On the Road Again

My last trip for a few weeks was my trip to Cincinnati, OH with my job, Camp Electric, for Youth Specialties National Youth Workers Convention! I love going to the conventions and telling people about camp! So fun! And, Kristina and I got to meet Shane & Shane. Their concert was great! And, their new CD is sooo good! Besides "Psalms" this is prob my favorite from them.

Kristina went with me on this trip and did a GREAT job and we had a little fun after booth hours, too! We ate at some GREAT places and even met up with Sabrina and her boyfriend, David on their way back from a concert!

I really like putting pictures on my blog because it makes it more entertaining to me, so there are a lot on this one :) So, Kristina and I went to a few of the "Big Rooms" at the convention and one that we went to had Donald Miller speaking. Grant and I went to hear him in LA for the same convention and in Cincinnati he did a different talk and it was great! Well, it was different enough that I still enjoyed it. His new book is below and its about "what he learned editing his own life". Here were a few notes I got from his talk.

• We sit down with God's story (The Word) so often and think "What's in it for me?"
• A character in a book who is perfect makes it a lot harder to write a good story. I thought this point was good and he also talked a little more about how to actually write a story or a movie. And, he explained that there is this point in every movie/story with a climax or an "Act 3". That's where the story goes good and the conflict is resolved. It's where you know everything is going to be ok. And, as Christians, our Act 3 doesn't happen until the Wedding Feast of the Lamb when we die. So, here in our lifetime we will ALWAYS have pain and struggles, but the reassurance that we have is that our Act 3 is coming! Jesus will save us in the end, but we have to make it through our time here in this world...we are smack dab in the middle of Act 2! The only way a character gets better is through PAIN. This is true in life too. In order for our "story" to be great in the end we have to endure some pain...a lot...
• A character has to sacrifice of themselves for the benefit of other people for the story to be meaningful (Jesus on the cross is a good example...)
• As Christians, success isn't what we should want in life, it should be to have a meaningful life. We should want more in life, but it matters WHAT we want.
• Learn the secret to being content.

I picked up this next book by Francis Chan called Forgotten God. I have about a million books to read, but I will eventually get to this one and let you know how it is. I am hoping to make it to hear Francis Chan when I make my next trip with Camp Electric to the next National Youth Workers Convention in Atlanta in a few weeks.

And, last, but not least-Carrie Underwood has a new CD out! I love pretty much every song, but "Undo It" is GREAT! Really upbeat! It has NOTHING to do with my life, but it's still fun!