Seeds of Praise

So if I were to admit I have a guilty pleasure in music right now it would be a CD we bought to benefit our 15 month old daughter. It is put out by a group called Seeds Family Worship. Take a bible verse, add music and repeat it a few times and you will have their album.

My wife got in the car with me the other day (after I had been driving alone with no child) and I had it blaring (read: loud enough to sing with) through the speakers.  Really, this could be considered embarrassing, but I don’t think it is.  It means I have bible verses on repeat in my head throughout the day.  I guess the biggest drawback is that it isn’t to high-caliber music, but it is catchy none the less.

Also, Lindsey and I were just talking about buying more of these CDs.

Do you have any guilty pleasures you don’t want to admit to these days?

BTTR

Anyone down in Texas remember the group Bachelors Til The Rapture (BTTR)?  Thankfully, I can look back shame-free at the fact that I didn’t join in the group.  There were a number of guys I knew from Texas A&M (and a couple other colleges I think) that  thought it would be a good idea to make this group, standing up for the manliness of being single until the Lord returns.  Not an awful idea, I’m just glad I wasn’t part of it.

Since moving to Kentucky the guys I know label the times when a wife is out of time as “bachin it,” which basically means being all alone.  I have found that I tend toward a high school (college if I am generous) level of maturity when Linds jets town if I’m not careful.  This plays out in a few ways… I either eat out or eat cereal for every meal.  I stay up way too late for no good reason at all.  I sleep later than I should, but typically manage to still make it to work on time.  The good news is that I, unlike some friends I know, can still manage to sleep well. 

I love being married and don’t like it when she disappears for any real extended amount of time (5 nights this go around).  The silver lining?  When I am able to stay disciplined I get some great work done around the house.  A couple of years ago I managed to gut and redo our dining room and build a flight of stairs (lots of help and thanks from Paul and Seth in particular on this one) on one of her trips.  Linds left yesterday and I have already managed to paint one of the final two rooms that needed it and have plans for more. 

What happens to you if your wife is out-of-town? Do you de-evolve or do you manage to stay productive?  What do you ladies think your husbands do when you leave them alone?

New Beginnings

All the years I can remember before this one I have made fun of the resolutions that come around at the new year.  My thinking?  If you want or need to change why wait until a certain date?  It seemed (and still seems) a bit ridiculous to plan change around a time or event.  Real change revolves a person who lived, died, and rose again, but I am getting off topic. 

This year I am turning over a slightly new leaf.  I will probably still laugh about how full work out facility parking lots are, knowing how drastically that will change within only a month or two.  However, this year I am planning to reflect on this past year (with my wife) and plan a bit for the future.  Novel idea right?  Don’t worry, it isn’t original. 

I think change is a good – not always easy – thing.  I also think another part of God’s genius in creation was to give us seasons.  There are all sorts of analogies to be made from creation, but in particular there are always new beginnings.  The first snow in winter, first flowers in spring, first fall colors, and of course the first time the groundhog looks at his shadow and decides whether or not to go back in his hole.

Ultimately, the goal is to base our lives around the new beginning that we have because of Christ, life where death once reigned.  That is what I want to reflect on at the new beginning of this year.  What do you do at the end or beginning of each year?  My cynicism aside setting a goal of being more fit isn’t a bad idea.

Enjoyment or Commitment

“Just do something.”  I’ve heard that for a while now.  First in a sermon by Erwin McManus around 6-8 years ago, then from lots of people (especially at a camp I worked at), and most recently in a book title (all that I have actually gotten around to reading of the book).  My understanding is that the comment stems from the fact that we can’t screw up God’s plan for our lives so we need not just passively wait (often out of fear), but act.

I am in a job that pays our bills well enough that Lindsey can stay home with our daughter.  Its hours aren’t ideal and I have already mentioned other thoughts on the whole situation that often make it hard for me to want to put on my suit and tie.  However, this job has been good at revealing a couple of things I enjoy (learning and teaching) as well as revealing some sin in my life.  Both have been good lessons, the latter of the two a little tougher to swallow. 

