This music video was made by a fellow youth pastor in California. If you have ever been to or led an overnighter, then you most likely won’t do it again–I denounced them years ago. Enjoy.

It’s the sure sign that the well is dry. When the blogger goes to blogging for the simple sake of blogging something. It’s pitiful–even pathetic. But here I am. Blogging.

Why the obligatory blog? Or shall we say “oblogatory”?

It’s really quite sad. The reason–shame. Pure and simple.
I’ve looked at other blogs and find mine stale and lacking. So, what do I do? I buckle down, take a deep breath, and come what may: produce something…ANYTHING.

See that “x” in the upper right hand corner? (Or the small red dot in the left corner for all you hippy mac users)
Go ahead. I deserve it.

Or stay. And join me while I pound out my thoughts with the sole company of Jon & Kate + 8 warbling in the background. Oops…commercial now. That gecko again.

Okay, Jerry. Enough. Put down something with substance.
My thoughts lately? How can the God who claims to be the same yesterday, today, and forever; the self-proclaimed “Alpha and Omega” do anything new? How can the thing I see Him doing all around me and even within me really be the “new thing” He says he’s doing..and has been doing…and will be doing? I think it’s because it is His character, His attributes, His personality that are constant; not His ways. His ways today are not (or at least do not seem to be) His ways of yesterday. Or last week. Or last year. He seems to be an ever-moving paradox of constant sameness that is never able to be figured out, pinned down, or defined. He moves in mysteries, He delights in confounding. But not in a way that seeks to frustrate those who would seek Him. It is the way I play hide and seek with my kids. Am I hiding? You better believe it. But the point of hiding is the joy of finding, isn’t it?

And He shocks, doesn’t He? How many times have I heard from other followers of Jesus, “I know I shouldn’t be surprised by what God did…but I am.” I think we SHOULD be surprised by what God does. Even when it’s the hundredth time He’s done it–because who are we to be interacting with this God at all? Any hint of familiarity between us and God can ever only flow in one direction. He knows us precisely and eternally. We know Him barely today and not much at all tomorrow. We walk with Him and find Him as astounding as when He spoke a word and there—–an ocean.

But it is in the mystery, the shocks, the unexpecteds, the wow-He-did-it-agains, that we can take the most comfort and strength. For it is His great joy to lead us in a way that is wonder-making. It is His very character to create awe with each movement. And it is ours to enjoy it.