Casting Crowns performed in Greensboro, NC on Saturday night and I was there! If you have never seen the Crowns live, let me just say these few things….

Second, these people have a heart for the youth. They are all youth ministers at their respective assemblies in Georgia. After the show on Saturday, they hopped on a bus and drove back to be at their home churches on Sunday morning. They have an amazing dedication and I pray that God sustains their energy and their willingness to continue sharing His message.
In the middle of all the sound and the other worship and the music, I captured this image. I think that it speaks to the intimacy of the Holy Spirit. I love how, in a room with thousands of strangers, this guy was worshipping as if it were just him and God.   Because really, when it comes down to it, isn't worship really just about you and God?  It’s beautiful to me…and it is worthy of my Momentous Monday post.

I feel like I haven’t been honest about something and I need to get it off my chest today. But first, I have some administrative items to take care of.



Welcome to http://www.erin-brady.com/ !! I created my own domain name so that people who know me will have an easier time finding my blog. I am not sure if the transition is 100% complete but I am so excited! So bear with me as I tweak and arrange the settings of my new home.


I missed Tiffany’s blog hop yesterday. Momentous Monday is such a great way to start the week and I was bummed that I just couldn’t get a post together before the end of the day. My plan was to write one up last night after dinner but I just got so busy scrubbing and folding laundry it just didn’t happen. Tiffany, I am on it for next week…I promise!


On to the meat of this post…

Yes. I have been keeping something to myself since I started this blog and with my new name, should come a new honesty. When I started blogging, I hid behind my anonymity for a while. Then I got a little more comfortable so I stepped out a bit. Now, I am all the way out there and there is no more hiding. Part of me is still afraid to say controversial things (like I am about to say) because of how friends, family and my church family will react. But God knows my heart and my ultimate goal is to please Him. If what I say pleases Him but people don’t like it, then who cares? Right? I want to please Him.

So here goes…

I am not a fan of church.

Whew. I said it. Out loud. I do actually feel better.

Before you write me off as a crazy lunatic and cancel your subscription to my blog, allow me to explain.

I am a fan of God. I am a fan of worship. I am a fan of serving Him. I am a fan being a Christian. But I am not a fan of church.

(There are exceptions to every rule and I must caveat this by saying that there ARE churches out there that are on fire for God. There are churches that are really serving Him. I AM a fan of these churches.)

The truth is that I think the modern church has lost its way. It is more concerned with the mundane than its intended purpose; it is driven by quantity and not quality; it follows the schedule/bulletin rather than feeling instruction from The Holy Spirit; there are committees to manage the committees but very little concern over the lost souls of the community.

I don’t think that this situation is unique to my church. In fact, I know it’s not. I read an interesting article by Jon Zens on Frank Viola’s website last week and I just can’t get it out of my head. The title of the article is “Are We Eating with the Right People? Thoughts from 1 Corinthians 5.” I highly recommend it as further explanation of my issues with the modern church. This is amazing. It confirmed to me that I was not the only one feeling this way.

There is so much more that we can be doing for Jesus. I understand the need of getting “sheep food” and church is the place to get it. I also love the relationships that I have with other people in the Body of Christ.

But once a person develops a relationship with Christ and is steady on their Christian walk, the church starts to…well…suck them dry. Going to church on Sunday morning is no longer enough. We are then expected to go Sunday night. And Wednesday night. And don’t forget Sunday school. And choir practice. And the women’s meeting on Monday. And prayer meeting on Friday. The next thing you know, you are at church seven nights a week.

Inside the building. With other people who already know Christ. Planning events for and singing with other people who already know Christ.

At what point do we stop interacting with only other Christians and start reaching out to people who don’t know Him? To do this, it requires one to step outside of the church.

I want to be known as a friend to sinners and I want to eat with the wrong people (see article from above).

The church resides in a box and I want to blow that box to shreds.

We need to unchurch the church.

Any ideas?

