Matthew 7: Judging, dogs, pigs, and getting whatever you ask for.

Matthew 7:1-12 has always been one of those "curveball" passages for me. First off, let me invite you to read it. Here's the link.

Verse 6 has always been one of those, "huh?" moments for me. Read it again and consider how this seemingly random colloquialism fits into the judgement teaching before it, and the ask/seek/knock teaching afterward.

Now, you may be really smart and right now you're thinking "duh, it makes perfect sense." Well, feel free to enlighten me, but like I said, I've always wrestled with this text.

The "traditional" way to interpret this verse is that Jesus is telling us to be careful who we share the Gospel with. Don't just go out there sharing it willy-nilly, some people don't know what a treasure it is and they'll turn on you and tear you to pieces. Be wise in who you evangelize.

This does not sit well with me. Maybe that's my problem. But it just doesn't seem like we should be going around judging people on a scale of "will listen" to "won't listen" based on our human assumptions (which we base mostly on appearance, and we know that's not good because John 7:24). Also, the context here does not touch on evangelism in any way; plus, it doesn't seem like the listeners would have made that connection at all, since Jesus is talking to a large crowd, which includes his disciples, but also contains what you might call the "general public."

So how does this fit? What does it mean? Someone quoted this scripture at me once when I was making mocking a song they liked. I don't think that's why it's there.

Well, I'm preparing to address the "don't judge" teaching at a class at a youth rally next weekend so I wanted to make sure I had a good grasp of the passage. I've done a lot of reading. One thing I came across was the suggestion that verses 1-12 are not 3 random teachings strung together, but one teaching based around the "golden rule."

It makes sense, because verse 12, the golden rule, is the broader application of the "don't judge or you will be judged,"concept. Bookends if you will.

This author still didn't treat verse 6 to my satisfaction, however. How does throwing pearls before swine bridge the parallels? And what is the "it" when Jesus says, "Ask and it will be given to you,"?

This is what I came up with, and I am totally open to criticism and second-guessing:

This section is in a ABCBA format. An idea is introduced, supported, elaborated, supported again in a similar but different way, then repeated. Thusly:

A. Don't judge your brother, or you will be judged in the same way.
B. Discern and remove the sin from your own life before you seek to remove the sins of others.
C. Don't toss your brother aside in judgement, thereby treating him as anything other than the holy child of God he is.
B1. If you need godly wisdom and discernment in these things, just ask. It will be given to you.
A1. Treat others the way you want to be treated.

So, my assertion is that "what is sacred" and the "pearls" represent our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are, after all, called to be a holy people, set aside for God, and by judging God's children harshly we are treating something which God has made holy as unclean, dirty, without value.

This is the only way I can make sense of this section. The only other alternative is to treat each small teaching as examples of "sayings of Jesus," of which Matthew is simply listing, and Jesus may or may not have actually said these things in this order, back to back, in one sermon. In that case, the dog/pearl analogy is lost on me, but I still don't think it is telling us not so share the gospel with people we deem unworthy. But I could be wrong.

What do you think? I'm eager to hear other people's thoughts on this.

The NCAA needs to step up...

So this conference realignment has really got me bugged. Let me say first that I don't like it. The worst part is all the individual teams are making moves based what's in their own best interests (read: how they can make the most money) and not what's in the best interest for college sports.

The NCAA needs to step up and make sure the whole thing doesn't just come apart. Here's what I think they should do IF they go to 4 mega-conferences (what I really think they should do is what Pat Forde and ESPN.com came up with last year with six, brand new 10 team conferences)

Here's how the mega-conferences would line up if I were in charge:

(I know it's kind of sloppy, I just threw it together during lunch!)

Sorry Colorado, I know you were excited about going to Disneyland every year, but it's back to the Big[number] for you.

Basically, the Pac-10 gets most of the Big12 South.

The Big12 North and what's left of the Big10 combine to form the Big16 (I'm open to a new name. I'm sure SOMEONE can think of something more original than "Big" with a number after it). And they get Notre Dame. And Notre Dame gets over it.

Because I'm a biased SEC snob, the SEC gets the "creme" of the ACC crop (if you can call it that): Miami, FSU, and Georgia Tech. (It's not just bias, they make the most sense geographically and this keeps some key rivalries together. SEC also picks up USF.

What's left of the ACC and the Big East combine. You might say, "Why didn't you keep the name Big East instead of ACC?" Well, I'm a little biased against the word "Big" I guess.

