Vacuum of Late

I wish I'd posted lots of excellent stuff the past nine days, but I haven't.

During that time I had the great privilege of playing at the Downtown Rescue Mission's graduation service on Tuesday with my son and two amazing friends, Bill Fowler and Nikki Metzger. I spent a chunk of the day today playing in the water with my daughter in 104-degree heat. We played Rook with friends last night, and my team lost and I didn't get angry or frustrated!

In short, I've been doing life and feeling grateful for that privilege.

I'm looking forward to writing down some things that have been gushing from my brain (sounds disgusting but will hopefully be nice). I have a couple of posts in mind -- one that may prove to offend you -- and I'll be giving away a book in the very near future.

Keep your eyes peeled!

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Refocus

Have you ever tried to tell a story but wound up rambling so much that your listener(s) lost interest or you forgot exactly where you were going with it? No? Me neither. (cough! cough!)

Regardless, I'm taking some time to reassess EGBDF's blog content, and that illustration seemed to fit.

From what I can recall, these are the dominant themes that have been featured as I've moved willy-nilly from one topic to another:

• The current state of the Church -- where it is compared to what we see in Scripture
• Real-life stories and situations that tie in to a hodge-podge of spiritual themes (this was the initial thrust of the blog)
• Personal holiness

The funny thing is that the title of the blog, "EGBDF" (an acronym which Wikipedia sums up well: "The notes on the lines of the treble clef and the mnemonic used by some music students to remember it, such as Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge."), is a decidedly musical term. The blog description is "A muscian's perspective on following Christ."

But other than my participation in The Worship Community's Sunday Setlists weekly "worship confessional" when I was on staff working with a church, there hasn't been much of a musical overtone -- pun intended -- to the blog.

When I started blogging, my reason was simple: "I fully expect God to speak to me in some way today, and I'll just take those thoughts and post them so that everybody can benefit from my super-spiritual Godliness." Or something like that. Minus the last half. That reason is still in effect, but the sidetraction along the way has been, well, sidetracking.

So stay with me and stay tuned for a more tightly-focused... er... focus. You're more than welcome to share any of your thoughts along these lines. I'm praying over it now and I'm anxious to find out what happens, myself!

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Post-Tornado Part II

I won't post at length right now; limited time. We're at a laundromat in Pulasi, TN, since we likely won't have power in north Alabama until Tuesday, at best.

My friend Andy Ysalgue and I went to help in a neighborhood that was severely ravaged by the storms. Wanted to post a few photos of that neighborhood. The first one is the house of a family who put up several neighbors in their basement during the storm. The trailer slammed aginst the garage on the left was in the neighbors' driveway before the tornadoes.

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Post-Tornado

We live in a suburb of Huntsville, AL. A you probably know, a tornado ripped through on Wednesday night and devastated several areas. The death toll is climbing slowly, but we've been blessed that although the property damage is extensive around us, loss of life seems to have been less than is could've been. Definitely less than I anticipated.

But the hurt will run deep. Pray with us for people and families who have lost relatives, friends, houses, and businesses. Ask God to continue to move through His people to show us whatever good He will bring out of it. (We're not all always in the loop on knowing the good He brings out of seemingly evil circumstances.)

The people who live in north Alabama are, in my opinion, the best neighbors in the world. Emergency response crews are amazing. Public officials have been forthcoming and communicative. Couldn't ask for more.

Power is out almost everywhere (except in Athens, and Callie and I are at Starbucks as I type this, where there's expensive java and a free wireless network!). As of yesterday, the anticipated restoration of power would be made in 5-7 days.

May God show you how He's working today, and may you have the willingness to join Him!

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Update on the Haiti Mission Team

This is a duplicate post from the Wall Highway in Haiti blog.

This site (WallHaiti.blogspot.com -- not this site) has been seeing a little traffic since beginning to track the number of visitors yesterday. There were 59 visitors yesterday after around 1:00 in the afternoon, and 87 page views, so I know people are interested in a status update. Hopefully one of the team on the ground there will post an update soon. In the meantime, this is general information from a "left-behind" family member.

