We support president Bush.

And, after last night’s election results, apparently so do most of you.

And even though I am relieved and elated all at once by the fact that we so overwhelmingly re-elected probably my favorite president so far, I was reminded of “the other side” by a news story today.

Today John Kerry stood before America and in a way “endorsed” President Bush. He conceded defeat and said we need to come together as a nation. Personally, I think it’s kinda late for that, but I also really respect him for not going down fighting, but accepting the election results.

But there’s more than just conceding this fairly nasty election.

When John Kerry made that speech, he was letting go of a life-long dream. Not just a year and a half election. But a lifetime of vision and dreaming and effort and desiring.

You can make all the jokes and accusations you want. You can bring up his record. You can say that he only wanted the power of the position.

And, you might be right. But, that does not diminish the pain and the courage he must have felt as he made that speech.

Imagine yourself in his shoes. Everything you have ever worked for… so close… but, it’s over. You have to let go. What a sickening feeling. What a hopeless, death feeling.

So, though I don’t agree with his motives, and am glad he did not win, (as I think Bush is SO great for America!) I have to admit, I have much more respect for the guy since he made that concession speech. And even more since I remembered what it cost him.

Good on ya, John.

Go Bush. 🙂

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”

Over the last several years, God has brought that truth very close to home for us. Those are Jesus’ words right after the famous ones, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.” I always liked the NIV translation, “Today has enough trouble of its own.”

Very realistic. Jesus is not all flowers and balloons and halos.

Jesus point was not really to wow the crowd with his quite witty sarcasm. He was trying to make the point that no matter how much we fret about tomorrow… no matter how much we plan and prepare, tomorrow’s still gonna come, and today is what we should be focusing on.

The well-known line of Jesus’ prayer says “Give us today our daily bread”. And he meant it. God tried to teach Israel that lesson when they were wandering through the desert for 40 years too… just concentrate on today. TODAY you will have what you need, and I WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU TODAY.

I think that’s the part God wants to teach us… all of us.

HE is going to take care of us. HE is going to give us what we need… TODAY.

I have really been struggling with that on this trip. Money of course plays a big part in all of the stuff God seems to want to teach us, not because we struggle with materialism or greed or anything with money really, but simply because we really constantly have just what we need for today. Not enough for tomorrow… until it’s today. 🙂

Well, we have this new Christmas CD. And it’s been selling fairly well. Which is good. But not quite as well as I’d hoped… so I continue to try and scheme and look ahead and use everything at my disposal to bring in more money so we don’t have to wonder about tomorrow… because we will have enough money for today AND tomorrow. When will I learn????????

How can I so constantly forget? God has shown me so often that it doesn’t matter how much I scheme for tomorrow, it only frustrates me. Whether I am frustrated, exhausted, worried, or completely at peace and trusting him, he still provides what I need today. Everyday.

But I think I am hinging all my hope on a big craftshow we get to sing at in December. I have been led to believe that this 2-day event for 60,000 people will be quite lucrative for us in CD sales. So, I am optimistic that we will sell as much as has been predicted (which would pay off most or even ALL of our significant debt, which would be awesome).

But many things along this trip keep putting that weekend in jeopardy. Snow for one. Jen’s health for another. (Moms and Dads, don’t worry, she’s fine, just really tired!) Money for another. If you were one to look ahead to tomorrow, you might think we would not have enough money to make it home (or even to the next gig?)

But I am not. I choose not to be. Really.

My hope is not in a gig. My hope is not in my best plans and schemes. My hope is in my Father who loves me.

He will take care of me today. And I will not ruin today by worrying about tomorrow.

God help us be thankful for the day he has given us today. With all its promise, and with all its trouble.

He will get us through.

Til Tomorrow becomes Today.

So, they are improving.

I have to admit it, since I was the only one touting this team as the most likely to break the record for worst record in a season.

Apparently it was not a fluke when they beat the Miami Dolphins 2 weeks ago. And for that, you gotta feel a little excited. It’s fun to see your home-town team win.

BUT…

Why do we have to endure these almost-make-it-to-8-8 seasons? Why can’t they just be REALLY bad… or just good. They have all the players, as I think they showed today…

Well, it was Arizona on the other side of the line…

But really. That is why I was rooting for 0-16! At least that’s an accomplishment.

So now I have to go back to rooting for them to win every remaining game, and go 11-5 and hope to make the playoffs.

You think?

Nahhhhh…. 🙂

Last night we arrived a little later than scheduled at the San Dimas Wesleyan church in San Dimas, CA. We had dinner with our hosts and then went across the parking lot to unload and set up at the church.

The family we are staying with has two little boys who go to sleep about 2.5 hours earlier than our boys do, so by the end of dinner it was past their bed time. I recommended that our boys come with me to help set up over at the church since the host boys needed fewer distractions, and Mom (Jen) needed to rest too!

Well, little did I know, they would really be HELPFUL! I was almost done removing things from the trailer when I realized that Ian and Alex had moved almost everything several hundred feet into the building BY THEMSELVES!!!!

