place of nathan.

I was just telling Adam earlier this week that I’m not really much on blogging lyrics, but here are some lyrics out of the Gadsby Hymnal that I just love. It really has hit home for me over the past several months, so I thought I would share a portion of the lyrics here. (Thanks Guy for turning me on to this song and other Gadsby songs. I love it!)

Christ, Or Else I Die
(Gadsby Hymnal, #737)
William Hammond, 1719-1783

Wealth and honor I disdain,
Earthly comforts, Lord are vain;
These can never satisfy:
Give me Christ, or else I die.

All unholy and unclean,
I am nothing else but sin;
On thy mercy I rely;
Give me Christ or else I die.

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About two weeks ago, I saw an old classmate of mine who I had not seen in 11 years. He has the EXACT same hairstyle now as he did in the mid-90s–and for that matter, the mid-80s as well! he hasn’t changed hairstyle in the 20 years I’ve known the guy! I thought that was unbelievable!

Well, this morning, I saw this guy’s older sister at Starbucks…I hadn’t seen her in 13 years–and she likewise has the EXACT same hairstyle now as she did in the early 90s! She has very short hair–maybe 2″ long, if that. It’s always been that short.

That made me wonder…do I ever get stuck in a rut for decades at a time? Does the Church ever? Is there security in the same-old, same-old? why do we do the same old thing over and over and over?

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Here is a great video courtesy of Eloise and GodTube.
Talk about cultural relevance.

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Today I added a new link to my blogroll.

My brother in law and his son have a very cool discussion blog. It’s interesting to read the discussions between dad and six-year old son.

I encourage you to swing over and read the neat format of the blog.

And, if you ever get a chance to meet Guy and Guy, I think you’d like them both, as well as wife/mom Rachel (Emily’s sister).

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On Tuesday night, I went to my first town council meeting since I have filed to run for Waterloo Town Council.

I showed up at the Town Hall, and there was a note on the door which stated the meeting was at the library. At this point, I was very happy I drove, as I was in a hurry after waiting five minutes for a train.

When I arrived at the library, I sat next to Janet, the wonderful lady who is just so darn wonderful. She introduced me to Ron Livergood, the Town Marshall, and one of the other town employees, who was actually at my house with his step-son to pick up our old furniture about two years ago.

Anway, there are five council members, and three must be present to conduct business. Only two were there. Janet said she’s never seen that happen before. She apologized (even though she didn’t cause it at all!), and I talked briefly with current council members Candy Surber and Bill Hubartt (Bill is also running for re-election–and had better get back on, too!).

So, my first normal council meeting ever to attend, and they can’t conduct any business.
It was good to see a lot of great people, though…

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Last night before Emily got home, I was straightening up around the house. I was organizing the hall closet, and realized we have accumulated a stockpile of paper towels.
Several months ago I had shoved one pack of six to the very back of a shelf, so Emily didn’t know it was there, and we then bought another six pack. I knew we had two rolls left, so this past weekend, we bought another six-pack.

So last night, I consolidated all the paper towels. We have three unopened six-packs and two rolls…so that is a total of 20 rolls of paper towel.

Oh well, I guess we’re ready in case the price of paper towel skyrockets.

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I told you last November I no longer needed to wear glasses.

I told you in May that I was now no longer wearing my glasses. It took me that long just to be able to stop wearing them.

Today, I still struggle with wanting to wear glasses. There are times I reach my hand up to push my glasses further up my face. Sometimes, as I’m getting ready for bed, I try to take off my glasses.

I am still dealing with this…it’s interesting that when you’re addicted to something, it’s not so easy to just stop.
It makes me realize how hard it must be for my friends who used to be smokers who have now stopped. I can feel for them. I understand (somewhat) how difficult quitting must have been for them–and I am not even chemically addicted!

Crazy, these addictions are…

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Several years ago, I filled in as a greeter at New Hope. I stood by the entrance to the Sanctuary, shook people’s hand and handed them a bulletin.
I greeted each person by a cordial ‘How are you today?’

