a day off, from vacation?

I found a coffee shop with free wifi this morning, and have spent the day thinking and planning.

I took some time today to focus on the upcoming school year, and how we'll approach what we're going to teach students over the course of the coming weeks. I enjoy this, and have been doing this for the last several years. There are theme and topics that we run through every year. It helps to frame the year if we know where we're going and what we want to cover.

I made some pretty good headway with my lists today, tackling both the middle school and the senior high groups. I have more than enough topics. Now I need to sort them out, figure out good/logical progressions, and figure out how to work the topics into some interesting series. It would be great to have a few more creative minds to work alongside me. I have a few trusted creative types, but I can think of a few more I'd like to enlist.

I may come back to this post later, but for now, with my battery power at 6%, I'd better jet.

Off to dinner, and the family vacation!

Lilly's birthday at the Outer Banks

We got up a little earlier than I wanted to today--last night was a late one, what with the gaming going to 2:30. There should be a law against Phase 10 at 2 am. Lilly woke up singing (that's pretty normal--I call her my sunshine, and she is a glass-half-full kid). Her song this morning was an improv around the theme "Happy Birthday to Me."

She got a few gifts from us and the folks vacationing with us, mostly Hannah Montana toys. We're big fans of that Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus. I have no shame in admitting that I often get teary when watching, even when the kids aren't in the room. And I know that there are other adults watching--why else would Disney put Hannah on the air at 11 pm? Lilly was so excited that she wanted to hang out at the house to play with the toys rather than go to the beach. She got whiny, started complaining about not feeling well...I thought she was faking just so she could stay inside and play. I let her hang out for a little while, then we trekked down to catch some tasty waves. I thought that all was well.

We decided to beat the rush to Jimmy's Buffet (congrats on those free t-shirts, Karl), so we headed over to the place around 3:00. What the establishment lacked in atmosphere and ambience, it made up for in quantity and quality of crab legs. Snow Crab, King Crab, Stone Crab...makes me grateful for those Deadliest Catch guys.

By the time we got to Jimmy's, however, Lilly was melting. She had a fever of 101.2, and was freezing cold. Not good. Kim got some meds into her system, and she perked up as we finished the crab-feast.

She felt good enough to hangout at the huge sand dunes at Jockey's Ridge. We watched the kites flying, waltzed through some of the quaint shops, and waited for the sun to set. The sand on the dunes is unbelievable--silky, cool to the touch, light as powder. We made an ice cream run to close the night, then headed home to get the kids cleaned up. Turns out they stole a pretty good sized chunk of those sand dunes, neatly snagged in their pockets as the kids rolled down the 100-foot hills. I guess I'll have to return the contraband tomorrow. Oh well, I am the dad...

wow, I have signal here

Hmmm, I wasn't expecting this, so I didn't even check until tonight. A full 3 days without my computer being turned on. Kind of weird...Folks wanted a little music tonight as we played games (ok, they played, I passed), so I pulled out the mac to fire up some tunes, and there was a wireless signal from somewhere. Cool...

We're in the Outer Banks, in a town called Duck. It's been a great vacation so far. Yesterday was a beach day, and most of us are a little sunburned. We're taking turns cooking meals, and Kim whipped up a mad shrimp boil. Mmmm, dee-lish.

Today, in light of the sunburned backs (note to self: sunscreen the backs, just below the belt-lines), we decided to hit some of the sights. Amie, Justin, and Austin headed to the aquarium, which was great for the 21-month old. Our fam (plus Delma and KimD) rolled out to Roanoke Island Festival Park, where we got to board a authentic/working replica of the Elizabeth II, hung out with a guy who (in period costume and accent) told us about life in the Roanoke settlement, then watched a movie about the origins of the British settlements, from the perspective of the Native Americans. It kind of made me feel dirty, guilty for what happened to the people who lived in America before it was "civilized." Then we spent about an hour in the museum tracking the history of the Outer Banks. I like learning the history of the places we visit. We did close our visit to the park with a search for shark teeth, and actually found a few tiny baby shark teeth. That was fun...

KimD got up at 4 am today to try to catch the total lunar eclipse, but couldn't really see anything. We think that someone might have given her bad intel about the time of the eclipse. She was pretty intent on seeing something like this.

Tomorrow is Lilly's birthday, and we'll celebrate by taking the whole clan to Jimmy's Seafood Buffet.