The team communicated that they landed yesterday afternoon and arrived safely at Mission Of Hope! The hard work will start soon. Please be in continued prayer for the team, both for physical and spiritual strength.

Current weather forecast for Port Au Prince, Haiti (an hour or so away from our team) has the predicted high temperature at 97 degrees this afternoon -- a slight break from yesterday's reported 100+ temperatures. This is the stormy season in Haiti, so cloud cover may be giving some relief this week from the blazing sun.

For a little info on where the team is, here's a photo of Mission Of Hope Haiti's "campus":

(Click the image for a larger view)

This photo was taken from either the living quarters, at the top of a hill overlooking the rest of the campus (that's where the team eats, sleeps, and comes together as a group) or from the food warehouse.

At the upper left of the photo is the church building, where services are held each Sunday. They're open to the community; the mission teams, staff, children from the orphanage (not visible; behind the two story building in this photo), and people from nearby villages are meeting for worship this morning. Haiti is on the same time as the Central time zone, but they don't observe Daylight Saving Time, so wherever the sun is for those of us in the Huntsville area, that's about where it is for the team.

The two-story building in the photo is the school. Children who are able to go to school in Haiti are privileged. There is no government-run school system, and children have to pay for their schooling. As you might imagine, this means that not many are able to go. From Mission Of Hope's site, if you're a Haitian child, "You have a 60% chance of starting school, a 45% chance of making it to the 6th grade and only a 15% chance of graduating from High School."

The building in the center of the photo is the Mission's office space.

Between the office and the school in the photo is the front guard building. There's a large gate that is kept closed and guarded. The entire campus is patrolled and guarded around the clock.

I believe that the building you can see a small part of to the right is the hospital. The Mission is able to provide medical care for those in the community.

Not visible (at least, I don't think it's visible) is the food warehouse. I can't recall the exact number, but the Mission is prepared to provide many, many meals in the event of emergency, and they weekly (daily?) provide meals for many people who are not able to afford it themselves.

Hopefully I haven't misrepresented anything about the mission here. Doing my best to go from memory. Regardless, this should give you some idea of the team's surroundings so you can better imagine where they are and what they're seeing every day.

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yard work uniforms

This is the final story I'll pass along regarding last Saturday's yard work, having posted two others. I'll leave it to you to uncover spiritual applications; I think I'll just tell you what happened. It's not terribly exciting, but it struck me as funny.

It's pretty typical of me to work outdoors without wearing a shirt. This isn't just so people can see my awesome Herculean physique, but primarily because it's comfortable, it enables me to get a slight tan, and it's physically cooler than wearing a shirt.

I'd done all of the string-trimming while wearing only shorts. I was wearing flip-flops when I started, but saw that they were going to be covered in wet shards of grass (making them very difficult to clean) if I left them on, so I took them off soon after I started working.

Behind our house is a rather large field, surrounded by woods. Cows are kept in the field, and on this day the owner of the cattle was driving around the inside edge of the electric fence on a lawn mower, spraying the tall weeds with something out of a large canister. Not sure what was in the canister. Could've been something to kill bugs that annoy cattle. I'm not a rancher so I have no idea.

I was working in my yard, not very far from the fence. Before long the man was slowly driving by, and over the sound of the engine greeted me. I looked up, smiled, and waved. It was then that I paid attention to something I hadn't noticed before. The man, in his 60's, I'd say, was not only wearing a wide-brimmed hat to keep the sun out of his eyes (or off of his face), but he was also wearing long pants, boots, and a long-sleeve button-up shirt, with the sleeves all the way down and buttoned.

As I exchanged pleasamtries with the man while wearing an outfit that was most suited to a pool or the beach, I couldn't help thinking, "I wonder what's going through his head right now. Is he thinking that I'm going to get skin cancer if I don't cover up?" And I chuckled to myself at the stark difference in how we'd each prepared that day to do outdoor work.

Some questions that hit me: Do I think I'm invincible enough for the sun to do no damage to my skin? Was the man allergic to UV rays and would've been less fully-clothed if he had the option? Does the generation gap really pack that many differences? Was he thinking that I was dumb for not protecting myself against potentially harmful sun rays?

