Going to Hell

...Similarly, when individuals follow the body-defiling practices of multiple piercing and tattooing, they dull their spiritual sensitivity...

I must be in some serious trouble...

Here is an article that made me chuckle...I especially like the part where they don't take a stance "on the minimal piercing of the ears by women for one pair of earrings"

We have a gig this weekend for the international students at BGSU involved in Global Connections(a ministry specifically to help meet needs of said international students). It will be more of a background music type environment with secular stuff and a few christian songs as well...it should be a lot of fun, although we haven't had enough time to practice the new material. I hope it goes well. More importantly I hope these students experience the love of Christ through this fall festival and the people involved in putting it together for them.

My wife is rubbing my head right now and I like it...she is an awesome wife and I don't know what I would do without her.

Anyway...I don't have anything profound to say...

Kids are just plain funny

We got an email from a friend about a conversation that took place in the sunday school class she teaches for the younger kids and this is how she said it went:

Child: Who is Chris?
Child: You know, Chris DILbone!!
Child: Who is that?
Jenny: He is the one that leads us in the singing and plays the guitar.
Child: Today he sounded just like David Crowder!!!!
Child: Who is David Crowder?
Jenny: He is a singer...
Child: and Chris sounds just like him!!!
Child: But which one is Chris on the stage?
Jenny: He was the one today that didn't have any hair
Children: Ohhhh
Child: Why doesn't he have any hair now?
Jenny: He shaved it off?
Child: Why?
Jenny: I am not sure...
Child:...I think that he is just trying to be a motorcycle man!

And then we were off to another subject. :-)

1st off, I don't sound anything like David Crowder, although we do sing some of his songs
and 2nd...what on earth is a motorcycle man??....and how do you become one??

I got a real kick out of that...I guess I better watch what I do and say, there are more eyes watching me than I thought...

Let's try it again

Here is the quote from Merton I was posting last night before I lost it.

There are men dedicated to God whose lives are full of
restlessness and who have no real desire to be alone.
They admit that exterior solitude is good, in theory, but
they insist that it is far better to preserve interior
solitude while living in the midst of others. In practice,
their lives are devoured by activities and strangled with
attachments. Interior solitude is impossible for them.
They fear it. They do everything they can to escape it.
What is worse, they try to draw everyone else into
activities as senseless and as devouring as their own.
They are great promoters of useless work. They love
to organize meetings and banquets and conferences and
lectures. They print circulars, write letters, talk for
hours on the telephone in order that they may gather a
hundred people together in a large room where they
will all fill the air with smoke and make a great deal of
noise and roar at one another and clap their hands
and stagger home at last patting one another on the
back with the assurance that they have all done great
things to spread the Kingdom of God.

ouch...Lord don't allow me to ever buy into this garbage again. Remind me moment by moment what Your kingdom really is...give me the know how and the strength to live daily in the power of the risen Christ.

Beauty and the Beast

Check, one, two, three...

So I shaved my head Saturday...I'll have to post a picture...

It was either let the hair win as it continued to fall out slowly but surely, or take matters into my own hands and take it down before it made a fool of me...Jury's still out on who really one this battle. Judge for yourself once you see the picture...

I am getting together with a couple of people to come up with a benevolence policy for the church...that doesn't even sound right..."policy"...for being generous and treating people with the kind of compassion that only Christ can ignite in a person...should that really necessitate a "policy"? anyway. I think this will be good because this has the capability of reshaping how and on whom we spend money. I hope it goes well and is a step in the right direction...I have been encouraged lately that maybe this big ship is starting to change its course little by little. I had the chance on Sunday to share a few things with the congregation about this journey that Sara, Macee and I are on. Some of the relearning, restructuring, rethinking type things we have gone through and how that has changed our world view. I hope I didn't just talk in circles and that people actually could see and understand my heart...Lord show me daily the work you have for me to do and keep me focused on the reasons I am here, but more importantly...help me to BE more and DO less...

I give up

so I just typed in a nice long post and now it appears to be lost...one more thing to add to the long list of mis-haps this past week...I guess I'm going to bed...Lord, help me to be about the work of building Your kingdom even when it seems like the wheels are falling off this cart I'm in.

I'm back

boy is it good to be back. I missed my girls badly and I was so ready to spend some time with them today, but that didn't happend quite like I thought it would. Too many things popping up and not enough time in the day to get them all done, but even in the "taking out the trash" mundane moments of life He is there and we are with Him together.

John Eldridge was at Catalyst and shared some awesome truths about this journey we find ourselves on. We, as John shared, are living a glorious epic written and directed by the King of the universe. All us of have a part and even though we seem at times to be convinced that our part is insignificant, that couldn't be further from the truth. We have bought into the lies that tell us that "getting by" is good enough and really all we should even expect of this life. If we can begin to see the mundane and the minutia of life as the key parts of the greatest epic ever written, then I think we might have a slightly different view of life when we wake up in the morning. I am anxious to read his new book "Epic" that I picked up while there, although I'm sure he shared most of what he wrote already at the conference. I've got some things on McManus as well but I have to get to bed...

I'm off

I leave for Catalyst wednesday night...I don't want to leave

I'm sure I will gain some insights and new perspective from some of the people sharing while we are there, but I still don't want to leave my girls for a couple of days...I love my family...

Anyway...I was thinking yesterday and today...it's so hard to begin to cut more and more out of your lives so as to give more away when everyone around you is in pursuit of more and more stuff. Is there a balance...? Is there a right and wrong way in dealing with our resources? I can only deal with and make changes with what I've been given, but this shift in philosophy is tough to deal with when the world around us screams, "BUY IT...YOU NEED IT...YOU DESERVE IT...DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT...YOU'RE OK..."

...are we really ok? some kids I teach are going to bed hungry tonight with critters all over the house and all I'm concerned about is that I don't want to get rid of my motorcycle, internet access, cell phones, or our second car...that's just sick...God help me sort this out