I recently found this internet site called Pandora.  Basically how it works is I think to myself, "Self, I'd love to hear some Lynyrd Skynyrd right now."  Then I type in Lynyrd Skynayrd in the search bar.  Suddenly, I begin to hear "Free Bird."  It's amazing.  But that's not all.  It will then customize a "radio station" that are all songs like Lynyrd Skynyrd.  You might hear Steve Miller Band, maybe some Boston, maybe 38 Special.  It's amazing.  Then, say it plays "Authority Song" by John Mellencamp, (formerly John Cougar Mellencamp).  So you say, "Self, I wish I could hear more songs like this."  You can!!  All you have to do it select the song and create a new station.  Incredible!  My stations run the gambit.  I have a Weezer station, I have a Blues Brothers Station, I have a Jethro Tull station, I have a Kings of Leon station, I have a Switchfoot station.  It's awesome!

Well, one station that I find myself going back to again and again is my David Crowder Band station.  We sing a lot of his songs here at the church.  We recently introduced The Glory of It All.  I think this song is my favorite song right now.  It's got a cool feel.  But I think the more I listen to the actual words, the more it means to me.  Here they are:

I mean, wow.  How often do I sit down and think about Jesus in that way.  He came to save us.  He didn't have to.  He's waiting for us.  When things are bad, He pulls us through.  He fixes everything, our relationship with God, which we screwed up through our sin.  The most important line in this song, to me, is that "we will never be the same."  When we decide that what Jesus did is important, we cannot remain the same.  We have to grow, we have to change.  We have to seek out things that are different than how we were.  When this reality strikes us, we have to want more, we should want to be a part of what He started.

I guess the best thing is getting to share life with other Christians in my church.  We make sure that if one person has a need, we fill it.  I needed some drywall hung, Josh came over and we did it.  Josh reached out to his neighbor to do her flower beds and mow her yard, Jin went over to help.  We are figuring out how it works to be Christians, together.  I think I spent a month of my life at Josh's house basically building it from the ground up.  That's what it's all about.

Recently we started doing journals.  We are trying to combat busyness in our lives.  Each day we sit down, rehash the day, whether the day before or that day we're just wrapping up.  We talk about what we were reading, what we did, what we wish we had done, people we met.  We share our day again with God.  Then we write out a prayer.  Man it's awesome.  I think I'm a better writer than speaker/thinker so it really helps me to put it on paper.  I just pray all out.  About everything, anything, whatever.  The final step is to listen.  Listen to God.  That's the thing that we as modern American Christians lack, time to just listen.  If you pray only speaking, how is God going to answer you.  Listening is the most important part of this journaling process for me.  It's the thing I have to work the hardest at.  Christianity is not supposed to be easy.  A friend of mine once said, "Being a Christian is not the easiest way to live, it's not the path of least resistance.  But it is the most rewarding way to live, both here and in the life to come."