There you have it. No parallels, just an insignificant little shory accompanied by some of the thoughts that went through my head. Comments are encouraged.

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public interest post

This is sort of like one of those segments on the local news where they talk about kittens being rescued from certain doom. You know, the things that you'd never know and don't really have much of an impact on you, but they make you feel good.

What you may or may not know is that Huntsville, AL went into a state of chaos today. It was last night, actually. I'm really not sure why. Over the years there've been plenty of days on which I wondered why anyone would open their school or place of business because of the ice all over the road.

And there have been two prominent times in my memory, today being one, where the city essentially shut down based upon weather forecasts from the previous day.

Last night my son's school issued a notice stating that they would not be in session today. Me being the pooh-pooher that I am, I said, "No way," "You're kidding me," or something like that. Accumulation had not started by the time I went to sleep last night (although there was an amazing cloud formation in the south that looked like the Northern Lights, which made me feel like I might have been wrong).

I felt a pronounced sense of triumph this morning when I woke up and saw that the ground was bone-dry.

Anyhow, not much happened today (other than people driving home after their workplaces closed for no justifiable reason), but it was cold, it dusted snow most of the day, and, boy-howdy, most schools have already closed for tomorrow.

For your consumption, Here's what I tweeted (sent via Twitter) earlier today while in a state of personally entertaining cynicism:

Okay, maybe there IS something to this weather. Didn't believe it til I saw the results of my co-workers efforts. http://yfrog.com/4g1nfzj

(So that you won't have to click on the link, I have posted the photo below)

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Update on a Previous Post

After receiving a note about at least one particular point in a post from a couple of days ago, Principles to Live By, I think I need to explicitly state that the post is entirely tongue-in-cheek and isn't meant to be taken seriously. My apologies for any confusion.

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New Link!

A couple of friends have begun blogs for 2009, and I've added one of their sites to the links list; Steve Manning's Netkritter, a blog about technology trends. Already it looks way interesting! Another friend's blog looks to be a little more personal -- family and friends -- so I'll wait on the green light from him before linking.

A little history... Steve is an old friend of mine. I met him and several other now-good-friends playing a nerdy-sounding-but-cool online game called Space Empires (which was purchased by a company called Skotos and developed into a game called Galactic Emperor: Hegemony). My friend Steve G still has his old Space Empires Rogues' Gallery site up! I'm "Laudio" in the list at that link.

Out of the hundreds of people I met in those games, only a handful wound up "sticking" as friends. I could go on and on about how the game gave great insight into a person's personality, butI'll leave it at that. I really value these friendships. Three of the guys are named Steve, and at one point I was awarded honorary Stevehood, for Steve-ish valour in the games. :)

By the way, Steve Manning has a couple of books I recommend (follow the links to Amazon.com). They're about WWII, but even if you're not a war buff, you'll find these very interesting. Perspectives on the contributions of "common" men and women. Good reads!

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New Link -- My Daughter's Blog!

My nine-year-old daughter has been reading my blog occasionally, and last night she decided that she was ready to take the plunge herself. I believe she's been thinking about it for a while. She's pretty deliberate and thoughtful about what she does, and I wish I were more like her in that regard.

Her blog is called Catz are CRAZY! (the URL is catzarecrazy.blogspot.com -- the "z" was intentional) and will be centered around Jesse the Cat (who owns the house in which we live), primarily, with room in the margins for Prissy the Outdoor Cat and probably Hershey the Dog.

Please visit it and leave comments! I don't know if she's expecting comments (we didn't discuss this when setting up the blog), so it would be a very cool bonus for her.

My son (13 years old) has a blog, too, by the way. Video game info and personal reviews. He hasn't posted in a while, but if he decides to continue I'll be posting a link to it, as well.

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Throwing Up

A very wise person once said, "Cleaning your room is like throwing up. It's not any fun to do, but it feels good after you've done it." (This is a quote from my nine-year-old daughter.) I think that it's dead-on, and it's made me aware that there are a lot of things that are perfect for similes with "throwing up."

