Factory Reset...

            This morning tragedy was beset upon the Isley household. By all appearances my cell phone had locked itself and was not responding at all! Couldn’t unlock it, couldn’t even power it off. Had to pull the battery to shut it down, this also had no effect. I could get to the lock screen, but the touch screen was completely unresponsive. So as I drove in to my day job, the thought occurred to me that there is one last ditch maneuver I can perform to determine if my phone was indeed a brick… A factory reset.

Sick Day...

         Well if you’ve been following this little blog of mine, you’ve noticed that it’s Monday and I’ve yet to post today. And the reason for that is pretty simple. I’m sick. Not sick enough to crawl into bed and sleep the entire day, but sick enough to call of work, and try to get some rest, all the while feeling miserable enough to not want to think. As the evening progresses I feel like I’m coming out of the haze enough to string together a few thoughts as they have occurred to me during this day of being “of the grid”.

Big Doors...

            Encouragement in the midst of frustration is often hard to find, and just as often even harder to accept. I’ll be honest the past several weeks my frustration level has been a little higher than usual. There are many reasons for that, which are really of little consequence to the point that I’m working towards, but I will share one reason as follows.

I Felt a Tug at My Left Hip...

           So as I referred to in an earlier post, my wife and I had the extreme pleasure of attending the Simply Youth Ministry Conference in Chicago, a few weeks ago. My wife and I came to the conference expecting a LOT, but not knowing WHAT to expect. We definitely looked forward to some time off, and away from home, and with no children. And we got that for sure, but this is a side note.

Inspiration, not Dedication...

             I had a different post in mind for today, but with the controversy swirling about the Christian community over Rob Bell’s new book “Love Wins” I feel the need to address something that has been on my heart. Something that may be even greater than the claims that Mr. Bell did or did not make and whether or not he is denying them or trying to reword them in his live appearances.

Spring Ahead...

Spring ahead…

            Well here we go again, where I live in the Eastern Standard time zone twice a year we find it necessary to try and play God by attempting to manipulate the Space Time Continuum by setting our clocks ahead or back 1 hour in the middle of a Saturday night. This either adds a much needed extra hour of sleep, or steals away from your already depleted precious time to rest before Sunday, which (in my case) is usually packed full of ministry responsibilities.

I Have No Business...

I have no business…

     There is an interesting fact that has been a re-occurring theme in my life in many ways. And that is, that there are many times when I have found myself saying, I have no business being in the place that I am, doing the things that I’m doing. In my “professional” life shortly after my short lived educational career in audio engineering I found myself landing a job at a recording studio, where I was severely out-engineered by my new boss. I found myself thinking, I have no business working the sessions that I am right now, after all I had only “been” a recording engineer for a short, but intense 5 weeks during my training. But I was always a quick learner and I soon began to hold my own.