Faith in 3D

I just spent the past few days at the Faith in 3D youth conference in Orlando, FL. It was a collaborative effort between the Presbyterian Church USA, The Episcopal Church, and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Yeah, there's a joke in there somewhere. It was a good conference, and I was able to explore Disney World a bit. Here are some the thoughts I'm having now that I'm home:

• I'm really thankful for friends I see every few years, but who seem to know me just a well (or maybe even better) than the people I see all the time.
• I used to really hate the last day of a conference because of all the goodbyes. I was worried I wouldn't ever get to see my favorite people again. Now, it's not as if I love the goodbyes, but I've come to realize that it isn't really goodbye so much as it's see you later. I hadn't seen my good friend and mentor Keith Harris for a couple of years, but our goodbye didn't need to be teary or emotional or any of that. It could simply be an acknowledgment of mutual affection and a knowing look of "hope to see you sooner than later."
• This was the second time this month I heard Tony Campolo speak. He makes a strong case for living a life of discipleship that's based in action. I've spent the past month wondering how it is I'm supposed to be taking a stand and affecting change in the world. Hearing him again this weekend reminded me that I need to get off my duff. I have now given myself the arbitrary deadline of February 1st to choose a cause or organization to give more time to.
• I'm totally psyched about tomorrow, when Barack Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States. I'm excited about the message of hope and service to one's fellow human beings that he represents. I'll be watching all the festivities with eager anticipation.
  

Go Tell it on the Mountain

Random thoughts for the week:

• I'm sitting here with my window open and wearing short sleeves. It was in the 70's most of the day today. I'll take that for December 19th. If it's this nice tomorrow, I'm totally going to play golf.
• I'm in the midst of reading Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement by John Lewis. That dude was staging sit-ins and riding buses into the segregated south when he was in college. He ended up in jail on numerous occasions. Sometimes I wonder what the heck am I doing with my life. I've never been to jail for something like that...or ever for that matter.
• On Wednesday, our church had a program called Angel Vespers, which is basically an impromptu Christmas pageant. It's a bit like herding cats in that I, as the director, ask for volunteers from the children, youth, and adults who are present. One never knows who will volunteer and for what. I had a pre-schooler who was pretty determined to have a reading part. I was able to keep him happy by setting him up as an angel for awhile, but eventually, he got his hand on a script and a live microphone. The program was winding down, so I figured, "What the heck. What can happen?" Well, he proceeded to use that microphone to broadcast his voice throughout the hall on each chorus of Go Tell it on the Mountain, which he knew from the preschool Christmas program earlier in the day. As his older sister would get close and attempt to take the microphone away, little Jay gave her the old stiff arm and held strong. It was absolutely hilarious. When we were done singing, he said something like, "Our first lesson today will be from consription chapter 222 verse 17" and then launched into a sermon of sorts before the people running the sound board killed the mic. I kind of wonder what kind of inspired word he might have offered. :)
  
• Last Saturday I went to a local brewery for a tour and samples of the fine product...with my church choir. I love my church.
• 

My Wednesday morning

So, usually on Wednesday mornings I sit in my chair (the one that sweet Mary Smith gave me when I first moved here) with my laptop in my lap catching up on e-mails and facebook. Sometimes I'll read or do some curriculum development or some other work stuff I can do from my chair. On winter days, I'm always thankful for the heat of the laptop on my legs as I sit there.

Well, today I exchanged the laptop for a baby. My friends asked me to watch their precious little boy while they checked out a potential school for their almost 3-year-old daughter. After a little but of eye-ing one another, little baby boy got ahold of his pacifier and drifted off to sleep. I still did some reading, but took plenty of moments to simply watch the little guy. So, on this Wednesday, here's what I had to look at instead of e-mails or facebook.
Yeah, that's way better than a laptop. :)

On the road again...

