Here and Now

Go here: http://wuzzadem.typepad.com/wuz/2006/03/church_sign_sma.html 'Nuff said...

Okay - four days of sitting in a folding chair at tables with 1200 other people is probably nobody's idea of a good time... But I thought Annual Conference was really good this year. If you don't know what Annual Conference is, well here's the Wikipedia article that really won't help explain it - but suffice it to say that it's when all the pastors and representative lay people from all the United Methodist churches in Western PA get together for "holy conferencing." So, it was a good weekend. The worship was inspiring (even if I was told one too many times that I needed to be "discerning" in the process...argh), the legislation was civil, the elections to General Conference and Jurisdictional Conference were...really drawn out...but pretty civil as well... I only heard one person say one time that "the cabinet is a bunch of idiots..." and we really only got railroaded once on a vote, and that was to give money to "third-world...

Man, I don't even HAVE an iPod...sigh... So, I'm finally backing up all of my mp3s onto an external hard drive... I started it at 9 this morning and as of 2:10, it still wasn't done... I have a lot of songs... No, really a LOT of songs... This morning while I was doing something (obviously not paying attention to my 3 year old), Elie was watching something on Noggin - I think it was Pinkadinkydoo - not sure how you spell that... Anyway, I was half listening to whatever it was she was watching - it was an episode about a girl who wants a doll - and then has to have EVERY accessory that was ever made for the doll - so many items that the doll itself gets lost in all the mess. She had the jet plane and the car and the house and the shopping mall or whatever...but where was the doll... I realized that I'm a guy who leans toward excess ( leans toward ? Bill, have you seen your profile lately?)...ahem, as I was saying, I seem to have the mindset that if one is good, ten is be...

You know, I've preached a couple of times that church is weird. I mean, where else to you join with a bunch of people and sing songs together, stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down - respond to things that the person up front says (all in unison now). So, I used to think that church is weird - but... But the reality is - we do that at rock concerts (we do ALL of that at rock concerts ). When I went to see U2 (man, too many years ago) - all of RFK stadium sang along with at least half the songs - and we all left the stadium singing "How long...to sing this song? How long...how long?" - I mean all the way down the ramps and out into the parking lots... But we did all of the "church stuff" at the concert. And U2 may be exceptional in the way that Bono preaches (and he does preach...), every concert I've been to has the same elements - we stand, we sit, we sing along with what we know - heh, some go forward for a blessing by the lead singer (okay, this i...

I'm listening to the 77s...go ahead, I'll wait while you Google them...or Wikipedia them...or whatever... The song is (or, was, I'm pretty easily distracted...heh) "Nowhere Else" There is nowhere else I'd rather be Than in your heart There is nowhere else I wanna be Than in your eyes In your arms I love the song - beautiful love song. But then I'm singing along with it and I start thinking...is that right? Shouldn't I want to be in God's heart and eyes and arms more than anywhere else? ARGH!! Then I come back in off the ledge (okay, it was a first storey ledge, but still...). Yes - better is one day in God's courts than thousands elsewhere, right Mr. Redman? But I have my thousands here, too - and I want to spend them with my wife. I won't appologize. She's away for the next 30 hours or so and I'm already missing her (never mind that on a normal Friday I wouldn't see her for a couple more hours anyway). And, the truth is,...