Each team plays every team round-robin-style from their division (7 games), plus 2 teams from their opposing division, and 2 non-conference games from one of the other 3 mega conferences. (11 game regular season). No more cupcake Division II gimme games.

The winner of each division goes on to an 8 team playoff. The max number of games a team will play will be 14 (the same as the current max).

***edit: The first round would be between the division champs of each conference, naming conference champions. The second round would be seeded by polls (1 vs 4, 2 vs 3). Round three would be the National Championship Game. You can call them Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, Cotton, and Orange if you really want to).***

Every 4 years, the team from each division with the worst record gets the boot, and the rest of the division votes on someone from the lesser conferences in their geographical region to take their place (if no suitable replacement can be agreed upon the old team stays).

What would you do differently?

It's all Dave's fault...

So today Justine is out doing things in order to get her prospective job lined up and I'm home by myself...what to do?

Well, piddle around on the internet of course!

Checked facebook...nothing exciting going on.

Checked foxnews.com...Dick Cheney is going to release a memoir of his time in office with Bush, apparently he doesn't have quite the shining review of Bush's last couple of years in office. That's interesting...boring...but interesting...

Checked yahoo.com...there's a planet that revolves around its sun in the opposite direction of its sun's rotation...and I have an email from Express telling me to wear jeans. Why am I getting this email?

Checked espn.com...alas, they havn't decided on a whim to start NCAA football early. (That's the audacity of hope!)

Checked apple.com/trailers...nothing worth screaming about. There's a trailer there for the independent film "45365." I read the synopsis and almost fell asleep, but I watched the trailer anyway. I was glued to the screen the whole time. Not saying it's going to be an amazing film, but I really enjoyed the trailer.

Running out of things to look at...oh, maybe someone posted a blog. Hurrah! Dave did!

It was a really good post, I must say. About sitting around and wasting time on the internet when he could/should be doing something productive/rewarding. Hmmm, this is a little too close to home. CS Lewis wouldn't be sitting around watching movie trailers for movies he's never going to see anyway! I need to get up off my steadily-increasing-in-size butt and do something! Namely: work out!

So, thus inspired, I change, gathered my things, and set out. The plan: weights first (4 sets starting at 20 reps at a low weight, then 5 less reps and 5 more pounds down to 5 reps) do that on each of the 5 machines (bi's, tri's, chest, back, abs) then some cardio in the pool. THIS, is gonna be good.

I go through the weights and only struggle slightly on the bench press (it's been a while). So far, so good. Now for some laps in the pool.

There's some kiddies and mommies in the pool, but that's okay, I can swim around them.

It's about 95 degrees outside. No problem! I brought some water!

I get in the pool. The water temperature is probably about 88 degrees...not refreshing so much.

Pressing on...1 lap, 2 lap...getting a little tired, not gonna lie. Should have put that water next to the pool, maybe I should get out and grab it....nah....3 lap...ok, I think I got one more in me...4 lap...Yes! Ok, I'm done, there's more kiddies and mommies showing up and they have large floats and boogie boards, time to go.

Man, that last lap took a lot out of me, feeling a little whoosy. Why are all my muscles not working so much? That's normal, right? I just worked out hard core, of course I'm tired.

Ok, now I can't seem to catch my breath, that's weird. Ok, I'll just drink some water and I'll feel better. I can't swallow, what's up with that!? I know I need some hydration. I'll go sit in the shade instead of the sun...that's...better?...Why do I feel like I'm having heat stroke? Maybe because...I AM HAVING HEAT STROKE.

Alright, don't panic. I'll just go to the bathroom, there's AC in there, I'll chill there until this passes. Blacking out...can't see...there's the door, go inside. Turn on the light....of all the lights in all the world throughout history that have worked when someone flicked a switch, why doesn't this one work right now!!!!

Ok, I'll go into the weight room and lie down in the kiddie room. Locked!? You've got to be kidding me!

Back to the bathroom, the dark, unlighted, un-windowed, cavern of a bathroom. I'll leave the light in the "on" position, just incase it decides to change its mind. Speaking of minds, here's what's going through mine at this point:

Point: "Chad, pretty sure you need to lie down, like, right now."

Counter-Point: "I'm in a pitch black, public restroom. Who knows what I'll be sitting in! Talk about unsanitary!"

Point: "Would you rather be unsanitary, or unconscious?"

