Sneaky

"I think I'll visit a Vineyard church today."

One simple sentence...as a status update and it was done. The groundwork was laid for the Long family to be super-sneaky today.

See, I was supposed to be coming back to Florida on March 30th. Supposedly. What happened instead was that I came home on the 23rd–a full week early. The only people that knew were my immediate family. No friends and certainly not my church family. Sneaky.

So, I've been home since Friday evening, catching up on hugs and kisses from my wife and boys, turning off location services on my iPhone and iPad, hoping that I wouldn't be caught hanging out in Florida a week earlier than had originally been planned.

Today, I got to surprise my church family by showing up unannounced. And it was so much fun. I love the St. Pete Vineyard peeps so dearly and it was a blast to get all the hugs and such all day long. It was great to eat lunch with my friends and it's especially awesome to get an extra week with the family Long.

I'll be hanging out here for the next two weeks, working from home and trying to convince my bosses that it's a great idea for me to work two weeks here and then two weeks in Michigan, as opposed to the initial three weeks in Michigan and one week in Florida plan that we started with. They're from the midwest and are honestly some of the most sincerely nice people I have ever worked with so hopefully, this works out.

More importantly, the life on pause phase is over for the time being and I can do normal things like watch TV on a couch instead of a bed, eat something other than peanut butter sandwiches and fast food, and hug my wife and kids every night and morning and in between. I love FaceTime on my phone, but nothing beats the real face time I'll be getting with family and friends over these next couple of weeks.

I have so missed you all very much.

In the beginning...

This post is a bit different. My pastor at the St. Pete Vineyard has been telling us to take a look at coming up with brief descriptions for our respective ministries. Thinking this week, this is what I came up with and just wanted to share with all of you. Here goes...

"In the beginning, God created..."

This is the most fundamental idea in all of Scripture. Before there was a beginning, there was a God and His most foundational action--the action mentioned by the writer of Genesis before anything else, was that He created. He created air, water, earth and fire. He created atmosphere, oceans, rivers and streams. He created animals giant and microscopic. And He said it was all good. He created mankind with all of our complexities and intricacies. And in all of this, we were the only ones with a distinction above everything else that was created...we were fashioned in His image. Which means...that we are instilled with that same fundamental and foundational drive to create. And once again, He said it was all good.

We create in so many different ways. Some of us create pictures and visual art. Some of us create with words and poems and stories. Some of us create with instruments and our own voices. Some of us use what we can touch and feel to create while still others use software and virtual bits of data to create. Some of us create in even more subtle ways: we teach others the best way to harness their creativity or we create the spacious, safe and encouraging environment for others to thrive in their creativity. But, at the core of each one of us, whether we are willing to admit it or not, is the desire to use whatever we have at our disposal to make something different, interesting and new. I see it every day in those around me. My wife and kids are creative. My in-laws are creative. My church family is creative. Most of all, my God is creative. Even more importantly, my God inspires creativity in me and in those around me.

That is where we are, to varying degrees, at the Vineyard. We are creating and constantly desiring to be inspired to create. And this, to me, is the root of worship. The description of worship I once heard is that God reveals, we respond, and then He responds to our response by revealing even more. That's deep, right? And I've found it to be so true.

My goal here as the worship leader is to help create that place where we can see God reveal Himself to us and then we can also feel safe to respond however we need to respond and let that circle happen from week to week, day to day and moment to moment. Worship is so much bigger than a set of songs or our weekly gathering on Sunday mornings. It's bigger than a painting or a poem or picture snapped on an iPhone. Worship is simply His act of revealing Himself to us and our response to His revelation...over and over again and in far too many ways to limit just to music or dance or a funny skit. Don't get me wrong. I am, first and foremost, a musician. I love all forms of music and that is my primary outlet in worship. But, let's not get caught up in what we're used to seeing defined as worship in the church. Let's get...well, creative.

With that said, I encourage you to come worship with us. And then go worship without us. Allow everything you do, both important and menial, to become part of your response to an incredibly loving , immeasuarbly gracious and immensely creative God. Be the creative worshipper He always knew you were supposed to be.

My Easter

I know I've mentioned this a couple of times, but I'm a worship leader at the St. Pete Vineyard Church. So, for me, Easter is so much more than only the spiritual emphasis that the holiday holds for, well, pretty much the ENTIRE Christian church.

Don't get me wrong, I love the spiritual emphasis and reflection that we, as Christians, engage in each year. But it also means weeks of prep work, building four or five weeks of song lists that point to the person, ministry and work of Christ. It means a 5:30 AM alarm and solid "stuff" to do from 6:45 AM until around 12:00 PM.

You know what? I love it all. I sincerely do. I love what I do as my part-part-part-time job. I love the people, the excitement, the anticipation and celebration and all the details that go on behind the scenes. I love hanging out at Guitar Center for an hour or two on Saturday morning picking up cords and wires and looking at all the goodies there so we can seamlessly pull off a block party/easter egg hunt/concert the day before Easter. I love the kids hunting easter eggs as well as the stuffing and hiding of the same eggs. And I love all the extra chocolate Easter brings.

So, my interpretation of what part of Easter means to me may be different than the typical eggs and bunnies and peeps and stuff. But, this is what I do come Easter time. I setup and break down and create and tweak and get to be an integral part of the Easter celebration. It's part of my life and part of my DNA and also the greatest (part-part-part-time) job I've ever had. So I love Easter and I also love all of my Easter.

113/365:

FYI...I'm linking up to the Live Every Moment photo challenge with this post.