106--time

Time, it does not wait. I'm going as fast as I can. Just scarfed down three boiled eggs, because it's 5:24 and I'm just having my second meal of the day and that doesn't allign with the goals for this week. I met my weight goal for last week. I don't want to give it back. I want to move forward.

But the day was filled with things to do. Spent a couple hours taping Dan's video audition for an acting role and uploading that to Youtube. Then drove Dan to Portland and said goodbye. There was time for a Dairy Queen Peanut Buster Parfait on the way up there. I can feel the sugar restrictions snapping back into place and I actually missed them the last two days.

Dar, I love your peanut butter cookies, but I'm gonna have to find something else, because sugar is actually TOO sweet for me now. I kept thinking, this is good, and I remember why I liked it so much, but I'd rather have a piece of watermelon right now. Huh, weird. So I had been saying would save my next sugar day-pass for my birthday, but now I'm thinking, maybe not so much.

I had in mind to record Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa today for my cover project, but here we are at 5:27 and I haven't begun, and realistically I don't have enough time to get what's in my head out. So I'm going to take longer and not get it done in May like I said. I hate when I break a promise.

You know, interestingly, Dan and I had some conversations about the words PROMISE, FORGIVE, COMMIT.

I do love the conversations we get up to.

OK, some potatoes and chicken and then I'm in the studio, because the one thing I am absolutely going to accomplish, God willing, is these audio lines I have to record for Truth, my video editor. She's working on a video promo that should be online in the next couple weeks. I hope you'll like it. And my decision process was that if I get her the elements she needs, I can work on Kwassa Kwassa at my own speed as time allows. Or as I allow time.

Time, it does not wait.

107--In The Middle

Dan, a.k.a 'Robot,' visited from LA this weekend. Great to have him here. Went to Silver Creek Falls yesterday.

This evening he and Caleb and Topher and I watched "The Last Samurai." Thank you, Scott. It was perfect.

In the car on the way from the airport yesterday, Dan I agreed to lift my sugar embargo for the weekend, the better to enjoy Darlene's amazing peanut butter cookies. Which I just did, and regretted not a minute of it. That was fun. Sugar goes back out into the cold until my birthday in 3 months.

I preached this morning at church. Here's the recording of that. Tomorrow I'm working the cover song project, recording Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa for Brian and Brianne.


In The Middle, Sermon at Open Door Community Church, May 3, 2010

Goodnight, Beautiful...

Goodnight, Strender

109--Steen Hunting

6 weeks ago, crawling through the grass, awaiting my quarry.

I know they're heading this way. I know because I passed them earlier and raced on ahead to this vantage point. I'll have to be quick to get the shot. They'll be in frame for only a second or two. Ok, here they come. Three, two, one, steady...

Didn't get the whole flock that time, but this is the frame I chose. I really wanted those posts and the sign in the shot. I'll try to catch another shot further down the road.

Meet Ryan and Jelena Steen. I only just met them myself. Part of my community here in Oregon, they're off on an adventure, biking across the US with their 6 children in tow.

Their oldest is 11, the youngest, 18months.

I feel I had too short a time to acquaint with these beautiful people. I was touched by the power of their love for each other. Maybe our paths will cross again someday. I'll think with a smile of Ryan climbing the rafters at the men's retreat. I'm honored that Jelena sketched the cover art for my recently released live CD.

They're off and rolling. Godspeed, friends...

Ride along on their blog: http://steenbikejourney.blogspot.com/

goodnight, Beautiful...

goodnight, Strender

112-Try Me

Letter to a friend:

Hey bro,

you asked me to share a couple thoughts on how my perspective changed about the practice of tithing.

I really can't say how amazing it was for me that last week, the money that flowed through my hand on account of music and ministry was over twice the amount from my job!

I've experienced a shift from payment to partnership. I used to make payments to God because I owed it to Him. It was a giving borne of duty. I had to, OR ELSE...

Then there's the way He presents Himself in Malachi 3:10. He says, TRY ME. I heard Him saying, "you don't think it will work?, or maybe you think it will work and you're still unsure?, or maybe you really hope it will work and you want it to work, but you haven't taken the chance?...go for it, just try it"

It's like a father saying to a child, "if you jump, I will catch you." It's Aladdin saying to Jasmine, "do you trust me?" OK, TRY ME.

Try me and see if I won't give you so much you don't know what to do with it. Really? And all I have to do is try?