Yesterday, I made the 7-hour trek from Columbia, MO back to Franklin, TN. About halfway home, after finishing up A Thousand Splended Suns on CD, memorizing my sermon text for Sunday, and talking through the sermon, I decided to fire up the ipod and listen to some albums straight through, without the shuffle feature. I mean, how often do we do that anymore with ipods? Here are some of the "albums" I listened to, the people they made me think of and the memories they reminded me of:

James Taylor Greatest Hits: Annual trips to Montreat in that First Presbyterian Church 15 passenger van, John Weicher-he loves James Taylor, driving around town in Columbia, MO as a high school student with this tape playing loudly in my car. While this CD brought back many happy memories of friends and travels and love being showered on me, it also caused a certain yearning in my heart...a yearning for that friend I can call and a yearning to escape to the peaceful mountains of North Carolina. This is one of those CDs I can truly listen to from start to finish and enjoy every moment.

Caedmon's Call/Caedmon's Call: This CD makes me think of seminary, as I listened to it a good bit my first couple of years at Columbia. Anna and I listened to it on our way back to Atlanta after Christmas break that first year. I particularly appreciate Cademon's Call ability to find beauty and meaning in everyday things, like cups of coffee and bus drivers.

Long Island Shores/Mindy Smith: The sweet girl who gave me this CD was on my mind the entire time I was listening to it last night. Those opening notes always take me back to that parking lot where that sweet girl handed me the CD, and our eyes met for a brief moment, and I knew we were headed into "more than two people who hang out sometimes" territory. I was struck by how poignant the first song was...how that sweet girl eventually expressed those sentiments to me as she expressed her own need to change a few things. Such beautiful music, but tinged with sadness.

Red Light, Blue Light/Harry Connick Jr.: Ryan Brown, Molly Nahm, Renee Wenger, and Colleen Reid. These were the people I hung out with most of my freshman year of college when I listened to this CD almost daily. For some reason, it also made me think of a fun snowy day of sledding in St. Louis when I visited some of those college friends over Christmas break. Ryan was there with his brothers, as were Molly and Colleen. It's a cherished memory for me. I remember sitting in my parents' basement during Christmas break that year and listening to this CD while thinking about all of my new friends.

While I do love setting up playlists or simly allowing the shuffle feature to run rampant on my ipod, there's something great about simply allowing an album to play in its entirety...in the order in which its creators meant for it to be listened. I enjoyed the trip through memory lane for that chunk of highway between CoMo and Franktown.

Marathon Accomplished

Well, folks, I can now officially put "Marathoner" in my list of adjectives to describe myself. That's right, on Sunday, November 16th, 2008, I ran 26.2 miles in an official marathon race. Here's a rundown of the day:

Pre-race:

• Awoke early to eat breakfast and drink water and gatorade.
• Got in the car to make the trek to downtown San Antonio.
• Found myself in heavy traffic on my way to the shuttle site.
• 40 degrees outside when I got out of my car
  
• Got on the shuttle bus at 7:40
• Race time was 7:30.
• Arrived at the start village around 8:00
• Jumped in with corral 16 to begin race around 8:15
• My corral was supposed to be 6

Marathon:

• For the first 6 miles, I found myself in the midst of people running a much slower pace than I was hoping to run
• Mile 8: the crowd thinned out a bit and I was able to find a stride I liked
• Mile 11: The half marathoner's peeled off. I was feeling good
• Mile 13.1: Crossed the marker at 2 hours 1 minute, only a couple of minutes off the pace I wanted to run and had been training for
• Mile 16: Begin to feel tired in the legs...a half mile after passing up free goo packets.
• Mile 18: OH MY GOSH!! Why won't my legs keep moving? Am I overheated or chilly? Beginning to lose more time as my pace lessens.
• Mile 19: Use the goo packet I have in my pocket. Drink plenty of water with it. Feel good for about a mile.
• Right before mile 20: Took a break to, um, powder my nose. :)
• Right after mile 20: Is it getting dark out here? Does anybody else feel really chilly? I sat down and then laid down on the cool, shaded sidewalk to allow the "I'm gonna pass out" feeling to subside
• Miles 21-25: A great mixture of running and walking. I couldn't ever quite get back to a comfortable pace.
• Mile 25-26: I decided to kick it into gear and run the rest of the way, however slow that running might be. As I came into the final stretch, I cued up the music from the battle scene in The Gladiator.
• Mile 26-26.2: No lie, the final .2 miles were a steep hill the finish line. I mean, seriously? :) At that point I was cruising along to the music from Gladiator, hearing the crowd cheer, and holding back the weeping that I was doing as I thought about accomplishing the marathon.
• Finish Line: As I crossed the final checkpoint and finish line, I put my arms in the air and thanked God for seeing me through.