AND, Alex even took our T-shirt bin… one of those enormous rubbermaid bins filled with t-shirts weighing way more than he does… ALL THE WAY IN THE CHURCH. Dude. That was so amazing! I jokingly said, “OK, Alex. This is yours! (snicker snicker…)”

And he said “Uh hey!” (OK, in Alex Speak)

And pushed the thing the whole way in there!!!

So, it was a fun moment for me. It gave the boys some ownership in what we do – they were definitely a helpful part. AND, it was just fun to see them growing up and really being helpful!

And, it was fun to not have to carry all that stuff.

🙂

When religion is characterized by sameness, when faith is franchised, when the genuineness of our experience with God is characterized by its sameness to others’ faith, then the uniqueness of God’s people is dead, and the church is lost.”

I have just begun reading another book at the suggestion of a friend who now resides in Seattle, WA. They told us about it last year, and I am finally getting around to reading it.

The above quote from chapter one caught my eye.

We are currently in Las Vegas, NV, spending some time with friends here, and joining them for a time on their journey to a simpler church. It has been a long one, we joined them about 3 years ago, when they were well into the journey. And it has been so interesting to catch up every year and a half or so. To see how their view of who they are supposed to be as the Church has grown, how it has changed. And we share our insights as well from seeing how God is molding hearts and minds and changing perspectives among his people everywhere.

And one of the most consistent challenges to the freedom of the simple church is the notion that there must be a sameness… a systematic processing of Christian life. The quote from Michael Yaconelli’s book Dangerous Wonder rang quite true in that way.

One of the most common questions for proponents of a simple church way of doing life together with other believers is “How do you control doctrinal truth and moral behavior?” Inherent within that question is a false belief that we ever actually control anything that happens in the Church. 🙂 We know that the head of the church is Jesus, but in our humanness we strive to put systems and safeguards in place so that in case God is perhaps busy elsewhere, there is a means by which we can maintain some sense of order and sameness. A sense of purity and a bedrock of doctrinal truth to stand on.

A friend wrote recently that nearly all heresies or cults actually originated in attempts to control what happened amongst the believers, rather than a freedom to let heresy run rampant.

We think that we are so very important to God’s kingdom. That no one would hear the Good News if we did not work diligently to present it in a culturally relevant way. That people would fall away from the Kingdom if we did not have a regular set of teaching and training and service opportunities and structured fellowship gatherings to keep them on the straight and narrow.

How arrogant. How demeaning. How presumptuous. How condescending.

We are each on an individual journey with God. At very different places in that journey. We did not all get there the same way, we will not all continue on the same path to the end. But we do often get the chance to share that with folks at a similar place. To encourage and be encouraged. To share what Jesus has taught us and to be taught by the unique experiences of others on this journey of faith.

Freedom to experience and understand God is crucial to living the full life that Jesus said he wanted to give us (John 10:10). Conforming to a system only hampers and dulls the vivid, brilliant life that God created us for.

I look forward to sharing more from this book. Check it out at Amazon.com if you are a book lover like us! 🙂

Today Jen turns 30.

Thirty.

1 + 29.

I think I used to imagine I would be old and wrinkly by then.

She is not. She is more beautiful today than ever before (and I have known her since she was 12 years old!)

She is more loving, wiser, lovlier in heart, more gentle, more patient, more forgiving.

(A lot of that has come from marrying me, and having our kids… which is not a credit to me as much as a testament to how hard it is to live next to me?)

Today she is 30. A milestone in life, but miniscule in the scope of eternity.

I am so thankful that I have gotten to spend 15 years of my life with Jen, 7 as her husband, and I pray that God will give us many more years to live together with him.

If you want to say a happy birthday wish to Jen, please do! Just send her an e-mail.

Happy Birthday Jen!

I Love You!!!

🙂

By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

Perhaps you have heard this verse before? Or perhaps you have sung the song, “They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love…”

It is interesting to me how many other ways we try and label ourselves Christians. How many things we think make us “Christians” or, Jesus’ disciples.

There are bumper stickers, those little fishies, t-shirts, jewelry, hand bags, wall hangings, pictures frames, signs, and all sorts of things to put up around you or to put on you that say to everyone, “I AM A CHRISTIAN!”

There are buildings with tall steeples and huge crosses and statues and large marquees with amusing (mostly) messages proclaiming to the world what we believe and who we are.

We have statements of faith and pages of doctrine to tell people who we are.

We have morals and practices and disciplines and prohibitions that define who we are.

We have our own music, our own TV channels, our own music festivals, our own coffee houses, and even our own skate nights to set us apart from the world and declare who is our Master.

Yup! There’s no mistaking it! With all of these very evident markings of a Christian, the world can not mistake where our allegiance lies, or the greatness of the one we follow!

Right?

Wrong.

Jesus said, by THIS everyone will know you are my disciples – that you follow me, that you reflect me – IF YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

There is no doctrine, no building, no set of rules, no list of disciplines, no amount of prohibitions that will demonstrate to the world who we are more than if we simply love each other. Really. Not fake demonstrations to catch the eyes of those around us… but true, simple, honest, heart-felt, generous, lavished-on love.

