A New Vision, A New Blog

Well if you have followed this blog at some point in the past, you know the feeling of disappointment.  At times this has come from the lack of quantity of posts and at other times, a definite lack of quality.

So, you will probably be surprised at the commitment I am preparing to make to my church.  We are preparing to kick off a Bible Reading Campaign that will hopefully take all of the members of our church through the Bible in a year.  I, along with Ryan, have committed to at least one of us blogging on each day’s reading.  Hopefully our commitment will match our ambition.

Regardless, I will not likely be posting to this blog anytime in the near future, which is without question not that big of a change from recent memory anyways.

So starting March 27th, you can follow along with us as we read the Bible every day at www.nwbible.wordpress.com

 

Check it out!

10 Facts Tuesday

1. I have been on vacation the last two weekends.  Spent the first weekend with Kristin, Joel, Kirk, Riata, Leah and Carter down in Southeast Oklahoma at a gorgeous cabin at Beaver’s Bend State Park.  It was really fun just getting away and hanging out, but the best part was letting everybody get to know Carter better when he was in a good mood.
2. Leah, Carter and I spent last weekend with friends at the Hull’s lake house at Lake Eufalla.  So many toys, so much fun, and OU won.  Also, it’s really great to have really good friends.
3. For years I have despised Donovan McNabb and loved watching the Dallas Cowboys beat the Eagles.  I like the Washington Redskins even less and really enjoy beating them.  However, I was very confused on Sunday night when Donovan McNabb played his first game for the Washington Redskins with new head coach Shanahan.  I found myself disliking the McNabb led Redskins less than ever before.  It also somehow makes me like the Cowboys less.  When the Cowboys lost, I was simply apathetic.  This bothers me.  I blame all of it on Wade Phillips.
4. Carter started day school at church last week and now goes for about four hours every Tuesday and Thursday.  After spending months looking forward to a few hours a week to get stuff done, the first day of day school arrived and Leah couldn’t find anything to do.  Kids just mess you up.
5. I did get to watch the Cowboys game with Zane, April, and Tessa McGee.  Zane is one of my best friends who is currently a missionary in Brazil.  Their church has been officially open for less than a year and has about 65 attending every Sunday.  It was really good to spent time with him, even though the Cowboys were pathetic (fire Wade Phillips).  Check them out at www.niteroimission.com
6. Congrats to Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook for representing the Oklahoma City Thunder at the FIBA Championship and bringing home the gold for the first time since 1994.  It’s a good time to be a Thunder fan.
7. Carter is crawling every where all the time, getting into everything and making messes everywhere he goes.  That being said, he is really a pretty easy happy baby so I am not complaining.  It’s so much fun seeing him start to develop his personality.  He’s definitely not going to be shy and I think he will be one of those kids that likes to run everywhere.  I am really proud of him, which sounds crazy because he doesn’t even change his own diapers yet, but it’s true.
8. It’s tough trying to have a family prayer every night with a baby who is cranky and doesn’t want to be held because he wants to crawl and be fussy.  It’s also kind of tricky because he can’t talk yet.  But we have fought through the awkwardness and recently started praying together as a family every night.  We have decided that it’s better to be a little odd and do it now so that it will always be normal and part of our family forever.
9. All three of the ministers (Bill, Ryan and me) are going on a ministers’ retreat to Dallas on November 12-13.  N.T. Wright is speaking at the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas Annual Lectureship.  We have our tickets and are all excited.  Wright is one of our favorite Christian authors who is a big advocate of the idea that this world IS our home and we AREN’T just passing through.  That God is working to redeem this world into new creation and that we can partner with him to do this.  It’s a really exciting idea that I think can make the church relevant again in post-Christian cultures.
10. I have been spending a lot of time on websites lately.  Check them out at www.nwchurchokc.com (recently remodeled) and www.camprockcreek.net (soon to be remodeled).

