Okay, I couldn't help myself. I found a clip of Mr. and Mrs. Brooks for you, in case you missed this in the early 90's. Enjoy!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
It Was Twenty Years Ago Today . . .
Well, actually, it was twenty years ago yesterday that Rachelle and I were married. But I really wanted to slide in a line from Sgt. Peppers. :)
Does anyone remember In Living Color? Remember the old black couple, Mr. and Mrs. Brooks, that were always trying to kill each other? Rachelle and I have laughed for years as we say, "After all these years, we're stilllllllllllllllllllllll together!" So, for us, after these 20 years, we stillllllllllllllll love each other!
Here's to 20 more!
Does anyone remember In Living Color? Remember the old black couple, Mr. and Mrs. Brooks, that were always trying to kill each other? Rachelle and I have laughed for years as we say, "After all these years, we're stilllllllllllllllllllllll together!" So, for us, after these 20 years, we stillllllllllllllll love each other!
Here's to 20 more!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Lessons from the Rock: Today Is Mine
When I was a kid, I used to watch Bill Dance Outdoors on Saturday mornings. The theme song for that show was a Jerry Reed tune called “Today is Mine.” It was never a hip, popular song, but the words kind of stuck with me, and every now and then that song – the message of it, really – will pop back up in my life. The drive home from Torrent Falls was one of those times.
I was pretty wiped out on the drive home. But it was a warm, satisfied feeling. Our day climbing was a good day, and it was a day full of proof of God’s crazy love for us, such as:
A son who is also a best friend.
The magic of Chipotle.
The goodness of Starbucks.
Friends to share special moments with.
And sunsets to remind us that God gave us a gift that day.
Each day we can choose how best to live that particular day. If we don’t choose, time will spend itself, and like it or not, there are no “do overs.” But at least on the day of our climb, we chose to live fully; to live outside of comfort zones, and be changed because we had done so. And on that day, I was able to truthfully say “today is mine.”
I will leave you with this quote that I found after our climb. From my limited experience, I am convinced that the quote is true, simply because I had a taste of fear being replaced with courage.
“The rock is a field of battle between our weakness and our strength.”
~ Royal Robbins
I was pretty wiped out on the drive home. But it was a warm, satisfied feeling. Our day climbing was a good day, and it was a day full of proof of God’s crazy love for us, such as:
A son who is also a best friend.
Challenges that taught lessons.
The magic of Chipotle.
The goodness of Starbucks.
Friends to share special moments with.
And sunsets to remind us that God gave us a gift that day.
Each day we can choose how best to live that particular day. If we don’t choose, time will spend itself, and like it or not, there are no “do overs.” But at least on the day of our climb, we chose to live fully; to live outside of comfort zones, and be changed because we had done so. And on that day, I was able to truthfully say “today is mine.”
I will leave you with this quote that I found after our climb. From my limited experience, I am convinced that the quote is true, simply because I had a taste of fear being replaced with courage.
“The rock is a field of battle between our weakness and our strength.”
~ Royal Robbins
Monday, November 10, 2008
Always Check Your Child's Homework
A teacher friend of mine shared a pretty hilarious homework assignment from an elementary child. The assignment was to draw a picture of what one of your parents did for a living.
Here is the child's picture:
The child's mom works at Lowe's selling shovels.
Wasn't it obvious? :)
Friday, November 07, 2008
Lessons from the Rock: Safe, or Brave?
Just before our day of rock climbing in Kentucky, I finished a couple of books that proved significant for our day. One was Wild at Heart by John Eldredge, and the other was Just Courage by Gary Haugen. As I watched Jacob attack and work his way through the two red advanced sections and then the black diamond expert section of the climb, I realized that I had read those books at just the right time.
Eldredge’s writing convinced me that our day of climbing was a needed, special day. Men need adventure. I think Eldredge would agree with Chris McCandless, who says in the movie Into the Wild that “I read somewhere . . . how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong . . . but to feel strong.” Men need to be tested. I don’t know that I’d ever really thought about that, since my life mainly consists of the same routine that most of yours does – we get up, go to work, come home, eat supper, go to bed, and repeat. Christian or not, the typical life in America is not adventurous and is more or less a merry go round of repetition. (I’m sorry if that sounds harsh. Try this – for a week or even a month, write down your daily activities, and see if you couldn’t just cut and paste your days.) I’ve told a lot of folks since we went that our day on the rock was maybe one of the top 2 or 3 days of my life, in terms of shear meaning and importance.
A huge lesson from Just Courage was found in a question that Haugen deals with brilliantly – “Do I want my children to be safe, or brave?” At about the mid-point of the black diamond section, I watched hesitantly as it became obvious that Jacob was exhausted. He told me later that he was at the end of his endurance. He was in front of Guy, so there they were, just hanging out (literally) waaaaaaaaaay up in the air, resting. As a dad, I was starting to panic. Would the mountain guides have to rescue Jacob? What if in the rescue process he had to unclip - would that increase his chances of falling? How could I have allowed him to do this? What kind of a dad am I anyway? *Pause* If you know me, you know that I obsess occasionally. Just a little bit. I’ve got all of this stuff running through my head as a stressed out dad, but then I watched as Jacob pulled himself up and got moving again!
What I didn’t know is that he and Guy shared a short conversation. After resting a bit, Guy looked at Jacob and said, “We’ve come all this way, now – let’s finish strong.” That’s when Jacob, after hearing Guy's encouragement, silently answered by pulling himself up, and then began clipping and unclipping his way around the hardest part of the climb to finish the entire Torrent Falls adventure.
