Nice To Meet You... Oh... We've Met Before?

Between our two sons, we've seen a LOT of sports and teams.  We started with Tumblebees (toddler tumbling), to T-ball, then baseball, followed by basketball, flag football, tackle football, karate, and tennis lessons.  I'm probably missing something too!  And that means we meet a LOT of kids and a LOT of parents that go with them.  And, that doesn't even count all of the different classes and teams of classes we've had so far.  It's too hard to keep everybody straight!

So, I had to create a policy when it comes to learning everyone's names.  It may not be the best policy, but it was to preserve my own sanity.  Don't judge... but here it is:

Until we have TWO points of connection, I don't have to learn your name.

Our kids do not have to play.  You do not have to invite us to your kids' birthday parties; we won't be inviting you to ours.  Until we have two points of connection, I'm going to assume that quite possibly, after this sports season, we may never cross paths again.  And to learn everyone's name, kids & parents, across all of these sports and classrooms and teams is just more than my brain can handle.

It sounds harsh, I know.  But it works for me... most of the time, anyway.  There was the football season... where I was sure that Jack would only play one year.  I mean we lost EVERY game... by a lot.  There were practices 5 days a week for leading up to a two-hour game in the rain, cold, and sleet where we would lose... every time.  Surely Jack would realize that this was an awful lot of work for very little payout?  So I didn't learn any parents' names.  I knew a few before football - so I had people to sit with.  I laughed and talked and joked with everyone, I just address anyone by name.

And Jack decided to play the next year.

D'OH!  Second season rolls around and I have to pretend I know everyone while secretly learning all the names I didn't learn the year before!  Oops.

But overall, this has been a good policy.  When my kids want to have a birthday party, they must adhere by the 2 POINTS Rule.  The kid they want to invite must have two connections:  school & church, school & sports, sports & another sport/season, church & neighbor... Two of anything will work.  And if they want to a kid's party, we need to have two points of connection with them.  We've had very few exceptions, and this had made our life much easier.

But while this works for my social life and that of my kids, imagine how sad if it would be if God adhered to this policy?  What if God said, "Until you find two points of connection with Me, I don't have to learn your name... or help you... or know you?"  How lonely and frustrating that would be!  Fortunately God knew us before we were even born:

“Before I shaped you in the womb,
    I knew all about you.
Before you saw the light of day,
    I had holy plans for you:
A prophet to the nations—
    that’s what I had in mind for you.”

Jeremiah 1:5 (Msg)

God knitted us stitch by stitch, cell by cell, molecule by molecule before we even saw our first day of light.  He doesn't wait until we find Him (twice!); He has met us and loves us - despite all of our flaws, shortcomings, and sin.

I'm thankful that my God is bigger than anything I can imagine.  And thankful that with Him, I don't have to pretend.

As for you, obscure parent I've seen before, somewhere... have we met?  My name is Maggie.

:) Mags

Karaoke Tuesday: Our Love Is Loud by David Crowder

This is such a fun song! One of the things I just love about the 9:30 Contemporary Worship at our church is the grungy, "garage-band" feel of it. We always sit in the 3rd or 4th row - right by the large speakers. On many of the songs, it can get so loud that I just feel like I'm "IN" the music; THIS is one of those songs... and the title makes the "loudness" of the music all the more fun...
LYRICS - "Our Love Is Loud


This song got me to thinking: It is no doubt that Christians love the Lord, but do we "LIVE" the Lord in our everyday lives? What if our everyday faith... our everyday prayers...our everyday joys... our everyday LOVE were LIVED OUT LOUD for people to witness? How could that impact someone else in our lives if we were more open about our faith? Just as we all bopped and clapped and danced to this song in Worship, couldn't we demonstrate our faith and love to others by our words and deeds in our everyday, walking-around life?

Are you living OUT LOUD? Are you standing up for your Faith? Are you standing up for God? For Jesus?

Then he [Jesus] said, "Go into the world.

Go everywhere and announce the Message of God's good news to one and all.

Mark 16:15

You can hear David Crowder's song HERE on LastFM! Crank up your volume and just enjoy...! :)

♥Mags

I Found God In Google...

You just got to love Google...!

On the right-hand side of this blog is a Feedjit Widget that keeps a running tab of who is popping by the blog and in some cases how they arrived on this side. I love seeing the Google searches that bring people here. One from yesterday said this:

East Lansing, Michigan arrived from google.com

on "Everyday Places: I Found God In My Blackberry..."

