Sipping on Hatorade

Do you drink hatorade? I'm pretty frustrated with myself lately because I have a huge thirst that I want to quench with hatorade. I know it's wrong and I don't want to hate. By definition hatorade is a condition someone enters when they watch someone be successful and they are bent on tearing it down or second guessing it. I have asked my accountabilty group to ask me, "Bro, did you hate this week?" If it weren't for them I would be gulping, bathing, and selling hatorade.

But here is the deal I don't hate because I've watched someone succeed and I'm envious, I'm sipping hatorade because I've learned something, been delivered from it, and I have this tremendous urge to share it. I've watched this ugly thing that continues to hurt, destroy, and eat up good people in the name of Christ or a version of "Christ" and it's all I can do to say, "Sister, I love you and you're are not alone." or "Bro, I am here for you." I know there are a lot of people out there who are in the place looking for answers, hope, truth, or affirmation. I have been in their shoes and I want to speak life instead of death. A small part of me also wants to call that thing out. The only thing holding me back is a couple of truths about my lessons.

Here are some truths that keep me bound in the hatorade.
1. God gave me a season to learn "how not to" that was very violent and painful some of those wounds are still ozzing.
2. I was hesitant to confront because I didn't believe it would be recieved. Now I realize my obedience would have been better than my sacrifice irregardless of the cost.
3. I thought my silence protected people and I stupidly believed I could change the environment.
4. Only now do I realize all of the blazingly huge clues and questions I could have seen and asked that would have kept me from needless pain.

Oh, this Hatorade owns me at least once a week. I don't know what to do with it. I'm not sure I should do anything at all and yet I'm prone to shout everything out on the rooftops so that those who need to be rescued can find comfort and overcome the waves to grab some kind of lifeline. Even now it distresses me. Until I find the silver lining I cannot pour out this hatorade with you.

Soul Revolution: How Imperfect People Become All God Intended

Star Wars the Force Unleashed for iphone

This would be the only reason I would buy an iphone right now. Watch this demonstration video of the Force Unleashed for the iphone above.

Soul Revolution: How Imperfect People Become All God Intended

Polar Opposite People

Here's a simple post. I've found two different actions birthed out of two different kinds of people in the Bible. This is not something new we do it all the time in youth work to show the pros and cons but in recent days I have thought long and hard about people and action.

In Judges 5 the children of Israel were celebrating victory in song. They had a lot of accolades to give out to people but when they came to summarizing the clan of Reuben and their part they said this;

But in Reuben's divisions there was much second-guessing.
Why all those campfire discussions?
Diverted and distracted,
Reuben's divisions couldn't make up their minds.

Ouch! We've all been there and done that. Maybe you've been a part of a group, committee, or season where it seemed like all you did was sat around and talked about doing something. Those moments can be rather painful to contemplate and hopefully they are there to teach us.

Now moving on to the polar opposite of this passage let's look at I Samuel 14. The Philistines have got King Saul pinned down and Saul's son Jonathan is pretty sick and disgusted of getting owned. Here is Jonathan's polar opposite moment;

6 Jonathan said to his armor bearer, "Come on now, let's go across to these uncircumcised pagans. Maybe God will work for us. There's no rule that says God can only deliver by using a big army. No one can stop GOD from saving when he sets his mind to it."

7 His armor bearer said, "Go ahead. Do what you think best. I'm with you all the way."

8-10 Jonathan said, "Here's what we'll do. We'll cross over the pass and let the men see we're there. If they say, 'Halt! Don't move until we check you out,' we'll stay put and not go up. But if they say, 'Come on up,' we'll go right up—and we'll know God has given them to us. That will be our sign."

11 So they did it, the two of them. They stepped into the open where they could be seen by the Philistine garrison. The Philistines shouted out, "Look at that! The Hebrews are crawling out of their holes!"

12 Then they yelled down to Jonathan and his armor bearer, "Come on up here! We've got a thing or two to show you!"

13 Jonathan shouted to his armor bearer, "Up! Follow me! God has turned them over to Israel!" Jonathan scrambled up on all fours, his armor bearer right on his heels. When the Philistines came running up to them, he knocked them flat, his armor bearer right behind finishing them off, bashing their heads in with stones.

