Headed up to Sioux Falls this past weekend for a "business meeting" with good pals Mark Elgersma and Danny Fergen, and I've come to realize that I have some of the best friends in the entire world.
We were meeting to discuss the possibility of putting Danny (a wonderful worship leader and musician) and me (someone who can speak words out loud and occasionally gets paid for it) together as a package deal and see if we could get some more SERVE projects to work at this next summer.
The meeting went just swell. We put together a promo letter, got some great quotes from lots of other great friends, and the letters are probably being mailed out as I type this. If all goes as planned, we may pick up a few extra gigs where Mark, Danny, and I get some quality road trip time.
While in Sioux Falls, we also met up with Troy Kooima and Word of Mouth blog regular Dustin to play a little texas hold'em at Troy's house. I didn't have the best of games. We played four times and I lost all four. Dustin, Mark, and Troy all got a win, and I got several second places. But we still had a great time, ate a great meal of Italian spicy brats, played with Troy's wonderful family, and had a lot of great conversation.
I also got to see good friend Dawn Ryswyk's new grandson Logan. A real cute little guy who I got to meet over lunch at Applebee's. Now we can crack "Grandma" jokes about Dawn and she can't get too upset.
And Mark and I got to run by Luke Vander Leest's new house as he was putting the roof on. Due to my extreme love of heights, I decided not to help out because I didn't want to steal all the fun away from Luke.
What else is new? Today's one of those days. I'm probably just tired from an overnighter that Andrea and I had for our high schoolers this weekend, but today feels like one of those days (as I've explained to brother-in-law Kyle before) where I feel weighted down by all the dumb mistakes of my life. Does that ever happen to anyone else? Not that I've made any lately, or even for several years - as far as big dumb mistakes though. But sometimes I just get depressed that there are some things in my life that I did and won't get a second chance to fix.
Reminds me of that new show, My Name is Earl, about the guy who writes down all the mistakes he's ever made, and then tries to fix them in hope of changing his bad karma. I should make a list. Hmmm. Not that I believe in karma or anything, there are plenty of bad people who have great stuff happen to them anyway, but maybe for peace of mind . . .
Man, would that be a scary list to start or what?
Till next time,
Jason
Monday, October 31, 2005
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Sweating Through
For some reason, I sweat heavily at times. I say at times, because I could be giving a talk in front of a packed crowd with the room temperature being 85, and I won't sweat a drop. Other times, like last night, the room temp was around 72, and I was dripping by the end of twenty minutes.
It used to happen a lot in college during comedy shows. It was never that salty, smelly sweat like I was working out or out of shape, it's always been a flop sweat kind of thing. Yet, unlike flop sweat, it doesn't just happen when I'm nervous, but the flop sweat can also happen when I feel completely comfortable and prepared. It tends to drive me nuts.
I've always had the problem though, ever since I was a little kid. I remember that after elementary gym classes, I would just be literally soaked with sweat. Other kids would accuse me of holding my head under the faucet, and I'd have to tell them, no, I just sweat that much.
Anyway, if I haven't disgusted you too much yet, last night's talk went okay. It was a talk I was giving for the first time, and I probably didn't put nearly as much oomph into it as I could have since I was just standing in front of a youth room and delivering it after a Mountain Dew chugging contest, but I guess it went all right.
The leader of the group, Todd Zylstra, gave me a ton of encouraging words after it was over, like he's always so good at. But I know Todd's a really great guy, so I'm never sure if he'd actually tell me, "Boy that was a rough one, huh?"
The group was very respectful though. They laughed at the right times, and listened at the right times. They're one of my favorite groups to be up in front of. I'm starting to think that I can be kind of boring though. Sometimes I may find certain Bible stories more compelling than the people I'm talking to, it's kind of hard to tell. But like always, this group treated me very well, and it was great to see all of them again.
I take off for Sioux Falls, South Dakota today to meet up with ministry friends Mark Elgersma and Danny Fergen. We're going to be hashing out some type of plan to offer ourselves up in a speaker / musician package deal for youth events. I'm really excited about the opportunity, and the fact that if it works, I'll be guaranteed the chance to work with people I really like and respect.
Anyhoo - My next speaking engagement is not for two weeks. (Winter's always a little slow for me.) But I think I've got three between November and December. I'll make an effort to update more regularly between jobs this time, I promise.
Till next time,
Jason
It used to happen a lot in college during comedy shows. It was never that salty, smelly sweat like I was working out or out of shape, it's always been a flop sweat kind of thing. Yet, unlike flop sweat, it doesn't just happen when I'm nervous, but the flop sweat can also happen when I feel completely comfortable and prepared. It tends to drive me nuts.
I've always had the problem though, ever since I was a little kid. I remember that after elementary gym classes, I would just be literally soaked with sweat. Other kids would accuse me of holding my head under the faucet, and I'd have to tell them, no, I just sweat that much.
