And You Thought Waterboarding Was Bad…

Thursday, the organization closegitmonow filed a Freedome of Information Act request to find out which bands and songs were used to torture terrorists are the Guantanamo Bay Military Base.  Some of the artists are upset that their music was used to hurt others.  Below is the list of music believed to have been used as torture. 

• – AC/DC
• – Aerosmith
• – Barney theme song (By Bob Singleton)
• – The Bee Gees
• – Britney Spears
• – Bruce Springsteen
• – Christina Aguilera
• – David Gray
• – Deicide
• – Don McClean
• – Dope
• – Dr. Dre
• – Drowning Pool
• – Eminem
• – Hed P.E.
• – James Taylor
• – Limp Bizkit
• – Marilyn Manson
• – Matchbox Twenty
• – Meatloaf
• – Meow mix jingle
• – Metallica
• – Neil Diamond
• – Nine Inch Nails
• – Pink
• – Prince
• – Queen
• – Rage against the Machine
• – Red Hot Chili Peppers
• – Redman
• – Saliva
• – Sesame street theme music (By Christopher Cerf)
• – Stanley Brothers
• – The Star Spangled Banner
• – Tupac Shakur

So I guess my question is “What are they upset about?”  They obviously didn’t mind torturing innocent Americans with their awful music.  Why be upset that other cultures are now being tortured with it also.  I guess the other thing that interests me about this is that this might be the only time in history that Sesame Street, the Barney Song, Tupac, Brittney, Dr. Dre and The Star Spangled Banner have ever been put on the same list.

Five songs I would add if I was trying to torture prisoners (not that I necessarily support that):

1. This is the song that never ends…
2. You’ve Got a Friend in Me – From the movie Toy Story
3. I’m a Barbie Girl, In a Barbie World.  Life in plastic…it’s fantastic.
4. …You do the hokey pokie and you turn yourself around…
5. Yankee Doodle

And besides, after really spending some time going over the list, have we even considered the possibility that the military wasn’t torturing them at all?  With artists like Bruce Springstein, Queen, and Matchbox Twenty, maybe we were just introducing them to everything great about America.  Maybe it’s not about punishment.  Maybe it’s about healing and understanding. 

I mean if we could just get one terrorist to agree with Tupac that, “We gotta make a change… It’s time for us as a people to start makin’ some changes. Let’s change the way we eat, let’s change the way we live and let’s change the way we treat each other. You see the old way wasn’t working so it’s on us to do what we gotta do, to survive. And still I see no changes. Can’t a brother get a little peace? There’s war on the streets & the war in the Middle East.”  Word Tupac…word.

Anyhow, I guess the moral of the story is: “Don’t subject yourself to torture.  Choose talk radio.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming soon to a family near you…

…CARTER!  But not yet.  I actually wrote a lot about this on Leah’s pregnancy blog, so I am not going to rewrite it all here.  The link is www.storkstruck.blogspot.com

Check it out if you want to find out how goofy/crazy/funny Leah and I (at least think we) are.  The newest update is that we went back to the doctor yesterday and there is no changes/improvements from last week, but she also told us that Leah is the closest to being ready to have a baby of all of her patients and that all of her mom’s wish their pregnancy was going as well as Leah’s.  It’s always good to know other people with they could be you.

One way or another, Carter should be here (almost certainly) by this time next week.

…Armor Free :)

I got an email several days ago from somebody who wanting more information about our divorce recovery program.  Unfortunately we aren’t currently running the program, so I put her in touch with some people who are and told her if she ever needed to visit with a minister to let me know.  Her reply really moved me.  I took out any details that somebody might recognize her or her story, but here is what she wrote about her divorce that took place about a year ago. 

“Some days I do better than others, but I know that I need help with my grief and depression regarding my divorce… so I really don’t want to go into another holiday season like this. Last year was devastating. I just want to be able to leave my house without having to strap on my armor every day, just to get through the day. My goal is to have a purpose, a reason in this life other than working. Step outside, armor-free. : )”

I wrote her back and shared with her some of my story, some about my church family, and told her I would be praying for her and we would love to help her find her purpose in life here.  But it really hit me to think about how many people have to leave their house every day wearing armor, just to get through the day.  How many people wish they had a purpose?  How many people at this church feel this way and still don’t know what to do about it?  

Why do we do it?  We all know that talking about our problems helps.  We all know that we need a support system of friends and family to get us through the hard times.  Why is it so hard to find?  Why, when we have the support system, do we still hesitate to use it?  Why pretend things are okay when everybody knows they aren’t?

