I'm waiting for you

–I've almost finished with my Christmas shopping. I have 3 more friends to buy things for(at least I know what I'm getting them) and then I need to start on my actual(read: blood related) family. That shouldn't be too hard. Then I need to do my research into Bethany's birthday present. (yes Bethany, theres research involved!) Luckily for me, it's going to be fairly fun/interesting research (at least for me) so I won't have to worry about it dragging on forever and ever like my 10th grade research on censorship did.

–At the moment I'm listening to “Wait For me: The Best From Rebecca St. James” It's a pretty cool album. All my favorite RSJ songs on one CD, which now lives on my iPod. Ahhh, the joys of technology. I remember the very first time I had ever heard of her–we were using one of her songs in a human video for Firepower. That was like… practically 7-8 years ago. Time sure flies, doesn't it? I'm definitely someone who loves to stroll down memory lane and see the sites every now again. It's hard to believe I graduated high school almost 6 years ago. Sigh. It's been an interesting 6 years. Heck, it's been an interesting year! But thats another journal entry.

–Justin and I are focusing the Men's CORE group on Prayer. In doing so, I've been hit with the big revelation(ok, so maybe not that big) that I don't pray nearly enough. If prayer is simply communication with God, why don't we(and I mean 'we' as a general collective of Christians) pray more? I know I can spend hours and hours talking on the phone, on the internet, or reading the latest John Piper book, but when it comes to prayer I can't even barely get an hour in? And an hour is streching it. Majorly streching it. More like 5-10 minutes, if I'm lucky or feeling spiritual. Something I brought up to the group last week: relationships are judged by the amont of time you spend with someone. The more time you spend with someone, the more you know them, and the closer you become. So how close are we to God? Do any of us really have a real relationship with him? You can't have a relationship with someone who you never spend time with. And reading the Bible isn't enough. I mean, imagine reading the same letter from a friend every single day, but never talking to them. How close would you say that relationship is? Probably not very close. And yet I think that is what we as Christians do, and we fool ourselves into thinking that we're close to God, and yet at the end God is going to say is “Depart from me, I never knew you”
And I think it affects our witnessing too. The people that we truely know, it's easy to talk about them. I could talk so easily to a stranger about my mom or my sister or my brother, because I regularly spend time with them and have a 'deep' relationship with them. But ask me to talk to that same stranger about Jesus and I freeze. Why? I don't think it cam simply be explained away as 'witnessing jitters'. I know many people for whom talking about Jesus is the easiest thing to them. And do you know why? Because they are in relationship with Him! Because they talk to Him! Personally, I'm really glad Justin and I decided to tackle this topic. You can't teach something to someone without first knowing it, and how can I help lead a men's group on the importance of prayer if I'm not praying? I do not want to be a hypocrite. Our Savior and the God of the universe has opened his door and desires to commune with us–how dare I slam that door in his face and then turn around and tell the world that He means everything to me! Yes, I will pray more. And I will do it gladly–because I know that there is nothing greater than spending time with Him.

–Larry and Bob are coming to my store on Saturday–it's going to be a busy day. I'm scheduled to get off at 4pm, which is good because it allows me to get to Mosaic pre-service prayer, but I think I'm going to show up really early in the morning. I don't have to be there until 9, but I think if I come in at 6am or 7am I can get ALOT of work done and put the 'finishing touches' on any issues way before we open.

–Tonight is House/Boston legal night. After that I'll probably go kareoke-ing(how in the world do you spell that word?!?) cause it's Erin's last week on the east coast before she goes back to TX. Who knows.. I might just sing a few songs (LOL, yeah right!)