Here and Now

My friend Aaron is trying to blog every day in December. Yeah, puts me to shame. But I think it's a good habit to get back into, so here's another post... Last week Lori and I took the girls to see Steel City Christmas which, if you're not familiar with it, here's a video: Now when these videos first popped onto my radar I assumed they were faked - you know, just flash animations set to the music. But I've been to this house, tuned in my radio to 88.7 and sat with Lori and the girls in stunned awe. It was incredibly cool. If you can get to see it, go. I mean, really. But as we were coming home I realized how skeptical I had been when I had first seen those videos on youtube. Who would really put 200,000 lights on their house and then computer control them to music? Well, it turns out, there are a number of people. But I couldn't fathom it. It didn't make any sense to me. Is Jesus like that for some people? They just don't get it - just can'

Here's the lyrics of the song I did last night: Late December '44 Grandpa rode the train back home Late December '44 He'd been away for far too long To fight the second "war to end all wars" He lived a life I only knew In black and white photographs Of soldiers smiling waving home And friends that never would come back I guess I never really noticed how he carried his years Or asked him what he'd learned in his life I guess I never paid attention To how the world weighed down on him He wore a scar from every place he'd been I remember being small And looking for a hiding place I still see those two strong hands Clear blue eyes and weathered face I guess I never really noticed how he carried his years Or asked him what he'd learned in his life I guess I never paid attention To how the world weighed down on him He wore a scar from every place he'd been The years are rolling by us now I can't believe how far we've come But I can still hear

Okay - so a couple people have (gently) chided me for being absent from the Blogosphere for nearly a month. Okay - guilty. Real Life (TM) has really taken hold - from sick kids to youth dinner theater (I was one of the Dancing Stars...yeah, a red giant...bleah...). So, I'm back - and I'm sorry, for those who have missed this. Truth is, *I* missed this - but it has been hard for me to get motivated... But I HAVE been reading blogs. My friend Aaron posted a couple videos in the past couple weeks that have pushed me over the edge enough to come back to good ol' blogger... They both focus on Africa - and if this church didn't already have a serious relationship with a mission in Zimbabwe I'd be pushing these two organizations church-wide. The first is called "Advent Conspiracy" and the video is, in my opinion, really powerful. The second is from a website called the Mocha Club which encourages folks to support the cause for Africa at 7 bucks a month - you know

As part of my Monday morning routine, I surfed over to the Church Marketing Sucks webiste and hit on an interesting post here . To summarize: Most people don't think about church. Why market a church? Because most people don't think about church. Ah, you may be thinking, "Of course they think about church. How could they NOT think about church?" Okay, maybe you're not thinking that - but for me, and for most people I know, well, we think about church. But that's because most people I know GO to church - it's part of us, part of who we are. I don't think about hair care products. I mean, really, have you seen my hair? I got it cut over the weekend and decided to do something different. Set the clippers on 4 instead of 3. Well, it is winter and that extra 1/8th of an inch might just keep me warmer. But I don't think about conditioners and gels and...paste? Really? Volumizers, restructurizers, um...what? I Googled hair products a moment ago...and was

I started reading two leadership books this week: Bill Hybels ' Ax.i.om: Powerful Leadership Proverbs and Seth Godin's Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us Tribes has an interesting (and pretty common sensical , if you ask me) premise: we all want to belong to something bigger than ourselves - and generally when we "join" we want to be with like-minded (or like-interested) people. We form tribes. We form tribes around common interests: The Deadheads who followed the Grateful Dead, Trekkies , Star Wars fans, comic collectors, train nuts ( heh , I am one), sports teams. We form tribes around common ideologies: the emergent church, the One campaign, politcal parties, social issues... We form tribes around the things that are important to us. Tribes are different from organizations. Tribal bonds are very strong - sometimes (and wrongfully, but realisticly ) stronger than family ties. Saturday golf outings, first day of buck season hunting camp, every night at the bar a

