To the Valley of the Sun

We woke up and picked up the Kennedys and headed to Love Field. The kids did great on the flight from Dallas to Phoenix via Austin. The 2 hour flight from ATX to PHX went well. I met a guy from Pearland who sat next to me, and we chatted about various things. Once we landed, we took the rental car straight to In-N-Out Burger. I got the 3x3 off the secret menu. We all took a nap at the hotel once we arrived. Nick and I later drove to CVS and Safeway to get some essentials. We all checked out the pool which was awesome. It had a huge winding slide which I probably enjoyed as much as Ruth did. There were several other pools. One had fountains which Ruth liked playing with. Afterwards, we ate at the hotel restaurant. Now its time to get some sleep and prepare for another day of vacation. Life is great.

1 John 3:1 "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!"

I will start reading 1 John now. I came across the first verse of chapter 3 which was a good reminder of how lucky we are. I already feel very fortunate for all of our worldly blessings but the fact that we are children of God is something I forget. I wish I would have shared the Gospel with the man that sat next to me on the plane today. We talked for a long time. He did say he was Catholic, but it would have been nice to talk more about God. It did come up when we talked about The Summit/Compaq Center in Houston being where Lakewood Church has their services. I talked about how we had gone to a service at the old campus but mainly went to Second Baptist when we lived in the Houston area. I felt we had a great conversation being complete strangers and all, but next time I want to take the next step and talk about Christ and learn how to do so with people I do not know well.

B-ball, Guitar, and Work

I work up nice and early for basketball at LA Fitness. Anand met me there and we got in several games. I feel my endurance improving. There is some improvement to my game although I still miss too many layups and treys. At home, I played some guitar (Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?, You Are God Alone, How Great is Our God, Almighty). Work was nothing exciting. I saw a good number of patients, especially with the new set up of having RME at the end. This allowed me to finish the shift on time. I have been wanting something like this ever since I rotated at Presby as a resident. I have always wanted to finish with easy dispositions so what a blessing. At home, it was nice to see Amy and Ruth since I had left for work shortly after they woke up this morning.

Colossians 1:11-12 "And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light."

So I'll try to relate my b-ball experiences to the Word. I feel increased endurance as I consistently play full court basketball now. Perhaps what I also need is some patience while on the court. In life, I need to be patient. I have always been an "all or none" kind of guy. Sometimes it may initially seem like "none" and then I give up. Well, maybe with patience, I can weather the tough times and get to the successful moments. I could use a little patience.

A Typical Weds (late entry for Weds, 2-25-09)

I am beginning to have a routine for most Wednesdays now. I went to the gym to work on abs and lower body with Marcus. I think I need to mention that I do not like the machine that requires me to bend over and lift upwards because my back is starting to feel a little strained. It was a good workout, and I have my March schedule planned out with Marcus. I headed to Northwest Bible to play some basketball. As with anything, I have found that the more I play, the better I am doing on the court. I am not all church league or all district yet, but my endurance is definitely getting a lot stronger. Feels great. I came home and played guitar and got a few things on the to do list done including gathering tax stuff. My iPhone lost coverage all afternoon so I went to the Mac store where they said several people had this issue. It was strange driving by myself without a direct line of communication. I could not call Amy, receive texts, or update my Facebook status (the horror). I met Amy and Ruth at church. We went over the second half of Ephesians 4 in Bible study. Ruth didn't do so great in nursery since she is still under the weather, but she is didn't do horrible either. My cell finally returned to normal signal by the end of the night.

Ephesians 4:29Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

I think I am doing better at not letting "unwholesome talk" come out of my mouth, especially during basketball. Maybe because I am getting better? No, that's not it. I still make plenty of mistakes but I am more accepting of it although it does boost self esteem when I made more positive plays.

Psalm 66:17 I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!

Today while I could not text, check email, make or receive cell phone calls, it felt strange to be disconnected from the world. It is nice to know the line is always open with God. I need to utilize this resource more and text my request to the Lord, update my status with him, and call Him for advice and praise. He is listening and waiting so it was a good lesson yesterday to see what it is like to be disconnected. I will remember the value of having Him online constantly and take advantage.

