03/07/2011 A day in the life

     So Zach told me that I don't actually have to blog every day so in taking his advice I ended up taking a few more days off than intended but I'm back. I don't know if I'm really as boring as I think I am but I really can't think about anything so as some just told me to do on facebook my Blog today will be about nothing, or what some may call a day in the life of Andrew M Gross.

       So I woke up in the morning feeling like p-diddy.  The only reason being is that I set my alarm for the same time the he does (6:37).  I was trying to get up a little early so I could have a little more time to read and work on my message for Wednesday night.  So after waking up to the chorus of "It is Well With My Soul"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwHj7l1M9g4 (which by the way the original version has a really cool back story if you haven't heard it you should check it out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Is_Well_with_My_Soul)  I realized that I was still really tired and snoozed a couple of times and then woke up realizing that it was way later than I had intended so i watched a hillsong united tour video blog then I hopped in the shower.  I washed my hair with some Sauve for men and washed my Bod with some Old spice Komodo and then hopped out and got dressed.  I then partook in half of a carnation instant breakfast because I ran out of skim milk and they aren't very good with the water milk mixture.  I then read for a little then headed to work while listening to the sound track to "TRON the legacy" (I've been really interested in buying a synth and have been doing some musical research to see if it's worth it) I get to work and find that the parking lot situation isn't as bad as I had expected.  After some beautiful weather people had finally learned how to park again.  I go inside and then starts the pre-work ritual.  Take of my jacket, say hi to whomever is in my area, wait to timestamp, timestamp, get my water bottle and head down to the break room, stop and say hi to josh and brandon, fill my bottle with water and ice walk back and potential stop and have a conversation along the way.  Then starts the fun.  We had our class on the phones for the first part of the day at break I had half of shanita's breakfast burrito and a cinnamon raisin bagel toasted without butter and some plain cream cheese.  Then I spent the next few hours answering questions and bouncing my bouncy ball around then it was back home for lunch where I enjoyed a smoothie and "Young the Giant". Then it was back to work where I spent most of the day untill 3:30 answering questions than took them into the class for a debrief.  At 4:30 I rolled out of work and drove up to the church.  There I played guitar talked new music/worship with Andy and talked to Joey a little about the message on Wednesday.  Then I drove to starbucks said hi to my little sister, erin and the rest of the crew there. I headed home ate a couple girlscout cookies and was on my way to coffee shop night at younglife,  There I got to see a lot of face's that I hadn't seen in a long time.  Made me miss this large part of my life that I haven't been a part of for a while.  Parker, Seth, and I played some fun secular tunes and got the chances to watch a lot of kids show off there chops.  All of them did such a great job.  It was really cool to see how many of them have grown up.  After that we jammed to a little MJ and some Dave then I made my way home.  Once here I netflixed a show about a guy hitch-hiking across america with his little cousin, ate more girlscout cookies than went on my computer and sat for probably 30 minutes looking for inspiration for this blog,  I hope this is sufficient enough to be read by anyone.  Now its time for a little more research on synths and more reading of the bible to finish what turned out to be a semi busy monday.

    I feel like there are so many days that I don't really appreciate every thing that I've been given.  i mean God has put so many things in my life that I just take for granted.  A house, a job, a car(even without heat it's till awesome), great friends, a great family, a giant second family that includes tons of brothers, sisters, and mothers and fathers, great role models and positive influences, great learning experiences even though I'm cursed with having to learn the hard way that I have no idea what's best for me.  So needless to say I am greatly blessed and I act like I'm in pour shape sometimes.  I need to learn to be grateful everyday for what God has given and just give it right back to other and back to him with praise. So for all of you I Hope your day treated you well and hope that you find away to appreciate everything that God has given you.

I thought you may enjoy some Chinglish.  I still never really knew what it ment.

03/03/2011 I believe we've lost control

        So I am a prime example of our loss of control in this society.  I am a proud owner of a cell phone that consumes most of my free time.  Whether it's games, texting, news, twitter, listening to music, fbook, or even blogging I can't get off of the thing.  I was going to write this blog on my phone out of principle but i suck at the slide texting or the voice typing.  I think even out of habit now I'm just on my phone looking for things to do.  Don't get me wrong I think it's incredible that I can download an app that gives me a task manager based on my location.  I however think that I need to get myself in check.  I think me on my phone with my ear buds on shuts me off from the outside world.  I need to open up and see all the things of this life that I'm missing.  Sure now because of my phone I got to see the behind the scenes to the newest Old Spice commercial http://www.youtube.com/oldspice#p/c/99FF19274465FDBA/0/32TZSXG2y7E . But I really think that we are called to reach out to people that are around us which is tough if we're in our own little worlds.   So this is a plea for help to all of you who may read this.  Keep me accountable don't let me become a droid myself.