A friend of mine brings me coffee once or twice a week. Just stops in my office and chats and has a cup of "Seattle's Finest" with him for me. It's a real blessing to start my Mondays off that way. But today he handed me the cup and insted of the familiar red wrapped with brown, it's green & snowflakey wrapped with brown... What? Christmas already? I was going to give them the benefit of the doubt (you know, maybe it's a HOLIDAY cup) since the wrapper says, "Enjoy the little celebrations." But the cup itself says, "Seeing stockings filled with treats, small but sweet surprises."**** Sigh... Well, I guess I have no real reason to complain. It just seems like we push from Halloween (which was extremely profitable, despite the economy it seems) right into the next commercially viable holiday, Christmas. Watch, the day after Christmas the Valentine's day stuff gets put out (poor January, no big-selling holidays - I guess Martin Luther K

Friday Lori asked Elie, "What do you want for Christmas?" "Gum, and um...uh...Meatballs." "Really?" "Yeah, um, gum and meatballs." Now, you have to understand a tiny bit of backstory on this. First, gum is a treat for my kids. It's not that we withhold it from them, but they really like chewing gum. Sometimes they'll ask for a snack and it'll be gum... And Elie likes to have her own - not the gum that just everybody can have a piece of, but gum that is hers (which she will give you if you ask her...but that's not the point). And meatballs. Not just any meatballs. When we moved here Lori and I were really excited that there is an Olive Garden restaurant right nearby so we have gone there a few times (okay, more than a few - I like their food :) ). Anyway, at some point Elie discovered the meatballs in the wedding soup and that is her new favorite food (which works out well, in a way for us - because Rachel and I like the soup part,

This Saturday at Independence Middle School here in Bethel Park will be a concert featuring our own 11:01 band and another local band - Psalter... Here's the link for the Nyadire Connection. And here's the skinny on the event: THE NYADIRE CONNECTION PRESENTS Contemporary Christian Music Featuring Suzie Ackerman And The11:01 Band and Psalter Saturday, November 8, 2008 7pm Independence Middle School, Bethel Church Road, Bethel Park Tickets $10 for Students $15 for Adults 100% of the proceeds from the concert will go directly to the Nyadire United Methodist Mission in Zimbabwe . Suzie Ackerman and the 11:01 Band play for the Sunday morning Contemporary Service at Christ United Methodist Church (CUMC) and Psalter is a local comtemporary Christian band involved in the worship of various churches in the south hills. Call Christ UMC (412) 835-6621 for ticket information or stop by the CUMC Office weekdays 9:00am – 4:00pm

Yesterday was All Saints' Sunday - we ran a video with the names and pictures of those who have died over the past year here at Christ Church while the band sang Chris Rice's Untitled Hymn (Come to Jesus). It was beautiful and moving. Many were older, some were too young - all are loved and are missed dearly and it doesn't matter that I don't know any of them. We're in this together - when one mourns, we all mourn, at least a little. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Adding to the roll in my heart this week - a friend who lost her baby and her family who mourn with her, a grandfather (who was much like a father to this young man) who passed suddenly over the weekend. Mourning lasts the night, but joy comes in the morning. My friend Aaron (whose blog Aaron Rambles I read regularly) posted last week that his adopted baby Tobiah has some trouble with his heart here . I'll be praying for Aaron and Marjorie and Corban and Tobiah. His post rem

Today is Trick-or-Treating night...we live in a really hilly neighborhood... Anyway, Rachel was a bride - I totally freaked out the first time she put it on - I'm sooo not ready for that (I know, like 20 years from now...still, it's going by too fast...). Elie was a fairy princess. Part of Elie's costume was a glow-in-the-dark magic wand. As she was getting ready, I heard her say as she waved her wand, "Abracadabra keep me safe." If only it was so easy, you know? Just wave a wand to keep her safe. Of course, we often treat God that way, don't we? Just say the right words, wave the wand, whatever...and, poof!, we get what we want. I worry about the girls all the time. I pray that they are safe when I'm not around... Man, I wish I had a wand... God - keep them safe...

