Holli recently got me a new devotional book called "5 Minute Bible Workouts for Men".   I'm really enjoying it.  It's easy to read and the contents are great.  From time to time, I'll share on the blog some of the things I'm reading.

Did you know Abraham Lincoln was a failure?  He ended up with an amazing presidency, but he had many failures on the road to the white house.

I found this really interesting and I never knew this about old Honest Abe:

• Failed in business in 1831
• Defeated for legislature in 1832
• Second failure in business in 1833
• Suffered nervous breakdown in 1836
• Defeated for speaker in 1838
• Defeated for elector in 1840
• Defeated for congress in 1843
• Defeated for congress in 1848
• Defeated for senate in 1855
• Defeated for vice president in 1856
• Defeated for senate in 1858
• Elected president in 1860

That's a 30 year span.   Talk about diligence and perseverance.

Makes me think of 1 Cor 9:24 -- "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize."

Northview is gearing up to start a church-wide spiritual campaign in September called "Living a Life on Loan".  I'm reading the book right now and really liking it.   I'm excited to see what God has in store for us. 

I came across something else that Hillsong is doing that I thought was really cool and relevant to the Life on Loan concept:   The I Heart Revolution.

From their site:  "THE I HEART REVOLUTION is a movement of people seeking to help people, showing God’s love in a practical way with no strings attached."

We made the plunge and got 2 iPhones.   One for me and one for Holli.   First off, I have to admit, I LOVE IT.   Holli loves it too.  Our Verizon contract was up, so it was a clean switch without any early termination fees.  So far the AT&T service has been great and I'm definitely used to the virtual keyboard already.

Things I Don't Like:

• No way to sort Exchange email.  
• That's about it :)

Things I Like:

• The email interface is great.
• The app store rocks.  So many awesome apps you can install.  Some apps I'm using:
  • Facebook - I have my facebook status synching with Twitter now.
  • Pandora Radio - free streaming music piped through the iPhone
  • LifeChurch.tv YouVersion Bible - very nice interface
  • Evernote - tracks my notes and voice notes and integrates with a web version
• The Google Reader has an awesome iPhone interface.
• Love the GPS and maps
• The web browser is great, so much better than the IE browser on my old Treo.   Although, I can't stand the Safari browser on a PC.

Holli is even using her phone to check emails.  I'm so proud.

Yesterday we were driving in the car listening to a Lincoln Brewster CD.   Camden asks:  "What does worship mean?"   

The song Majestic was playing:

And I will worship You
I will worship You
I will worship You (I will worship You, Oh God)
I will worship You
We will worship You (We will worship You, Oh God)
We will worship You 

As he sat waiting for an answer and as I tried to navigate traffic, I came up with this answer for my 5 year old:

"Worship is when we give all of our attention to God.   It's when we love Him with all of our heart and our strength.   It's when we put all of our thoughts on God."

He seemed to be satisfied with that answer and I think he was processing on it.  I wish I would have thought to take a few minutes to ask him what he thinks it means and how he could worship God.   Hindsight is 20/20.

It made me think though, how would you answer that question?    In your mind, what does Worship mean to you?  Post a comment and let me know.   Plus, you get more time to think about it and I bet you're not driving in traffic as you read this :)  

Here's what Dictionary.com says:

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

What do you think?   I'd love to read your comments.  I think I'll ask Camden and post his reply as a comment too. 

Sunday was a banner day in Chicago for a Cubs game.   Grandpa Vance got 4 SWEEEEEEEEET tickets and took Camden and I and Cam's cousin Andrew.  We had an absolute blast.   This was Camden's first Cubs game and it could not have been better.

1.  The Cub's won with a rally in the bottom of the 8th

2.  The seats we had were incredible.  Front row, first base line.

3.  The weather was perfect.

4.  We were in Wrigley.  How perfect is that?

5.  Camden got to spend a bunch of time with Andrew and Grandpa Vance.

6.  We ate peanuts, hot dogs, cokes, lemon freezes, pizza and maybe another hot dog.

7.  We got lots of cool Cubs stuff.

8.  Camden got a ball!

We were close to the visitor's pitcher warm up area and the catcher spotted Camden and tossed a ball to us.  (Thanks Chavez)!

Andrew made Camden a sign to hold up during the game which said "My first Cubs game - but not my last!  Hi Mom!"   Too cool.  Can't wait to go back.

Last night Camden and I went out for a date and he wanted to go to Ben & Ari's to play some mini-golf and arcade games.  I'm trying to do some kind of outing with him at least once a week.   We always have lots of fun.

Last night was no exception.  The mini-golf was hilarious because Camden kept trying to hit his ball into the water hazards they have setup.   Definitely not your serious mini-golf player!   They have lots of nets around to fish your ball out of the water and he was running around like a mad-man trying to get his ball.   I was cracking up.

We ventured back inside and he wanted to play a game of mini-bowling and some arcade games.  Camden ended up winning about 125 tickets, which is the highlight of the night.

The big prize:

A whoopee cushion.

Now, mind you, Camden didn't know what a whoopee cushion was before our date started.    He was browsing through all of the little trinkets in the display case and pointed to the pinkish balloon looking thing and asked what's that?     Well...uhh...well....oh, that's a balloon, I said.     "I want that balloon", he quickly says.    The worker girl was right there and said "You want that whoopee cushion?".    Camden sort of looks at her and says "yeah, I want that balloon please".     I'm cracking up at this point.  It was time for us to leave, so I told Camden, let's head to the car and I'll show you how your "balloon" works.

Well, to a 5 year old boy, the whoopee cushion is about as cool as anything.  He had a blast playing with that thing.   When we got home he wanted to trick Holli, so we blew it up and asked her to join us at the kitchen table.   Holli played along great and Camden had a good laugh.   

You may be wondering where the duct tape comes in?   Well, during our play, the whoopee cushion popped!  Loud boom, big hole, little pieces of rubber on the floor, one kid crying his eyes out.    You would have thought his world just exploded.    I told him not to fear and we grabbed the duct tape, patched the hole and we're in business again.

When I left for work this morning, Caleb and Camden were playing with the whoopee cushion, all the while trying to keep Fergus from grabbing it and destroying it.    Caleb kept running around yelling and laughing "Toots, Toots, Toots!"   They're all boy.  Love it.