I think a major part of the problem is that we live in a country that says “cheer up” and “don’t be sad.”  Well I disagree!  Below are the six myths about grieving.  When I say myths, I am telling you these aren’t things you should do.

1. Don’t feed bad.
2. Replace the loss.
3. Grieve alone.
4. Keep busy.
5. Be strong.
6. Time heals all wounds.

When good things happen to you…celebrate.  When bad things happen to you…hurt, be sad, or grieve.  It’s the natural response to bad things and will help you deal with them.  Don’t let these myths, that are so popular in our culture keep you from grieving fully.

Please say a prayer for the woman who sent me this email, that she finds her purpose in God, that her life becomes full, and that she is able to walk out of her house soon, armor free.

A Prayer

In his book, Simply Christian, N.T. Wright discusses the debate about which is better, formal prayers passed down and repeated, or the prayers of an individual spontaneously offered to God at any moment by their own design.  He discusses how Jesus provides personal and individual prayers during his ministry, but also models prayer to his apostles at different times as well.  Wright claims (and I tend to agree) that we would all benefit from some of both. 

It would be arrogant to ignore the prayers of our elders, whether they lived long ago or are just more mature Christians than ourselves.  When we join them in their prayers, we experience their wisdom, their relationship with God, their faith, their pain, their struggles.  Instead of starting with a blank slate we are able to begin with everything they and their prayers offer to us and go from there.

On the other hand, if all we ever did was repeat the prayers of others and never spent time finding our own words for our own unique place in life and unique to our own relationship with Almighty God, then what’s the point of that.  It’s as easy to see this point as to realize that a wife would much prefer a poem (even a mediocre one) written to her by her husband, rather than a beautiful poetic masterpiece that he might offer her from a book of poems.  But maybe if he spent some time studying and reading truly great poetry then it would be of great benefit to his own.

I say all of that to share with you a great prayer that was shared with me by a friend recently.  It was a blessing to me recently when I was in need of the right words for where I was, and it really fit perfectly.

“Lord, I want to be a suit of clothes for You today.  I invite You to move around in my body as Your Temple.  I ask you to think with my mind, love with my heart, speak with my lips, and continue to seek and save the lost through me.  Supervise and control my attitudes, my motives, my desires, my words, my actions in order to bring maximum glory to Yourself.

Holy Father, if there is a chance that I will ever do anything to dishonor you or be unfaithful to be beloved Leah, please take my life before it can happen.

Because God is personal Spirit, I will seek intimate fellowship with him.  Because God is all powerful Spirit, He can help me with anything.  Because God is ever present, He is always with me.  Because God knows everything, I will go to Him with all my questions and concerns.  Because God is sovereign, I will joyfully submit to his will.  Because God is holy, I will devote myself to Him in purity, worship, and service.  Because God is absolute truth, I will believe what He says and live accordingly.  Because God is righteous, I will live by His standards.  Because God is just, He will always treat me fairly.  Because God is love, He is unconditionally committed to my wellbeing.  Because God is merciful, He forgives me of my sins when I sincerely confess them.  Because God is faithful, I will trust Him to always keep His promises.  Because God never changes, my future is secure and eternal.

Amen”

The Plot Thickens…

I received this comment on my blog this afternoon from one 288balloons@kentsoffice.com.

“Balloon Man (15:47:47) :
It took me a long time to blow up those balloons and you are just going to give them away? I’m hurt.
P.s. I used your headphones, hope you don’t mind. I got most of the wax off!”

Originally I thought that it might have been some fake email taking credit for a crime they only wished they were cool enough to commit. However, when I realized that there actually were 288 balloons in my office, I decided that they might actually be the culprit. That being said…

Dear Balloon Man,

Take that!!!

Happy Birthday to Me?

Wow…

OKC Schools Student Convocation Drama

I am really hoping I can get this video to play on my blog because it’s one of the most inspiring things I have seen recently. This is the student performance for the Oklahoma City Public Schools Convocation. The basis of the entire thing was that Oklahoma City school teachers get 917,670 minutes in each school year to impact the lives of their students.

From a ministry and parenting perspective, how much more is this true for us? How many minutes do I get to impact the lives of teens for Jesus? How many minutes will I someday get to spend with my (soon-to-be-born) son, Carter? Will I give him enough minutes that I will be the greatest influence in his life? Who is the greatest influence in the lives of our teens? As you read this, who is your greatest influence and who are you influencing?

Anyhow, I think it’s a powerful video and a powerful idea for each one of us to realize that each moment counts when it comes to raising kids and that we waste too many opportunities. Hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did.