The election is coming up too soon - and the presidential race, again, is not an easy choice for me... I found this from the Global Board of Church and Society somewhat helpful... Linky Here's the main page

I just read this in Judges: 6 After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance. 7 The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel. 8 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten. 9 And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. And I started thinking to myself, "How does that happen?" It seems like we're only the second generation after the Red Sea was parted and the deliverance from Egypt - and the 40 years in the wilderness - and they've forgotten. How? The only answer that I can come up with is that the generation before stoppe

I was reading the latest issue of Outreach magazine - an interview with Erwin McManus: Q What's the key to unleashing that human potential? A Not seeing human potential and the glory of God as somehow in conflict with each other. You hear that all the time in churches! In fact, that happened at the Mayan, one of our locations, a couple of weeks ago. One of our attendees is this amazing artist, one of the Suicide Girls of SuicideGirls Radio on L.A.'s Indie 103.1 FM. [The four-year-old show features interviews, advice, current events andmusic, and Rolling Stone named Indie 103.1 "America's coolest commercial station."] She has incredible talent, musically and as a writer, and she's a brand-new follower of Christ. Well, some guy came up and was asking her questions. He said to her, "So, you're going to just let God do it from now on and you're going to fade away, right?" and she said, "Yeah." I said, "No! You're not going to

I just came from our service for prayer and healing. It's such a powerful service, I'm so glad that Christ church continues with it, even though it has the smallest attendance. In this case, numbers definitely aren't everything. One of the things we do at the service is pray individually with each person who wants prayer at the rail after communion. I mentioned the verse from James, "The prayer of the righteous is powerfully effective." And on the way home I started to think about some of those powerful prayers that I've prayed with people over the past 12 years of ministry. A woman whose heart was broken for her daughter who can't shake an addiction. For a woman who just needs hope, when her body is being eaten up by cancer. I prayed once for an older woman who said to me, "I just want life to be worth living." For a young couple who both have mental and physical and financial challenges in their lives, but who love each other and want to get

Last week I went to Catalyst. It was an amazing conference. The quote that haunts me from the two days is this: To reach the people no one else is reaching, we have to do the things no one else is doing. Andy Stanley said that - he was paraphrasing Craig Groeschel...

I saw this on the Blood:Water Mission website and thought it was worth posting here, too... Since 1990 Newgate Mission has been serving the homeless population in Longview, Texas and the surrounding area. Newgate Mission exists to relieve needs, recover lives, rebuild community, and restore hope. They provide support for the spiritual, physical, social, emotional, educational, and financial needs of our community.“It was during one of our daily Bible studies that an amazing thing began. We were discussing helping those less fortunate than ourselves and some were questioning how they, as homeless individuals, could possibly help anyone else. I have donated to Blood:Water Mission for the last few years so I knew about the great things they are doing in Africa. I shared with our group how many people in our world lack the most essential of physical needs, clean water. I told them about the 1000 Wells Project and how $1 can provide enough water for one African for an entire year. They were

I spent a couple days last week at the Catalyst Conference and I picked up the T-Shirt I wore yesterday at church. Drink Coffee Do Good It comes from Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee company which is Rwandan coffee that you can get mail order. The thing is, rather than some giant multi-national corporation benefiting from my purchase of coffee, Rwandan coffee farmers benefit from purchasing this coffee. Check out the websites. Here's an interview from catalyst . Cool idea - check it out...

My friend Michael posted something simple yet very profound for me the other day: http://barneyisfat.blogspot.com/2008/10/some-days-it-feels-like-world-is-going.html "It makes the scary go away when we read his [Jesus'] words."

