i'd like to go skydiving again. anybody want to join me?!
Friday, March 28, 2008
my name is clay
thanks to learned behavior and a big dose of life, i have an irrational fear. it's the fear that people won't remember me or my name.
for three of my four years in college i attended a bilingual church: monte de olivos internacional iglesia de dios. they spoke english and, you guessed it, spanish. it was a relatively small church in a relatively small eastern tennessee town. you'd think that a tall white boy with curly blonde hair would stand out in a crowd of latinos, but not so much. only a few families remembered my name. despite the fact that i wrote a tithe check every two weeks for three years, the pastor didn't even remember my name. he just usually said hola hermano when i received an obligatory hand shake.
so i was reminded today of the truth that He knows my name. and at the end of the day, it really only matters that He knows my name.
i have a Father He calls me His own He'll never leave me no matter where i go
He knows my name...
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
the esau syndrome
everybody from everywhere gets bitter at some point in their lives. it's part of life that we all go through and hopefully something from which we learn.
but time has a way of healing us.
i recently started to think about some things that happened to me a few years ago. people i thought were my friends, people that were "family", not only stabbed me in the back, but twisted the knife and then rubbed salt in the wounds. yeah. it hurt. and for a while i was bitter. i mean BITTER.
i harbored all of these ill feelings toward the stabbers until i realized that my bitterness didn't amount to a hill of beans to them. it only hurt me. so in one light bulb moment, i made a conscious decision to not be bitter.
it's a decision that i sometimes have to re-make, but it's worth it.
work at getting along with each other and with God. otherwise you'll never get so much as a glimpse of God. make sure no one gets left out of God's generosity. keep a sharp eye out for weeds of bitter discontent. a thistle or two gone to seed can ruin a whole garden in no time. watch out for the esau syndrome: trading away God's lifelong gift in order to satisfy a short-term appetite. you well know how esau later regretted that impulsive act and wanted God's blessing—but by then it was too late, tears or no tears.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
passion weekend summarized
friday: i was in a pissy mood, went to communion service, left in a much better mood. it's hard to be in a bad mood when you think about Jesus dying for your sins.
saturday: i ran 6 miles which brought my weekly total to 19.5. i will do better this week. i went to the grand premier of saturday night live at nvmc. it was rad. we had a native american in traditional attire visit. nvmc is about reaching the world in our city.
sunday: i attended the most non-traditional easter sunday service in my life. the sermon was sabotaged by a lot of horse crap on the stage. literally. but the sabotagery (is that a word?) was effective. a whole slew of people accepted Christ into their lives.
the guys in the media room had a theological debate in between services and it was good. it was strothman and me against beaver and p-don. we all won.
we went to the easter pageant at southeast christian church tonight. ummm... WOW. good stuff. real good stuff.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
he saw the light (x2), no more in darkness...
Monday, March 17, 2008
it works, it really does
inviting my non-Christian friends to church is one of those things that doesn't come easily to me. in fact, i find it very difficult. part of the problem has to do with my phlegmatic personality.
but the call of duty invite cards have made it much easier. you can see them on the new nvmc website.
all i did was lay them on my desk in my office. when people walked in and saw them just lying there, they picked one up and wanted to know what it was all about.
i didn't have to push it on them. i didn't have to make things awkward.
i just have to answer their questions when they ask. how much easier could it get?
(oh, and so far, four folks are coming on easter sunday morning...)
Friday, March 14, 2008
seven wonders, my
earlier i heard a lady on tv talking about the seven wonders of her world and i was inspired to comprise the seven wonders of my world too. so here you go...
1. hluhluwe-umfolozi game reserve, south africa. i've been to several game parks in africa, but this is my favorite. you know you're having fun when you're on a three hour walking safari through the bush with a guide whose only english is "white rhino - climb tree quickly". we would come across animal poop and to help us identify which animal it came from, he would make the noise that the animal makes. only problem with that is that we didn't know the sound for water buffalo, giraffe or springbok.
2. sea of galilee, israel. simply beautiful. while we were staying at the kibbutz, i decided i would wake up early to go sit on the shore and watch the sunrise. i figured it'd be a great devotional time. only problem - before i realized it the sun rose behind my back. yeah, that's right.
3. polihale beach, kauai, hawaii. picture it: hawaiian beach with a friend, no sleeping bag, no tent, not enough driftwood for a fire, and a box of twinkies and a package of hot dogs. fun times!!!
4. eldoret, kenya. when i first flew into eldoret and walked into the airport, which by the way is an open air airport, i knew i was in for a treat. the crusades were special because it would rain and rain and rain hours before the services were to start and water would be standing all around, but the people came anyway and just stood in the water. they couldn't sit down. their feet were soaking wet. but they stood anyway to hear the story of Jesus. pretty awesome.
5. times square, nyc. i've been there several times but this trip was unique. we saw carson daly, jay z, jerry o'connell, brian mcknight and the presidents of the united states of america - all very randomly i might add. we were tourists to da max. yo.
6. dead sea, israel. it's pretty bad when you have to get rescued by the lifeguard in the dead sea. (just in case you didn't know, the salt content in the dead sea is so high that you always float on the water. you can lay on your side with no trouble and read a book - no joke.) the lifeguard said that we were getting too far out and would drift to jordan before too much longer.
7. umhlanga rocks, south africa. our first trip to the beach in south africa and it was great. it was the first time i'd been to the beach in over 10 years and i loved every second of it! one of the guys in our practicum was so paranoid with the great white sharks being in the water that he screamed when he saw a big patch of seaweed float by us. the people around us didn't appreciate that too much. (side note: he also started screaming at me one morning around 5am. he was in the bathtub and a cockroach was crawling up the side of the tub. he wanted me to kill it. i got him a flip-flop from my room and told him that he was a man and needed to kill his own bugs and not to wake me up at 5am anymore.)
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
quotes in notes
one of the things i LOVE about my phone is the "notes" feature. it's pretty much a free form space where you can write, you guessed it, notes. i have one labeled as quotes. i'll type in sentences that i hear that jump out at me. for various reasons some of my favorites are:
"today's headlines are rarely the same as history's judgments" - rudy carrasco
"prayer is a dialogue, not a monologue" - darlene from bates memorial baptist church
"life is very frustrating for the branch trying to be the vine" - kyle idleman
"what you don't confront today will confront you tomorrow" - pastor david boggs
"you will only live at the level at which you die" - pastor craig harvey
"i want to end up better than i knew i could be" - don't remember but i wish i had thought of it first
Monday, March 10, 2008
i live in a red house
i think i'm gonna try mike's M.O. it's the one-semester-of-spanish spanish love song.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
sorry
writers block.
Monday, March 03, 2008
hurry up and wait
i think el Senor is trying to teach me a lesson about patience. i wish He'd hurry up and teach it all ready.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
i'm afraid i'm the parrot
one of my heroes, c.s. lewis, once said:
all this is flashy rhetoric about loving you i never had a selfless thought since i was born i am mercenary and self-seeking through and through i want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn
peace, reassurance, pleasure, are the goals i seek i cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin i talk of love - a scholar's parrot may talk greek - but, self-imprisoned, always end where i begin
