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TRL was never really about the music videos.
TRL wasn’t really about the boy bands.
TRL, or Total Request Live by its full name, wasn’t even really about the requests.
TRL was all about the Shout Outs. Continue reading
Total Request Lord
When Is It Ok To Compromise Your Beliefs?
The greatest compromise a man and woman will ever face is on Movie Night.
Men and women are genetically predisposed to enjoy different movies. It’s a scientific fact. Or something like that.
Women wonder why “How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days” didn’t win an Oscar. Men question why every movie isn’t produced by Marvel.
My fiance and I have worked out a pretty common compromise to avoid Movie Night fights. We usually take turns picking out the movies we watch together.
Of course this means she often has to slug through quirky indie movies the critics love but are really just plain weird. And I fall asleep through cheap horror movies that belong on SyFy. But, you know, love and all that.
I believe a movie should be more than cheap thrills and entertainment. I want movies to transcend entertainment and move me emotionally and other nonsense.
Sometimes our movie choices flop. When she picks a bad movie I get a little angry that I wasted a couple hours of my life to watch a crappy film. I feel like I compromised my beliefs. Continue reading
Crock Pot God
I might have been the only 26-year-old male on the planet who was excited to get a crock pot for Christmas.
For a few months I had been hearing some of my married friends talk about how much they enjoyed using their crock pots and how easy they were to use. As someone who enjoys food and things that are easy, I placed a crock pot on my Christmas list.
I had never used a crock pot until I unboxed the present and prepared a bacon-wrapped chicken recipe that ended up being just delightful (check it out). As I set the timer for the first time and prepared to leave the house, I started to get nervous. Continue reading
Monday Morning Music: Start Again
(Click Here if you can’t see the video above.)
It’s the first Monday of 2014.
Your week may be starting off full of the promise and resolve of a brand new year.
Or you may have already screwed everything up in the past 5 days.
Wherever you are, know this: It’s ok. Today is a new day. Today is your second chance. Today you can start again.
Here’s the perfect song to remind you today is a great day for a do-over. It’s called “Start Again” by Counting Crows (the original version of the song is by Teenage Fanclub).
“Start Again” is a simple song that repeats the same refrain multiple times. It’s the story of one person telling another, “Even though it’s complicated, we’ve got time to start again.”
I love how the song loops around over and over again. It’s like with every verse the main character is waking up on a new day reminding himself to put the past behind him and start over.
No matter where you were last night or what you’re facing today, if you’re alive and breathing than you’ve still got time to work it out.
Starting again can be daunting and overwhelming. Starting all over can make you just want to give up.
Remember starting again doesn’t have to mean you’re starting from the bottom. It can be more like starting over in a video game.
When you fail in a video game, you don’t always have to start a level all over again. Most games let you start a new life right where you left off.
God’s grace does the same thing for us. He picks us up where we fell down and let’s us start again on life.
He doesn’t hold grudges. He doesn’t make us earn our way back into His good graces.
He just gives us a night of rest, sets us back on path, and tells us to “Start again.”
I’d love to know: where you are starting again this Monday?
The Retail Worker’s Prayer
The Folding. Don’t get me started on The Folding.
This holiday, after leaving my full-time job behind, I got a job at a major department store to earn a little extra spending money. I’ve mainly been running the register. But in between customers one of our main duties in the store is The Folding.
It’s incredible, really. You spend a few minutes folding a stack of shirts. Everything on the shelf looks in order. You turn around to check out one customer. You turn back around and a dozen shirts are back on the floor again.
As an employee I begin to wonder what the point is. I wonder why I bother picking up all these clothes off the floor just to see them knocked over and out of place just a few moments later.
But The Folding has to be done. We must go through the motions of The Folding and The Re-Folding day after day after day to keep the store in order. If we deny our duties just one day then the store would go into disarray. Continue reading
The One Step New Year’s Resolution Solution
Most New Year’s Resolutions end up like most New Year’s Eve concert performances – fake.