Yesterday we celebrated communion. That, in and of itself, is not all that remarkable - we celebrate communion every Sunday here, though we only have it during the full worship service on the first Sundays of the month (in the contemporary services). Otherwise we celebrate an abbreviated communion service in the chapel after the services. Yesterday was World Communion Sunday. Again, not all that remarkable, really. We didn't use much different in the way of liturgy... In the chaos that was my Sunday morning, however, I forgot to get people to help me serve communion. Fortunately, we have some really great people here - who think more clearly on a Sunday morning that I do - and three people were pointed out to me to help - Rose, Dave, and Brenda (THANKS DENISE!). I "briefed" them on what to do - I mean, it's pretty normal and rote for me to a degree. And that's a problem, I think. After the service, I thanked them for helping with communion and Brenda said to

So I'm hearing a lot about this new movie, Fireproof . If anybody would like to see the movie and have some discussion on it, it's the focus of our Reel Sactuary for October. The info is here . See you next Saturday...

I came across this post on a blog and was intrigued: http://www.spendlessreachmore.com/?p=33 Recently I was watching FOX news and they had Political analyst Carl Rove. He was talking about bounce and bounce time. When he was the campaign manager for President Bush, they new their bounce time was about 4 days. In other words, 8 years ago when they gave a speech they knew the speech would be in the hearts and minds of people for about 4 days, he later went on to explain how today’s rules have drastically changed. He said the bounce time, today its about 1 hour! Staying in front of the congregation with information and being part of your organization is more and more crucial. As you know… Its a living organization that has continual needs, depending on them to show up week after week to get feed by the Senior Pastor is life time, that is a week to week is a lifetime! Putting together a strategic plan to engage with your audience on a daily basis is a really good idea. If you have no

Bill Murray's character Bob in What About Bob? says to his psychiatrist (Richard Dryfus), "There are two kinds of people in this world: those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don't." So, I'm one of the former - I like Neil's music - it's catchy, it's cheesy, it's classic AM radio 70s music. Now his newest album, Home Before Dark , is really good. Rick Rubin, who produced Johnny Cash's last album produced this...but I digress. I couldn't help but think of the opening line from Neil's "Sweet Caroline" this morning (you should hear Rachel sing the horn part Bomp - bomp - bommmmmp!!!!) "Where it began, I can't begin to knowing..." I was thinking about the books that I've been reading lately and they seem to be about the beginnings of things. U2 by U2 ; The Seuss, the Whole Seuss, and Nothing but the Seuss ; The Making of Star Wars ; Bob Dylan Scrapbook , and I realized that I enjoy "the making of"

A friend of mine once told me a story: He was a soldier in a combat zone, and as he was trying to move quietly he heard a woman screaming and men laughing. He crept forward and discovered a man and several children tied up while a couple of terrorists did unspeakable things to a woman, the wife of the man who was tied up. True story. As he was telling me the story I quickly ran through the options - do nothing, walk away and try to live with myself. Intervene, get myself killed and not stop them. Shoot them. There was no good solution. Life is full of the choice between bad and bad (life is also full of the choice between good and good - but that's another post). Is the commandment about not killing more important than the commandments about helping the helpless? Okay, most of our bad/bad choices aren't this dramatic. But we still have to make them, don't we? I have known people who have had to choose between putting a few gallons of gas in the car to get to work or buying

So yesterday we put out the Ten Houses Challenge. Check it out here ... EDIT - okay - the free hosting service I chose is flaky, so the site should be up, but no promises...

This morning, in my usual blog surfing Monday morning start, I came across a link that led me to a link that led me to this article: http://www.washingtonblade.com/2008/9-12/arts/feature/13258.cfm Ray Boltz, CCM pop icon of the 80's (and one of the great mullets of all time...heh) has come out of the closet. So, what's going to happen to all those background tracks for "Thank You" and "Watch the Lamb"? The typical church response is to throw out anything the person produced because it's somehow "tainted" - nevermind that lots of CCM artists have recorded lots of secular songs written by people who definitely have not lived a "Christian" lifestyle - THIS is seen as betrayal by a CCM artist... I remember when Doug Pinnick of Kings X came out...not that they were this huge band or anything, but everything they had done got pulled from Christian book stores and friends tossed their CDs in the trash... So, what will happen to all those son