When they came down, it was obvious that both of them were wiped out. Jacob simply said, “I did it. I finished strong.” Now – I am willing to bet that at some point in his life, Jacob will come up against something – a situation, a person, a job, a trial – that will try and beat him. He will remember what it feels like to finish strong. And that moment of bravery on the rock will make all the difference.
Eldredge’s writing convinced me that our day of climbing was a needed, special day. Men need adventure. I think Eldredge would agree with Chris McCandless, who says in the movie Into the Wild that “I read somewhere . . . how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong . . . but to feel strong.” Men need to be tested. I don’t know that I’d ever really thought about that, since my life mainly consists of the same routine that most of yours does – we get up, go to work, come home, eat supper, go to bed, and repeat. Christian or not, the typical life in America is not adventurous and is more or less a merry go round of repetition. (I’m sorry if that sounds harsh. Try this – for a week or even a month, write down your daily activities, and see if you couldn’t just cut and paste your days.) I’ve told a lot of folks since we went that our day on the rock was maybe one of the top 2 or 3 days of my life, in terms of shear meaning and importance.
A huge lesson from Just Courage was found in a question that Haugen deals with brilliantly – “Do I want my children to be safe, or brave?” At about the mid-point of the black diamond section, I watched hesitantly as it became obvious that Jacob was exhausted. He told me later that he was at the end of his endurance. He was in front of Guy, so there they were, just hanging out (literally) waaaaaaaaaay up in the air, resting. As a dad, I was starting to panic. Would the mountain guides have to rescue Jacob? What if in the rescue process he had to unclip - would that increase his chances of falling? How could I have allowed him to do this? What kind of a dad am I anyway? *Pause* If you know me, you know that I obsess occasionally. Just a little bit. I’ve got all of this stuff running through my head as a stressed out dad, but then I watched as Jacob pulled himself up and got moving again!
What I didn’t know is that he and Guy shared a short conversation. After resting a bit, Guy looked at Jacob and said, “We’ve come all this way, now – let’s finish strong.” That’s when Jacob, after hearing Guy's encouragement, silently answered by pulling himself up, and then began clipping and unclipping his way around the hardest part of the climb to finish the entire Torrent Falls adventure.
When they came down, it was obvious that both of them were wiped out. Jacob simply said, “I did it. I finished strong.” Now – I am willing to bet that at some point in his life, Jacob will come up against something – a situation, a person, a job, a trial – that will try and beat him. He will remember what it feels like to finish strong. And that moment of bravery on the rock will make all the difference.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Article from Relevant Magazine
While at 43 I likely no longer fit the description of "young evangelical voter," I did find this article extremely encouraging as I (and you) are faced with living a Kingdom life as a follower of Christ in these days.
Whether you voted for Obama or not, may we seek to move into this new time in history with this mindset:
"Yes, we voted. But it’s more than that. Through this election, we’ve become aware of the major social issues of our day. And now we want to do something about them. We recognize an election will not change everything. We do not rest our hopes for change on a political party or candidate. We vote, we hope, but we don’t stop there. Tomorrow and the next day and the next and in January when Obama takes office, we get up and we continue our sojourn to follow Jesus. We live our votes for life, for justice, for peace, for equality."
To read the entire article, click here.
Whether you voted for Obama or not, may we seek to move into this new time in history with this mindset:
"Yes, we voted. But it’s more than that. Through this election, we’ve become aware of the major social issues of our day. And now we want to do something about them. We recognize an election will not change everything. We do not rest our hopes for change on a political party or candidate. We vote, we hope, but we don’t stop there. Tomorrow and the next day and the next and in January when Obama takes office, we get up and we continue our sojourn to follow Jesus. We live our votes for life, for justice, for peace, for equality."
To read the entire article, click here.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Yes We Can
America has spoken.
My question for you is this: What are your hopes for our country?
Share a comment, and in your comment share what you'll do to help make your hopes become reality.
Together, Yes We Can.
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Concrete Professor
We're coming out of a really intense 3 weeks at the lab, dealing with customers for 2 weeks and a research project last week. I feel a little like this guy:
Sorry I kinda dropped off the face of the earth a bit. I still want to throw out a couple of more thoughts from the rock climbing trip (that was TWO months ago - wow, is time flying or what?). And I'm debating on throwing out my $0.02 on the election, because (a) this is likely the most important election of my lifetime, and (b) my worldview has changed/is changing and I've been rolling a lot of stuff around in my head. Time's pretty short on the election deal, and I'm not even sure that it's productive to share that stuff here anyway. We'll see.
So, hopefully I'll be posting a little more regularly again. I'm speaking at TSCC in 2 weeks, and may share a bit from that in the days ahead as well.
Until then, peace out.
Sorry I kinda dropped off the face of the earth a bit. I still want to throw out a couple of more thoughts from the rock climbing trip (that was TWO months ago - wow, is time flying or what?). And I'm debating on throwing out my $0.02 on the election, because (a) this is likely the most important election of my lifetime, and (b) my worldview has changed/is changing and I've been rolling a lot of stuff around in my head. Time's pretty short on the election deal, and I'm not even sure that it's productive to share that stuff here anyway. We'll see.
So, hopefully I'll be posting a little more regularly again. I'm speaking at TSCC in 2 weeks, and may share a bit from that in the days ahead as well.
Until then, peace out.
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