When I followed the Google link I found this in the search box:

can i sync my blackberrys calendars to my boyfriends

I'm sure the searcher meant "Can I sync my Blackberry calendar to my boyfriend's Blackberry calendar" - but in just using the plural of boyfriend, it seems as if she is asking if she could sync her Blackberry to ALL of her boyfriends... and the result was God leading her to my Christian blog. :)

Here are some of the other Google searches from the last week that brought people to my blog:

karoake grace like rain

poem about homecoming with God

sweetly broken karaoke

in the gym i met son of god

jordan sparks "god loves ugly"

god & vegetables

laziness ignorance spelling

"to the cross i look" & "to the cross i cling" & "was bruised and crushed"

There were actually two searches for God & vegetables that brought people to my site in the last 5 days. Guess people will try anything to get their kids to eat those leafy greens! :) And I love that the last search listed above only had one result on the Google search... THIS blog! :)

This shows me that you never know how your words or actions will impact others.

Here I am just writing my random thoughts on finding God in everyday life to a small audience (anywhere from 9-20 people/day according to Stat Counter) hoping to make some sense of my place in this world, and some days, complete strangers might do a Google search and find their way to my story. Maybe something I type will impact them in a positive way... leading them close to God as they traverse their own faith path. Maybe something will spur a discussion with their families... or cause them to re-think some choice they've made.... or give them a good chuckle... or find them a new song for their iPod.

Regardless, my choices of what to write on this blog make small ripples that move outward affecting others. Similarly, this happens in our interactions with others day in and day out. With friends, aquantances, and even strangers, our words and behavior leave impressions.

And it's up to us to choose wisely the way we want be viewed by others and the messages we want to send.

Fortunately, when we live in a manner that is pleasing to God, our words and behaviors honor him. Like Simon Peter and Andrew, we do become "fishers of men:"

Walking along the beach of Lake Galilee,

Jesus saw two brothers: Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew.

They were fishing, throwing their nets into the lake. It was their regular work.

Jesus said to them, "Come with me. I'll make a new kind of fisherman out of you.

I'll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass."

They didn't ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed.

Matthew 4:18-20 (The Message)

I hope that in a small way, my words on The God Blog cast out into cyberspace like a net into the ocean... snaring individuals and giving them a few minutes to walk with God. I am honored to be used by Him - and so happy that God has chosen one of my favorite pasttimes (my computer!) to allow me to spread His message.

Thank you for stopping by my blog. I hope you'll be one of the ones listed under "returning visitors" in the future.

♥Mags

PS... Stat Counter cannot tell me "who" you are... just where you can from. If you enjoy posts on this blog, I love to read the comments that are posted. Just click below on the link that says "COMMENTS" and leave one. You can still remain "anonymous" when you do it - and I really love the feedback!! Thanks! :)

God Rocks!!! I Found God In L-O-U-D Music...

My more conservative friends tell us that we go to the "rock-n-roll" church now. After 10 years in a beautiful Methodist church (the church where we got married), we left 2+ years ago and went "church shopping." Four churches later, we found Christ's Church At Mason - and I discovered something about myself...

I discovered that all the pagentry, organ music, robes, recipricol prayer, and traditions drove me crazy!! I hated it! No wonder I couldn't feel God there - for me, this was a language I did not speak... did not understand. But when we went to our first "rock-n-roll" service, I found Him... I did not even know this rock-concert-style of worship even existed - and I was nearly stunned with the power of it.

God came in many forms:

• The voice of the lead singer, bathed in spotlights - pouring his heart and soul into every song,
• The harmonies of the Worship Team singing in tandem,
• The swell of the music created by the band (drummer, guitars, keyboards, once an electric-violin!) - all of them church members and volunteers,
• The lyrics of each song that touched something deep in my heart,
• The vibrations from the speakers (we sit only three rows away) echoing through my body,
• The energy of the Pastor in his sermon and the powerful message he delivers,
• The people - strangers, at first - who reached out and welcomed us,
• And did I mention the MUSIC...?! :)

Fast or slow - all of it is loud and powerful. We sit so close to the speakers (by choice) that we can often feel the drumbeats in our bones, the buzz of the guitars in our joints, and the lyrics in our hearts. We are not just listening to the music... but are IN the music as well.

This is the only church I've attended where I miss it when we aren't there on a Sunday... where I look forward to being there every week. Of course, we don't attend just for the music - we go there for Worship - but the music was the hook that reeled us in. Just as Jesus called to Simon and Andrew to become fishers of men, CCM is casting out their lines and bringing more and more people to Christ. When we started at this church, the average attendance was about 1,200 people in a weekend. Fast forward two short years, and we are averaging over 2,000 worshippers in that same time span!! Talk about a great catch!

Have you found God in your church? Do you feel Him each Sunday? Do you hear His messages to you? Maybe your style of worship is along the more traditional route. Maybe you need the robes and the chants and the routine. Maybe you are like me and crave the concert-style worship that also has you singing along in the car to the same tunes. Regardless of your preferred method, there IS a style out there that will tune itself to your own personal rhythm - that will make you feel like you have, indeed, found a church HOME.

And coming Home, is the best feeling in the world...!

As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him. (Mark 1:16-18 NIV)

I have added an iMeem playlist to my blog - you should be able to control the play-vs-not option yourself. I hope you enjoy some of my favorite songs!

♥ Mags