Y'know how you have things you can say only to your spouse? How you will word things when it's just the two of you talking? If you and your spouse are in a room with other people, you will probably adjust some of the things you say. In private, it's no holds barred. You're just REAL.

It's the same with prayer. Praying at Small Group or for someone else aloud isn't BAD, but our Father also wants us to pray in secret -- no holds barred -- just Him & you, being REAL.

I was just reminded of that thought. It's not original or anything -- Jason heard it somewhere. Even so, I've looked at prayer differently ever since I heard it.

Be REAL with God today. Tell Him what you're thinking and feeling. Ask Him for the things you need. Thank Him for what He's already given you. Don't hold back. Don't make your words all churchy and perfect. Just be yourself. And know that He loves you just the way He made you.

Yahoo! It's finally Easter weekend! We've been uber-busy trying to get everything ready at The Crossing for people to have their minds blown with the awesomeness of God this weekend. Let me just explain something for those of you who've never been to a church that would give away cars (yes, 3 of them) just to get people in the door. Why do we care? Why do we care about getting so many people to show up to a church service? People = LIVES! Do you know anyone who needs a change in their life? They party too much, are dealing with an addiction that is tearing them apart, are going through a horrible divorce, are struggling with losing a loved one? Maybe that person is you. See, I don't know what you think about God. I believe He's real and doesn't care about your past junk. He knows how screwed up & broken we all are & He just wants us to do life with Him.

Over the past 5 years, I have watched God change HUNDREDS of lives at The Crossing. Literally, HUNDREDS! Including my life. I know people don't always understand the way we go about reaching people. I know lots of people have an idea in their head about how church is "supposed to be". Like, we're not "supposed to" play loud rock music, like Aerosmith. Or, we're not "supposed to" wear ripped jeans to church. Or we're not "supposed to" have FUN at church. We're "supposed to" be solemn and serious and bored to death at church, right? I think it's funny how for over 2,000 years people have had this idea of how church is "supposed to be". The Apostle Paul was constantly trying to explain to people that God doesn't care about rules or rituals. People haven't changed. Not in 2,000 years! GOD STILL DOESN'T CARE ABOUT RULES & RITUALS. Isn't that cool?

I read this passage this morning:
Does it sound like we're patting ourselves on the back, insisting on our credentials, asserting our authority? Well, we're not. Neither do we need letters of endorsement, either to you or from you. You yourselves are all the endorsement we need. Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it -- not with ink, but with God's living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives -- and we publish it. (I think of all the people who've been reached in an unconventional, non-churchy way...)

We couldn't be more sure of ourselves in this -- that you, written by Christ himself for God, are our letter of recommendation. We wouldn't think of writing this kind of letter about ourselves. Only God can write such a letter. His letter authorizes us to help carry out this new plan of action. The plan wasn't written out with ink on paper, with pages and pages of legal footnotes, killing your spirit. It's written with Spirit on spirit, his life on our lives!
-2 Cor 3:1-6 (The Message)

So I will stay on The Crossing's mission to move seekers one step closer to a real relationship with Jesus and to thrill believers with spiritual truths of an awe-inspiring God. Know why? 'Cause God is at work at The Crossing, people. God is changing lives there. And it might not be the way it's "supposed to be". And that's OK.

So, I'm reading this awesome new book called "The Me I Want To Be" by John Ortberg. I know, the title sounds like something Stuart Smalley would say (see old Al Franken clips from SNL if you don't know what I mean...). But the book is really good so far! He's talking about how God has created each of us for a specific purpose, and if we lean into that, we will have peace & contentment. I don't know about you, but I really struggle with trying to be what people think I should be. Or I fight to become like other people are. But God created me to be Tracy. Even with my all of my many flaws, He loves me & made me this way. Don't get me wrong -- I don't think I should become lazy & forget about trying to improve myself. I want to lose weight, be more generous, more graceful, less angry, and I think God wants all of those things for me, too. I think what He's trying to tell me lately is that I can be confident in His perfect love for me. And, ultimately, the "me I want to be" is a me that is fully aware of how unconditionally loved I am by my Creator.

