Before:

After:

Featured models in the above photos include Puma and Blankie.

Um, I know this was like, a while ago, but for my friends who don’t get to come to my house a lot I figured I’d post the pics.

Also, how weird is it that now you all know what my bedroom looks like? Stalkers!

We got there and it was still dark outside, OK? It was EARLY. And RAINING. My hair was a MESS!

Like you care about my hair.

Anyhow.

We were walking from the parking lot toward the entrance and we saw this stretch hummer come by…and then it stopped. And invited us in. And that, my friends, is how our Catalyst experience began. We got dropped off by the front doors in a stretch hummer.

We were shown into a tent, where they were giving out gift bags (w/ tissues, gum, chapstick, etc.) and pancakes! FREE PANCAKES! There was also a sick jazz band playing. The atmosphere was incredible.

Once we got inside, they had 5 DJ’s spinning at 1 time. The theme is “together” this year, so almost everything was done as a team. The speakers were absolutely incredible.

I am going to give you a quick summary w/ big ideas from each speaker and a brief explanation.

Andy (Freakin’) Stanley: The confidence people have in me depends on the Alignment between creed and deed (what I say and do). He calls that your “moral authority.” In other words, discrepancy between what you say and do makes you lose influence.

Jim Collins: I can’t narrow this down to just one thing.

• Greatness is not a function of circumstance, it is a function of conscious choice
• An undisciplined push for more is hubris, it is over reaching, and it will derail your flywheel
• There isn’t a “what” strategy for things you can’t predict– but there is a “who” strategy
• Level 5 Leaders have the signature characteristic of humility
• Make a to do list and a “stop doing” list
• Don’t confuse values and practices: “Each generation needs to create its own practices to passionately exemplify the eternal values that pass through all generations.”
• Don’t spend 5 years getting 2 years experience
• Greatness is not a function of success, but of choices no one can see
• Good intentions are no excuse for incompetence

Steven Furtick: Between the prayer and the promise is the process. Just because you can’t see the promise being fulfilled, don’t give up! Between God revealing His will to you and the promise being fulfilled, there is always a process. STICK WITH IT. God will complete the good works he began. God is preparing you for what He’s preparing for you.

Brenda Salter McNeil: To get from here to there, God will shake things up (Acts 1:8, Acts 2)

Seth Godin: People want to know the answers to 2 questions: 1) Who else is going to be there?, and 2) Who’s going to lead us? We are all a part of a tribe. No one is seeking a safe leader.

Then, from a freaking COMMERCIAL, we get this big idea: Justice is what love looks like in public.

Craig Groeschel: Drastic is the answer. Little tweaks don’t work or you would’ve fixed it already! Pray 3 prayers: God stretch me, God heal me, God ruin me. Pray those three prayers to get the “it” factor back in your life.  THERE IS MORE IN YOU. Don’t give up. When you think you are done, there is more in you.

THAT IS ONE STINKING DAY OF AWESOMENESS RIGHT THERE BLOG PEOPLE.

My head hurts.

Goodnight.

I am so tired I did not spell check this, so don’t judge me.

‘Night.

We had a detour, because one of the cars broke down on I-285. We all piled into vehicles and sent one back to collect the people from the broke down car, and it turns out they didn’t need us anyway ’cause they figured it all out.

Then, we got to the hotel, only to find out we’ve been “moved 2 exits down to a sister hotel, we were over-booked, sorry!” Sheesh. 9 hours in a car, and that is not what you want to hear.

Then we all made it to the hotel, went to dinner, had a blast, and now we’re chilling.

We will get up at the butt crack of dawn to be at Catalyst on time. Meeting in the parking lot at 6:10. AM. AM! Yes. I can do it. I took a shower tonight so I will be ready.

Anyway, that’s day 1! Can’t wait for tomorrow…

I am on my way today to the Catalyst Conference in Georgia.

I am excited to worship with my peeps from work. Usually, we are all working and we don’t get to worship together.

I am excited about the free stuff.

I am nervous about getting called out. I am nervous about the conviction that I will inevitably experience.  I am sad to leave Mike and Puma.

The excitement is definitely winning out though.

Some of the speakers I’m excited to see are:

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, a book we read together this year. Amazing stuff.

Seth Godin, author of The Dip, Purple Cow, All Marketers are Liars. He’s a marketing genius.

