Music Monday

Because I love music so much, I think I'll start my very own Music Monday. I'll attempt to keep up with it, although we all know how consistent I've been with Thankful Thursdays...:-/

So without further adieu, I give you...

70 Million by Hold Your Horses. This is seriously one of the most creative music videos I've ever seen. Yes, I do indeed hold this video on the same level as O.K. Go...so that's sayin' a lot. :-)



And...how can I forget this great video for Broken Heart by Motion City Soundtrack? There's just something about a guy dressed up as a giant human heart that really makes me giggle. It's so nerdy that I can't help but love it. :-)



Broken Heart (Clean Version) @ Yahoo! Video

P.S. How do you like my new festive layout? I can't believe it's only 3 weeks till Christmas!

A Sad Day for Metro East...

This weekend was a sad one for my church family at Metro East. One of our associate pastors, Doug Holt, died in a motorcycle accident on Saturday afternoon. I hurt so deeply for his family. They've already endured so much hardship in their lives, and they've already had such a hard year with their youngest daughter Ashlea being diagnosed with POTS, a disease that causes her constant, intense pain. For them to now lose their husband and father is just heartbreaking.

The church service yesterday could not have been sadder---not everyone had even heard the news. Everywhere you looked were tears. People were hugging and crying and dabbing at their eyes with kleenexes. It was heartbreaking, yet I am so thankful that we could all just come and grieve together. He was well loved.

If you knew Doug, then you know that the world lost a wonderful man, but you also know that heaven gained one. Doug never, ever failed to make me smile. He was a complete goofball, a prankster, and utterly joyful. He always went out of his way to make people feel loved and appreciated. He loved Jesus and he loved people, and he loved them deeply. It never failed to amaze me how easily he could relate to anyone in any stage of life. Adults, teens, children, the rich, the poor, the joyful, the heartbroken. No matter who they were, he always met them at their level. You should have seen him working with the kids in Chicago. They LOVED him, and they knew that he loved them right back. They only knew him for a week, and yet they too would be heartbroken to hear the news.

A lot of times you read something like this after someone has died, and you think, "I wonder what that person was really like," because people only talk about the good things when someone is gone. But this was truly Doug. I could just as easily say these things about him were he still alive today, were he standing right in front of me. He was genuine, so genuine that he would not hesitate to speak of his own failings to you, were it only to show you that he was a sinner saved by grace, and with the hope that you too would know that same grace. He preached the Gospel. He shared the Gospel. And he lived the Gospel. And a lot of people are missing him today.

We miss you, Dougie Fresh!


Please pray for the Holt family: Gayla and their daughters (as pictured) Ashlea, Lynsie, and Kaley. Pray...

1. That they will be comforted.
2. That they will turn towards God rather than away, a temptation that is always hard to fight when you've lost someone so dear to you.
3. That God will reveal to them the many ways in which He is undoubtedly working for good through this, even though it's hard for any of us to see right now.
4. That they will allow themselves to be weak, vulnerable, and to grieve, and that their family and friends will help lovingly carry them in their times of weakness.
5. That they will not be bombarded by people trying to help, but instead spend this time with the family and friends they are closest to.
6. That God will provide the expenses that are needed at this time.
7. That God will be glorified in this.

OK Go...Will One Of You Please Marry Me?

For those of you who don't know, I really LOVE music. Lately I've been on a music video kick and excitedly discovered that OK Go has a new[ish] video out, and I thought I'd share it with the world, because the world NEEDS Ok Go. These guys have the most creative music videos. They've seriously raised the bar. So much, that unless a music video has an incredible story line or involves nerdy guys doing nerdy things such as choreographing their own dance moves, I go thoroughly unimpressed. There's nothing I hate more than a stereotypical music video - hot girls, glamorous shots of band playing, ridiculous amount of lights. It's all been done a million times before, which is why these guys are so incredibly refreshing! So without further adieu, here's their next-to-latest vid!



And because I love them so much and can't share just ONE video...here's the first video ever made. Do you understand why I love them so much?



And here's yet another epic video. I would share the entire YouTube channel on here if I could.



And last but not least, one of the most impressive things I've ever seen pulled off. You HAVE to watch this!



Head on over to their YouTube channel to watch the rest of their vids, including their BRAND NEW video for "Last Leaf," which is entirely animated upon a piece of toast. Yup, I pretty much love them, and would gladly marry any one of them. Enjoy!

You Are Not Your Own. You Were Bought At A Price.

We often hear of stories in which someone who is dying comes to accept that they are "no longer in control of their life." Perhaps they are battling cancer or suffering the effects of a lifetime of bad choices, or perhaps they merely come to such a conclusion because they recently lost someone close to them or their life has suddenly spiraled out of control. No matter what the circumstances, those who come into contact with the reality of death all come to the same conclusion: you are not in control. We can all relate to such a realization at some point or another in our lives, yet we must ask ourselves why on earth it takes so many of us until we are staring death in the face to realize that we are powerless. We thought we were the ruler of our own lives, but we couldn't be more wrong.

