Breaking it in

With the ink barely dry on my certificate of ordination I had the opportunity to preside over a wedding tonight. Thankfully, one of my gifts from ordination last night was a manual detailing several different wedding ceremonies. Additionally, my friend and pastor Dean Jackson has presided over many of them himself and was able to provide some direction to me.

It was a small ceremony with very few people there. We borrowed a church for the location, we discussed it and decided between the bride and groom that going through the vows in several sections with a response of 'I will' to each section rather than a big long one.

I was honored to be asked by them to officiate at their wedding ceremony. While I have been to several weddings and seen them from the audience side as well as being a groom in one 18 years ago. It certainly is a different experience presiding over the ceremony. Having the opportunity to talk to the couple before taking the vows and being able to share with them the gravity of the covenant they are about to enter into was a fun time as well. Tonight, my prayers are for the newlywed couple. My prayers are for their continued love and friendship from now until the remainder of their days.

The ceremony

On Sunday evening we will be having my ordination service. I have been asked multiple times what I wanted and what music and what should be said and all of that. While I am humbled by all this attention and a bit nervous about making it official, I have no doubt in my mind that God has called me to serve Him and serve those that He loves. There are times when I wonder why in the world I have been chosen, but I have never questioned the fact that I have been called. So when I was asked all that I wanted for the ceremony, my focus was more on those that are attending. A number of people coming to the ordination ceremony will not be members of RCC and probably are unfamiliar with our way of doing things as well as what ordination means in our tradition. I'm sure Dean will do a great job of explaining it all. I did ask for one thing. When I first accepted Jesus Christ as my savior I was in Laguna Beach, California. The main thing I remember from that was the hymn How Great Thou Art. My aunt had a CD with that on it and it stirred me deeply. That hymn put into words a lot of what I was feeling. Looking at God's creation just brings it into focus for me of how great God really is. I wanted my aunt to know that her CD had that big an impact on me and I considered emailing her, but I am such a nerd that I know she reads my blog to keep updated on things as well as a lot of my family, so here it is. Alice, that CD you had in the front room was one I played over and over again that Summer way back in 1989. It really affected me to the point I have asked my friend and band leader Junior to belt it out during my ordination. Thanks.

A surreal morning...

There I was in rural Utah. I was awake and drinking my coffee with my wife. My kids were talking to me excited about their day and being able to learn how to swim. As well as, on the computer, across the planet, I was speaking with India. Just another normal morning in my world talking to people around the Earth.

18 years ago today...

I stood in my parents back yard on Top of the World Drive in Salt Lake City. Pastor Jim Schaedler was in attendance as my was friend Monty Carson and cousin Andrew Hill. My soon to be bride, Christina Addision had her sister, Maria Carson and my sister Jeni standing with her. Before our families we committed to love, honor and cherish each other until our dying days.

I met my wife on a blind date that Monty setup for me. He was dating Maria at the time and both her sister and I were a year younger than the two of them. So on January 24, 1986 I had the privilege of taking Chris on a date to the Hansen Planetarium and then to Hires Root Beer afterwards for a float. Since Monty drove, I was dropped off back at home and I can remember talking to this fascinating girl for a long time before we parted company.

Through the intervening years we have had some fabulous times. We have also had some dark and horrific times. Through the years we have grown together and learned things about ourselves and each other. Today we have the privilege of living in a home of our own with our small farm out back and three children that we adore.

I am proud of my wife. She has grown into an exceptional woman through the years and we have truly become one flesh. She understands the weak spots in my thinking and helps me through them all the while understanding her own areas where things aren't so clear. We are truly a team as we work together to raise our children to know God and serve Him. I am truly a blessed man.

18 years seems like a long time now. Longer than I lived before I met Chris. But as I look forward I hope for many times more that as we continue to grow and learn and love together. Thank you, Chris, for the time and the tears and the love. I love you.

Try something harder

That's one of the things John Maxwell encourages us to do in his book Failing Forward. He says

if at first you do succeed, try something harder

and he goes on to encourage us to continue to try something harder until we fail, then learn from that failure, take it as a way to make yourself better and continue to strive towards the goal.

When I became a follower of Jesus back in 1989, I wanted to be the best I could become. I worked hard at that with attending church and trying to do what my pastor told me to do, but there was a problem that I really couldn't put my finger on totally until I look back on it now with 20/20 hindsight. You see, the problem I had was the hypocrisy of people and I had to balance that with the perfection of God. I struggled with that a lot and I took time off church and I put God on the back burner of my life for many many years. Until I made it back to church in early 1999. That was when I started attending Rock Canyon Worship Center. I liked the music there and that is what kept us attending. We tried to stay under the radar of anybody in leadership until we could get the feel of the place. That was how we stayed for a while until we began to understand that their lead pastor, Dean Jackson, really lived what he was saying. There was no pointing fingers when he preached, but rather he was with us and pointed out things we all need to work on and never excluded himself from learning.

