Under Attack

Ever since I made my commitment to Jesus last summer, people have told me that Satan would do his best to turn me away from that relationship. My mother-in-law, Dena's best friend Marianne, and most recently, Tommy, all mentioned that this is something that would happen. I didn't give it much thought until this week as I prepare for my baptism this coming Sunday. The past month and a half, since Tommy asked me if I was ready to be baptized have been a total nightmare for me as far as my job is concerned and I'm starting to think that this is all the work of Satan.

Most people don't know it, but my job has always been a very defining part of my life. I don't know why it is, but I have always taken most of what goes on around me at work very personally and have gotten very far down about it on many occasions. Perhaps that is why I've switched jobs so many times in my life. This has been the case since early March - almost nothing has gone well (a crappy advertising deal with YellowPages.com that has resulted in zero phone calls, doubting myself every day, every job being a total pain in the rear, etc.) and I've pretty much decided to close my business. Just last week, after installing the ceiling fan from hell, I mentioned to Dena that God wasn't there for me that day. Thinking about it now, I was really wrong and it could have been a lot worse - I fell off the top of my 12 foot ladder and was somehow able to catch myself on the loft in the house, I met and talked to a fellow Christian, and made her and her mom very happy customers.

I have also been working with another electrical company on a new Walgreens Pharmacy that has kept me very busy. I haven't had an off day in weeks. This is another thing that I think God has played a huge part in. The company is owned by a guy I used to party with back in my late teens and early 20's. We were never best buds or anything like that, and we probably could have done without each other all together but something has brought us together and I am very grateful for it. Jimmy has been an electrician for almost 20 years and, despite my initial ineptitude on the job, was able to teach me a lot of cool stuff that I didn't previously know. I busted my rear helping him out and I'm pretty sure that he is very happy with my performance. He's got two more Walgreens stores and two Mexican restaurants to wire in the coming months and he has already invited me back to help with the projects as soon as I complete the wiring of my sister's new house. I have no idea if this will result in something permanent but it will keep my busy with a steady income for a while.

Tommy's dad mentioned just the other night how some people are able to create a web that helps bring many people to Christ. Dena thinks that this may be what He has in store for me and what makes me a huge threat to Satan's plan. I am not what most people would call a stereotypical Christian - I like loud, secular music, I smoke, I swear too much, I occasionally drink a beer or six, etc...just a regular guy who is an idiot sometimes. I'm hopeful that I can reach other "delinquents" like myself and help bring them to Jesus. This is really cool stuff!

As for Satan, I need to tell you that you've lost this time so you might as well back off. No matter what you try to throw at me, I'm down with Jesus for the long haul and I'm shouting it to the world this coming Sunday when I get baptised and as much as I can for the rest of my life!

I Try Something New...Again

Last night, Dena took me to my first Christian rock concert (my birthday present). I had seen Jars Of Clay twice in the past, but that was before I thought of them as anything more than just another rock band. We saw The Newsboys at Robert Morris University. To tell you the truth, I wasn't expecting to see/hear much. I'm not exactly familiar with many of their tunes and what I had heard was a bit on the tame/lame side as far as I'm concerned.

Much to my surprise, these guys absolutely blew me away! They rocked as hard as and put on a show equal to just about anyone I have ever seen...except for Kiss, of course. That's really a lot coming from me - I've seen a lot of concerts in my day - Kiss 7 times (5 in make-up), Jimmy Buffett at least 6 times, Rush 4 times, Bob Mould (2), Sugar, Ace Frehely (2), The Ramones, The Kinks, Iron Maiden, INXS, Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, The Who, Goo Goo Dolls (3 - when they still rocked), Yes, Ted Nugent (2), Jethro Tull (2), countless local bands, etc.

On top of the great music and absolutely stunning visuals, the addition of God's message and the awesome crowd made the show one the best I have ever seen - definitely top 10 material. If you haven't seen them, I suggest you check them out. What a great time!

Super Bowl Sunday

Well, tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday - at least that is how Tommy refers to Easter - "The Super Bowl of Christianity". I can't remember a time that I've been this excited about Easter Sunday. It actually means something to me this year.

We are really hopeful for a huge turnout for the service at ICC and Brandon has really picked out some rocking tunes for the service. I'm totally psyched about playing tomorrow, how could I not be, besides it being the Super Bowl, we're opening the service with some Social Distortion ("Ball And Chain") - one of my favorite punk bands of all time.

Thank you Jesus for all you did for us! You really do rock!

Been A Few Weeks...

I found out quickly how easy it is to get away from blogging on a regular basis. I'll just say that this has been a rough month for me. Despite the recent "Heroes" series at ICC which talked about not giving up, I have felt like giving up on my electrician career just about every day this month. I don't know what it is, but I just have so much doubt about my competancy and physical stamina to do this job. The calls aren't coming in like they normally do and when I do work, I literally take a physical beating.

The worst part is that I know I shouldn't feel bad about these things. I mean, in over 15 months of working as an electrician, I have not received any complaints or encountered many problems that I wasn't able to overcome. It just seems like every job is a major pain in the butt lately and I just don't feel like dealing with it. I also feel like I'm just not charging people enough for my work, which sucks for both of us. As much as I hated sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day, at least I was able to deal with the majority of problems that arose or quickly find someone who knew the answers to my questions.

To make matters worse, I started working on a Walgreen's Pharmacy with an old friend of mine last week. He has been an electrician for almost 20 years and really knows his stuff. I have no idea how he is able to make sense out of all the electrical systems that are involved in a new commercial building. I walked in there last Monday and just felt totally lost. I had no idea what to do and I feel like a moron in comparison to this guy. I realize that this is an experience thing but it's still frustrating all the same. I need to be grateful for this opportunity to learn from yet another skilled electrician.