In the last few years I have applied for 10-12 jobs, most of which I felt qualified for (sometimes overqualified) and have been consistently turned down.  This has gotten me wondering if the Lord has kept me at this job for the sake of continued refinement (trying to whittle away at the various sin issues I see in myself while at work).  Should I pray for contentment at the job?  Should I pray that He would hurry up and change my heart, staying committed to this job?  Or, should I just forget all of this and apply like crazy to anywhere that would get me better hours and more sanity? 

I feel as though I am at an impasse.   Granted, the impasse is self-inflicted, but I just feel stuck.  This is where I am just supposed to make a decision because God is sovereign right?  OK, well what if I find biblical support for heading either direction?  The Lord is sovereign, that’s what.

I have taken months to finish this post, all the while keeping this thought in the back of my head.  Add to that fact that I have been rolling this around for at least a couple of years off an on and I am making a decision.  Spectacular right?  Plus, a friend of mine just wrote a great post on making family goals, which was the final push I needed in this decision. 

What are your thoughts on the refinement of the job verses stepping out in faith toward something new?  Have you ever faced a big problem that you felt like you just couldn’t figure out?  What did you do?

No Post November

We bought a house at the very end of October and since then I haven’t communicated with anyone, let alone blogged, due to the work involved with it.  I have had some thoughts rolling around in my head so I will post again in the next week or so with more to offer than a reason for the delay.

Thanks.

The New Mullet

I realized today, on a very long rabbit trail that led me here, that the front tuck is the new mullet.  Let me explain.  The mullet is know as “business in the front and party in the back,” by anyone who knows anything about mullets.  The same can be said of the front tuck.  It is professional in the tuck aspect and hanging loose, like the party animal the wearer is masking, in the back.  See pictures below if you don’t believe me.

See?!

I am seriously wondering if the front tuck will be something that is looked back on as “outdated” and “trashy”.  I came upon a “motivational” poster when looking for mullet pictures that said “It is nice to know you are better than someone.”  I definitely don’t agree with what they are saying, just wondering what will be said about this trend.

Any other trend changes I need to be aware of?

What are we Celebrating?

Today we are celebrating our daughter’s birthday.  Pretty exciting huh?  I have debated for a while about what I think about birthdays and how they are celebrated.  Some people make sure to make their special day known to everyone possible, emailing/posting/tweeting/texting, all sorts of miscellaneous -ing words, the news.  Some people don’t say a word about it and no one has a clue they were born this date x number of years ago.  I tend toward the latter of the two myself, but don’t think I would argue it to be the best or most balanced option.

I have tended to think that too big a deal is made about the person.  Here we are spending money (sometimes lots) on someone whose mom birthed them years ago and the Lord has sustained for all those years by His own choosing.  My cynical side tells people “Congratulations on being birthed” (feel free to read sarcasm in that too).  However, I do think we are all unmeasurably valuable!  I think part of what rubs me wrong about a typical birthday celebration is that it tends to ignore the role of God and family and friends in the person’s life, other than to say those people are now obligated to give (like they haven’t for years already) to Birthday Boy Bob (BBB).

A few years back I decided to steal an idea from a book I read when I was a kid and am thinking more and more about doing this regularly.  I can’t tell you the title, character’s names, or really much about the book other than it makes the point multiple times that we are “upside down” in how we live most of life.  One way this is demonstrated is by having the “right side up” type people (animals really) give gifts to all their friends on their own birthday.  Weird right?  I dig it!  It shows that BBB is celebrating the fact that these people have made him who he is today on his 7th/23rd/89th birthday.  Bob celebrates his friends because of the life he has been able to live with them.  I thought it was a pretty sweet time to be able to do this for some close friends and family a few years back (although they may disagree) and don’t really know why I haven’t done it again.  I am thinking come March 24, 2011, if you are in Louisville, or wherever the Lord has me, you might get an unexpected birthday gift.

What do you do to celebrate your/your kid’s birthday?  Am I only playing with 51 cards instead of the full deck?  What do you think?

