Our Trip to Georgia

At the beginning of the month Courtney and I were asked to speak at a True Love Waits banquet in Newnan, Ga. We had a blast seeing old friends, new friends, and everyone in between. We were able to talk to about 70-80 kids and their parents and just share our story and offer encouragement. It was awesome. Since the banquet was on Sunday, that meant we had Saturday to just hang out. So we did... in the woods... on ATV's.... shooting guns... hilarious. Check it out...

Fun In Georgia... from Danny Rohrdanz on Vimeo.

Hilarious Video

I know this video has absolutely nothing to do with worship, but it is seriously hilarious. I've been laughing about this for awhile now... I really hope I have the video camera handy when I take my kids to the dentist one day... Check it out...

simple... right?

Sometimes we really screw up religion. We try to make it what we want it to be instead of trying to look at things through God's eyes. This narrows it down, check it out:

James 1:27 - Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James, Jesus' bro, lays out 3 things that our Heavenly Father accepts as "pure and faultless" religion. 1. To look after orphans. 2. To look after widows. 3. To not be polluted by the world. It seems simple right? You know that saying, "easier said, than done" yeah, that can be applied here. This passage screams at us to break out of our comfort zones. To stop living comfortably. We must take care of those in need, we must not let ourselves become corrupt with the standards of our modern day. We're called to higher standards. If we let the world seep into our walk and take over, then from this passage we learn that it then becomes impure and full of fault. Don't make it a show, instead be different. Be who God wants you to be. Start trying to see things through his eyes. This passage really put things into perspective for me this morning and I just wanted to share it.

Brandon Heath's Give Me Your Eyes should be our prayer today as we focus on seeing the world through God's eyes and striving to live life by His standards alone. Check it out below:

Brandon Heath - Give Me Your Eyes from Brandon Heath on Vimeo.

everybody's got someplace to go...

I live about 30 minutes away from where I work. I live another half hour away (in the other direction) from our church where I also work. I drive alot. Since band practice is on only one night of the week, the whole Home-Work-Church-Home thing doesn't happen all the time, but meetings are scheduled and things happen at the church that I need to be at, so it does happen often. Below is a little visual illustration, so you can get your bearings on what I am describing:Ok, good now that we are on the same page, let's move on. Being that I am in the car very often. I get to do alot of cool things. Talk with my wife (we work together... best carpooling buddy I ever did have). Listen to music (I love my music). Listen to podcasts. Listen to people. Listen to people lay on their horns and be really mean for no apparent reason. No joke - We were at a stop light the other day and an older lady was in the turn lane to our right, but she was trying to get back over into our lane. All this action was a few cars ahead of us. A guy pulls up behind her, and he was trying to turn but obviously couldn't. He's in this metallic green Mustang with a lot of tailpipes. She's in an old Buick. He begins to honk like crazy, revving up his super sweet car (which just got so much cooler because it was super loud...sarcasm), lurching forward nearling hitting her, over and over again. I was so mad. This lady was scared. Finally, the light turned green and she got in our lane, and the mean Mustang guy tore off around the corner, tires squealing and everything. Why? Why are people in such a rush?

I am not saying that I am not occasionally in a rush. I am in a rush sometimes. I have been pegged as an "easy going person" so i guess that means that I'm not in a rush that often. I'm not talking about traffic, I'm talking about life. Day to day stuff. Rushing through your tasks at work. Rushing through conversations. Rushing through your time with God.

Do our surroundings cause us to be in a rush? Picture this... you're having a picnic down by a stream, mountains surrounding you, butterflies, beautiful grass, flowing water, all you hear is the smooth sound of the water making its way through the pass. Pretty nice scene right? Is this kind of place going to cause you to be in a huge rush? Probably not. Unless you're a crazy and don't appreciate a beautiful landscape. If you're in a huge traffic jam, tempers are rising, the tention is getting thick, people are angry, honking, yelling, the cars start to seem alot closer to your car than before... it gets frantic and you begin to panic and want to get out of there. That situation can cause one to rush.

How can we not rush and just relax even in hectic, crazy, uncertain times?

Another story. The other day I went out to get some lunch during work. My wife couldn't come, so it was just me. I've been to this Panera Bread often but I don't really like going there, not because of the food, but because of this particular location's parking situation. It took me literally 15 min to find a spot. This parking lot is very, very small too. Probably 60 yds / 30 yds. I was so frustrated when I got back to work, so I drew a picture of the parking lot so I could share with you my frustration:

If you can, please follow the arrows. This place is tight. Not cool "tight", but "tight" like I'm suffocating tight. With all the "one ways" you feel like your in a factory on a conveyer belt just riding through on your way to be boxed up and shipped out somewhere. The most painful part about it was that I missed a spot by like 10 sec like 15 times! I would see one open up but couldn't get to it in time. I really could not believe the number of people in this parking lot. It was so confusing and maddening.

