We finally have a name for what our little Paulie does. When he is pinching everyone, getting on his sisters nerves, disagreeable to his dad, and says "Go away from me" to the world Paul is suffering from PNS. (Pre-Nap Syndrome)
Today I am suffering from NNS. (No-Nap Syndrome) It barely seems like a Sunday at all if I can’t catch a couple Z’s in the afternoon. Oh well.
With cool temperatures rising in Romeo and excuses fading away, we began our fall clean-up today. I popped several tylenol before doing this… Wow, my back is sore from all the painting at church this week. But I had to get to work nonetheless. I hope I can sleep better tonight.
Today, I climbed the nasty tree in our side yard and sawed off some limbs. The largest one, about 8-9 inches thick, scared the tar out of me as fell. There were a few things I thought may happen… most of which would result in my death… but nothing bad happened. It did make quite a SNAP as it fell to the ground though which brought Kristen running to the window.
Next big project, getting a few more coats of mud on the kitchen walls.
p.s. Man, it was cold today. What’s up with that?
We called it college.
This is the title of an article in the September/October issue of Relevant Magazine. (Yes, I think it’s the best Christian mag out there… hands down.) It’s contains one of two paragraphs that has kept me thinking this week.
Some of the worst decisions I ever made came during a night of binging. There are men I can’t remember, faces I’d just as soon forget. Friends I fought with, floors I fell on and bathrooms that became my bed. It’s pretty amazing what sorts of things we will tolerate when we are drunk. Porcelain gods and beer goggles are pretty expensive in the economy of life. (p. 49)
First off, it’s a really well written article. I really like the sentence I’ve underlined. Not only is it true, it’s a well constructed and imaginative thought.
But this article has me thinking because there is a present reality that we like to pretend doesn’t exist. There are students in my lives, college and high school, (dare I say middle school?) who I wonder if they are getting hurt in the world of binge drinking? It’s not hard to get into… and yet it comes with massive ramifications. I just wonder… do I care enough? Am I creating a place in Light Force where students who have gone there and done that can find forgiveness and chose a better way in the future?
It may come as a suprise that most of my work week has not been very ministry focused. In fact, I think 90% of my time this week has been spent painting the foyer. While that may sound weird, and I know plenty of friends in ministry who would never jump on board with such a project, here are some reasons I’ve thought of while staring at the ceiling.
Just a quick note to say "I’m sorry" for commenters having to go through an extra step. I was getting a few too many comments from people who wouldn’t identify themselves. (Which, through the power of IP tracking… it’s not that hard to find out who people are… ) So, from now on it’s either tell the site who you are or just can’t comment. It’s a little slower, so if you don’t see your comment post… I did get it. I just need to approve it first.
For the record, I’m pretty low on the curve on this one. Most of my friends blogs have required extra verification for a long time.
Thanks for visiting! If you’ve never done it… check out my "Rules for Blogging"
Well, he’s gone. The party ended about 5:00 PM as we left Dave at the security check point. The whole way there and even seeing him start to say goodbye to a lot of people didn’t make it set in… but at the airport it started to hit us. As we said our final goodbyes and he got in line, reality hit our little group hard.
As we sadly and silently worked our way back to the van I held Megan’s hand tightly. Whereas she had been playing and singing only a few minutes before, she walked quietly and hugged my leg as I paid for the parking. The silence continued as we left the parking lot and headed onto the highway.
It was superficial, but I decided that we needed to break the mood a little. So we stopped at Ikea on the way home to try to chear everyone up. It worked a little and superficially.
What an incredible experience for Dave and our little church! As we talked earlier in the day it was clear we would give him an "A" for his internship. He worked very hard. He was stretched in a lot of areas in his life. He stretched us. On and on and on. It was a great experience. Perhaps this was some of the reason we were having such a hard time leaving him? At some point along the way he stopped being an intern and starting being part of our church. Likewise, he had stopped being a guest in our home and had become a part of the family.
