Blogging is an interesting thing because it connects a lot of people around the world to see and experience everything from the mundane pieces of our lives to our political views and, as i have mentioned here often, the uncanny stories of God. One of the intersections of life for me to see God has been through a young girl named Jessie. If you haven’t seen her video, please go back and view it today. I admit I usually have no clue truthfully about God’s will for our lives and why life evolves the way it does, but i do know many of the pieces of God’s puzzle when i see them and i have no doubt that even though pain and suffering are weird and oftentimes senseless from our perspective, that God is always at work and we have the opportunity to be a megaphone for him especially in the times of trials.
Today Jessie is in the hospital struggling with kidney failure and lungs that don’t want to cooperate.
My request is that all who read this today stop for a few minutes and intercede for jessie and her family. This has been a long battle and they are not giving up on what God might want to still do thru his valiant young warrior here on this turf. Our prayers are that he would miraculously intervene and put his healing hand on her body and give life and breath to this incredible young lady of faith.
If you want, i will pass any of your written prayers on to her family from here.
Thanks for being part of a family and letting a bizarre cultural piece of our lives called blogging, bring us together for a cause and task and prayer much bigger than this internet.

Lanny

Sorry it has been a while since i have written. Have you ever noticed how much time life takes up?
As for the comments on the preachers, i got a bunch but as promised only published the comments of those of you who were positive.
If you want me to publsih yours and it isn’t so positive, just feel free to let me know but this is by no means an open debate on who is good and who is not. It is for an experiment i am doing that i cant quite tell you about yet. If it works, it will be fun.
I may list a bunch of others in a day or so and get your opinions on those, And i might add that your opinions have been very helpful.
Meanwhile, i have blogged about Jack and Jessie and Pain and a lot of aother tear-jerking stories.
I don’t like to write about mundane unless it if for pure entertainment. So, if you are follwoing, let me know what you wnat to hear from me…poignant stories, funney weird stuff, leadership ideas, creative ideas, stuff i found that you might not have, fun videos ….do you want me to stir up trouble ? In a fun kind of way. What???? How about excerpts from my next book. would you help me get it virally marketed? Do you want to hear miracle stories about africa? I got stuff in my head just ready to bust out….but only so much room in order to do a shorter blog post than this.
I could give you weird pictures.
I could ask you to come to Bigstuf Camps next summer, or book our African Childrens Choir. or come to CAtalyst. in October…its gonna be great. I just want to make sure if i am writing then it is something that people want to read. Meanwhile here is a bizarre older video for you just to entertain you, but i am warning you….i am gonna start making you cry unless you tell me different.
Meanwhile…smile at this.

Today was my friend Reggie Joiner’s Birthday. I had to work all day and didn’t get to do anything special yet. But, hey it made me think about a few things. I went to his facebook and sent him a note and then I copied the picture that is his facebook profile picture and made it my profile picture as well.
I’ll attach it here. As you can see …it is Reggie and Me and Andy Stanley. Here is my thought. The three of us have been friends for a long time. We have gotten to do some absolutely amazing things together. I have memories of ministry, and teaching and laughter and fun and life change and struggle and disease and heavy hearts and pure joy with these guys. God has given us people in our lives where he has revealed his very presence and nature and sometimes we forget. On birthdays, we stop and remember. And thank God for friendships like these that you would never replace for anything in the world. None of us really knew each other 20 years ago. We had heard of each other but we would never have dreamed what God would do in our lives together. That is the heart part of this. The fun part would be to have all of you send Reggie a note saying that he looks a lot older than Andy and Lanny. Send it to Reggie on his facebook account Reggie Joiner or ..dang i really want to give out his personal email address here. but …i won’t. go to tour@rethinkgroup.org
Thanks

Another in the ping pong links. Just cool and fun.

hey. i’ve got some more life stuff …heart stuff to write about. And i am getting lots of feedback about what speaker you listed to and why and who is different than whom and why you like and don’t like.
Fascinating stuff. I probably won’t post most of what you are saying but i will let you know what comes out of the information. Meanwhile. The Olympics. Most of you don’t know that i play ping pong. Fairly seriously. Haven’t as much since my back surgery but I am a member of the USATT and have played in a number of tournaments and played against some world ranked olympic guys. Actually learned alot years ago from the Olympic champion from France. So…just to let you know …as a break in the normal kind of blogs here. The ping pong stuff is coming on tonight at 10. And to get you pumped if you like it. Here is a cool video

Hey just for clarification. On the last blog i asked for your input about speaker. Someone thought it was so i might bash someone. Just the opposite. This won’t be used for anything other than info and fun and no bashing on my part is allowed. Remember, the theme for Catalyst is “Together”
There is enough bashing going on already. I just want your opinions. I won’t even let your comments get through the approval part of the blog. So…no worries please. I can keep your thoughts to myself.
Lanny

So…i have an idea. But first i need to know. Who do you think are the top 20 preacher type guys you like to hear. or…that you don’t like to hear. Who are the top guys being listened to?
I know i am supposed to know this but i want you to tell me from your perspective in this world.
And…who are the ones that are together in what they say…
and who are the ones that are opposites or…
heaven forbid…talking badly about the others.
Pass this on to everyone you know and havem send me their answers.
this could get kind of sticky. or fun. After that…interesting stuff…
Say what you want, i won’t post it if you ask me not to.

Ok, now and then just for fun,I’ll put something from the past on here.(Maybe two years ago) This was probably one the most fun days at Northpoint Church I’ve ever had. Andy was great, as always, and allowed us to do some really fun stuff. Enjoy.

17000 people came to Bigstuf this summer. No way to explain how God did what he did. But….he used a great team of people to do it….here are some…this team rocked the stage and the hearts of tons.

this team won the hearts of everyone and displayed god’s smile.

this team made me smile

this team made everyone smile

and this team did our north pole bigstuf

someone told me that i really ought to quit making them cry with every post. maybe do something fun or normal or mundane, like just write about what i did today.
put antlers back on a moose.
watched the expression of a fly’s face as he tried to jump after i pulled his wings off.
started writing a book about how to write a book called “the mirror”
i reflected.
once in the mirror i didnt reflect..got scared. then realized it wasn’t a mirror.
did my geneology all the way back to patrick henry and patrick swayze and found a time travelor .
wondered if the dark knight should have an arch nemesis called the bright kday.
put a humidifier and a de humidifier in my room tonight just to see what might happen .
published this worthless piece of literature…but hey….nobody cried.
well….i did….just a bit.
lanny