New York

My wife and I leave tomorrow for our anniversary trip. We're going to New York for 3 days. We've never left the kids before for longer than just during the day when we're gone just for fun (we went to a conference for 3 days a couple of years ago). We're both really excited. It will be nice to experience NYC with my wife. Neither of us has been before, so I'm sure we'll look like wide-eyed tourists the whole time.
We get back on Saturday night and then the next day I get to preach. I'm really excited about that, too, it's just going to be kind of rushed making sure that I'm ready for it. JM

Mother's Day Message

This message that I'm working on for Mother's Day is tough. I just feel so constrained. I don't know how to get to an impassioned point when I feel like I have to say that I love mothers and we all should be grateful for them.
I'm kind of just saying screw that and talking about how mother's should be.
I'm also finding lots of asides that don't really fit into my message, but they are funny thoughts, so I'm extremely tempted to share them during my message.
I always picture this invisible door when I speak. Through the door are random tangential stories that come to mind when I'm speaking. I'm always tempted to open the door and share the story, but I know a lot of times it will kill people's focus. I think doing it sometimes keeps things fresh and authentic. Plus it really helps me share what I'm thinking of. It might not always be the best thing, so I really try to limit it, but it's fun to go through that door. JM

Matthew 15:21-28

The power of faith is incredible. Jesus loves to compliment people who have great faith. I love this story because the woman is desperate. She is passionate about pursuing Jesus because she has a personal need. She wants to see her daughter be happy again. She wants to be able to interact with her daughter like she used to. She misses her daughter.
But Jesus doesn't want to help her. Probably because it would make everybody freak out. Whatever the reason, he only does it because of her persistence. She is passionately pursuing Jesus because she knows that he is the only one that can make her world right again. I think this is the passage that I'll use for mother's day. I'll have to try to develop this tomorrow. I'm excited about speaking, though. JM

Mother's Day Idea

Song - That I Would Be Good - Alanis Morissette
Okay, so what if the main goal of the message was to talk about how women want to be seen as successful and perfect and they try to hide all of their flaws.
Some stuff to use could be the opening of Desperate Housewives where the lady talks about how perfect her life seemed and then she kills herself.
People desire to be seen as having no imperfections. Women especially. Botox, makeup, hair dye.
The point is that it's not these things that make us good. We can have the seemingly perfect life and be unsuccesful, and we can have the seemingly worst life and be successful. It all matters what we do with Jesus.
I'd love to use that Alanis song. I might have to change a few words, but nobody would ever know. I just wouldn't want to cheese it up, or anything. The problem would be getting it played well and finding someone that could sing it with the right amount of passion, rawness and being able to get that high. JM

Mother's Day Message

I'm supposed to speak at both of our worship services on Sunday, May 13. I love being able to speak. I always have tons of good ideas.
But not this time. It's mother's day, and I'm basically relegated to doing something heart-warming about mother's. I'm just completely coming up blank on what to talk about. I'm really praying about it that God would give me a creative idea. JM