Counter-Point: "Touche."

So I sit against the wall in the bathroom. In the dark. Luckily it's a large bathroom, so where I'm sitting I'm a good 8 feet away from the toilet (I only know this because I've been in there before...still pitch black in here).

So I slowly recover (turns out that the light was half working, I was just half blacked out and couldn't see anything anyway), and reappear 10 minutes later. All the kiddies and mommies still playing in the pool, oblivious that they were my last life line if the bathroom plan didn't work out.

Thus my adventure comes to an end. I survived, didn't even need an ambulance or anything. And it probably wasn't Dave's fault at all, that just made a catchy title. Probably should have had some breakfast. Probably should have drank a little more than a sip of water before I left, and probably should have drank more water throughout the process.

Life lesson: ....um...drink more water? That seems a little obvious. Pre-hydrate. That's a little better... Oh, how about get in shape so you can do a vigorous work out without almost dying! Which leads to: get off the internet all the time!

So here's to you Dave! You almost killed me but made me better for it! For that, I thank you. Now let's just see how long this new commitment to health lasts.

T-shirt Idea

Inspiration: a mountain of CiCi's pizza crusts 92 pieces high!

Any and all suggestions and constructive criticisms welcome.

What's up with The Chad

I must apologize for rarely updating this thing, and when I do not putting anything about what's going on in my life. I feel like I'm getting into the swing of things here in Florida. Still learning how to plan ahead, important life lesson that plan to learn sometime soon. Sometimes working ahead is pointless though, for example today I got a postcard in the mail telling me that there is an area wide teen worship in Orlando NEXT SUNDAY. This happens quite often, maybe I'm just out of the loop. But we'll try to go, I'll probably have to recruit parents to drive because we're not allowed to take the van (they're not safe apparently), unless we can get enough participation for the bus...if it is out of the shop by then.

I've been dabbling with some ideas for a logo for the youth group and t-shirts for the summer and camp. I got my man Landry to help with a logo/letterhead sort of thing, and now I'm trying to think of a true logo/icon sort of thing. Not sure what direction to take. Here's what Landry came up with:

The little "shwoosh" thing in the lower center is the congregation's logo, trying to tie the YG in with the congregation instead of making it it's own thing. But I'm thinking the YG still needs its own icon thingy to go along with it.

In other news we got a new piano! It's a hammer action Yamaha. I love it. Maybe I'll post a vid or audio sometime of some stuff I'm working on. I've also been messing around on Garage Band a lot with vocals, guitar, and keys, maybe one day I'll end up with something I deem sharable.

Lunatic, Liar, or Lord?

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.'  That is the one thing we must not say.  A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell.  You must make your choice.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.  You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a Demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.  But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher.  He has not left that open to us.  He did not intend to."

-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Who said football is worthless.

For those who don't know who Tim Tebow is, read this paragraph, skip ahead if you do. He is the starting quarterback for the Florida Gators.  His parents are missionaries in the Philippines and he often works in their orphanage during the summers.  He is frequently seen preaching and leading Bible studies in Florida prisons in his free time.  He wears "Phil 4:13" on his face for every game.  He has won numerous awards including college football's most prestigious award, the Heisman Trophy.

In July, at a news conference, the following question was posed to Mr. Tebow:

"I don't mean to sound cynical, but between winning the national championship and winning the Heisman, saving the world in the Philippines and all, did you ever, like, sneak a cigarette when you were in high school? Do you ever do anything wrong? Do you feel like everything is sort of on cruise control for you?"

His response (in part):

"You know, everybody, they can look and say how easy it is. But it's definitely not that easy. The difference is 'cause not many people want to wake up at 5, go through workouts, go speak to young kids, go back, eat lunch, go to class, go to tutoring, go speak at a prison at night, come back. I mean, more people would do those things; they just don't want to sacrifice.

"You know, there's a lot of leaders out there. But, unfortunately, there aren't a lot of good ones. So that's always been my dream and my goal, is to be someone like Danny Wuerffel was to me, to be someone that a parent can say, 'Hey, this kid did it the right way.' That's always been my dream and my goal more so than winning a trophy or winning a championship.

"So if it's cynical or whatnot, that's fine. If people don't believe it, that's fine. There's always going to be naysayers, people that are going to say it's fake. But that's fine because you can't control everybody. But I can control what I do, my attitude, how I approach the situation. So how I approach the situation is I want to do everything in my power that football gives me to influence as many people as I can for the good because that's gonna mean so much more when it's all said and done than just playing football and winning championships."

