Kyle's Random

I’m far from being a professional in this area, but I thought it would be fun to put together a few tips for any guys out there who might dye their hair some day.

1. Prepare yourself mentally beforehand.  All the good hair dye colors have women on the front of the package.  The boxes will talk about vitamins, shine, and other stuff you care nothing about.  Just pick out the color that looks best.  Once you’ve selected a color, take notice of the woman on the front of the box.  You’ll need to find her again if you like the way the color turns out (or avoid her, if you don’t).
2. Make sure to purchase a small empty shampoo travel bottle while you’re out shopping.  You’ll thank me for this later.  (If you don’t have a mirror, make sure to get one of those too.)
3. When you get ready to check out, don’t worry about what the checker thinks.  He or she will probably just assume all this stuff is for your wife or girlfriend, so don’t sweat it.  (If you’re really concerned, go ahead and buy some tampons too.  That will certainly remove all doubt.)
4. When you’re home and ready to dye your hair, make sure to take off your shirt first.  It’s not in the instructions, but if you’re doing this by yourself, it will make things easier when it’s time to rinse the dye out.
5. If you have short hair, rather than mixing the dye like they’ve suggested, pour a third of each of the dying elements into the small empty travel bottle and shake the mixture up in there.  This will let you save enough unmixed dye to do your hair twice more. (Just so you know, they’re not kidding about the bottle exploding if you try to save the mixed dye.  It might not be as dramatic as a bomb exploding, but it will at least leave a nasty puddle of dye on your counter top.)
6. There should be two gloves in the dye box.  Rather than using both, just put on one.  Use one hand for applying the dye and the other for holding the mirror and wiping off extra dye with toilet paper.  When you do this, you’ll probably notice that these gloves were made for small hands, but you don’t really need to use your pinky anyway.
7. Once you’ve applied the dye, waited for the recommended amount of time, and are ready to rinse your hair, make sure you have a dark towel with you .  Just to be safe, you should probably use a dark towel to dry your hair at least the next two or three times you wash it.
8. Once you’re done, put the dye components, the extra glove, and the directions back in the box and store for next time.  Rinse out the travel shampoo bottle in the sink and it will be ready too.
9. Congratulations, you’ve managed to dye your hair without losing a y chromosome in the process!

It’s hard to believe that it’s only been a year since we first launched our Internet Campus at Faith Promise Church.  Since then, we’ve seen God work in a powerful way, and we’ve heard many stories of lives being impacted as a result.  Although I haven’t included the numbers for the snow weekend where our church met only online (about 750 connections during peak times for each service), this graph does show the increase in people attending online over the past year.

This coming weekend we will have seven performances of Sacred Storm: Final Exam on our physical campus and six broadcasts online.  I pray that over this weekend we will break new ground and see record numbers of people attend online and make important spiritual next step decisions.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been packing boxes, buying a house, moving, and now unpacking boxes.  We have a great new neighborhood, and we’re thrilled to be in our new house.

My lack of consistent sleep also seems to have caught up with me, and there were several days last week when I fell asleep at about 9 pm.  We’re also in the middle of getting ready for Sacred Storm, our big pre-Easter production at Faith Promise.

Because of all of this, I haven’t had much time to blog, but I did come across an crazy-amazing video that I just have to share here.  Seriously.  It’s great.

HT: Human3rror

The cold days have kept us indoors, but that hasn’t stopped us from having fun times together.  The photo above is from a party my daughter put together a few weeks ago.

I’m was seated at the bottom left (the backwards cap got me in a little trouble).  Good times were had by all.

Over the past few weeks we’ve been walking through the process of purchasing a house here in Knoxville.  Unfortunately, things haven’t gone quite as smooth as we were hoping, but there’s still a chance that we will close on the house this Wednesday.  If not, we’ll have to send new paperwork back through bankruptcy court (the house is currently owned by the bank), and that will delay closing by several weeks.

