…if i could have your attention again,

i’m becoming a bit of a wordpress ninja. that’s not to say i know all the in’s and out’s and am designing my own themes. but at least i’m getting really good at setting them up for people. with all that said, i’d like to introduce you all to my latest project; withinthestory.com.

the author is ben snyder, high school pastor, runner, husband, father and all around cool guy. if you’re looking for some good thought provoking posts on life, faith, love, hope and grace… with the usual amount of goofing off that happens on blogs thrown in the mix, then i really recommend checking it out.

so, if all my readers could do a favor and go leave him some love, welcome him to the blogosphere, that’d be great. additionally, i would ask that you give subscribing a shot. there’s a link on the left to subscribe via reader or email. try it for a month. if it doesn’t suit your fancy, unsubscribe that filthy crap and never look back!

for those of you keeping count, i have created and designed (using free themes as a template) the following blogs over the course of the last month:

1. theworstblogger.com
2. themile.tv
3. photoblog.loveisgreaterthan.com
4. withinthestory.com
5. loseitfastloseitforever.com (honorable mention, i did that about three months ago)

ps - addison, i haven’t forgotten about you. life got crazy with grandmother dying. so we’ll add you to this list soon!

Posted in bloggers | 3 Comments »

…positive post tuesday

*note - this series started from brody harper. basically, the idea is for us bloggers to write a post every tuesday building someone up. click here for more details on how it started.

what better person to write about in my inaguraul “positive post tuesday” than the woman who makes me want to be a better man on a daily basis? my wife ryanne, challenges me in way i never thought possible.

it’s been nearly four years now that we’ve been married. in that time we have been through a lot. it’s crazy to think this thing has really just gotten started, relatively speaking. in that four years, i’ve been amazed by the courage, tenacity, love, and determination this woman has showed. it takes all of the above to deal with me! we’ve been through some hard times, and a lot of great times… but one thing has always remained consistent, the commitment and love we have for each other.

i’m looking forward to the next stage of life with ryanne. she will be an amazing mother, and i very much anticipate raising children with her. then, after that… growing old together sounds like a wonderful plan. it will entail a lot of traveling, lounging, and old-people sex.

…yeah, that’s right.

Posted in bloggers, family | 7 Comments »

…the deuce is strong with this one

time for a mind-dump.

• r.i.p. grandma (obituary)
• i’m curious what my extended family is going to be like now. grandma dawn was truly the matriarch of this family.
• i’m hoping that the whole family will be able to come together for a memorial day cook out. these used to be tradition, but over the last six - seven years they have fallen by the wayside. and honestly, they’re one of my fondest memories of the whole family growing up.
• it’s supposed to rain tomorrow during the funeral and cemetery portions of the day. please god, give us a little break during that portion.
• i’ve been astounded by the outpouring of love and support from friends, family, coworkers and bloggers. you are all so incredibly awesome, i don’t know where to start. i just hope i can be as nice as everyone else has been to me when others need it.
• lauren and jason came out and sang a couple songs at the funeral home tonight. one of which was “from the inside out” by hillsong. that song has now taken on new meaning for me, and is one of my favorite worship songs.
• mark came out too. that was very, very nice of him. my parents really appreciated it too.
• it was nice to see mark, lauren, and jason, ken, donna, mary lou, ken, tom and fran in the midst of such a long day of unrecognizable faces. we were at the funeral home from one pm till about eight pm, so seeing them was like a shot of energy
• days like today make me grateful for a man named sam adams. there are few things like a cold beer after a long day.
• i didn’t take a picture of the picture of my grandma that ken was looking at, but kudo’s to the guy for breaking the tension by looking at the picture and exclaiming “she’s hot!”
• i’ve never been much of a traditionalist, but looking at all those pictures from the forty’s, fifties and sixties makes me long for a simpler time.
• listening to phil wickham again. truly one of my favorite artists right now. it’s funny how i can latch on to a certain album/artist in stressful times in my life. when my grandfather died a few years ago, it was the “by the way” album by red hot chili peppers. now, “cannons” will always have a special place in my heart.
• happy with the response kyle’s blog has gotten thus far. he gets a ridiculous amount of comments, now i just have to get other bloggers to start linking to him.
• wishing jason would update more. his latest post really got me thinking though, so i guess it’s quality, and not quantity from him.
• going to be working on another new blog this week for someone. more on that later, but it’s another one that will be well worth your while.
• being around people, pretty much non-stop, for the last two days and continuing on till tomorrow makes me really happy that i can and probably will take tuesday and wednesday off work this week. one of those days, i plan on doing a lot of reading and sitting in silence. don’t get me wrong, i love my family dearly…
• have i mentioned how much i truly love my live video team? i mean really… i have such a great team. i’m going to brag till the end of my life that i had the chance to lead the greatest ministry team at cedarcreek church. i have so many people on my team that just love to serve the Lord and each other. it’s a truly humbling experience.
• it’s been interesting to watch my stats since i changed domain names. i am anything but a stat-whore, but going from over 110 unique visitors a day to just over fifty has proven just how beneficial it was to have everyone googling “love is the movement” expecting to find to write love on her arms and finding their way here instead. the interesting thing though, is that my subscribed readarship is growing by leaps and bounds. you may only see “27″ over there, but remember i still have the old feed that i just ported the address over too, and that one is still around 25. so i now have over fifty people subscribing to my thoughts. that’s awesome, and humbling at the same time.
• putting this in writing: when i die. i don’t want a showing, and i don’t want the festivities to span over multiple days. if people can’t make my funeral, they can remember me from their homes. burn me, put my ashes in a shoe box, and spread me in some fun locations. my funeral service should last no longer than thirty minutes. have a wake afterwards, but serve alcohol and play fun music. always remember i’m in a better place, and am probably having a blast.

