About a week ago Kristen put on the Macomb Freecycle that she wanted a small kitchen table. I never thought she would actually get one, but she did!

So after 7 1/2 years of marriage it looks like we may actually be getting to the point where we sit down together as a family and eat together. I guess this means I’ll be getting a new TV for the kitchen! I don’t think my family has sat around the table since I was a toddler. We’ve always eaten all of our meals in front of the TV.

I know it will be good for our family but I will greatly miss my old ways.

Our team has now received about 10% of the total need for our Ireland trip. This equals about $200 per participant. Almost 100% of these funds have come through our local church special offering.

It would be simple to say that this trip is important to me. It’s more than that, it is quite special. It is special because the people of this church, who have long been faithful to supporting long term mission is now investing in short term missions. Studies have shown that people who go on short terms are much more likely to consider full time missions later in life. It seems that this connection has now internalized and the people of Romeo are responding.

I anticipate an overwhelming response in the month of February as students get their letters in the mail and follow up with their potential sponsors. I don’t want to put a number on it, but I hope to see a significant portion of the funding come in during the month of February. I further expect students to be humbled by who is giving. As they send out their thank you notes they will see that it wasn’t just church people who supported them… But also people who love them from their families and neighbors and teachers and even some people whom they barely know.

In this case, it will be an outpouring of love that will humble us all and “give us the mandate” to do a good job. (Thank you President Bush!)

This is a story I am telling as part of my talk tommorow. I think this is the first time I’ve shared it publically. The rest of the talk can be found at the download area of the Light Force homepage.

I’d like to tell you about 50 minutes of my life that has shaped the

rest.

As a sophomore in bible school, I was swimming in all of my

newfound knowledge and frankly overcome with optimism. At the same time I

realized I knew nothing and was completely inexperienced and yet I was confident

that God would use me to change the world.

Towards the end of the

fall term I was looking forward to wrapping up my classes and heading home for

the holidays. I had met the most beautiful girl on campus and fallen madly in

love with the woman who I was pretty sure I would marry.

All of

that changed one fall day in late November. The day was unremarkable in every

day. I had to work after school, I still had homework to do, and I had one last

class of the day. As I trotted into the athletic facility on Moody’s campus I

was looking forward to my indoor soccer class.

The class itself

was highly normal. Two teams engaged in a battle of footwork, skill, and funny

bounces. Our professor, the schools soccer coach, a man whom I greatly admired

in every way, played on the other team to even things out. After about 45

minutes of class, as the game ended and people muddled around, another student

and I decided to ditch out of class a few minutes early to get a jump on the

rest of the day.

Every other class I had ever had in that gym I

left using the door that went straight to the locker room. For an unknown reason

we sailed out of the main doors and into the main foyer.

We were

greeted by a very large man. We didn’t pay any attention to him as he walked in

our direction since we were engaged in conversation about the game. But the man

quickly drew our attention in that he screamed at us “I don’t want any trouble…

get behind the desk!” In the horror of that moment I saw a street person, dirty

and confused and obviously not belonging, and a gun.

In the next

3-4 minutes he quickly gathered about 10 students and employees behind the small

enclosure that was the main desk. People leaving classes, people coming to the

gym to work out, people on their way out of the office were all greeted like me.

“Get behind the desk.”

At first, I thought it was just a drill or

some kind of a joke. But when I took my place behind the counter I could see the

fear on the assistant athletic director’s eyes. This was real.

Joanne, the desk worker who first encountered this man sat on the

floor next to me praying. While she was overcome by fear, I was overcome by the

reality that if she didn’t flip the switch to lock the main doors, there would

be dozens of people behind this desk within 10 minutes or so. As he was off on

the other side of the foyer accosting some more unsuspecting students, Joanne

quickly stood up flip the switch on the desk to lock the doors and grabbed the

phone. She calmly called 911 and left the phone off the hook.

All

told, 34 people ended up behind that counter by the time the first Chicago

police officers arrived on the scene. Among them, about 20 students, a few

employees, the soccer coach, and the assistant athletic

director.

What struck us all was the frantic pace of the man who

had taken us hostage. This wasn’t a calm calculated criminal… he was obviously

distraught. Emotionally and physically he was shaking. When he wasn’t yelling at

us “Don’t move or I’ll kill you” he was talking to himself and pacing back and

forth in the large foyer. It was clear that he was formulating a plan as he went

and it clearer that he was well over his head. Clearly he wasn’t prepared to

have 34 hostages!

