Black Saturday

In the order of devastation...

Cubs swept in the playoffs by L.A.

Nebraska kicked in the face by Missouri... worst home loss since 1955. The good news- we held them to just under 500 yards. Not bad for our blackshirt-less defense.

Iowa State 33 Kansas 35. After recovering an onside kick with a minute left, ISU goes 4 and out. So typical.

The ISU/NU game is shaping up to be quite a showdown in Ames here in a couple weeks.

I'm glad to be living for the kingdom of God. I wonder if there will be sports in heaven. I wonder if there will be wins and losses...

The Economy

This is a well written and accessible take on our economical "situation" (click here). Thanks, Chris, for posting the link to this.

Playlist

So here's what I've been listening to lately via Rhapsody (They just bought Yahoo music. If you sign up for free, you can listen to 30 songs a month for free! Rhapsody is what we use for our worship team to learn new songs):

Charlie Hall: The Bright Sadness
It's pretty good, but I've only heard it a couple times. I have a policy that I reserve all music judgments until I've listened to something 4 or 5 times through. But so far I like it. Charlie is a prophetic musician that I have loved over the years. I gave him the book "Valley of Vision" a couple years ago, and he used a quote from it in his last album. He told me and a friend in '97 regarding our question about songwriting, "It's amazing what you can do with G, C and D."

Hillsong: This is our God
This worship album is amazing. It's got some of the United punch to it. I've talked about this album before, as I was able to get my hands on a pre-release a few months ago. Your soul will be moved Godward.

Coldplay: Viva La Vida
It's typical Coldplay- amazing music that you love more with time, but I have no idea what the words are, much less what the songs mean. But I guess since I'm a Generation Xer that's not supposed to bother me. It doesn't. This is my favorite Coldplay album to date.

Leeland: Opposite Way
These youngsters know how to write cotton candy melody hooks. No wonder Michael W. Smith loves them (they've written songs for him, I'm told). Though it's not as good as their first album (the Sound of Melodies), this album is solid. I love the first 2 tracks. They not only write a mean hook, they also have insightfully unconventional lyrics. Even their occasional use of trite lyrics is cool.

Speaking of cotton candy, I'm about to watch National Treasure 2...

Dads, we can do this thing!

Tonight we had family devotions at dinner. I'll chalk it up as a win, albeit an ugly one.

It started with Beck asking to pray. He started to pray for our neighbor, who was visiting for dinner. He was going to pray that "she would come to know Jesus" until he realized it was a seeker sensitive meal. He cut it short and stared at us, to which we said, "Thank you that _____ could join us for dinner tonight."

Then I busted out our Bible after I finished eating (before them). I explained to our guest, "We always read the Bible at dinner...." Ava cut me off, "No we don't. This is the first time, dad."

What does she know.

I read the story about the Ark (of the covenant, not Noah's) getting taken back from the Philistines after Yahweh showed up the Philistine god, Dagon. I asked why we don't carve an image of our God from a piece of wood. Cameron said, "We might think that is who God is- we may want to worship the paper and not God." I considered his brilliant response a result of my great question asking abilities.

We went around and shared 2 things we're thankful for...
- Ava, "teachers and friends"
- Beck, "Cameron and I don't know what else"
- Cameron, "Our house and that we are rich and have lots of food"
- Our guest got a pass
- Leatha, I can't remember for sure, but something about me being the best husband ever
- Me, "that we could spend the evening together as a family and have ____ over for dinner"

The kids all said their verse that Leatha memorized with them this month from Philippians 2:3 and Beck shared a verse that he had learned in his D6 class with Pastor Troy. Yep, that's our lead pastor leading the 3 year old class. One more reason I would die on a hill with my boss. More on that in another post about my mentors...

It was at this point that it all came to a crash landing.

As Beck was saying his verse and midway through blanked on the ending, we all started laughing at him. He didn't think it was funny. He ran to our room crying. I felt terrible.

When I was able to calm him down he said, "Don't laugh at me again, daddy."

Did I say I felt terrible? I'll put that on the list of things never to do again. So far that list is something like...
1. Don't tell Leatha "I heard you" while watching TV
2. Don't forget our anniversary. ("or my birthday" Leatha just chimed in...)
3. Don't eat a friend's one year anniversary tea ring (sorry Despards)
...
839. Don't laugh at my kids when they mess up a Bible verse (Romans 8:39 was the verse...)

Well, I did my best to pull a N.Y. Mets choke, but in spite of lying and wounding my child for life, I think we got a win out of it. As my friend Bob Thune, Jr says, "Some days you get points for just showing up."

More thoughts on the TSC retreat

I just got home from the TSC retreat. Here are some reflections on our weekend...

I had a prophetic dream going into the retreat, which helped set the tone for my weekend. Let's see if you have the gift of interpretation...

(shortened version) I was at a huge U2 concert in Mexico. I was actually chilling back stage with Bono, the U2 lead singer. The crowd was going crazy- waiting in anticipation for this rock star to come out. His first words when he came out, "Are you ready to worship God tonight?" The crowd erupted with booing and it was a painfully long concert as the crowd sat unimpressed in silence.

There was a lot on my mind going into the weekend, and I knew right away what this dream meant. I called my dad to see what he thought. Without my help, he gave me the exact interpretation I had.

Drum roll...

"The arm of flesh will fail you. You dare not trust your own." I was trusting in many other things for a great retreat- human abilities for example. Jeremiah 17:5, "This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

As I think about what happened this weekend in the lives of our students, it really can't be traced back to anything other than, "God showed up." Not Bono. Not Mark. Not Jason (our speaker).

At the beginning of the year, I asked God, "What do you want from me this year?" It seemed God was saying, "Love and Serve." Guess what the first two retreat messages were on?

The worship this weekend was electric. Our speaker commented on the openness and freedom of our students in worship. "How did they get like that?" he asked. I'm not sure, but there is a cool spirit of worship going on in TSC these days.

I met so many new people. It's impossible to keep up with all that God has done and is doing in people's lives. But it's so beautiful to get a small glimpse of it.

One of our staff guys had a big confrontation with a student. He concluded by saying, "I just want to get past this so I can focus on doing ministry." After I stated the obvious (i.e. "You're doing it"), he said, "I mean the easy kind of ministry." Such is the nature of ministry- a handful of stuff we don't enjoy.

My wife came out with the kids all day on Saturday. The kids had a blast hanging out with college students. I hope every student can have something close to what I have- an amazing wife and kids.

I'm tired. But blessed.

TSC Retreat

I'm currently at our fall retreat, about to crash.

We had a great night. God is already working in the small group times after our session. I was convicted by the message, which was all about serving. I'll spare the details but I'll share a funny story...

I was walking back to my cabin with a student. We went through the usual questions...I asked his name, major, where he's from. So he fires back:
Student: "So what year are you in school? Freshman? Sophomore?"
Me: "No, I graduated a couple years ago"
Student: "What in?"
Me: "Speech Communication major, double minor in Philosophy and Religious Studies"
Student: "What do you do?"
Me: "I work with Salt Company."
Student: "That's cool. Talk to you later..."

I never did break the news to him that I'm 31, I've been married 8 years and have 4 kids. Or that I actually lead the Salt Company. Or that I was the guy on the stage leading the worship.

Oh well. He'll figure it out soon enough. Especially if he reads this blog.

I'm looking forward to many more awkward conversations just like this. But I remembered the most important thing about our conversation: his name. One name down, only about 359 left to memorize...