getting ready for a wedding

Ths weekend I get the pleasure of performing the marriage ceremony for an old friend. Koop was one of the first PSU students to join our ace staff of leaders--an original Team XStreamer. Koop was the ultimate middle school volunteer--part jungle gym, part video gamer, part trivia expert...It was a beautiful thing to watch Koop build relationships with young men, to lead them in conversations about Jesus, faith, and life. Koop is the kind of guy that you hope leads your son's small group.

This weekend, I get to tie the knot between Koop and a wonderful young lady, who also happens to be named Stacy. That's a little weird for me, I'll admit. But I am so glad to have been part of Koop's life, and I hope that my time with him has shaped him for the King and kingdom.

The only downside is that while I'll be in the 'burgh with Koop and Stacy, a bunch of students from State College will be hitting the slopes in the Poconos. I am certain that the highlight for them will be hanging out with Sean McVeigh. I may have to post a little more about him later. I am fully expecting God to break through in the lives of many students this weekend.

some good news

two things:
1. Billy Ray and Miley Ray Cyrus were just singing live on Leno.
2. The Pittsburgh Pirates are undefeated in pre-season play. They opened today with a 5-0 win over Manatee Community College. Woohoo. Enjoy the victory, boys!

home with a heartache

Kim and I are home from the pastors/wives deal. I got back to the church with plenty of time to spare for XStream tonight. We wrapped up our series on sex with our middle school students tonight. Many things are good on the homefront.

But there is a heartache happening.

It seems that every time we go away all hell breaks loose against our family. Someone gets sick. Trouble at school. Unusual emotional meltdowns. The house falls down...well, maybe not that bad. But weird spiritual/physical attacks happen.

I believe that the devil wants to see the marriages and families of pastors fail.

So tonight, before I go to bed, I will be praying through our home, asking the Most High God to bring his power to bear against the forces of darkness.

Psalm 91 is powerful stuff:

If you make the Lord your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home. For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go.

riding the busy-ness whirlwind

OK, so we haven't got it figured out...

Kim and I are in VA for a pastors & wives retreat hosted by the MidEast Baptist Conference. This is about the only conference or denominational thing that I do, and it's only because we get to hang out with the other pastors/wives from Calvary that we do this.

Michael Smalley is the guest speaker. He's the son of Marriage and Family Expert Gary Smalley, and the dude is hilarious! He's talking with us about improving communication in our marriages. Good stuff...

I'll post more about it later, but he's got some good freebies on his website. I'm going to grab some of the stuff to help me and my lovely bride Kim communicate more effectively!

Home tomorrow to teach XStream, then this weekend I have a wedding in Pgh while Kim and the Team XStreamers take a bunch of students from Happy Valley skiing in the Poconos. I wish that I could go with them, but the wedding will be a blast.

We need to find a way to slow down...

remember that busy-ness idea?

I have been thinking about the pace of life a lot lately. I believe that it was Socrates who said, "Beware the barrenness of a busy life." Yep, that's deep stuff.

Don Simmons is a church consultant who has come to our humble town to help us think through the hows and whys of what we do as a church. He's a sharp guy--friend of Rick Warren, Reggie MacNeal, Eric Swanson, and probably a bunch of other bigwigs. He was Saddleback's first Children's Pastor. He knows what he's talking about.

In one of our first sessions today, he outlined 3 levels or types of leaders:
Influencers, Strategizers, and Implementers. Implementers are the lower level, if you think about them as a pyramid. The Implementer finds it more comfortable, or easier to do most of the work rather than Influence others to get on board with passion/vision. The ideal is to help people find their calling, and in doing so, find joy in the journey.

Turns out that we are heavy with Implementers, and I think I'm one of the biggest culprits.

He also pointed out that the key to effective ministry is helping people find their niche, eliminating competing goods, being less busy...

