the Eatery ...

my new favorite lunch spot ...
the Eatery ...
downtown next to Nathan's tattoo's ...
i met a couple friends ...
derrick fleck, dan lance and sean gafner ...
the Eatery ...
I nailed a black angus burger with crazy expensive green leaves ...
provolone cheese ...
mushrooms ...
probably the best burger I've ever consumed ...
Paul David is the manager ...
our waitress Rebekah rocked it with the refills ...
the greatest iced caramel machiatto ...
no brewed iced tea ...
enough said ... take your mom out to lunch ...
the Eatery ...

anger issues ...

let's be honest ... growing up, I had anger issues ... I lived for a fight ... at school, at home, in the neighborhood ...

in the 6th grade, I fought the school bully ... he punched me and threw me on the ground ... everyone laughed at me ... with poise, I jumped to my feet and ran toward him like a train ... I knocked him down a steep set of steps ... he rolled to the ground ... then I ran to the principle's office ... by the way, the bully was hispanic ... yep ...

one time, I fought my brother Jeremy in the kitchen ... I was so angry ... I jump kicked him in the face ... true story ... now he's in a rock band ...

in the 8th grade, I was so angry at this guy ... my brother and I schemed a plan to attack him ... Jeremy slowly crouched down behind him ... out of nowhere, I ran at him and threw my body toward his chest ... he flew back and tripped over my sneaky crouching brother ... we broke his arm ... my mom grounded us for a week ...

one night, I fought my friend Dave Reichle in the Applebee's parking lot ... I was so angry at Dave ... he pushed me ... I tiger kicked him in the stomach ... he never pushed me again ...

fortunately, I'm a bit less angry these days ...

i got burgers ...

today was officially the longest day of my life ...

I couldn't sleep last night ... I drank a Caramel Latte too 'latte' in the evening and the caffeine filled my lungs ... I laid in bed until almost 4 o'clock in the morning ... frustrated ... my mind running all night ...

I woke up this morning at 6:10 a.m. ... showered ... threw on tight pants and tight black shirt and drove to Rick Pitcher's church in Rancho Murrieta ... I drank iced tea ... I spoke twice ... Rick and I ate Shrimp fajitas ... I drank more iced tea ...

I picked up my family in Natomas and we drove back to Redding ... I almost fell asleep driving ... I drank a large iced tea ...

I showed up at the Stirring just in time for worship ... Jacob and Jamie brought it ... they are such humble worship leaders ... they disappear ... and God's presence was so real tonight ... at one point, I couldn't stop laughing ... I was so overwhelmed with joy ... God is so good ...

then Dan Lance spoke on loving the least ... Dan has such a burning passion for the least in our city and around the world ... we're so grateful to have Dan and Alyssa on our team ... they bring God's heart for the least ...

quote of the night ... "I got burgers" ... listen to the podcast ...

eagle eye ...

just drove down to Sacramento to hang with family for a couple of days ... we're off to get some dinner and see that new movie Eagle Eye ... I saw the preview a couple of weeks ago ... it looks good ... I think it's about a firefighter and his wife or something ... anyways, I love Kirk Cameron ...

we have such a great time in Sacramento ... I don't think I'd ever want to live here, but I enjoy weekend getaways ... Panera Bread and B.J.'s and Chili's and hot tubs and Borders and the Arden Fair Mall ... good old Sacramento ...

Sunday morning, I'm speaking at Rick Pitcher's in Rancho Murietta ... I'm talking about hearing God's voice ... living face to face with God ... nothing huge ...

then we're cruising back for the Stirring Sunday night ... see you there ...

thank God for coffee shops ...

I spend at least 15 hours a week in coffee shops ...

Tuesday morning at Cypress Starbucks ...
Tuesday afternoon Staff Meeting at Bechelli Yaks ...
Wednesday morning at Downtown Starbucks ...
Thursday morning at Simpson Yaks ...
Friday morning at Cypress Starbucks ...
Friday lunch at Sue's coffee shop ...

and I don't even like coffee ... I'm more of a iced tea guy ...

I'm stoked about the Stirring this weekend ... we've talked about loving God, loving each other and loving the world ... this Sunday night, we're talking about loving the least ... do we see Jesus in the least all around us?

I just finished a short video we're showing at the Stirring this weekend about children and backpacks ... a few weeks ago, we handed out over 200 backpacks to children at Cypress Elementary School ... just a simple way to love children and families in our city ... Jesus loves you, here's a backpack and some white out ... thanks again to Juan for designing such cool shirts for the little tikes at Cypress ... go cougars ...

we love ...

tuesdays ...

tuesdays are great ... Dan threatened me during staff meeting, but I'll get to that later ...

first, I take my daughter to school ... it's 'take my daughter to school tuesdays' ... and every day, she makes me walk her all the way to class ... i'm such a proud father ... hand in hand with my beautiful daughter ...

and then I'm off to Starbucks to hang with God and Dan ... but not today ... Meghan and Dan and I had a urgent meeting at the office this morning at 9 a.m. ... we're planting a Sunday morning Stirring in 18 days ... there's so much to do ... we freaked out ... then pulled it together ... then freaked out a bit more ...

we drove to shirt zone and ordered 229 'we love' shirts ... the bomb ... v-necks and crew cuts and night gowns and kids shirts and onesies ... amazing ... can't wait to show off Asher's chest hair ...

lunch at Tai Cafe ... drunken noodles and evil prince ... good old times ...

off to Yaks coffee shop for Tuesday staff meeting ... Jacob and Hannah joined us today ... 10 of us around one little table ... thanking God, drinking coffee and talking about the elephant in the church ... today we laughed more than anything ... I think we needed it ...

and then I started talking about Heroes and season three and Mohinder and Sylar and Adam Monroe ... now, Dan is still watching season one and he was getting frustrated ... but I kept talking and talking and talking ... so Dan threatened me ... "if you keep talking about Heroes, I'll shank you in the shower" ...

don't mess with Dan ... three words ... bald, tattoos and shank ...

Jesus is my friend ...

If you haven't seen this, you're missing out. I talked to the worship team and I think we're going to start doing this song at the Stirring. Zap!