I just finished reading this article from Relevant Magazine called 6 Denominations in 6 Weeks by Jason Boyett. It’s well-written, challenging, funny and insightful. It makes me want to go visit some more churches. It also asks a lot of the right questions without worrying too much about coming up with neatly wrapped answers.
How we “do” church worship services should reflect who we follow. It should also be relevant to the community and culture we’re in. It shouldn’t ever become vain or meaningless repetition of tradition or dumbed-down, flashy hype just to be cool. I hope that at my church, we’re putting something together each Sunday that truly transforms people’s lives and – above all – glorifies God.
Filed under: Ordinary Life
I’ve been going to the gym lately and it always feel good to work out. It’s tough, but rewarding. One of the things I never seem to do enough of is stretching. To take 10 minutes when I’m already exhausted to stretch often seems harder than the actual workout. I don’t know why that is. It seems like it should be the easiest part.
Then yesterday, I found myself stretching in a different way. We shot a video for Calvary’s Man Camp , which is coming up at the end of May. Normally, for a video shoot like this I would be comfortably working behind the scenes. This time, I was out front doing things I never thought possible. I was dancing with a giant umbrella, sprinting with an axe in my hand, arm wrestling our student ministries pastor and playing with an acetylene torch.
In both cases I’ve found that stretching is a good thing, it’s just hard sometimes. How are you stretching?
Leslie got a call this morning from her mom. It was about Dr. Cook, whom she has been working for as his assistant since he became president emeritus of Biola University. She was calling to tell us that he had passed away last night. Dr. Cook was a good man. God used him to accomplish many great things and he has left an amazing legacy. He was greatly loved and will be greatly missed. You can read more about his life here.
Leslie was supposed to be released from the hospital yesterday right after she ate lunch. But, when she stood up after lunch, she was hit with an intense migraine. She had held it together for the last two days, but I suddenly saw her weeping in pain and barely able to function through it. Of course, I prayed for her right away. And then, I started thinking of all the things I could do to help. Called the nurse. Got her something to drink. Held her hand. Rubbed her neck. And then I realized what I was doing didn’t seem to be helping.
The book I had finished reading earlier that morning was The Power of Praying Together. So, as Leslie sat there with her face in her hands trying to cope with the pain I began to text people whose numbers were in my phone, who knew Leslie, knew of her surgery and I knew would pray for her. Within 5 minutes of the texts going out, she suddenly felt the need to lay down. Within a couple minutes of laying down, she was fast asleep. She stayed asleep for the next hour and by the time she woke up, the migraine was gone. I’ve never been one to jump at labeling what could be a coincedence as a miracle. But, yesterday I believe that God answered our prayers.
The best part was just as she started falling asleep we heard her say, “Oh…!?” as if she had realized something and was now okay with it, even though it surprised her a little. After saying this, she was completely asleep. It turns out she was dreaming and as she looked around the corner in her dream she saw Eddie Murphy - wearing a dress. I’m not sure what that means, but it made us all laugh. Maybe there’s a chance she saw an angel that looks a lot like Eddie Murphy in a dress. Or, maybe not.
Anyway, thank you to all those who have been praying for Leslie. Thank you for your continued prayers as she is now home and recovering. Thank you for praying together with us.
I’ve been helping to prep some of the creative elements for a 5 week series on Prayer along with the National Day of Prayer, both coming up in May at Calvary. Suddenly, I found this work related topic thrust into the center of my life in a very real way. I began to pray. a lot. by myself. with my wife Leslie. with others. a lot.
I feel like my prayer life for much too long has been tucked into moments of convenience or routine or random necessity. This week, I have seen prayers answered and have learned to stop taking this amazing privilege for granted. I found out on Tuesday afternoon that my wife Leslie had to go in for gall bladder surgery early Thursday morning.
We got to the hospital at 7 am this morning. She was prepped and then in surgery by 9 am. She was up in recovery on the fourth floor with a window overlooking Calvary before noon. The surgeon said it went as well as it possibly could have. The entire hospital staff was amazing. Leslie’s recovery speed within just a few hours of the surgery surprised even the nurses.
Throughout the day I wound up reading through most of a book all about prayer that I was meaning to read before May anyway, but it meant so much more to me as I read waiting in a hospital room as my wife rested.
I thank God for the amazing access we have through prayer. I thank God for family and friends who have been praying for us. I thank God for my beautiful wife and I’m continuing to pray for her as she goes through this trial in her life. I have seen this week that prayer is many things: It’s powerful, influential, unifying, strengthening, encouraging… and most of all - it’s real.
This video is impressive. It’s done really well considering the art form they’re using, which is a little Napolean Dynamite Happy Hands Team. The use of black light and the amazing coordination and timing this takes is pretty cool, in spite of it’s high cheese factor.
Filed under: Ordinary Life
Over the weekend we realized that Leslie’s little Honda Civic was beginning to see hard days ahead. The AC flat out stopped working. It’s also been having some weird rattlings and rumblings as it approached the 80,000 mark. To top it off, we found out last week we’re getting a bit of a tax refund. So, on Sunday we decided to just go check out what was out there.
Our goal was to find something a little bigger that still got decent mileage. We wanted something really reliable, still a little fun to drive and very comfortable. So, we were mostly looking at the small SUVs. There was the Hyundai Santa Fe, Toyota Rav4, Saturn Vue, Ford Escape, Nissan Rogue and Honda Element and CR-V. As you can see from the photo below we went with the CR-V.
While the Element was really cool, it was just a little too … different. It takes a certain quirkiness to drive around town in a box. The other top contender was the Rogue. It’s a brand new offering from Nissan and had some really strong features like their CVT transmission which makes it so you never feel a shift, along with a cool interior and sporty exterior. However, it was just a little too small in the end and the resale value was a concern with such a new, unknown car.
The CR-V we wound up getting was at Buena Park Honda. There wasn’t one “greasy” car salesman in the bunch. The place was super relaxed with a great all around vibe. I can’t say enough good things about every single person we dealt with while there.
We made an appointment through the Costco car buying program and went down to meet with one of the fleet salesman Monday night at 8:30. We took it for one more test drive and decided the CR-V was the one to go with, but they didn’t have it in the right color. We went ahead and looked at their pricing but weren’t thrilled enough to sign on the line with the promise of delivery in the color we wanted the next day.
As we’re about to leave – at 10:00 pm – the sales manager points out he has a new 2007 in the color we wanted. The only problem is it’s got leather and a ton of accesories we didn’t ask for. So, he throws in about $3000 in accessories for no cost and gives us a great deal that we couldn’t walk away from. The real kicker is they gave us $9000 on a trade in for a car with obvious issues. So, we were able to apply the equity towards the new one.
We finished the whole deal at about 5 minutes to midnight and didn’t actually get off the lot until almost 12:30. There is a bit of the classic, buyer’s remorse like with many major purchases. It’s just that the sudden newness is a little overwhelming and still sinking in. I think it was worth it, though. And, in the end I hope we got a great car at a great price.