Anyway, if I haven't disgusted you too much yet, last night's talk went okay. It was a talk I was giving for the first time, and I probably didn't put nearly as much oomph into it as I could have since I was just standing in front of a youth room and delivering it after a Mountain Dew chugging contest, but I guess it went all right.
The leader of the group, Todd Zylstra, gave me a ton of encouraging words after it was over, like he's always so good at. But I know Todd's a really great guy, so I'm never sure if he'd actually tell me, "Boy that was a rough one, huh?"
The group was very respectful though. They laughed at the right times, and listened at the right times. They're one of my favorite groups to be up in front of. I'm starting to think that I can be kind of boring though. Sometimes I may find certain Bible stories more compelling than the people I'm talking to, it's kind of hard to tell. But like always, this group treated me very well, and it was great to see all of them again.
I take off for Sioux Falls, South Dakota today to meet up with ministry friends Mark Elgersma and Danny Fergen. We're going to be hashing out some type of plan to offer ourselves up in a speaker / musician package deal for youth events. I'm really excited about the opportunity, and the fact that if it works, I'll be guaranteed the chance to work with people I really like and respect.
Anyhoo - My next speaking engagement is not for two weeks. (Winter's always a little slow for me.) But I think I've got three between November and December. I'll make an effort to update more regularly between jobs this time, I promise.
Till next time,
Jason
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Logo
My good friend and genius graphic designer Mark Leiknes designed me a quick logo as a favor. I'm still putting together some promotional material, and I asked Mark for something quick, slick and effective in telling the audience who I am. Here's what he sent me, and I really like it.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Afraid of Commitment
So here I am, attempting to make good on my promise to write entries more often when there's a lull between speaking engagements. I've had two people call me on my promise to write more regularly, and so here's my attempt.
What do I have to say today? Nothing. Not much anyway. I speak tomorrow night for a large youth group here in Pella. I spoke for them at a camp last summer, and I've spoken to them in their youth room. So they've heard me before, and they're a pretty good group of high schoolers and adults.
The question is - what do I have to tell them? I'm straddling the line right now between two separate subjects - peer pressure or committing sins even when we know we're doing something wrong while we're doing them.
I, for the first time in my life, actually read the entire story of Balaam in the Bible book of Numbers. Long story short, Balaam's an occultist / magician / soothsayer kind of guy who's asked by the king to curse God's people. If Balaam does so, the king will reward him handsomely. God meets Balaam on the road as an angel, get's his donkey to talk to him, and convinces Balaam to not say anything that's not God approved.
Well, three different times, the king points out the Israelites to Balaam and says, "There they are! Let's have a good curse now!" And three times, Balaam instead blesses them because that's what God wants instead. The king refuses to pay Balaam, and they go their separate ways.
Now, right there I figure I have a pretty good story for a talk. Here's a guy that's told he'll be rewarded beyond his wildest dreams, and all he has to do is say a few cross words even though he knows he's not supposed to. This guy, even though he's already a pretty messed up, sinful guy, refuses to accept the influence of important people around him, and does the right thing. Great peer pressure illustration.
On the other hand, just a few chapters later, we're told his body is found dead with several enemy leaders after a battle with the Israelites. Not only that, but it's then explained that after the whole cursing / blessing incident, Balaam was responsible for leading God's people down the road of temptation through lust and adultery. So now the illustration kind of changes to a guy who was living his life the wrong way, got to actually get a glimpse and have a conversation with the one true God, and yet he still decided to go down the wrong path later on even though he must have know what he was doing was wrong.
Either angle on the story, I'm happy with. I'm just having trouble finding a clincher for the talk. A good and simple illustration that I can use to really bring the point home.
I know a lot of speakers who tend to use the internet for good illustrations, but I've always found that a dangerous path. Not because the illustrations are bad, but because sometimes they're so good that everybody's heard them. And the one thing that I'm really happy with about the responses that I get from speaking is that people often mention I'm original and I use new ideas.
So there's my quandry for the day. Feel free to chime in on the comments if you have any suggestions. I'll let you know how it went on Thursday morning.
till next time,
Jason
What do I have to say today? Nothing. Not much anyway. I speak tomorrow night for a large youth group here in Pella. I spoke for them at a camp last summer, and I've spoken to them in their youth room. So they've heard me before, and they're a pretty good group of high schoolers and adults.
The question is - what do I have to tell them? I'm straddling the line right now between two separate subjects - peer pressure or committing sins even when we know we're doing something wrong while we're doing them.
I, for the first time in my life, actually read the entire story of Balaam in the Bible book of Numbers. Long story short, Balaam's an occultist / magician / soothsayer kind of guy who's asked by the king to curse God's people. If Balaam does so, the king will reward him handsomely. God meets Balaam on the road as an angel, get's his donkey to talk to him, and convinces Balaam to not say anything that's not God approved.
