winter wonderland

we got our 1st snow in charlotte yesterday. i know some of you from Florida & Texas might be jealous... but others of you are like "you don't even know what snow is!" And it's you who would be infuriated to know that Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools & UNCC were cancelled yesterday. We cancel stuff when we see the 1st flake. Hey, don't blame us... it might be our only chance to close school because of snow this year. My wife loves snow! She was out playing in it yesterday morning with our puppy who was seeing snow for the 1st time. I hate the cold so i just watched from the porch and snapped a few pictures. Snow is pretty cool though... i say that if it drops below 70 degrees then it might as well be 30 degrees and snowing. there's no other reason for it to be cold!

1 other cool thing is that my junky car club car doesn't look as junky when it's covered in snow.

Speaking of the junky car club, i have heard that several people have joined after hearing about it at the renown blog. i've also heard that a few people have sponsored kids through compassion! that's awesome!!! if you know of stories like the make sure you let me know! that will keep me writing.

i've got a lot to write about coming up. Here's a small sampling of stuff I'll be writing about soon... feel free to give me your opinion on what you would like to hear about or NOT hear about.

- Unchristian is a book that was released last fall from Gabe Lyons & David Kinnaman that reveals some research about what 16-29 year old unbelievers think of Christians in general. I was shocked at the results and determined to do something about it. I also had the privilege to sit in on 2 discussions about the book led by the authors and others at the Catalyst conference. There is so much good stuff to unload that i may spread it out over a couple blog posts.
- a short video clip from a talk that Andy Stanley delivered about servant leadership that is off the chain!
- Some music "reviews" promoting some great CDs that you need to check out.
- my thoughts on Bono's stellar speech at the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast.
- downloading more things I've learned recently from conferences like Catalyst, Origins (Mosaic), Acts 29, etc...
- my favorite store... my favorite restaurants...
- sharing some great stuff I've learned from books recently like Chazown, The Mission of God, The Tipping Point, The Total Money Makeover, A New Kind of Christian, Deadly Vipers: Character Assassins, etc...
- a church that Ridge is privileged to have a great friendship with and be on the same team with as we attempt to impact and influence this city. They're launching a new campus and doing some pretty cool & innovative stuff to promote it.
- more of what God says about helping the poor & highlighting some more social justice projects that we can easily be involved in like Compassion & the Junky Car Club.
- my political views (HA! LOL. just kidding.)
- highlighting some great articles i've read recently in some of my favorite magazines and journals.

so, anything sound interesting in there? let me know & if it's all a bust i can write about some funny stuff.

*(The title of this blog post was borrowed from a comment one of my friends made at community group last night that really cracked me up for some reason. Now i can't get it out of my head. Thanks AJ.)