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Everything Is Different Review and The Holidays

I have to start today's post with a quick review of my favorite band's, Shane and Shane, new album which is entitled "Everything Is Different". At first listen, it wasn't my favorite album and a few of the songs I was unsure about. However, I've had the CD in my car playing non stop for the last week and it has really grown on me. As all musicians, these guys continue to grow musically and lyrically. They took a very simplistic approach on this album using simple chord progressions and not a ton of extra programming and created an album that reflects their heart of worship and adoration. The lyrics are powerful and are completely saturated with the gospel found in Scripture. A lot of it is verbatim out of the Word of God, which is never a bad thing. As a worship leader, I do have to say there aren't a lot of songs on here that would translate well to a congregational setting, but I can assure you this album will challenge you, encourage you, lead you to the throne as well as comfort you in whatever emotions of life you are in at the time you listen. I've already figured out 4 or 5 of the songs on guitar and have enjoyed playing them. I wasn't thrilled that several of the songs were written in alternate tunings, but I can't really blame Shane Barnard for his creativity and growth instrumentally and as a song writer, it's quite impressive. It's hard to pin down one or two favorites, but the ones that stand above the others so far are Everything Is Different, I'm Alive, Worthy of Affection, Great Reward and their version of The Lord's Prayer, which I wasn't thrilled about at first, but really like now. You can go to http://shaneandshane.com/ to watch a few videos and get more information on the CD, but I highly recommend buying it and wearing it out.

In other news, Brittany and I finally had a chance to enjoy a date night together this past Friday. We drove down to Buckhead and enjoyed an amazing dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. In fact, we also enjoyed our leftovers the next day for lunch. It's nice when you pay a lot for dinner that you actually get a lot of food and can keep some for later. Anyways, I have been sick since last Thursday so that hasn't been too much fun, but luckily I have an amazing wife to take care of me and a really strong immune system as well. I seem to be almost all the way better now.

As the holidays near I get excited about a lot and also a little anxious. I love getting to spend time with family and friends and all the festivities that are involved with this time of year. I love Christmas music and it is almost time to start listening to it, haha. I don't like all the time spent traveling in the car or the money spent and stress that can sometimes come out, but I think we all are in that same boat. For example, there isn't much in this world that I enjoy doing more than giving gifts or serving people. Yes, part of that is my people pleaser side that I have tried to get away from, but most of it is just the enjoyment in doing something for someone else. However, since we don't exactly make a ton of money, we have be very frugal with how we spend, who we buy for, what we get. I mean, last year we couldn't even buy presents for each other, although my homemade Christmas card for Brittany was one of a kind and she loved it. Just ask her. With that said, I am going to try this holiday season to enjoy everything and to rejoice in the blessings the Lord has given to me. I will enjoy the driving, the spending, the planning, the activities, the cleaning, the wrapping, and all the "busy" stuff. I will also enjoy spending time with my wife as much as possible, time with family, both original and new. I will enjoy celebrating the true meaning of Christmas in that of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You see, in our country and culture, these times have become so much about go and do and buy and plan and bake and all these action verbs that cloud our minds and use up our time and bank accounts. But what if this year we decided to not focus on those things, but focus on what really matters? What if we rejoice in the goodness of our Savior? What if we enjoy actual quality time with loved ones and really engage each other in fellowship? What if we decided to not let the little things get us down or stress us out? What if Jesus was King of our lives and the object of our affection rather than the things we want or get this year?

I'm not saying that traditions and festivities are bad, so don't take that. All I am saying is prioritize what is truly important. If you are a parent, teach your children the joy of giving rather than the expectancy of receiving. If you are married, spend time with your spouse and treasure them high above stuff. Love and peace always and may you bask in the radiance of the glory of Christ this season. He alone can satisfy. He has created nothing that will give you more pleasure than Him.

C&B
Hayes Party of Two

Wicky Wicky Wild Wild Weekend

After a long and busy week, the weekend has finally arrived. This weekend is kind of great and also not great. It's going to be a whole lot of fun, but is so busy will not be very restful. Tonight we have a meeting for the Amazing Chase at church. It's very similar to the Amazing Race on CBS, a big scavenger hunt all over the city of Rome that has clues, puzzles, challenges, and all of that. Tonight we find out all the details and the Chase starts tomorrow morning around 9 and then goes until around 1 concluding with a cookout. Brittany and I have been on the winning team for each of the first two years and look to make it three in a row tomorrow, but it won't be easy. We do have a great team though again this year. We are partnering with Andrew and Jessica Smith, who were married the same day as us and Jessica and Brittany even wore the exact same dress. We are really looking forward to competing and having a great time. We named our team the 614 Champs, 614 coming from June 14th, the day we all became married folk last year. Wish us luck!