Everybody had some place to go... Everybody was rushing... Where? With Who? Is it worthwhile?

God addresses rushing in scripture. He makes it pretty simple acutally...

Psalm 46:10... Be still, and know that I Am God.

"Be Still" "Stop." "Quiet down." "Chill out." "Shhh..." "It's cool, I'm here." "Stop running, walk with Me." These are the thoughts and words that flood my mind when I picture God saying "Be Still." On the other hand it could also be Him slapping us upside the head, saying "Be Still!"

He tells us why to be still in the end of verse 10. "I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." He is really all that matters anyway. Why do we strive for meaningless, empty things? Why do we put our time into things that waste away? We must live our lives as worship to Him. The One who means the most, who will never waste away. The Giver of Life, Everlasting. Let's be still and invest in that relationship. Give Him the time He deserves, which is ALL of your time. That means that worshiping God should be your lifestyle. He deserves it. He deserves your life, because we deserved His death.

Be still.

Sneezing with my eyes open (or trying to at least)

I still can't figure out airplanes. How does this big hunk of metal stay in the air? I am currently in an airplane writing this so it is, needless to say, at the front of my brain. But my confusion about planes and lift and drag and all that business is neither here nor there. What I want to talk about is the window; better yet, what's outside this little window. It may be just me but I can never seem to take my eyes off of the quickly shrinking landscapes of earth as we take off. I have to watch the trees and roads and cars and lakes get smaller... smaller... smaller. I don't know why. (Now I am going to relate not looking out an airplane window while taking off to sneezing with my eyes open... ready?) It's kind of like sneezing with my eyes open - I can't. I've tried - doesn't work. And I sneeze quite often - just ask my wife. Just like I can't sneeze without closing my eyes, I can't leave the firmness of earth (in a plane) without watching it happen. I see people reading newspapers or books or just sleeping (these activities are all done in the meantime before the ding goes off and the flight attendants tell us that we can use approved electronic devices) during this big moment of rising above everything. I want to unbuckle, stand up and walk over to them and say, "Excuse me, but I wanted to let you know that... you're missing it. Just thought I'd tell you." What is my obsession here? Is it just visual or is it something more? I think its something more. It is out of the ordinary to see the world from this point of view, so I watch. Usually I watch (from solid earth) the planes in the sky. But on these rare moments it's my turn to watch from up high. I also get a chance to see the work of our huge God from a different angle. The sunsets from 35,000 feet are incredible. "Incredible..." that's such a human-word. I can't wait till heaven when we learn heaven-words. I guarantee that incredible won't be one. Awesome, amazing, and unbelievable are out too. Please remind me (when we get to heaven) to re-tell you this story about the sights from airplanes and I will be sure to describe the sights with with newly-learned heaven-words. Because they deserve nothing less.
This picture was taken by yours truly while my wife and I flew home from our honeymoon. Look at it closely from top to bottom - Black.... fade to blue-ish.... fade to orange-ish... then black. (The last black is the sea of clouds) Courtney and I couldn't figure out the color that separated the blue-ish and the orange-ish. What color was bringing these two together? This mystery color changed about 11 times during the "dusk-show." Every time we thought we had nailed it down, it changed. We laughed, then took another stab at it. All of this leads to a question. How big is our God? More appropriately, let's put an "Oh" at the beginning and a "!" at the end and repeat the previously stated question. Oh, how big is our God! Another questions, why are we so mesmerized by the creation of God (not a bad thing by the way) but not mesmerized by God? (that's bad by the way) We lose touch to quickly. Why? We get complacent. Why? We get used to things (like sunsets). Why? I want to encourage you to watch for God's beauty, and when you see it, tell Him you've seen it, or are seeing it and then praise Him for it. Thank Him for it. He made it, give Him the credit. When we are seeing something for the first time and we know it could only have been from God, it should stop us in our tracks and we should give credit where it's due. Don't feel like you're entitled to a beautiful sunset every night, or a beautiful sunrise every morning - let it shake you. Let it move you. Let it resonate deep inside you. You're God made that from scratch, just like He made you from scratch. Worship Him for that. Worship Him because He is God.

Psalm 95: 1-7 - "Come, let's shout praises to God, raise the roof for the Rock who saved us! Let's march into his presence singing praises, lifting the rafters with our hymns! And why? Because God is the best, High King over all other gods. In one hand He holds deep caves and caverns, in the other hand grasps the high mountains. He mad Ocean - He owns it! His hands sculpted Earth! So come, let us worship: bow before Him, on your knees before God, who made us! Oh yes, He's our God, and we are the people He pastures, the flock He feeds."

- Danny

P.S. - By the way, don't try the whole "sneezing-with-eyes-open-attempt." It hurts. I don't think our faces are supposed to do things like that.