Final time (according to my Garmin Forerunner that auto paused during the time on my back): 4:54:05.

Official Time (according the chip strip on my foot): 5:04:41

Yes, for all you math whizzes out there, it took me almost 3 hours to finish the second half of the marathon as opposed to the 2 hours it took me to finish the first half. Kind of a bummer, but, as one person said, at least I didn't end up with a gash in my face because I kept running to the point of passing out.

Around mile 22, I was cursing myself for attempting such a feat, but as I came up on mile 24, I realized that I was going to finish, and that while it didn't go exactly as I had planned, I was still going to attain the status of marathoner.

Will I ever run another one? At mile 22, I would have said, "HELL NO! NOT IF YOU PAID ME!" Now, after a couple of days of recovery and reflection, I think I might. Not anytime soon, mind you, but maybe in a couple of years. My goal would be to do it with more success.

For now, I'm just recovering and drinking plenty of water.

Thank you to everyone who prayed for me, texted me, called me, e-mailed me, facebooked me, and generally sent well wishes my way.

ATT's plan change policy sucks

So, about a year ago, I added more monthly minutes to my cell phone plan. I was using somewhere in between the 450 minutes plan and the 900 minutes plan, but was tired of paying those "nasty overages." Well, in the course of the year, I've accumulated about 4,000 roll over minutes. I looked at some recent bills, did some basic math and decided that I could drop back to the 450 minutes plan and live off roll over minutes for at least year, maybe more. Ah, but when I went to push that Select Plan button for 450 minutes a month, this message appeared:

NOTE: By requesting a new rate plan with rollover, your accumulated Rollover Minutes in excess of the new plan's number of monthly anytime minutes will expire at the beginning of your next bill cycle.
Example: If you currently have 1,000 Rollover Minutes and you change to the Nation 900 with Rollover plan, you can only carry over 900 of your Rollover Minutes to your new rate plan.
Do you want to continue with your rate plan change?

What a crock!!! I mean, seriously? Doesn't that fly in the face of flexibility and all that noise? I certainly plan to call AT&T tomorrow and see if I can't get a managerial type to make an exception or at least explain the reasoning. Oh, I get it that they don't want people like me racking up a bunch of rollover minutes and then spending time whittling them down on a cheaper plan, but I think that's lame. I could always threaten to leave, but who am I kidding? I want an iphone. :)

For now, I'm using my readership of 10 people to complain about a business doing its best to make money...oh wait, that's what they're supposed to do.

It's official...

Yes, folks, I have entered the world of being a slum lord. OK, so my place isn't really a slum, and I don't wear polyester pants, sport an unruly mustache, or anything like that. But, I do now have a roommate. After taking a look at the finances so far in 2008, I realized I was leaking money onto the credit card each month at a less than desirable rate. I placed an ad on Craigslist and found a cool guy who was looking for a room. He moved in yesterday, Wednesday. When I got home last night, I walked into the wonderful smell of bacon. "I eat a lot of bacon sandwiches," he said as I walked upstairs to greet him. When I opened the fridge this morning, I noticed that the only thing he added to the mix was beer. I think this is gonna work out quite nicely. :)

It's also official that BARACK OBAMA has been elected President of the United States of America. I'm really psyched. I came home on Tuesday evening and watched all of the coverage. I felt like both John McCain's concession speech and Barack Obama's acceptance speech were well written and well articulated. I particularly like the part where Obama called on people to join in conversation with him, particularly those with whom he disagrees. What a shift in Presidential demeanor. Awesome! I woke up Wednesday morning chanting O-BA-MA, O-BA-MA, O-BA-MA.

