i am almost 28. long gone are the days where staying up until 3 am, waking up at 7 am, and working productively were no big thing. last night i stayed up until almost 1. i could barely drag myself out of bed by 7:30…

but today will be good. i love fridays because i get a day’s head start for next week. so when i come in on monday, i’m not suddenly overwhelmed with the week ahead. tonight is date night. and tomorrow, i head out to decatur, alabama. i have to tie up a few loose ends on my message but i am really excited about getting to teach this sunday. it will also be my first time speaking in a movie theatre church so i think that whole experience will be awesome.

i covet your prayers. the messy-ness of this week’s news hasn’t really affected my focus for the weekend much. if anything, you have inspired me to keep on going, keep on trusting. this is totally in god’s hands and being distracted isn’t going to do me - or anyone - a lick of good.

anyway, on the getting old thing, that makes me curious - how old are you?
don’t be shy…

always do the right thing.

it seems obvious. but sometimes it is HARD. really, really hard.

so hard you can’t eat and you just want to throw up.

so hard it may take you a while to get there.

so hard your mind could be filled with what-if and consumed by fear.

so hard your life as you know might never be the same.

the old adage is true - the longer the agony, the deeper the pain.

don’t wait. do the right thing. do it as soon as you can.

and surround yourself with loving, caring people who will hold you up when you start to double over, who will encourage you, pray with you, pray for you, pray that people will bring you cookies to cheer you up, people who don’t mind when you cry, people who are brave enough to tell you to kick the negative thoughts far away, people who will travel thousands of miles to make things right, people who don’t laugh when all you order is mashed potatoes because you can’t think straight…

people who care. simply care.

[to those people, today, i say - thank you].

jordan, chris and i are somewhere in the collision of small town texas and the middle of nowhere. we just got done visiting with shaun groves and brody at one of shaun’s concerts.

if you follow his blog, you’ll know that his little boy has been really sick lately. tonight they were getting updates and trying to decide if and how to get back to nashville to be with him.

please say a prayer for shaun, his family, and his little boy. i’m typing this from my phone so i can’t really link over but his site is shlog.com. i am sure he could use the encouragement.

something he said tonight (which we all did) was that churches don’t just stop and pray for each other in the middle of it all…we all stopped and prayed with those around us. in colossians, paul writes that even though he hasn’t seen most of the letter’s recipients face to face, he is with them in spirit. even though most of you may not know shaun, we can all unite to pray with him through the same spirit.

if you’re reading this, you’ve been prayed for.

granted, i don’t know everyone who reads this blog by name. those of you i do, i’ve prayed for you. those of you i don’t, i’ve prayed for you, too.

every once in a while i have a really hard time sleeping so for the last hour or so, i really felt like i should lift you up in prayer.

some of you i know are going through really tough times - marriage stuff, health stuff, church staff stuff, upcoming mission trips, already on mission trips, family problems, depression problems, money problems, loneliness, work stress, transitions in life, your kids, your friends…those are just a few specific things that have been lifted up.

insomnia’s not always a bad thing i guess. i hope you all have a splendid tuesday.

Please pray for my mom today. She is having surgery at 9:15am Central Time. I’m a little worried since I can’t be there, but I spoke with her last night. Her name’s Beverly. Thanks!!

To read our January Prayer update on our missions trip to
Scotland, click here!

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