Why?

Because that is who our Leader is. Our Father is all of those things to all of us. So people will know we belong to him not by the rules we keep or the doctrine we teach or even the clothes we wear. They will recognize him in our unabashed, unconditional, unrelenting love for each other.

So why do we work so hard on the other stuff? Perhaps because it’s easier to keep a set of rules or to preach a doctrine than to actually give up time or money or other resources just to love another disciple. And love not only costs that… it costs our comfort. We are vulnerable when we love the way our Father does.

Most all of the things I mentioned above are not bad, and generally do come from a life of following Jesus. But they are SO secondary. If we do all of that, but don’t exhibit love openly and wildly… it might still be hard for people to see Who we follow, or if they do, their picture of Him will be distorted.

They will know you are Christians by your love.

Jesus did not make life hard for us. It is really simple. He summed up the whole Old Testament in these two lines: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself.

When we learn that life is not about me, it sure gets a lot better.

And the world will too, as they see in us the visible demonstration of who our Leader – our Father – really is.

I am currently reading what is not only a good book, but quite interesting as well…

You can find the book IN PROGRESS at JakeColsen.com. The book is being published on the internet one chapter at a time. He’s up to Chapter 9 (of 12).

I just want to warn you, though I think it’s great and echoes a lot of stuff I have been thinking… it may not be for you. And that’s OK. If you begin to read it and just start getting mad… please stop reading. It’s not worth getting mad over.

But, if you are intrigued… please keep reading. And feel free to e-mail me or just leave comments here as you go. 🙂

I was just feeling grateful last night for a great family. You probably already know that I love my immediate family… Jen is by far my best friend and our kids (3 so far, working on 4) are a huge blessing from God. I can’t believe I get to be “Dad” to them!!!

And you may have heard here a time or two what I think about my parents, and even my baby sister… 🙂 (She USED to be pretty annoying….) 🙂

But I guess I was marveling at the great extended family that God has put me in. So far on this tour, every stop has been orchestrated by a cousin. On both sides of the family.

First, we sang at a church in my original home town (Springfield, OH) where my cousin and aunt and uncle are actively serving. And, that night, my grandma, another cousin, and another aunt and uncle were there, as well as my parents. Quite a family gathering!

Then, we traveled to Arkansas and not only sang at my cousin’s church, but we got to spend several days as part of their family. That was so great as before that week, I did not know much more than her birthday and her family’s names (and that not very well!) They were a huge help to us, and just great!

Now we are in Phoenix, AZ area with yet another cousin! This one from the Campbell side. Again, I have not spent much time with her since childhood, so it has been great to spend a bit more time with her and her husband and get to know them a bit more. They own a skate rink down here (3, I think) and last night we got to play some live music as people skated. Well received by all… especially our cousins! They were lavishly generous to us and our boys… way past that! Food, prizes, tokens, tickets, and more! They (and WE) had a blast!!! Wow. Just great.

It’s not just the fun stuff we get to do with them… it’s that all of them have met and are following Jesus. Many of them have met and are loving their spouses, who are awesome members of our extended family. It’s just amazing to see what God has blessed us with.

I may have mentioned this here before, but it bears mentioning again.

Do you ever think of who came before you? Your ancestors… not just blood line, but spiritual as well?

I know that God blesses those who love him, even for generations to come. So, sometimes, I think that one or two of my ancestors (since it seems to be on both sides of the family) were in step with God, more than those around them.

We have healthy marriages, healthy bodies, no major disasters… God has definitely protected our family.

That’s not to say there have not been hardships. Those are unavoidable.

But, in general, God has blessed us more than what I have seen in other families. And that is amazing.

I hope that we can (and ask God to help us) continue that tradition, and pass on a life of following the One who made us.

And who knows, but our family might be even MORE amazing 100 more years from now?

Well, a week has gone by, and we have not really much to detail except a BUNCH of traveling! 🙂

Monday was our anniversary (#7) so my cousin kept our kids in the morning so we could go out for breakfast (don’t worry… we didn’t LEAVE the house till 10:30 or so…) 🙂 That was great! Then we went to see their oldest son’s football game that afternoon and evening. Quite an eventful day.

In fact, so eventful that we needed to stay another day to let Jen rest! It just seemed wise to us to not do a super intense trip to AZ, but stay in AR where we were and get a day of rest in! And I think that was wise.

So, instead of 2 intense travel days, we ended up leaving Wednesday from AR and staying in Shamrock, TX and then Thursday driving from there to Gallup, NM (WHERE IT WAS 37ºF when we arrived!!!!) and on Friday we completed the trip from there to Maricopa, AZ.

When you think of AZ, what do you think of? Heat, Sun, Desert… right? WRONG! It was in the 39ºF with SNOW in Flagstaff, AZ (where I-40 and I-17 meet). That TOTALLY SHOCKED US! But was really cool. We like snow! 🙂

So, here we are in Phoenix. Tonight we are singing at a Roller Rink owned and operated by my cousins… tomorrow we sing for at least one church on the far north west side of town. Again, looking forward to it.

Till then, there’s an apple store to visit… 🙂