Somehow my understanding changed from making a payment to God to a situation where God and I are business partners. I'm not buying protections from Him, I'm investing in Him. In his character, and in His reputation. The same way I would if I consider whether or not to go into business with a friend. I would look at their track record and accomplishments and I would assess a list of pros and cons and I would say to myself, two things:

1. Is he capable?

2. Can I trust her?

The first one is easy to me. Is God capable of blessing me beyond my wildest dreams? Yes. And done.

Can I trust Him? Well now, that's up to me, isn't it? I think He can be trusted, now can I trust Him? So I did. Sort of, you might say, just like verse 10 suggests, as a trial, an experiment. I'll try it. What the heck? He says try it, I'll try it. And the most amazing thing has happened.

I no longer perceive Him as a landlord to whom I pay rent, but as a business partner in whom I invest with the assurance that my business interests are also His business interests. By submitting my first and best resource to His kingdom, I become alligned with His purposes and led by His directives. So when I need something to accomplish a task, I'm greatly emboldened to ask.

"Pop, I need an amplifier so I can play to groups of people in venues without a PA system and I don't want to keep borrowing the one from the church because sometimes it won't be available when I need it and because I want to be able to plan without having to depend on the availability of someone else's equipment."

There was a time I would approach that conversation with a hesitation, the way I would ask a landlord to fix something in my apartment. It's not that big a deal, really, and it can wait, and I've lived with it this long. I mean, really, running water is over-rated. Now, we're partners in this house and I'm saying, Lord, I'd really like to put paint on the walls and He's saying, "what color?"

Partners, that's what we are. He is my business partner. I worried I might lose sight of the fact He owns everything, but no, I'm not mistaken with the illusion we are buddies. I wouldn't dare command His attention. I still request attention and submit my ideas, but I submit them without fear, because after all, this was His idea.

He's the one that said, "TRY ME"

Backstory: I was going to buy an amp anyway, using my tax return money. I would be able to afford the middle one, because the top of the line model is simply past my reach. A few minutes before the purchase I was notified by email of a generous gift from a supporter and friend. It allowed me to get the top of the line amp and a microphone and new guitar case so I'm very much ready for the road now. Thank you to my friend and his wife. Thank you. And thank you to God who invests far more in me than I invest in Him, which makes me want to try harder.

Good morning, Beautiful...

Good morning, Strender

126--Ready for Monday

Pick A Chapter, James 1, selected by Wanee Jeerapeet

Goodnight, Beautiful...

Goodnight, Strender

126--To read or not to read?

The boys just left and I've got a couple more tasks to accomplish before bed. Sunday evening is board game night at my place. Six guys eating chips and salsa-mole, listening to Michael Jackson, settling Catan. I got a couple cities built before Jonathan ran away with the thing, again. Second win in a row for him. Third one and he buys pizza. I just made up that rule--my house, my rules!

One of the remaining tasks is to make lunch for the next three days and refrigerate so I don't have to buy a $5 footlong every time, thus saving money for necessaries like the $2.50 wine glasses I picked up at Pier One today. Everyone knows things taste better in a wine glass.

Tonight's game beverage was Sorrel, you may know it as Jamaica, a sweetened iced-tea brewed from seed pod casings of a hibiscus relative. Takes a fair bit of sugar to do it right. Having not had sugar in it's overt form for quite some time, I felt no guilt at all serving this sweetened reminder of my time at home last year.

Staying off alcohol hasn't been a problem so far--that's cause I didn't drink often or much to begin with. I made something with chicken for my lunches, because I seem to have lost a little muscle in the time since I quit meat, and maybe I'm just being picky, but it's not like I have space for losing, you know what I mean?

So I'm sitting here, lunch cooling on the stovetop, one task remains, 30 minutes to bedtime. Correction, 26 minutes to bedtime.

I promised Wanee I would record James chapter one for her this weekend. That meant I'd have to unpack my studio and set it up and get it ready for a recording. Did that. Equipment out of boxes and set up as a workstation. Now, though, I'm out of energy.

What's going through my mind isn't guilt. It's gratitude. Wanee has done so much for me. There are some people without whom this life I believe I'm called to, would be further past impossible. It's impossible to be sure, but because of people like Wanee, I begin to believe that the power of WE can achieve what I cannot.

When I play a show in LA, she invites and insists on my band/crew staying at her place. She feeds us and takes us around and basically provides a level of care we couldn't buy even if there was budget for that item.

This is Wanee and Libby hunting and gathering in Hollywood last time we were down.

I'm working on a recording of In The City, Aaron Beaumont on piano, Anthony DiRocco on drums, vocals and electric guitar remaining to be tracked. I'm very excited about this recording. Would not have been possible without Wanee's monthly support of this ministry. And even more important, with a well-timed prayer, text, or other word of encouragement, she reminds me that this is a ministry...as compared to a country escape (never mind the trees).