Ach...the barrenness of a busy life...it applies everywhere.

confession is good for the soul

I love bluegrass music. I do. I always have, I think. My PawPaw was a country fiddle/mandolin/guitar player who could sing every part and knew every tune. He loved to sing, and loved it when we sat around and sang together. I have his mandolin, though I can't play it like he did.

This Sunday morning we're going to pull out the banjo, fiddle, and mandolin and go to town! We had a great rehearsal tonight, and the bluegrass will be rolling at the 11:00 service. I am pretty pumped about it, if you can't tell.

I regret the fact that I never got to spend much time with my PawPaw. I would love to have had a summer to spend with him, learning how to play those mountain tunes that he loved.

Someday, though...someday!

comfort and affliction

Yesterday won't leave me. God is picking at my heart, and here's the gist of it:

I'm not sure what to do.

Comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.

Those words have been attributed to Finley Peter Dunne, talking about the role of the newspaper about a hundred years ago. In 1857, Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached that Christians are to comfort the afflicted. From that thought came the idea that God is the One who does the comforting, as well as the afflicting.

Tonight I read this article. There are some good ideas there.

Lately I've been wondering if my life is counting--if I'm doing the right things, or if I'm simply being busy doing stuff. It's easy to get preoccupied with all the trappings that go along with church life.

I don't want to waste my life rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. I want to invest myself in the Kingdom. I want my life to count...

I don't get it

I believe that this is the first of many posts that fall into this category. I am sure that the list will grow as time goes on, but I'll start with peanut butter.

I can't figure out why the manufacturers of peanut butter (blessed be their name) would care to package their fine creation in jars that are so deep that it's impossible to get to the glorious contents at the bottom of the jar.

Has this happened to you?

I used every tool that I could find--long handled spoons, knives, a tire wrench, the kitchen mop...I'm jamming my hand into the mouth of the jar, getting peanut butter all over my knuckles, losing the bits that I succeeded into coaxing onto the spoon as I struggled in vain to get more.

I wish that I had an answer, or that I could just get over it, but some things stick in my craw (my Paw Paw used to say that), and they eat at me.

Am I dissatisfied or discontent? Hmmm, no not really. At least not because of the peanut butter. But maybe it's time to buy smaller jars of peanut butter...

total eclipse of the heart

With apologies to Bonnie Tyler, this Wednesday night we should be out in the front yard between 10:01 and 10:51.

a deep day off

I started off by sleeping in, which was a good thing! My body has been feeling a little out of it lately, trying to get over a cold.

But the day got interesting when I cracked open the Bible this morning. I have been reading through the Old Testament, the Gospels, the letters of Paul, and the Wisdom literature. Today I read Luke 4, where Jesus quotes Isaiah 61:

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

He doesn't quote the whole passage, and he tells the people in the synagogue that the scripture has just been fulfilled. Interestingly, Luke 4 is not a direct quote of Isaiah 61...

That got me thinking about the mission of Jesus: Good News for the poor, comfort, rescue, freedom, healing...

Then as I was browsing some blogs, I found Travis Keller's blog. He posted a link to a talk at Mount Vernon Nazarene University given by Shane Claiborne. Here's the link. It's a great talk, and a stirring reminder that I still have a lot to learn.

Today was a day to be reminded that I need to constantly measure my life by God's priorities. It's easy to be busy. I want to be busy doing the right things, the things that matter.

Grab the talk and give it a listen. Make some space for God to speak. Write down the things that you want to remember.

I thank God for the ways that he continues to shape my worldview, my passions, and my heart.

Now the question remains: What will I do with what I know?

So how was your Valentine's Day?

Ours was good. We exchanged our handmade cards this afternoon. Levi wrote a letter to me that he included in his. It was the kind of letter that a dad wants to receive, that should find its way into a scrapbook, or a drawer of special things. I imagine that I'll read it from time to time, it's that good.

