Danielle, Bennett, Eden and I are all at Camp Junaluska in the mountains of NC this week.  We’re with a group called The Christian Business Men that have a family camp here every year.  They asked Dave O to come run the college students side of things and I’m helping Dave O out with music.  Its been fun to have Danielle and the kids along.  And also to be away for a week before fall hits.  I’ll try and get some pictures up tonight or tomorrow of the scenery….it’s amazing. 

It’s been fun to be in the car so much this week…I’ve missed spending time listening to music.  I think I’ve listen to the Crowder Band, Can You Hear Us 7 times already this week.  I know allot of people think that A Collision is their best work, but I really think the song-writing/musicianship/production on Can You Hear Us, is their best stuff.  

Have any of you heard this CD?  It’s their first CD on a label…I think…I could be wrong.  It’s funny how many things they have hidden throughout this CD.  Like an obsession with the number 7.   Actually, I think everything hidden revolves around the number 7.  I’ll see if I can put a list together of what I find.   

Anyways, just thought I would share.

Hope your week goes well.

Yesterday morning I was able to get out of the house pretty early and spend some time at Starbucks reading.  I’m sure all of you parents will agree that reading time is hard to come by once there are kids around….so this was really nice. 

I’m reading a book right now called A Long Obedience In The Same Direction by Eugene Peterson…the guy that wrote the Message Bible.  I actually bought this book for my Dad a few months ago, and he has loved it so much that I thought I would start reading it myself.  So far it’s been really good. 

The book is a bunch of extended meditations of the Psalms of Assent…Psalm 121-134.

Here’s a quote from chapter 2 on Psalm 121. 

The only Serious mistake we can make when illness comes, when anxiety threatens, when conflict disturbs our relationships with other is to conclude that God has gotten bored looking after us and has shifted his attentions to more exciting Christians, or that God has become disgusted with our meandering obedience and decided to let us fend for ourselves for a while, or that God has gotten too busy fulfilling prophecy in the Middle East to take time now to sort our the complicated mess we have gotten ourselves into.  That is the only serious mistake we can make.  It is the mistake that Psalm 121 prevents: the mistake of supposing that God’s interest in us waxes and wanes in response to our spiritual temperature.

I love the part about fulfilling prophecy in the Middle East….isn’t that funny. 

Hope you all have a great day.  The college minisitry is going to a minor league baseball game tonight…I’ll try and get some good pics/video.

Every summer our church has a baptism service at a lake in the area.  This year Danielle stayed home with Eden since it was wicked hot out.  So Bennett and I went out to the lake, eat some hot dogs, and had a fantastic time.  Love those ordinances.  

By the way, being a single parent for 2 hours about killed me.  That’s hard stuff.

If you’re short on time skip to 1:38….proof that I have the cutest kid in the world. 

A few days ago my friend Nick told me about this site.  It’s a site that takes a bunch of text that you provide and creates “word clouds.”  Pretty cool.

Then this morning I saw that Amos Lanka did a post about this site….so I had to try it out for myself. 

I used Psalm 90. 

I work on a staff at a church with a bunch of guys that love to golf.  So when we leave for a few days, we play golf.  I don’t play that often, so when these opportunities roll around I get pretty excited.  

To be honest though (this will be the one tree hugger comment for the year) I really just like being outside.  I spend too much time inside, at a computer near florescent lights….man i hate florescent lights, they suck my energy.  

Anyways, I’m excited to play some golf.  I’ll try to have some good pics/videos when i get back.

The above picture is me at last years golf outing after I drained a 3 footer….it was a great shot.

later.

A few months ago I went to a Radiohead show in Charlotte.

The lighting set up was amazing.  

I found this article on Radiohead’s website.  It’s a description of how they did it.

Interestingly enough a few weeks back I was at Buckhead church in Atlanta, and they had a similar setup.

I’ve always been fascinated by ordinary people. Anytime I’m on an airplane, I love to ask people what they do and where they live (assuming they aren’t totally weirded out by me) . If the person lives overseas my fascination goes through the roof.

Memoirs are usually written by famous/important people. Lots of people want to hear what Bill Clinton has to say, because he was the President of the United States. You would think that not that many people want to hear about ordinary people. But, it seems like memoirs by not-so-famous people is a type of book that has peaked the interest of general readership recently. It’s crazy to me that these types of books have done so well…but I’m glad because I really enjoy them.

So far this year I’ve read two books that fit into this category…..Oh the Glory of it all by Sean Wilsey and Foreskin’s Lament by Shalom Auslander. A couple of things about these books - I think both are very interesting and helpful. I don’t know this for sure but I’m guessing that David Crowder has read Oh the Glory of it all per his song on Remedy….so if it’s good enough for Crowder it’s good enough for you…right? One other thing…I would probably use caution when reading either of these books - they could use some censoring. What makes them interesting is the fact that these guys are pretty messed up….and they’re pretty explicit about the details of their lives. Sometimes I’ll give books like these to Danielle to read first and she’ll take a sharpie to them or give them back with pages missing… she’s a good wife.

Anyways, do any of you know of memoirs by not-so-famous people? I guess Blue like Jazz would also be in this category. I’d love to find others.

I’m reading a book right now called Give Praise to God.  It’s a pretty good book.  The best thing about it is all of the good quotes on corporate worship. 

Here’s one by Calvin that I thought was so cool.  I love the imagery of weight and majesty.

“….we know by experience that singing has great force and vigor to move and inflame the hearts of men to invoke and praise God with a more vehement and ardent zeal. Care must always be taken that the song be neither light nor frivolous; but that it have weight and majesty…”