Book Review: When Work and Family Collide

Well, if you haven’t figured out by now, I’m a fan of the material Andy Stanley and his team at North Point produce.  They consistently use their worldwide platform to introduce transformational biblical principles into our lives.  

I had the opportunity to read Andy Stanley’s book When Work & Family Collide.  Even though this is a short book at only 133 pages, it is packed full of good useful information to help us prioritize our families over our jobs.  It took me only two days to completely read this book and my copy is just about fully marked up with highlighter and notes.  

What I love about this book the most was that he uses examples of real life people that he personally knows.  The principles in this book can apply to men, women, professionals, ministers, stay-at-home parents, self-employed and obsessed hobbyist but, it also applies to ME and to YOU.  

In it’s simplest form, this book is about priorities and discipline.  Our priorities are simply what we give our time to.  When we give more of that time to our jobs than our families, our families tend to feel taken advantage of, or like the don’t matter to us anymore.  Andy helps us learn the difference between saying our family is a priority, and literally making them a priority.  He also shows how to be disciplined in choosing to make our spouses and children priorities.  

I received a free copy of Andy Stanley’s book When Work and Family Collide from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers to review. If you would like a copy of this book I suggest buying it from Amazon.com. 

Video - Where Were You

This video is really special to me.  For the 10th anniversary of September 11 we were able to do something completely different than we've ever done in church before, play a country song by Alan Jackson.  Now that may not seem like a big deal for some people, but it's not a normal thing to do in a church service.

Anyway, this song set up a remembrance video that you can find in one of my older post here.  

Here is Alan Jackson's "Where Were You" as played by me and the Riverside Band. 

Video - Happy Day

In continuing with posting some videos of mine, here is one of me and the Riverside Band leading worship with Tim Hughes' "Happy Day." This really is a great song with some amazing lyrics.  Hope you enjoy.

Happy Day Lyrics

Verse 1:
The greatest day in history, Death is beaten
You have rescued me
Sing it out Jesus is alive
The empty cross, The empty grave
Life eternal You have won the day
Shout it out Jesus is alive
He's alive


Chorus:
Oh happy day, happy day
You washed my sin away
Oh happy day, happy day
I'll never be the same
Forever I am changed


Verse 2:
When I stand, in that place
Free at last, meeting face to face
I am Yours Jesus You are mine
Endless joy, perfect peace
Earthly pain finally will cease
Celebrate Jesus is alive
He's alive


Bridge:
Oh what a glorious day
What a glorious way
That You have saved me
Oh what a glorious day
What a glorious name

Video - All I Can Say

I've been going through my computer this week, cleaning out old files and such, and ran across some videos that I had shot while down at Riverside Church in the New Orleans area.  So over the next few days I'll be putting them up here for your enjoyment.
This first video is a solo of me playing David Crowder's "All I Can Say"

Here are the lyrics to this wonderful song

Verse 1:
Lord I'm tired
So tired from walking
And Lord I'm so alone
And Lord the dark
Is creeping in
Creeping up
To swallow me
I think I'll stop
Rest here a while

Chorus:
And this is all that I can say right now
And this is all that I can give

Verse 2:
And didn't You see me cry'n?
And didn't You hear me call Your name?
Wasn't it You I gave my heart to?
I wish You'd remember
Where you sat it down

Verse 3:

I didn't notice You were standing here
I didn't know that
That was You holding me
I didn't notice You were cry'n too
I didn't know that
That was You washing my feet

Power in the small things

So while my wife and I have been living with her sister here in the lovely Shreveport area we were given the option to help out with some landscaping around the house.  Since they have been so generous as to let us stay with them without really asking for anything in return we had no problem helping out.  (I must say, before I get in trouble,  that my wife is the one who has been doing most of the work!)  But anyway... 


We got to a point a couple of weeks ago where we needed to cut down a bunch of old, dead bushes so I borrowed a chainsaw from good ole Dad.  Well when I went to get the saw, I thought I was getting the big one, you know, the big Stihl Farm Boss.  But instead he gave the his smaller chainsaw.  Now I actually forgot about this one because as a guy, I like power tools to be big and loud! Needless to say, when I opened the case I was a little disappointed.


After getting started cutting and chopping down bushes, vines, and trees, I was really amazed at the usefulness and power of this small saw.  See, had he given me the big powerful one, it would have been overly heavy and difficult to maneuver in the small places I needed to be.  The little one wound up being perfect for the job at hand.  


When I finished cutting I stopped and looked at everything laying on the ground and in that quick moment God reminded me of the parable of the mustard seed from Matthew 13:31-32.  In this parable Jesus says, "... The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.  Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches." Here's a couple of pictures.





This is great because Jesus is telling us that he can use the smallest of things, and make really big things.  I mean think about it, the first thing we know about God was that he created everything out of nothing.  It should be no surprise that he can use the small things to make big things.  


All this makes me think, what are the small things in my life that have grown into big things?  Are all of these things truth, or lies?  Yes, the devil can speak little bitty lies into our lives that have the power to send us down a path filled with bigger lies that we never would have believed without that first, very small lie.  What starts out as a small white lie or half truth can turn into a massive destructive force in our lives.  


But what about the things God has done in our lives? What are the small steps you've taken in faith that have led you down a path you never would have imagined?  I'm sure that looking back you can see exactly how God worked in your life.  At least I know I can.  I can see exactly where he worked in my life to get me where I am today.  

Don't get me wrong though, I mess up all the time.  I usually don't include God in the small decisions of life.  I forget this principle: small things will grow into big things.  Nevertheless, I'm on a journey to include God in every arena of my life, even in the smallest of thoughts and decisions.  


David

Build Your Own Clone

Ok, so maybe the title got your attention or maybe it didn't.  Anyway, this post is about a website I found that sells kits for one to build a clone of a popular guitar effect.  Well, since I like to play around with electronic stuff I really wanted to give this a try, so I bought a clone of a popular distortion pedal.  The company said this was their easiest pedal to assemble but the real reason I got it was the fact that it was the cheapest!

I had a lot of fun putting it together over the course of a couple of days and it turned out to work pretty nicely.  It's also something that I will most likely use in my pedal chain, maybe not what it was designed for, but what would work best for me, a boost pedal.  Below are some pictures of the progress.  I hope to be able to get some audio/video clips soon so you can hear the magic!

Here's the kit all together straight out of the box

Work station.  Notice the necessities, Dr.Pepper and the MacBook

Circuit board assembled.

Insides assembled

Outside view.

Guts fully assembled.

Final.  One of the changes I made that you won't normally see in guitar effects is the green LED.  I had a few extra from an old project and figured I give it a little bit of a different color.  It works nicely. 

If you would like to get your own clone, go to www.buildyourownclone.com. They have tons of great guitar effects to build for any guitar enthusiast.