Kim and I were the recipients of a night of free childcare from our wonderful next door neighbors tonight, so we snuck out for dinner. We haven't been to the Olive Garden in a long time, but it's one of Kim's favorites. I got a gift certificate from a couple of students for Christmas, so we rolled out the door and off the Garden. It was packed. It took us about an hour and thirty-five minutes to get a seat. But it was worth the wait. We had a great meal and fabulous conversation.

I have a friend who says he doesn't believe in Valentine's Day. He refuses to buy into a man-made holiday, believing it to be an hyped-up excuse to spend hard-earned cash on cards and candies. Aren't we supposed to show love to the people in our lives every day?

Sure. Most definitely.

But just wait until you find the love of your life, or have a child of your own. When love awakens, it is one thing to celebrate it every day. It's another to realize that world is celebrating love with you on this one day.

do they ever go to school here?

Another day off for our kids today. Levi joined his 6th grade small group for some sledding on a new hill (new to us; probably been around since creation), but I don't think the girls got out of their jammies at all today.

We debated until about 2:30 today as to whether we'd have XStream or not. Our policy is that we cancel when the school cancels. But by 3 today the snow was done, and the roads were good to go. I wasn't sure how many students we'd have tonight, so we pushed the next talk in the XStream Exposed--the naked truth about sex series until next week.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and Kim came up with the bright idea of us drawing names and making cards for each other. I got my own name the first time that we passed them around, so we had to do a re-draw. My guess is that she knows already, but I got Kim's name! She's so fun, and I have learned so much from her over the past 17+ years. Now I think I'll go make a card!

another snow day

Yeehaw. We got about 6 inches of the lightest, driest powdery snow today. Schools were closed, and the kids had a fun day off, hanging out with Mom. Kim had to cancel a Mary Kay event tonight, and I had to call off my guitar class for today. Kim put her foot down and refused to let me try the snowblower tonight! Levi was a little less sympathetic--"Don't cut off any other fingers!"

I have decided to wait on the knee surgery. I've been running 5 miles each day, and my knee has felt pretty good for the past 4 days. I want to be fully mobile when Levi and I go to the DR (March 8), so I think I'll see how the knee does for another month or so.

My buddy Andy cemented his place in my Hall of Fame today. A few years back when I had my first knee surgery, we got a big snow. Andy showed up (with buddies Jonathan and Chris) and shoveled my driveway. Tonight, just as I was gearing up to go shovel the fresh snow, I heard a snowblower in the front of the house. There's Andy, snowblower throwing snow everywhere...What a true friend. He thought that I had surgery today, and knew that I'd need some help. He's the real deal.

a pretty decent weekend

Murph would be proud of me.

Saturday morning I went to see some of our students wrestle in the Junior High Big VII tournament. It was the first junior high tournament that I've ever seen, and I wasn't sure what to expect. Let me tell you, these young men are STRONG! All of our guys competed well, and it was fun to watch the grappling. I was kind of disappointed that Jimmy "Super Fly" Snuka didn't show...

I still enjoy going to see students from our church do their thing. It doesn't matter to me if it's a sport, a concert, a recital, a play, or whatever. There's no telling how many performances I've sat through over the last 20 years. It's always a good experience, because I truly enjoy the students and their families.

So if you've invited me to come to one of your games or shows, Thanks! And if you haven't, please let me know when and where you're doing your thing. I might just show up!

what I learned under the water

Like a lot of other people, I like the outdoors. I find that my time in the wild recharges my batteries, re-connects me with God, and lets me test my limits. Courage, resourcefulness, problem solving, physical challenge--all these and more are put on the line when we get outside.

Today was a day for the challenge. Andy and I loaded our kayaking gear as the snow fell lightly. The air temp was about 34 degrees, and the water temp wasn't much higher. The Black Moshannon is only runnable when we've had a lot of rain or snow melt, and we try to take advantage of those days. We dressed as warmly as we could. My new gloves made it difficult to get a good feel of my paddle, and the loss of dexterity from the cold was immediately noticeable. We both rolled right off the bat to make sure that we still had our skills, and the shock of being totally immersed in the frigid water took my breath away and gave me a whole-body brain freeze!