This kid impresses me more every day.  

My favorite part: "...more people would do these things; they just don't want to sacrifice."

What would we be doing with our day if we were really, I mean really willing to sacrifice?

You can find the original article by Pat Forde on espn.com here.

Interesting stuff recently on Foxnews.com

Some news stories lately have really grabbed me lately. All of them science related. I'll present them in order from the painfully obvious to the most mind blowing.

#1: Topic: Climate Change

What grabbed me in this article was the "why didn't I think of that" factor. Pop quiz: (T or F) If sea ice in the arctic melts, sea levels will rise. The answer is: False.  Because ice, even if it is floating above the surface, is still displacing water. Just like in your 4th grade science experiment, if you put a piece of ice in a glass of water and mark the water level, when the ice melts, has the water level gone up or down? Neither! So why should melting ice make sea levels go up? Just another example of junk-science being used to fool us into panicking about global warming.

#2: Topic:  Nuclear Missile Defense

The article says it best, this looks like something straight out of a "Terminator" movie.  Basically a huge, self-propelled, self-guided bullet, this amazing device is designed to hunt down and ram enemy ICBM (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile) warheads.  It's a cylinder with rocket boosters pointing in every direction that allow it to fly through space....just watch the video linked in the article. Whoa.

#3: Topic: Prosthetic Limbs

Three words: watch. the. video.  You'll find yourself trying to figure out if it's been doctored or is actually from a sci-fi movie. It's not. It's real.  And it's awesome.  Prosthetic limbs that are anatomically correct, and can be controlled by either an ingenious control system integrated into your shoe, by attaching control systems to muscles and tendons, or mere thought.  Imagine feeding yourself for the first time in 26 years, like the man in the video.  Who knows how close we are to a fully functional, fully integrated prosthetic hand that is indistinguishable from the real thing to the naked eye.  Just like Luke Skywalker. 20 years ago: science fiction. Today: reality.  God has allowed man to progress so much these last 100 years.  Who knows what's in store around the corner.

Welp...here we go.

Since I havn't posted in so long, here's some short quips pertaining to my thoughts on the election. I got a catalog from Despair.com in the mail for some reason and found some of their products were slightly profound/ironic.

A rejected Obama campaign slogan.

Something to post on the Whitehouse door come January.

Another rejected Obama poster.

Large corporations new outlook on labor during the Obama presidency.

The credit crisis is your fault.

An unheeded warning (the ship represents the USSR).

I blame the media.

I'm thinking of putting this on the church bus (unrelated).

"I think that Karl Marx quote, 'to each according to his need, from each according to his ability,' really sums up Obama's campaign. What? Karl Marx isn't one of the Marx brothers??"
-Obama voter.

In Other News

Things are going really well down here in FL. There's lots to be done around here and I'm still just trying to hit my stride. The congregation is great, not without its problems, but that is to be expected.

I'm searching for an apartment. I hate shopping for expensive things (i.e. apartments, cars, etc.) I am THE WORST haggler/bargain shopper ever.

If Florida wins out and gets left out of the national championship, I will only be a little upset, even though I know they can beat anyone in the country the way they are playing right now. Losing to Ole Miss is just too big of a loss. BUT, if there are two other 1 loss teams in the championship, I'll be upset. That's neither here nor there, just throwing it out there.

Bye!

Yay for va-ca!

So I have the WHOLE week off this week so I have lots of time to do the lots of things I havn't had lots of time to do. before.

Today I cleaned my car.  Trust me, it needed it.  It took me all afternoon and a trip to O'Reily's Autoparts.  I warshed, waxed, rain-ex-ed, armor-alled, replaced the windshield wipers, scrubbed the carpets/seats, and took all the junk out of there (cept the trunk still has a bunch of copper wire I need to recycle).  Boyitellyahwhat, it is like getting a new car.  Just in time to drive it 20 hours to Tampa.

The wifey and I saw "Iron Man" this weekend.  It was really good. Left me wanting more.  I'm looking forward to the sequel and the upcoming Captain America movie which is supposedly going to intertwine with Iron Man and other Marvel movies including (possibly) X-men and Spiderman.  The possibilities are endless, as are the profits I'm sure.  

Still getting ready for the move, no news on that front really.  Hope everyone is doing well.

