overcoming the challenges of unemployment, displacement, battling anxiety and depression could be the theme of 2009, but in the midst of one of the hardest years of my life, i also experienced some pretty amazing mountain tops.

in 2009 i became a triathlete, completing in two olympic distance triathlons. i auditioned for american idol, got my first tattoo, got my first office, and played guitar in a parade for the first time. i was the best man in my best friend’s wedding, as well as in two others. i saw phil wickham, paramore, and U2 in concert (U2 being the greatest show i've EVER seen). i met jon foreman (switchfoot) and brenton brown (wrote 'everlasting God'). my wife and i went to new york city with some friends and saw our first two broadway shows (wicked & lion king). there were also several mountain bike trips and memorable road rides that were bright spots in my week.

God truly blessed us with a full, and fruitful year. Looking back, I feel blessed for getting these experiences.

2009 was filled with difficulty, challenge, and hardship. most of this is covered in other blog posts, as i've documented our journey, but i think it's important to note a few things:

first is how lucky i am to have seen what i’ve seen. through my interview process, i witnessed and interviewed with several successful mega churches and leaders. i learned their organizational structure, what worked for them, and what didn’t work. i also made a few friends and partners in ministry along the way, even if it wasn’t the right fit for us to work together.

the next, and most important thing i gained from hardship last year is that my love for my wife grew so much having gone through what we did together. she endured so much for the sake of us, and in most cases, for the sake of me. i am without words to describe what an amazing woman she is.

i’m listening to a song called copperline by james taylor right now. it articulates growing up in an old mining town with a father who was a "regular" guy who worked the mines way back in the day. listening to it gives the kind of nostalgic feeling that makes you dig up your own memories. mine never sound as good as this song, but it makes me think of my dad. we’ve never talked about it, but i’m pretty sure he likes this song too.

these moments are nice. they keep me real. keep me from becoming something i’m not. keep me true to my past. i’m the son of an electrician and a teacher, part of a family that never had a lot, but who supported each other selflessly and still do. we never lived anywhere fancy, and we still don’t. my folks still go to the church they met in, which is still pastored by the same family.

i’m glorifying and memorializing things a bit, but that’s what this song does too… talks about things falling apart in his old mining town, but that it didn’t matter, it wouldn’t mess up the memory.

i want to remember. i want to memorialize. i want a "regular" person to rise above and do something great… or maybe i want that "regular" person to be great because they are "regular." more often than not, the extraordinary comes out of the simple, and celebrating the journey and remembering the past ends up being part of what makes something extraordinary.

i like that idea... that anyone can be something. it's good for me to remember when i'm feeling insignificant, that just being alive and on this journey is a gift worth celebrating, and that this ordinary road leads to what will (hopefully) amount to an extraordinary life.

another chance to praise... only this time, let's celebrate. in a desert, when the rain comes, it's a pretty welcomed and exciting thing. i know my life has felt like a desert for the last year, and the sustaining, refreshing feeling of rain has finally come upon my wife and i in the form of a job, home, and relationships. but that doesn't mean i can get lazy and forsake Him who's given all of these things... as the song says, "it's living water we desire, to flood our hearts with holy fire."