Finishing Work (late entry for Tues, 2-24-09)

Today, Ruth was still a little sick. She woke us up while in a good mood however. We gave her another "breathing treatment" in the bathroom with the hot water running. Bill Noles came over to look at the final renovation projects for the house. We ate lunch with John Pillow at Jason's Deli and had a great chat. We all took a nap before I headed to the hospital for a meeting regarding a patient I helped with on the floor one night. I then worked my 4p-2a shift and now I am ready to go home.

Ephesians 4:31-32 "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."

I definitely needed that verse during my shift today. I was angry and irritated at times with certain people, and I need to be more compassionate instead of trying to move so quickly through patients in the ED. I will forgive those that make mistakes because I definitely make plenty of mistakes that Christ has shown grace for.

Busy Day, Quiet Night

I woke up learning from Amy that Ruth had a fever (subjective) early in the morning. She developed a wet sounding cough possibly contracted from a couple of kids at the birthday party on Saturday. I went to work out and used the showers at the LA Fitness which wasn't too bad. I drove down to BUMC and met Steve Arze for lunch and discussed some possible future roles and ideas. I then helped out with the hands on portion of the ultrasound course put on by Dave Spear and Andy Markowski. It was great seeing emergency physicians from various EDs around DFW, many of them I had worked with or knew indirectly. EM is a small world. I also ran into an nurse from Parkland who was at BUMC now. I also saw Larry Bean, Eugene Gicheru, Eric Daniel, Andy Skiles, and Justin Fleischman all of whom were Parkland EM folks. I came home where Suzanne was taking care of Ruth since Amy had gone to work, and our previous babysitting plans were changed since we didn't want Eliot to get sick if Keri were to come watch Ruth. Suzanne went home so Ruth and I had the whole house to ourselves. We played ball, watched Curious George, danced to the guitar, and ate eggs, fries, cookies, and ice cream (in my defense, she was not feeling great so she had a free pass). We turned the bathroom into a sauna by letting the hot shower run and shut the door so that she could have some "breathing treatments."

Prayer

We went to church and heard something that I really needed. Neil preached on Mark 9:29, "He replied, 'This kind can come out only by prayer." In addition to using prayer in addition to Ativan, Phosphenytoin, and Phenobarb for a status epilepticus patient, it seems we need to pray for various situations because we can't do everything on our own. After church, we had the best brunch ever at Blue Mesa Grill. Nick and Jaklin joined Dad, Ben, Ruth, Amy, and me. Ben took Dad to the airport afterwards. After a good nap, Amy, Ruth, and I took a walk down the street. We met several of the neighbors including ones we had and had not met before. We ended up staying at the Kennedy's house watching Narnia and using Dining In to get some dinner from Cheesecake Factory. We had a great discussion about prayer, my family, and witnessing. It was nice to have a whole day with Amy. Unfortunately, she works again tomorrow. I'm off to learn a few songs and then to get some sleep.

Family

I woke up to take Dad to his conference. I thanked him for all he had done raising me well. I talked about how I had gone astray in high school and college, but was glad I refocused. It was a result of all that my parents had taught me and fortunately I returned to being a hard worker and good student. During the drive over to Cityplace, I told him that I was glad to be where I am now in life thanks to his guidance and analogous to that, I wanted Dad to be in heaven with me one day as a result of him hopefully being affected by my witnessing to him. He didn't really say much except that he would see me after the meeting.