So now, 8 minutes to bedtime, do I summon the energy to record James chapter one for Wanee, and sleep a little less before the schlep begins tomorrow?

please!!!! like it was even a question!!

Reminds me of Romans 12:1 ... So when you think about all that's been given for you, giving yourself is about the least you can do (LRV, Lennox Revised Version).

1 minute past bedtime...

Fire up the workstation, we gots us some scriptures to read.

132--hidden

Not spectacular or particularly exciting, but these are things that caught my attention.

Goodnight, Beautiful...

Goodnight, Strender

133--Up

Not sure what it is about waterfalls. Dawn asked. I know that my favorite body of water is a river. The ocean is too expansive and mysterious, too treacherous for me. A river (usually) has shores within sight of one another. I don't like lakes because they just sit there, large and deep and mucky at the edges, neither going somewhere nor even free of land. Oceans are over-big but at least you can journey to a strange country across their surface. Cross a lake and you end up in a place you could have walked or driven to.

Any way, I like rivers. They affect the shape of the world they encounter in ways that are noticeable within my lifespan. I can see them chiseling, shaping, forming. Dynamic, but not expansive, that's what I like about rivers.

Dawn's favorite body of water is a puddle. How fun. How playful!

I came here to see the water fall, and I see so much else. Like a new tree growing in the foreground of a felled stump. New life emergent from old death. Green over brown.

Not really a safe move, climbing to the top of the falls, but something drew my gaze upward. I think of the opening of Psalm 121, "I will lift up my eyes to the hills, where my help comes from."

I was intrigued when someone pointed out that those words are credited to David, the most powerful man in his culture at the time of said writing. What does the most powerful man on earth see up on the hillside? Maybe I should get up there and take a look?

This was a one-hand-on-a-root, body-hanging-sideways-over-space, hold-out-the-camera-and-click shot. Not safe by any means.

You gotta die of something. Might as well be living. Ok, but for real, there was a moment I got up on a rock and could only hang where I was, couldn't think of a way to move up and couldn't see how to get back down, so I hung there for a minute or two feeling all the way around until my left hand discovered a rock covered with earth that made for a solid hold.

Fine, next waterfall I'm taking a rope.

Goodnight, Beautiful...

Goodnight, Strender

134--Afternoon Drive

Dawn and I were originally going snow-shoeing today. I've never tried that but I hear it's definitely a cardio workout. I'll have to find out another time. One of Dawn's friends who was planning on joining us for that adventure, sustained an injury so we called the trip off, and replaced it with Maui Madness smoothies at Cornerstone Coffee. Just as happy, not nearly the workout, everybody wins. Except for Amber, whose foot is still broken.

I wanted to chase another waterfall today. It's been a month since my last falls quest. Darlene told me about one she and the kids visited a few weeks ago and it sounded simple and easy to get to. You just go out Baker Creek Road until it turns to gravel and go on about a mile after that. Park next to the pile of discharged shotgun shells and empty beer cans and by golly, you've found exactly what you're looking for...

Can I just tell you? I love living in the country!!!! Love it. I can drive to this in 30 minutes. And you should see what I have to drive through to get there. My eyes are fed, thank you.

I wanted to climb to the top of this one. Should be simple. It's only about 50 or 60 feet up. Vegas made it about halfway, then he went back to the base of the falls and looked up at me with compassionate wonder at the silliness of humans.

Leading worship in the morning. If I start another episode of Firefly right now, I bet I'll make it 15 minutes before I fall asleep.

Goodnight, Beautiful...

Goodnight, Strender

136--here comes the sun

I'm on probation. Amelia (Isaac's wife) might, maybe, two maybe's and a might, consider singing with us onstage at concerts. She's got a lovely voice, and great personality. You can actually hear her voice singing backup on one of the tracks on Isaac's cd. Can't remember which one, so that's not very helpful, is it?

Beautiful day. Musical day. Gotta mail cd's to Joell. She ordered a couple of the new EP. Gotta contact the artist for the Christmas in Mcminnville project: This Christmas, 10 artists, 10 songs, 1 CD. This is gonna be something special. I'm recording "Winter Wonderland" because we all know how much I love snow. Wrestling the all-important soul-searching question that drives every artist of significance: "What would Michael Buble do with this song?"

It's about time to pony up and handle that Vampire Weekend song that I'm doing for Brian and Brianne. Hmmmmm, I think it's safe to say I'll have it done in the month of May. I think that's ok for me to say.

8:55...systems go in T minus 5 minutes. Here goes Thursday