A blog for the new year!

OK, so it has come to my attention that, lo & behold, people are actually reading this thing. And I haven't posted anything in over a year! It's a new year now. Heck, it's a new DECADE! So, in honor of 2010, here's a blog post for ya'll!

Here's some stuff I thought would be happening by the 21st century (in no particular order):

1) Flying cars. What the? Why don't we have these yet? Seriously!! Even the 2nd Back to the Future movie had hover-cars. (And those Pizza Hut pizzas that you nuke in like 4 seconds). I think someone needs to make this happen. Like Bill Gates or Google or somebody.

2) Robots. The Jetsons had one. She cooked. She cleaned. She fed Rastro (er, I mean, Astro). I want one. iPhone, no. Robots, yes!

3) Houses in the sky. Speaking of the Jetsons... Need I say more? OK, really though, I wouldn't really care to live in a house in the sky. Except for the not-mowing-the-lawn part. That would be cool.

However, God has blessed me with an amazing family, a fantastic group of friends and an incredible opportunity to change the world one person at a time through my job, and that shall be enough for me.

Happy New Year everyone!!

Random stuff....

Well, I guess it's been awhile since I decided to post, huh? I'm not very good at keeping up with this blogging thing. Must be spending too much time on Facebook playing Scramble ((sigh)). But, alas, here I am and here's what's going on in Keech-land:

We've been very busy lately with church events (as usual). Our new small group launched two weeks ago and we couldn't be happier! We had 22 adults show up the first night along with boatloads of kids. I'm excited for this new group. Excited to see where God's gonna take us. I really pictured "doing life" in a small group with people who are laid back and fun. I really think God brought like-minded people to our group. Right off the bat I was like, "Well, most of us have kids and that means we're going to have interruptions. That's OK! I "do life" with my kids, so "doing life" with other people means my kids are included." I am SOOO happy to be part of a small group that I don't have to a) find a babysitter to attend or b) have to be completely paranoid that my kids (from time to time) act like KIDS! So, yay!! By golly, I think we've got it!

Another church event we did recently was walk in the Elk River Homecoming Parade. Connor rode his scooter in the parade, doing tricks all along the route (jumping his scooter up onto curbs to pass out invite cards). I look at him lately and he sure doesn't look like a little boy anymore. It's so weird that he's 10 and teenage-hood is approaching so quickly. He's very independent and smart. Maddy had a blast passing out candy to everyone with her friends. She was so busy making sure EVERY person got a piece of candy that, at times, we found ourselves a couple of floats behind the rest of the group. So then I'd yell, "RUN!! We gotta catch up!". One of these times she ran full speed ahead and tripped, her legs and arms sprawled out on the pavement. She only cried momentarily and kept on moving. Now THAT's when you know she was having fun. Because for Maddy not to "milk" an injury is a complete miracle!

Here's Maddy with her friends, Zach & Aidan:

Camping '08

Well, we had fun this week going camping up by Remer. We go every year with some friends of ours just to chill out. It's so nice to be out of cell phone range, email range, and everyday life range. It forces you to set your mind on living in the moment - and I love it!! The guys did a ton of fishing, and us ladies played a lot of Phase 10. I even caught a nice bass on Tuesday morning before we left :). Then, as you can see in the picture, I held it like a girl. Forgive the way I look in these photos. We were roughing it. Like no-running-water-gotta-pee-in-the-outhouse-for-2-days roughing it. Consider yourself lucky my blog isn't scratch n' sniff.

Kalahari

Just posting a few fun pics from our 4th of July weekend in Wisconsin Dells. We went with my brother, Jay's, family and my mom. The first is the view from our hotel room. Waterpark Heaven!! We had a relaxing time. It was nice not to be running here and there, so we primarily stayed at the Waterpark. We did take a trip to the Timbavati Wildlife Park and the Wisconsin Deer Park, though. That was pretty cool.