I really can’t explain what changed or how it happened. I guess it was just that first little slip that quickly turns into a head over heals fall into love. While all the pieces had been in place for months, it was the first time I let myself acknowledge that there was something really special about this particular girl. I’m hard pressed to think of a more wonderful and overwhelming feeling then the recognition of that “something special” and the excitement of pursuing it.

Five years later, I’m two years into an amazing marriage with the girl of my dreams and we have never been happier. While I could write a book about our fairy tale romance, that is not the reason I’m writing this post. Instead, I bring up that Christmas break to make an analogy to another feeling that I experienced this weekend.

Before I get to my point I need to make a quick disclaimer. I believe that few feelings will ever come close to the feeling of falling in love with the woman of my dreams. I will never ever have that same feeling for another human being as long as Melissa and I both live on this earth. I’m very thankful for that fact and I expect many greater and richer moments lie ahead of us in our marriage and life together. Now back to the point…

My wife and I have had an amazing time in our new home of Los Angeles, CA during the last two days and I’m starting to realize that there is “something special” about this city. It’s not the glitz and glam of Hollywood. It’s not the crazy madness of Venice Beach. It’s definitely not the pomp and consumer-stance of Beverly Hills. It’s not even that West Coast “chill” that you feel cruising down the PCH. I don’t know how to describe the feeling so instead I will just describe the circumstances surrounding it and let you fill in rest.

Friday evening I got off work a little early and we rented and watched a movie (Valentines Day) together in our cozy living room. It’s a pretty lame movie, but it’s set in L.A. and features various neighborhoods around the city.

Then Saturday morning, I had to take my car in for some exhaust work and ended up at a beat down muffler shop that doesn’t seem to see much traffic. However, the owner was an extremely kind older gentlemen clearly working hard to make a living. He got my car patched up and sent me on my way 20 minutes later.

Saturday afternoon we spent hanging out on beautiful Santa Monica beach taking in the beauty of the ocean, the sun and the pier. We relaxed and enjoyed observing the various families and groups of people around us enjoying that famous west coast lifestyle.

Saturday evening we ventured up to the Getty Center in northern Los Angeles to see the band Dawes play a live set in the museum courtyard. While traffic and parking were, stereotypically, a nightmare, the experience was amazing. The weather, the art, the architecture, the view, the energy, the music and the crowd all came together to make the evening a magical experience. The band Dawes is from California and calls Los Angeles their home. In many ways the show was a home-coming of types for them and that was very apparent in their performance.

Sunday morning we decided to try out a new church. We are still in the process of finding a church home here in LA and someone had recommended we check out this new church. We got up early so we could make the first service at 9am. We have visited several churches since we’ve been here and so far we have really liked all of them. However, this church was just something really special. Melissa and both come out of the service completely uplifted, challenged and encouraged. It was a beautiful thing to be a part of the work God is doing in this city and to fellowship with others who have been called to bear witness to the Gospel in Los Angeles.

All of these experiences have culminated together and have left me feeling like there is something really special about this city. It is a feeling of discovery and excitement. It’s also a feeling of compassion and angst. It’s a beautiful mix of feelings and that is what brought to mind the Christmas break story.

Now before you object, let me address the obvious. It’s one of the most notoriously infamous cities in the world. It’s known as the epicenter of western culture and the source of so much of what is wrong with that culture. It’s known for bad traffic, high crime rates, high cost of living, high taxes and so many other negative things. Personally, I did not come to LA with any star-struck notions of “living the dream” on the “boulevard of dreams.”  Quite honestly, I expected to hate this city. My Midwest upbringing had given me a 23-year long running prejudice against Los Angeles. I can’t even count the number of people that said negative things about the city in response to hearing that we were moving here. I don’t blame them either, I was in the same boat. I still completely understand why so many people talk negatively about this city. All the bad press is not just hype and its not just mid-westerners who smack talk about L.A. I’ve encountered more than a few natives who have expressed disdain for this place they call home. As I speak, there is a news story on TV about a gang shooting at a church in long beach that took place last night. It really is in every way a VERY broken city. Yet, I think that’s part of what I find special about it.

All this to say, I’m starting to understand that there really is “something special” about Los Angeles and for however long we are here, I’m going to take it in and enjoy all that it has to offer. I have no idea where life will take us in the future. I do know that I feel very blessed to be spending this season of our lives amongst the people of Los Angeles, CA.

As I end this post, I feel compelled to express that I will always have mad love for my hometown of La Crosse, WI. I truly believe it is one of the best cities in the entire world to grow up in and I have yet to find a more beautiful, comfortable, friendly, safe, fun place on this earth. I’m not dumping La Crosse. I guess I am just not a one-city man.

TWiST is a show dedicated to the subject of start-up companies. It focuses primarily on companies connected to the web industry. Jason is a very entertaining host and a tremendous source of knowledge and opinion, both of which he shares enthusiastically.