Saturday, after we finish with the Amazing Chase, we are driving up to Cloudland, GA to spend some time with another couple who are some great friends, Travis and Beth Milhan. We've tried to get up to their property for months, but each time something came up and we were not able to. That will also be a lot of fun I think, although I don't know how much energy we will have left.

Sunday is another great morning of worship at Three Rivers. Afterwards, we are helping out at a Fall Festival taking place at Garden Lakes Baptist Church, where Travis and Beth are the youth directors and helped do a lot of the planning for this. Me and the band that played with me at The Nest last month are performing, which will be great. We are doing a set from 4:45-5:30 and then doing a worship set from 6-6:45. The festival runs from 3-7pm over all and should be a great time. The weather looks to be great and hopefully there will be a good turnout. Once the day winds down, the weekend will be quickly over. As I said before, that is the only bad thing about a packed weekend, is just little time to sleep and take it easy.

Hopefully, some pictures and/or videos will come in a near future post to show some highlights of the weekend.

Lastly, did anyone else notice how we went straight from summer to winter? That was crazy. One week it was in the high 80's, low 90's and then all of a sudden it's 40 degrees outside. What happened to Fall? Oh well, Fall finally showed up this week and other than the rain, the weather has been beautiful. This weekend should bring some really nice temperatures and some beautiful colors that fall is well known for. Rome is amazing in the Fall with all the leaves changing, especially on Berry's campus. I can remember driving or walking around campus as a student and just been amazed at God's creation. That stuff just never gets old even when we take it for granted sometimes. Take time this season to truly enjoy the majesty of creation and it's Creator. God bless.

C&B
Hayes Party of Two

Videos

This one will be short and sweet. I promised that I would post some videos from my first concert at The Nest, but instead of uploading them all on the blog, which would take a long time, you can see them in one of two places.

http://www.youtube.com/chdisciple

http://www.facebook.com/chdisciple

Hope you enjoy them.

C&B
Hayes Party of Two

Happy Birthday Martha!

This weekend included the annual Berry College festivities known as Mountain Day. Now, for those of you who did not go to Berry, you would call this tradition crazy, dumb, borderline fruity, and many other descriptions that I've heard over the years. However, if you look at most school's traditions, the actual act is pretty silly, but the tradition and history of it is great and means a lot to those who share that common bond. Mountain Day is no exception. Basically it is a whole weekend filled with olympics, alumni reunions and projects, athletic events, carnival, picnic, chapel services and of course the Grand March. I'll give a quick description for those who have no earthly clue what the heck I am talking about. On Saturday, up at the Mountain Campus (WinShape), there is a huge outdoor picnic and then starting at 1:00pm, all the students line up by gender in two lines (one with boys, one with girls) starting with seniors up front and going down to lower classmen. Senior boys where white shirts, senior girls where blue shirts, all other boys where blue shirts and all other girls wear pink. Then the march begins. Both single file lines start heading down the hill and when they get to the bottom, they place a handful of change (the amount is supposed to be your age) into the basket, then walk back up the hill in two's (typically one boy/one girl, but there are a lot more girls, so you get the idea). They come back down the hill in 2's, then go back up in 4's. This process repeats until the final march down the hill in row's of 16. Then everyone stops and the soccer team does their special chant and every sings (or fakes) the Alma Mater. I know, you are still lost, but it's tradition. It symbolizes the idea of multiplication. Martha Berry, one of the greatest female pioneers the stated of Georgia has ever had, was a Christian and believed in the principle of multiplication. You touch one or two lives, then those touch one or two, and so on and so on until millions have been reached. Martha believed this and lived it out giving of her time, energy, money, land, experience, resources, connections, and everything she had to impact the lives of young people and to provide them with a future. Brittany and I are two of the many people positively affected by her sacrifice and commitment to education. Thank you Martha!