All of that being said, I hope that we followers of Jesus Christ remember that ultimately, our faith, hope, and trust are placed in God's redemption of the world, and not in the policies of any politician. I refuse to acknowledge as legitimate some of the messiah rhetoric surrounding Obama. I do think he will be a President who calls on us to come together and to care for some of the least of these, but, in the end, we people of faith are called to be lights to the world and should continue to show compassion and fight for justice, and never abdicate the call of discipleship to any government. Just to be clear: Barack Obama will not bring about a new heaven and a new earth or usher in the kingdom of God on earth. God will do that in God's time.

Wish I were a song writer

Among all of the stuff I've been doing lately, last week I stood in line for 40 minutes to cast my vote for Barack Obama. No matter how many times I go to vote, I still get a rush from stepping behind the screen and seeing the ballot. While my anxiety has gone down with the use of electronic ballots (no chance of punching the wrong hole and having to ask for a new ballot), I still have a moment of fear/anxiety/something when I hit the CAST YOUR VOTE button. What if I accidently voted for some random person? Anyway, I was glad to cast my vote and hope that everybody else gets out there to make their voice heard.

Yesterday, Sunday, I wished I were someone who wrote music that would inspire others.

10:30 worship service at Harpeth: On the first Sunday of each month, our congregation usually celebrates the Lord's Supper, and as a part of that ritual, we sing the classic vocal arrangement of The Lord's Prayer. This is always a meaningful experience for me, but yesterday I was transported to another place. You see, instead of communion, we had a candle lighting ritual to celebrate All Saint's Day. People were invited to come and light a candle in memory of someone who showed them what it means to be a person of faith. At that service I lit a candle in memory of Duke Walthall, an elderly man in my congregation back home who took an interest in me as a young boy. For some reason, I was drawn to this man, and he always took time to talk to me, listen to me, and encourage me in matters of faith and life in general. He was a retired pastor and was one of those people who, as the old children's sermon story goes, "the light shines through." As we were singing The Lord's Prayer, I watched the dance of the hundred or so lit candles on the table, and meditated on the generations of folks who had been saying those words through the centuries. As the voices of the congregation swelled to sing the final For thine is the kingdom, and the power and glory forever I could swear those little flames swelled as well, reaching as high as they could to offer praise to God. Maybe it was just the rush of oxygen as people sang louder in that direction, but I don't think so. I felt as if the Spirit was present, drawing praise even from those candles, just as the Spirit had drawn praise from the people those flames represented. It was a moment when I was acutely aware of the power of music to transform words into something more...that our souls were indeed praying not only the words, but also the melody to God. As I walked down the aisle toward the back door where I would greet people on their way out into "the real world," I wished I were someone who was able to compose music that inspired people to worship in grace and truth.

Various and sundry thoughts

It seems messed up that I was totally psyched to see that Regular Unleaded only cost $3.35 at my local Mapco this morning. That is messed up, right?

I ran 18 miles on Saturday. The last four were arduous. I'm not sure that sub-four hour time is completely realistic anymore. I'm still out there pounding the pavement, though, and will definitely be in San Antonio running with 30,000 of my best friends on November 16th.

I seriously don't know how you 12-hour work day Monday-Friday folks do it. I had two 12-hour days in a row and I could barely get out of bed this morning. Let alone all of you parents who work for money all day and then come home to care for kids until bedtime. Much respect to folks who do that.

