James Delony, my 5 year old son, took his first step towards manhood this week.  He drew blood on his old man. It was amazing.

We were wrestling and running around the house. I was chasing him. He takes a sharp turn into his room and begins to slam the door shut. My head procedes to meet the door full on. Blood and liquid stitches ensue.  At first, James was upset thinking I was mad at him, but after a moment, he looked at the gash. I told him I was okay and congratulated him. Then from that moment on, he had this twinkle in his eye. I think this is the first time he realized that he could be powerful.

So today around the house, he walks a taller and puffs his chest out a bit. The boy is growing up.  He is becoming a man.

In honor of my snow retreat weekend, I give you many amazing crashes - some of which I expect to see from my kids (and myself). Pray we stay out of the hospital.

[youtube= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKtnY11fSTI]

Today we’re taking 15-20 high school students for a weekend in the snow. Keep us in your prayers for safety, transparency, and authenticity. Our goals: lot’s of coffee and deep conversations along with contemplative midnight sessions. We’ve been totally upfront with each kid that signed up about our spiritual emphasis and they’ve stepped up to the challenge. Sure we’ll play games, but that’s not the point of this weekend.
I’ve found myself, in the past, selling these retreats on the fun activities , but this time I’ve sold it on the spiritual pursuit and we’ve had a good turnout. If you’re honest with kids, they are truly able to step up to the plate. So pray for us this weekend!

“Starbucks, the company that popularized the $4 cup of coffee, is testing a $1 cup and free refills of some of its offerings.” (MSN)

Can it be true? The words “value” and “Starbucks” can now be used together? I’m sorry Virgil, you preterist, but this has got to be end times stuff, up there with the mark of the beast. Someone call Tim LaHaye.

Kevin Bussey starts a new job at a new church and Starbucks goes cheap. This is the winter of Bussey man. You are blessed.

There’s this Scientology promo video circulating around the net. It has Tom Cruise rambling on about a higher beings, aliens, finding purpose, and a bunch of other wacky stuff. And yes, like a car crash, it’s hard not to watch.

But think of this from the perspective of a follower of Christ. Listen to Cruise, most of his ramblings are so vague he could almost be a Christian talking about their faith. Am I saying Cruise is a Christian? No way.

I want us to watch that and think about how we articulate the gospel and who Jesus is to us. Do we ramble on using vague terms or do we speak from the depths of our souls? Can we explain our faith in biblical and personal context? Sometimes we resort to being vague and end up sounding not much different than Cruise. Or we go on the other end of the spectrum and are a walking tract. Our relationship with Christ is a personal one driven by experience and grounded in the Bible.

So my challenge for you is this. Know who you are in Christ. Practice what you’d tell someone alone at first, then try it out on a friend. This needs to be something we’re constantly work on and hone. It’s so simple, but we so easily botch it. If being a follower of Christ is so important to our lives… why can’t we articulate it?

Watch the Cruise video here.