not much more soothing than folk music.  it’s simple, mostly slow, often soft, and always meaningful. folk music and me are real good friends.

this morning i woke up a liiiiiiiiittle later than i should have, but i still made it to church with enough time. i had to lead worship for the early service (more traditional) and the late service (more contemporary) so i had to pick a bunch of good songs for both. the only problem with just up and picking songs is that i don’t know what they’ve been playing. it’s been two years! i thought about playing a semi-oldie, but it would have sounded new. and i couldn’t really play a new one cus i didn’t know it. i struggled with that for a while, but with some help (JEN AND SAM!!!) i got the right ones out.

everyone said worship went well. i wasn’t really paying attention. i was trying to forget that i was playing in front  of a very impressionable crowd of people that i hadn’t seen for two years. i was just trying to focus on my own worship. i think that’s clutch: worship isn’t an “act”, it’s a lifestyle. for me to lead others into worship, i had to be worshiping. so i worshiped my little heart out. and it was good.

i got free lunch again :-D this time it was chinese. the keurts new some people i did and that was cool (small world). the rest of the meal was spent with ella. i feel so awesome when i hang out with her. i know her mom and dad are already busy enough entertaining and to keep there kids quiet is even harder. so if ever i can run after ella and read the bible with her (and a couple fortune cookies), i’ll jump at it. it’s so much fun and just so enriching to be able to poor out love to someone, even on a basic level. and i told her not to call people stupid. that was important.

this servant thing is really starting to kick me in the face and in a really good way. once you get past yourself and your own agenda, you can start to do things for God and others. Pastor Bryon told us John had to do all of that and that Jesus called John “son of thunder”. the more and more Bryon spoke about John, the more i felt like i was John: running in with zeal and viggor, ready to take on the world. but i still don’t know how. John knew it was all about loving Jesus. that’s it. breaking my body (figuratively speaking) has been teaching me about my own stubbornness and how it’s getting in the way of simply loving Jesus. it’s a learning process, right? soon enough.

 for those of you who don’t know, Joseph means “growing in faithfulness” or “He shall add”. growth is hard. but i wanna do whatever it takes.