Lots going on

I got back from Blue Ridge Family Encampment about a week ago, and it was really cool.  It was very different from your typical summer Bible camp. So different in fact, that I wouldn't put them in the same category.  

I directed the chorus, which was both fun and stressful.  I came in not knowing what to expect, what the kids were expecting, what the camp directors were expecting, what kind of music the kids were familiar with, exactly how many kids I would be dealing with, or the musical talent level of the kids.  I hate going into things not knowing what to expect, so needless to say I was a little worried going in.  

Everything turned out just fine though.  The kids did a great job, we did almost everything I wanted to do except we had to cut a medley of old songs from the book out.  I assumed the kids would know all these songs, so I didn't rehearse them until the 2nd to last rehearsal.  Surprise! We've never heard of any of these songs.  Whoops.  No biggie, the program was going to be on the long side anyway.

I enjoyed teaching the chorus, it was nice to get back into the music world.  I also got to help teach the middle school class.  It took an extra ounce of patience, but it was lots of fun, and I think the kids got a lot out of the class.

Selfishly, it was really good to spend some time with some of my old DXD brothers.  Hudkins did a great job as director of the youth/college program. Dan-O and Landry held it down for the media department, and pulled off a great slide show at the end of the week.  We had a blast on the 11 hour drive there and back, getting lost trying to find whale-mart, helping everything on the schedule go smoothly, and just getting to know all the kids and the college peeps.

In other news, I bought the new Death Cab for Cutie album a couple of weeks ago with the iTunes card I got last Christmas.  I hated it at first.  Track two, "I Will Possess Your Heart" drove me crazy.  I thought it had no meter and was just dumb.  I made myself listen to the whole album again on the way to Searcy to meet up with the guys for Blue Ridge and I finally figured it out.  There is meter after all.  It's two bars of 4, followed by a bar of 3, followed by a bar of 5.  If you do the math 4+4+3+5=4+4+4+4  So it adds up to 4 even bars of 4, but the feel of the bass line makes it feel like mix meter. Genius!  Once I had this epiphany, I listened to the rest of the album with a little more open mindedness.  I didn't like the other songs before, because the phraseology was so choppy.  Every melodic was only 3 or 4 words long it seemed.  I either got used to it or it's not as bad as I originally thought.  All that to say, this is a good album.  Takes some getting used to, but I love it.  4 Gui-stars out of 5!

Concerning my upcoming move:

Things I will miss about living in Springfield:

1. Being close to Searcy and my friends there.

2. My church family at Brookline

3. Thursday night Bible study.

4. The Fall weather.

5. Pineapple Whip!

6. Andy's Frozen Custard.

Things I will not miss:

1. Winter.

2. My stupid job.

3. Fire trucks driving by my apartment. Every. Night.

4. Garbage men picking up the garbage outside my window in their loud, beeping, thundering trucks. At 3 in the morning.

5. Not having a washer, dryer, or dishwasher in my home.

6. Springfield Airport.

Things I am looking forward to in Tampa:

1. My awesome new job that I will enjoy and actually look forward to going to!

2. No winter!!

3. Seeing my sister, brother-in-law, and niece all the time!

4. Living a short drive from my parents!

5. Good airport with decent prices.

6. All the cool stuff to do (Orlando is only 1 hour away; Gainesville is just 3 Go Gators!; pro baseball, football, and hockey; museums, zoos, parks, concerts, and all the things big cities attract; orange groves, strawberry festivals, and generally awesome fruit.)

Big News

So I havn't been posting on here for a while because I've been sitting on some big news and it hasn't been official enough to announce. But now it is.

Starting sometime in the coming months I will be the new Youth Minister at the Bay Area Church of Christ in Mango (near Tampa), Florida.

woot!

More details to come, but I'm still recovering from getting my wisdom teeth pulled so it'll have to be later.

Thanks for all the prayers and encouragement!!!

Because I havn't posted in so long.

My Dad sent me this and I thought it was brilliant. The "sources" are probably not true, but it's still brilliant. 

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX),Bill Gates reportedly compared the
computer industry with the auto industry and stated,

'If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we
would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.'

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release
stating:

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving
cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash........
Twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to
buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You
would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows,
shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could
continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause
your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would
have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable,
five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only
five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all
be replaced by a single 'This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation'
warning light.

7. The airbag system would ask 'Are you sure?' before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out
and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door
handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn
how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate
in the same manner as the old car.