And a good time was had by all...

the rush before the break before the rush

We're headed toward our annual Team XStream staff retreat, which was slated for tonight through Sunday. Unfortunately, more than half of our leaders can't/won't be around for the retreat. It's tough to prepare, plan, pray, and play together when many of us won't actually be together...so we'll adapt the retreat and hit a few of the major things, save some of the training for later in the fall.

Kim and I are taking the kids to the Outer Banks Sunday for a last grab at some summer fun. It should be a blast. There are a few other folks going with us, and we have NO AGENDA! Looks like it'll be beach and more beach for about a week. Good thing I love the beach. Wait a sec--that's not me! I don't love the beach. Ah, but I do love my family! So that's a win.

We just found out that our van's AC compressor died, and we won't have AC for the vacation. Maybe we'll all pile into the truck. It could work...

PSU students are already pouring back into Happy Valley for the start of the fall semester. Life around church should be pretty crazy as folks realize there are no seats or parking spots. Good thing we're adding a 5th service in a couple of weeks! Anybody want to play drums?

what's your handle?

When I was but a wee young lad, my father got into CB radio. You know, the kind of thing that Smoky and the Bandit made cool. We had a CB in dad's truck, in mom's car, and a base station complete with a huge 3 armed antenna mounted on the roof of the trailer we lived in. He had a bunch of buddies who used their CBs to talk to each other, and everyone had a handle--sort of like a screenname, before there were screens.

Hey Ragrapper, you got your ears on? This is the Flyboy. Come back...Yo, Junkman, you out there? We got a bear in the air, and it's wall to wall, but we're hopin to get hammer down just outside of town...

I know a lot of people who have some impressive handles that accompany their names. Author, Speaker, Director, Owner, International Recording Superstar...Erwin McManus likes to call himself a Cultural Architect, which is pretty cool.

I wear a lot of hats around the church, which means I have lots of handles, I suppose. Recently, I was described on eBay as a recording artist who was touring internationally. (My stolen guitar was listed for sale, and that's seriously how the guy described me. It's pretty funny now...)

I think the handle that I want to claim, however, is somewhere in the mix of Husband, Dad, and Friend. If I could pull that off, I think that would be a win.

Until tomorrow, this is the Carolina Cougar, KQQ1393, signing off.

Sublett Family Credo

I've been giving this some thought and journal space for many months now. I don't know if the thought process is complete, but I thought I'd run it up the flag pole today.

My pastor has pointed out to many of us (in a different context, but nonetheless true) that Christians and churches are all too often known for what we stand against rather than what we stand for. In light of that, I've been trying to identify what I think our version of the Sublett family should stand for, some words that would capture the essence of who we are, or who we are becoming.

Freedom
Freedom from the old self, the sinful nature, unhealthy ties to past habits/actions/thoughts/beliefs, scars from bad decisions , strongholds that carry over from our past.
Freedom in Christ, freedom to live, love, be, give, hope, dream, risk, and celebrate.
Fruit
of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self control.
in keeping with repentance--transformation
Fun
Well, that's a little self-explanatory, but I want our family to be fun. I want our kids to enjoy being part of our family, to want to be together, to look back at life in our house with fondness, recalling times of great laughter and love, to celebrate each other's victories and mourn each other's losses, to have great memories.

Like I said, I don't know that this is a finished product, and we're not where we want to be by a long shot. But I believe that we can move forward, now that we have some direction.

a good/difficult conversation

A friend and fellow youth worker just left the house. He stopped by tonight to get my perspective on a couple of issues that we are working through in our ministry.

The first is the area of focus/busyness/margins in life. I've been working on my life/schedule to try to reclaim some time for family and fun. For many years now it seems like I've been on the run from one task to the next appointment to the next meeting, leaving little room to breathe. I freely admit that I like to be busy, want to be wanted, and need to be needed. I have squeezed a lot of stuff into my life. Scott Welliver tells me that in media work, that's called a "bleeding margin," and I can feel the bleed.

All too often, we make people busy, weigh them down with meetings and tasks, when what they really need is space. Without time to rest, reflect, and renew, we end up running on fumes. All of us need time and space simply to BE.

My advice to my friend is to slow down, strip away some of the non-essentials, and get more out of his time by doing less. That's my advice to myself, as well.

The second area is a bit more complex, and I think I'll save those thoughts for another day.

on a quest

Since I've resumed blogging, my wife has resumed reading my blog.