Summer Sabbatical Concluded

Well I have obviously not posted in a very long time, but this post indicates the conclusion of my summer blogging sabbatical.  My last post was about Skye graduating.  I remember that day, although it feels like it was years ago.  After that day, I spent two weeks living in the office trying to get ready for Camp Rock Creek and Camp Genesis.  Both camps were a tremendous success and a great blessing to me and I hope many others.  While I was at camp, Leah went to Myrtle Beach with my family on vacation.  I then spent several weeks at home before heading off to Guyana for a week.  While I was there, Leah went with her mom to South Dakota for a wedding and to see Mount Rushmore. Since then I have been working on developing the discipleship ministry at Northwest.  I am really excited about my ministry and the work I am doing here at Northwest.

Speaking of the work at Northwest…I am typing this from the church’s crow’s nest.  Bill has just finished a three week sermon series on baptism that has been fantastic.  As the series drew to a close yesterday, it was clear that there was going to be some demand for the recordings of these sermons.  Unfortunately, the recording of the second sermon had no audio…at all.  So here I sit in the crow’s nest listening to the second sermon in an empty auditorium.  Bill is doing a good job considering the only person in the room is sitting here blogging.  Anyhow, if you weren’t here then check out the sermons and if you haven’t, you should get baptized.

The church’s website is www.nwchurchokc.com

Bill preaches to the Monday morning crowd.

Skye

Today we celebrated Skye’s graduation.  Probably my favorite memory of Skye in the youth group was when she wanted to get baptized at the Fall Retreat and the pool was drained so we had to wait until we got to church and the entire drive back she kept telling me to drive carefully because she couldn’t be in an accident and die before she got baptized.  Once we finally got back to the building we had evening services and then went over to the baptistry, only to find out that it was about 115 degrees and was scalding hot.  I think if we had let her she would have just jumped in anyways and then gone straight to the burn unit and told you it was worth it.  Instead we had a group of guys start bringing trash cans and buckets of ice from the other building until the water was cool enough for her to get baptized.

To me that moment represents so much of who Skye is.  She knows who God is and she knows who she is and she goes after what she believes in.  She doesn’t let obstacles or problems get in her way and she brings out the best in the people around her.  I am so proud of everything she has done and know that God has great things in store for her.

Today’s other highlights include watching Inter Milan win the Champions League Final with Ryan, a 9 mile bike ride with the Carters (Troy and I had kids in tow), and I checked my lottery ticket and had no numbers right.  All in all, a very good day.

Bike to Work

Today was ride your bike to work day.  Thankfully, I don’t work on Fridays because I was a little bit concerned about making that trek from home to the office.  Instead, I finally put together Carter’s bike trailer and hooked it up to my new bike.  We then went on a family bike ride around the neighborhood.  It was really fun.

Carter was so excited about the whole bike riding experience that we actually had to stop and check his pulse once.  Apparently riding in his bike trailer is the best sleep he has had in a long time.  Happy Ride Your Bike to Work Day Everybody!

Be a Millionaire Day

Being a millionaire seemed like a good enough idea, so after work today I headed over to my local Shell gas station where I purchased a $1 scratch and win card and a $1 powerball card.  Being “Be a Millionaire Day,” I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by the fact that I WON!!!  That’s right, I scratched all of the numbers off and found three 8′s!!!  Woo Hoo!!  The lady at the gas station had told me that she was selling me lucky tickets, but I had no idea.  So I walked in and told her that she was right, they were good ones and I promptly collected my winnings.  So now that I won back the $2 that I originally spent on the tickets, I just have to wait until Saturday night to see if I win really big.

At least 1 out of 2 winners...

So I am not a big gambler, but I have found that there are a few occasions that I enjoy placing a small wager on something.  Here are the five times I enjoy placing a bet.

1. During a college Bible class where Dr. North is explaining to us how if you use a scholarly biblical textual study you will realize that one of the 10 Commandments is “Do not gamble” so we should all vote against the Oklahoma lottery.  During that class I wagered 20 on UCLA against USC because I thought a 20 point spread was ridiculous. USC won by 40.
2. The Kentucky Derby.
3. When I go to Texas.  Back when it was illegal to buy lottery tickets in Oklahoma I would always buy a scratch off card when I would go to Texas.  By the time it became legal in Oklahoma I was ahead by about 8 dollars.
4. Occasionally during difficult financial times at the church, the elders will pray that God will provide financially for the church.  I have seen amazing things happen when our elders pray about it.  People who were struggling to get pregnant conceived.  People who needed jobs or couldn’t sell a house almost immediately saw their prayers answered.  So I figure if the elders are praying for the church’s finances, that me tithing from a $170 million lottery ticket would be an answer to that pray.  I just provide an opportunity for prayers to be answered.
5. I like to place $5 on a bizarre Superbowl prop bet.  Not on anything normal, but on something like whether the coin toss will be heads or tails, whether the half time show will include a certain song, or whether Archie Manning will be shown on camera more or less than 8 times during a Superbowl his son is playing in.