Screwtape The Sequel

I just had a discussion with some guys in the office about how most sequels are worse than the original…  With that said, here is a short follow-up post on Screwtape Letters.

Prosperity knits a man to the World.  He feels that he is ‘finding his place in it’, while really it is finding its place in him.  His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in him a sense of being really at home in earth, which is just what we want.  You will notice that the young are generally less unwilling to die that the middle-aged and the old.     –Letter 28

Wow!  That made multiple passages from 1 Peter come to mind about being “strangers” in this world that isn’t our home.

Do you think the American Dream, which I think is pretty well described in this quote, can line up with what we are called to as Christians?

Screwtape

Reading Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis right now.  It is a short fiction depicting the correspondence between Wormwood (an unexperienced tempter/demon) and his Uncle Screwtape (a much more experienced and successful tempter).  All the letters are from Screwtape to Wormwood and focus on better ways to tempt/distract/mislead his “patients.”

I have read the book a couple of times before and every time I come back to it I am reminded how easy it is for me to be distracted.  Now, I don’t think every time I get distracted it is a little devil hiding behind a bush.  I am ready and willing to admit I can be lazy and foolish all on my own at times.  At the same time I do need to remember that there are spiritual forces at work trying to destroy any believer.

Here are a couple of quotations from Letter 21…

The sense of ownership in general is always to be encouraged.  The humans are always putting up claims to ownership which sound equally funny in Heaven and in Hell and we must keep them doing so.

And all the time the joke is that the word “Mine” in its fully possessive sense cannot be uttered by a human being about anything.  In the long run either Our Father [Satan] or the Enemy [God] will say “Mine’ of each thing that exists, and specially of each man.  They will find out in the end, never fear, to whom their time, their souls, and their bodies really belong – certainly not to them, whatever happens.  At present the Enemy says “Mine” of everything on the pedantic, legalistic ground that He made it…

You ever read the book?  What are your thoughts on the spiritual realm?

Humility

I desire to be humble.  Is that weird to say?  Maybe if I said, “I am the humblest guy I know,” I would step over a line of some sorts, but good news is I don’t believe that to be true.  I do think that one way we show humility is through being teachable.  Over and over again books I have read on leadership, secular and Christian alike, say we have to be “lifelong learners” if we are to be good leaders.

Isn’t it interesting that Christians and non-Christians are agreeing that humility is a desirable quality for leadership?  It will be highlighted in different ways in the different camps for sure.  Christians will often times say, well Jesus was humble and we need to follow his example, while non-believers would more highlight the need to be current with the times and relevant to those you are leading (great points by the way).  It still all boils down to submitting to the fact that you don’t know everything and thus need to learn.

I strive to be teachable.  I fail sometimes, but that is just one more reason I need the grace of God in Christ.  When I was in high school and early college I read almost nothing.  At least in my life, that was a reflection of my lack of teachability.  I look back at all the great book titles that I missed reading, for whatever lame reason I had, and wish I hadn’t been so thick headed and lazy.  Can anyone relate here or were you all perfect students along the way?

Here are books I am reading or just read or have in a stack close at hand:

Leaders Who Last – Dave Kraft (great reminders about this topic and many others in leadership)

Radical – David Platt (super challenging)

Screwtape Letters – C.S. Lewis (have wanted to read again for a while, so here we go)

Kingdom Come – John Wallace (stories from a great family friend who passionately pursues Christ)

Shepherding a Child’s Heart – Tedd Tripp (gospel centered parenting; reading aloud with Lindsey)

Praying Life – Paul Miller (just started and already digging it) – Thanks Sojourn for the book!

There are tons of places you can pick these books up, but I am going to throw out my endorsement of a couple locally owned.  If you are in the Dallas, TX area I recommend Logos Bookstore.  Louisville, KY residents should check out the Christian Book Nook.  How about Honolulu, HI?  Another Logos Bookstore option.  Seriously, I say shop local as often as you can.

How are you learning?  Blogs, books, podcasts?