I went over to the Gentry residence last night (wasn't exactly sure how to make Gentry plural and include the apostrophe there) to watch some Monday Night Football, drink a beer, and munch on chips and wings. That is one cool family. Their kids are totally psyched about church. I taught our children a few energizers on Wednesday afternoon last week and these two were talking about how they'd been doing them at school. I'm very thankful for that family. Their enthusiasm for church and diving into matters of faith on a daily basis inspires me and affirms my sense of call to ministry.

Marathon Training: October 7th, 2008

Lest all you Renderings fans think I've fallen off the wagon, I have been training. Two Thursdays ago I actually put in a 16 mile run. The run itself felt great. The two hours following...not so much. As I watched McCain and Obama debate, I laid on the couch shivering and feeling the effects of over exertion. I think the mass amounts of Gatorade I chugged when I got home didn't help either. :)

Last week, I was supposed to put in a 12 mile run, but due to an outside temperature of 47 degrees when I woke up, I postponed a bit and only had time for 10.5.

This week, at some point (probably Friday), I'll be running 18 miles. Yes, I'll run for almost three hours. It's kind of crazy to think about, but when I'm in the midst of those long runs, it just becomes a game of one foot in front of the other.

While on my 10.5 mile run last week. I saw this sign in a yard:

Yeah, I've been thinking about taking a big poster of a United States flag, putting a big black X through it on one side and writing the same message on the other. That might have something to do with the fact that I heard Shane Claiborne speak last week, and thus was fired up about the idolatry of the US. Anyway, it's probably a big assumption to make that the people who posted this sign place a lot of faith in the USA and the military and the flag and all of those other idols, but I went ahead and made the assumption anyway. Yes, I might be making and ass out of u & me, but I don't really care. I do wonder what people who posted this sign have to say about the war, about the security state, about fear mongering, or any of the other tactics of Karl Rove and his cronies. Maybe I should stop in next time and ask.

Wet sloppy kisses between heaven and earth

A couple of times over the past month, I've gone to a worship experience in Brentwood that's specifically geared toward young adults (and implicitly single young adults) called The Loop. It's one of those non-denominational communities of faith that's seeking to be "different," yet follows the typical pattern of 30 minutes of singing followed by 30-40 minutes of a "talk" and another 10 minutes of singing. Of the two talks I've heard, one was iffy and the other (the one i heard last night) was fairly decent, but still not as rooted in the actual, oh, Bible, as I would prefer.

Anyway, the title of this blog post refers to lyrics from the song we sang after the talk last night. There was actually a line that read: Heaven and earth exhange a wet and sloppy kiss.
Seriously.
That was the lyric.
Wet sloppy kisses between heaven and earth.
I'm not kidding.
I mean, I'm used to the requisite "Jesus is my boyfriend" lyrics, but wet sloppy kisses? Thankfully, as I conversed with some folks afterward, I found out that I wasn't the only one who kind of looked around and wondered if I'd actually just seen those lyrics on the screen.

Much peace on this beautiful day in Nashville.

Marathon Training: September 28th, 2008

If you had been driving along the rolling hills of Franklin, TN today between 9:30 and noon (as Lee King was doing), you would have seen me pounding the pavement. Yes, today I officially ran farther than I have ever run before. I logged 15 miles on the (mostly) backroads of Franklin. I only had one hiccup around mile 11, when I had that "I have the chills in the heat of the day" feeling. After a couple of minutes of walking and slurping water from my trusty camelbak, I was back on running pace and finished the last four miles with relative vigor. With the exception of a few crazy hills, my pacing was much better this week. I still miss my metronome training partner, but all in all I feel better about my ability to dictate pace.