Seriously. Watch Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve tonight to see the ball drop and count how many artists actually perform live. You won’t need more than one hand.
We can all agree that Dick Clark was a saint, but pawning off blatantly lip-synched performances as an incredible treat to watch was not his finest quality. Unfortunately, most of our resolutions have the same hollow quality as a prerecorded Katy Perry song.
Look, you’ve probably read your fill of New Year’s blogs by now. Seems like every year more and more people are deriding the idea of a New Year’s Resolution.
Every writer has a statistic backing up their bulletpoints on how most resolutions never make it into February. I read a blog by Jon Acuff the other day where he said, “Waiting until January 1st to do something awesome is stupid and fake.”
I’m a huge fan of Jon, but I’m on the other side of the fence here. I am an avid supporter of New Year’s Resolutions. Continue reading
Do Small Things Matter To A Big God?
***NOTE: For me, 2013 will always be the year I stepped away from my position as Director of Student Ministries at The Hill Baptist Church. Working at The Hill was a incredibly challenging and incredibly rewarding experience, one that taught me countless lessons I’m still being transformed by. As 2013 comes to a close, I thought it would be fitting to share the article I wrote for The Augusta Chronicle on the eve of my final day on staff at The Hill. As you reflect on the year that was and make plans for the year to come, I can only pray you’ll believe the small things really do matter to God.
“Does it matter?”
Every morning I make the drive down Central Avenue, turning onto Kings Way and into the parking lot of The Hill Baptist Church, thinking to myself, “Does it matter?”
For five years I have served as the director of student ministries at The Hill. When I began I was a 22-year-old student in my final semester at Augusta State University. I was a fresh-faced intern with adventurous faith who dreamed of changing the world through youth ministry.
Though I thought I knew it all (as most 22-year-olds do), I never could have predicted what the next five years would hold. Today, as I prepare to step down from my position at the church, I am questioning if anything I did mattered.
Did picking up and dropping off students for an hour before and after church matter? Did the conversations over late-night fast food matter? Did silly Facebook wall posts matter? Does small ministry with a small group of students in a small church with a small budget matter to an incredibly big God?
The Hill Baptist Church is a small church. The Hill Youth is a small group, about 20 active students. When I see some of Augusta’s most vibrant churches bringing in hundreds of students to camps and lock-ins, I sometimes wonder if I’ve been doing something wrong this whole time. Continue reading
A Christmas Recipe For All Seasons
Ah, Christmas cookies. The final taste of sweetness before Christmas goes to bed for another year.
Whether leaving a plate for Santa or stealing the last crumb for yourself, it’s hard to beat a freshly baked Christmas cookie.
A cookie is sweet perfection for just a moment. It’s a glorious moment, but it’s merely a moment.
Before you know it, the flavor is gone. The joy you experienced is temporary. It’s hollow. It’s just a morsel of something greater.
Christmas has a way of being like this. The holiday season is a sweet moment. Everything in the world seems right and perfect. But often it’s just a moment. Some years it seems there’s nothing lasting about Christmas that leaves a mark on us. Continue reading
The One Wise Way To Stay Merry At Christmas
(Click Here if you can’t see the video above.)
Could you be merry around Ernest?
Imagine having to deal with all your Christmas woes – buying the presents, wrapping the presents, balancing all the parties, balancing your budget, watching your weight, putting up with your family – and then having to deal with a neighbor like Ernest P. Worrell. Continue reading
Let’s Not Get Lost On The Way To Christmas
You knew it would happen.
As soon as the news broke of “Duck Dynasty” patriarch Phil Robertson’s controversial interview with GQ, you knew what the reaction would be.
No, I’m not talking about A&E suspending Robertson from his hit show.
I’m talking about the thousands of pastors across the country who started scrambling to rewrite their Sunday Morning Sermons.
I just have a feeling churches, especially across the southeast, are about to get an earful about what a reality television family’s religious stance means for our country and the church as a whole.
Pastors, may I ask one small request of you? Could you please pledge to avoid pop culture commentary from the pulpit? Continue reading
POP GOD 