vacation! (sabbath, loving my wife, reading, Jesus, surfing)

Maybe that title doesn't completely make sense to you? Not to me. I am going on VACATION tomorrow!!! my heart is racing just thinking about it.

I will be the first to admit that I have been running at an unsustainable pace lately! A few weeks of 18 hour + work days and mix in a week of camp with teenagers + a few weddings & bachelor parties with NO SLEEP for 3 days = will really wear you out. Plus working 5 jobs at one time (& only 1 that you're truly passionate about) doesn't help create sustainable paces either. But I knew it was only for a season. I worked hard & after working for 5-6 more hours tonight & then tomorrow morning's staff meeting we are off to vacation. And I don't feel 1 bit guilty for going away for 10 days! I've worked hard to be able to enjoy it (spelled = "not work while on vacation") and I'm gonna. I work hard & I play hard... & I rest hard. I'm going to have a true 10 day sabbath.

I'm going to turn my phone off and not answer emails or even read them (unless I happen to feel like it). We're going to Seabrook Island, a really beautiful and secluded place. It's fairly exclusive and a place that's much too expensive for us to stay... but I've been playing some "hardball dave ramsey negotiating" & landed a place for just under half the usual rent price! I love Seabrook. It's amazing.

The subtitle for this blog (the part in parentheses) is basically my only agenda for this vacation.
Sabbath - REST. Relax. Renew. Sleep in. Sleep more than 5 hours per night! don't work. [If you care to read any of my more spiritual thoughts on Sabbath (furious rest) just click HERE.]
Love my wife - I'm gonna be a crazy awesome & romantic husband the next 10 days. I'm gonna rock my wife's world. I'm gonna be the husband I should be all the time, but have sucked at the last few weeks because of my stupid unsustainable pace. This week is our 4th anniversary (august 5th!) & I'm gonna make it an amazing week for her!
Reading - that's vacation for me. It's one of my fav things to do. No pressure, just reading to learn... it's for fun for me. I'll probably take at least 25 books. That's just the way I roll. I won't read them all of course. I'll actually probably type a lot of notes from some recently read books. *You can see all the books I've read recently and the ones I'm currently reading (& probably taking on vacation) over the the right side of this site.
Jesus - The ocean is probably the most "spiritually connecting" environment in the world for me. I could sit out on the sand and just stare at God's glorious ocean for hours. I like to do it in the evening when it's cool & not many people are around because I like to sing and worship God at the top of my lungs. I raise my hands and pump my fists and dance. Sometimes when people are around they stay far away. So I prefer no one to be around for their sake. I could care less honestly. Sometimes the charismatic in me comes out and I get really crazy for Jesus. I'm begging Jesus to fill me up these 10 days... for another year of loving Him, my wife, and people. I'll journal a lot & talk to him a lot. And He'll talk back to me. Audibly would be really cool!
Surfing - Yep. taking my board back to the beach for the 1st time in many years... maybe the 1st time since my knee surgeries? Even though it's the east coast I've just gotta get back out there... Now I've just gotta figure out how to fit the surf board in our Ford Focus along with 2 borrowed bikes!

Anyway, that was a little explanation of the full title. I already told you I will NOT be working the next 10 days. I've got another 6 hours or so to put in tonight and I'll wrap everything up. Then a short staff meeting & I'm out. (This will be only the 2nd Sunday ever I will be missing in Ridge Church's history! The 1st was about 18 months ago. I'll miss it, but they will rock on without me.) Another website I write articles for daily for money - I won't be writing for either... I wrote them all ahead of time for 10 days. I'm even not planning to write here on renown for the 10 days I'm gone!
***And this is where the good part for you comes in! = GUEST BLOGGERS BABY!!!

Yep, I've got some awesome guest bloggers who have written some awesome stuff for renown & for your enjoyment. I'm setting up their articles to post automatically throughout our vacation for your reading, entertainment, intellectual, conversational enjoyment! So, read them and leave LOTS of comments. Get some discussion going about what they've written. They have all warned me that what they wrote will be CONTROVERSIAL! & I know you all love that kind of stuff.

the day before each of their guest blogs appear, I will post a short intro/bio of each guest blogger to help you get to know them better!. All of these guys are great friends of mine & have been encouraging to me & great people in my life... so I hope their articles are great for your life too.

So even though I'm on vacation you are going to want to check in here at renown each day. In fact, my number of daily readers will probably go up because what these guys have to say is probably way better, deeper, smarter, and "more spiritual" than my mumbo jumbo... I hope you all enjoy! I know I'll enjoy my vacation!