L ve: i or o? Its the same thing.



I had a great lunch with Jimmy today. I'm glad that we are friends. We are very similar and very different at the same time. I was thinking today about all of the people that I have met since we came to Vegas over eight years ago. So many people, literally hundreds, probably thousands. I think about all of them and wonder how I ended up sharing my life with the people that I do. Of all of the thousands, today I had lunch with Jimmy, today I live with the Parkers and Citizens, today I talked about everything under the sun with Sean and Heather. Who knew? Who could have guessed?



I think about what would have been if I had become a gen-x megachurch pastor like I wanted to a few years ago. I wonder if I would have less friends. I think that I would know thousands but only truly love a few. Right now I know almost everyone in Apex...I should say that I know almost everyone who comes to the Sunday Gathering. There are lots of people in house churches that have no idea who I am. But I love those 150-200 people who make an effort to come on Sundays. I love almost all of them...all except for Tommy. Ha.



I feel overwhelmed with friends. I'm a very blessed man. This strange life of mine is the life that I want. How many people on planet earth in 2003 get to actually live the life they want? Too few.



Last year, both for me and for my larger community, was a year of death. No one really disputes that. It was painful, difficult and scary. It was boring and confusing. This year, praise God, (search every entry I've ever written and you will find that I never say 'praise God' so I must really mean it because though part of me wants to delete it, I'm not going to.) This year is post-death. And yet we live. This year is the year of resurrection. This year is heaven. This year made last year worth every painful second. This year there is peace. This year there is life.



Wake up, sleeper. Rise from the dead. Cause the King is shining on you like the sun.