I'm just learning what "passive-aggressive" means. I mean, I've heard the term before, of course, but it was always the punchline to a joke on Frazier or something. I never really thought about what it really means. Now I know. It means me. Oh, not all the time, surely. But Lori can probably tell you stories... Better yet, don't talk to Lori about that. I realized it again today, though. I've had two books given to me: The Shack and Scalpel and the Soul . When I was given The Shack , the person said, "You HAVE to read this book." When I was given The Scalpel ... the person said, "I think you might enjoy this book. It really affected me." So, what happened? I received both books graciously (that would be, um, the passive part, I guess) but I've had The Shack for three months, and the other for three weeks and I had set The Shack aside for "more important" things (and that, I guess, would be the aggressive part). But I'm

Today is the first day of school for Rachel - and every other kid in Bethel Park... It's our first time at a bus stop with other kids... We see the little girl (and her mom) across the street come outside, so we start heading down the hill. We chat a little on the way down, busy summer, first day of school stuff... A mom and daughter are already at the bottom of the hill (where they live) with a dog. Rachel and Elie go to the dog. Nothing like a beagle to make instant friends... A dad and his son sit on the opposite curb. I wonder why they aren't coming over... A couple other moms and kids and another dad and kids show up. There's a lot of catching up. We're not the only new family at the bus stop. What I do in moments like this is withdraw into myself...I kind of get why the dad and son are sitting on the other curb, I guess. Lori talks with the moms - the kids sort of play together. Rachel really hovers around Lori - the beagle attraction being very brief. There'

This week we're kicking off a new series: Get in the Game. This week: Monopoly:Success and Significance. I just spent about two and a half hours working on a sermon - about two pages of a sermon, anyway, fact-checking and quoting...and I realize now that I can't use it. I need to save almost all of it for another sermon a couple months from now. Well, the truth is I COULD use it, but it'll fit way better in October, and it's really not the direction that I was planning to go this week anyway. But it's frustrating. I mean, two and a half hours for two pages really isn't that long, I guess. I know that I'll be spending a lot more. And it's fair to ask, "If that's not the right sermon for this week, why did you keep going?" Fair question. I guess it's because I was in the middle of it - I was fitting ideas together and re-wording sentences and...it's a matter of not seeing the forest for the trees. It wasn't until I stepped back an

I happened on this http://www.freerice.com/index.php And if it does what it says, then it's great. If not, well, it's still fun to see what words you know or can figure out (and if you miss them, they come back...so you might get go learn a few new words, too).

I've been reading U2 By U2 for quite a while now in drips and drabs - and I'm still only up to the recording of Boy (a great debut album which everyone should own). But I'm also reading The Seuss, the Whole Seuss, and Nothing but the Seuss which is more biography than the U2 book (which is more, I guess, memoir/interview). A couple things struck me this morning about U2 and Dr. Seuss. Both create a certain type of art, not appreciated by all, but excellent in its own way and both developed devoted followings very early. Interestingly, at least to me, neither Theodor Geisel nor the musicians in U2 were particularly good at their craft in the beginning - but they had passion and vision and drive - even in the face of rejections and missteps. It seems to me that visionary and creative people are a special breed. Why is it that of the dozens of bands in the Dublin area in the mid-seventies that U2 rose to the top? Seriously, they admit that they weren't very adept musici

"The Body of Christ broken for you on the cross..." The words rest in my ears, familiar yet powerful. The bread rests on my palm. It weighs nothing. I close my eyes and I can't tell it's there. I have to press down on it with my thumb to sense it. And somewhere else in the building I hear - children crying - hammers pounding - a phone ringing Life and hurt and rebuilding and the normalcy of today goes on and on around me...and I can't feel the presence of the Body of Christ in my hand. I hold Christ too lightly, too easily. I have to make myself aware. Until... Until I eat the juice soaked bread. Until I eat the Flesh and drink the Blood... And I can't ignore it. And I can't refuse it. And I must pat attention. For Christ is inside me. And I am not the same...

