da bou

So, Caribou has this new drink for the holiday season called "Ho Ho Mocha." It's basically a white chocolate mocha (my favorite espresso drink) with peppermint. Anyway, it "pays" to register your Caribou card (assuming you have one). Yesterday, they sent out coupons for a free Ho Ho Mocha today (Nov 30). So, Kim and I started our morning with FREE large espresso-peppermint drinks today... mmm...

underwhelmed

I woke up today with a sinking feeling... the pressure of the holidays weighing heavily on me.

In a previous post, I ranted about the rush-rush-rush of the holiday season in general. I think I'm doing okay with that end of things (the whole society-driven-marketing-pressure of the season). But, today, the first Monday after Turkey Day, I've awakened to the ridiculous expectations placed upon me by other people. I wish that I could shirk my responsibilities this month, but that, unfortunately, is not possible.

As "Pastor of Worship and Arts" at my Church, I am responsible for a whole host of large events/projects throughout the year. They usually come and go as once-every-other-month sorts of things. It just so happens that two of the largest "events" at our Church occur in the next 3 weeks (our Christmas Banquet and Christmas Eve service). And, yes, I am the person responsible for "making them happen."

I've given away everything that I can possibly give away to other people to help out with the projects... but, the sole responsibility of each of the events rests on me. (It doesn't help that most everyone else in the Church is feeling an enormous amount of holiday-pressure and is "too busy" to help out... I almost feel guilty asking people to help out!) To be honest, everything is overwhelming at the moment. The only other time I ever feel this much pressure is around Easter. But, that's just one shot in the middle of Spring, so it's usually not this bad.

Don't get me wrong. I don't entirely blame my Church community for setting these expectations. Indeed, I have some part in this with my "I can do it!" personality. But, I think it's really a symptom of how the vast majority of Western Christianity has interpreted what "Church" is. But, I'll deconstruct that thought in a later post...

I guess the hardest part of all of this is being married. In the past, I was able to throw myself completely into these sorts of projects, but now I know that doing that in the midst of our marriage would be unfair to my wife. I feel a sense of "resentment" or "anger" that my time with my amazing wife is being channeled away from her for this period of time--and that most of it is completely out of my ability to control it. But, I guess life comes and goes with such seasons-of-existence.

I know, though, that even more than feeling overwhelmed, I am feeling underwhelmed. Generally when I get this stressed, etc., I tend to push my faith to the margins of my life. This morning I prayed a simple prayer: "Jesus, I desperately want to keep you at my centre this week." That's really all I can do at this point. I desire to be overwhelmed--in awe--at Christ and his birth rather than underwhelmed--too busy to experience the mystery of Christ's incarnation.

Thanks for listening to my rant. Things will be better after this Sunday's Christmas Banquet. Just a heads up: this may be a light week of posting... I've already spent too much time writing this post...

on the road again...

Turkey Day!

Well... it's Thanksgiving holiday this week. I'll be traveling around a bit, so I may not get to my blog as often as I would like. Don't worry, though! I'll be back!

my wife rocks

3 hours of staff meetings today. Ugh. Came into my office in a toasted frame of mind. Lo and behold... there on my desk... a small CD-shaped object wrapped in newspaper clippings of the greatest band ever, U2. Scribbled in the top corner: "Love, Kim." And what should I find inside?? "How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb."

My wife absolutely rocks!

holidaze

It's that time of year again. Holidays, holidays, holidays. They just seem to hit us one right after the other. No breathing room in between. Of course, the commercialism beast of our capitalistic society has begun to hit us with "Christmas-time-marketing" since late October!

It's a catch-22 for me.

I look forward to the season because of all the fond memories of my childhood--family reunions, Christmas day with the family, etc.. I still look forward to those things. The sights, smells and feelings associated with the season overwhelm me with joy sometimes.

Then, there is the "other side." 100s of Christmas cards to sign. Family get-togethers to schedule in the midst of a myriad of Church-related Christmas events and seasonal parties with friends. Oh, and who can forget the ever present stress of finding the "right gift" for everybody on my ever-growing list?? (By the way, if you're looking to get me a gift, you can just get me one of the following and I'll be happy as a peach: [1] World peace, [2] Brunch with Bono, [3] My own coffee house.)