Something else really hard to watch: I can’t tell a lie. Some of the pain of dropping off Dave had nothing to do with him. As he made his way through the security checkpoint (Big mistake making him take off his shoes… Nacho cheese!) there was a young soldier on his way back somewhere. Proudly wearing his uniform, this massive young man was having a very hard time leaving. He carried his 2 week old baby around and couldn’t bear letting her go. As he tried to say goodbye he started weeping. (This greatly accelerated the tears in the concourse as well! We didn’t even know the guy.) He took his baby girl into the security checkpoint with him, the tears flowing freely as the reality of leaving his wife and newborn daughter behind. He simply didn’t want to give her back. The reality of life was calling him and he couldn’t bear it. For me, it was a huge reminder of the daily sacrifices young men like him make on a daily basis. Likewise, all over this country thousands of young moms take care of babies wondering when or if daddy will be home. While I am excited of the work our troops are doing in the Middle East, it isn’t free.
We’re not 100% final here… but this is a sneak peak at what our new KidsTown logo will look like. There are a couple of things that really stick out to me as "huge" for the KidsTown logo… but I’ll keep them to myself for now.
We’re hoping to have the graphics in hand and t-shirts ordered in the next several days.
Ever read something that just leaves you in shock? I just read this and could not believe the intense racism that exists in some places. Perhaps my eyes are not open wide enough, but I’ve never experienced anything quite like this. It is a travesty.
Two excepts from the news article (Source)
The Rev. John Stevens says Fellowship
Baptist Church in Saltillo voted not to approve blacks as members
during a scheduled Sunday night business meeting Aug. 6. Because of the
decision, Stevens stepped down from the Baptist Missionary Alliance
congregation that has an average Sunday morning attendance of 30 people.According
to Stevens, the church made race an issue after a biracial 12-year-old
boy, Joe, began attending Fellowship Baptist with his temporary
guardians.The church was "afraid Joe might come with his
people and have blacks in the church," Stevens said. "I could not go
along with that. There would always be a wall between us, so I resigned
that night."
Insert my jaw dropping face. I couldn’t believe this and I applaud John for walking away from that place. Words cannot express accurately what I’m thinking.
After being told of the vote, Cliff Hardy,
an officer with the Tupelo Police Department, left the church. He and
his family had been going to Fellowship Baptist for about a year and
had been praying about becoming members there."I was asking the Lord to lead us," Hardy said.
The police officer says there are good people at Fellowship Baptist, and the Bible was preached there.
However,
"You see, my best friend is a black man," he said. "I wouldn’t be
comfortable going to a place where I couldn’t ask my best friend to go
to church with me."
I don’t believe in leaving churches over flippant reasoning. But this is a valid reason to go. I pray I am never at a place in my life where people exclude others from fellowship in the body over clearly non-biblical standards. Absolutely sickening. It’s my hope that I am doing the opposite in my life… widening room at the table for people of all backgrounds for a seat at the table with Christ. I hope we are united in our differences by the shed blood of Jesus.
If this is true, how could anyone justify staying there? Where in the Bible are people getting this idea that we should not allow people of different races to worship together?
This morning I watched a commerical on FoxNews that was called, "The Other Iraq: Thank You" Essentially, it is the Kurdistan Development Corporation broadcasting to the world, "We’re done with this war, we’re ready for business, but before we do that… we want people to know we are thankful."
This is cool on a few fronts:
– The Kurds are alive and well. In fact, I’d say that this is a sign that they are ready to thrive in the new Iraq.
– The Kurds are ready to become independent, at least economically. I think it’s unrealistic to think that people will be going to Iraq for tourism any time soon, but it’s not unreasonable to see American companies begin to invest there.
– The leftist press has the wrong story on TV. Clearly, there are great things happening in Iraq but the press only likes to cover the negatives. It’s a political year… obviously there are people who want to see their team win in November.
For lack of a better place to keep my draft picks… here they are.
More as the rounds go on.