Saturday, April 10, 2010

Hitting the Road

It's that time of year where about a dozen of us pile into our travel vehicles and hit the road to entertain the masses.  It's tour season.

I guess you could say that the "season" actually started yesterday when our cast and crew got into town.  Today we are organizing and packing gear, cleaning out the trucks and vans, and making sure that we have everything that we need.  Seems easy, but it's definitely a long process and can require a lot of running back and forth.  But we all love it, which is what keeps us coming back season after season to work long days and get paid a lot less.

Yes, we get paid a lot less for all the work that we do.  You would think that a large tour (there's anywhere from 10-14 in our touring cast and crew) would make more money.  But that's not the case.  Though our fees are higher, our expenses are higher and there's a lot more people that need to get paid.  But at the end of the day, it's not about the money for any of us.  It's about doing what we love and being together as one big family.  It's amazing the relationships that you build when you spend every day traveling together.  I have a friend, Beth, who is my husband's assistant, but also one of my best friends.  Tour season is great for us to hang out, catch up, laugh, and play lots of cards.

So needless to say, I'm looking forward to tour season.  It lasts for 5 short weekends and will take us to Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Oklahoma respectively.  We will work the hardest we work all year in these next few weekends, but it's gonna be fun!  I will be sure to keep you all posted on our journey.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Being Healthy

It's officially been 1 week since I entered the gym.  To say that I feel completely at home there is an understatement.  I love to learn, therefore, all the training that I have been getting has been a learning experience and I am soaking it up.  It's amazing.  I have been going almost every day (I train 3 days a week) trying to squeeze in extra workouts.  It's become kind of addicting....and yes, I know it's the gym.

But I realized something while walking up what seemed like 200 flights of stairs on the stairmaster.  I realized that I need more positive environments in my life.  Thy gym that I go to is full of positive energy that propels you forward, sometimes without you even realizing it.  Every person in there wants to be there and wants to be healthy.  And they want others that walk through that door to experience the same things that are.  Strength, flexibility, endurance.  In total, a better way of life.  One that makes their days brighter and puts a bounce in their step.

Why is it that I feel this in the gym surrounded by people I barely know?  Why do they encourage me and push me to do better and vie for a healthy lifestyle?  It doesn't do anything for them to do all these things.

I guess the question that I'm getting at is why do I feel all these amazing things in the gym that I should feel when I go to church...but I don't?  Walking into a building on Sunday filled with people who are "Christians" leaves me walking out frustrated and disillusioned.  I don't have that same bounce in my step.  That same sense of encouragement for a "healthy" life.  Those people who are encouraging and love well are becoming more rare daily.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm not saying that those people don't exist in the Church.  I'm just saying that they are rare.  Why is that?  Have we gotten so caught up in the "doing"that we're doing little more then just going through the motions even if those motions are hurting more then helping?

Our trainer in the gym has brought a love for the gym into our lives because he has spent the last 2 weeks really training us.  Showing us how to maximize our gym time by doing everything correctly.  More then once I found myself in awe of just how much I had been doing wrong!  And he lovingly and gently guided us.  And I can tell the difference.

My life is far from perfect.  I am a broken and sinful human being who's no better then anyone else.  But I want to experience the same things that I do when I walk into the gym.  I want to experience health.  I want the church to be the place that people would want to come back to despite the bad and difficult reputation that it has.  Can we do that?