Anyway, at about the halfway point, I got flipped, couldn't roll over, lost my paddle, and was in trouble. I was bumping the bottom with my chest as I got pushed along by the fast-moving water. I couldn't feel the grab loop on my skirt (remember the gloves and loss of dexterity?) to get free. I was able to push off the bottom to get some much-needed air, and I could see Andy as I approached him. He held out his paddle for me to grab, but I couldn't get a good grip (gloves, dexterity) and I slipped past him. I didn't feel panicked, though, and eventually was able to pull the skirt loose and wiggle out of the kayak. I tried to grab my boat, but (gloves/dexterity grrr) is slid away from me. I crawled out of the mash, thankful and a little shaky. I got swept about a hundred yards, and was really only without air for moments at a time. As I made my way to shore, I spotted my paddle wedged under a rock. Looking downriver, I spied my boat pinned to the roots of a downed tree just a few yards downstream! God was looking out for me today!

So what did I learn? Well, a couple of basics:

• I need a to use a pair of gloves that will help me, not hinder my paddling.
• Air is a oft-overlooked commodity, and I need to be grateful for breath.
• Even experienced kayakers (or whatever the game) can get into trouble quickly.

I also realized that when we find ourselves in a perilous situation in life, we have options. When we find ourselves over our heads, desperately needing air, and running out of options, we must act. We must do whatever it takes to get to a place where we can breathe.

If I had given up, I would have drowned. No question about it. But I was able to think clearly, come up with a solution, overcome obstacles and difficulties, and find a solution that resulted in freedom.

Are you in over your head? What are you going to do about it?

sex talk

I have shared this before, but we started a couple of new series (for both XStream and House Party) talking about sex, so I thought I'd re-visit it.

I've been a youth pastor for about 20 years, and I've taught about sex only a handful of times. It's not that I don't think it's important; I've simply never been comfortable talking about it. Parents should be the ones to teach their children about sex. The church/student ministry should be a supplement to what parents teach. But over the course of my work with students, I've not done much to help.

A few years ago, God began to stir things up in me. I felt like God was saying that I needed to get ready to talk about sex. I asked our leadership team to hold me accountable for that. A few days later the phone rang, and Bob and Dannah Gresh offered me a speaking role with Pure Freedom. I would be traveling all over the country talking with hundreds of students about sexual purity! Does God have a sense of humor or what?!

We opened our series with middle school students tonight, and I think things went rather well. The small group leaders reported that they had some good conversations with students, and all the students were dialed in all through the night.

We'll be posting my talks and emailing questions to parents in the next few days so that they can discuss what their students are learning.

But for starters, here's a map detailing the loss of virginity. I was surprised by the results. I thought that the average age of people losing their virginity was much lower than what is reported here.

where did the day go?

Yikes, I was plenty busy today. Lots of the stuff was good, including:

• a hurried meeting with the powers that be to determine the feasibility of building a bouldering wall in our barn for us to use with students, locals, and other ministries. Permission granted!
• I got to hang out with a couple of sharp high school seniors today. We're starting a study together, and we'll be Chasing the Lion!
• My beginning guitar class started working on our first song together today. They're shaping up!
• I got to spend another fabulous 2 hours on the phone with Nextel tonight trying to sort through all the mess that has become our cell phone struggle. Still arrrrrggggh.
• The biggest news of the day: Surgery for me on the left knee. Next Wednesday, in fact. Ah, the joys of being a former catcher...

monday meanderings

Wow, what a full and pretty cool weekend...

• I went to the Milton Rock Gym with Pete and several high school guys Saturday. It was the first time I've tried any climbing since I cut off my fingertip (03.17.07). Good stuff. Not the finger--the climbing.
  