That got me back on the path of being the best Jesus follower I could become. I strove to be a servant of all and I wanted desperately to hear

well done, my good and faithful servant

from Jesus Himself some day. So far, I think I am doing a decent job at serving Jesus. I struggle to learn His plans for me and after accepting the idea that I am called to pastor I have worked hard to learn all I can about God and scripture and where it came from and how to help others to learn what they have in their lives.

I have failed along the way as well. A lot of my failures have names and I'm not going to name them, but there are times when I discuss them with God. I go over what I could have done better and pray for them. You see, while I am not going to take full responsibility for those that have left this church or left all churches, I can understand that I have not pushed hard enough in certain areas and maybe too hard in others.

I'm working constantly towards the goal of having Jesus call me servant and tell me it was well done. This is the something harder that I am trying these days. I am not going to sit back and only look towards the successes I have experienced in ministry or in my day job or in my being a father or in my marriage. I will continue to strive in all of these areas of my life to do better and I can see how they all make me a better follower of Jesus as well. Right now, I am learning how this call towards pastoring is bigger than Rock Canyon Church. I have the opportunity to pastor my family and serve as pastor at my day job as well as the traditional role of pastor at church. This is my current something harder and I can see this continuing forever without a final success ever occurring, but rather seeing a lot of smaller successes along the way.

More on insurance...

Sorry, but I need to complain again about insurance. This has been a huge deal in my life for months now and they just continue to frustrate me. You see, their own document on appeals says

The appeals committee will notify you in writing of the decision within the following timeframe: Pre Service Claims (services that have not been obtained) - 15 days from receipt of your appeal

yet it seems to me the only time they care about their own timeframes is when I miss it. You see, I received their letter dated 9 May telling me they had my appeal in their hands and reiterating what the manual stated about 15 days for a decision. Nothing came, nothing came and so I asked my HR person at Novell to help out. That was when Altius finally called me on Monday of this week to tell me they were working on my appeal and they might have a decision by Friday. I asked them about the 15 days but the question was blown off. She then verified my number so she could call me on Friday and let me know the decision and I made sure she had my cell phone as well. That takes us to Friday at 1625 when I had not heard a thing from them. So I called Altius only to find out they denied my latest appeal. So it took them almost a month to come back and deny the procedure all the doctors working on me suggest. It's incredibly frustrating because they don't have to live with this roller-coaster ride of hope and despair. So my next move is another appeal. This one I am allowed to show up in person for and I'm wondering if I need to invest in an attorney for this next appeal. It's $15k to trial the procedure the doctors want to use on me so I'm thinking it would be worth it to invest a bit in an attorney if needed. If they deny the next appeal my only hope is for an external review, but Altius only uses those when it is deemed medically necessary and I'm sure their first move will be to say the procedure is not necessary so I'll have to fight that before I can get the external review. Stay tuned, the battle may have been lost but the war continues!

Thoughts on Maxwell

I've been reading a book recently by John Maxwell called Failing Forward. The basic premise of the book is the difference between those who succeed and those who fail is by how they handle failure. He states that looking at folk that are successes in what they do there is no single common delineation. Some were raised by intelligent parents who challenged them while others were in foster homes while still others experienced abuse. John states the biggest difference is successful people view failing as a learning experience and strive to do better next time while not repeating the same mistakes again. While those who experience failure in their endeavors are characterized by not getting back up again when the failure occurs but rather wallowing in their failure and allowing it to define their lives. I have been very blessed during my formative years by being given the opportunity to fail and learn from it to not repeat my mistakes again the next time I tried. I believe that attitude has served me extremely well and helped to shape the man I have become today. Getting back up from failure and continually striving for the goal is what we must do should we wish to be effective and successful in our lives!

We did it!

Man, that was a ton of work!

For those of you who don't know, yesterday, 1 June, was our first day at the Megaplex 8 theaters at Thanksgiving Point. One fantastic aspect of working up there was the people. They were really organized and since we understood our needs, they were extremely helpful in getting them taken care of. I mean, even with only the 9 working days notice, they had our power requirements installed and in place, they had the cable for the projector run with the converter box on their end and they had the doors unlocked with help waiting for our arrival at 0600. It was just fantastic!

The service did not go as smoothly as we hope for. It was our first Sunday so we will get better as we work on this more and more, but for a first Sunday I think it worked out well.

One thing that is strange is the theater itself. With only one entry point rather than an entrance on each side, peopled tended to congregate on the one side rather than moving over. We are working on some thoughts of how we can open up the handicapped area more so people can get to the other side easily. Also, with the front seats being slanted and not stadium seating we have a problem of everybody who walks in front of the camera is seen. We're going to work on that as well. The good thing, the super good thing is their projector. Man, that thing is absolutely beautiful! We could not have asked for more from a projector at all.

Well, this upcoming Sunday we are having Lisa Marie Buster out to sing to us with only one 90-minute worship experience occurring at 1000 so it will be a bit different again, but we're learning about the new location and I'm sure we'll get these bugs worked out!