I just read a Twitter update from one of my friends and she said that God sounds like Morgan Freeman.  I immediatley corrected her.  EVERYONE knows that God sounds like James Earl Jones.  (Think Symba's dad from The Lion King movie.)  As I clicked away and continued to read my Twitter updates, I thought that maybe there was something more to this thought.

What does God really sound like? 

Would I know His voice if I heard it?

Am I ever still enough to hear Him speak to me?

Consider the creation for a moment.  Consider the fact that God was around long before there was light and sound.  He invented our voices and the anatomical features that allow us to hear.  It's hard for us to imagine communication in any form other than written language, spoken language or even body language.  God pre-dates all of this yet our inability to understand the fullness of our Maker requires that we give Him the same attributes that we have as human beings.  We expect God to speak to us in an audible voice when really, His method of communication may be something completely different...something more perfect than words.

Sure, there are instances in the Bible when God spoke to man.  Remember Moses?  Adam and Eve?  Abraham?  I am of the opinion that in these cases, He sounded more like James Earl Jones or even Captain Jean Luc Picard from the Starship Enterprise.  If they heard Him, then it had to sound like something, right?  For all we know, He could have sounded like Maya Angelou or my Grandmother.  But I am pretty sure that God doesn't need a voice to convey His words or His message to us. 

I think about the times that God spoke to me.  I didn't hear a powerful voice; the clouds didn't part in the sky opening the door to the Heavens while invisible harps played in the background; birds did not land on my shoulders and tweet songs to me as my Maker and I conversed in the mossy vale. 

The truth is that God gives me thoughts and ideas.  It's silent.  It's fleeting.  It's easy to miss.  It requires me to be in tune with Him and open to the possibility that my thoughts are not really even my thoughts...they are His. 

Louie Giglio, who founded Passion City Church and ministers to people like Chris Tomlin, suggested that when we pray, we should bring a notebook.  He believes that true prayer is a conversation between you and God.  And just like most conversations, there is time to talk and time to listen.  If we listen, He will surely respond to our questions.  And if God says something to me or gives me an idea, I am going to write it down so that I don't forget about it later.

When is the last time you stopped in your prayer to listen to what God had to say? 

So what does God sound like if He doesn't speak to us audibly?  

This is an incomplete list of times that I have heard God...or felt God...ministering to me:


There is no wrong answer.  God can use ALL things to minister to us.  He is God, afterall.  I love it when I look back on a situation and it was so clear that God was speaking to me and using that experience to teach me.

What does it sound like when God speaks to you? 

If you aren't sure what God sounds like, let me tell you where to start.  Get in His word.  Find a church that teaches from The Bible; find a group of believers with whom you can fellowship; read His words for yourself.  When you do these things, God will speak to you and more importantly, you will learn how to listen to Him. 

I love to sleep and I hate waking up early. I adore my bed. It makes my soul smile to know that I can roll over and go back to sleep on the weekends. Something happens inside of my being when I wake up before the sun…and it’s not cute. When the alarm clock goes off on Monday morning and it’s still dark outside, I am not a joyful person. What’s worse is the realization that I still have another four days of alarm clock, pre-sun waking up. Monday’s and I just don’t see eye-to-eye.

So when I read Tiffany’s blog last week and learned that she was starting a blog hop called Momentous Monday, I knew it was something that I needed to do. I need to get over my Monday-morning-bitterness. I need to find joy in all things. The name of Tiffany’s blog is A Moment Cherished and she writes about being a mother and the wife of a pastor. I love her perspective. In an effort to find joy…even on Mondays…I am joining Tiffany in her trek to celebrate the cherished moments.


After church yesterday, we went to my mother-in-law's house for lunch. This has been a tradition since long before I joined the family. She and my father-in-law, most often affectionately referred to as Nanny and Pa, prepare a spread every Sunday that mimics an average Thanksgiving. Sunday Lunch has become one of my favorite parts of the week. It typically includes roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, fried okra, green beans, corn, macaroni and cheese, rolls, apple butter, chocolate cake and sweet tea.

