Author: Adam McLane

I had a very bad experience last night. One which I hope to never repeat.

All was well physically until about 10:30 PM. I was just finishing a video game and a little popcorn snack when I got hit a with a sudden case of the shivers.

This first happened to me about 3 weeks ago as I got a chill that I couldn’t shake off. It wasn’t a big deal and I just thought I had gotten cold in the basement working on the PC. But this time I hadn’t done anything weird at all. I just started shivering like mad.

I laid in bed with the duvet on for quite a while hoping to warm up. I could feel that my body was warm but I literally couldn’t stop shivering. Almost an hour later I finally fell asleep, only to wake up at 12:45 AM. I woke up shivering. I got up, went to the bathroom, instantly felt a little better, and laid back down. About 1:30 I woke up again on fire! I had the covers over my head and I was wearing my socks. So once I shedded them I was able to cool off enough to fall back asleep.

Today, I feel unrested but otherwise OK. I have some muscle soreness in my back and neck. But I think that is mostly from the shivers.

I will readily admit that it really scared me to have this happen. It’s unexplained torture. It’s randomness makes me wonder, “do I have mad cow or something?”

I can’t wait to play golf again. I think that all of this has to do with my lack of physical activity during the off-season. As I stare out the window at the piles of snow I am longing for, for the first time in months, the wonderment of creaming a golf ball. At least if I get the shivers then I can blame it on my bad golf game.

One thing I don’t plan on putting off for 2005 is doing my taxes. Over the last few years I’ve been in the habit of waiting for al ong time to gather everything together and ship off my federal and state forms. More specifically, I habitually turn my state forms in late.

Not this year. I am determined to do my taxes ASAP and (gulp) hopefully get a little return. It seems like each year I get a little back on my federal return and pay a little on my state taxes.

Funny sidenote. We left California in 2003. But I still got another form from CA. It seems they will never get it that we don’t live there anymore. Tax forms. License plate renewal notices. On and on. I even got a Christmas note from the retirement guy at the Horrorville church. I’m pretty sure that they never fulfilled that part of their obligation to me. But I’m not crying about it and I don’t want to trace down those $2000. Forget it!

So far i have contributed $71.64 to the youth missions fund based upon book sales alone. That’s a mere .05% of the total amount needed. My goal for this “little” fundraiser is $400. I’m 17.9% there in less than 1 month.

As all of my work is done for the week, I don’t have much to do. I am grateful for this and look forward to escaping to Kristen’s parents house tonight for a little R&R. My “evil plan” is to take Kristen out to a movie after the kids go to bed!

Other things on the horizon for the family.

Vacation plans: We’ve been talking about this a lot… Probably because I want to go now! For now we have settled that we will be going to the family cottage for 7-10 days this summer instead of renting a house. This will save us boatloads of money… Which is good considering that we don’t have a lot of money. There is some talk about Kristen and the kids going to Las Vegas while I am in Northern Ireland. I like this plan since it means that my beloved will both have something fun to do and someone to help her with the children. But Kristen’s little cheap bird is stopping her by saying, “It’s a lot of money!” nonsense! Our kids need to see their Grammy Doggie!

Mission trips: I am happy that Kristen is able to go to Chicago with us. It will mean oodles to the girls to have “Mrs. Adam” along for the ride. It’s super cool that Kristen’s family is willing to watch our kids for that long. Wow.

Grad school: I had hoped to bring Kristen with me to Huntington this term at least once. I thought it would be both a nice break for her and a chance for me to show off the cool campus. It’s not working out that way. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get this done for the Spring term.

Money crunch: Careful observers will note that I whined A LOT about money last summer. Part of that rant was that I didn’t mind it so much because I knew during the winter months we would be able to catch up. Well, that didn’t happen this year… Yet. So I am a little worried about cash flow this summer. Scary, but true. Perhaps by that time I’ll be playing golf for money on the weekends so money won’t be an issue. It’s not a worry that overwhelms me but more a mental note for myself to be careful!

