Going Through the Motions

I listen to K-Love every day, whether on the radio (99.3 here in the Allegheny County/Southern Butler County areas) or streaming online in my office (www.KLove.com) while I work. KLove is a Christian radio station that plays non-stop Christian music. This is a good thing for me, as I'm used to previously enduring all day preaching shows on WORD-FM. I enjoy several of those preachers, in fact Dr. David Jeremiah is my favorite preacher (other than Pastor Chris, of course!).

So anyway ... yesterday in the AM they had a special guest artist in the studio. I always think that's cool. Most of these guys bring a guitar in and sound better by themselves over the radio than I would with a hundred hours of practice AND remastering in a studio. Yesterday's guest was a guy named Matthew West. Many of you might have heard of him, many of you might not (to paraphrase a line from the movie "Sky High").

He wrote this incredible song entitled, "The Motions". There's an entire movement that has ensued as a result of this song. In fact, if you want you can check it out on his blog at www.MatthewWest.com. So I come to find out that this song was, at least in part, born out of a personal time of silence that he endured following career-threatening vocal chord surgery a couple of years ago. Yeah ... maybe I should have that surgery ... have you heard him sing lately?! :-)

As I've listened to the song on KLove a thousand times this past couple of days, I find that I myself am doing nothing more than going through the motions. The tendency I have is to say that this is not a good thing at all. Yet, I'm beginning to wonder if maye sometimes it's OK. I mean that in a temporary way, though.

Consider: the past few days, I've admittedly had a poor time of life. My mother in fact used the phrase this morning that describes it well. "Stop the world! I want to get off!" That's exactly how I felt. I wanted to just quit everything - at least for the time being. Yet I'm confronted with the consequences of my actions in that sense, however. There are certain things that I think are better to be doing half heartedly than not at all. Among them would be the various interactive aspects of our relationship with the Lord: prayer, reading the word, worship, ministry, etc.

You see, I don't think that it would benefit me in the least to stop these things completely. I think, and I may be wrong here, that it would be better to at least go through the motions with that stuff for a short period of time, trusting that God will speak and pull us (me) out of this period of the 'doldrums'.

At the same time, we can't live a life this way. Matthew West experienced a period of time wherein he HAD to be silent - he effectively had to go through the motions of life. Yet, it was for a purpose. There are times when we do go through the motions, and it's even better to do that than nothing in some cases, but we can't live a life that way. That doesn't take advantage of the time the Lord has given to us - and none of us knows how long that will be.

So what about you? Are you going through the motions? Are you living each day with meaning and purpose ... and living it on purpose to the glory of God?

One of "Those" Days

Ever had on of those days? You know the type. I'm talking about one of those days when, from the moment your feet hit the floor, it seems like nothing goes quite right, let alone smoothly. Yeah, we've all had days like that.

So I'm sitting in my office today, as I type this, realizing that today is DEFINITELY one of "those" days for me. In fact, I just updated my facebook status to read, "Scott Winter is not having a good day". Yeah, it's been one of those days.

Yet, at the same time, I find that I probably should have seen it coming. Last week in CrossFire, I preached on the fact that God is on our side (you can read about it here). This morning on the way to work, I'm praying as I'm driving (which is normal for me) and asking that God just give me some grace today, because, from the get-go, I felt alone and almost helpless. Yeah ... should have seen it coming.

Oh, and guess what else? As I was praying, I was reminding myself (and God, too!) that He promised He would never leave me or forsake me; I was reminding myself that His word says that He is a friend that sticks closer than a brother; I was reminding myself of some of the very passages of Scripture that were in my message last week. And on top of all of that, I was reminding myself that there are times when I just have to stand upon those promises - no matter what. Yeah, definitely should have seen this coming!