• The 11:00 service was packed with folks ready to worship and encounter God.
• Dan had a great message, moving back into Nehemiah and talking about our Unfinished Calling and Holy Discontent.
• Somewhere along the way I caught a cold. I slept for a couple of hours before the Super Bowl party.
• We hosted a party for all our students, watching the Giants rip out the hearts of the Pats. Eli Manning had a coming of age party...
• I didn't watch much of the game, but I had lots of great conversations with students, which is a win.
• During halftime, I introduced our next series for students. We'll be talking about sex in both XStream and House Party for the month of February. We want to provide parents with some discussion questions, and plan to post the talk from each night so that they can follow along.
• Most of the students have no idea who Tom Petty is, but I guess there's not much chance that his wardrobe will malfunction. Ew...
• I added an RSS feed for Karl. I think. It should be in the url window.
• We took Levi to get his passport today. He and I are headed to the DR for Spring Break with our church.
• Kim made 3 pans of some deeeelish lasagna today. 1 for the Howes (next door) who are all sick. 1 for the Nolds for tomorrow. 1 for us. Man, my wife can cook.
  
• I have an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow to get the results of an MRI on my left knee tomorrow. I hope there's something wrong, cause it hurts like crazy.
  

cell phone troubles continue

My Sprint buddy is off the Christmas Card list. It turns out that Sprint doesn't have coverage in State College (they use other companies' towers) so they aren't able to issue local numbers. The Palm Centro phones that the guy sold us wouldn't work here. He should have known that and never sold us those phones.

I spent the better part of 5 hours on the phone with Nextel/Sprint reps yesterday. I feel like I've been broken.

No new phones. No unlimited text messaging. The "great deal" that I thought we were getting is simply the standard package.

Have you seen the Nextel line of phones? They all look the same, and nothing that they offer compares in price or style to Sprint, Verizon, or AT&T. Big clunky phones that cost a boatload of money. I asked the last guy I spoke with (for 110 minutes) why their phones cost so much, and he said something about their network and the direct-connect feature. But with free mobile-to-mobile, why would
I need direct-connect?

Argh (and that's not said in the cool piratey way. Hear my frustration...)
Talk about feeling disappointed.

snow day

OK, it's actually a whole lot of ice, but schools are out here, and we're hanging low at Casa de Sublett. We had a leisurely breakfast, and I'm trying to find out if my lunch meeting will hold or not. The driveway is about 2 to 3 inches deep in ice, so I wonder if I can get back up once I get out. Of course, the Mary Kay truck is fully equipped with 4WD, so I'm guessing that I'll be fine.

Good times!

Top Gun is on. I love this movie! It's one of the movies that I can quote just about line-for-line. When it shows up, I generally tune in and watch.

May 1986. Me and my buddy Scott Hickman decided to go see the latest fighter pilot movie, even if it was about Navy pilots. We lived in an Air Force town, and I had the usual military branch bias. I had planned on attending the United States Air Force Academy—I had a recommendation...but things didn't turn out that way. My medical history included the allergy shots that I took every Tuesday morning for about 6 years, and that was enough to disqualify me. I guess they didn't want their pilots sneezing into the oxygen masks. Whatever...

I was pretty crushed at the time. I thought that I had things figured out. I believed that flying was my dream. What do you do when the dream dies?

Tonight I was talking with a friend who's in the AFROTC program at Penn State. We were discussing this very chapter of my life, and I found myself wondering how different would my life be if I had gotten a shot at the Academy. Where would I be now? Would I have found Kim? Would we have our kids?

Sometimes the very things that I think I want can take me far away from the path that God has marked out for me. I don't believe that there is one and only one “right way” for us; but I do believe that God has a “best path.” Sometimes he has to get creative to steer me in that direction. I'm glad that he does.

I never want to get to the point where I'm not teachable.

And I still think that Kelly McGillis (or the character, dialogue, and plot-line) is absolutely ridiculous. That almost makes me want to change the channel. Almost...