This is the northern ireland mission team. What a fun bunch! “They’re magically delicious!” 

Here’s is a great moment in American history as GW bush reups for another 4 years. It was also fantastic to see Supreme Court Justice William Renquist do the honors. It’s inevitable that Bush will replace him soon. 

This is the text from my blog entry on the lightforceministries.com website.

Not everyone knows this yes, but I have been selling books online to raise money for the Northern Ireland team.

How does it work? I take a book from my bookshelf or one that someone gave me, and I simply input that I have the book as part of my sellers account with Amazon.com. When a person is looking to by that book new, and icon will pop up below the new price that says, “buy it used” for $x.

If I have the lowest price for the item, then someone will buy it. The money goes into my account immediately, I get an e-mail from Amazon and I take the book to the post office and mail. (The buyer pays for shipping too!)

When I get 2-3 items income deposited to my checking account I write a check and turn it in just like any other donation for the trip. Pretty cool, eh?

So, if you want to help us get to Northern Ireland this summer but you don’t have any cash-o-la but have a pile of unwanted books… put them in my office and I’ll list them! I promise that 100% of the $$$ I get from the booksale go directly to the fund. So far, I’ve deposited $33.33 and this weekend I’ll deposit about $25 more! It’s not much but every little bit helps.

Last night was a rockin’ Light Force. Every once in a while we manage to get it all together and have a solid night. We had at least 34 people…. It’s nice to be in the 30’s again. When the last SP left we sank as far as 18 but have steadily hovered in the 20’s. I don’t want this to be misread that I am a numbers guy and that my whole life depends on “how many” as opposed to “how good.” That’s not me at all, but having a solid number was icing on the cake.

I felt pretty good about my talk for the first time in forever. I just kept it real simple and talked took a spin off on Bruce Wilkinson’s “The 3 Chairs.” I know Kristen wasn’t 100% happy about my positive “different” twist on the cold chair but I imagine that her angst is caused more by her memories of Wilkinson’s sermon than the passage. The passage clearly does not imply negativity to “cold” in Revelation 3.

Jesus said, “I would rather your were hot or cold.” When thinking about a drink a cold drink is awful good on a hot day, but just in start contrast to a hot drink.

Whether or not my wife approved on every nuance, I could tell that students were tuned in. Several prayed with me at the end.

Nonetheless, while I arrived home last night with a lot of enthusiasm it was all sucked out by what Kristen was watching on TV when I came home. It’s sucks to have a great night and want to talk and your beloved is in the middle of watching a documentary on the holocaust. I mean, get real! (Don’t take that to mean we are insensitive about the holocaust… Both of us have studied it tons, I’m merely lamenting about the timing.) I just wanted someone to talk to and she was watching interview with German soldiers. Another case of “he wants vs. She wants.”

All in all, I think this was a good “bounce” Wednesday night as we head down deeper into Revelation.

Every once in a while the topic of Sunday School comes up among the YS brethren. When most youth workers hear the words “Sunday School” they groan. I will readily admit that there are times when I don’t like it, refuse to like it, and wish that we didn’t do it.

I feel like for a lot of us paid staff people, Sunday School is the stereotypical self-fulfilling prophesy. We don’t really like it and in order to prove to the church that it’s something we shouldn’t be doing we don’t try very hard to make the best of it… Then we tell people behind the scenes “Sunday School isn’t very effective.” Shame on we who do this. Sunday School is ineffective because of the attitude we bring to it. We allow it to become and afterthought because we don’t like it. (These are the same trolls who complain about folks who don’t like their precious music. They cry “they’ve pre-judged it and pre-decided that they hate it to destroy it” but yet do the same thing with Sunday School.)

If I were starting over a new paradigm of church I don’t know if I would create Sunday School. But it is something that I chose to do and it’s something that I chose to include in the Light Force vision. I chose to use Sunday School strategically to educate and challenge students towards the goal of their “intentionally modeling a lifestyle full devoted to becoming disciples of Jesus Christ.”