I went home and napped before Amy left for work. I feel bad that I asked my wife who is pregnant with twins to work my shift today. Still, it was so that I could spend time with my dad, and I don't know how much time I have left to cherish these moments. Ruth and I went to get the inspection sticker updated on the minivan. Ruth, in addition to saying "baba" (indicating "diaper"), now likes to lay on the ground when a diaper change is needed. It looked peculiar to have a 19 month old laying on the floor of a gas station (especially in front of the beer), but I had to wait for the vehicle to be finished with the inspection before I could change her. We went to Target to get some detergent and picked Dad up at Cityplace. We stopped by Borders to get Ben and headed to eat dim sum at Kirin Court in Richardson. There I ran into a patient I had seen at work a few months back. Ruth didn't eat a lot since she had some eggs from Jack-in-the-Box for breakfast but she did some noodles and duck. I enjoyed the jellyfish as usual because good jellyfish is hard to come by around these parts (west of the prime meridian). We dropped Ben off and headed to the Rockwall lakehouse to get Dad's jacket. Ruth got a good nap during that drive. From there we went to Millie's birthday party. I brought Dad along and everyone from small group was nice and made him feel welcome. Ruth was shy at first but eventually played with the tricycle, doll, and later the bounce house. It took some coaxing, but after everyone left (except Anna and Ben), she got in there and actually did great. She fell at first, but learned how to balance herself in there. She actually jumped a little bit and did well even with the Harvey boys jumping around. (See more pictures at http://nbcsmallgroup.blogspot.com/) We left a little early to get to the hospital so that I could do the ultrasound inservice for the nurses. We had an awesome turnout, and I spread the gospel of bedside ultrasound to the nurses. Dad watched Ruth while I was doing the ultrasound teaching. Amy, Ben, Dad, Ruth, and I had dinner at the Thai restaurant by my house. At home, Ruth laid on my lap in bed and fell asleep immediately. It was a long but great day with family.

Last night as I was laying in bed, I had these thoughts of how I would witness to Dad. It came quite simply as the analogy I had mentioned. My parents wanted the best for my future so they prepared me well. I want the best for my parents so I made another effort to explain to Dad that my belief is not that good works leads to an afterlife in heaven, but instead the belief that Jesus died on the cross for our sins so that imperfect people can be atoned for their sins and that it is made righteous for us to be with God in heaven forever. I don't know how much impact this repeat witnessing will have, but I understand God is ultimately in control. I think about the Paul Baloche song that Travis played at the One Service last week. "Our God Saves" is now in my iPhone and is a catchy tune, but reminds me of the salvation that I pray for my family to have. Psalm 68:20 says, "Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death." I was recently reminded during Amy's grandmother's funeral of Amy's aunt's funeral in the same church during my second year of medical school. That day, I realized that although her aunt had secured her trip to heaven, my parents had not so I cried harder than any of the immediate family. I immediately went to my parents and pleaded that they accept Christ. After that day, I gave up on trying to convert them since I felt I had laid it out for them. It was in their court and obviously in God's hands. Today was the first time since 2002 in which I talked about salvation again to my family which is a very long time. I wish my actions and life spoke louder than words, but I am working on it and making progress. I want to live a life that glorifies Him in everyway. I fall short daily, but I will keep trying.

A Very Productive Day

I got home from work just before 3am and woke up at 6am because of the excitement of having Dad in town. I went to check to see if he wanted to get up earlier for breakfast. He said he had been awake since 4am due to jet lag since he was recently visiting Thailand. Instead of breakfast, we just chatted. I dropped him off at his ACS meeting at Cityplace and brought breakfast home to Ruth and Amy. Ruth ate like a champ and we drove to LA Fitness while Amy went to work. I had a good workout of abs and legs. When I picked up Ruthie, she was contently pushing the toy car that we have at home but she did have some tears on her face. We went home to shower and eat some lunch. We took a good nap and walked to the Kennedy's house for a short visit. When we got home, Dad and the Wiris went to dinner with us at Chinatown in Richardson. Ben met us there also. After boba tea, I took Dad and the Wiris to Baylor Garland to show them how to use ultrasound for central line placement. Amy was getting off shift, and we all headed home. What a great day. I am a little short on sleep due to coming off the 2am shift and getting up early to drop Dad off, but it was well worth it. The one hour nap was good enough, and I will sleep well tonight.

Just a little side note but I am not worried about life at all. I feel a little tired, but my pregnant wife is kind enough to work my shift on tomorrow so that I can hang out with Dad so that helps immensely. Still, I am excited to have the chance to spend time with him and get up early to take him to his meeting. I will catch up with sleep soon. I used to rely on the following passage a lot because I would worry about school. Now, the worries are behind me and God has prevented me from worrying about other things due to his blessings and my understanding that He is in control. I am tired but no concerns about that either.