*Hi hon...*

She told me in no uncertain terms that she did not like the picture that I have of us (my profile pic). Seems that she's not pleased that I've displayed her in the most positive light. She thinks that she's not putting her best foot forward.

So I am on a quest for a high quality picture of my lovely wife. It's a small thing to do to honor her wishes, and I will comply.

If you have a picture that you'd like to submit, please, shoot it my way!

friday randomness

in no particular order:

• Lauren gave me her spicy tuna. I wolfed it down, and now I know why she didn't want it. I'm still tasting it, hours after the fact. ugghhh.
• Bob and Dannah are on their way home from China with their new 13 year old daughter! Talk about an amazing story.
• I dropped in to see my buddy Andy today. He's always a source of courage and challenge!
• An old friend invited me to meet him at St. Arbucks today to catch up. He's planted a church in State College, and is finding new freedoms and new challenges.
• High School Musical 2 unveils tonight, and there's a buzz in the house. My kids are all a-twitter. We're having a party at the church to celebrate.
• PSU students have started to trickle back into town. That's exciting, but it means that the town gets crowded again. And no seats or parking at the 11:00 service, as well.
• Calvary's launching a Sunday evening service in a couple of weeks, modeled after the 11. Should be great!

OK, I think I'll go find my son and throw a football around in the backyard.

like father, like son--or maybe not

Godly men leave a godly heritage, a legacy--right? Yeah, not always the case.

I was reading through 1 Samuel 8 today and discovered that Samuel's boys (Joel and Abijah) took over dear old dad's role as Judges in Israel. But the weren't like Samuel--they were greedy and lacked integrity. They took bribes and perverted justice.

Eli, the priest/judge raised Samuel, and Sammy turned out to be a godly man. But Eli also raised 2 sons (Hophni and Phinehas) who didn't know God and were destroyed according to God's judgment.

Aaron's first 2 sons (Nadav and Avihu) failed to follow in their father's footsteps and were consumed by the fire of God .

David's sons were many, and we don't know many good things about any of them other than Solomon. Absolom tried to kill his dad to get the throne.

Adam had 2 boys at first, and Cain killed Abel because God accepted his brother's sacrifice/offering, but rejected Cain's.

I want my children to know the Lord, to fall in love with him, to follow him, to find true life in him. My wife and I are in the process of reviewing our time (priorities) so that we don't mess up our family any more than is absolutely necessary. We've decided to say NO to some pretty good things so that we can say YES to the truly great (important) things.

A wise man once told me that when I say YES to one thing, I am necessarily saying NO to other things. I guess that it's pretty important that I choose the right things to say YES to, isn't it?

you must choose, but choose wisely, for as the real grail brings eternal life, the false grail brings death

well, not the grail, really, but you know what I mean.

out with the old, in with the who's next

I had breakfast with a friend today who is on his way out the door. He is the latest in a long live of youth pastors who rotate in and out of our town.

I've been a youth pastor in State College since 1998. I have made some great youth pastor friends over the last few years. I've also watched as most of those guys have moved on.

11 in the last 9 years.

3 churches account for 8 of the changes.

That's probably not a record, but it can't be good can it?

There's a rumor that the average youth pastor stays at one place for 18 months. That's not accurate, according to this article. But it sure stinks to see guys roll in to town, get on board with what God has been doing in the direction of unity and cooperation in our town, then pull up stakes and head for other parts.

It makes me sad to see them go, knowing/believing that God wants to do something here, thinking that they are part of the dealio...

I miss them. It feels like part of me goes with them. Good guys, good hearts, good byes...

oh man, where to start

It's been such a long time since I posted.

2 weeks of preaching (Benaiah and Barnabus).

1 week of Summer SPLAT (serving, praying, loving around town), which was by most accounts wildly successful, by the way.

10 glorious days of family vacation, in which we:

• hung out with some of our best friends--twice!
• went to 2 great churches
• learned to play frisbee golf (cough, new Murphy house record, cough)
• got to hang out with family and friends, talking Jesus stuff until the wee hours
• ate some great KC BBQ
• spent a night in KC at the fabulous Westin for about a third of their asking price
• made some great family memories
• ate at Steak and Shake for the first time, and almost every Cracker Barrel from here to Missouri and back
  
• spent way too much time analyzing our crazy life...

It's good to have family and friends to spend time out of SC with. God is so good to us.

Now it's back to the stuff...