It's amazing how exhausted I feel right after these long runs. I basically slump down on the floor in my living room, do my requisite stretching, and then zone out to whatever is on TV at the time. Today it was Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. By the way, why don't they play those in order in syndication? I watched Louise get up to $50,000 and then when it came back on I was watching some music teacher pick up at $4,000. I was so not invested in her the way I was with Louise. :)

During lunch, I watched the episode of Arrested Development when Michael and George Michael burn down the Bluth family banana stand. Brilliant. I absolutely love that show. There are so many little, quirky, funny things to catch. If you've never watched it, I suggest you buy (don't netflix...you'll want them) the first season on DVD and dive right in.

Marathon Training: September 11th, 2008

Today, I ran 10 miles. It's what you call a taper week. As far as I can tell, the marathon training schedule is kind of whack, but Hal Higdon has yet to steer me wrong, so I'm following directions. I did four miles on Belle Meade Blvd. and then tackled the 5.8 hilly, ridiculously difficult miles in Percy Warner Park. It was a tale of two paces. On the relative flatlands of Belle Meade Blvd I was under 9 minute pace. In the hills of Percy Warner I was over 10. Yeah, I need some consistency. In the past, I've run Percy Warner with someone who has a brilliant internal pace clock that keeps me on track. Not so much today. So, I didn't exactly bonk, but I could definitely stand to do more hills during the week.

On a totally unrelated note, I want to give a big shout out to my friends Laura and Joel Becker (and children) who hosted me for a beer on their front porch last night. They're good people. I love people like that who I don't see for a year, yet I'm able to then just jump right back into great conversation. I've actually known Laura since high school, when we both served on a national youth ministry committee. That kind of ongoing connectionalism is why I'm excited about the PC(USA) this week.

All Creatures indeed

On Tuesday evenings, I attend the Presbyterian Student Fellowship worship at Vanderbilt. I currently serve on the campus ministry board, and figure I have more time and energy than money to donate to college students. As a pastor, Sunday mornings aren't always the most worshipful time, so I value the opportunity to simply go and be a member of the congregation.

Last night, for one of our opening songs, we sang a contemporary guitar-ey All Creatures of Our God and King. As best as I can recall, here are the lyrics we sang:

All creatures of our God and King
Lift up your voice and with us sing
O praise him, alleluia
Thou burning sun with golden beam
Thou silver moon with softer gleam
O praise Him, O praise Him
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Thou rushing wind that art so strong
Ye clouds that sail in heaven along
O praiseHim, alleluia
Thou rising moon in praise rejoice
Ye lights of evening find a voice
O praise Him, O praise Him
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Let all things their Creator bless
And worship Him in humbleness
O praise Him, alleluia
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son
And praise the Spirit, Three in One
O praise Him, O praise Him
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

In recent years, this has become one of my favorite hymns. I love the imagery of the entirety of creation praising God by singing alleluia in a myriad of voices and sounds. As the service progressed, the alleluias kept bouncing around in my brain, and then, during the minutes of silent reflection following the sermon, I became aware of the chorus of insects, tree frogs, and other creepy crawlies just outside the windows of the room where we were worshiping. In that moment, I heard those voices as insect alleluias. As the sun with golden beam was receding for the evening and sun with softer gleam was preparing to take its position in the sky, those creatures in the trees outside were worshiping God in humbleness, offering up the only voice they have in sweet alleluia. That was a truly peaceful moment for me there in that wood paneled room on the campus of Vanderbilt University. I left hoping that my life might be more of an alleluia.

Marathon Training: September 4th, 2008

What a difference a week and eating a better dinner the night before makes. I ran out my front door at 7:30 this morning to a fairly cloudy and breezy morning. My plan was to run 13 miles, and that's exactly what I did. The sun stayed behind the clouds for me, and a cool breeze seemed to show up at crucial moments. My pace wasn't awesome, but I never felt like I needed to stop, and there was a good amount of water left in my camelback when I finished. All in all, it was a good day of pounding the pavement.

As I had just passed the 10 mile mark out in a very rural area of Franklin, I saw a car coming that I recognized. The matriarch and patriarch of our 8:30 service were headed my way. We exchanged smiling waves and I kept putting one foot in front of the other. I love those moments when you least expect to see someone you know, and then you see fun people like the Warrens. It gave me a boost of energy somehow. Thank God for the church, where we come together with folks and are shaped into a community by God. The body of Christ, indeed.

