Life to the Fullest

It’s hard not to think about life and death when you have friends that are going through some serious struggles. I am constantly reminded that life is short, and that I should make the most of every second I have. Below are a couple videos that are great reminders that life should be lived, and lived to the fullest.

Jim Valvano at the 1993 ESPY Awards

Dr. Randy Pausch

Living life to the fullest includes laughter. Lots of laughter. I’ll leave you with a comedy sketch by Mike Birbiglia that made me laugh out loud recently.

Filed under: Cancer, Dr. Randy Pausch, Inspirational, Jim Valvano, Kyle Lake, Life, Mike Birbiglia

Live Well

An exceprt from Kyle Lake’s final sermon set to the Music of “Over The Rainbow” by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole.

Filed under: Inspirational, Kyle Lake, Life, YouTube

God Speak

While I was at a concert festival over the weekend there was about an hour and a half break inbetween two acts and there was a speaker to fill the time. He was talking about a series of events that happened where there was no other conclusion than that God was speaking to him. For instance, he was convicted about a certain subject one day and the next Sunday the preacher preached about that exact topic. Then he went to buy a new study bible and when he got home one of the pages was folded over and when he read what was on the page, again it was the exact same topic. He even read some of the footnotes of the scripture and it told him to go to a another passage, then later in the week he started listening to a series of devotionals on tape from a friend (that had been given to him months ago) and in the very first one it talked about exact same thing and referenced the scriptures he had just read that were bookmarked and footnoted.

Crazy huh?

During the concerts I would sometimes drift over to the fence where all the tour buses were. One of the times I wondered what what happen if David Crowder was walking by and said hi. What would I say to him? What questions would I have for him during a conversation? The first two things that came to my mind were 1) How have you dealt with the loss of your good friend Kyle Lake? and 2) How do your concert songs translate into your corporate worship services at Waco Baptist? I’m weird in that I have conversations like that in my head all the time, but seriously, those were things I was asking David as we sat on a park bench and chatted, and those were the only two things I could think of to talk to him about (other than telling him what a huge fan I was).

Would you believe that Monday at work I was prowling through the internet looking for something about a bonus track on David Crowders recent album and I came across This Article.

Crazy huh?

Filed under: Contemplation, David Crowder, Kyle Lake

Good Reading

Two months in and I’m plowing through some good books. I’m well ahead of my schedule to read 18 books this year. The best part is I don’t just read them to say I’ve read them and that actually takes much longer. So to say I’ve read 5 books in two months is really pretty cool. (At least for me).

Here are the books I’ve read so far this year:
Confessions of a Caffeinated Christian: Wide-Awake and Not Alone by John Fischer. This book was decent. It had some good points in it, but overall it wasn’t as good as I expected or as good as it could have been. It was my first book by this author but I’d give him another shot.

Chasing Daylight: Seize the Power of Every Moment by Erwin Raphael McManus. This is currently my favorite book. It used to be The Barbarian Way by the same author, but this one has knock-out punches all the way through the book. I seriously might make this a yearly read.

[re]Understanding Prayer: A Fresh Approach to Conversation With God by Kyle Lake. Nice book about prayer. I found myself really looking at how and why I pray. I’m going to check out the other book he wrote pretty soon.

The Martyr’s Song by Ted Dekker. The fastest read I’ve done in years. It’s not a long book, but the short story is amazing at reminding us that we are living in two parallel worlds at one time and this current physical world really doesn’t compare to the other.

Taming A Liger: Unexpected Spiritual Lessons From Napoleon Dynamite by Jeff Dunn & Adam Palmer. Read this book over the last two months “in the library.” It was fun and definitely written for the high school crowd. I still found some nice points throughout and anytime your can talk Napoleon and Uncle Rico and chatting with chicks online all day it’s a good thing.

To add to all this reading, I’ve also decided to do something that I’ve been neglecting for quite some time. I am now reading a portion of the Bible everyday. I’m not doing any strict program or anything. Just dedicating time each day to get into the word. It’s amazing the things you can find in there.

The cool thing about reading is that you don’t have to agree with everything somebody says to benefit from a book. As a matter of fact, I’ve disagreed with a lot of what some have said, but I’ve also been able to look at some other things differently, even change my perspective on some things. It’s very refreshing and helpful to get other views on things. And reminders on others.

Next on the docket is a book that has been sitting on my bookshelf, unread, for over 5 years. AquaChurch: Essential Leadership Arts for Piloting Your Church in Today’s Fluid Culture by Leonard Sweet.

Happy Reading Everybody!

Filed under: Bible, Books, Erwin McManus, Kyle Lake, Leonard Sweet, Reading, Ted Dekker