This means that I express my creativity in Sunday School. I work hard in preparing plans and lessons that have impact. I do my best to create a learning environment. I teach relevant topics. (Sunday AM is for application while Wed nite is for Bible teaching.)

I think the difference between me and “the SS whiners” who are so loud on the YS forums is that I have a different attitude. I don’t just say “yeah, I do Sunday School because it’s part of the job.” I say, “I like Sunday School because I can see how God can use it powerfully in students lives and I want it to be a valuable part of my ministry!” I believe that this attitude sets me up for success in Sunday School. My students know that I like to be there, that I am excited about what we are learning, and that I care that they learn what I am teaching. I give it my best.

I think the reality is that this reflects on these folks character. They accept a job knowing that it has a component that they don’t like. Then they allow their personal preference to become a bad attitude. Then they allow their personal preferences laced bad attitude to spread. Pretty soon they figure that since “everyone hates it” that it can’t be valuable. In fact, their sinful attitude has poisoned something that God could have used and they are in need of repenting to their students, their leadership, and most of all to God. When they reject their personal preferences for what God can do… I think they will see tremendous benefit in all that they do.

God deserves our very best. If we have been charged to lead and teach folks in our churches, chose to do it in an attitude reflecting our love and devotion to the Lord and not love and devotion to what we want.

Here is the rest of my Top 50.

26. GRamsey2 8 A solid poster whom I often agree with. Even when I disagree, it is freindly.

27. Dogfish Jones 7 Good poster. Often times has lots of good things to add to a dialogue.

28. iamnettie 3 Rarely agree with. I’m sure a nice person, but I don’t get her personality.

29. memphissound 5 I’m nuetral because I’ve never recall agreeing or disagreeing with this poster.

30. Boltman 9 I like Jerry a lot. He’s so open and obviously humble that you just want to flock to his posts.

31. caritas45 8 Rarely have a lot in common, but I have respect.

32. estall 4 I think perhaps he moves conversations his way too often. I don’t like to feel like I’m being led.

33. bonfireben 7 Usually has nice things to add.

34. antee barrett 4 I don’t know why, but I rarely read the posts.

35. Digger321 6 Pretty neutral. I’ll listen and respond when he posts.

36. angieukfan 2 Seems to be only interested in the fun and gun stuff. She posts in uge spurts!

37. kal 7 I like the posts, would like to see more.

38. uthgeek 6 Like a lot of the moderators, I think this poster lets the role get in the way of what he wants to say.

39. Charlie Tuna 5 Another “spurts” poster. I generally like general discussion posts but miss the rest.

40. tokyoev 4 A former teacher and rarely can see outside of his situation.

41. element26 7 Dave seems to be experienced but not overly cocky.

42. daveleeandrews 7 Same as above. Are these the same people?

43. renewed2day 6 I’ll read the posts. Seems to be a good discussion oriented person.

44. jmclark21 3 I don’t like 99% of what she writes. Seems like a lose cannon.

45. TLK N/A No specific recollection.

46. ytminister4life N/A No specific recollection.

47. rightwinger 6 I like this guy… he’s new but at least he isn’t overtly trying to gain cred. (Well, been around since 03… but just started to post more.)

48. PadreC 4 Not sure why, but I will scan over a lot of his posts. On the contrary, I’ve seen some excellent stuff. Probably moody like me.

49. trdconsult 6 Pretty solid, normal poster.

50. Gracesmom04 2 I think this is Angieku fans new login. A misc. post monster!

As I scan the next 50 on the list, I see a lot of names worth mentioning. But I don’t want to go all out. It is interesting that the number of posts drops off dramatically from 51-100. To make the Top 50 right now you need more than 1200 posts. To make the Top 100 it is only 650. Likewise, to make the Top 10 you need 3000! There is a gap of 7500 hundred posts between #1 and #2!

I am currently at 2762.