Yes, yes, I know....I have not written since my first day in LA. Well, it was an intense trip. And frankly I've been so busy since I got home, I've not had time to stay up with the blog. I'll post some more comments about Origins and other things when I get a chance.

Until then, here are two of my favorite quotes from the Origins Project. Alex McManus said,
"The most relevent human being to the 21st century is Jesus," and "If you stay where you are, then the distance between you and Jesus grows." With all the talk these days about relevence and culture, it seems important to remember that for followers of Jesus relevence to Him is priority one.

Wow...what a great day. After a smooth plane ride, followed by a death-defying shuttle ride, we arrived at our hotel in downtown LA. Some lunch at a underground mall, a little rest, then off to the first session of Origins. Tonight's stuff was creative, inspiring and very cool.

The 2 1/2 hour session including some drama, some cool videos, two amazing dance routines, some worship songs and messages from Alex and Erwin McManus.
-Alex pointed to the idea that the whole universe is crying out for us to follow Jesus. He talked about resonating with the words of Christ in Matthew, when Jesus called his disciples and promised to make them fishers of men. Alex pointed out that He didn't promise comfort or order or a life of happiness, but rather a promise to a life lived for others. This was a great talk.
-Erwin followed this with a description of the foundations of their church, Mosaic. There are three pillars to their identity; Moved by faith, Know for love, and Offering hope. Or something like that. I know it was faith, hope and love. I guess my favorite statement was when he said that church leaders needed to start thinking about and creating more disorder rather than more order. That both challenges me and excites me. He says that people who do and don't believe in God are not looking for easy, comfortable churches, but rather difficult, sacrificial movements. Interesting. Looking forward to hearing more stuff tomorrow.

Now I'm tired and coming up on being awake for 20 hours, so I'm going to hit the sack. We start again tomorrow at 8am.

I'll be leaving town for a few days. For the next four days I'll be attending the Origins Experience at Mosaic in Los Angeles. I'm looking forward to the conference, the sun and a few days out of town. The last couple of weeks have been exhausting. I'll post some comments about the Experience when I get back.

I was surprised and excited to see that Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has a blog over at http://blogmaverick.com/rss.xml
I look forward to seeing if his "on the blog" thoughts and reactions can keep up with his notorious "on the court" flare ups and reactions. For what it's worth, I say we need to hear more from Mark Cuban. But of course, I am, I am, I am a Mavericks fan.

Go Mavs. I'm looking forward to that championship parade in downtown Dallas.

I justed saw Garden State. Finally. I've wanted to see this film for a long time and had hoped to see it in the theater, but oh well finally got to see it on DVD. I thought it was amazing. Zach Braff, from Scrubs, wrote and directed it and stars in it along with Natalie Portman. This film is so cool; it's funny, insightful, challenging, and I think even spiritual. Mostly, it reminded me how much I struggle with contentment. Zach Braff actually says in the DVD commentary that contenment is the theme of the movie. After watching these characters struggle with contentment and seeing how they helped each other find it, I felt greatful to those who have helped me struggle to find contenment and gratitude for life. Thank you Shannon(my wife), Jon, Geoff, Dad, Mom, Aunt Pam, Mike, the other older Mike, April and Bob. Why is contenment so hard? Why does it take so much energy to "let go"? If you struggle with these questions as well, you might appriciate Garden State. And, even if you don't like the movie, you'll at least like the soundtrack. For you blog-a-holics, Zach Braff even has his own blog with some funny posts.

Tonight I played my first ever gig. Some friends who have a coffee shope in town asked me to play and sing tonight as a part of their "live music" Saturday night. I was not prepared enough and very nervous, but everything went off without a hitch. I played some Jackopierce tunes, a couple of U2 songs and some worship songs. I will have to split the tips, however with my two-year-old son, who put on an outstanding performance of "Twinkle, Twinkle" and "Happy Trails." How cool is that!