Well, we are officially less than 24 hours away from my 30th birthday.  That’s crazy!  I don’t feel old enough to be 30!  (We all know I don’t act it.)  I have been told that your body doesn’t build new muscles after 30.  I’m not sure I believe that, but I guess I better do a lot of sit-ups and pushups today just in case!  My 20s were great.  I had a blast.  A lot happened in the past decade.  These are just a few of the highlights.

• Did the college thing.  Well, most of the college thing.  For longer than most do the college thing.
• Moved to Texas and solidified the fact that I am not a Texan.
• Became a pastor.
• Bought a Jeep Wrangler.
• Switched from Windows to Mac.  Never looking back.
• Met the girl of my dreams.  Broke up with her.
• Re-met the girl of my dreams.  Got a 2nd chance.
• Married her.
• Moved to California.
• Lived at the beach.
• Had Jessika Kaye James.

Like I said there are many more.  But now I have to start looking forward.  I apparently have to be an adult.  But now that I am about to be over the hill, I will have to come up with new things to accomplish.  I’m thinking things like the following:

• Bingo
• Reading The Newspaper
• Getting confused with this new-fangled cellular phone
• Hip replacement
• Dentures
• Daily Crosswords
• Pick out a headstone and start carving my eugoogoly

That seems like a good list to get started on.  But I think I’ll wait to start on it until after I’ve had my morning coffee and senior citizen discounted grandslam breakfast from Denny’s at 4:15 AM.  So until then I guess I’ll enjoy the last day of my 20s.

PS – for those of you that are planning on calling me on my birthday, please do it earlier in the day.  I will be switching to my new “old man” bedtime of 6:25 PM starting Day 1 as well as adopting my new speed limit so don’t expect me early!

I heard a requote of a quote (what boils down to a RT of a tweet if you prefer Twitter speak) the other day.  The original quote (as far as I know it was the original) was from Billy Graham several years ago.

It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convict, God’s job to judge and my job to love.

It just stuck with me all day.  How often do I spend my time trying to do the job of the Holy Spirit and God?  It is not a crazy thing for me to think I need to make them see how they are wrong or have judgmental thoughts or actions towards someone.  What is crazy is that I for some reason act like it is up to me.  Don’t worry, brookjames will let you know when you have screwed up.

I need to take the advice that I believe Billy would give.  It is your job to love.  Love my friends.  Love my enemies.  Love the girl that cut me off for no apparent reason and then flipped me off because she was a bad driver.  Love the waiter that has a terrible attitude and poor service.  Love the homeless guy that sits on the bench downtown with his laptop.  Love them all.

I need God to give me strength to love.  That’s my job.  Maybe I should do my job.

Remember back in the day when the phonebooks were used for more than booster seats and for the Power Team to rip in two?  When your answering machine message said “sorry I couldn’t get to the phone in time” and it made sense?  Back when Prodigy was the predecessor to AOL?  When the modem was annoying because it took up the phone line AND sounded like demons were trying to escape the 7 levels of hell?  Before Al Gore invented the Internet?  There was no such thing as Facebook, Myspace, online dating, church online or highspeed Internet.  Roadrunner was still the cartoon bird.  Email still had a hyphen in it.  That was then.

Now times have changed.  If you still have AOL people look at you funny.  Most people don’t know what a modem is anymore because of wireless.  Phonebooks are a huge waste of paper, space and time because Google knows all.  You can go to church online.  You can even go to small groups online.  Twitter and Facebook have become the best way to reach someone leaving Email hoping to stay alive.  Times definitely have changed.  Millions of people are using the Internet to find community instead of the old fashion ways.  I read a statistic that said in the past year about 40% of the adult American population use online dating services.  Now you don’t have to bump into someone on accident on the street corner or hit on a girl in the bar or marry someone from your high school.

Recently I had the amazing opportunity to hang out in person with several people from the online community I am a part of.  There were only three people of over 20 that I had ever actually seen in real life before.  I love that it is possible to have real supportive, loving, caring and fun community using the Internet!  I had such an amazing time getting to “meet” so many of my friends.  Yes, there are drawbacks, but they are still there for me.  They are connected with the things going on in my life.