About the fourth guy I asked that question to, well, he told me. This old guy–I would guess 80-85, proceeded to tell me how he was doing today. He told me about his morning. He told me about his breakfast. He told me about his home health care nurse and the students from DeKalb’s HOE class. He told me about his daughter. He told me about the large callus on the bottom of his feet which he talked a nurse into holding a belt sander in place while he used the sander to wear off the callus. He went on and on for about ten minutes–I’m not exaggerating.

I learned my lesson, and I started greeting people with a cordial, ‘It’s great to see you here today’ instead.

I think we often say things which we don’t really mean. We know what we mean, but the words which are coming out of our mouth aren’t actually what we meant. Sometimes we get stuck in our words accidentally. When this happens, it’s much more simple to admit an error and move on than pile excuse after excuse, ‘well, what i meant was…’ Instead, take responsibility. Acknowledge you messed up (I mess up a lot!), and learn your lesson. Learning your lesson sooner rather than later is certainly a good thing.
This comes today after I learned a good lesson this week, after about five years of NOT learning my lesson! Don’t be like me–learn quickly!

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Recently, we have implemented live check-in for our new children’s ministry, High Point. The check-in is done remotely via a WiFi enabled computer and securely connecting to our database.

The computer running the check-in station is an old 900 MHz machine. I paired it with a 15″ flat panel (a CRT would have taken way too much room), and we have an infrared bar code scanner and ‘Boarding Pass’ (nametag) printer attached.
When the kids check in, they get to scan their own ‘Passport’ (which has a bar code printed on it), and the system automatically logs them in and prints out their Boarding Pass.

So, in assembling this unit, I purchased a $20 WiFi USB adapter. I figured, ‘No sense paying $50 for one.’
The $20 unit works great, unless you go more than 30-50′ from the Access Point, at which time it drops signal rather quickly.
So this week, I had to spend $50 on a new Wireless Adapter card, and this one works great. The new card works from the entire Unity Hall/Office Complex, as well as most of the Sanctuary, sans the far side.
So, now, I have paid not $20, not $50, but a total of $70 to get the Wireless up and running properly.

I knew better. Just a reminder to myself, and hopefully you as well…
You get what you pay for.
It’s cheaper to do it right the first time.

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Every morning, I go outside to water our flowers. I have watched the past few weeks as school started, a neighbor boy–I would guess 11 years old, walk a few houses down to get on the bus.
He stands across the street, waiting for the bus to arrive. He is always 5-10 minutes early. He paces back and forth, and crosses the street repeatedly, talking to himself. Sometimes he sings songs.
He often asks me questions: ‘Where does she [Emily] work?’
‘She works in Fort Wayne,’ I responded.
‘Wow! That’s where my cousin lives!’
‘O yeah?’
‘Yeah, sometimes we play video games.’
‘Cool.’

Or the conversation today, after I mowed my lawn last night:
‘It doesn’t look like you mowed this side.’
‘What?’ I responded, unsure of his question.
‘It doesn’t look like you mowed this side,’ As he pointed to the freshly mowed, and nicely stripped lawn. ‘It is still really high.’
‘Yeah,’ I said, as i wondered how short his parents must mow the lawn at his home. (I’m occasionally a lawn snob, as some would call it)

Tomorrow I will ask him his name, I think. He needs Jesus just like everyone else, right? And I think asking his name may be the first step.

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This past weekend at New Hope, we launched our so-called ‘Smile’ series. In the previous weeks, we sent out postcards to all homes in Auburn.
In addition, we also sent postcards to our occasional attenders to make sure they knew we were starting something new.

This past weekend, our attendance was up 29.9% from the same week last year. It was our highest non-Easter attendance since our 25th Anniversary Celebration in the summer of 2005.

We had 22 first-time guest families. AWESOME! 22!

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