As I'm sitting here in my office, getting ready for Sunday Night worship, the band is rehearsing Switchfoot's "This Is Your Life" and it sounds amazing. "This is your life...are you who you want to be?" That's a great question. And, really, it's deeper. This is your life...are you who God made you to be? Is there a difference? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Lori and the girls are visiting my in-laws today, so Lori came to church last night and "are you who you want to be" is an important question right now. Lori's passionate about music - and gifted musically. But what she heard me say last night (you know, I'm not sure I even said it...but it was a God thing) was that "your purpose is not necessarily your passion." Abstractly, I believe that to be true...I'm just not sure I said it... But Lori is really drawing some direction from that because she's been wondering about purpose and passion and calling. She ta

Double Tuesday But Brief: Buy This Book I think it's amazing - 30 stories that are 30 of the best sermons I've ever heard...erm, read. But these are not your parents' sermons...trust me... Seriously, I got it at Ollies for like 4 bucks... Story by Steven James

I did a quick search for a story that I thought about using for staff devotions today and I came across this blog post from a think tank, I think . Of course, using an image from despair.com puts you pretty high on my list to begin with - and then she's talking about "we've always done it that way" (which was not going to be the focus of what I wanted to say, anyway...but there's some good stuff on this post anyway). But I love her closing statement Make two columns and keep track of your patterns over the next week. Label one side ‘innovative’ and one side ’stupid’ and see if you can break some unproductive, recurring, unoriginal habits. I’m going to give it a go. Yeah, I'm going to give it a go, too...hmmm, I might even keep track of 'em here... Yeah, maybe not - I can't for the life of me figure out tables...argh...

Living in a new house has brought its share of pleasant surprises. One (admittedly very minor) one for us has been having a garbage disposal in the sink. For a while we had been calling it the "sink monster" but the girls decided that the sink monster needed a name - so, our disposal is named Frank (sorry if you're reading this and your name is Frank - if it's any consolation, they named Lori's car "shiny lunch"...) Naming the disposal has made for some interesting conversations at our house: "Do you want the rest of this corn?" "Nah. Frank it." "Hey, I'm going to Frank this banana, it's pretty brown..." And so on. Yep, Frank is a verb in our house now. Got something unidentifiable in the back of the 'fridge? Frank it. A scoop of mashed potatoes left from dinner. Frank it. And we have other "code" words at home, too. If you know us well, you know about roses...and there are other words and phrases that

Last week I needed to replace an outlet in Rachel's room so I went down to the electric panel to shut off the power to her room...and the breakers weren't labeled... So I spent part of the afternoon with every light in the house turned on, computers and TV off, switching off a breaker, running through the house to see what lights went off, running back to the breaker box. Repeat. And repeat...and repeat... So, I never did figure out which breaker the computers were on. I thought I checked the light on the printer (which I left plugged in and turned on) every time...but I missed it on one of the runs... And tonight I was trying to rescue a harddrive (a story for another time) while the girls were watching a movie and Lori wanted to vacuum the dining room... That's when I found out "the hard way" which breaker the computers are on... Not the way you want to find out... But, all was not lost. The computers are as fine as they were before they lost power suddenly, the

This week is about Transformation. Once in a while, when we wax nostalgic, it's easy to just gloss over the bad stuff. And sometimes, when we're in a bad place, we dwell on the bad stuff in our lives. God is all about transformation. There are things in my life that I would have done differently if I could - "if I knew then what I know now" - embarassing things that, frankly, I hope no one ever finds out about. And we all have those moments, I think. But those moments are part of what makes me, me. I may be a little more compassionate because of something painful in my past, a little more forgiving because of someone who has forgiven me, maybe a little more patient because I've tried the patience of others. I may be able to understand what you are going through because I've been through it myself. Yeah, I've been embarassed, frustrated, hurt - and I've embarassed, frustrated and hurt others, too... And God doesn't make all that go away. Yes, I'