03/02/2011 I may have a little problem

        Man keeping a consistent blog is going to be a lot harder than I thought.  I had plans of writing a blog that was about my addiction to hillsong or maybe talk about my recent trip to China.  But I feel like there are far to many people that  put useless information on the internet.  Like I said before I want this blog to have purpose.  Lately I've been thinking about The best month of my life.  I spent this month with two of the most legit people this world has yet to know.  We spent the first 2 weeks at Castaway camp in Minnesota I rocked it up while my boys did maintenance and landscaping.  After meeting a ton of really cool people we were back on the road for what was cut out to be a great growing experience.  We did a bible study through James.  Picked tactfully by the one and only Jim Bjork.  He knew exactly what we needed to hear.  All of this came to a peak while we were sitting on the rim of the Grand Canyon watching the sun set.  We were talking about the fact that we had been living one way and saying we should live differently.  To the world or a lot of our other friends it didn't seem like anything was wrong but we knew we had a problem.  See we had a problem of the mouth.  Sarcasm, joking, or just generally harassing each other.  To most guys that just seems like good fun and a way that we can communicate but we knew that God had called us to a different standard.  I think all of us had been convicted when we had read James 3 in particular.  It talked about how not every one is called to be a leader because we are held to a higher standard.  All of us lead youth in some fashion or another.  A little later in the chapter James talks about the tongue.  With every verse It felt like he was just slapping us around.  So that evening we committed to living the way that God called us.  To hold ourselves to a higher standard.  I know that time and time again I still fail at keeping that higher standard as God has called me to.  But I know that every time I fail not only does God forgive me but Zach and Tim will be there for me.  All I have to do is give them a call or just shoot them a text and tell them whats up and they'll pray for me and be there to give me some wisdom.  With all that said I have also been given a great opportunity to talk about having a pure mouth next week so please be in prayer for me as I prepare to share with FUSION.

And I just give you a little Hillsong united action. A F T E R M A T H!!!!!

03/01/2011

       Well after a interesting attempt at my first blogging experience I told myself that I wasn't going to make my blog all about music....  But it turns out that my plans aren't always the best and I still intend to talk about music.  I informed my friend Shanita at work that I started a blog.  She told me that she would start reading it but I needed to make sure I have some great "pearls of wisdom".  I guess I never really took this public forum of a blog seriously but I know that it should be more than just me bragging about how sweet my new mustache is or try and be witty for the sake of being witty.  For a lack of better words I want to have a blog with purpose.

       I was on my way home from a worship practice, at which I didn't feel to worshipful.  I was listening to Klove which isn't a common occurrence.... One because I feel like It's usually on a constant repeat o a few christian artists, Two they don't play Hillsong(United, Live, or Chapel), and Three I have a small distaste for the radio in general because they hardly play anything worth listening to.  However on this snowy evening I happened upon the song "Holy" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhHtgScGUGs by Nicole Nordeman.  This song came out in Highschool and I used to make fun of Chase Anderson for loving the album.  It was definitely different than the kind of music that he usually bumped on his subs.  But tonight in the state that I was in I think I really listened to the words for the first time.  The chorus of the song goes something like this....

"And all You ever wanted…

Only me on my knees
Singing holy, holy
And somehow
All that matters now is
You are holy, holy"

      I don't know how many times I heard this song and never realized the truth in these lyrics.  I guess it's all been brought into a better light going through a purity series at our youthgroup (FUSION).  Last Wednesday we read psalms 51.  Here's a small part thats been speaking to me lately. 

Psalm 51:15-17 (HCSB) ¹⁵ Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise. ¹⁶ You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it;You are not pleased with a burnt offering. ¹⁷ The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit.  God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart

      There are many times that I get lost in the act of service and I lose sight of who I'm really serving.  I get swelled up with pride and I say look at I've done and look what I can do.  I was recently told that my generation is called the "Entitlement Generation"  Saying this is what we deserve for what we've done.  So often we try and do things ourselves because we are proud.  We are very quick to take God out of the picture and place ourselves on a pedestal.  All God is asking is for us to give credit where credit is due.  God is the sole reason that we have anything worth living for.  He died for our sins and the least He asks is that we humble our hearts enough to get on our knees and cry out that he is holy.  I just pray that as a generation we can see what needs to be done before it's too late.

     I hope that's not to heavy for a second blog post.  It was just really on my heart this evening.  I hope that in whatever your doing you can live for the glory of our Father.