Very interesting...

So I'm poking around the internet last night and went to a blog that I've not been to in a while. It's interesting because a friend of mine and I have been discussing Lent for a couple of weeks. I haven't given anything up for Lent in a while, but we were discussing various things to fast from during the season leading up to Easter.

We come from a religious heritage that doesn't practice Lent, which I think actually gives me a greater appreciation for it. When I was dating Kellie and visited the Methodist congregation that she attended, I remember really liking the fact that they recited the Apostles' Creed. I think it had meaning for me that it didn't for those who attended all the time because I hadn't grown up saying it. Lent (when I actually do it) has a greater meaning for me because I choose to do it, not I have to.

That's not to say that I've never fasted, because I have. I just had never done it for the 40 days leading up to Easter. I love the discipline of fasting. I think it focuses you in a way that few other things can. You take an integral part of your life and sacrifice it for time with God. If you fast from food, then every time you are hungry you intentionally devote yourself to prayer instead. It is a way of saying that you need spiritual food more than physical food. I have heard of many other types of fasting, but I prefer fasting from food. It feels very pure to me. 

However, Anne's fast is so interesting to me that I wish I had thought of it. She is fasting from blogging, Facebook, and Twitter. Wow. Talk about something that could be sacrificed for more time with God! I know God will bless her immensely through this, but I was struck by how hard that would be for me. I am constantly on Facebook, whether it's at a computer or on my iPhone. I just started Twittering. And I'm always trying to think of something interesting to blog about. Could you imagine if every time you wanted to check your Facebook you prayed instead? How much time would you be spending with God each day? What could you talk about? 

The great thing about a fast like hers is that it challenges you to ask where your priorities really are.

Taaaake C!

Why does God take "C"?

Let me explain: I'm in the middle of making a very hard decision. It really should be simple, but just isn't. And in my own over-analytical way, I've probably made it even more maddeningly complex than it should be. But that's just Being Scott Sapp. Welcome to my world.

There have been times in my life (and this is one of them) that I have asked God very specific questions and also asked for a yes or no answer. A or B.

And God answers "C".

I have no idea what "C" means. It wasn't in my original question. It's not so much frustrating as it is confusing. I wonder if God doesn't care; not in a detached way, but in a way that says "Just make a decision - I'll bless you either way!" And sometimes I wonder if it's a test of faith.

Should I sacrifice my goals to do what I would love, or do I play it safe and hope it works out better than the chance I could have taken?

Cool song, cooler video

I saw this on a blog that I follow. This is one of those times that I like the song, but the video is so amazing that I can't get it out of my head. Really good filmmaking.

Thoughts on being 30

Well, I turned 30 this past Sunday. Wow. There are times I stop and think, "I'm 30 years old, am married and have 2 kids - when did all this happen?!" Time goes by so quickly.

However, that sure beats waking up at 30 and wondering why I don't have a family!

Or not waking up at 30 at all.

I read a quote on Myspace the other day that said "I plan on living forever. So far, so good!"

It is funny how we as humans are creatures of habit. Out brains are designed so as to filter out repetitive sounds and such so that we can focus, but it's amazing how we filter out life sometimes to just "get by". We get into habits, or ruts, or just put our life on cruise control and next thing you know another year has gone by and we haven't done much except get up and go to work. 

Maybe that's my New Year Resolution - to use my time more wisely. I feel like I made a good start last year, but I still have a lot of growing to do. 

I want to spend more time with my family. 

I want to take more pictures. 

I want to teach DJ baseball.

I want to chase my dreams - or at least whichever one seems more reachable.

By the way (and I know this whole post has been random), here is a website I found this morning that is advertising itself as The Best Job Ever. I think I'm going to apply!

What did YOU get for Christmas?!

Well, I haven't posted on here in a long while. It's not because I haven't wanted to, it's simply because there hasn't been much to say. I spent almost all of late November and December sick and working almost non-stop. 

Sick, because this is the time of year when we get busy and I don't get the rest I need; my immune system isn't the best in the world (a lymph node infection and then a serious bout with pneumonia will do that to you) and that combined with all the viruses going around and sinus junk and lack of rest can make for a miserable month.

I already knew that I would be working a little more than normal this month, but I decided to work even more so that I could take a couple extra days off around Christmas without using vacation time. Good plan, but it's made for a long month.