This is my first Christmas as a husband. I'm excited to begin establishing holiday-time traditions with my beautiful wife. However, I am sad that both of us have been programmed by society to be so ridiculously busy during the holidays because we both love and enjoy this time of year. Then again, have we been programmed, or is it just the inevitable outcome of the social expectations on us??

My hope and prayer is for the grace to say "no" to some things and the courage to say "yes" to my new family as we celebrate the birth of our Savior. We need the "Prince of Peace" to guide us through the season.

thought provoking

Now, here's a thought provoking post (Is God up to something in USA?) on tallskinnykiwi. Andrew Jones looks at a rew recent events from 2004 (i.e. The Passion of Christ, the elections, Christian music industry, etc.) in the USA and wonders aloud if God may be preparing the Christian community in the USA for something...

about the church [.] part viii

In my previous post in this series about the Church I posted my sermon outline from a few weeks ago. If you're new to [ex]changed.life or haven't been around for a while, let me fill you in on the "about the church" series. Basically, I've been journaling my thoughts on what "makes" a church--the essentials vs. the non-essentials.

Most recently, I've been going through three characteristics of authentic Christian community (what I'm referring to as "the Church"). We've covered ordinances and encountering the Word of God. Now onto the third and final characteristic: The church actively joins in the mission of God.

At the core of this idea is the question "what is the mission of God?" I've already tackled this question in this post (the mission of God). Rather than going over what I've already written, I'll just say these few things as further clarification:

1) The Church community that is intentional, relevant and urgent in reaching pre-believers is on mission with God.
2) The Church community that is known by their love, a voice of hope and a community of faith is on mission with God.
3) Just because a Church gives money to "missions" or supports an over-seas mission doesn't necessarily mean they are on mission with God. However, a Church that is involved in redemptive work locally with the goal of nothing less than reaching the entire world is mission minded. This is the balance between reality and idealism. Why not dream big? Just don't forget where you are today! You must be committed to actively reaching the community you are placed in first.

Anyway, those are a few thoughts just to get things going again...

Previous posts in this series:
part i [.] why do people choose not to be part of the Church?
part ii [.] boring Church and style issues
part iii [.] the mission of God
part iv [.] the Church is community.1
part v [.] the Church is community.2
part vi [.] the Church is community.3
part vii [.] reclaiming the church as community

m-resources

Pretty spiffy site one of my friends from seminary put together. It's basically some original resources--small group studies, worship service video loops, etc.--meant primarily for high school students. Russ is a pretty dynamic and gifted speaker. If you're in the youth/young adult world, you may want to consider this guy and his resources. He's pretty solid. (For those of you UGA grads, he's also a UGA alum...)

Anyway, check out his stuff at: m-resources.

writer's blo(g)ck

Just wondering out loud... Perhaps my cycle in not having anything blog-worthy to post works in a reverse manner as well. (For the complete 4-stage cycle, see this post.) Apparently, my previous post about this weekend's football games ranks in around a #2 in my cycle. Which leads me to a hypothesis: Perhaps I proceed through the four steps to hard core writer's blo(g)ck, and then proceed back up the ladder toward blogging health (i.e. 1...2...3...4... then... 3...2...1...).

Maybe I think too much.

football

I guess you can say I'm a proud alum. Good 'ole Carson-Newman College advanced to round two of NCAA Division 2 playoffs this past weekend. (Check out the bracket HERE.) We'll be playing Valdosta this weekend--a team C-NC traditionally looses to. Valdosta is currently ranked #4 whilst C-NC is ranked #14. Not holding my breath, but it would be nice to see the Eagles make it back to Florence, AL for the National Title again this year...

