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Tag: New Year

New Year, New Look

December 30, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Coming to the blog roll this year are going to be a few additions both old and new! The year ahead is going to be focused on growing in three distinct areas. Spiritually, relationally, and in areas of service to those around you. We’ll take time to honestly evaluate our spiritual health. We’ll spend time evaluating the health of our relationships, just because someone is in your circle doesn’t mean they have to stay in your circle! And then we’ll look at those outside our circle and how we can be better humans in this world that is in desperate need of good humans!

The first thing to change is the theme layout of the blog. Nothing major just a shift in color, layout and images. Sometimes a quick surface change helps get the mojo running to make the more significant changes going as well!

The layout was chosen because it’s simplistic. The header image is not my property but a pic of that will likely replace this one eventually. The reason for this stock photo is the calm and quiet that it demonstrates. One goal for this blog site is to provide a place for honest reflection on life and allow space to challenge the status quo.

Another change is that we’re bringing back the Music Monday posts! This was a fun way to hear new songs and use them as small devotions or whatever you choose!

I’m also going to start adding back in a book review at least monthly. I got off track with my book reviews over the past couple of years but we’ll bring those back here as well.

Finally, there will be a section for practical tools to use in your walk of faith. Things for bible study, relationship tools, parenting and family tools. I’m even going to provide some discipleship tips for church leaders and members alike.

I hope that your 2022 ended with a wonderful celebration of all the amazing things God has given you! I know that 2022 was a great year for me! As I’ve said in another post, a great year doesn’t mean everything went “right” but that you can see the right in everything that happened.

Getting Things Closed Up

December 19, 2022 / / 0 Comments

As we head to the end of another calendar year, it’s inevitable that some things in our lives must come to an end. Maybe it’s the New Year’s resolution we set for 2022 that you have one more week to fulfill. Maybe it’s a job you’ll be leaving. Maybe it’s a lot of things that you really don’t want to relive. However you slice it, 2022 is coming to an end in just under two weeks. And it’s time to start making plans to close this chapter. So what needs cleaned up in your life?

As I look back 2022 was a pretty good year. We bought a new house on over 12 acres. We got the puppy I’ve wanted for years. We added a pet bunny to the property. I’ve learned how to manage an in ground pool. Demolished a load wall and totally remodeled the kitchen. Welcomed many new faces to our worship family at the church I serve. Grown some great friendships. Been so blessed to have the Army son home several times this year while having the non-army son still living with us for a bit. Worked with some great people at the local church and the state version, aka the Ohio District. All in all it’s been a pretty good year. And none of this to talk about all the gains in my workouts and health through the year.

But as we close the door on this year there are some things that I won’t be taking with me. A few friendships that I thought were solid ended up being more toxic and one sided than healthy. Those will stay in 2022 and prior years. I’ll also be leaving my job with the Ohio District behind me. While this work was a passion of mine it just wasn’t a good fit. I don’t do well in micromanaged situations where there are high expectations but low authority. Just not a healthy recipe for success. So as this year ends, I walk away from the position for which I’m passionate in an effort to pursue other options that are more effective and efficient and that actually are getting positive work done.

A challenge when closing a year is to make sure you properly process the things you’re leaving behind and why you’re ditching them. For me it was simple, the things I’m leaving behind were draining me not filling me. Whether it’s the relationships that are toxic or the job that just doesn’t fit, you can’t stay in a situation that is killing you slowly. Ok so a little overdramatic I get it. But the longer you stay in a situation that is just bad, the lower you’ll be dragged down and the harder it will be to pull yourself out. So it’s ok to close a chapter.

Take some down time as you end this year and reflect on the good, bad and even the ugly. Be ok turning the page and ending a chapter. Be willing to stop one thing in an effort to start a new one. Be confident that leaving a bad situation where you’re being broken down is perfectly fine and actually a sign of maturity.

Happy final weeks of 2022 friends. It’s been a ride and I can’t wait to see what’s on the other side of the ball drop this year!

Do you have a healthy rhythm?

January 11, 2022 / / 0 Comments

So rest isn’t easy, but it’s necessary. I’m the kind of person who needs to be doing things. Well, most of the time that’s how I would have described myself. Admittedly, something has changed in me over the past several months to help me realize who and what is truly important. Sometimes it takes a hardship or challenge to get us to that point. I’m just grateful to be in a more balanced rhythm.

As a musician, ok so nominally a musician since I rarely play anymore, I never did like the long periods of rest in a piece of music. It was during those measures of rest that I tended to get lost and daydream and would regularly forget to start playing again! But the rest is what makes the rhythm make sense. If we don’t have rests in music, it’s just a bunch of silly noise that no one really can enjoy.

The same is true in our lives. If we don’t have regular ups and downs of work and rest, we’ll just be making a bunch of noise in life. And that noise will not only be hard for everyone else to hear, it will also be harmful to us.