So there I am, the Saturday before Christmas, finishing my shopping. I had already helped my dad clean out his shop that morning and moved a brand-new washing machine into the house. I was as sick as I had been all month, but I knew this was the best chance for me to get done with my shopping. I'm a notorious late shopper usually anyway, but I at least knew what I was looking for. Whether I'd find it or not was a different story.

What I was looking for was a gold heart necklace with a garnet in the middle. The garnet was for two reasons: it is Kellie's birthstone and it would be our new baby's birthstone. However, try as I might, I could not find one anywhere. So Dude and I are wandering through the mall Saturday night when I decided to go to Zales. I still can't find the necklace I'm looking for, but I found a very pretty white gold and diamond one.

While at the mall, I also decided to buy an ornament. I kept wanting to buy a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament, but kept stopping because the baby wouldn't be born until after Christmas! So I settled on a Winnie the Pooh storytelling one. I then quickly finished up my shopping and went home. I was so tired I was asleep by 7:30! I woke up for a while in the middle of the night, but still, I was asleep very early.

The reason for all of this became apparent the next day, 12/21/08. Kellie had been mentioning that she was having unusually strong Braxton-Hicks contractions, and I was beginning to suspect that they might actually be real ones. However, we got up and went to church like normal. I even asked Dude in the middle of service to keep an eye on Kellie because she was still having them and I had to sing on the worship team. We even went out to lunch, just like normal.

Well, needless to say, the contractions were real, and when I finally smelled the coffee and understood that we were having a baby, I was very surprised. Kellie was not due until January 7th, so this was three weeks early. However, everything went very well and Daniel Stephen Sapp made his debut at 6:28 pm!

It has been a crazy week since then. I have tried three times to put this blog post up. I have been trying to attach more pictures to it, but to no avail. Not only am I having trouble putting the pictures in the specific places in the blog that I want them to be, but now I can't even get the pictures to upload at all. 

We are trying to get into something like a routine with sleep and all, but I pity Kellie when I have to go back to work. It's going to be quite a task to keep track of an almost 4 year old with a newborn! But I'm committed to doing whatever I can to help.

So I got probably the best Christmas present I can think of! And I got to back to the store and buy that "Baby's First Christmas" ornament that I had been looking at just a couple of days before. And Kellie's necklace was perfect! As is Daniel Stephen! Praise the Lord!

When in doubt, punt

Well, I pondered some of the technical issues that I am having with the podcast, and decided to stop trying to have the best podcast in the world and instead just have a podcast. It kinda goes back to a session I was in at Echo earlier this year when Shawn Wood talked about what he calls "The Excellence Myth." He said that sometimes we worship excellence and not only does it provide us with an idol, but it also keeps us from doing that which is effective. 

So maybe I was spending a little too much time trying to figure out how to efficiently make and enhanced podcast, because it was keeping us from having a podcast at all. And I can always make an enhanced podcast later. I was able to add the sound from a video we played to one of the podcasts, though! I also need to track down once and for all the source of that buzz in the recordings. I'm pretty sure it's the jack through which the computer records the audio, but I'd sure like to get rid of it.

Anyway, we are doing a little bit of a retreat tonight and tomorrow. It's time to plan out '09, and I'm really excited! However, I'm feeling a little under the weather this morning, so I might have a cold while we do this. Also, I'll be away from my friend the interweb until Tuesday night! Whatever will I do without Facebook, MySpace, and the news and blogs I follow? I might even have to (::shudder::) interact with other people! 

Oh well, this is me signing off.

Technobabble, without the cool beats

Well, I'm just a little frustrated. 

I produce a podcast. (You see it there, just to your right, in the column on the side of the page? Check it out!) I didn't realize how much would go into it, so I feel terminally behind in getting episodes online. It's not that it's a huge deal, it's just that I like to do things well and there are some things I'd like to do that I'm running into speed bumps trying to do. For instance, GarageBand won't let me export a podcast with artwork as an MP3 file, only as an AAC file. Why, I don't know. However, I can't upload an AAC file to our hosting service, Podbean. 

Now, I'd like to do all kinds of cool things to enhance the podcast, such as having artwork or certain images or Scriptures appear on an iPod's screen at certain times. However, it wouldn't do me much good to attach those images if I couldn't upload the file to the interweb. 

It's not that I think these things are hard, it's just that I don't have any training for them, so I have to teach myself. I know how to do these things in theory, just not in practice. Anyone who'd like to help would be much appreciated!