In other NCAA news, BAMA plays Auburn in the Iron Bowl this weekend. After seeing the embarassing display of UGA vs. Auburn this past weekend, I'm not at all looking forward to the game this weekend. I've even considered driving the 4.5 hours to south Georgia to see C-NC potentially win against Valdosta rather than watch BAMA get crushed by Auburn on TV.

more on my constipation

So, I'm constipated. Um, not literally. I have writer's block. It seems my drive to post on my blog comes and goes. About every 8 weeks or so, I hit a wall. I have nothing to say. Usually, my pattern is something like this:

1) I begin posting links to other sites. A stall tactic? Maybe a way to get your attention off my site whilst I try to conjure up some creative topics?

2) After that I usually begin to post about random things that are, to be frank, brainless. Such as my ESPN College Pick 'Em posts (I fell into 3rd place in our group this week).

3) About this time I begin to feel some pressure. I feel like you--my faithful reader--is angry at me for not posting anything worthwhile. I feel your judgment breathing on my neck--heating my blood and burning shame deep into the concreted-bowels of my writer's mind...

4) Then, the most existential part of all... I literally have a disgusting feeling directly aimed at my blog. I loathe it--almost as if my blog were a person that I do not want to be around. I don't like to look at it, and I certainly hate to open Blogger and try to initiate some kind of dialogue with it. I have a certain suburban-esque-angst aimed right at the poor thing.

So, I am constipated--metaphorically speaking. I need some "prune juice" to get the thoughts rolling again. I have many things I want to do. I'd like to finish up the dialogue "about the church"... its been a while since I posted my thoughts on it, and I'd like to finish it up. I think it'll eventually take us into a dialogue on the emerging church (at least, that's where I'd like it to end up). So much to do... so little brain power... ugh... mondays.

hmph

writers block.

death

So, Arafat died. It was sad to watch on TV all the Palestinians mourning the loss of their leader. I hope/pray that peace talks can begin soon...

fun with rss!

Now, here's another thing to take up more of your time! The site is called: 10x10 - 100 Words and Pictures that Define the Time. Basically, the program searches RSS feeds of major news entities and aggregates the top 100 "words" of the hour. It then rips a picture from the site and puts it with the word (complete with links to the actual news articles!). Its a neat way to "view" the headlines of the hour. Here's a description from the actual site:

10x10™ ('ten by ten') is an interactive exploration of the words and pictures that define the time. The result is an often moving, sometimes shocking, occasionally frivolous, but always fitting snapshot of our world. Every hour, 10x10 collects the 100 words and pictures that matter most on a global scale, and presents them as a single image, taken to encapsulate that moment in time. Over the course of days, months, and years, 10x10 leaves a trail of these hourly statements which, stitched together side by side, form a continuous patchwork tapestry of human life.

A related site by the same designer is: Wordcount - Tracking the Way We Use Language. Now this is a cool site. It agregates 86,000+ words in the English language by rank in usage. You can type in individual words or search by rank number. The site also includes some pretty fun "consipiracies" where words were randomly placed next to each other in ranking. (2 of my favorite conspiracies: "microsoft aquire salary tremendous" and "apple formula: imagination.") Oh, and, FYI, word # 86,800 (the least used word) is "conquistador;" and for the record, "Adam" is ranked 2,775 in the grand scheme of word usage.

If you're interested in more stuff by the designer, check out his site at: Number 27 - The Work of Jonathan J. Harris.

btw

Oh, and by the way... has anyone noticed the slight change I made to my blog recently? Comments...?

plagiarism anyone?

My wife is a high school English teacher. She's always grading essays and such. It's pretty fun to watch her catch kids in the act of plagiarism. I myself was an English nerd--um, major, in college. Here's a fun site (turnitin.com) designed to catch kids in the act of plagiarizing papers off the web.

Basically, you submit a paper electronically to the site, it scans the paper through a database of millions of other papers, then it spits the paper out with highlights marking what sentences/phrases/paragraphs were ripped from other papers. I hear it even gives a percentage of how much of the paper was ripped! The problem is that it's pretty expensive, so you'd almost have to get the school board behind it to fund the various departments that would use it (i.e. English, social studies, psychology, etc.).

