Laugh. Love. Learn.

This year my family received the best Christmas present ever:

She arrived in June.

Today was a great day for the Moon Team.
It’s so fun to watch children enjoy Christmas;
watching my girls brought me so much joy.
They’re just so pretty:

Something else I enjoy is laughing with my dad.

And here’s the fam, modeling Katelynn’s new hot pink bean bag:

After some highly cherished unagenda-ed time at home, we trekked to the finest dining establishment in G-town. (Ha Ha. Not.)

Hope your day was joy-filled as well.

This deserved a separate posting.
On Sunday Sarah Olds, the missionary we sponsor as a church, shared how she wants to serve in Africa because that’s where she feels fully alive.
Here’s what fully-aliveness (as far as serving) looks like for me:

We’re such nerds. It’s great.

(notice Maddox the Macintosh in the bottom left corner, sporting his orange polycarbonate jacket.)

So it’s over. Months of planning. Hundreds of ornaments. 4 videos. 7 motion backgrounds. Gallons of coffee. 3 stringed instruments. Multiple generators powered by diesel fuel. A power distributor (who knew you needed that? Well, we know now…after power homeboy had to go get us one at 7pm on a Sunday night. Oops.) 3 Macs, 2 Projectors, 1 HD camera, about 600 feet of cables, 8000 KW of lights, 45 volunteers, and a 30’ fiberoptic velour drop in a pear tree. Okay, maybe not a pear tree. But there were some poinsettias and ficus trees in the bathrooms.

And the Lord showed up.

You see, we really didn’t have a way to predict how many people would attend on Christmas Eve. We knew we had 370 last year, and we’re hitting around 165 in worship…so an obvious guess would be somewhere in between. But we just didn’t know. In October I started praying that we’d fill up every chair we could find. There are multiple factors surrounding Christmas Eve that make people’s hearts ripe for hearing the Lord. There are also multiple factors that play into getting people to church on Christmas Eve…tradition & culture, satisfying one’s mama/girlfriend/in-laws, etc…so the likelihood of people showing up who don’t know Jesus is greater than usual. Stakes are huge. Then this happened and it reminded me even MORE of how important it was that everything worked so people could know, maybe for the first time, that Jesus loved them and they mattered to God.

*fast forward to 12/24.* Gus called about 10am. “Well, we’ve got 519 bulletins.” That became my prayer. “Lord, let’s run out of bulletins. Stir in people’s hearts…motivate them out of their houses and to The Vine…and make their hearts receptive to You!” People started showing up at 5pm. And they kept coming. And coming. And coming. I really didn’t know what to do (it was that about-to-run-out-of-food-at-a-party feeling…there was absolutely nothing I could do at this point but trust the Lord to handle it,) but our volunteers did an awesome job welcoming people and cramming chairs and finding places to stand…and before I knew it there were 440 in the worship center and an additional 100 in the heated tent watching live video. WOW. 540 people? Nuts. I know the Lord brought people there intentionally, and I pray that they encountered Him last night…and that they know in their hearts that the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace we talked about…Jesus…came here because they matter. Individually. To God.

Wonderful Counselor: God identifies with you.
Mighty God: God can conquer things in you.
Everlasting Father: God will never reject you.
Prince of Peace: God will complete you.

If just one person began a relationship with Jesus last night…or heard about Him for the first time…or felt His love through a smile or a hug from one of our greeters, or from seeing the joy in the faces of children and youth…it was worth it. Every second. Every day. Every night I texted myself additions to my to-do list while drifting off (to dream about motion graphics….) Worth it. I am so thankful that I get to serve at The Vine. The privilege is overwhelming.

Speaking of overwhelming, here’s the outcome of my most recent adventure: the 8′x8′ mosaic-tiled advent candle display. Cool idea. Not sure if it warranted the approximately 70 hours it took to complete, but it sure did look pretty. No regrets.
This picture doesn’t do it justice because of the lighting…I’ll try to get a better one tomorrow. And thanks to Heather, Morgan, Lindsay, Danielle, and Symantha for helping me out.

Here are some pics of the night. Not bad since the empty room looks similar to a fish camp. I’m so proud of my team and thankful for my volunteers! And…last thing…you’ve got to admit that fiberoptic drop is rockstar. I loved it!

Download “Everlasting God” by New Life Worship on iTunes. and take a deep breath.
It will remind you of what matters this morning…
I’m on a campaign to make Christmas calm and not stressful. I’ll let you know how that works out for me.

