Catching Up by Coughs

I woke up about 30 minutes ago coughing horrendously.  I feel like I'm doing everything I know to suppress it so I can sleep (humidifier in the room, drank tea with honey before bed, sucking on a lozenge, took a cough suppressant before turning out the light, etc. - about the only thing I haven't done is drink cayenne pepper), but this tickle in my throat just won't quit.  Perhaps sitting up and blogging will help since nothing else seems to be working. (I'd hate to see what I would be like without doing all that other stuff...)

It feels like years since I've last blogged.  I kind of miss it, but then again it's not like I've had any deep profound thoughts.  So here's another "catch up blog" that will probably be as random as the timing and intensity of my coughs:

• About 3 weeks ago I got the 24-hour stomach flu that's been going around.
• Right on the heels of that, I got a horrendous cold that decided to camp out in my throat and I COMPLETELY lost my voice for 4 days.  And I do mean completely.  It's pretty hard to pastor people, talk on the phone, or discipline your kids when you can't make a peep.
• This past Sunday, a very generous and kind friend took me to see Iowa wrestle Minnesota.  My voice, although back for over a week, wasn't a 100% yet, so I told myself I couldn't do any yelling or screaming.  But the referee was so bad...
• Thankfully my voice recovered enough to speak at Watershed last night.
• I did a 3-week series at Watershed on the same topic (praying to be like Christ) as my hopefully-one-day-I'll-finish-writing-but-probably-will-never-publish book.
• These past 3 weeks have been the first time I've been back at Watershed since stepping down from leadership last year.  It was kind of fun to be back as a guest speaker.  I expected more of a "nostalgic" feel inside of me, but it only felt like I'd been gone a couple of months, not 8.  Yet, as much as I miss Watershed, I also have a deeper inner peace that stepping down was the right thing to do.
• I was so convicted last week about the length at which I can sometimes speak.  I went WAY too long - I really was passionate about the topic and completely lost track of time.  But I thought that was a one time anomaly.  Going back and seeing the length of some previous messages I've done at Watershed in the past year revealed it wasn't as great an anomaly as I thought.  Big bummer.  (Needless to say, I tried to do much better last night.)  Obviously, I'm not taking this Bible verse seriously in my speaking.
• The most exciting news in our family - S, my 5-year-old son, called me (with help) Sunday evening while I was away at the wrestling meet to say, "Daddy, I believe in Jesus!"  There had been some recent conversations started by S around the house about believing in Jesus, the cross, forgiveness, etc.  Sunday evening as my wife and kids were sitting down for supper, S blurted out, "Mommy, I really want to believe in Jesus."  After a great conversation, S prayed all on his own the most precious prayer you could ever hear, and smiles and hugs proceeded.  S really knows something happened in him, and he even told his class Wednesday night at church!
• One of the cool things about S's salvation is that he and M had a significant conversation the day before.  M brought him upstairs thinking he was ready, but within a few minutes it was obvious S was done talking and just wanted to go back to playing.  That reminded me of just 4 years prior it was older sister K getting Mommy to join a spiritual conversation in the basement with M.
• My church family is getting ready to do a series called Just Walk Across the Room, inspired by the book of the same name by Bill Hybels.  For over 3 years now, our church family has been talking about living lifestyles of prayer, care, and share with those around us in our neighborhoods, workplaces, etc., and this series will help us look at that topic once again.  So I thought it was pretty cool when avowed atheist Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller fame) talked about a Christian who was kind, friendly, and just "walked across the room."  Even if my neighbors who I deeply care for never come to Christ, I hope they can say some of the nice things Penn said about that guy...
• We are currently back in the book of Romans on Sunday mornings after taking a few weeks off.  I didn't realize how much I missed being in Romans until we started again in chapter 9.
• We are getting ready to launch a new ABF (Adult Bible Fellowship) designed specifically for single twentysomethings.  During January I met with a leadership team, and then in February we've been meeting with a "core group".  Things have been going fantastic!  The new group has been named BE[cause] and launches March 1 at 11:00 am in Room 128 in New Covenant's building.  I'm really excited about the group because (or is that BE[cause]?) God is clearly up to something with this new community.
• I have no idea if I'm ahead or behind in my read-the-whole-Bible-in-a-year plan, but I'm set to start Deuteronomy today.

Well, I've been working on this for the past hour (in between hacks and preparing (and drinking) some tea with honey (but the tickle is still there, grrrrr....)) so I think I'll try and head back to bed.  Hopefully I'll have something meaningful to say on here before the next time I'm awakened by a coughing fit.