It was a good day seeing old friends and classmates, many I only see this time every year. Brittany was able to catch up with many friends as well and we had a good time. Saturday evening we went to a benefit get together with many current and former Berry students. Quick story: a friend of ours, Mike "Gooch" Hearn, was in a motorcycle accident a few weeks ago and currently is paralyzed from the chest down and given only a 5% chance to walk. Some people decided to get a bunch of his friends together, held a silent auction, spent time celebrating his life and trying to raise money and prayers and support to help pay for medical bills and just to show love for Mike. His girlfriend, Ellen, also a good friend of ours was there and very appreciative of the turnout. If you are reading this and feel compelled to give/donate, please let me know and I will make sure and give you more information on how to do that. Here is a picture of Brittany and I at the event:



I want to leave you all with some thoughts. We serve a huge God. Not only is he big enough to let Mike walk again, which I pray is the case, but he is big enough to change the lives of many people out of it. God doesn't perform miracles just so that we can be better off. Sure, he wants to do great things for those He loves, but that is a biproduct of his purpose. God does miracles so that he will become more famous, more glorified, known throughout the world, adored, feared, praised, honored, and seen as holy and gracious and good (just a couple of his attributes). Keep in mind that miracles come in all shapes and sizes. From the miracle of a baby, to physical healing, to the saving of nations, and so on. Jesus brought people back to life, healed sickness, cured blindness, turned water into wine, walked on water, changed the lives of everyone who would know him and follow after him, changed the minds of kings, showed kindness to servants, spent time with sinners and lived a life full of miracles. Brittany and I could talk for hours about the things the Lord has done to provide for us, encourage us, grow us, bring us back to him and sometimes just to remind us he is with us. Some bigger than others, but all with the same purpose of glorifying Himself and then for our good. Psalm 84 says "no good thing does he withhold from those who love him." Nothing in Scripture is on accident or without purpose. The Word of God was written so that we would know it and nothing in it is worth skipping over or taking lightly. That includes promises, commandments, stories, and yes, even the Old Testament. I know, shocker, but yes it is still important and applies today and should be read. I say all of this with great conviction because I need more than 2 hands to count the number of Bibles in my home, but still don't read it with enough regularity or passion. People ask, "how do I become more like Christ?" I think the answer starts with knowing him, reading his words, meditating and memorizing it, and sharing it with others. This applies to me as much if not more than anyone and I pray that the Lord takes my heart and mind and gives me the desire to know him and his word so much better and to live it daily. I forget exactly where this comes from, but somewhere in the Old Testament the writer states that he longs to hear from the Lord more than food. Sorry for the loose translation and lack of remembering the reference of the text, again another reason I need to be reading more. Still, what an incredible passion and hunger to know God that he would wake up in the morning and before wanting breakfast, or wanting to sleep longer or do anything else, he longs to spend time with God, listening and hearing from the Lord. My desire is that I would be like that and I simply am not there at all. It's sometimes hard for me to sing songs that talk about Jesus being better than life and things like that because my actions don't echo that. What songs do you sing that are hard because you don't really mean the words, or that your life doesn't show it? If you do this, you are not alone. God, please change the hearts of those who don't long for you more than everything else. You satisfy our every need and give us life, what more shall we want? I leave you with the lyrics of one of my favorite hymns that we do a lot at Three Rivers with a modern tune, but the words are powerful. May God bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and be gracious, and give you peace!

All my life long, I had panted
For a drink from some cool spring
That I hoped would quench the burning
Of the thirst I felt within

Hallelujah, He has found me
The one my soul so long has craved
Jesus satisfies all my longings
Through His blood I now am saved

Feeding on the filth around me
Until my strength was almost gone
Longed me soul for something better
Only still to hunger on

Poor I was and sought for riches
Something that would satisfy
But the dust I gathered round me
Only mocked my soul's sad cry

Well of water ever springing
Bread of Life so rich and free
Untold wealth that never faileth
My Redeemer is to me!

Yeah, I know it's been a while

I'm guessing you can tell how busy we are since we haven't posted in like 3 weeks, but what are you gonna do? So I had another full band concert at The Nest here in Rome last Friday and I thought it went really well. We had a great turnout considering the weather and the fact it's football night for anyone with kids in high school or even those who just like to go. We had a great set of songs and desptie not being able to practice much, I was pleased overall with our performance. It's fun getting to play different types of music and performing in that type of setting. I mean, my calling and passion in life is leading worship and I will never prefer performance over that, but it's fun to do every once in a while. However, it takes up a lot of time and energy to put something like that together so I am probably not going to do it again for a while. At some point, I'll be able to get some videos from our July performance up on here and on Facebook so those who missed out will have a chance to check it out.

Big news for us this week by the way! Haha, no we aren't pregnant, for all those who are probably thinking that. But we did pay off a credit card and are on our way to paying off the other. Dave Ramsey is a smart fellow. The feeling of small accomplishments and success can go a long way when trying to become debt free. We paid for a lot of things with our wedding and honeymoon ourselves so we finally got the rest of that stuff paid off. Once we get the other card paid off, we'll be able to hit our student loans hard. Alas, I cannot wait for the day when we do not have to make anymore payments for our Berry College education, which come this May, will include 2 Bachelor's degrees and a Masters degree (for Brittany). It's money well spent, but it will be even better when we don't have to spend anymore. We have needs (that really means wants, but sounds better) that we need to meet and it will be nice to afford them.