I know there are doubters out there.  I know some people just can’t wrap their minds around having a real relationship with people that are only on the Internet.  Maybe for them that doesn’t work, but I am a firm believer that if you are truly seeking it out, it is there for you.  The other night was proof of that in my own life.

What about you?  Do you have real community online?  What do you use to stay in touch with them?

When you think about your plans/hopes/dreams when do you imagine them happening?  Is it a “someday” thought?  Is it “soon but not yet”?  Or is it now?  I don’t know about you but many times I fall into the soon but not yet category.  I want to learn to surf, but I just haven’t quite found the time.  I’m gonna go on a diet, but I’ll start soon.  I’m gonna redo my blog, but I’ll get to it next week.  I wanna start a new Bible reading plan, but I’m exhausted tonight.

Sometimes there are good, honest reasons for putting something off.  Spending time with my wife and daughter is more important that working on the Jeep.  I have a big step to take but feel God saying wait.  I need to start my new workout, but I’m sick.  Et cetera, et cetera.  But how often in your life is right time now?  Start the new habit now.  Start reading your Bible now.  Start praying for someone now.  Start saving now.

Whatever it is do it now.  Is your inaction holding back something amazing that God is trying to do?  Is your procrastination keeping you from doing something worthwhile?  Stop dragging your feet and get to doing what God has for you NOW!

As I am headed back to work today and thinking about how great it was to be with all my family on vacation I’m wondering how to get my mind reengaged with life, how to kickstart my heart again if you will.  If you take a vacation well, I believe you should disconnect yourself from work as much as you possibly can.  If I am on vacation but constantly worried about work and things that I have already gotten covered, I’m not getting much of a break from one of the main things that vacation is.

So that’s what I did.  I haven’t read any emails or answered phone calls or made setlists.  I haven’t worked on the Web site or played with a single graphic.  I haven’t even picked up my guitar.  But now I am back and vacation is over.  Now I have to get my mind going again on all things normal life.

What do you do?  How do you reengage?  Or do you find yourself not actually taking a break?

Yeah. That’s right. I said it.  I didn’t go to church on Sunday. We are on vacation and just didn’t go.  We are out in Anchorage, AK and I’m sure there are some great churches around here, but we didn’t attend one.  We didn’t even try.  Occasionally it’s nice to have some different God time (like the amazing scenery in Alaska for instance). Then I started thinking.

I wonder how often we as churchgoers or Christ followers, however you prefer to look at this, go to church just to go to church.  We aren’t going to serve someone.  We aren’t going to pray.  And we really aren’t going to meet with God.  We just go because it’s church and that’s what we are supposed to do.  Maybe you grew up in church so you have just always known that on Sundays you get up and go to church.  Maybe you go just to see your friends and instead of with a godly heart.  Maybe you feel like you need to be there because it makes up for the other bad things you did last week.

Don’t get me wrong.  Church is a great thing.  The messages and community that is hopefully found in your church is a HUGE blessing.  But for me as a follower of Christ, I wanna go to church because I am hoping and waiting to hear from God there and not just because that’s what we did when I was growing up.  I wanna be there to serve others and not just talk to my friends.

What about you?  Why do you show up on Sundays?  Is it just because or is it because He is there?

Right now as I am writing this we are driving along the Alaskan coast.  On one side of me are mountains covered in green with touches of snow.  On the other side is the ocean separating us from more gorgeous mountains.  It is definitely an amazing sight.  But usually when I see this kind of thing or any kind of creation, I don’t think to myself, wow, we have an amazing God.  I am not just drawn closer to Him because of the amazingness around me.  I think to myself, that’s cool or that’s awesome, but not He made that.

Many of us live our lives oblivious to the God around us.  God is a Sunday morning/small group/study type of God and nothing more.  We can see the amazing mountains or beaches or oceans or kids or whatever but we don’t see God in them.  We might appreciate their massiveness or awesomeness or complexity or beauty but we are acting ignorant of the Creator since it isn’t a Sunday morning at church!  We might as well be like my 4 month old baby.  As we are traveling around Alaska she just sleeps through all the scenery and all the wildlife.  She doesn’t know she is supposed to see and appreciate what’s around her yet.  She may see the creation around her but her understanding of the beauty and complexity of it is not there.  And so are we.  If it isn’t during the prayer time or while we are reading the Bible or while the pastor is driving his point home we miss God.  We miss the truth and deepness that the creation around us teaches us.