Well, three different times, the king points out the Israelites to Balaam and says, "There they are! Let's have a good curse now!" And three times, Balaam instead blesses them because that's what God wants instead. The king refuses to pay Balaam, and they go their separate ways.
Now, right there I figure I have a pretty good story for a talk. Here's a guy that's told he'll be rewarded beyond his wildest dreams, and all he has to do is say a few cross words even though he knows he's not supposed to. This guy, even though he's already a pretty messed up, sinful guy, refuses to accept the influence of important people around him, and does the right thing. Great peer pressure illustration.
On the other hand, just a few chapters later, we're told his body is found dead with several enemy leaders after a battle with the Israelites. Not only that, but it's then explained that after the whole cursing / blessing incident, Balaam was responsible for leading God's people down the road of temptation through lust and adultery. So now the illustration kind of changes to a guy who was living his life the wrong way, got to actually get a glimpse and have a conversation with the one true God, and yet he still decided to go down the wrong path later on even though he must have know what he was doing was wrong.
Either angle on the story, I'm happy with. I'm just having trouble finding a clincher for the talk. A good and simple illustration that I can use to really bring the point home.
I know a lot of speakers who tend to use the internet for good illustrations, but I've always found that a dangerous path. Not because the illustrations are bad, but because sometimes they're so good that everybody's heard them. And the one thing that I'm really happy with about the responses that I get from speaking is that people often mention I'm original and I use new ideas.
So there's my quandry for the day. Feel free to chime in on the comments if you have any suggestions. I'll let you know how it went on Thursday morning.
till next time,
Jason
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Chili Fries
Made another trip up to Sioux Falls on Sunday Night to speak at Troy Kooima's church for an "Online" service. Many students from a couple different youth groups, and lots of adults participated and we had a great time.
Dustin came again to help me out by letting me carry him down the aisle while ruining my back and begging for money. I lamented over the fact that I have yet to have Dr. Phil show up at my door and offer me an extreme makeover of any kind, and I challenged everyone to show the spiritual makeover they recieve through Christ in their daily lives. Yep, just your typical speaking gig.
Troy took Dustin, Danny Fergen, and I out to the Cherry Creek Grill for some appetizers and we had a great time talking about the night and how the service seemed to go. Both Troy and Danny had been at church since very early that morning, so by the time the youth service came around, they were both spent. Yet they both said they were excited at how well it went, and surprised by how well the youth and adults participated. These were great things to hear on my end - leading me to believe I'd hopefully done something right.
After appetizers, I headed off to the Kooima Ranch and bunked down for the night which is always an adventure. Troy has a great wife (Jana) and three great kids (Alek, Reis, and Sage) who always inspire me to be a better family man myself.
On the ride up and back I listened to Coldplay's new CD "X & Y". I liked it very much. On the way home I stopped to pick up something new to listen to and considered Kanye West's "Late Registration", but instead chose Christian Hip Hopper John Reuben's new one, "The Boy vs. the Cynic", and I was pretty happy with it.
I was particularly struck by the line in track 10 which says, "All I have is what God gives, and that's all the life that I was meant to live." I found it a very comforting thought as I made the five hour drive home and wondered if this whole speaking thing will ever jump to the next level. I think I finally made my peace with the fact that if all I get to do is speak to small groups and share chili fries with the likes of the Sioux Fall's crew afterwards, I'll still be a very happy man.
Till next time,
Jason
Dustin came again to help me out by letting me carry him down the aisle while ruining my back and begging for money. I lamented over the fact that I have yet to have Dr. Phil show up at my door and offer me an extreme makeover of any kind, and I challenged everyone to show the spiritual makeover they recieve through Christ in their daily lives. Yep, just your typical speaking gig.
Troy took Dustin, Danny Fergen, and I out to the Cherry Creek Grill for some appetizers and we had a great time talking about the night and how the service seemed to go. Both Troy and Danny had been at church since very early that morning, so by the time the youth service came around, they were both spent. Yet they both said they were excited at how well it went, and surprised by how well the youth and adults participated. These were great things to hear on my end - leading me to believe I'd hopefully done something right.
After appetizers, I headed off to the Kooima Ranch and bunked down for the night which is always an adventure. Troy has a great wife (Jana) and three great kids (Alek, Reis, and Sage) who always inspire me to be a better family man myself.
On the ride up and back I listened to Coldplay's new CD "X & Y". I liked it very much. On the way home I stopped to pick up something new to listen to and considered Kanye West's "Late Registration", but instead chose Christian Hip Hopper John Reuben's new one, "The Boy vs. the Cynic", and I was pretty happy with it.
I was particularly struck by the line in track 10 which says, "All I have is what God gives, and that's all the life that I was meant to live." I found it a very comforting thought as I made the five hour drive home and wondered if this whole speaking thing will ever jump to the next level. I think I finally made my peace with the fact that if all I get to do is speak to small groups and share chili fries with the likes of the Sioux Fall's crew afterwards, I'll still be a very happy man.
Till next time,
Jason
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