As we move through January, we’re focusing on rhythm and how to get our lives back into some form of healthy rhythm. As a follower of Jesus, I believe we can best find our rhythm in the way we were created. The Bible says we were created in the image of God. So if we’re in the image of God, then how did he do things?

As we look at creation, we find God working then resting to admire and enjoy what he made. I think this rhythm ebbs and flows throughout the bible. Working and resting are regular parts of life in the Bible. There’s even a day set aside by God the whole purpose of which is to give us the blessing of rest. It’s called the sabbath. That set apart sabbath day is supposed to be about resting and remembering.

The bible shows over and over that this resting is supposed to remind us that we can’t do it all. It’s supposed to point us back to the times when God has stepped in and done for us. It’s supposed to remind us of when God did what was needed at just the right time to save us from not only our problems but also from ourselves!

But what God intended for our good, we soon turned into something evil and distorted. We either abuse rest and become lazy, or we neglect rest and live out some stupid messiah complex. Sorry but we’re not supposed to be either! We’re supposed to thrive and the pace of life right now is not built for you and me to thrive in any manner of speaking.

What follows is a 20 minute or so message on this idea of rest as rhythm for life and what I learned from a life without rest. I pray that you find the real rest that you need with the ones who can care for you properly in your time of recharging.

Where do you find your rhythm?

January 4, 2022 / / 0 Comments
Great Skills You Can Learn from Drumming - Jessica Peresta- The Domestic Musician

We all have rhythm. No, not the ability to play drums or keep a beat even, but we all have a rhythm. Rhythm is all around us and it’s part of our day to day lives in so many places that we often overlook it. I mean right now, you’re probably reading this with some form of rhythm to your pace. Your heart is even beating to a rhythm (I hope it is!).

Rhythm is all around us as well. There’s rhythm in the sunrise and sunset. There is rhythm in the way the feet hit the treadmill in the gym. There’s rhythm to your breathing. Seasons follow a rhythmic pattern. Everything about life is based off of a healthy rhythm.

As we kick off a new year together here on the blog, I wanted to spend a few minutes discussing healthy rhythms. I really think rhythms are the biggest struggle many of us have in life. Whether you’re struggling with weight or finance management, relationships or body image, productivity or worship attendance they all revolve around rhythm. And there’s one rhythm that sets them all up properly.

If you look at the world around you and especially at the way the world was formed. As a follower of Jesus, I believe that God formed all of this in the way it describes in Genesis 1. That part of the Bible lays out what we call the 7 days of creation. In those days of creation, God sets a whole series of rhythms or patterns for the world. From tides to sunrise/sunset to seasons to even the way he speaks and things happen, it all follows a rhythm. Nothing was made in creation that didn’t involve God speaking. Even before he created man, God said let us make man in our image. There was a rhythm to how it all happened.

But the problem is, we live in a world of solo drummers. We don’t like to march to someone else’s drumbeat. We like to be creative and come up with our own rhythms. I’m a huge advocate for consistency and patterns.

Heck look around the world right now as people are crying for a return to normal. They’re not looking for normal! They’re looking for rhythm. Our rhythm of life was disrupted nearly 2 years ago and we haven’t found a sustainable rhythm yet. What we call normal is really a comfortable and sustainable pace with which we can walk, talk and live our lives. We haven’t had that for a while now and we long to have it back again.

But it goes a little deeper than just waking and sleeping at the same time everyday, which is of tremendous benefit in and of itself! There is a deeper rhythm that must be established to really have things moving in the right direction and to establish a sustainable pace for productivity, health, wellness, relationships and all aspects of life to truly flourish.

Below is a message I gave to kick off the New Year at Living Word Galena. In this message I’ll dig a little into the idea of the rhythms around us and how they can help us stay in rhythm. I’ll also give a couple of tools we have here to help keep us in rhythm.

Gracefully Broken

January 1, 2018 / / 0 Comments

As we begin a New Year today, I have to let you in on a struggle. The struggle is that I start each year with the best of intentions. I spend time reading my bible reading plan, but have a hard time making it through the entire year. My desire fades part way through the year. I find myself running on autopilot by the middle of summer. Then by the end of the year, I’m simply hanging on for dear life!  Continue reading

New Year Blessings

January 5, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Today we start a new series on the site. Each Thursday we’ll have the chance to throw back to Sunday’s message with a quick summary. This week our theme was New Year Blessings and we focused on Numbers 6:22-27. This section deals with something we call the Aaronic Benediction. If you’re part of a traditional worship community, then you’ve undoubtedly heard this numerous times.  Continue reading

New Year’s Resolutions

December 29, 2014 / / 0 Comments

New Year’s is just around the corner. Manynew-year-resolutions people bring in the New Year with a favored activity of making resolutions. Do you make them? How long do you keep them? Most people will make resolutions for the weight they’ll never lose and the money they’ll never save. We’ll make deals with ourselves that if we just get the right job we’ll pay off our debts, or buy gym memberships then we’ll really lose the weight. But why don’t our resolutions work? Continue reading

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