Mixin' it up at The Estate

Yes, I have been blogging a lot lately. I suppose one will seek out connection with the outside world when left with a quazi-vacuum of time following the loss of a relationship. Anyway, today's post is about some of the changes I've made around the house. As you'll see in the pictures, I've added a house plant to the mix. I call him Frizzy. He just spoke to me at Whole Foods, so I brought him home. I've also replaced my ginormous dining room table that seated six (eight with the optional leaf) with a tall-top table that normally seats two, but can be folded out to seat four (that would require a couple more chairs I don't have, but whatever). I feel like I have a whole new dining room. Other changes will be forthcoming, but for now, here are some pictures of the progress here at The Estate.

Training for a marathon

As some of you know, I have run the Country Music Half Marathon the past two years here in Nashville. Both years, I followed the training schedule and arrived at race day feeling great. Neither race was "easy," but I felt good about my efforts. So, this summer, I decided to train for and run a full marathon in San Antonio. I'm five or six weeks into my training schedule, and this morning, I hit the proverbial wall. I walked out my door this morning at 8:30 with intention of running 12 miles. I've previously run 9, 10, and 7 miles on long run days, and figured the 12-miler would be tough, but not ridiculously so. I was wrong. By about mile 7, I was totally zapped. I ended up slowing down to walk about every 10 minutes and just couldn't get back on top. I seem to have run out of fuel, because my breathing was fine, but my legs just didn't want to function. Anyway, all of this is to say that, while I arrived home feeling very discouraged, I plan to continue with my training and fight through it.

If any of you Renderings readers out there want to join me in San Antonio to run or simply cheer on November 16th, I would welcome the company. Otherwise, just say a prayer for me and my legs.

On a totally unrelated note, I was pretty fired up by Joe Biden's speech last night. I've always liked him, and I'm totally psyched that he's Barack Obama's running mate. In addition, I continue to be impressed with how cool Obama seems. I mean, he walked out on that stage like a celebrity last night. I love that he's this intelligent, well-spoken guy who also has swagger and chutzpah. O-BA-MA!!!

Why some republicans suck...

The following load of crap ended up in my inbox today from one of my more conservative church members, despite repeated attempts on my part to ask him not to send me such hateful propaganda. My "favorite" part is when they make fun of Ted Kennedy, because, you know, having a life-threatening brain tumor isn't enough. Anyway, this is the kind of crap that makes me never ever ever want to listen to a damned word a republican says:

2008 Democrat National Convention Schedule of Events

7:00 pm OPENING FLAG BURNING

7:15 pm PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE U.N.

7:20 pm Ted Kennedy PROPOSES A TOAST

7:25 pm NONRELIGIOUS PRAYER AND WORSHIP - by Jesse Jackson & Al Sharpton

7:45 pm CEREMONIAL TREE HUGGING - by Darryl Hannah

7:55 pm Ted Kennedy PROPOSES A TOAST

8:00 pm HOW I INVENTED THE INTERNET - by Al Gore

8:15 pm GAY WEDDING PLANNING - by Rosie O'Donnell

8:35 pm Ted Kennedy PROPOSES A TOAST

8:40 pm OUR TROOPS ARE WAR CRIMINALS - by John Kerry

9.00 pm MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR SADDAM AND HIS SONS - by Cindy Sheehan and Susan Sarandon

10:00 pm ANSWERING MACHINE ETIQUETTE - by Alec Baldwin

11:00 pm Ted Kennedy PROPOSES A TOAST

11:05 pm COLLECTION FOR THE OSAMA BIN LADEN KIDNEY TRANSPLANT FUND - by Barbara Streisand

11:15 pm FREE THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS FROM GUANTANAMO BAY - by Sean Penn