I didn't mean to make this post look like a Christmas ornament but I had to highlight those stunning affirmative action phrases in green. These are two polar opposite stories. It brings to mine some no brainer realities...

1. The more people you have on a group the higher the probability you will sit around and just talk, banter, or argue about it.
2. At the end of the day people will not say, "They talked about doing it and that's pretty cool."
3. God can do anything he wants to through many or just a few.
4. If you have someone by your side, on your heels, and ready to serve that is a very precious thing.
5. You need someone who will follow after you and finish off what you knock down.

So, what are you talking about doing and just need to do?
How are you serving those who lead you?
Who can you count on to run after God's victory?
How do you want it to go down in history with your leadership?

Soul Revolution: How Imperfect People Become All God Intended

More money than you're getting now

I love google it's a great search engine. The only thing that would get me to stop using it would be to get paid to use something else. Scour is a search engine that rewards you points for using it. Each registered user earns points for each search, vote and comment they do for each keyword searched. When you've earned enough points you can redeem them for Visa gift cards sent directly to you. You get a point for each search you perform, two points for each vote, and three points for each comment. After 6,500 points you get a $25 visa gift card. That's better than what you get now. Try it out. You get 200 points just for signing up. If you don;t like scour's results they have a go to google results next to each search. This is free money.

Gaia (social and virtual community for teens)

Gaia is fast becoming a virtual hangout for a good chunk of our students. Below is a screen shot of the front page. Following the screen shot is a summary of the community advantages and environment. www.gaiaonline.com

Gaia Online is a fast-growing free virtual world hangout geared toward teens. Originally founded by a small group of comic books fans, the site is a brainchild of the comic art firm Studio XD with characters in this virtual world accordingly resembling anime figures.

Comprised of different virtual towns, Gaia Online offers users the standard virtual world features of customizable avatars and virtual homes as a medium through which online users can socialize. Besides hanging out, exploring, and chatting, users can also choose to play from a number of multiplayer Flash-based mini-games. Like many other virtual worlds on the web, Gaia Online also has its own virtual currency called Gaia Gold, which can be used to buy virtual items on the site. This virtual world currency is unique in that users freely receive Gold just by participating on the site.

Yet what really distinguishes Gaia Online from other virtual world hangouts is that the site’s primary component of user activity is not actually derived from its virtual world aspect, but rather from the use of Gaia forums. As a forums-based site, Gaia Online has a multitude of forum message boards covering a wide variety of topics. User posts to these diverse forums actually comprise over 30% of the site’s activity. In terms of message board popularity, Gaia Online’s forums rank second only to that of Yahoo.

Since its founding in 2003 the site continues to grow, now with more than 300,000 members, over 2 million unique monthly page views, and over a billion total forum posts.

Soul Revolution: How Imperfect People Become All God Intended

Holly Guyon comes to town

One of our good friends and co-workers at FRC has been visiting us over the weekend. We have had a lot of fun in and around Austin. You can check out the pics on my Facebook photo album. Holly was a small group leader in our middle school department.

This is Blogging!!!

I am nine posts away from my 700th post on this blog. The reality is that I have had three different blogs over the last four years. If I had stuck with just one I would probably be approaching the 1200 club but I digress. I don't know what I will do for that post but for now just enjoy the picture above.

Soul Revolution: How Imperfect People Become All God Intended

Step on It (Games 37 of 70)

When I do a game I make a slide. These are my slides and games. You can find all my game slides on flickr. Use these games and slides at your younglife club or youth gathering. If you have any questions let me know by leaving a comment. Have a blast.



Supplies: Copies of this document located on line. Fun music.

How to play: Every student takes one printout of a shoe print you can download in word format at the link above. They gather in a large cluster around you in an open space as you describe the game. To start the game every student puts their shoe print on the floor and stands on it. There will be three people at the start of the game without paper. Start the game with music. They must get off their paper and walk around or dance around in a circle without touching the papers or hovering over them. When the music stops they must run to an open shoe print and stand on it. There can be only one person on a shoe print. The last three to not make it to a shoe print are out. Restart and take away three shoe prints every round until you are down to two people. Don't let kids hover over paper or touch the paper as they are dancing or walking around in competition for a shoe print. The music makes this game fun.

