Wondering where a Wanderer would wander if a Wanderer wondered where to wander?
Yeah, me neither…
In any case, my trip to Virginia was wonderful (wonderful wandering wanderer)! I was all over the place, from Leesburg, to Clifton, to Maryland, to Fredericksburg. I also got a decent amount accomplished. Wandering has a website now… but I’m not going to give you the link yet, because it still needs work. 
Continue reading »
What happens when you put twelve (12) Botts’ in one house? Comedic chaos.
Just ask the few people outside the loop when a bunch of us began quoting the same movie line at the same time… Continue reading »
Wow! What a great few weeks! I’ll have to get a more detailed report out later… But for now… I had a fantastic time with family in Illinois, and now I’m in Virginia having a fantastic time with friends!
Also, to let you know, it looks like Wandering will be playing next month on the 20th. More details to come… But probably not on this site. You see… By next week, I hope to have a website for Wandering all set up and ready to go! I’ll get the link to you guys as soon as I’ve got it… It’ll be good!
For now…
One step at a time…
The concert this past weekend was awesome. High fives and congrats to Jerry Erickson, Caleb Brown and company, and my fellow Wandering band-mates! It went really well, there was great food, and I got an awesome sunburn to prove it all.
Working a lot this week, and looking forward to next week. We’ll be heading down to Decatur, IL on Sunday to visit my grandparents. I’m looking forward to seeing them and my cousins again. I may decide to leave my computer at home, so I might not get a blog post in next Wednesday.
One step at a time.
It’s been another crazy week for me here in Minnesota. More work, more hanging out with friends, more of God sifting me, and plenty of thoughts rolling around my head.
I’m really excited about this Saturday, though. Saturday at 5pm, Wandering, Caleb Brown, and Jerry Erickson are playing music at Mildred Bible Chapel. It’s going to be a lot of fun, food, and music. Naturally, everyone’s invited. Bring some meat to grill and something to share, and your ears. Don’t forget your ears. ‘Cause there’s going to be music. …Yeah.
The week’s still going to be busy, but it should slow down come next week. Hopefully. We’ll see.
One step at a time. 
After praying every so often that God would guide me concerning my future, and wondering what steps He would have me take in the meantime to get there… I think, last night, God gave me a clear sense of where to direct my efforts in the near future.
Andy (Pastor of Junction 122) was talking about following God, our mission, and how our lives should reflect how we draw closer to Him. I don’t remember exactly what sparked it, but I suddenly got this very strong sense that I needed to go somewhere.
I don’t know where, when, or how, but I do know this: God is asking me to prepare to move. He’s calling me somewhere, and when the time is right, He’ll reveal that to me. It may not be very long or very far… But then, it could be for an extended period of time, and it could be on the other side of the world.
So, how does that translate to action right now? Well, I’ll probably end up working more hours at Alco. Slightly less than what I’ve been doing these two weeks, but more than what has been my usual. It also means praying for the opportunities, and keeping my eyes open. God will guide me. All I need to do is take…
…One step at a time.
Last Friday I gave you a quick recap on my crazy week. I guess you could call this Part 2… It’s certainly the more important side of things. So, let’s dig a little deeper, shall we?
God’s been really pressing hard on my heart this week. He’s been revealing a lot of things to me that I didn’t even know I had problems with. I feel like the second part of that verse in Ecclesiastes: “There’s a time to build, and a time to tear down.” It’s good, but it’s rough.
Just a few things: One of my coworkers is on a trip in Europe now. She left Wednesday. Both Sunday and Mondy, I worked with her, and both time, I had a chance to try and bring up the topic of religion and where she stands (I don’t know where it is, but I’m pretty sure she isn’t Christian). I didn’t. I deeply regret it, and I hope God either brings someone else (braver), or gives me another chance (does He do third chances?).
Tuesday, at Junction, there was a panel discussion based off of a sermon we watched last week by John Piper about serving and following God in the minute details of our lives (“Whether eating or drinking, or whatever you do, do it to the glory of God” [emphasis mine]). At one point, the story of the rich young ruler who struggled with selling all his possessions to give to the poor came up. The question was how that applied to our lives. There were several excellent responses, but the one that stuck in my head was actually a question. If God asked me to give something up for Him, would I? I could sense God asking me the question. The conversation went something like this:
“So, Greg, would you do it?”
“Yeah! Sure I would!”
“Ok… You’ve got five dollars in your wallet. Would you give that up?”
“Sure, yeah, I’d do that…”
“Are you going to drop it in the box on your way out?”
“…Um… Yes?”
I had a brief chance to, but I didn’t. That’s stuck with me, and I can’t believe I didn’t trust Him in that. I didn’t even need to worry about it. But I held on. Why should He trust me with anything if I’m going to be like that?
And that’s the heart of the issue, I think… Trust. All this time, in every situation, God has been asking me to trust Him. Trust the results, the methods, the timing, everything… to Him. And I’ve struggled with that on a deep level. He’s asking me to not worry about what’s going on… Whether the future, the present, things already past, or anything. It’s not necessary for me to worry about it.
Yet I persist.
I guess I need to return to Matthew 6, and take every day…
…One step at a time.
Remember what I said last week? That it was quiet?
It was probably in preparation for this week.
Friday morning saw me in Brainerd with a friend, followed by work in Pine River until 8pm. Saturday, I had a brief bit of rest in the morning/early afternoon, before I had to work (again until 8pm). Sunday was nuts, because we had to go in early to church for practice, I had less than an hour between the end of church and the beginning of work to eat, change, etc., and after I got off work at 6pm, I hung out with friends until 11pm. All of this was fun, don’t get me wrong, it just kept coming at me!
Monday saw me at work again, this time only until 6pm… But I had to be back out the door to get to practice at 7. Tuesday was quiet, and I didn’t accomplish too much early in the day (mostly because I was trying to fix my mp3 player…). Once I stepped out to go to Brainerd for Junction, that was the end of that. I had to leave early to get my guitar checked out and be at practice to play Keys. I didn’t get back until nearly 2am! I haven’t pulled a long night like that in a while. Unfortunately, I didn’t have that much time to sleep in the next day, because I had to get some stuff done before work from 12-8pm, and then I followed that with Wandering practice (we’re getting ready for another concert… details soon!). I turned in by 11pm, because yesterday (Thursday), I had to be up early to meet with another friend in Brainerd in the morning, run some errands, get to work in Pine River by 12 again, and work until 8.
*whew* How’s that for a recap? Once I got home, I was hoping to get a few other things done, but I didn’t have the energy, and just sat on the couch for an hour and a half. I was fast asleep by 11pm.
And that’s just the surface stuff. I’ll post again in a few days to talk about some of the deeper things I’ve been going through (and who knows, I may even need to add more to it… ).
One step at a time.
Fairly quiet week for me this time. It’s nice to have that occasionally.
I’m keeping an eye on what’s going on with Israel and Turkey. It looks like Iran’s trying to get involved now, too. It looks pretty volatile… We’ll see what happens. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
One step at a time.
It’s been a good Memorial Day weekend. I hope everyone enjoyed it, and took a moment to consider those who have given us the freedom to enjoy it. For those of us who believe in Christ, we know that for the short-term, it won’t last… But that in the end, we will experience true Freedom.
We had a bonfire. Well… that’s how it ended anyways. It started out as a raging inferno. We lit our brush pile up, and it was pretty intense. Once it calmed down a bit, we had some friends over, roasted some hot dogs and marshmallows, and had a great time. Here’s a little artistic glimpse of the aftermath:
Again, I hope everyone had a great weekend! Let me know if you did anything special in the comments!
One step at a time.