When the man became aggravated again, the police

wisely backed off and waited for more help outside. As soon as they were

outside, the man ordered Joanne to call WGN. The first three times she called,

she was hung up on. On the fourth attempt she was put on hold. Not pleased by

this lack of respect he told Joanne to stand up next to him. What he said next

will be etched on my brain the rest of my life. He yelled to the police, “You

get WGN here so I can read this letter then kill everyone!” Joanne fainted when

he said this.

The good news is that he realized that a 20 year old

woman sprawled out the floor wasn’t going to look good, so he immediately told 2

students to get her out of there. They were the first 3 people

released.

Within 15 minutes every news agency in Chicago had set up

a satellite on the campus of Moody Bible Insitute. About the same time we could

all see a large amount of police officers show up.

When they

disobeyed his order and gained entry to the building, he quickly grabbed the

soccer coach and decided he was going to use him as a human shield. Another

minute went by and he decided he needed more human shields; he pointed to me and

the assistant athletic director and motioned for us to stand in front of him as

well.

As I stood up and turned around with my back to this guy… I

realized that this was a big moment in my life. How had I gotten there? How was

I going to change the world if this maniac was going to kill me on WGN? I wasn’t

scared but I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do. This man was about a foot

taller than me. He squeezed himself into a corner behind the corner with me

pulled tightly to his right side, Sean the athletic director was next to me and

Coach Harding was on the left side. Against my kidney was pressed the cold

reality of this guy’s gun.

As I scanned the foyer I saw a surreal

scene. I had seen guns before, but I had never had them pointed at me before. As

I looked out there were about 50 police officers and SWAT team members pointing

pistols, shotguns, and rifles pointed at us. The more the police talked to this

man, the more hostile he got. For the next few minutes I just stood there, half

contemplating my purpose in life and my life story and half trying to figure out

if I should be doing something.

It was at this moment that Coach

Harding decided he would start talking to this man. Unlike the police, he was

responsive to Coach. Coach started talking to him about why he was doing this.

The man just kept saying… “I need to kill some people for what’s been

done.”

I turned my head to look at Coach. I could see that Coach

was trying to look at him and he wasn’t looking back. So I decided to face my

fate and turn around. Sean and Coach followed suit. In retrospect I think it I

decided to do this because I wanted to look at this guy. If he was going to

shoot me it wasn’t going to be in the back.

In my fear I looked

into this mans eyes. The eyes that looked back at me were filled with terror and

anguish. But more than that I could see pain. Seeing his pain lead right into my

training… more than letting me go… I could see that this man needed the Lord

desperately. It all started to make sense in my mind. He hadn’t come here by

accident. He had come here, to a Bible college, to seek God.

In

the next few minutes he and I talked. As he looked at me and listened to my

testimony and gospel presentation Coach talked him into letting more people go.

By the time I came to the end of the Romans Road, he had let go everyone but the

three of us.

I had presented the gospel dozens of times before I

shared with this man. What was strikingly interesting about this time was how

much he listened. I knew he was disturbed, I knew he was probably strung out on

crack, but we were connecting. I could see it in his eyes. As I continued you

could see his body shrink. This had become a private moment between 3 believers

and a man seeking God. And yet the reality was that there were 50 cops ready to

kill him at worst and drag him off to jail at best. He started to weep. My heart

broke for him.

As he let me go and I walked away I actually felt

sorry for him. He had made a life-altering mistake but he was just a boy looking

for God the Father.

Within seconds, it was over. As I walked away

a dozen cops jumped on him.

As chronicled the other day, our family upgraded to a smaller and cheaper to operate inkjet printer the other day. I am happy to report that within 2 hours of putting the old one on freecycle it was in the hands of a new and proud owner.

I am very pleased that it didn’t just sit in the basement awaiting an eventual trip to the dumpster. If someone else can use it, great! It’s a fantastic printer… Just no long met my families need.

Best wishes to the printer in its new life.

Tiger has been down lately. He only won a handful of tournaments in 2004, and frankly the golf world has been humanizing him. For the past 5-6 years when people talked about Tiger they always assumed he was unstoppable on the golf course. The commentators talked him up like he was a golf god… But then he did the unthinkable. He stopped winning.