Luke 12:22-26
Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

Exercise and Work

I woke up to go to 5:45am basketball at LA Fitness which was good exercise while I played horribly as usual. I hung out for an hour afterwards and listened to Paul Baloche songs from iTunes on my iPhone as I waited for my 8am trainer appointment. Jeris worked me out pretty hard. I felt like Jello early on, and I have noticed some arm soreness in the last hour. At home, I played some guitar, went to the park with Ruth and Amy, and took a nap. While at work, Amy and Ruth picked up Dad at the airport. I am at work now and ready to go home.

I am feeling tired from the day and found this passage in John 4:16 - "Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour." I am thirsty myself so I am going to get a coke and head on home...

Back Home

We dropped D.J. off at school at UT Law and drove home to Dallas. I made more song lists according the initial chord/key while riding home on I-35. At home, I played some guitar and cleaned up around the house while the family was asleep. I also put together Ruth's large leaf canopy and rocking chair that we bought from IKEA while we were in Austin. The Kennedys came over, and we all rode to church in the minivan. A large number of people attended the church dinner since it was focused on missionaries. In small group, we did praise and worship. We also did corporate prayer as a group and as men/women. We drove through Chick-Fil-A on the way home for some ice cream and finished it off at home.

The practice helped with playing guitar in small group although next time I will do a little warm up to work out the last minute kinks. "Mighty to Save" is from Zephaniah 3:17 which says "The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." That was the first song. It wasn't the greatest performance ever, but I am glad I had the opportunity to do it. I am looking forward to future praise and worship sessions.

Rainy Day in Austin

We dropped D.J. off at school and ate breakfast at Kerbey Lane. We went to the Barton Creek Mall before picking D.J. up for lunch. We met Keeli Hanzelka at the Red River Cafe. The next stop was Mozarts on Lake Austin. It was nice to return to a familiar spot. We then picked up D.J. and went back to his place for a nap. It seems we have primarily ate and slept in Austin, but I think that is a sign of a successful vacation. We ate at Madam Mam's for dinner. I had the som tham. It was only 2 out 5 in spiciness, but it was quite hot and tasty. We stopped by the 7-11 to get various snacks and desserts. It was a nice night of hanging out, reading, and eating (again). I would say this visit was a success in visiting D.J. Unfortunately, we did not get to see Amy's brother, Ben, but hopefully we can return when his work hours improve.

Tomorrow is corporate prayer among the in small groups in accordance with the missions week. This past Sunday, we had one service that revealed the members of "Destination Unknown" were headed to NYC, including Tina Alexander, who was a part of the original small group before it multiplied. This led me to looking up scripture in reference in spreading the Gospel. Mark 16:15-16 is where Jesus says, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." It is interesting that www.biblegateway.com and my AcroBible on my iPhone state that "the earliest manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have Mark 16.9-20." In any case, I wonder if God has planned for me a mission trip to Thailand. With my heritage and ability to speak Thai, I would think that I could be effective in spreading the Gospel there. That is something for me to ponder.

Jalapeno Poppers in Austin

After a good overnight shift, I showered at the ED while waiting on two final CT reads. I met Amy and Ruth at home. Amy drove us to Austin while I slept. We met D.J. for lunch at Longhorn Po Boys near the law school. D.J. went back to class while we slept in his living room. After D.J. was done with school, we drove towards the northern suburbs. We stopped initially at Sonic who had the largest and most robust jalapenos. Then we drove through at Arby's who have average size and tasting poppers. We got some great things for Ruth at the Round Rock IKEA including a rocker, cooking/eating utensils, a leaf shaped canopy for her bed, etc. We ate at the Simoneaus home and enjoyed an evening of guitar and chatting. On the way home, we couldn't pass up Jack in the Box who have the spiciest but smallest jalapeno poppers. We are back in his apartment. It feels great to be here. D.J. convinced Amy to take the bed so I am headed there shortly.