Billy Graham, via video

Tim Sanders, former chief solutions officer at Yahoo!

Plus Craig Groeschel, I’m reading his book IT right now and he is a hilarious author.

So yeah, I’m in Georgia, again, until Friday. Go over and say hi to Mike while I’m gone…let him know you’re thinkin’ about him I know I will be.

When you get busy, God will get your attention…

AND HE’S GOD, SO DON’T MAKE HIM DO STUFF LIKE THAT, K?

Cause God getting your attention is nothing like me tapping you on the shoulder for hours or saying your name over and over until you answer me or knocking pieces of paper out of your hands for no reason.

God is much more creative with WAY more resources.

Got it?

• My cell phone, obviously
• iPod
• Moleskin mini notebook…for notes when people call my cell phone all hours of the day and night
• Wallet
• TriVita b-12 thingies, for energy. My mom gave them to me.
• Chapstick
• A Baptism video cassette
• A checkbook
• An apple employees business card, since my iPod is being weird.
• Sunglasses
• 3 Crystal light drink packets (for energy, if you’re wondering)
• A total fitness business card w/ membership quotes on it…it’s a gym. har har har.
• 2 Grocery lists
• Aromatherapy headache relief cream.
• Church keys
• The number of a therapist
• A clothespin
• Oh wait, another grocery list
• A powder compact
• Various pens
• A home depot gift card, 4 Victoria’s secret free gift cards, 3 bath and body works coupons
• Half a bag of chex mix sweet-n-salty
• a combination master lock (i took that one out, in case you were wondering)
• a flash drive

Anything weird inside your purse ladies?

our ichat conversation (in the same room, 6 feet from each other):

mike: what is there to go do at 11pm in ‘the haven’
emily: sigh
mike: other than drugs and hookers
emily: go to the walmart
mike: absolutely not
mike: i’d rather poop in this chair and then clean it up

Let’s talk about church leadership and drinking.

I struggle with it. I feel drawn to I Corinthians 5 here. In I Corinthians 5, Paul is talking about sex, and how you have to call out fellow Christians when they are having sex with their stepmothers. Kind of obvious, isn’t it?

But I feel like it’s more than that. I feel like there’s a principle here.

9-13 I wrote you in my earlier letter that you shouldn’t make yourselves at home among the sexually promiscuous. I didn’t mean that you should have nothing at all to do with outsiders of that sort. Or with crooks, whether blue or white-collar. Or with spiritual phonies, for that matter. You’d have to leave the world entirely to do that! But I am saying that you shouldn’t act as if everything is just fine when a friend who claims to be a Christian is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy and predatory. You can’t just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior. I’m not responsible for what the outsiders do, but don’t we have some responsibility for those within our community of believers? God decides on the outsiders, but we need to decide when our brothers and sisters are out of line and, if necessary, clean house. (Taken from The Message)

To me, what Paul is saying is this: I wasn’t just talking about sex here! I am talking about your brothers and sisters in Christ who aren’t acting right! You can’t act like it’s fine when a Christian “is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy and predatory.” This is incredible to me, because Paul isn’t talking about church leadership here– just the members themselves (members of the community of believers).

So how much more so is church leadership accountable? How much more so am I accountable? Earlier in I Corinthians 5, Paul says, “Your flip and callous arrogance in these things bothers me.” I know speaking for myself, I have been flip and callous and arrogant about it for far too long.

What about you guys?

One careless joke slayed it. Her walls came back up. It took them 6 years to recover. He told me this with tears in his eyes.

Women my age are raised to believe that independence is a virtue. He said that if you look at it through new lenses, you might see that it could be considered a weakness.

Of course it’s great to be able to take care of yourself, to not need anyone to help you. But at the same time, in order to give love, you have to receive love. And to receive love, you have to give it.

So how do you allow yourself to receive love after you’ve been hurt so badly? How do you undo the independence you thought was so noteworthy? How do you become vulnerable? A life lived based on independence is no life at all.

I don’t know, but if you figure it out tell me.

Anyway, I really loved the sound track from it. I still listen to that sound track almost 10 years later, and I often find myself humming the songs randomly. Especially the Gin Blossoms, ‘Til I Hear it From You.

Do you guys have any movie sound tracks that impacted you? Or maybe a song from a movie?