Soul Revolution: How Imperfect People Become All God Intended

the most frightening idea for a movie or book ever

The year is 2016. Every law enforcement branch of every nation and service is robot automated. When a crime is committed the robots, detection systems, cameras, and weapons act in unison to hunt down the perpetrator no matter how small the crime. They are relentless. The smallest whisper and move you make triggers their pursuit.

In a strange twist of fate you are blamed for a crime you didn't commit and a warrant is issued for your arrest. At the same time a cataclysmic event takes out 2/3 of the world's population making the streets of the largest cities a quiet ghost town. When the robots come back on line your arrest was their last marching order but now they don't take you quietly and safely they want to kill you and anyone else that stands in their way of capturing you. There can be no more restored order in the lawless streets until you are taken out. You have no weapons to defend yourself. You just run, and run, and run, and run.

So when I woke up this morning you can imagine how well I slept through the night with that going on in my dreams! I feel like I just got back home at 11:30am from an all-nighter because "that" kid's parent once again showed up late and now I am a lifeless and energy-less corpse. Oh, yeah one other thing is that I figured out how to outsmart the machines but the machines also put out a reward to every bounty hunter for my death as well. To top it off I don't even know what my crime was. What a great night of sleep!

Soul Revolution: How Imperfect People Become All God Intended

hippopost delivers

Does the Facebook application Hippopost really work? Well, yes it does. A few weeks ago I blogged about Hippopost. Hippopost is an ad supported application that will mail a postcard of any picture you have in your facebook photo album as a full color high glossy postcard FOR FREE. I used hippopost to send this postcard to myself to see if it works. Today it finally arrived. On the back is my address, message I wrote to my wife, and a tiny ad for %50 off Wyndham hotels that paid for it. The ad is small and at the bottom. The service works and the postcard is high quality glossy cardstock. It did however take 24 days to get there. So, you got be really strategic or just totally random with your use of this application. But, hey... it's free! Here are some things I'm thinking.

1. Use it to send an encouraging note to a kid.
2. When you upload event pictures, send the different picture to the kids that are in the pic with a thank you note to them.
3. Upload series graphics, event graphics, or additional camp promo stuff and use that graphic. You can use any photo you want.
4. Encourage your leaders to do something random for the kids through the mail. They never have to go to the post office and they don't have to pay for postage.

I will be interested to see if DC gets his card.

Soul Revolution: How Imperfect People Become All God Intended

I always screw this up!

Me, Cat, and the boys are going but... I always mean to make this a big shindig and I forget. So get out there and get your free slurpee at all 7-elevens in honor of July 11th. Check it out.





Soul Revolution: How Imperfect People Become All God Intended

the waterboy, cooper

A little fun this afternoon.



Waterboy from chad swanzy on Vimeo.


Soul Revolution: How Imperfect People Become All God Intended

money buys you Jesus

Scanning the net I found this jewel from Jordan Muck. Spiritual balance means that you have no agenda, dreams, or desires other than what god calls you to do from his word and presence in your life. To long for and promote life in an "as you like it fashion" plagues the pews and platforms of the church today. It's the very essence of that meaningless banter that makes the lost turn tail and run. You'll find food to chew on for your soul in this video below.





Soul Revolution: How Imperfect People Become All God Intended

everyone loves to be an insider

The Bowerbirds are a great band built on authenticity, creativity, and simplicity. They're the kind of band that not too many people know about right now so if you like to be that guy or that girl at the watercooler I'm giving you that chance to be first. You will love the sound that is so different than what you hear commonplace today. Enjoy a piece of the audio meal for your ears below.







Soul Revolution: How Imperfect People Become All God Intended

I blogged yesterday about Delirious and their announcement to end an era. Here is a picture of them leading worship at their beloved church Arun Community Church in West Sussex. 

Soul Revolution: How Imperfect People Become All God Intended