With all of this busyness of late, I think my wife and I could really use a vacation. I don't think we'll get one until next summer, but it would be so amazing to be able to get away for a week. I wish I was one of those people who has a good friend or relative with a beach house or cabin or something or works for a cruise liner and can hook us up. Unfornuately, I was not blessed in that particular way, which is okay, but it would be nice sometimes. I know Brittany will be glad to be done with Grad School and this school year and actually have a summer to spend not doing school work and be able to travel a little. Our budgetary constraints will not allow us to venture very far for very long, but should hopefully provide at least one great trip, maybe two :)

As I write I'm listening to some Dave Barnes right now, good stuff. What is your favorite artist and/or song right now?

Grumblings and Observations

So, here are some recent observations I've made that I feel the need to comment on. Let's start in the pop culture realm. I find it really sad that the two biggest influences on children/teenagers via movies and books right now include a series about vampires and one about magic. Now, for those of you who really enjoy Harry Potter and Twilight, I'm not condemning anyone or saying that it is completely wrong to watch them or to let your children read/watch them, that's not my point. I just think that there should be some better content out there. I remember growing up and watching shows like Saved By the Bell, Family Matters, Full House, all shows that have some good moral lessons and a sense of family that is important. Sure there are some cheesy moments, but it is at least clean and wholesome. I grew up watching tons of Disney movies and things like that as well. Now, there just seems to be so much garbage in movies and TV that it is playing a huge role in shaping the minds of our country's young people. Don't even get me started with the internet and cell phones, haha.

I am also not the type of person to spend too much time discussing politics, but I find it really concerning that our country is in one of the worst states it has ever been, and our new president is about to head on his second vacation. I'm all for family fun, but I just have to think that there is a lot of work that could be done right now, or at least our leader should be giving off the impression that he is working tirelessly to come up with solutions and get this country back on its feet. Not to mention all the time he has spent on Sportscenter and talking about sports or at ballgames. Again, I know that is a hard position, but in my opinion, it just seems that he has spent so much time marketing himself and getting on TV, that in the meantime, our country continues to dive more and more into the ground and a lot of people are really hurting because of it. I thank God every day that my wife and I have jobs, a roof over a head, and food to eat. God has truly blessed us, although we are in no way "rich". I work with clients every day that really want to work, but are really struggling to find it and it breaks my heart. I know God is in control and that allows me to have hope, but at the same time it is scary to think where will be in 3 or 4 years. Well, I hope the President has a nice vacation.

Lastly, I am proud to say I am part of a church that "gets it". I feel like the church in North America has become so consumed with consuming. What I mean by that, is I see a lot of Wal-mart in today's church. Do you know what I mean? People show up on Sunday morning and the fill up on things for the next week and pick and choose what to receive. Not only that, but so many churches seem to use all of their efforts and resources to try and fill more seats, or build more buildings, start more programs that are designed for the people inside. However, what is being done down the street in the community? What kind of impact are they having globally? Why do people feel that the church is there for them? It's not, the church is meant to look like Jesus, act like Jesus, point others to Jesus, take Jesus to others and so on. I'm not saying Sunday School or Bible Study isn't important, not at all. Jesus didn't make the Great Commission optional, or just for those who feel "called" to do it. It doesn't work that way. Everyone saved by the grace of Jesus Christ is called to impact the world locally and globally. Not everyone has to spend a week in Africa, but should be investing, praying, sending, going if they can. Or just realize that missions can mean working in your community. Again, I'm not perfect and don't have it all figured out and this paragraph is just as much for me as anyone. Until we realize that all Christians are on the same team, division and lack of sharing the good news will continue. We tell others to live like Jesus, but I don't remember Jesus ever spending all his time inside the doors of church filling up on things. No, He lived out among the lost. Jesus spent time with murderers, adulterers, thieves......sinners. If that's the case, why aren't we spending time with sinners. Hear me, it is not the Pastor's job to preach the gospel, it is the responsibility and should be the joy of every believer. I fail in this every day, but I long so much for my life to be an imitation of our King Jesus. It does no good to invite someone to church and have them listen to the Pastor if you aren't willing to invest in their life and to live Jesus out in their life. I'll leave you all with one of my favorite quotes: "Preach the gospel every day, and when necessary, use words."

C&B
Hayes Party of Two