10. You'd have to press the 'Start' button to turn the engine off

Good Songs

The question was posed by an upcoming Christian artist to his fans on his facebook page, "What are the elements of a great song?"  I took upon myself to conjure up an answer. This was my feeble attempt:

1) The song tells a story.
And not just "i was at this place one time and such and such happened," but it paints a vivid picture that it takes you to that place and makes the listener feel that they are experiencing it along with the storyteller.
2) The song has an interesting musical element.
Something that tickles your ear that you will remember the next day, even if you don't remember the rest of the song.
3) The song has an interesting lyrical element.
A phrase or some sort of literary device that has emotional impact or is just clever, or catchy.
4) The song has meter.
You can tap your foot to it, and lyrics fit into a rhythmic theme of the song. There's (generally) no spill-overs or big words crammed into short phrases.
5) The song moves through tension and release.
It could be musical (dissonance leading to consonance, or fighting the natural tendency toward the tonic note, then finally satisfying that need), and/or lyrical (like the conflict in a story being resolved at the end). The song builds to a climax and a sense of finality, it doesn't lead to nowhere

There's nothing good on the radio...

I heard a song by this title on the radio the other day and, ironically, it wasn't very good.  But it was very true.  

When I listen to the radio nowadays, I will find a song on this or that station that I don't mind listening to, then the next song will either be something I'm sick of hearing or a song I just don't like (or both) so I push scan and it will most likely stay on scan until I

1) listen to sports radio or news radio...yeah, i'm getting old.

2) pop in a cd.

3) get to where I'm going.

It has been a really long time since I have heard a song on the radio that really grabs me, that either impresses me musically or makes some emotional connection.  In my opinion, the music industry is struggling right now.  It's looking for a new sound, some becon of light that will come in the form of a particular artist or band to lead us all down a new road of new sounds and experiences.  Someone like the Beatles in the 60's, Nirvana in the 90's, bands that came out revolutionized what was considered "current," "popular," and "cool."  Something has to happen because the Rock 'n Roll genre in particular is very bland right now.  Everyone has the same, rhaspy, "LOOK AT THIS PHOTOGRAPH" yelling voice that is really limited as far as musicality goes. 

My best guess is that the next set of popular band will be throwbacks to the big voiced rockers of the late 70's.  Styx, the Doobie Brothers, Journey, Boston, the Eagles, Chicago, Queen, Foreigner, U2, Billy Joel, Elton John, and later on Van Halen, and many others.  Lots of different sounds and styles but all very, very strong vocalists with range and power to boot.

The reason I think this is the next trend is because this is the music that is speaking to me right now.  I have an iTunes gift card and try as I might, I can't find any new music that interests me, so I keep falling back to the classics.  I might convince myself to give the new Dashboard Confessional album a try, but I'll probably get several Styx songs (i don't have any) and some random samplings of other above mentioned bands.

In other news, pray for my next career move. I'm looking into grad school at HU in Memphis, and teaching at Central Arkansas Christian in North Little Rock. Or maybe both, if that is do-able.

That's all I got.  Until next time, keep on rockin' in the free world.

In Memorium

Eric "E-Money" Myers

January 25, 1982 - February 25, 2008

I first met Eric as I did many of my closest friends in college; through Delta Chi Delta.  I have lots memories of Eric, but not near enough.  If it weren't for him, I probably would not have continued to participate in Delta Chi, and consequently my life would have been very different.  He took the time and effort to invest in me, and make me feel included, and reminded me what the club was all about, being there for your brother. (I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to tell him this while he was still with us.)  

This is what I remember and admire most about Eric.  He invested in people.  When he asked you how your day was going, it was not just cliche, he genuinely cared how your day was going.  If it was not going well, he would put all of his effort to make it better.  And invariably he would succeed.   That's who Eric was.  That's what he did.  His life was ministry.  Regardless of his occupation, he ministered more than anyone I know.  I wish I were more like him, but only because he wanted to be more like Christ, and it showed.

I'm going to miss him.  Delta Chi reunions won't be the same.  It's tragic that, as young as Delta Chi is (est. 1989), we have already lost two of our members.  And they were both stand-out, stand-up guys.  We are reminded that our Motto is not just some club motto, but it is rooted in something that is more real than anything we know.  "Brothers for Eternity."  It's not some new idea, it's God's plan. And it's not just a red and black thing. It transcends every barrier, every wall that stands in its way.  It is our hope. Not hope as in, "I hope something happens" but hope as in "I have a reason to go on because I KNOW that something better lies beyond this life." Whatever the reason for our loss, nothing can erase the pain except for that glorious day when we will all meet at the throne, when we'll all share together the incredible spectacle of His holiness, with all those who share that hope with us.

