Sleepwalking Christianity

I have written before about the peaks and valleys of my journey to and with Christ. I think another way to say the same thing is to sleepwalk through your faith. It has been forever since I have posted here. Lots has happened. My wife and I have had our first daughter which has been an unbelievable blessing. Since we had so much trouble, we feel like she is such a little miracle. But she has also been a part of why I feel like I am a sleepwalking Christian.

I still make it to church every week. My prayer life is down, but not out. But my devotional time has been almost none. I just get caught up in the worries of this world instead of spiritual things. With my wife off work, I am spending more time in the office. 8-6:30 every day. Then I spend my time at home with my little peanut and work around the house. Then I am physically and mentally spent. Rather than seeing time in the bible as relaxation and rejuvenation it has become a task or chore to fit in.

I always told myself that if God answered my prayer and let my wife and I raise a child of our own, It would renew my faith. I know I said it and prayed it, but after the fact I still find myself struggling to give God the glory and praise he deserves for this.

Basically eight years into my Christian life, it still hasn't got any easier. My mountaintop moments are in my past and I fight to find a strong burning desire to spread my faith or expand my knowledge.

Anyway, pray for me if you read this that my faith will be renewed and that I will spend more time with the Word and other ministries.

Christian Blog Game: Top Words

To play, you must have a Christian blog site and statistics for your blog traffic that include a search word report like shown below. Then just follow the rules below.

1. You can only use words that appear in the top 30 on a search term report (not phrases, single words)
2. You have to use every word that appears in your top 30
3. You can use words more than once
4. It has to make some sort of sense

Try to say something about Christ, God, the church, yourself or your blog. See what you can come up with.



Example Report (Wonchristian.org report)

Search Word		Number of requests
1.	christian	203
2.	faith	66
3.	valleys	66
4.	is	61
5.	my	56
6.	the	46
7.	great	43
8.	blog	43
9.	commission	40
10.	light	35
11.	inspirational	34
12.	burden	33
13.	friends	28
14.	non	28
15.	matthew	24
16.	and	23
17.	prayer	21
18.	christians	21
19.	peaks	21
20.	immorality	20
21.	blogs	20
22.	bible	20
23.	it	19
24.	jesus	19
25.	of	18
26.	for	18
27.	finished	16
28.	lines	16
29.	in	15
30.	me	14

Review of Alive Festival 2007

This weekend, my wife and I attended the Alive Festival in Canal Fulton, OH. Overall, the festival was a great success. It was well-attended, well-run and had a tremendous lineup of established and new Christian artists of all types. There was a great mix of Christians young and old including youth groups, young-adults and families of all generations. I really left the week spiritually renewed and excited about God in Christ Jesus.

The week got started for us on Wednesday night with David Crowder Band, who played a great mix of their originals and worship songs. The night had a good crowd for a Wednesday night, but the free space gave you plenty of room to stretch out and enjoy the show. The events were MC'd by John Reuben, who did a great job as the week's guide but was even more impressive in his two performances. The rest of the week had higher attendance with a complete packed house on Friday and Saturday nights.

There were two real musical highlights of the week. First, Toby Mac brought the house with portable sounds on Thursday night. At 31, I was up jumping and dancing with the kids for this show. He played old favorites like Jesus Freak but was just as impressive with his new album and Boomin'. The whole amphitheater was packed and moving from start to finish. The second was unquestionably the Newsboys. Their close to the week could not have been a better ending. The entire performance was tremendous, no doubt helped by a inspired opening by Chris Tomlin who played "Indescribable" as there was a beautiful sunset. But what was most impressive from the Newsboys was lead singer Peter Furler's Gospel message. Clearly the focus of their act was an opportunity to spread the faith in Christ, this can be said of most of the acts at Alive. But Furler's message was super-clear and amazingly delivered.

Clay's Park Resort made a great venue offering a freshwater lake, volleyball courts, mini-golf and a couple of water slides among other amenities. The event staff kept the johns pretty clean and the venue in great shape all week. God provided tremendous weather with just one twenty minute rainstorm. So we had a tremendous time and recommend the festival to anyone that can make it next year. They will be having a 2008 Alive Festival, which will be the 21st after this years 20th anniversary celebration.

Not to be outdone by the top musical artists, the event also offered tons of other spiritual performances including the speakers and causes. Food for the Hungry aided by Crystal Miller sponsored 230+ children in Sololo Kenya at $28/month. That's up to $77,280 raised for a great cause. David Nasser was also a great choice for a speaker who told his story of conversion from a Muslim family. Some of the other acts that we really enjoyed were Family Force 5, Skellar Kart, Group 1 Crew, and John Reuben (an artist you just have to see live, his CD sounds totally different) Comedian Brad Stine and Juggler Jesse Joyner both had great acts with a clear Gospel message.

There were a few negatives at the event. Despite rules to the contrary, the crowd setup blankets, tarps, and lawn chairs early in the afternoon for the show and left them all day to hold spots. This resulted in big open areas not used during some shows and even in the large shows certain groups took up way more space than needed while others were forced to watch from the outskirts with bad views. I thought it showed a lack of courtesy. The teens were overall well behaved and there for a good time, but there was some evidence of tasteless pranks and misbehaving. But nothing too bad, so that is to be expected at a out-reach event. Finally the main stage sound crew had a rough week with a couple of acts with troubles and extremely long and stressful sound checks. But these few negatives were very minor compared to the great fun, fellowship, and worship.

My wife and I will probably make it back for Alive Festival again someday, but we are expecting our first child in December so 2008 will be a tough year for us to go camping and concerting. But if you are thinking about going and you come across this post, I say definitely check it out.