Through this time, a few things have become apparent:

• I really struggle with patience.  Once I have a thing planned in my mind, I struggle with any deviation to that plan.
• Being unsure of what’s going to happen is unmotivating.  For instance, even though I’m packing everything up, many things will have to be unpacked if closing is delayed.
• Its hard to enjoy living in a rented house once you’ve packed away all your decorations.  It feels like a barren shell of a place – not like home.
• There is some sick part of me deep inside that kind of enjoys packing (just a little).  Maybe my mom dropped me on my head as an infant, or something.
• This is a GREAT time to buy a house.  Both the soon-to-end tax credit and the extremely low interest rate sweeten the deal considerably.  In fact, my wife might just end up with new living room furniture for the first time in our marriage.

As a pastor, I really enjoy walking alongside couples as they transition from engagement to marriage. Recently, I shared something with a couple who is working through a few challenges.  I thought I’d post it here in case it might encourage others too:

[Speaking to their issue] …marriage is full of junk like this. If it’s not quality time, it’s sexual frequency, differences on how to spend money, communication problems, or family issues. Having a great marriage is not the absence of problems. It’s having a rock solid commitment to work things out, even when you don’t want to.

Nothing profound here – just a good reminder.  Everybody has problems, but in marriage, work, or any other thing we do, the process of working through these problems is what makes our relationships healthy.

As I was reading last night, I came across Luke 10:21.  It’s part of a passage that I’ve always enjoyed, but with the rise of social media tools like Facebook and Twitter, it’s especially interesting:

At that same time Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, and he said, ”O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike…. (NLT) [emphasis mine]

This is a motivation check for me.  Why do I do the things I do and say the things I say?  Is it to please God, or is it to impress people?

Father, please save me from my selfish motivations and my silly attempts to feel good about myself.  Help me to place my identity in Christ and understand my worth through the cross.

I know that not everyone likes the thought of reading books or magazines in a digital format.  Even if you don’t, you have to admit that this looks pretty cool.

I personally have converted to doing about 90% of my off-computer reading on my Kindle iPhone app and YouVersion Bible.

What do you think?  Will this kind of interaction win over any of you who have been sitting on the fence when it comes to digital reading?

I just started reading a book by Geoff Surratt called Ten Stupid Things That Keep Churches from Growing. It’s my first time to read a book by Geoff, and I’m really enjoying it.  He writes from the mistakes he’s made in the past, and it’s quite funny.

Right now I’m only on the first “stupid thing”, and he’s already nailed me.  It’s about pastors trying to do everything themselves rather than sharing the responsibility.  I’m not sure if it’s my insecurity, my perfectionism, or just a fear that others won’t enjoy being involved, but this is an area where I really struggle.

Fortunately, God has given me enough clarity to see that the things He has called me to do at Faith Promise are beyond my abilities.  Light years beyond.

I’m committed to kicking this tendency to the curb because there’s too much at stake.  Whether it’s our communications strategies, our church website, the Internet Campus, outreach campaigns, or anything else I’m working on, I want to get others involved.  I want to share the fun and the responsibilities.  I want to step out in faith to see what God will do when I and the other people I’m serving with come to the end of our abilities.

Just so I don’t give the wrong impression, almost everything I’ve done at Faith Promise has involved great teams of people.  People like Josh, Brad, Heather, Matt, Phil, and many others have been deeply involved in every successful thing that I’ve worked on at Faith Promise so far.  I’m deeply indebted to each of them, and I can’t wait to see new people join us in ministry and planning.

Barring any unforeseen complications, this is the house we’ll be moving into the beginning of next month.  We’re grateful for our time renting a home in Farragut, but it’s time to move on from here, and we’re excited to make this our new home.

At the same time, a lot of my reading over the past few days has been focused on the temporary nature of this life and our stuff.  It’s adding some great perspective as we make this transition.  The house and stuff that we own is cool, but it can never own our hearts.

Lord, please help me to value obedience to you over my possessions.  Protect my heart from being ensnared by temporary stuff.

So, what about you?  In the materialistic world we live in, what helps you to remember that it’s all temporary?  Any tips?