I haven't had the chance to blog much lately, much because of trying to put finishing touches on this video.   I enjoy working with stuff like this, but getting it finished has been anything but easy.    Nonetheless, I am looking forward to do much more of this stuff once our little one comes along.    I have some posts brewing, so please stay tuned.

Looking back, there is much that can be reflected upon, learned from, and said about the year of 2008.   It was the year of my first mission trip overseas, the year of the fire, the year we bought our first house, and the year we conceived.   It was a roller-coaster, but we made it, and God provided time-and-time again.

But I am ready for 2009 to begin.   Besides 2007, there are few new years that come around with so much promise and hope in them.  It's not been every year that there are larger life events that are carried over year to year that one can look forward too at the ring of the new year.    This year however is definitely different; with a child on the way we have an exciting year ahead of us.

Most people would say that becoming a dad is a large enough task, and that it is more than sufficient as a focus for 2009.   I agree.  Beginning my journey into fatherhood is no doubt the biggest new task on my plate this year (there are some other tasks - disciple of Jesus and husband to Chelsey, that are more important and continue to need refinement).   But I need and have some other goals as well.  Goals challenge me.  They keep me focused, and they help be measure my own progress.

So here is my short-list of goals for 2009 (in no particular order):

• Redesign AndyGarrett.net, FOTF, and one for house church.
• Run a half-marathon
• Participate in an outing with the MV Orienteering Club
• Study the Gospels thoroughly
• Focus on the disciplines of prayer and journaling
• Finish the year with less in the red then when I started (mortgage not included)
• Exercise the creative-half of my brain more by setting aside time for graphics design and tutorials.
• Work on being more involved into community and discipleship contexts, both as a couple, and as man.

My apology to my faithful blog readers who checked my blog last week to find no new posts to my blog.    We haven't had the Internet installed at home yet, but are scheduled to get it this week, so that makes it hard to post regularly.  However, that's not the real reason for not being able for finding the time to post.   I've just been busy.

Last Sunday we had an Open House for friends and family to come and see our place.  60+ peeps were able to make it, which was sweet.   We are blessed by our relationships and the support we have from all our friends, so it was great to be able to open our home to those people.    One of the coolest things we learned during our time staying with friends was that our home can be a gift from God for our use, as much as it is for anyone else's, so that was fun to open it up for others.   We hope to be able to do that more.

Then after a few hours of sleep, the week took off quick as I headed to Orlando to Campus Crusade HQ for two days of meeting with various people in the IT department down there.   It was a great vision trip for me, as I had yet to meet any of the folks I sometimes work with on various corporate wide issues.   But it did wear me out as well.   We spent basically two days in non-stop meetings, which were beneficial, but  I never do well sitting on my rear and talking that long.

We returned home late Tuesday, but it wasn't till Saturday that I finally felt rested.  I honestly thought multiple-times this week how I don't know how business people travel so regularly.   I was so lethargic all week as a result from the travel, that I came home a slept multiple nights after work.  

Last week also included our AIA Christmas Party, as well as a trip to Kent State for Chelsey's cousin's graduation.  It was neat to spend some extended time with her full family, engage with them, and get to know them better.   I really enjoyed the trip, and the time spent with them.

But as I come to a close about last week, I realize that sharing what I did is less important than sharing what I learned, so I hope to find sometime this week to do just that.

And I also ask for your prayers this week, as I begin a special project this week for work.   I'm sure I will be blogging about it later this week.

Feliz Navidad ~ Andy

Tonight, Chelsey & I take off for Denver, to be part of the wedding festivities leading up to the union between Josh and Emily Radcliffe (Was I the first to say that on the WWW?).   We are excited, not just to be part of the wedding party, but to get a mini-vacation out of Dayton.   It's been a busy few weeks, and sometimes, you just need a break.   It should be cool, refreshing time, surrounded by some very godly friends.

It's an honor to be able to be Josh's best man during the ceremony.  He and I have been doing life together, thru the sunshine and muck, for nearly a decade now, and to be able to be present in the moment with him Saturday is very special.   I have been reflecting a lot in the past few weeks on our history and brotherhood, and really can't describe it.   Josh has been one of the biggest change agents in my life for awhile now, behind maybe Christ & my wife.   I am a better man for our friendship.

This weekend is an answer to prayer from March of 2006, and living proof that there is a Redeeming God that loves us, and pours His Grace upon us.   Josh's faithfulness has been refreshing, encouraging, and powerful.... may the Lord Bless these two as they begin their lives together...

For the first time this week, I had this urge to find someone and for a split-second wished I had a Facebook account to do so.   I have thought of people before that I maybe would re-connect with through a social-networking site such as it, but never wanted to so bad that I felt the urge to cave and create that account.

It got me thinking, why not join?   Everyone does it, why not me?  So I've been reviewing my reasons not to join and have decided that I still feel like I am not ready to make the leap off of this bridge that the rest of world has leaped off of.