While playing praise songs, Mark showed me how to play "I Will Call Upon the Lord." The lyrics seem to come from the following verses:

2 Samuel 22:4 "I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies."

2 Samuel 22:47 "The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God, the Rock, my Savior!"

I am fortunately to know good musicians who I can learn from and play with. I hope to learn enough to teach Ruth some basics. I am headed to shower and bed now. See you tomorrow.

late entry for Sun, 2-15-09

Amy came home from night shift, and we got ready for church. It was interesting that Revelation 5 was read prior to "We Fall Down" was played because I had been reading that passage after choosing this song for Wednesday night. Neil preached on Mark 1 and talked about unity in one voice which was similar to what our small group had discussed in regards to Ephesians 4 (unity without uniformity). It was a special service combining all the 3 services to reveal the location of destination unknown. Tina Alexander is one of those going on this mission trip. After church, we went to lunch with the Kennedys and Duewalls. After lunch, we napped until 5:15pm which was great for all of us. (Amy was post-night shift, and I was pre-night shift.) We stopped by Tim and Suzanne's house to bring food since they were moving in. I then went to work. It was an uneventful night. We are about to leave for Austin now. I am hoping to get some sleep in addition to some guitar practice and quality time with family and friends in Austin.

Amy came home at 7:15am from work and went to bed. I got Ruth ready for Grace Silge's birthday party and wrapped the gifts. Ruth and I stopped by Albertson's for a birthday card and gift bag. The party was full of kids and adults. It was nice to see a lot of people from the small group this morning. Afterwards, we met Ben at a Thai restaurant and ate a whole fish that Amy isn't fond of me ordering (because it has eyes that stare at her). We all then went to get bubble tea, and Ruth fell asleep during the drive. We came home at 2:30pm, and Ruth continued her nap with Amy. I got to work on my guitar playing for Wednesday night. We went to eat dinner at Jason's Deli. After Amy went to work another night shift, we headed over to see Nick Kennedy's house. Will was already in bed. We watched some DVR shows and the NBA slam dunk contest. We had some discussions on what Jesus wants us to do in our lives and other important discussions (in addition to watching MTV's spin off from the "The Hills"). Ruth fell asleep, and unlike last night, she stayed asleep. I was able to easily put her in her bed which was a blessing.

I read Mark tonight from where Neil left off last Sunday and ran into verses he had preached in the past. Mark 4:13-20 says:
13Then Jesus said to them, "Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? 14The farmer sows the word. 15Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 20Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown."

My fear is that I have been like the seed in rocky places where my passion burns out, it doesn't last. Also, I have allowed worries, deceitfulness of wealth, and desires for other things to lead me the wrong way. My prayer is that I am more like the seed sown on good soil. I headed to bed now for prayer and preparation for the "One Service" tomorrow which means we will have to get there early.

Another day off

It's great to spend time with friends and family. I made the most of this day off. We woke up and met Nick Upatham for some IHOP before heading to LA Fitness for my second personal training session. We returned home where Amy and Ruth napped while I played the 5 songs we had chosen for next Wednesday night's corporate prayer/ praise and worship session. You tube had some great clips of live worship that I watched. One included a session with Chris Tomlin and Steven Curtis Chapman talking about how they arranged a duet of "We Fall Down" together. Tomlin mentioned Revelation 4, and how he came up with the lyrics (see reference below). I also spoke to Mark Simoneau, Ben Andrews, and D.J. for dates to meet up in Austin. We went to Target to get a few things and fought DFW rush hour traffic to get to the Cating's house. During the drive, I got to chat with my high school friend, Matt Taylor. Anna and Ruth had fun playing. The spaghetti was great. Amy left for work from there. As I was driving home, Ruth fell asleep. Unfortunately, the Target bags woke her up. I tried to get her back to sleep in her room. We fell asleep in the recliner and in her bed but woke up each time. We video chatted with D.J. for a little bit and watched some Baby Sign Language on the DVD. Well, gonna try to get her to sleep again.

Revelation 4:8, 10
Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come"... the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne...

Revelation 5:8-10
And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth."