One thing I know that I have found
Through all the troubles that surround
You are the Rock that never fails, You never fail

You never change, You’re still the same
You are the Everlasting God
You will remain after the day is gone and the things of earth have passed
everlasting God

Triple White Mocha with Cinnamon Dulce Sprinkles + Mosaic Delirium =
Ummm well, goodness.

http://www.myspace.com/hi_definition_disciples
Click on the Santa hats.

When life gets suffocatingly busy, I retreat to music.
Oh, deep breathing.
Songs like:
“One Thing” by Charlie Hall (which is probably my most favorite worship song ever, based on lyrics & harmony lines,)
“Be Near Me” and “Let Your Light Shine” by Bethany Dillon,
“Somewhere North” by Caedmon’s Call,
“And Now My Lifesong Sings” by Casting Crowns (yes, they can be cheesy, but I love that song…pianos rock,)
“And Can It Be” by Church of Rhythm (kickin’ it back to the old school,)
“Come and Listen” by David Crowder Band,
“Beautiful Lord” by Leeland,
“Portadown Station” by Sandra McCracken,
“Vision of You” by Shane & Shane,
“Be Still and Know” by Steven Curtis Chapman,
and “All Things New” by Watermark.
How’s that for a random collection of eclectic songs?

Last but not least, this song by Matt Wertz.
One of my friends sings it better than Matt Wertz does, but these lyrics are money.
It’s my one of my two favorite songs to sing to Tanner while she falls asleep…

I will not take my love away
When praises cease and seasons change
The whole world turns the other way
I will not take my love away

I will not take my love away

And now you have plenty of ways to spend any iTunes giftcards you get for Christmas.

I’m supposed to be taking a nap right now, but I can’t. FOUR PEOPLE gave their lives to Jesus this morning at The Vine! Hallelujah! Furthermore, the youth started JUMPING UP AND DOWN during worship! Woohoo! Clearly the Lord is at work in our congregation and our community, and it is so exciting to see the fruits of so many people’s tireless efforts: lives being changed by relationships with Jesus!!! Oh, Happy Day, indeed. Week three of ADVENTure: JOY

One of my favorite things about my new life is having energy on the weekends. Katelynn benefitted from that this morning when we made a gazillion very pretty sugar cookies, with buttercream icing, from scratch. Mmmm; good times. I hope she’ll remember this in 20 years more than gifts…Christmas in the kitchen! Here’s what I remember about Christmas (circa 1998.) Ha Ha lame but we made rockstar chocolates! And that’s not a mullet…it’s a ponytail, but my hair was short and falling down. Just to clarify.

She doesn’t know it yet, but my friend Megan is benefitting from our cookie venture as well. Homegirl works her tail off at The Vine and she loves desserts, so…you know. She gets the hook-up. I free-handed those puppies with my favorite knife.

Shawn will be jealous. Good times.

I’m finally sold out. For a long time I was iffy about Cluster Groups…great idea on paper, but I wasn’t so keen on weekly forced socialization with people I didn’t even know. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The Grayson Cluster group is really stinkin’ awesome. I mean seriously, you should come hang out with us…we’re cool. It’s so encouraging to talk about the Word with people and be able to pray for each other. We’re quite the heterogeneous group – stretching across multiple generations – but every member of the group has something to offer! I especially enjoy learning from the slightly-older-and-definitely-more-wise members of the group. I’ve long since realized that grown-ups really do know what they’re talking about. Life experience is invaluable. We’re different regarding more than just age – we’ve got musicians, teachers, businessmen, stay-at-home moms, athletes, retirees, computer nerds, people who hunt, Georgia fans, unfortunate misled Tech fans, and people who like to cook and bake.

Speaking of that, you wouldn’t believe the culinary excellence that exists within our ensemble…warning: if you come, you might gain weight. But it’d be worthwhile weight gain. We’ve had sooo many good snacks. Here’s the most recent foretaste of glory [the]Vine: Yes folks, that’s Key Lime Cheesecake. Candice Wiginton is the BOMB. Holy yum, batman.

So here’s the challenge:
Throwdown with the Flowery Branch C-group. Yeah, so you’ve got Pat Jarvis. Whatever. We are a culinary team, baby! It’s the off-season. Take our challenge. All onlookers will eat well, I promise. As Pat says, “Cow Good.” Well, at least Dessert Good. May the best chefs win.

P.S. If you’re thinking you might should go to a Cluster Group, you’re right. Be brave!