Dena and my family all want me to hang in there and I know Jesus wants me to hang in there so I'm going to keep at it for now. I hope I can get my head and heart in line with them ASAP.

A Really Great Question

During our small group meeting last night, one of the group members posed the following question to me which has had me thinking about it ever since. "How could you ever choose not to have God as a part of your life and what made you change your mind?"

I'm finding it very difficult to answer this question. I really think that my decision to not make God a part of my life until now was more an issue of pride than anything else. I've been something of a loner for the majority of my adult life and I guess I didn't feel that I needed His help and that I could do it on my own. And even if He was there to help me, how could I know for sure? I'm pretty certain that I was not in the minority among those who do not have God in their lives when it came to my skepticism.

As for what made me change my mind, again, I am having a hard time definitively answering this question. The past few years of my life have been a roller-coaster ride. Problems with depression, my marriage, my family, my career, etc. have pretty much defined my thirty's. I hit bottom many times during that time and experienced very few truly happy moments.

I can only say that I just think I was just ready to give God a chance. It also helped that He pretty much dropped Tommy and ICC on my doorstep. ICC literally meets less than a half-mile from my house and everything about the church fits what I'm about - cool, hard-working, faithful, "normal" people who are trying to make Jesus a part of the lives of those who have either lost faith in or have never had a relationship with Him. They are literally removing all the "crap" from what I have experienced with church in the past - this is a come-as-you-are church that focuses only on the only things that matter - His word and making it part of your everyday life. I just can't imagine being in a better situation than I am at this very moment.

What A Great Week!

I was doing some thinking last night - I'm sure the smoke could be seen for miles - I really had an awesome week last week (2/22-3/2)!

Even though I had a small car accident on the ice on 2/22 - I plowed over this guy's mailbox on the way to my sister's house - and business is still pretty slow right now, I got to spend plenty of time with my family (dinner at Joe's Crab Shack for my sister's b-day - yum! and lunch at my mom and dad's on Wednesday with my 2-year old nephew, Walker - he's a riot!), rocked the ICC church service twice, had a great lunch with Tommy, led our small group meeting twice, both cars passed inspection, had dinner with my good buddy Greg and his wife, and ICC had it's best attendance yet - my mom put us over the top :) Not too bad if you ask me.

The topper for the week was that Tommy asked me if I was ready to be baptized. I was like "heck yea!". My baptism is scheduled for 4/20 following the church service. I'm really psyched up about it!

I'm 100% certain that a year ago, I would have been so consumed with the fact that business is slow that I wouldn't have noticed most, if any of these great things. God is really working some cool stuff in my life! I really think 2008 is going to be a great year!

So, Do You Wanna Play?

I'm getting pretty close to wrapping up my adventure to present, but it definitely wouldn't be complete without talking about the ICC Worship Band (for lack of a better name). I have been playing guitar since 1992 or 1993. I started out on guitar at a fairly late age and really only picked it up to have fun and emulate my guitar heroes (Bob Mould, Ace Frehley, Angus Young, Johnny Ramone, et. al.).

From our many conversations, Tommy knew that I played and that I was very shy about playing in front of people. Early on, the worship band line-up was very inconsistent at best. One week they'd have a five piece band and then one guy playing guitar or piano and singing alone the next. They really needed help in this area but I still wasn't sure if it was something I wanted to do or not - I've got this terrible fear of screwing up and looking like an idiot. Even though he'd never heard me play, Tommy kept nudging me a bit about it every time we'd meet and I finally gave in sometime in November.

I wish I could say that my first time out was perfect but it wasn't. The guys were late and I didn't have time to learn the songs just by running through them during the pre-service rehearsal. After all, these guys are trained musicians - in comparison, I'm a novice at best. Being me, I got mad, picked up my gear and left. It wasn't so much that I didn't get to play but that they had been asking for people to step up and when I finally did, they were late - it was just a big let down for me because I can't read music and can't jump in on songs I'm not familiar with like they would be able to. I'll chalk that one up to growing pains of a new church and a new Christian.

I was ready to give up on the worship band but Tommy and Brandon (now the Worship Leader) talked me in to giving it another go. If I remember correctly, it was just Brandon and me the following week - him on piano and vocals and me banging away on Dena's acoustic guitar. I was far from perfect but no one seemed to notice my mistakes and I had a blast. Who would have thought that my first live performance would be at church - certainly not me.

To make a long story short, even though there have been some set-backs here and there, I have been playing in the worship band ever since that day and have no intentions of giving it up any time soon. It's so much fun to be able to make music with the other guys and to do it in the name of Jesus. We do it loud too! ICC isn't exactly your typical church. We rock it out and, on most weeks, even throw in a secular song that relates to the message.

I think the coolest things about my experience in the worship band are that I have become a much better guitarist and playing is really fun for me again - not that I ever lost interest in it but it just kind of got boring only playing along to CDs in my room. Like I said, these guys (we now have a full band on a regular basis) are real musicians and I have to get better if I want to keep up with them. I probably practice more than I ever have before. I'm sure that The Holy Spirit is at least a little responsible for that. I have also become pretty good friends with Brandon. He's really growing into a quality band/worship leader and I have already learned a lot from him. He always listens when I make suggestions and always takes the time to help me out when I have questions about the music. He's a good guy.

I'm very grateful that Tommy kept on me about playing in the band and staying in the band on at least two occasions. I'm pretty sure that he could talk me in to buying beach front property in the mid-west. He's pretty slick like that. I can't wait to play on Sunday morning!