• Forgiving someone is like throwing up...
• Asking for forgiveness is like throwing up...
• Submitting to someone else for the greater good is like throwing up... (but sometimes we still have that bad taste in our mouths, I'd think)
• Confessing sin is like throwing up...

And some of these things may be what the writer of Proverbs 26 had in mind when he wrote, "As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness." (Proverbs 26:11, NLT) (This is the second post in which I've used that verse, and I'm glad that my daughter afforded me the opportunity to do so.)

I debated on which photo to use for this post -- a dirty room or vomit. Since I was able to use the word or phrase for "vomit" eight times (now nine), I opted for the former. You're welcome.

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What Hit Me?

I got into a fight yesterday and I'm fortunate that the broken glass from my glasses didn't puncture my skin!

Actually, that's not true at all. As I stopped by the church building Sunday morning to grab a few things from the sanctuary to take to our off-campus service, I happened to glance down as I walked across the parking lot. There I spied my glasses laying on the asphalt, a broken and shattered husk of their former selves.

Apparently when I was loading equipment the day before they'd fallen from my dog-chain necklace, which is where I usually hang them. I'd subsequently run over them. Rats!

Then I thought that I could get some cool new unisex glasses like Rob Bell. Then I'd be one step closer to being a great metrosexual worship leader! But then I thought that I didn't need to throw away my money.

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Quick Note

Always be sure to click on the recent comments in the left-hand sidebar. I've noticed that some comments are popping up under some older posts lately (which is a good thing!).

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In Case You Missed It...

Wow, what a blogging week! There are a few posts that you simply must not miss, starting with...

Last Friday: No Longer a Christian Nation?
Technically not a "week-in-review" piece, but a must-read, not just because of the post, but the comments, as well. Interesting! Controversial! Political!!

Monday: Adventures in Yardwork
You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll think, "They allow this guy to have a driver's license?!"

Wednesday: Spelling Bitterness
All about letting go of the bitterness and anger we hang onto, illustrated by two losses of mine at Spelling Bees. Yay -- exciting!

Thursday: Stand Firm or Stand Firm?
As Christ-followers, if we're not willing to have faith, we're told that God is not going to force us to have faith.

Friday: Have a Happy Day
A definite, definite must-read/must-watch! I'm afraid the two embedded videos do a fantastic job of overshadowing the thoughts in the post, but that's okay, because if you're not in a good mood when you start to read the post, you will be when you're done.

Have a fantastic Sunday!

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In Case You Missed It...

It's been a while since I made my last "In Case You Missed It..." post. There's a lot to read from that point up to today, so please read it so I don't have to give a synopsis of every post. There's a handy pop-down menu to the left which will take you back to July 27 (the date of the last "week in review").

This week saw some potentially "hot" topics discussed. That time period has presented situations in which I had to truly understand that these aren't just subjects to blog about or discuss, but to apply to real life.

Have a great day!

NOTE: There seem to be some problems with images at Blogger.com. Hopefully they'll sort themselves out. Could just be my computer. Let me know if you can't see images within the posts on your screen, please.

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In Case You Missed It...

Monday: 5ive O'Clock Shadow
Explains how a scruffy, mangy-looking half beard will prevent the face from receiving sunlight, and relates shaving to putting off the old self and its ways. Just as my face will not shave itself, sinful ways will not simply go away without commitment.

Tuesday: What Makes a Bad Word Bad?
This post asks that question. Why are some words considered to be "bad"? Very good reader comments about the fact that our speech is to be edifying to the body of Christ, and even to "outsiders."

Wednesday: A no-post day.

Thursday: Putting Ourselves Through Trials
Continuing a thought from a much older post, I've noted (after reflection on my life) that sometimes the trials that we consider to be tests of our faith are actually the results of goofy or unwise actions on our parts.

Friday: A no-post day.

Saturday: They're Out to Get Us!
Using Disney as a frame of reference, this one asks if Christ-followers are paranoid or reaslistic in thinking that "the world" is out to get us and to undermine everything we believe in. I loved the comment from Jan Owen -- "I would add that perhaps people are thinking less about us than we might want to believe...... :)" How's that for shattering any possible superiority complex?

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In Case You Missed It...