Posted in everything, thoughts | 2 Comments »

…wow, just… wow

ladies and gentlemen, phil wickham

Posted in life | 4 Comments »

…going to be a hectic few days

if you pay attention to my twitter-feed, you’ll already know what i’m about to share.

at approximately 3am this (friday) morning, april 25th, my grandmother on my mom’s side passed away. it did not come as too much of a surprise, as the night before she was transferred from a hospital to hospice, however we weren’t expecting it as soon as it happened.

everyone in the family is doing as well as can be expected, some really well. i was scheduled to run switchers at the perrysburg campus of cedarcreek this weekend, but the leadership is being very generous and letting me skip out to be with my family.

in the midst of all the craziness that surrounds a death in the family, especially a grandmother of such a large family. she had four children, and between those four children (all of which are married) there are seven grandchildren, five of which are married, and i believe six great grandchildren. so in the midst of all those people, all those opinions, one thing stands out to me, and that is love.

of course there is love amongst the family, but it’s been incredible to watch those outside the family do whatever they can to step up and pitch in to help out. in my immediate family alone, we have been blessed by my mothers boss, who spent ten hours today cooking a ridiculous amount of food for my parents, so at the very least they wouldn’t have to worry about meals for the next few days. we have been blessed by an incredible outpouring of support from staff members at cedarcreek, as well as the volunteer team i lead and my parents serve on. we have been blessed by the willingness of a couple of cedarcreek musicians; lauren and jason, to come out on sunday night and play a few songs at the showing… this is after a grueling five service weekend with multiple run-through’s and rehearsals.

it’s just incredible to be a part of a few networks of people who are so willing to step up and say “how can i help?” moreover, it’s incredible to watch people just do things, without any expectation of repayment, just because they love and support you. i’m truly in awe.

it really is an honor for me to be in the company of such wonderful people. all of you have my warmest thanks and respect. i don’t really believe i can say it enough.

for me, today has been a grind. i’ll be the first to admit that death affects me much differently than most others. my role over the course of the next few days is less as a mourner, and more of a support figure for my mother and the rest of my family. i was an idiot and stayed up till 2am this morning, only to be awoke at 3:30am by a phone call from my father informing me that my grandmother had passed away.

ryanne and i crawled out of bed right then and headed into hospice. after a brief hour-ish long nap at my parents, i’ve been going non-stop the rest of the day. relying on a diet consisting of little else other than caffeine, sugar, and hot sauce (we ate at a mexican restaurant for lunch), i’m finally beginning to feel the events of the day start to catch up with me. it’s not even 8pm, but i’m starting to feel like it’s bedtime.

so, that’s where i’m headed. i just wanted to give you all a heads up if this blog goes quiet for a few days (although i believe i have at least one time-shifted blog post that i wrote earlier in the week going up sometime this weekend) of what is going on in my life at the moment. so, until things slow down a little (the funeral is monday morning), i’m not sure if much is going to be happening here.

grace & peace,
- joshua

Posted in family, friends, just me, life, thoughts | 5 Comments »

…self-fulfilling prophecy

i took a bit of flack about six months ago when i put a junky-car club sticker on the back of my ‘99 mitsibushi galant. at the time, the only thing wrong with the car with about 85,000 miles on it was all cosmetic stuff. missing all four hubcaps, no gas door, scratches, dings, dents, rust… that kind of stuff. people gave me crap, because;

• the galant wasn’t really in that bad of (mechanical) shape, and
• my other car is a 2004 toyota prius.

well, i’m happy to say that karma has finally reared its ugly head, and i can drive my junky-car club adorned galant with my head held high!

it all started last week when my passenger side front tire blew out on the expressway. i dropped it off at the shop to get a new tire, but i also mentioned to the nice gentleman behind the counter that the car had been making a high pitched whining noise. he said they’d take a look and let me know what the problem was. four hours later i get a phone call saying that the tire was fixed, but the whining noise was coming from a bad power steering pump that i needed to replace. the cost to fix would be nearly six hundred dollars. that nice gentleman was now in my head (unfairly) a real jerk.

today the galant is in the shop, and i just got a phone call. another nice gentleman tells me the power steering pump is now fixed, but the car still makes a good deal of whining. now the problem is in my air conditioner compressor, and that’s going to cost another $700 to fix. when the guy told me, i accidentally let loose a “holy crap!” over the phone. trust me, this was a far cry from the obscenities i was screaming about the man in my head. he quickly responded; “or, if you don’t care about having air conditioning, we can just remove the belt and it won’t make a peep.”

so, ladies and gentlemen, my clunker has nothing but god’s air conditioning for this summer… open windows. for those of you who gave me crap about my sticker… back off!

this is just a classic example of how “acting as if” can also be a bad thing….

Posted in life | 4 Comments »