It’s not hard to find someone that that can make you feel better.

If you want to feel thin, hang out with someone fatter than you

If you want to feel smart hang out with people who are stupid

If you want to feel like a great parent go to Wal-Mart

On the other hand it’s not difficult to find people that make you feel like pawn scum.

Grandpa is ripped

Dr. Sheldon Cooper makes everyone look dumb

I feel overwhelmed with two kids

Comparing is dangerous because it leads to one of two negative outcomes.

1. Pride because you are better than someone.
2. Insecurity because you are not better than someone.

Pride leads to an inflated self and can make you lazy. Why improve if you are better than others?

Insecurity leads to a deflated self and an inferior complex. No matter what you do you’ll never be as good as ________.

Some common things that I see people get prideful and insecure about are…

• Parenting
• Status
• Job
• Friends

What if instead of focusing on others we focused on ourselves? What if we looked to improve the things that we could change and accepted the things that we can’t? What if we viewed people that were better than us as coaches and people that were worse off than us as a chance to be a blessing?

You can always find someone better or worse. At the end of your life that won’t help you find fulfillment. What will is enjoying who God has made you to be and helping others to become who God’s made them to be.

A mom who seems to have it all together isn’t better than you because you don’t.

A dad who is never home isn’t there for you to feel better about your 20 minutes with your kid.

A person who is not married by the time they are 30 doesn’t need to feel like there is something wrong with them.

A person who still lives with their parents after college isn’t necessarily addicted to playing Dungeons and Dragons in their mom’s basement. I know. I still live with my parents for one more week. And my mom doesn’t even have a basement.

View things like your face. It’s silly to take pride in your face. You didn’t do anything to deserve it. Your face is the result of your parents DNA doing the tango. If it’s pretty it’s not your fault. If it’s ugly it’s not your fault. It’s your face. All you can do is the best that you can with what you have.

Let people of greatness inspire you and let people who struggle pull out your compassion. Ultimately find your worth in Jesus. He’s perfect and yet loves you. That sounds like a better way to live then riding the roller coaster of comparison.

Do you tend to be more of a person who finds pride or insecurity? I lean more on the insecure side when I compare.

• A really positive person.
• A person who can easily go negative.
• An extrovert who gets energy being around large groups of people.
• An introvert who loves alone time to recharge.
• Incredibly disciplined.
• Incredibly undisciplined.
• Going bald.
• Really hairy.
• A saint.
• A sinner.
• A person who loves to laugh.
• A person who doesn’t laugh often.
• Passionate!
• Apathetic.
• A person who thinks vegetables are gag nasty.
• A person who eats a salad almost every single day.
• Very caring of other people.
• Very selfish and often only think of my own needs.
• Way too conservative for some.
• Way too liberal for some.
• Never wrong.
• Never wrong except for when I am never right.
• A great dad who LOVES spending time with his kids.
• A distracted dad who often chooses checking his phone over quality time with his kids.
• Simple. You can read me like a book.
• Complex. I have emotions that are difficult to express.
• Full of confidence because I know who I am in Jesus.
• Insecure because I fear what people will say.
• Transparent.
• Guarded.
• The type of guy who loves deep conversations.
• Not very deep.

So who am I? I’m all these things and more.

Humans are simple and complex creatures.

At the end of the day though I know that I desperately need I AM.

I AM is the great I AM. I AM is perfect where I am not. I AM makes what I am good at better. I AM helps me know who I really am. I am I AM’s.

Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” John 8:58

What words would you use to describe yourself?

• May is potentially the busiest month of my life. We closed on our house on May 15 and have a boat load of work to do on the house in order to move in by May 31. I’ve done one wedding and I have  second this coming weekend. I’m preaching every Sunday morning at Newsong Fellowship in VA Beach and preaching at Next Level on Sunday nights. I’m going to Russia in June and have our last team meeting this week. I’m running in a 5K this weekend. Whew I’m tired! 
• At the wedding that I did last weekend I met an actor who was Mufasa from the Lion King on Broadway, two different VH1 employees, and someone who works at Disney in their animation department. I was very fascinated talking to these people. They act like it’s just another day going to the office. I was blown away!
• It was an outdoor wedding on the day of the wedding it looked like it was going to rain pumas and water buffalos.
• It didn’t rain. It didn’t rain until the second the bridal party walked inside after the service. It was a miracle. I’m telling you it was unbelievable. The ceremony ended, the wedding party walked down the aisle to go inside, and it started raining on the guests. We all got inside right before the floodgates of Heaven opened.
• While coming back from preaching in VA Beach on Sunday I got stuck in traffic. We have an underwater tunnel that creates all sorts of havoc. It might be worth it if the tunnel was see through, but not this guy. There is nothing glamorous about it and some people freak out so bad that they forget to drive over 25 MPH. Sitting in traffic allowed me to reflect on how much I hate sitting in traffic.
• I like sitting in traffic as much as I like the thought of a comb over that starts with back hair.
• I like sitting in traffic as much as I like the thought of an atomic wedgie.
• I like sitting in traffic as much as I like the thought of slapping myself silly.
• I like sitting in traffic as much as I like having a tickle fight with a 12 fingered man.
• I like sitting in traffic as much as I like the thought of watching nothing but Lifetime Network for the rest of my days.
• 24 is coming back to TV. I’m pretty excited about that!
• I watched most of the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday night. A few thoughts…
• Justin Bieber’s pants are…well…
• 
• Some how MC Hammer convinced the Biebs to buy a case of his pants that he has stockpiled from his “Can’t Touch This” days.
• When did Miley Cyrus grow up to become Justin Bieber?
• 
• I think she is still a pretty girl but doesn’t she look like Justin Bieber?
• Kids make you lose touch with pop culture. I didn’t have a fat clue who half of the performers where and I didn’t know a bunch of the songs.
• One of the artists that I didn’t have a fat clue about was Miguel. Did you see what he tried to do?
• This was straight awful and ha-larious…
• 
• I think he came up just a wee bit short and leg dropped an unsuspecting fan in the process. The amount of funny things that people tweeted after this was astronomical. I’m not sure how people come up with such comic gold so fast. Stuff like…
• 
• It’s the summer movie season. I love this time of year! Lucky for me someone from my church gave me a $50 gift card so I could afford to see these movies. They ain’t cheap!
• On Mondays I have a staff meeting, lunch, and then a programming meeting. On this past Monday while we were working someone told us that if we had a mustache we could get free ice cream. I was with the Bearded Idealist himself, Stephen Haggerty so he was good to go. Me? I had to grow one quickly. Lucky for me there’s an app for that.

