Here and Now

...Now? Thanks to my friend Aaron for linking this video: So that got me thinking - I've finally made the switch from desktop to laptop for most of what I do. I can't imagine going to a mobile device for most of my internet usage - so I'm a dinosaur, I know. Who knows. Fun fact from the video is that 40 million people have been rickrolled - and if you don't know what that is, check out Wikipedia . Anyway, I sort of got rick rolled (not really, since it's not "Never Gonna Give You Up" - well, it isn't even Rick Astley, but...let me explain). So here's the deal, and I say this with a hope that some of you who read this will actually comment with your opinion about my moral dilemma. Here's what happened: I own early Boston on cassette. My tape deck is slowly going the way of the buffalo but I want to get digital copies of stuff I have on cassette. So I turned to torrents - you know, peer-to-peer networks - to download stuff that I own in ana...

So we went to Innovate 2009 last week at Granger Community Church in Granger Indiana. Man - go to YouTube and look at GCCWIRED videos - 154 from the church. Probably something to offend everyone :) High points: I LOVE the children's areas of GCC - they have slides from the main floor to the kids' rooms (which are pretty awesome for adults to slide in too - heh) and they're decorated amazingly - Under the Sea, 321 Penguins, Jungle, Farm, etc. But it's not just aesthetics - we talked to them about curriculum and process and volunteers and...well, let's just say they really have Children's Ministry all together. The worship was great, of course, but not just because the music was cutting edge (okay, cutting edge for church music) but because it wasn't just about the songs - we prayed, we read scripture, we even had a time of blessing God for the way He's working in a bunch of churches in attendance. I really love the flash that they have going (robo...

So I'm watching TV and there's a commercial for car inusurance which says if I switch from Allstate to Progressive, I can save 418 dollars a year. But the thing is, there's an Allstate commercial that says, and I quote, If you think GEICO is the cheap insurance company, then you’re really going to be confused when you hear this: drivers who switched from GEICO to Allstate saved an average of $518 a year. Confused? Don’t be.” So, I'm looking online at a Geico quote that suggests at least 15% savings and maybe 500 bucks. Okay - I have Nationwide, so if I switch to Geico, I'll be down about 500 bucks a year, then I'll switch to Allstate to be down another 500 - then to Progressive down another 400...hmm, I should be getting car insurance for just about nothing now - wait, Nationwide suggests if I switch to them from a competitor, I could save 500 bucks. So, after all this, I'm back with Nationwide and they're paying me 500 bucks a year to be insured by the...

Really, you need to read the previous post before you read this. I'm not kidding... So - for no apparent reason the girls wanted me to read Max Lucado's You Are Special tonight for bed. So I get it - I'm a Wemmick and I don't need stars or grey dots, I just need to know that Eli cares about me and wants to talk to me everyday. So I asked Elie if she knew what that was all about...and we talked about it. And you know what - we really aren't normal after all. We are Children of God...

Shhhhh - I'm supposed to be finishing my sermon right now :) The other day Rachel was getting something - man, I wish I could remember all the details - let me try to reconstruct it. Oh, I think it was buttering toast - well, if it wasn't that's how I'm remembering it (I gotta do some posts on memory - if I remember, of course...um...). Anyway: Rachel was buttering her toast the other day - understand that when Rachel makes toast it's just barely browned at all - and she puts the butter on like some people (me) put peanut butter on their sandwiches - yeah, it could possibly be measured in cups - bleah. And I said to Rachel, "You know, normal people just put a little butter on their toast." "Daddy," she said, looking so sweet and innocent, "Don't you know we are not normal people?" Hmmm - all of eight years old and already getting smarmy (actually, she started a long time ago...sigh...takes after...me...) So, we laughed and she at...

So I was reading in Ezra this morning (my morning devotions are completely ADD - big surprise, eh?). Anyway, I was reading in Ezra this morning about the rebuilding of the temple after the Babylonian exile. At the beginning of chapter 4 is this: When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the LORD, the God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, "Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here." It struck me as I was reading that if the narrator hadn't started this with "the enemies of Judah" I would have thought something like, "Wow, that's really cool. The people of Israel are doing this mighty thing for God and they're inspiring the "ungodly" people to join in." Or something. But it's really clear in Ezra that these neighbors of theirs a...

For those who might care and might not know already, Otterbein's sermons are now posted online here . We go back to June. You can see two things in what's posted. Pastor Steve and I are sharing the preaching throughout the series (I'll be finishing out the David Series "Good to Be King" through September) and also the number of special services we have had already (the dates missing from the list July 5 & 19, August 2 & 9).

Yesterday Elie brought home a Fundraising booklet from school - they're selling little pizzas, pretzels, that kind of stuff. She and Lori flipped through it and, of course, Elie wants to try everything in there... Later in the evening, Lori and I were watching TV, Elie was watching a movie on the computer. She came into the livingroom carrying a couple of my wrenches. She said, "Daddy, do you have more of these?" "Yeah, I have a bunch, why?" "Well, I can take some of them and sell them. For the fundraiser." So, I guess she thought the booklet was stuff she was going to get if she brought in enough money? I don't know. All I know is she was scouring the house looking for saleable things (MY stuff, of course...). It becomes so obvious when the girls don't understand something - their interpretations are often hysterical. As we get older, we are better able to interpret things - we are more equipped to understand things. Yet we still mess ...