Day off at and away from work

We woke up around 4:30am to various beeps due to some kind of power outage that kept turning off and on the various appliances and alarm system. We had to get up in an hour for our ultrasound inservice for the ED staff, and fortunately, the power returned on for good. Ruth looked pretty cute in her scrubs and Crocs. The session went well with everyone able to get flash in the IV using the Sonosite. We came home and I fell asleep immediately while Ruth and Amy went to the Arboretum with Angela and Will. I ate a late lunch with Ben at Chuy's, and we had a great discussion about life and his future. I came home and played some guitar. We returned to the ED but did not get to do another inservice so we went home. We stopped at the neighborhood Thai restaurant. At home we did a little praise and worship. Amy helped me come up with a 5 song set: Mighty to Save, We Fall Down, You're Worthy of My Praise, The Heart of Worship, and I Could Sing of Your Love Forever. I am not for certain where all the lyrics for these songs come from but here is what I found:

"The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:17

Chris Tomlin's comments from http://www.familychristian.com/music/interviews/chris_noise.he.makes1.asp
FamilyChristian.com: Tell me about the song "We Fall Down."
Chris: I'd written a song from those two weeks that Louie and I were at youth camp. He had been talking on Revelation 4. I remember sitting in this hotel room and something just kept coming out and I just got out my guitar. I went over to Louie's room and said, "What do you think?" He just said, "Oh man." I didn't think it was that good and he said, "Oh, man, we're going to use that. I'd like to use that at Passion." It was the song, "We Fall Down." Today, almost every single place I go, people know that song and it blows my mind. I walked into Passion '97 and Sam Perry, who was the main worship leader for that event, started doing "We Fall Down." When all these people started singing it, I couldn't handle it. It was like God was affirming that this is what He was going to do with me. He had given me the gift to write music, and I better start writing it!

http://www.theheartofworship.org/stories.shtml
David Ruis mentions that "You're Worthy of My Praise" was one of the first worship songs he wrote. He was at a church in British Columbia. He had his daughter who was 3 or 4 years old at the time do the echo to see if the song would work.

Matt Redman's comments from http://www.crosswalk.com/1253122/
“There was a dynamic missing, so the pastor did a pretty brave thing. He decided to get rid of the sound system and band for a season, and we gathered together with just our voices. His point was that we’d lost our way in worship, and the way to get back to the heart would be to strip everything away... Before long, we reintroduced the musicians and sound system, as we’d gained a new perspective that worship is all about Jesus, and He commands a response in the depths of our souls no matter what the circumstance and setting. ‘The Heart of Worship’ simply describes what occurred.”

Martin Smith's comments from http://www.crossrhythms.co.uk/articles/music/Delirious/20129/p1/
"I can't even remember what year it is. It must be '94-ish time. We were on holiday as a family. We were in Devon, staying in an old farmhouse. It overlooked the sea and the hills and the mountains. It really was, sit on the edge of a hill, pre-kids, being able to dream a bit more, I grabbed an acoustic.cor, this is beautiful! The mountains, the sea.this is amazing! That song just wrote itself in about five minutes. The same chords the whole way through the song. I mean that's embarrassing really!"

late entry for Weds, 2-11-09

Yesterday was a long day. We got up early to go to staff meeting. Anna was kind enough to babysit Will and Ruth while we learned from the RTI representative on how to improve documentation for billing. This got me excited about our seminar in Phoenix. Still, the numbers looked good, and it seems I am doing well both in patients per hour and RVU's per patient. I could definitely improve and feel that as I continue to gain more experience, my numbers will also look better, but of course, numbers are not everything. I played basketball at the church at noon, and did my first official personal training session at LA Fitness in the afternoon. I am now very sore but feel this is exactly what I need at this point in my life. My goal is not to get into a bodybuilding contest or become attractive for others since God has already blessed me with a wonderful wife. I am hoping to become healthier and stronger (so that I can make more "and 1's"). At small group, we tried to get Nick on internet video but the connection was not as good as I had hoped. The Kennedys did share with everyone that they won a car playing a Monopoly prize game at the grocery store. Pretty neat. We continued on with Ephesians 4:11 about the various gifts we were given. Verse 14 brought up examples of how we have been or can be deceived. I did not get to my daily blogging last night because we were all so very tired. The combination of getting up early for mandatory staff meeting and both basketball and lifting made my body ache. It was a wonderful day overall.

