It's Steve

So what would I say if I could take over Pastor Bobby's Blog for one day. Uhhhhhhh, absolutely nothing.

This is Steve your humble church soundman, at least that is the role most of you see me play on any given Sunday. Those of you who know me know I am quite comfortable in the background. I usually only get attention when I screw up, so I try to avoid that. I'm not sure why Pastor Bobby thinks you care about what I have to say. I mean if you want to talk about politics or audio stuff I am your man. But to talk about myself?

People ask me what I do at Harvest, I still don't have a short answer for that. I am the soundman, roadie, truck driver, cameraman, lighting guy, drum-keyboard-guitar amp-blownspeaker repair guy (lots of that lately), garbage man, purchasing dept, setup-teardown, recording engineer, plumber thewaittilleverybodygoeshomesoIcanlockupthebuilding guy, the completely clueless IT guy, amateur electrician, I move a lot of chairs and tables around, and apparently I am also expected to be a talented writer.

I've been married for 8 years to a beautiful girl named Sherry and we have a cute little three year old girl, Abigail. Sherry is an RN at Sacred heart ER, I am very proud of what she does and how hard she works. Abigail is quite proficient at doing flips, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, and has every word of Cinderella memorized. Also, we have a chihuahua/jack russell puppy dog named Bentley. By the way, the picture up there is of us at Disney. Please be praying for Sherry's Disney addiction.

So I guess on these blog things you are supposed to say something really deep and stuff. I hope you will forgive me if I can't live up to the profundity(that will be $10 please) of the rest of the staff.

So here it is, are you ready???

You should live a balanced life

OK, so before you think I going all Yen and Yang on you here, calm down. I think Fung Shui is stupid. The idea here is that when you find your self unbalanced to one extreme in some area of your life, there is often an idol involved. It could possibly even be American Idol (har har). The balanced life idea does not work for everything. I mean you can't seek God to much or be too sinless or whatever but hear me out.

Some (rather blatant)examples:

One man has a $700 car payment, the other never changes his oil

One man is a workaholic, the other lives on handouts

One woman must marry a doctor, the other marries a drunk

One man eats out every meal, the other won't take his wife on a date

One woman vomits to be skinny, the other lets herself go (ouch)

One church ignores open sin in leadership, the other hasn't had a visitor in 3 years

One Soundman runs way too loud, and the other.......Can't blog very well

Do you see what I'm getting at here, well ok so most of you do not deal with issues quite that blatant but I wanted to make the point. I think its wise to step back on occasion and take the helicopter tour of your life and make sure your priorities aren't out of whack or worse, that you have allowed a habitual sin to replace God in your heart. Wow this is getting kind of heavy, maybe I should have talked about how fun it is to work for Pastor Bobby and what a privilege it is to write on his blog.

The Bible does not really speak directly to living a “balanced” life but it does give us “contradictions” to work with. Consider Mary and Martha in Luke 10. Martha is all freaking out about making dinner and getting the house ready, and Mary is just hangin' with Jesus, and Martha tells Jesus to tell Mary to help her, and Jesus is like, “its cool Martha, let her chill with me” (slightly paraphrased).

But then look at Matthew 24:42. Jesus is telling us to be vigilant and to prepare for his return and the end times and all that stuff. So do we not ever prepare and just trust in Jesus? or do we always make sure we obsess about every possible scenario that could come our way? Well there is a balance there. Don't allow yourself to be filled with worry, but seek God about how to be prudent and prepare.

Or remember all those Proverbs about how bad drinking is and how it leads to death and all, and then Jesus goes and turns water into some really tasty wine at a wedding where everyone is already drunk. So where is the balance there? Well its quite simple, if you want to know just ask Pastor Bobby.

Please don't look my way if you want to see a perfectly balanced Christian. I chose to write about this because I must deal with it daily like everyone else. My list of deficiencies is probably almost as long as yours. But lacking as I am, I would like to ask you to take some time to think and pray about areas in your life that may seem harmless or even righteous, but may in fact be idols getting in the way of Gods best for you.

By the way there is this little competition going to see who gets the most responses on the blog so please respond with how great or stupid you think my post is so I can beat the rest of the staff and especially Pastor Bobby.

Thanks,

Steve

Comments

[LIsa]

WOW! Steve you are quite the little preacher! A man of many talents. Thanks for all you do and you are truly appreciated.
Blessings

[Brian Hassett]

Sorry I dont appreciate you enough...

[heather harrington]

Wow, such profound words of wisdom. I agree you can preach it brother.

[Leah]

Alright Steve, good job on being the famous one here. You may be comfortable in the background at church, but you're Mr. Popular on here. : )

[Stephen]

Wow, keep peoples expectations low and they are rather easy to impress.

And that's enough with the preaching crazy talk.

[Stephen]

Wow, keep peoples expectations low and they are rather easy to impress.

And that's enough with the preaching crazy talk.

[Carolyn]

Steve, Since Scott is quite possibly tied for the last leaving the building...Him & PB tie... both chit chatters I tell you, you could just throw him the key, it may lighten your load. :)

[Sherry]

Well today has been challenging and my brain is having some difficulty catching up with my fingers, as evidenced by the gross misspelling in my initial post. What it really should have said is; Great job honey! That was meant for everyone right?

[Bobby]

Alright...alright...SO FAR.....Steve, you have the lead. Your post will be 'immortalised' on the great 'sidebar' wall of this blog as MOST commented on! :)

I have to admit, Jody is right: You have "the preach" in there! :) Good job Steve. Harvest is blessed to have you and I love the journey with you and your family..PB

[Sherry]

That was foe very one right? GREAT job honey !

[Jody Barham]

I do believe I detect a little bit of "PREACH" on the brother. I say, "have at it the first chance you get". You have something to say worth hearing. You are an unsung hero and pillar at Harvest as well as the Body of Christ. I appreciate you for who you are and all you do. Blessings, Jody

[Josh]

rackin' one up for Steve!

[mike & gin]

With all the frettin'and worrying you were doing while getting your hair cut on Wednesday, about writing this blog entry, you did an awesome job. Are all those job
titles in your job description? Thanks
Steve for all you do !!!

[teresa]

WOW. i didn't know you had all that in you.
great blog.

teresa

[James]

Great entry Steve! Maybe too good. I hope the winner doesn't get another job to add to the out of "balance" waituntileveryoneleaves...soIcanlockup guy's job description. Thanks for all you do!

[Scott Ongalo]

My hats off to the last guy to leave the church and lock up, that guy is worth his weight in gold, go Steve!
Scott

[Freddie]

Your a awesome guy steve. Thanks for all you do at Harvest, your reward will be great. Great post, must have been holding all this in for quite some time. Good to let it out.

[Jacob]

Let me just say this about our dear friend Steve. Not only are all of us convicted by his blog entry, but he is awesome to be on staff with. . .And the guy can pray!! Don't let him fool you . . . quiet ones like him tend to be the real spiritual ones.
Hey, what does everyone think about Steve sharing a message on a Sunday morning?!. . :-)

[Bobby]

great blog!

[Bobby]

that was from brittany