• I took my staff bowling recently. I don’t think I’ve bowled in close to 5 years. It made me think of…

Whew…I feel better now

I’m telling you this a great movie!

If you’ve never seen a Star Trek film then it would be helpful to see JJ Abrams (Director of all things awesome) reboot from 2009 before you see this. Star Trek Into Darkness is the sequel.

Here’s the amazing thing about this movie…JJ Abrams has found a way to pay homage to the old Star Trek while making it accessible to everyone who doesn’t like the old Star Trek. They say you can’t be all things to all people but I’m pretty sure he succeeded in doing just that with this film.

Into Darkness is not just a sequel, it’s also a sort of remake from the 1982 film Star Trek: Wrath of Khan. The Wrath of Khan is one of the first movies that I remember seeing in theaters. I was 4. It left a mark on me. I thought that was a great movie, but I was 4. JJ Abrams has paid homage to what some would say was a classic but made it so accessible that new fans won’t even know what he’s done and that’s perfectly fine.

Into Darkness is action packed, funny, and is really a story about what it means to be a friend. I loved this movie!

Star Trek Into Darkness is rated PG-13 for lots of action/violence, a few swears, a couple of girls in their undergarments. I give it two thumbs up.

Two Thumbs Up – A great movie worth paying full price.
One Thumb Up – A decent attempt and worth seeing at a matinee price.
Thumb to the side – An ok film, but wait for video.
Thumb down – A stinker of a film. Don’t waste you life seeing it.

Have you seen Star Trek Into Darkness? If so what’d you think? If not will you? Live long and prosper.

• Have you heard? Mom’s the word on May 29 at 10:00 AM! This is an event for moms with kids up to the age of five years old. This is a great chance for moms with young kids to connect and for their kids to get some hang time. For details click here. 
• One of our core values is “You can’t do life alone.” We model this by connecting people relationally through our Next Level Groups. Our summer semester is quickly approaching. The summer semester is only 8  weeks long. We are mixing things up by offering a couple of unique groups. For the first time ever we are hosting a group just for men and a group just for women. I will be leading the men’s group and my wife Monica will be leading the women’s group. We will also be offering a Sermon Based group for anyone to join. The deadline to register for the men’s and women’s group is June 2. To register for any of the groups click here.
• This coming Saturday Next Level is helping with the Chick-fil-A 5K/10K. For every volunteer that we get they will donate $10 towards our Russian mission trip. We will be helping from 6:00 AM to 11:00 AM. We are looking for 20 people to help out. At this point I think we are still looking for 3. If you can help register at church on Sunday or email Nancy at admin@nextlevelchurch.net.
• I really love the people that God has brought to Next Level!
• One of the challenges for our church is to help all people go to the Next Level in their faith. That means that for those that don’t believe in Jesus we do whatever we can to help them see what it looks like to passionately love Jesus, create a welcoming place for them to feel loved, and use language that they can understand. At the same time we don’t want Christians to be stale in their faith so we are constantly looking for ways to challenge Christians to radically live for Jesus. I think this tension should always exist in the church. Churches tend to pick one side or the other. If you focus on either side I think you miss out on what the church is supposed to be. I think the church is like a hospital. Hospitals have a place to give birth and a place to help those that are sick. We want to help those that don’t know Jesus become “born again” and those that do fall more in love with the Great Physician.
• This Sunday we will continue our series entitled “God’s Anatomy.” It’s a look at what the church is supposed to be.
• I want to take a second to apologize for going over our service times multiple times the last few weeks. I have so much that I want to say, but that doesn’t trump making sure that our kids volunteers are out on time. Our services last 65 minutes and we took some steps this week to make sure that we get out closer to that. Thanks for understanding.
• We introduced a new song last week called “Children of Light.” What do you think of the song?
• I can’t wait to worship Jesus on Sunday at Next Level!