Save a seat for me E-Money.  We'll miss you, but we know we'll see you soon.

Tagged?

I got tagged by my sister with these instructions:Pick up the nearest book with at least 123 pages. Find page 123. Find the first five sentences. Post the next three sentences. Tag five people.

"'Photos?' Chavez asked calmly, then took them from Mrs. Foley's hand. There were six of them. Ding examined each, handing them over one by one to his senior."

- Debt of Honor, by Tom Clancy

I tag Dave C., Brooke C., Chris M., Becka O., and Josh S., cuz those are the first people one the permissions list that read this blog that I know have blogs.


I started this book back in December I think and I'm still not to page 123 so I got a sneak peak. It's mostly about economics and the business world and how these stock brokers are making moves to like, take over the world or something. I'm lost. I don't understand money, or the stock market, or business, or economics. It's all a mystery to me.

It's Monday and I have the day off because I have to work Friday to help with an elevator inspection at a bank. It's a good thing too cuz there's about an inch of ice on the ground outside. I don't really feel like driving on it.

In other news, yesterday was our new youth minister's first day at church. Matt Seats. He's old school DCD so of course he's a cool guy. He should do a really good job, I've worked with him before, he was a YM in a congregation not far from here before so we worked together at area wide retreats and at camp and such. I'm excited for these kids that they'll have a leader with as much experience and enthusiasm as him.

We're finally up to date on LOST. I really like this show. It's crazy. I think it really brings out the humanity in all of its characters. None of them are perfect all the time, they all do dumb stuff every now and then, and they all have to learn to trust each other all over again almost every episode. Very interesting.

The quote last time was from "Sister Act II: Back in the Habit." No doubt one of the best sequels of all time. Props to the wife and the sister for guessing right!

Back in the Habit

I preached at church last night. I thought it went pretty well. I enjoyed it but I did think that I was kind of boring. Very academic. In fact my lesson was based on an Adair class I took at Harding. I don't know if I could preach week in and week out throughout the year, but I might could enjoy teaching. There's way too much pressure on pulpit ministers to be entertaining, informative, and challenging every week of the year. Teachers are allowed to be boring...they shouldn't be all the time, but their is not as much pressure to entertain.

I'm going to try to play guitar for at least a few minutes every day from now on. I'm getting rusty. Seriously. It's bad sometimes. I'm doing this for two reasons:
1) For personal fulfillment
2) Just in case, by some off chance, I might get a band together or something, or maybe even try being a studio musician.

We'll see. The worst part is, my current job is really tough on my right wrist because of certain tools I use. I feel like if have arthritis. It's really hurting my dexterity and ability to strum. Maybe I'll file workman's comp for carpel-tunnel syndrome. Or however you spell it.

Life has been pretty good lately. I've had a better attitude about things, especially my job. Though I don't enjoy it. I'm not really any good at it, that's probably the main reason. I was never really any good at handy work, at least now I have a little experience messing up other peoples stuff so when I work on my own house I'll know what not to do. Here's a free tip:

When using a power drill with a 1/8" bit through aluminum (or any metal for that matter) don't push too hard. The bit WILL explode. And the pieces of sharp drill bit will fly through the air like shrapnel. At your face. Very quickly. Wear. Eye. Protection. I was lucky and escaped with a gash on my chin.

That's all for now. Gotta stop before this gets rediculously long. I'll leave you with a "Name that Movie" quote pop quiz.


Kid: "We heard you're not even a nun!"
Other Kid: "Yeah, we heard you're a Las Vegas show girl or something!"

Sorry

If you've tried to post on this before and couldn't, it's because I don't know what I'm doing on this thing. But I think I figured it out. I'm leaving this thing public for a while so whoever wants to can read it.  I'll change it back eventually  though so if you want to stay connected give me your email and I'll add you to the list if you aren't already on it.  

Thanks!

If you build it...

This site is still very much under construction.  I'm still trying to figure out...well, everything, but mostly i'm looking for the most effecient way to tell everyone who might want to read this blog about this blog...so it may be a bit before I post anything of substance.  Just throwing that out there.