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As a Christian, who finds himself in plenty of situations where “being spiritual” is a part of the dance, I recognize that I throw out the “God is in control” statement well before I even think about believing my own words in certain situations. What I mean is that, in a group setting, with the coffee cup in hand and the piece of key lime pie sitting neatly in my lap as a group of people sit in a circle and hash through a book we may (or may not) have read the chapter for this week, and go around the circle to discuss our prayer requests and praises…it’s so my personality to instantly throw out the “well I know God is in control with _________ ….”

Don’t get me wrong…I do believe God is in control and has a plan for me in all aspects of my life, but if I’m being transparent/real, I have to say that it’s not always the first thing I think…usually my first reaction is “Holy smokes Batman, how am I going to fix this situation, solve this dilema, make this life changing choice, get that big raise, be a good Dad, etc etc”, with emphasis on the “How am I?” I want to be led, I want to have Unutterable Trust. Maybe the first step is realizing I’m an addict. An addict of control, who wants to submit to an authority that knows me better than I know myself…I’ve fallen off this wagon numerous times, but today…today is 1 day sober of my control addiction. Lord lead me, catch me when I fall, and keep me “on the wagon” so to speak w/ “my walk”

Hey there,
The original video was posted with a crappy video posting site, so I’m reposting the video so that you can learn the joy that is….making Texas Caviar! Let me know how it tastes!

I was in Miami last week, and through the weekend shooting a couple commercials. It was such a crazy week, and I’m so glad it’s over, but I’m still feeling worn out. Just tired from the constant go-go-go. I think I’m a bit under the weather too. Overall, it was a great week. The project was by far the toughest I’ve worked on in my career, but once we got on set, everything came together and the results should be great. We had some amazing food while there, including a humongous bottle of “Tignanello”, a Super Tuscan which tasted unbelievable.

We stayed at The Shore Club, which was probably the most pretentious hotel I’ve ever laid my head in. Every part of the stay was highlighted with rude people, loud music (til the wee hours of the morning), etc etc. The worst thing though, BY FAR, was how razor thin the walls were. My room was nowhere near the elevator, but I could hear the elevator open and close and could hear quiet conversation in the hall. It was so bad, but got worse because every night, at around 4:30 or 5am, people would stumble off the elevator from a night of partying and would be obnoxiously loud to the point that I awoke EVERY morning. Needless to say, I put my maturity aside the morning I checked out, and as I was getting waiting for the elevator at around 6:45 am, I proceeded to fake cough for around 30 seconds as loudly and violently as possible. I am a grown up.

Anyway, it was still a good trip, job-wise and I feel good about that, but it was a LONG time to be away from Kristine and Adler. I missed them so much, and was so glad to get home to them. This morning was especially great because we went in to wake Adler up and he was standing in his crib just smiling away at us. He was definitely glad to have me home, and that makes it all worth it.

I’m currently (on Aug. 22nd) sitting on a plane and writing this blog for 2 reasons…One being that I just finished reading a book, and for those that know my track record for getting through a book cover-to-cover, you know that this is a feat worth exlamation. J/K…but kinda serious. The other is that this book has been great and I feel that (for the 5 people reading this) it’s worth giving a shout out.

“Stevo, get to the point! What’s the freakin book already?”…

“Sorry, keep your shirt on…” Well, the book is “To Own a Dragon: Reflections on Growing up without a Father” by Donald Miller. Don Miller also wrote (amongst other books) “Blue Like Jazz” which is one of my all-time favorites.

“To Own a Dragon” has been a great book, and I actually finished reading it 20 minutes ago, but turned to page 1 and started over, because I want to recall everything I’ve been reading over the last 6 months (I read it cover-to-cover…but not in a hurry). The book is aimed at men who grew up with out Dads, and how that life can be a instigator in our spiritual lives and the way we look at God as “a Father”.

The first thing to clarify is that I do have a Father. I actually grew up in an amazing home, where I felt loved and supported, was given the world, probably spoiled a bit, etc etc. I love my Dad and he’s been a great role model to me, whether or not he knows it.

“But…if the book is about growing up without a Father, why did you read it?”

2 reasons:
1) It was given to me by a good friend who highly recommended it to me, knowing how much I enjoyed “Blue Like Jazz”
&
2) I was on the road to becoming a Father.