My mom is not this way.  She sees the things that God created for what they are: evidence that there is a powerful, amazingly creative God out there who has chosen us out of all the things He designed from scratch to love on.  That’s pretty amazing.  So while we have a week left in this gorgeous painting, I hope to see it for what it is and not just more cool sightseeing spots on a map!  I pray you do the same!  It doesn’t have to be mountains or oceans.  See him in your kid’s face.  See him in the complex human race.  See him in the trees and bushes.  He is there.  We just have to stop acting ignorant and arrogant and look for Him!

If there is one thing I love it is animated movies.  Disney is one of the best.  My parents raised me well and prepared me for a life with kids.  Robin Hood.  Aladdin.  101 Dalmatians.  Jungle Book.  The Little Mermaid.  Beauty And The Beast.  The Lion King. And that’s just a few of my absolute favorites!  But there is one thing that they all have in common (outside of Disney, animation, stolen stories, etc.).  They all have exceptional music (probably why I was so disappointed with The Princess And The Frog).  Song after song. Movie after movie.  They all have amazing soundtracks.

In my preparation to become a father of enough kids to watch these movies for the rest of my life, I already have some of the songs on my iPhone.  Yesterday a song from Beauty And The Beast called Be Our Guest came on during my evening commute.  (Imagine with me if you will a guy in a Jeep Wrangler with the top down and doors off driving through Orange County listening to Be Our Guest at full blast.  Ha!)  I have heard the song a million times but a few of the lines hit me this time.

Life is so unnerving for a servant who’s not serving
He’s not whole without a soul to wait upon
Ah, those good old days when we were useful
Suddenly those good old days are gone
Ten years we’ve been rusting
Needing so much more than dusting
Needing exercise, a chance to use our skill

Obviously if you have seen the movie they are servants in a castle who are going to waste and not using their talents.  What hit me, though, is that so many of us (Christ followers) are just like that.  We have amazing gifts and message that we have been given.  We start out strong, but something happened a long the way, we got distracted and stopped being a servant.  We start viewing Christianity and the Church as something that is for us (consumers) and forget that following Christ is a call to serve!

When we became Christ followers we were given gifts of the Spirit and called to live our lives in service to those around us.  Jesus gave us the example to follow throughout His life.  Some followers understand that and are living it out, but many of us have forgotten that.  What about you?  Are you really serving those around you?  Are you really loving them as Christ loved us?  Find a way to serve.  Greet at church.  Mow a lawn.  Change a tire.  Hang out at a nursing home.  Love your neighbor.  Follow the example of Christ to serve.

It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom.

Galatians 5:13-14

Our God is greater, our God is stronger
God, You are higher than any other
Our God is Healer, awesome in power

And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us
And if our God is with us, then what can stand against

Our God – Chris Tomlin

There is so much truth and power in these lyrics.  I love it.  He is the One to hold on to when life gets hard.  He is the One there to heal when we are broken.  He is unstoppable.

Plans are in the works for a major renovation here at brookjames.com.  I have been thinking and praying about this for a while now and I’m tired of just not doing it.  So over the next couple months (hopefully not longer than that) I will be working on a brand new look to this site.  I hope and pray that it will be something that God will use in all kinds of ways.  I don’t know what the finished product is yet, but I have some pretty good ideas of what I’m shooting for and I am very excited about it all!

So, here is where you come in.  I have come up with some plans and concepts, but the domain name that I want to get to add to it has been taken.  It was claimed back in 2008 and has not been used.  Unfortunately the owner has it until 2012.  Boo.  While there are other options, this one is my absolute favorite so far.  So if you would join in with me in praying that this lady in New York doesn’t ignore my emails, has a heart, no plans for it, and is willing to pass it on to me I would really appreciate it!  It won’t stop the plans from moving forward if she says no or ignores me, but it definitely will be a big bummer!

Thank you all for your support, prayers and love.  I seriously can’t thank you all enough!  Stay tuned for some awesome new stuff coming soon!