But the truth that I'm reminded of both now and earlier today is that God is on our side ... even when we're in over our heads and can't seem to figure out which way is up. Hebrews 13 tells us that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever". If God told Joshua that He would be with him wherever he went, then we can know that God is with us wherever we go ... even if that means that, emotionally, we're sliding toward that proverbial "deep end"!

So be encouraged, and know that I'm trying to be encouraged, too. God IS with us ... even on one of "THOSE" days.

40th Annual Dove Awards

So, I felt like this followed up well on the heels of American Idol, my first "Rants" blog. Seeing as there were at least two former American Idol contestants nominated for a Dove Award, it seemed like a logical progression.

For those who don't know what the Dove Awards are, they are presented each year (since 1969) by the Gospel Music Association of America. Essentially, it's a Christian Grammy. This is especially meaningful to those in the Contemporary Christian music industry, seeing as they get little love from the Grammy's.

My sons, Tyler and Kyle, would be thrilled to know, if only they would understand, that their FAVORITE song EVER won a Dove Award for Rock/Contemporary Song of the Year - "Washed by the Water" by NeedtoBreathe. (If you ask Ty and Kyle, it's called "Even When the Rain Falls", after the first line of the chorus.) They would be so happy ... they can sing the ENTIRE song, and stomp/clap the rhythm while singing.

My only major issues are with the Female Vocalist of the Year award and the New Artist of the Year award. I'm beginning to believe the the Female Vocalist award ought to be renamed the "Natalie Grant Will Win ... AGAIN" award. I like her stuff, but there were others out there who might have been more deserving (Francesca Battistelli, anyone?).

The other award that I have issue with is the New Artist award. Tenth Avenue North won ... and primarily on the strength of their incredible new song. However, there were others that I would have preferred to see win, most prominently Francesca Battistelli and Chris Sligh. Those two are amazing.

Also ... I would have liked to see Mandisa win something in the Gospel track of the awards. I thought that all three of her songs this year, from her debut album, "Mandisa" were excellent. While I'm not much of a gospel affficionado, I do like her stuff. It's actually fairly mainstream in it's presentation.

So ... not much to say today, obviously. But I'm thinking that at least someone might find it interesting that the Dove Awards happened ... and almost no one noticed. Yahoo! got Steven Curtis Chapman on their front page on Friday, however. He won Artist of the Year, and this after the loss of his adopted daughter Maria (from China) nearly a year ago now.

Rants: American Idol

I'm going to start this new thing on the Blog ... it's going to be called "Rants". I'm gonna do it because, frankly, some times stuff just irritates me. This first edition is about one such event. Check it out ...

So, those of you who know me well know that I am an unabashed "American Idol" fan. Ok, that probably stops short ... I can name most of every top 12 since season 4 ... I guess that means I have serious issues?

Anyway ... this season is by far the best of all 8 to date; it's eclipsing even season 5, which had (until now) turned out to be the best, and most talented, top 10 - period. More contestants from that season have CD's out (and are actually SELLING THEM), than any other season. People from season 5 you might recognize? Taylor Hicks, who proved that white men really CAN'T dance; Elliot Yamin, who's got a top-selling R&B album; Kellie Pickler, who had no idea how to pronounce 'salmon' but has sold 100,000+ country CD's; Bucky Covington, a likable but quirky guy who had a quick-rising country hit; and of course, Chris Daughtry - a double-platinum solo artist who, other than Carrie Underwood, has had more success than any other Idol in history. Oh yeah ... Daughtry finished FOURTH in season 5. So, to say the least, season 5 was the best. Until now, that is.

Why am I blogging about American Idol? Becuase I'm quite upset at this week's results. See, if you watch the show, you'll know that Anoop Desai was eliminated this Wednesday. I'd come home from a fabulous CrossFire service ... and I was quite excited to crank up the DVR and watch Idol. It was even a double-elimination show since they'd saved Matt Giraud the week before.