The book has been great for me because it has shed more light on how important my role as a Father to Adler really is. His very character and direction in life will be affected by the way I lead (or don’t lead) our family. How will I be a Dad to him, and all the while, how will his perceptions of me as “His Dad” shape his view of God as “a Father”. If we believe in the Bible, we know that God is “a perfect Father”, but I know that I’m anything but “perfect”, yet I’m basically like the Santa you take pictures with at the mall…I’m not the real Santa, but if you come to take a picture with me and tell me what present you really want because you’ve been a good boy this year, but I grab the remote and say “Just a minute Kid…Santa’s gotta check the Jets score on ESPN”, then that kid’s view of the “actual Santa” is going to be screwed up from that point on.

There are so many pieces of this that are confusing to me (and probably to you, because of my rambling in this post!), because it’s such a position of responsibility to be a Father…especially given the stresses of life, the busy work schedule…the fact that I’m on a plane to Miami to work Wed – Monday away from home, and so on, make it impossible for me, and my flesh, to perform the act of “perfect Father”. The thing that’s been so great about reading the book however is that it’s helped me realize that it’s my responsibility to give this all to God. Just like every part of my life, I’m not capable of doing it myself. I need God’s provision in all areas, so why would it be any less in the area of being a Dad?

Another area where I’ve been encouraged in this book is the area of “trying”. I think with work being so crazy, I’ve been excited by any instance of coasting in life. In essence it’s felt like life is in control, because the pieces have been coasting on my river of life, even if the flow is faster than normal. The challenge in the book came from Mr. Sleepak (Don’s music teacher in high school), who said “if we are coasting, we are moving downhill”. This hit me hard today because I think that the world tells us that downhill is a good thing (“once you get _______ done, it’s all downhill from there”), and I believe that with work, this can be true sometimes, but I think we use this logic in our relationships too. I guess all that to say, I feel like I’ve taken the “coasting/downhill” thing to heart in my spiritual life, but it’s obvious that God’s not a downhill God. He’s a God that wants to know us and be known, and to know God better means to climb up towards Him, and to continue to learn more about him/build a relationship with him, instead of being content with what I learned about him while in college…

“If we aren’t learning, we are forgetting, if we aren’t getting smart, we are becoming dull”…just another quote from the book that illustrates the above paragraph…plane landing….

I posted this video to thehuntons.blogspot.com, but with a different video posting service, so I wanted to test viddler on this site…let me know what you think.

then why do I treat Him that way so often? I was recently reading the first chapter of Donald Miller’s “Searching for God knows What” and he aludes to the way we often treat God as a monkey, or computer, or jeanie in a bottle, who is at our disposal to do as we wish because, after all, we are really in control.

I think I act this way, unconciously (and conciously), very frequently. I know that God is really all about a relationship and the opportunity to know Him and be known. I know that He’s not requiring my fulfillment of law for hapiness and that I’m living in His big world, and I’m just a spec of dust on it…but yet, when I think of the activities of my life, my brain (as small as it is) constantly wants me to make the decisions, call the shots, drive the boat, fly the kite (that’s for you Steger), direct the orchestra, etc etc.

Why is it so hard to just sit back and give God control? To seriously speak to him “your will be done”? I do pray that often, when the decisions are daunting and life changing (IE – buying a house, switching jobs, getting ready for a child to be born), but I think that I act prior to getting his answer very often…and even more frequently, doubt his response once I get it.

The funny thing is that I know better. I’ve seen more blessings than can be counted when I’ve truly trusted God, yet my flesh calls out for control on almost every occasion. I want to trust that God is my captain…that He would take the reigns in my everyday life and that I would be obedient to that in every area (finances, marriage, parenting, job, friendships, stewardship of time, etc etc).

My randomness w/ video continues. Here’s another recent song I wrote…man I love my MapBookPro. Hope you like the song, and all the sweet spots where I fudge a note or two vocally. Question: did I not correct this because A) I’m transparent and authentic or B) too lazy to rerecord it again after I played it all the way through… if you answered “B”…you are correct, however…shame on you for doubting my authenticity!

Just a little background…so Kristine and I started dating on June 18th, 1997…the summer before our senior year of high school. We were at the beach with a bunch of friends. We’d been flirting for weeks and Kristine finally “manned up” and said “So, are we just chillin or what?” At this moment, it started raining and all of our friends were ready to leave. SO, we had to drive home the entire way with Katie and Dan in the back seat and couldn’t talk about what was happening between us…on the drive back we listened to Matchbox 20’s first CD and Dan and Katie rocked out…that was our favorite album of the year probably, hence the chorus of this song.

Basically, we’ve been together for almost 10 years (counting dating in high school) and have been through so much. There have been ups and downs, sweet spots and sour ones, but overall I love this girl uncontrolably and that’s why I wrote this song.

Later skaters.

The first video blog of (hopefully) many to come.