sleep and work

I am typing at work as I wait for a transfer to go through. I slept in this morning and got some badly needly rest. The men's retreat was fun but took a lot out of me. I woke up to a few new toys for Ruth (really for Amy). A pair of twin girl dolls, their clothes, diapers, diaper bag, and twin stroller. Ruth has a little ways to go in being the lone babysitter but she will learn. Amy and I looked through some Biblical names for the twins. We considered Hannah, Sarah, Esther, and "sinful woman at the well." It is still a work in progress. I read 1 Samuel and was struck by verse 27, "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD." I am thankful for the twins. I am thankful for Ruth. Boys or girls, any child is a blessing, and I thank God for the kids he has blessed us with. I have know people from school, work, and friendships who have had difficulty conceiving. The story of Hannah talks about such heartache and then answered prayer. Amy and I have been lucky not to have such difficulty. I am not sure if Hannah is a name we will chose but these verses have reminded me to be thankful for God's gifts to us. Time to leave this shift and get some sleep before we return for the staff meeting in the morning.

Exercise, daughter/father time, new friends, family

After getting home after 2pm from work, I got some sleep before we headed up to LA Fitness to begin our orientation with a personal trainer. When we arrived, we ran into Leslie and Millie. Juleeta, Luke, Ethan, and Matthew appeared shortly thereafter. It was a good sign that we joined the right gym since a couple of families from our small group was there on our first day. The workout was good. I am looking forward to getting into better shape. I read Ephesians 4:17-32 in anticipation of our next small group Bible study on Wednesday. The verse that stuck out was 4:29 which says that we should not allow "unwholesome talk" out of our mouths. It is sad that I cursed more this past weekend (twice) when I was with Christian men at a church retreat. The first instance was while changing lanes, I almost hit the car in front of me which had stopped due to rush hour traffic. The second time was during basketball. I feel this part of my life has improved dramatically since I became a believer but it still is a problem when I spontaneously let out an expletive. Anyway, I played some guitar and took a nap with Amy and Ruth before Amy left for work. Ruth and I cleaned house, did some dishes, and vacuumed before I played more guitar while Ruth danced. We met the Blaisdell's at Top Golf. We had pretty deep conversations considering I had never met his wife and had only met Pete only a few times. Their twins did great and slept through our attempts to hit microchip filled range balls into various targets. I am looking forward to hanging out with them again and introducing them to Amy. After Top Golf, Ruth and I met Ben at Chick-Fil-A. Ruth enjoyed having the playground all to herself. She usually was getting trampled by 20 other kids at lunch time but no other parent was taking their child there from 8:30-10pm. I had a great chat with Ben. Ruth continues to bond with her uncle so it was time well spent. At home, Ruth gobbled up more ice cream (yes, I fed her french fries at Top Golf also), and we did a video chat with D.J. Ruth enjoyed "feeding" ice cream to Uncle D.J. through the computer screen. Ruth and I took a shower and she fell asleep in the recliner while I was reading the Bible. What did I read? I thought about looking for names for the twins. I opted to read the book of Ruth. The first chapter was a good reminder to me that Ruth was the daughter-in-law of Naomi who was widowed and had lost both sons. I am not sure if we would use the name, Naomi, for one of the twins because Uncle Ben Andrews is seriously dating a Naomi so having an Aunt Naomi could add confusion to the fact that there are already two "Uncle Ben's." Well, it was a great day. I think I'll skip 5:45am b-ball in the morning and rest up for my 4pm shift. See you tomorrow.

9:45 NBC Service

Neil preached from Mark 2:13 today, and it got my attention. With background knowledge of how tax collectors were viewed back in the day, we got an understanding of the significance of Jesus' association with Levi. This made me very aware of how I seem to view certain people. My attitude needs to change, and I know it will be difficult. After church, the small group gathered at Central Market for lunch. Tim and Suzanne came over to get some boxes from our house afterwards. I am going to play a few songs on the guitar and then it is off to work. My prayer is not to necessarily see 3 patients an hour or document better but to show compassion and kindness to every patient, doctor, nurse and staff in the ED.

Welcome to my blog

I went to a men's retreat for my church this weekend. I was reminded of a time when I consistently spent time in the Word and recorded it in a type of Bible study/diary entitled "Trophic" (http://www.geocities.com/andykahn/trophic.html). I stayed true for about 5 months during that second year of medical school but then sporadically blogged afterwards. My hope is to return to where I was back in 2002. If I haven't been on here awhile, keep me accountable and ask me if I am still reading the Bible daily and praying for my parents and brothers to become Christians.