If there is anything in this life that is certain, it is death. From the moment we are born we are slowly dying---growing older with age, maturing, and preparing ourselves for that imminent moment in which we must be held accountable for the life which we have lived. We all know that we cannot escape it, yet most of us spend our lives trying to avoid it. We try to push it out of our minds as if death does not exist, yet it is always looming, lurking around every corner. We could die at any moment. Heart attack, car wreck, cancer---the possibilities are endless. When death is finally near, we fight for our lives, yet the majority of our lives are spent living as if we didn’t care if we died at all.

Perhaps it is only through the realization that we are dying that any of us can ever truly understand that it is not us, but rather God, who is in control of our lives. It’s funny how often we talk about “giving God control of our lives” in Christian circles, as though at some point we somehow took it from Him. In reality, we never had it in the first place. We were brought into the world as entirely dependent creatures and we will die as entirely dependent creatures. From the moment we were born our lives were in the hands of someone else. As newborns we could not sit up on our own, we could not control our bodily functions, we could not even speak for ourselves. All we could do is trust that someone would care for us and humbly cry out for help in our time of need. Are we really so different now? We’d like to think that we are, but we could lose all such privileges at any given moment. Some of us may even know someone who actually has lost such privileges, such basic functions as the ability to move their limbs, to remember where they were five minutes ago, or to utter a coherent sentence. And yet, we still can’t fathom that such a thing could ever happen to us. They may no longer have control, but we still do. Right?

We are so often fooled into believing that we are in control because of the simple decisions we make---where to live, when to wake up in the morning, what to wear, where to work---that we forget that even the ability to make a decision is a gift given to us by God. Every second I make a decision to breathe in and breathe out. Every second I make a decision to live on, yet is it I who creates the very breath I am taking? When my body begins to fail, can I renew it? Can I cause my own heart to pump blood through my veins? Can I cause my lungs to deliver air to my suffocating body? No. All I can do is surrender to the fact that I breathe only because each breath is given to me. My body is not my own. My life is not my own. I am not in control of anything at all, but merely a vessel which God has given the gift of life. He is the potter, I am the clay. No matter what shape I take, I am still the clay. I cannot form myself out of the mire. I cannot carve intricate patterns into my delicate being. All I can do is say, “Here I am, Lord. Take me” and recognize the reality that were He to remove His hand from me for even one second as my life spins on, I would crumble.

If you are to take anything out of this post at all, let it be this: You are not your own. You were bought at a price. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6: 19-20) He has carefully and intricately created you to be not even a vase or a jar, but a temple. Do not be deceived and live your live as though you are an ashtray. Do not forget the price that was paid on the cross so that you would no longer have to be an ashtray. And do not for one second forget that you are the created, not the creator.

Halloween!

I've always loved Halloween, but unfortunately most of my youth was spent in sub-par costumes that were so pathetic my parents didn't even bother to document them. If you'll observe the picture below, you'll see me dressed as She-Ra (from the He-Man cartoon series) and David as the karate kid. This is probably the most my parents ever spent on a costume for us. In later years I would be a cat not once, but twice, meaning that we merely paired ears and a tail with a sweatsuit. I would also use my mom's nightgown as a wedding dress another year, borrow my neighbor's cheerleading uniform still another year, and stuff a homemade pumpkin outfit my mom got for free at an estate sale with newspaper another year. Clearly my parents have never been as enthusiastic about Halloween as I am.


This year, however, I set out on an adventure to make my very own super awesome costume, that would be sure to put all others to shame. I've wanted to make this costume ALL year, ever since I read on My Life Is Average that someone else had done it. With the help of a couple dear friends, as well as my mom and step-dad, I was able to accomplish my dream of being the house from "Up" this Halloween.
Here are my good friend, Denton, and my mom working away. We made the frame from cardboard, then used popsicle sticks for siding and shingling, until we discovered the glorious power of FOAM. If you ever want to make this costume, please take my advice - ditch the popsicle sticks and just cut foam into strips! You'll save so much time!

And here's the finished project! The colors aren't actually right, but we had to improvise. I'm pretty sure it's still awesome anyways. I added the special touch of putting the characters in the windows.
We used my dad's rainbow suspenders to hold the house up. Denton had to try them on himself. I caption this picture as "Hey there kids...why don't you come on down to my basement for some candy." (*sidenote: This guy spent his ENTIRE weekend helping me build this. I seriously couldn't have done it without him. He's so amazing he should pretty much be a saint. Just sayin')
And here he is enjoying my Mom's shakeweight. If you haven't seen those commercials...well, don't. They're so wrong.
Voila! The finished product! And I might add that I actually won a costume contest!
Denton unenthusiastically poses for a picture to display our glorious work of art.
Some other friends who participated in the contest. Hobbits!
Wayne & Garth!
Wayne and Garth using Ariel's dinglehopper to devour Flounder. Mmm...
All in all, it was a delightful halloween...well, except for the fact that I was sick all weekend and didn't actually get any rest because I stayed up late working on the house. But that house is my pride and joy, and I seriously felt like I was reliving my childhood when I won that contest. I'm such a nerd...I know...and now I can't wait to make something for next year!