Center My Heart

For I would love this life and to see good days.
So let me refrain my tongue from evil, my lips from speaking deceit.
Let me turn my heart towards You.

Let me seek peace and pursue it as I follow You.

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and Your ears are open to their prayers.

You are open to their prayers.

You are open to our prayers.

You are open to our prayers.

Open to our prayers.

In Your Atmosphere

7 Days Down...

40 to go.

I haven't been on Facebook for a week. This has proven to be a much more difficult task than I had thought.

I know what you are thinking.

Cameron, you are always on the Facebooks! What are you doing on the internet if you aren't on Facebook?

Well cynical reader, I have been

• looking into vintage turntables.
• checkin' out sweet bikes.
• watching Arrested Development.
• learning about Google. (Check it out... http://www.google.com keyword search, keyword America Online)

I am at work now, and there is a 'Google certified teacher' giving a presentation about teaching in the 21st century. She is bringing up some really cool points, but I am glad that I wasn't taught in the 21st century. I remember watching the Magic School Bus, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and of course Reading Rainbow. I even remember watching some science videos on laser disc.

If I were in 3rd grade right now, and my teacher wanted me to turn in all my assignments via gmail, or collaborate with my classmates via Facebook I would think the was the worst teacher ever.

This lady is talking about teaching through Google outside of school. That would be the absolute worst thing that could ever happen to an elementary school kid. Once I am done with school, I am done. If I were expected to check some google group discussing my class project on caves, I would hate school more than I would have previously.

I think that everything should come with age, and kids don't need email addresses or the responsibility of keeping up with technology until they feel like they are ready.

Unless they feel like they need a cell phone at the ripe old age of 9. Kids don't need a cell phone until high school.

Maybe I am 'old fashioned', but let kids be kids! Play in the dirt, build a tree house, loathe the opposite gender, make fart jokes, build forts, play video games, watch cartoons, eat chips, rebel, build legos, cry, watch fighting shows you aren't allowed to watch, read comic books.

Once I am a parent, I will want my kids to experience the childhood fun, but I want them to be able to discern what is right and wrong. I want them to experience rebellion, but only to the extent that they will get a rush from it, but know that I want what is best for them and rebelling is not best.

Who knows though, by the time I have kids there will probably be completely new temptations for kids that I will have no idea about. I guess I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

:end rant:

That baby is a gem. Match that with a little Ryan Adams vinyl and I will be one happy kid.

How He Loves Us

Lord, if it would shake the youth of the nation, I would give my life.

A man named Stephen prayed this prayer 4 years ago and died later that night. The next morning his best friend wrote a song.

The song was not the writers song. The song is a fulfillment to Stephen's prophecy. The prophecy to shake the youth of the nation.

The song tells a story that needs to be heard.

Not that Steven died.

Not to make an emotional impact on people.

No, this song needs to be heard because it tells of a Greater Love; a grace; a mercy; a jealousy that the Creator of the all things has for us. The Creator of those who love us. The Creator of those we love. The Creator of Love.

How He Loves Us

He is jealous for me.

Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.

When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory, and I realize just how beautiful You are and how great Your affections are for me.

Oh! How He loves us so.

Oh! How He loves us.

How He loves us so.

We are his portion and He is our prize, drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes.

If grace is an ocean we're all sinking.

So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss, and my heart turns violently inside of my chest.

I don't have time to maintain these regrets, when I think about the way...

That he loves us.

Woah! How He loves us.

Whoa! How He loves us.

Woah! How He loves.

I remember the first time I heard this song.

I was meeting with a friend, who had just recently become a Christian, at a church called The Boiler Room. I had been friends with him since Junior High, but had never witnessed to him. He grew up in the Catholic faith with his family, but had never been exposed to "Christianity" in the sense that The Boiler Room lives by.

He was shown a love that he had never seen before that winter. He now lives with a joy that can only be credited to Jesus.

Praise God.

The concept of loving like Jesus loved is one that was lost a long time ago. Christianity has become something that I am convinced Jesus would loathe. It has become a judgmental, selfish, corporate machine.

A Brother Who Sins Against You

15"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. 17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

This is an interesting passage where Jesus tells us how we are supposed to treat those who sin against us. I love it.

Verse 17 is probably my favorite. "tell it to the church". This does not mean get in front of the church as we think of it today. Do not prepare a powerpoint showing all the sins your brother has committed against you. Do not stand at a pulpit or on a stage. Bring it to the church of those who love your brother. Not those who judge your brother.

If your brother chooses not to listen to those that love him, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

Remember, this is Jesus talking. How did He treat pagans or tax collectors?

He loved them more than we can imagine. He hung out with them all the time. Through the love He showed them, they saw what life was all about.

If I can show the smallest fraction of the way Jesus loved through my life, I can somehow make an impact.

Midlife Confidence

The day has come.

My dad got a motorcy...cle.

I haven't seen it yet, but it looks sweet.

Jack Wiley is "the cool dad". Not the lame cool (lets you do whatever you want and has no authority over you.) But the actual cool. The "I want to be friends with this guy" cool.

Example. He emailed me yesterday a link to a recording workshop in Nashville and wants me to go with a couple buddies. He wants me to skip school for something I care about and want to do for the rest of my life.

I bet your dad didn't do that.

Superior Materialism

I drive a 1992 Lexus ES300. Also known as a 1992 Toyota Camry. It is nothing to write home about. 

• It was recently scuffed up by my main man David Matthew Fiser. 
• It dies when it is in reverse.
  
• The drivers side door doesn't lock. (Go ahead, steal it.)
• The back right speaker produces no sound.
  

Big deal. It still runs so I could really care less.

Today I had to go to Superior Lexus to get a spare key made. 40 bones. Why so expensive? So this guy can get paid.

Your team.

(Sorry about the glare and camera phone quality.)

This "Superior Auto Mall" is filled with Johnson County Soccer Moms, North Face'd out, proudly sporting their '09 Lexus RX350. Probably enjoying a cliff bar and going home to organic sushi.

It makes me physically sick. 

If I ever become one of them, run me over with a Hummer.