Yet, to my dismay, they announced that Anoop had been voted off. AAAAHHH!! How could this happen?? I'm a major Danny Gokey fan, but Anoop was like my second choice ... or at least really close in that category with Kris Allen. (Yeah ... I'm ridiculous ...) So anyway ... check out this video of Anoop singing his R&B version of "Dim All the Lights" ... a disco CLASSIC.

Yeah. He's good.

Every year it gets to this point - there's about 5 or 6 (sometimes fewer) that are really close in talent level and popularity. This year, it was ... oh NINE that were at that point. So each week, someone's goota go. I'm just steamed that America thought Anoop was the one to go ... stink! Matt (whom the judges saved last week in the Top 7 show) really bombed with his rendition of 'Staying Alive". I thought that should have killed him, honestly. Anoop was way better! AAAAAHHH!!

So that's my rant ... I'll be back next week with something else, I'm sure.

On a positive note, tonight my wife and I are going to take in the Mars Area High School's Key Club Talent Show. We have several of our students from CrossFire doing a human video to the LifeHouse song, 'Everything'. It's been a real trip watching Satan try to prevent and/or hinder the ministry that's going to take place in a public high school talent show tonight! But he has not won - he will not win - these students are refusing to be denied! Check back this weekend for a complete update (and maybe even a video!).

On Your Side

So, it's been way to long since I posted last. In fact, I was talking with one of my colleagues in the office yesterday saying that I think I'm on a once-a-month schedule with this blog now. That's not quite what I had envisioned when I started. But, by the same token, I don't want to just rant on here ... I like to share it when I feel like God has something to say - to me and to you.

So today, I have something to share. Here we go ...

I love to see God moving. I especially love it when he's moving in students' lives. Last night in CrossFire, my message was entitled, "On Your Side". We've been in a four-week series called Commercial Christianity. It's inspired by many of the commercials that we see on TV; products that we're all familiar with such as Mountain Dew ("Do the Dew"), MasterCard ("Priceless"), Orbit Gum ("Cleans up a Dirty Mouth") and Nationwide Insurance ("Nationwide is On Your Side"). You can see some of the obvious spiritual parallels.

In the midst of this series, it just seemed like God wanted to really challenge our hearts and minds - and stretch us to get rid of some of the junk that's inside our hearts. In fact, the third message in the series was entitled "Clean Up a Dirty Heart". God challeneged students (and leaders ... no one's exempt from God's voice) to clean up the junk on the inside that shows itself through our outward actions.

But last night, I really felt like God wanted to encourage the students. There's a bunch of students in CrossFire that are facing seemingly impossible situations in their lives. The challenging part for me was that, despite feeling strongly about the direction of the message, and having a general sense of where I felt God wnted it to go, it just wasn't coming. I really get nervous and edgy when that happens.

Here I sit in my office; it's four o'clock on Wednesday, and all I have is an introduction to the message. Grrrr. But God had something in store. As I began to work on the message again, it started to come. That's a typical thing ... sometimes, though I just need to relax and trust God; other times I need to get myself out of the way. But God's alwyas faithful to meet the needs of the students through His word.

Where's this going? God moved ... and I'm so excited when I can see tangible evidence of that. The context of the message was that we can be certian that God is on our side - even when it seems like we're in over our heads; even when we're being tempted, He's on our side. And since God is on our side, we should be on the side of others, as Galatians 6:10 says.

It's amazing to me to see students come rushing to the altars, and more importantly to God, giving their burdens to Him, trusting Him, asking Him to carry them and support them in times when they can't do it on their own. I find that, in my life, there are too many situations that I think I CAN handle on my own. Really, I need to give EVERYTHING to Him; I need to give EVERY situation to God, whether I can handle it on my own or not; whether it's stressful or not. It ALL needs to go to Him.

Check the sermon audio section of the blog in the next few days ... I'm going to post a recording of the message (unfortunately, I missed recording a few key pieces, though). I hope that it speaks to you where you're at ... because God is ON YOUR SIDE, no matter what!