11:30 pm OVAL OFFICE AFFAIRS - by William Jefferson Clinton

11:45 pm Ted Kennedy PROPOSES A TOAST

11:50 pm HOW GEORGE BUSH BROUGHT DOWN THE WORLD TRADE TOWERS - by Howard Dean

12:15 am TRUTH IN BROADCASTING AWARD - Presented to Dan Rather by Michael Moore

12:25 am Ted Kennedy PROPOSES A TOAST

12:30 am SATELLITE ADDRESS - by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

12:45 am NOMINATION OF BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA - by Nancy Pelosi

1:00 am Ted Kennedy PROPOSES A TOAST

1:05 am CORONATION OF BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA

1:30 am Ted Kennedy PROPOSES ANOTHER TOWSSHT

1:35 am Bill Clinton asks Ted Kennedy to drive Hillary home

The Love of a Child

This little girl is the 2.5 year old daughter of a couple of my good friends from church. This evening, when I went over to their house for dinner, she made my night. As I walked up to the door, she was jumping up and down and clapping about my arrival. As soon as I entered the house, I just had to go and see her new big girl bed. She was quite proud of it. I was introduced to Baby Lucy and some other dolls and then I was asked if I had a big boy bed. I told her that, yes, I do have a big boy bed.

After awhile, her Mom (who is a few weeks away from having another child) asked the little girl to show me the gift that she (the little girl) would be giving to Baby Brother. It was a little palm tree with small slots for pictures as the branches. She went from branch to branch telling me who people were: Mama, Dad, Nanna and Papa, Grandpa, and herself. Then, she got this perplexed look on her face and said, “There’s no picture of Mr. Alan on here.” Then, I laughed pretty uncontrollably when her solution was, “We should take out Mama’s picture and put one in of Mr. Alan.” I told her that I was flattered, but that Mama’s picture should probably stay in there.

It was so great to experience that little girl’s love this evening. As far as she was concerned, I was part of the family, even if just for that moment or for the evening. As her Mom and Dad prepared dinner, we hung out, talked, played silly games, and simply enjoyed one another’s company. Tonight, that sweet girl pictured above taught me to sit back and enjoy simple camaraderie and friendship, and that sometimes it’s good to jump up and down and clap when you see somebody you love to be around.

The Shack, Jesus for President, and other et ceteras

First of all, thank you to everyone who touched base after my last blog post. I definitely felt the e-love. Just to prevent any wild speculations, I'm healthy, everyone in my family is healthy, I didn't lose my job, or anything like that. I'm simply suffering from an "I need a break" style broken heart. I'm definitely in a better place than when I last posted, but heartache is still heartache. So, anyway, don't fret too much on my behalf.

Second, I recently finished reading Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne. It's a great book that addresses some of the premises on which much of our nationalism, materialism, capitalism, patriotism, and even modern western Christianity are based. He lifts up "biblical values" like Jubilee, Justice, Non-Violence, Sharing, and Enemy Love, just to name a few. Claiborne has a way of convicting me of my own failures in living out that pesky Sermon on the Mount, without making me feel hopeless about my condition. I may get in to some specific stuff when I have the book in front of me, and more time and brain cells. I do struggle, though, with how to apply some of Claiborne's practices in my context. While I admire his choice to move to an urban area and practice intentional community in search for justice, I wonder how I, a pastor in suburban, affluent, homogeneous, Williamson County, America am called to proclaim justice, jubilee, enemy love, and a radical realignment of the social order. Simply standing in the pulpit and proclaiming these values doesn't seem very fair to those who don't have the chance to respond, except for the brief moments on the way out the door (that whole ritual is worth another blog post).

OK, this post is getting long, but I'm also reading The Shack by William P. Young. It's basically a story of how an encounter with God helps a man get free from many of the things that keep him from living a joyful, grateful life of relationship with God. The book has been getting some press, and I'm eager to hear what other folks are thinking about it.