Monday: Hitting the Deck
In which I talk about the project of this week and last -- a new deck! I'll post a photo when it's completed. Many thanks to the three men who've been helping/

Tuesday: Going Through the Motions, Revisited
This post gives an example of what I mean by "going through the motions," and tells why this can actually be a positive thing. This is different -- far different -- from "playing church."

Wednesday: Take This Job...
When you're in the midst of a thankless job, remember to work as though working for the Lord rather than people. Could be an extension of the previous day's post.

Thursday: Identical Coffee Makers, Different Java

Even though I may have learned some phenomenally enlightening things through the tough situations of my life, I've also learned that sometimes these lessons can't be used as solution templates for someone else's problems. Sometimes it's important just to listen rather than relate how much we know.

Friday: When an Agnostic Follows the Bible...
A really interesting concept, about which a guy named A. J. Jacobs has written a book: "The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible"

Saturday: Apollo the Dog vs. Rocky Lusk
My favorite post of the week. More about perseverance! When I raced Hershey the Dog on Friday afternoon, I thought, "This has got to be blog material." Sure enough, the post essentially wrote itself. A must-read (if you consider anything here to be a must-read).

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In Case You Missed It...

Monday: Is Fame a Bad Thing?
Asks the question... err... "Is fame a bad thing?" and presents the idea that it is not, as long as we're continually allowing God to use us where we are, in every situation, famous or obscure.

Tuesday: Sermonspice
A post that earned me a little credit from Sermonspice.com, and one that asks for opinions on moving backgrounds that are used at many church fellowships these days.

Wednesday: Living as Holy as a Pastor
While pastors and church leaders are called to a different "job" than laypeople, there is no standard that allows for them to be "more holy." "As the people in our church fellowships live out their lives, we ought to see them grow in knowledge, wisdom, love, and boldness as their faith is built larger and larger upon the foundation of Christ, and this transformation should have outwardly visible results."

Thursday: Historical vs. Modern "Worship"
Lifted questions from Mandy Thompson's blog:

• Do we have a right use of our knowledge of historical forms of worship?
• Do we have accurate knowledge of historical forms of Christian worship?
• Do you think a right use of this knowledge could help?
• Are we in bondage to our own culture?

Friday: Going Through the Motions
"Going through the motions -- bad when done for other people, good when obeying God." What about that statement? I've been trying to pick it apart and apply it to different situations (or not). I suppose the heart of the matter lies in what it means to "go through the motions." Will be revisiting this in the coming week. (Happy Independence Day!)

Saturday: a postless day
Spent the day Saturday constructing a deck, which is partially finished and on which I'm sitting as I type this. I'm thankful for friends and family!

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In Case You Missed It...

Monday: The Patriotic "Worship Service"
Musing about how to make sure Christ is honored as we give thanks for the blessings that come with living in the USA

Monday (again): We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us
Oops! Atheism is not "Dean."

Wednesday: Jesus' Business Cards
Jesus had miracles. I use business cards. What would Jesus do? Would we know what He would do in any given situation?

Thursday: Appreciation Into Idolatry
What can we as church leaders do to ensure that we are not placed in a position where we're revered too much?

Friday: Why Twitter is Useful
New-ish technology that can be fun, but it sounds like I'm running it into the ground. 1 Peter 4:11 says, "speak as though God himself were speaking through you."

Saturday: Bless Me, God
It's okay to ask God to bless you. No, really!

Saturday (again): Sidebar Stuff?
Feedback needed... Do you ever pay attention to what's in the sidebar?

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Sidebar Stuff?

Don't miss today's "real" post, which is below this one.

I need a favor. Please, particularly "lurkers" who read but don't comment (which is totally fine!), let me know which sections of the sidebar you actually use or occasionally click on (the sidebar has been moved to the left of the screen in order to accommodate the left-to-right reading sensibilities of the western world). "None of them" is a valid answer.

I personally click on the links in the "Links of Interest" section so I won't have to bookmark the sites (I never use my bookmarks), and I watch the "Recent Comments" area, too.

(UPDATE: I've removed the poll from the sidebar because it wasn't functioning)

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