There are several regular segments on TWiST including “Ask Jason” (a listener call-in segment), “Shark Tank” (a caller pitches their business idea to Jason and a guest and receives feedback), “Guest Interview” (Jason interviews someone prominent from the start-up world) and “The News” (the latest news in tech and start-ups is discussed).

As an aspiring entrepreneur, I get a lot of value from the advice that Jason gives during the “Ask Jason” segment. The subject matter covered by the questions is often centered on real-world issues that most entrepreneurs will face at some point in their career. Jason always finds a way to give answers to the question that tie in a lot of great insight and fundamental advice any entrepreneur can learn from.

The quality of guests that Jason has on the show is always fantastic. The wealth of knowledge shared during the “Guest Interview” segments is extremely valuable. Listening to TWiST every week makes me feel like I get to sit down with two start-up rock stars and pick their brain for a couple hours. The stories shared on the show are also a great source of inspiration.

One thing that makes the show so valuable is the opportunity to listen to how Jason handles producing and promoting the show. There is lot that can be learned from studying the mastery with which Jason communicates, promotes the show, engages the audience, builds community and shapes his own public image. He is clearly an expert at self-promotion, leveraging social media and building his own buzz/momentum. These skills/traits are things that I think every entrepreneur should learn from.

I would strongly recommend TWiST to anyone who has a start-up company. It is well worth your time!

My two brothers and I have been involved on the worship teams at Bethany for around a decade and when the opportunity arose to take ownership and leadership of the “contemporary” Video Cafe service at Bethany I jumped at the opportunity.

Every day of leading this ministry has been both a huge blessing and a huge challenge in my life. Learning how to effectively put together a worship service and to lead a worship team has definitely been a great learning experience for me personally.

About 6 months ago, a friend and mentor of mine recommended that I listen to the “All About Worship” podcast. My life as a worship ministry leader has been greatly improved through the education, inspiration and encouragement given by this podcast.

“All About Worship” is podcast for worship leaders and worship team members hosted by worship leaders Ben Abu Saada and Wisdom Moon who currently reside in the state of Kansas. Each month they interview someone of note from the worship leading community and tackle topics ranging from the philosophy and theology of worship leading to the nitty gritty details that are required to make a worship ministry tick. The caliber of guests that they have on the show are top notch. I have found the interviews to be of tremendous value as both a source of education and inspiration. Some of the guests that they have had on the show inlcude Bethany Dillon, Tim Hughes,  Shane Barnard, Tommy Walker,  Kim Walker, Kari Jobe as well as many others. Every single episode has impacted me in some significant way. I have found All About Worship to be a continual source of inspiration, encouragement and practical advice. I would definitely recommend it to anyone involved in a worship ministry and would suggest subscribing to the podcast in iTunes.

You can also check them out at allaboutworship.com or find them on twitter with the handle @allaboutworship.

I realized today that I am a huge sucker for both traditions and holidays. I cherish all of the little things that make certain days or times of the year different from all of the rest. As we were putting up our tree today, I suddenly came to this realization. Every little thing that we do during these “special” moments of the year causes me to ask myself, “could this be the beginning of a lifelong tradition?” The more I thought about it, the more I realized just how important little traditions have been to me during the course of my life. After spending a little time thinking about it, I have come up with a theory as to why this is. Let me share it with you briefly.  I would love to hear feedback and comments from anyone who has two cents to put in.

I think that when we are growing up, our family is the most important thing to us. That small group of people closest to us becomes our home, our identity and our security. I think this creates a built-in desire to continually define ourselves in terms of our membership in this thing we call family. I view traditions as unspoken promises that exist between all of the members of a family. These promises say that we will always be family and that there are certain things we can always count on in this family.

Growing up, the little traditions, like knowing that we would go to church on Christmas Eve and then go home and open presents immediately afterwords, were extremely important to me. The more I think about it, the more I believe this was not just because of the excitement that I got from opening presents but more so because it was something that we all knew would happen. It was something we did because we were the Fischers and the Fischers did things a certain way.

I think every tradition a family keeps is a little extra bit of glue in the emotional bond that a family has. For children in particular, I believe this creates the extremely important feeling of security that gives a child the confidence to be exactly who they are and know that they are loved.

Now obviously, I do not think that a load of traditions can replace cultivating healthy parent/child relationships. I do however think that a healthy family can benefit a lot from these little unspoken promises. Whether these promises are major traditions tied to a Holiday or just little parts of the daily routine that are “our family’s thing”, these promises are important.

The T+M Fischer Christmas Tree 2009

Cullen is a good friend of mine from way back in time. I think that he is a good writer and he definitely likes to share fun stories, links, videos, etc...  He is currently an intern Young Adults ministry leader at Elmbrook Church in Milwaukee, WI.

His blog is fairly new but I hope that he continues to write it. He's usually either giving a humorous perspective on some part of everyday life or he's dishing out some deep spiritual insights and challenges.

If you are looking for an uplifting read take a few minutes and check it out.