Long story short, people were reminded the other day just how amazing Tiger can be. While shooting the latest Nike commercial he was supposed to fire a ball close to a camera… Apparently to show a ball flying close by, maybe as a swoosh moment. He reports, “The director told me to fired he ball 4 inches about the camera. And the first time I missed, it went about 10 feet above it.” Keep in mind, he’s trying to hit a screaming runner of a shot with a high iron and the lens is about 100 yards away. For most of us, this would mean that the director and his crew would be there all day just waiting for a lucky shot. Well, not with Tiger. On his second shot, Tiger blasted it right into the cameras lens… Exactly what he was aiming for.

As a mere mortal, I do try shots like this. Sure, I’m not trying to get the ball to fit threw a 4 inch window 100 yards down range… But I’m pretty good about punching the ball through wider windows closer to me. (I’m reminded of a shot I hit in the year-ending scramble with the golf team when I snuck the ball through a 4 foot window 40 feet ahead of me and landed the ball just off the right green 215 yards away… It was a 1 in 20 shot though and I knew it!) Tiger seemed to think this was a cool feat, but not anything special.

He closed his post shot remarks with, “I hope insurance will cover the lens.” It seems that his new bride must already have a handle on his purse strings! He’ll clear more than $20 million this year and he wants to make a claim on a $10,000 lens? Newlyweds!

this is a great help that a fellow pastor down in Alabama hooked me up with for this weeks talk! Thank you Michael!

I am do the talk this Sunday morning for church. Though this won’t be my title, it is the underlying theme for male listeners.

Every since I was asked to do this Sunday I have wanted to talk on 1 Corinthians 12: 12-26

12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by[a] one Spirit into one body?whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free?and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 If the foot should say, ?Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,? it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, ?Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,? it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, ?I don’t need you!? And the head cannot say to the feet, ?I don’t need you!? 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpreserved are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Obviously, it’s not palatable to just get up, read this passage and sit down. So I’ve got a lot else I will be sharing to draw this out. In order to really get the listeners to “see” what Paul is talking about I will be littering the stage with spare car parts. I want to communicate strongly, especially to our men, that we each have a role to play. For some, this is a big role but for most of us [including me] we are really just a faithful part of the car… Like the airbag or turn signal. Not very cool parts… But very useful!

You can see it is an illustration that really preached well! I can’t wait.

We bought a new printer for the home office today. It’s nothing fancy, in actuality I think it was the cheapest printer that they had.

But, I do like our new Cannon Pixma iP1500. It’s simple, fast, prints nice, and the ink is super cheap compared to our last one.

The reality is that this was a purchase that Kristen will mostly benefit. In the last year the only thing I remember printing is the family taxes. Presumably, it will be the same for this year.

One thing worth remarking about for this printer is it’s weight. Our old Epson 900 was pretty sturdy and heavy. It took up all of the top of my filing cabinet. This new printer weighs about 1/3 of the old one and is much smaller. So far it’s got 2 thumbs up from PA.

After hearing all day that we should cancel meeting last night because of warm weather and fog, we ended up having one of our better night.

I was exceedingly happy that I was able to delegate most of the night except for the things I want to focus on. (Communicating the announcements and the talk.)

Speaking of the talk. I am now hosting these at the Light Force website, in .pdf format. (PA Talks) I won’t be posting the script here anymore. If you would like to receive it as a word.doc please just contact me by leaving a comment including your e-mail address.

I am pleased to share what I write… But I don’t think there is a lot of wisdom in giving it away without knowing who is receiving it at all. Anyone is free to access the document, but you would have to work to cut and paste it. (I’ll post that link in the sibebar another day.)

This could lead to a rant building up inside of me about pastors who don’t write their own stuff for their own people…. But I’ll save it for later.

I got a note from my grad school professor late last night.

I am finally over the flu, the worst case and the longest lasting I have ever had. Since it unfortunately struck during our first class session, I need to find a time when most of you can meet for a make up day. I am willing to meet only one day, rather than two, in order to make it easier for everyone. However, I don’t want anyone to feel cheated by not meeting the entire two days. Let me know if only one day is a problem for any of you. It will be difficult to schedule a one or two day session any Thursday or Friday this semester, due to conflicts with other classes many of you will be taking.

Even though I knew this was inevitable, it does put a dagger in some of my plans for February. I was actually thinking of taking some students to a local service retreat here in the area… But it looks like those plans will be poo-pooed by a make up date. We will see.