More New....The Digital Age

I want an album and a tour right now.  Awesome.

ADD and A.C.T.S. prayer

Hi my name is Aaron and I have ADD.

You don't have to read my blog long or spend much time with me to know that. I've been taught to live with it. Sometimes I'm organized and focused.....other times....not so much. I actually believe there are time that my ADD helps me. There are times where the way my brain works allows me to picture things, or multi-task differently. It's cool. I always talk about working at the taxi office and dispatching. We had a board, just a blank board, with little sticky notes on them that showed all the cars by number, and then all the calls. When other dispatchers saw a board with information, my brain saw a map of the area that we serviced. I could see visually where each call was picking up and dropping off. I moved cars around so that there was the least amount of dead driving. My boss who ran the company couldn't understand why I would line calls up that way and would make $.25 bets with me that I couldn't clear the board. He never won.

All that said, I've always struggled with "quiet time" with Jesus. My brain just bounces around. I'm good if I'm reading but just sitting still or just being in prayer is always problematic. I used to really beat myself up about it. There I was attempting to be in God's presence and I was thinking about doing the laundry or getting the oil changed. On some level I came to the peace that God's word says that he knows me intimately. If that's true then he knows my ADD brain too. I almost saw God chuckling when we were hanging out and I got distracted....like, "Well there goes Aaron again."

A couple months ago a pastor friend of mine posted something about hoping God didn't get frustrated with his ADD brain. His former youth pastor (and a Geneva alum) who I casually knew posted this great link. It's about praying through the ACTS prayer (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) when you have ADD. The long and short of the article is that, I can't give up and throw in the towel....but rather re-structure this prayer for my ADD brain so that it makes sense.

Before I drop the link on you, I want to say this: 1. I don't feel that I need to use the ACTS model regularly, but the articles principles go beyond this. 2. For me the article was freeing in a lot of ways. It got me thinking about how to spend quality time with Jesus in ways that will work better for me. It's partially about Jesus knowing my ADD brain, but it's also about me knowing my ADD brain and setting myself up for success rather than distraction.

Here's the link. Even if you don't have ADD it's a really good read. Help a friend with ADD!

Then Sings My Soul

My buddy Jim Baker (I'd link his blog but he admitted to me he only blogged twice last year) was in town from Maryland this past week. While chilling he asked what I was listening to, then he shared Ascend the Hill with me. OH MAN! Talk about rock my world.

I got a call Friday from our choir director saying they weren't going to sing Sunday and could I do something. Sure. So I did a song I just downloaded. (see video at end of post)

So it turns out that you can download their Hymns album for free. Don't hesitate. Don't think about it. Don't tell yourself you'll remember to do it later....because we both know you'll forget. Go do it right now. It is really really really good. So go HERE RIGHT NOW and down load their album for FREE.

Song of my Heart

I think I can have more than one "song of my heart" at a time. This is the newest one. I keep playing it and playing it and playing it in the van. I start the song over and Tobiah yells "NO!" from the back seat. He really likes it, but he's just bugging me because it's all we've been singing lately.

The Great I Am

I love Jared Anderson. This song has been rocking my world recently. The middle to the end is best sung as loudly as you can with arms held high.

Late Night Thought on Music

It's 11:07 and I should know better than write this now. I was just playing a game and letting my mind wander and this kind of took this shape.

It's Advent. To be honest, I don't really like being a worship leader in a blended music church during Advent. I feel like my hands are tied by the traditional Christmas music a little more than I'd like. There are only 4 weeks and there's no way to sing them all.

I also have been singing these songs my entire life. So have you probably. And if I"m honest with myself I don't regularly think about what it is that I'm singing when I sing Christmas Carols. They're more seasonal music than they are preparing my heart to engage God.

One of the my struggles with traditional church is our repetitive nature. We do things over and over again. We read call to worships without passion. We sing songs because we are suppose to sing, not because we are laying our hearts out before God.

Anything can be that way. Not just worship. Driving to the supermarket. It's all autopilot. You just do it while you're listening to the radio. You don't think "Ok next street I make a right. Then I go to the second stop sign and hang a left." You just go. Mechanically.

"Make a joyful noise to the Lord." I've heard lots of people talk about how God doesn't require your noise to sound perfect. I've heard people talk about how important it is to come to God honestly. That's all true. But can we focus ourselves on the second half of that sentence. Who is it we are making the noise for? What's the point of making any noise at all if it's not heart felt passionate noise before a Creator God.

Ok....I need to go pick music for next week.