It's really sad that the technology for cheating demands such a sophisticated technology to catch the cheaters.

rankin'

Last time I posted about how I was doing in College Pick 'Em (ESPN) I had advanced to 20,342nd place in the College Pick 'Em world. As of now, I've advanced to 11,217th place! I've had an amazing come back from my pathetic 16/55 point week. I am finally 4 points from the #1 ranked person in our group.

What's funny is that I have no real "system" to my picks. I literally look at the game card each week... and "feel" which teams will win. It's crazy... I usually only miss 1 or 2 picks each week. Interestingly enough, I picked Notre Dame over Tennessee this week (something I'm proud of), and at the last minute switched my Clemson v. Miami pick to favor Miami (I originally had Clemson as an upset). I should've kept that one, but thought that only one upset in my picks was enough.

Well, I don't think this "mojo" will last for long. I've just been really lucky.

So, all of this is pointless in the long run. Just thought you'd wanna know.

fingers crossed

Today BAMA plays Mississippi State. My fingers are crossed. I think this is the last chance for BAMA to win a game this season and get a bowl game. (LSU & Auburn are the remaining games on the schedule...)

402nd

I just checked my Blogger stats a few minutes ago. I was truly amazed. Apparently, since I started this blog in April '03 (first post) I have...

[.] Posted 401 times (making this my 402nd post)
[.] Posted 50,752 words (that's a stinkin' book!)
[.] Delivered to you, my faithful blog readers, 582 outboud links to other blogs/sites (here's a 583rd site, just for fun...)

Pretty amazing. So... why haven't you started your own blog, yet??

election results

Check out this post @ TallSkinnyKiwi (UK): Season of Hope for USA. Interesting perspective of a Brit on the recent re-election of President Bush. I think what's more interesting are all of the responses to the post.

Another thoughtful post from a different perspective is found on The Acrobat (my pal, Rob): Election Reflections - Victory.

After the election result, it's even more clear to me that our country is divided. I pray we will be united. Not around any one person or cause, but around the Cross of Christ. To use our God-given blessings to help the innocent, feed the poor and heal the sick. To be an example to the world of the foolishness of the Cross.

about the church [.] part vii

In my previous post in this series about the Church I told you I was going to be preaching a sermon on this subject. Well, I preached the sermon this past Sunday. Here are the points from the sermon for your benefit. Enjoy!

Title: Reclaiming the Church as Community
Text: 1 Peter 2:4-10

Question #1: Who are we? (1 Peter 2:9)
• Selected
"But you are a chosen people..." (NASB = "a chosen race")
• Elevated Status
"a royal priesthood..."
• Set Apart
"a holy nation..."
• Sold
"a people belonging to God..." (NASB = "a people for God's own possession")

Question #2: What are we about?
Partners with God in His mission.
"...that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." – 1 Peter 2:9

Question #3: What should we do?
Come to Jesus and come together.
"As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." – 1 Peter 2:4-5

Previous posts in this series:
part i [.] why do people choose not to be part of the Church?
part ii [.] boring Church and style issues
part iii [.] the mission of God
part iv [.] the Church is community.1
part v [.] the Church is community.2
part vi [.] the Church is community.3

election day results: we won!

Nope. Not gonna be a "partisan" post (you already know where I stand). Yesterday, we won as a country. Why...? Here are a few things I'm proud about:

- Once again, democracy proved we could choose our leaders without bloodshed...
- There were no terrorist attacks on our land (praise God). Something we're doing is working...
- We turned out voting in record #s...

well, most everyone won, yesterday
Of course, there were a few losers. Most notably my ex-roommate, Dan/Giselle, got eliminated on He's a Lady. Sorry, Danny. I'm gonna stop watching your show now.

a happy georgia voter

Left the office, voted and made it back in less than 45 minutes.

VOTE.

decemberween

I thought those of you Homestar Runner fans would enjoy the pumpkin Kim and I carved this weekend. Thanks, Wendy, for a great pumpkin carving party! (BTW, check out HR today and you'll find all the Halloween links from the past week. My favorite is 'Puppetween: Homestar vs. Little Girl part 2.')