It only took a few Sunday’s to catch on to the grace routine. Nanny usually shouts over the crowd that lunch is ready and that it’s time to say the blessing. Everyone finds his/her seat (which is usually the same seat Sunday after Sunday) and sits down. We fold our hands, close our eyes and, in unison, we all say, “Grace.” Then we all laugh together. And with our eyes still closed, we quiet down again while Pa says the real blessing.

{Yesterday’s blessing was Momentous because Pa’s health has been up and down for the past year. In fact, he was in the hospital over the weekend and we were thankful to have him home again. I have grown to love Pa over the years. I never knew that I could love someone else’s father as much as I love him.}

Then we all dig in and I use the term “dig” literally. We have learned to watch out for elbows and forks over the years. It’s an “every man for himself/take no prisoners” kind of dig. I remember my first few Sundays at lunch. I didn’t eat as much as I could have of course…I was trying to be polite and cute. That only lasted about a month.

Please excuse the terrible quality of this picture.  It is actually a picture of a picture from my wedding but it is us.  This is us...just as we are...on Sunday's.  We call this photo the Cole Chaos.  And I love it. 

I love Sunday’s at Nanny and Pa’s house. It is a beautiful chaos and it is loud…really loud. We are a big, happy family who loves each other despite our imperfections. We have seen a multitude of laughs, tears, hugs and arguments. We have heard stories of the past and talked about what the future may hold.

I noticed yesterday, as we sat around after lunch, how much we have grown. As the grown-ups talked, Kelsey sat on my lap and we shared a piece of chocolate cake.

{It was Momentous because I noticed that her feet were almost touching the floor. There was a time when my baby girl could fit perfectly on my lap and her feet would barely hang off my knees. Now, she is so big. And I think she still fits perfectly in my lap.}

As routine as yesterday was, it was beautifully Momentous.

Thank you, Tiffany, for the encouragement to be present in my everyday life and to be thankful...so thankful...even for Monday's.

A really cool thing happened today.

Remember the blog I posted last week about my friend leaving work? Remember how sad I was that I was losing that daily friendship? And then, remember how I felt guilty because I was so sad?

Well let me tell you that God is on time for everything. Everything.

No my friend did not come back to work but this thing is equally as exciting. Let me rewind back to last summer.

A new guy started work at my office. I don’t talk about my job much on this blog and I will not start today. I will say that I work in a very small office of mostly men. So the fact that another man started work at my office was not a newsflash. He was nice; he got along well with other people. It was not monumental.

Fast forward several months…I found out that he lives in the development across the street from my house. I thought this was a cool coincidence.

Fast forward to Christmas…I found out that he has a daughter the exact same age as my daughter. We decided then, in December, that we should get our girls together since they essentially live across the street from one another. His daughter is home-schooled and my daughter goes to a school outside of our home district. As a result, neither girl has friends in the neighborhood.

Christmas is a really bad time to make plans. Life gets very busy. Getting the girls together just didn’t happen.

Fast forward to Monday…as in this past Monday. I received an email from the “new” guy asking if this week, spring break, would be a good time to get the girls together. I immediately responded with an emphatic, “YES!!!”
Fast forward to today.

Since I was working from home today, it was the perfect day for the girls to meet! This morning, I called his wife and arranged for the girls to meet at their house at 3:00. I stayed on the phone with the mom for an hour. We talked about our girls and I felt an immediate connection. As the conversation continued, we began talking about our faith and our challenges with raising girls. We talked about what’s important to us, as moms and as Christians. Our girls, from our perspective, had a lot in common and we were both excited about what the day might bring for our girls.

At 3:00, Kelsey and I walked over to their house. I was welcomed in and Kelsey met her new friend. The girls went off to play and the mom and I sat at the kitchen table and began to talk.

I realized at that moment how beautiful God’s plan is for us.