I am tired of people asking "didn't you see that on Facebook?" or "Why haven't you joined Facebook?".  No, I didn't.   I don't get your updates or anyone else's.  But just because I don't have a Facebook account, doesn't mean that I don't want your updates.  I enjoyed hearing about the lives of my closest friends, and distant ones as well, before Facebook, why would that change now?    Our friendships weren't based on what email accounts I had or my cell phone carrier in the past, so why now does it seem we rely on a website to tell us what "friends" we need to keep in touch with?

So, please, all you Facebookers out there, remember us friends without accounts still want to be your "friends" too...

No one can deny that we've had one crazy summer, but I have really felt challenged recently to reflect on what has really happened over the last 6 months.   We've have had some of the highest of highs combined with the lowest of lows.   There's got to be something to be learned from all that we have experienced.

If anyone would have seen us the night of the 11th of July, you'd of thought that we either just got engaged or just found out we were pregnant (that came later).   The truth is, we had just signed a contract on a home that neither of us ever expected we'd be able to get.   We were beside ourselves that night with both pure joy and disbelief.  We didn't deserve that house, but it was going to be ours.   

But that excitement was changed three days later.  At 10pm that next Monday we were notified that our apartment building had caught on fire.   The short story is that we were unable to return to live there, and even though we just had water damage to our apartment and little loss, there has definitely been a feeling of displacement since then. 

That drastic change in emotion has been going on and on all summer, and throughout we have felt like God was really trying to teach us about entitlement, or lack there of it.   I've taken the past week or so to finally sit down and explore what God says we are entitled to, and how and why this summer has been so good and yet so challenging.

Here are some simple truths I've learned:

Our God is a GIVING God.   He loves to give to his people.  He gave bread to the people of Israel when they were hungry.  He gives wisdom and knowledge to those who ask Him for it (James 1), and ultimately He gives life through His son, Jesus Christ (John 3:16).  

I am sure one could identify plenty more examples of where God gave His people something they had asked for.   But I think there are a few things that we have to remember when talking about entitlement.  

1. God gives to His people.  Therefore, we must first be in Him.
2. God's giving isn't always because we're entitled to something.

His Word shares with us scripture to explain this.  First, in John 14:13, Jesus tells us that when we ask for something to do it in his name, and it will be given.  This is not flippant. When we ask something in the name of Christ, believing that He is who He says He is.   But we must also ask with right motives.  James 4:1-3 warns us about asking God for things for our own selfish pleasures.

Second is the idea that everything we ask for, and that which we may receive, doesn't always give us an entitlement to it.   I can't help but to think of the Israelites here.   God gave them manna to eat, time and time again.  But I don't think they were necessarily entitled to the manna, but given it as a gift because of God's grace.     In Matthew 6:5-8, Jesus instructs us to be specific with our prayers, because the Father already knows our needs.

I think the struggle for me has been the task of taking Matthew 6 and knowing how to balance it against Psalm 37:4 -- "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."  For us, the fire or the fear of even a miscarriage, is nothing we would've asked for or even desired.   So how does that fit into the Lord giving us our desires?

One thing that I often want to forget, but I think is an essential piece of this thought process if that sometimes what we need is not always going to be what we desire, and sometimes it may even be discipline.   Hebrews 12:5-6 says that the Father will discipline the ones He loves.   We never desire that, but sometimes, we need it.  

I might never know the answer, but I have come to a point where I am not going to be afraid to ask if there's been something that has been in the way between me and God.   Was there an idol? "our perfect little apartment", that I became too content with and was prohibiting me from a proper view of God?  Or was it all an accident, and just a lesson in rolling with the punches? But the biggest shame here I think would not be to ask at all.

Which ever may be the reason, I do know this.  That we can't take anything for granted.  Our life, whether it feels like it's on a high or low is in the hands of God.   He's got the plan.   It's my desire to learn how to better honor and glorify him through it all.   And that even in the middle of the unexplainable hard times we can still pursue happiness.

It's been some time since I've attempted this blogging thing.   I decided for whatever reason to try it again, not being quite sure why I ever stopped blogging to begin with.   My life has changed for the better since the last time I wrote an entry in the fall of 2006,  but it's not been a simple road either.  

We, Chelsey -- my wife and I, tend to listen to a lot of KLOVE in the car and I find myself constantly singing the latest Matthew West single, "You've Got Something to Say."   What a true line in the chorus of that song:  "You've got something to say, if you're living, if you're breathing....God is love and love speaks through you...You've got something to say." 

That's sort of been my motivation for restarting this blog.  I've got something to say.   It might not always be profound, and might not even be your thing, but as I continue to grow both as man, husband, and disciple as well as the new journeys ahead in home-ownership and fatherhood, I am sure there's going to be something I am going to want to say.

My hope is that I can use this to be an outlet for me.  Yeah, I probably will take some freedom to blog about why "I'm a PC", however I hope that most of this will be more than technical jargon of my life.  

Until next time - Andy