***Update on video*** I am having a difficult time getting the video embedded properly on my site. If you can’t get it to play on this page, click on the link beneath the video that says “OKC Schools Student Convocation Drama.” If that doesn’t work, you can see it at www.okcps.org.

more about "OKC Schools Student Convocation Drama", posted with vodpod

Ft Worth Water Gardens

Leah and I are in Fort Worth for Brandon and Lindsey Hull’s wedding. It was beautiful. On the way we came down a day early, went to Ikea and went to the Ft Worth water gardens. It’s been a great weekend!

A Special Sunday (Un Domingo Especiales) Part 2

Kirk and me outside Cowboy's Stadium

So earlier I posted my highlights from Sunday morning.  From there, Sunday got really fun.  I left church (a wee bit early) and picked up Jacob, Haleigh, Kirk, Riata, Todd, and Amanda and drove to Fort Worth, where we picked up Ryan and went to the brand new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington to watch a doubleheader quarterfinal soccer game for the Gold Cup.  The Gold Cup is the international tournament where national soccer teams play every other year to find out who is the best team from North and Central American and the Caribbean.  (If you are a student of Geography then you realize the silliness of this statement since Central America and the Caribbean are in fact part of North America.)  Anyhow, we went to watch Costa Rica play Guadalupe and then Mexico play Haiti. 

First things first…the new $1 Billion Cowboy’s stadium is jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring, and just really cool.  It has open areas where the concessions and entries are that allow you to see down to the field even before you enter the bowl.  It has huge glass walls on two sides and glass windows around the top so that you get great natural light even when the hole in the dome is closed (like it was Sunday when the A/C was fantastic).  It truly was awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, beautiful and really loud when the fans got crazy.  It was a sell-out crowd of mostly Mexico fans and the 82,000 people were a record breaking crowd to watch a soccer game in Texas.  Both games were blow-outs with Costa Rica winning 5-1 and Mexico dominating Haiti 4-0.  It was fun watching everybody in the stadium cheer for the Guade Boys when they got their consolation goal.  Anyhow, it was a great day and we saw some good goals and had a really good time.  Hopefully the US can beat Honduras in the semi-final tomorrow to accomplish the first ever three-peat of Gold Cup Championships.

That's a Big Screen

The view from our seats was great.

Definitely a pro-Mexico crowd. The pinata wandered throughout the game.

 And on top of everything, it was really fun to get to know a couple of new people and spend time with family and friends on the way to and from the game and while we were there.  It was definitely a special Sunday.

A Special Sunday (Un Domingo Especiales) Part 1

So Sunday was one of the more awesome days in recent memory.  It all began in the youth group Bible class.  Right now Bill Day and I are co-teaching the youth group class on Sunday mornings.  We have been studying the life of David (we are pretty behind) and were talking about Jonathan and David’s friendship and our friendships.  All you really need to know is Bill’s end of class summary: “Having bad friends is like playing with poop; it doesn’t matter how hard you try, you always get some on you…and then you stink.”  So take a moment and ask yourself if your friends bring you closer to God (or not) and then ask yourself if you bring your friends closer to God (or not).

After that, worship was really good.  Yancey was leading songs (which I always love) and sang some of my favorites.  However, one of the songs got me thinking…we sing some really old songs.  The line that got my attention was “from the rocks and the rills, from the vales and the hills, our glorious anthem raise…”  It occured to me that it had been awhile since I had used the words “vales” or “rills” in a sentence.  Which of course led me to start keeping track of the year that each song we sang Sunday had been written.  The average age of a song sung at Northwest last Sunday…116 years old.  That’s right, one hundred and sixteen years old.  To be fair, we had a pretty good diversity of song ages since we sang songs written in 1693, 1980, 1842, 1869, 1982, and 1989.  In other words, all of the songs were old enough to drive, all but one are older than me, three are older than the state of Oklahoma and one predates this great nation of ours. 

Now, I did mention earlier that I enjoyed the song service.  But I still think the point is worth making that the book of Psalms, the song book of Israel and the first church, is filled with psalms that emphasize that we should “sing to the Lord a new song.”  Psalm 149:1, for example says, “Praise the Lord.  Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints.”  It’s interesting, and perhaps a bit unfortunate that we have such a shortage of new songs that sing praises, thanksgivings, and especially laments to God from our current situation. 

And that was just the first part of Sunday.  I have a youth devotional I need to get to, but stay tuned for the really awesome completion of my Special Sunday.