The mom and I talked until 5:00.

I found a sister in Christ today. Across the street from my house.

We have similar struggles and we have the same desires for our daughters and we have the same approach to child-rearing.

Don’t you love how God works?

She has been there, yards away from my house, for two years and I didn’t know it. But God knew that I needed a friend now.

And He sent her to me just when I needed it.

Although she would say that He sent me to her just when she needed it.

I love how God works. He has a roadmap for my life that I is better than any plan that I could ever make.

Oh yeah…the girls got along great! They were instant friends and I think they will be good for one another!!

Yay! I am thankful and excited tonight!
How about you? What did God do for you today?

I was just visiting another blog and I heard the words, "He is jealous for me," from David Crowder Band's How He Loves.  I thought, was a perfect song for Easter. 

No, it's not about Christ's death.

No, it's not about Christ's ressurection.

It is, however, about Christ's love for us. 

Always, but especially during this season, I am overwhelmed by the suffering that Christ experienced on the cross.  I think about the nails (5-7 inche-nails by some accounts) that were driven in his wrists and heel bone.  I think about his mother watching him die.  I think about the crown on thorns on his head.

Have you ever had a splinter?  Imagine a whole bunch of splinters in your hair and on your forehead.  It must have been terribly uncomfortable.  And it must have been almost unbearable when combined with exhaustion and the excruciating pain of the nails.

The vision of the cross is both beautiful and terrible.  What Jesus must have suffered that day...for all of those hours...for all of us.

It's unthinkable.

But back to my first sentence.  I heard, "He is jealous for me," as I was reading another person's blog and I have a thought.

I would be jealous too.

If I created the Universe for someone. 
If I created the sunrise and sunset for someone.
If I created lightening bugs for someone.
If I created the amazing colors of autumn for someone.
If I created the bloom of a rose for someone.
If I created the sound of the beach for someone.
If I created the color of the sky for someone.
If I created the ironic peace in the middle of a thunderstorm for someone.
If I created the smell of the moutains in the fall.
If I created the stillness of the woods for someone.
If I created the sound of childs' laughter for someone.
If I created taste of his favorite dish.
If I created his favorite song.
If I had sacrificed my only Son for somoene. 
If I died on a cross for his salvation.
If arose from the grave for his justification.
If I was there for someone whenever he needed me...no questions asked.

If I had done all these things and he lived as if I had never lived...or died...I would be jealous too.

I would be jealous too.

When I got to work this morning, I re-read my post from last night. I almost deleted it because…well…it was dumb. Sure, I was sad that my friend wasn’t going to work with me anymore. But seriously…was it blog-worthy? There are some pretty important issues in the world and I was being really self-centered.

I had blog-remorse.

If it were a handbag, I would have returned it. (Well, if it were a small handbag I would have returned it. Who am I kidding, I rarely return handbags.)

If it were a shirt that I didn’t like, I would have returned it.

I had the-morning-after regret. But it was out there already. People read it and they knew that I was selfish.

Right before lunch I had a thought. I thought about one line from a song that I couldn’t even remember. This kept running through my head, “…accomplish what concerns me today.” After a quick Google search, I found that it is from Psalms 138:8: The LORD will accomplish what concerns me; Your lovingkindness, O LORD, is everlasting; Do not forsake the works of Your hands (New American Standard).

He will accomplish what concerns me. He actually cares about what concerns me.

I didn’t quite understand the part about forsaking the works of His hands so I read other translations. GOD’S WORD translation says, “Do not let go of what your hands have made.”

I think that tied it all together for me.

When we were created, God gave us all of these emotions. Happiness, sadness and everything in-between. HE gave them to us; HE will accomplish what concerns us; and HE will never forsake us.

So even though I was remorseful of the blog that I thought was silly, I think He showed me otherwise. He created me. He allowed me to feel these emotions. He is concerned about things that concern me. No matter how big or small.

I am so thankful to have a God who meets me at my level. Aren’t you?