So now when I am a millionaire someday, you will know how it happened.  Good luck to everybody else who bought a lottery ticket today.

PS  I voted against the lottery in Oklahoma.  I also agree with my dad who used to call gambling a tax on the poor, the stupid, and people who can’t do math.  That being said, I won today.

Dirty Dishes/NBA Draft Lottery

Today is no dirty dishes day, so I am going to do the dishes as soon as I finish this post.

More interestingly, I get a little bit annoyed with the overhyped NBA draft lottery.  Everybody makes such a huge deal about getting the first overall pick in the NBA Draft because they just “know” that the first pick is a guaranteed lock to be a hall of famer.  It seems like we here the same story every year that there is one player that everybody is just dying to have.  That being said, here are some interesting stats about the first overall picks since 2000.

1. The first overall pick of the draft is as likely to miss their entire first season to injury as they are to be rookie of the year.
2. The Rookie of the year is statistically as likely to be a fourth or sixth overall pick of the draft as they are to be a first overall pick.
3. The first three picks are assigned by the lottery.  Only half of the Rookies of the year since 2000 have come from the first three picks.
4. Statistically speaking, the Minnesota Timberwolves (fourth overall pick) and the Golden State Warriors (sixth overall pick) have as much of a chance to pick next year’s Rookie of the Year as the Washington Wizards, without the larger salary and excessive pressure and media attention.

So who cares whether you are the first or fourth or fifth pick?  It’s an over-hyped event every year where the biggest losers try to win the first thing they have won in a long time and ironically, they are still as likely to be losers again next year.  I will take Kevin Durant over Greg Oden every single day.

In other holiday news, I have just been informed by my wife that she already did the dishes but if I wanted to I could push the button to turn the dishwasher on.  No Dirty Dishes Day…you have been celebrated.

Sick

I have been sinus/allergy sick over the weekend. We celebrated Jenn and Ricky’s wedding and Leah celebrated Elliott with the Carters today. I am a really pathetic person when it comes to being sick. Leah can attest to that. So that’s all the celebrating I could handle this weekend.

Dance Like a Chicken Day

Kim Landrum has been waiting for this day all week and even though this probably isn’t what she expected, I don’t think you will be disappointed.

Sorry about my interrupting laughter, but it was really funny watching my wife turn my son into a little bobble-head doll.  You also might have noticed that his attention is directly on the tv.  We found a youtube video with cartoon chickens dancing through the entire song.  He was absolutely mesmerized.  I took a try at getting him to dance as well, but between my total lack of rhythm, inability to dance, and continually forgetting how the dance went, it looked like I was just flopping my son around and was a bit more disturbing than it was entertaining.  Hopefully he will have my dancing ability so I won’t have to worry about him ever wanting to go clubbin’.

Happy Dance Like a Chicken Day!

It’s Frog Jumping Day

This day has been set aside to commemorate Mark Twain’s short story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.  So, I found the short story and I read it.  A little bit odd, but pretty entertaining.  I mean, you gotta feel pretty good about a story that includes a reverend, a dog fight won by a two legged dog, the dog he killed named Andrew Jackson, and a frog jumping contest won by the frog that didn’t get stuffed full of quail shot.  Not a bad story at all.

I also decided that I should celebrate in at least one other way.  The name of the holiday is fairly ambiguous and therefore allows for the day to be celebrated by frogs that are jumping or by people who jump over frogs.  It’s a very similar situation to the phrase “one eyed one horn flying purple people eaters.”  I mean, is the song about a monocle-wearing unicorn monster with wings of a purplish hue that eats people?  Or is the song about a monster that eats flying purple people with a cyclops beneath their horn?  Anyhow, since I don’t have a frog to make jump, I decided to jump over a frog.

And that’s how I celebrated Frog Jumping Day.