Elie and I were driving home from church tonight and she was playing a Ninetendo DS game called Cooking Mama. She "made" me a pizza on the way home and then she announced: "I'm making you coffee, Daddy." "Okay, I don't put any cream or sugar in mine." "Well, I'm going to put a little something in it, but you won't really taste it." "Um...okay." "Just...it will make it taste like hot chocolate, Daddy. I'll just put a little shrimp in it, and it'll taste like hot chocolate." "Okaaaaay..." Boy am I glad she wasn't really making me coffee - can you imagine it? Coffee with a little shrimp...bleah... Worship can be like coffee with shrimp in it sometimes. Here's what I mean. Everything is flowing, everything is going just right...and then, bam, something happens. Maybe it's a technical thing...a mic isn't on or something...maybe I say or do something that distracts from worship

I was looking at my car (Honda Pilot) as I walked out of the church tonight and I should have taken a picture (heck if I know how to get a picture off my cell phone anyway...). You see, the back end of the Pilot is sitting really low - the front end is popped up - because I put about 10 or so boxes full of books in the back of it on Thursday and I've been riding around with them since. These are books that will fill the shelves (woo-hoo to the Jim and Larry and the Tuesday Morning Guys for getting my office together and getting extra shelves put up!!) in my office - and I INTENDED to take them in on Thursday...and on Friday...and today... But you know how it is - life gets busy, stuff comes up, and the books stay in the car. Just like my spiritual life sometimes - I can carry around these burdens that weigh me down but I'm just too busy to do anything about it. Life is busy (I love those "life comes at you fast" commercials...'cause it's true, and, um, they

This Sunday we'll be talking about connectedness. Scott Phillips is a great singer/songwriter - and I highly recommend his newest album (I believe I've said that before here...lemme check...yep...) so go to iTunes and get Next Stop Willoughby or check out http://www.scottphillips.com/ . One of my favorite songs on the album is called "It All Comes Down" and it's about connectedness - or the lack thereof: It All Comes Down Well I’m up and I’m down and I’m all around But I’m okay if you ask me ‘Cause we don’t really have the time to care like we could I could trip, I could fall, you won’t know at all ‘Cause your busyness is blinding And we don’t really take the time to love like we should Chorus:And it always comes back down To the way that we love And it always comes back down To the way that we love I’m in a hurry to grow, to grow up so fast Just to miss my youth and to chase my past If I keep looking forward to the day that my ship comes inI ’m gonna work

Yesterday my in-laws stopped by to celebrate Elie's birthday. We did a little running around, but ended up at Half Price Books. Now, I've said before, I'm cheap. So cheap books are a great thing in my eyes... I scored Only You Can Save Mankind (the first of the Johnny Maxwell trilogy by one of my favorite - oh, sorry, he's British - favourite authors, Terry Pratchett) for like 3 bucks and The Seuss, the Whole Seuss, and Nothing But the Seuss - a biography of, yeah, Dr. Seuss - for about 10 bucks. Love cheap books.

Well, my stuff has been in Bethel Park for one week - so, even though we went back to Warren last weekend, we've kinda been officially here a week... Highlights... Um, Home Depot is getting to know me by wierd request, if not by name... Best Buy got a big chunk of our "stimulus" check...HDMI is still a bit of a mystery to me... The internet here at home is flaky (or my computer is flaky - it's Vista, so...) We have a boat load of boxes in our house...and about 1/3rd are unpacked. The bedrooms are up, the kitchen, the living room (sort of). We can do laundry, but we can't get in our back door (!!) The church has been wonderfully welcoming. The morning we arrived to watch the movers carry in our stuff we were welcomed with a big basket of great stuff - breakfast foods, bread, peanut butter, a dozen roses, stuff for the girls to play with - and a list compiled by the staff of places to eat, get our hair cut, doctors, dentists, etc. It was really great. We have