In the week or so leading up to Easter, I was simply too busy to blog much. Now that Easter has come and gone, I’ve just lacked the energy. I guess it’s like someone who trains for a marathon. After the race is over, all the adrenaline is gone! I’ve never run a marathon (yeah, now there’s a thought), but I’d imagine it would be a little difficult to get up and going again to train for the next race. So anyway, that’s why I haven’t been blogging much lately. Hopefully I’ll get back in the hang of it soon.
Easter Weekend Review
(Warning to reader: I haven’t blogged much these past few days, but I’m more than making up for it today!)
Work hard. Play hard. That’s the way to live, and that’s how it’s been this past week.
A review of events since last week’s Maundy Thursday service:
On Friday morning I got a call from Terri, the director of the Training Station Preschool, informing me that the fierce winds that’d hit the area had knocked over our sign. So Carolyn and I went to check it out. The two beams holding the sign had snapped right in half and the whole shebang had fallen right on top of the wooden shell that some CrossWay guys had built for pouring the concrete for the new sign. Fortunately it didn’t seem to damage anything.
From there we went to the zoo in Salisbury. Every time we go there we see something weird and funny. This time it was a peacock that kept following a goose in the bison habitat. The goose kept calmly walking in various patterns, and the peacock hung with him, staying a couple feet behind. No matter where the goose went, the peacock followed. When the goose stopped, the peacock stopped. When the goose got going again, so did the peacock. It was pretty funny to watch. People were coming up with various theories to try to explain the peacock’s behavior. The most plausible explanation I heard was that the goose was the peacock’s personal trainer.
It was nice to see that the zoo is making significant progress with the red wolves exhibit. They’ve built a nice walkway with a kind of observatory building. Hopefully the wolves will be here soon! They’re keeping them right next to the deer, which seems a little bit odd. It’s like the cheetahs at the National Zoo in D.C., which are right next to the zebras. Carolyn took a great picture one time of a cheetah standing a few feet away from a zebra, hungrily staring at it. I’ll try to find it to post on here.
On the way back from the zoo we stopped at Station 7. Bring on the nachos! Oh yeah!
Saturday was our Easter outreach at church. We had an egg hunt for kids, along with games and a creative telling of the Easter story. There was a pretty decent turnout, especially considering that our sign which was promoting the event had been blown over the day before. I found it impossible to try to count the people, but I’m pretty sure it was somewhere between 50 and 100. Probably somewhere in the middle, about 75. There were nearly as many adults as children! It was a short event, but a lot of fun. I was very proud of the CrossWay team that pulled it off!
After the Easter egg hunt our praise band practiced. Oh yeah, I don’t think I’ve mentioned on here that the Timmons family very generously bought a new drum set for the church last week. When the worship team practiced on Saturday, they wanted me to try playing along on the drums. That was fine with me, even though I was reluctant at first, because I was sure I’d be horrible and they’d excuse me from further participation until I’d practiced for a looooooooong time. But it didn’t quite go that way.
On Easter morning I got up at 4:35 a.m., got ready, and headed to North Division Street (where Rt. 50 ends at the boardwalk) for the Ocean City Easter Sunrise Service. The wind was blowing and it was about 25 degrees–without the wind. It was really surprising to me that several hundred people still turned out at that time and in that kind of weather! Only the miraculous grace of God can explain how the instrumentalists played their guitars and keyboard and sax, and how Diana from CrossWay signed the whole service. I was afraid her bare hands would get frostbite! She and her daughter Anna were such troopers to come out for that!
Right before I got up to preach, I was shivering badly. I had no idea how I could preach when I was trembling–more like shaking–so much. But it worked. It also ensured a brief sermon! It’s kind of funny how sometimes when I’m preaching, I can prepare a message well ahead of time but feel like God’s leading me to make changes right before I preach or even while I’m preaching. I’d written this sermon two or three weeks ahead of time, but at 5:59 (the service started at 6:00), new ideas popped into my head for the opening and the closing. I’ll podcast the message this week.
After the sunrise service, which to my surprise I really enjoyed, I went home to take a short nap. When I woke up an hour later, I hadn’t yet thawed out! But I had unfrozen by the time we got to CrossWay.
Josh, our worship leader, had talked me into playing drums during the service. I still couldn’t believe that was happening. I was as nervous, if not more nervous, about playing the drums at CrossWay as I was about preaching to hundreds of strangers at the sunrise service! I just can’t believe that he and the others in the band thought my drumming was unbad enough to actually be a part of the service on Easter, of all days. But Josh takes his ministry seriously so I decided to trust his judgment. However, I still can’t believe I made my drumming debut on Easter Sunday, and with one day’s notice. But hey–God can use anybody to do anything.
Actually, the music overall was great yesterday! Josh’s wife Christi helped with the vocals and played that little shaky egg thing. Terri’s sister played the keys and Diana was on the bass. Terri’s daughter, Kelsy, played the flute in one of the songs and that was a great touch. At Saturday’s practice we’d had John playing guitar, but he wasn’t there yesterday. If he had been, we’d have had a seven-member band! For all I know there might have even been more people doing stuff. Not only was I off to the side where I couldn’t see, but I was also scared!
The attendance at church yesterday was by far the largest we’ve had the past year. It was twice our average attendance! Carolyn taught Children’s Church and planned for three times as many as she usually had–and she had as many kids as she planned for!
Something in the service that was planned last minute and really blew me away was Josh signing the Ray Boltz song “Watch the Lamb.” It was an interpretive signing–not just sign language, but also drama. It was excellent! When I got up to preach after he finished, I saw tears in people’s eyes. Very moving.
It’s been almost a year since I came to CrossWay. In all that time we’ve never had the fire alarm go off. Naturally that would happen on Easter Sunday during the sermon with a packed house and a bunch of first-time guests. You’ll be able to hear it on the podcast. As I was transitioning out of the sermon intro, the alarm started screaming. Fortunately no one panicked or anything. In fact, they were all kind of staring at me, almost as if they were wondering: Is that part of the message or something? Terri got it turned off pretty quickly, and the building burned down. Sike. Something I learned this Easter Sunday: our fire alarm goes off by itself sometimes. Nice. At least Carolyn had the kids all lined up and ready to evacuate!
After church we went to Carolyn’s parents’ house. Her whole family was there. On the way I called my parents’ house, where all my family was gathered. I got to talk with my little niece, Jazlyn, which was awesome! She’s the best kid ever. Everybody should have the privilege and joy of knowing Jazlyn.
At the Dohertys’ house we ate some delicious lasagna and the most unbelievable strawberry shortcake. Linda makes the best cake, but she added a special touch to this one: it was a two-layer cake with frosting in the middle (normal for regular cake, but not strawberry shortcake). And the strawberries were fresh ones that she’d grown. If the second-best strawberry shortcake in the history of humanity registered a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10, this cake would register about 28. It awakened senses in taste buds that I didn’t even know I had. An amazing experience.
The cake was in honor of Michael turning 30. Michael and Kristen (Carolyn’s sister and her husband) are turning 30 soon–Michael in April and Kristen in May. It’s very exciting for me because they always make old man jokes about me because I’m in my thirties. Ordinarily, over-the-hill parties are reserved for 40th birthdays. But when Kristen’s 30th rolls around in a few weeks, I think we’ll need to throw a major over-the-hill bash and target both Michael and Kristen!
Steve and Linda are a lot of fun to hang out with, so we hung around and talked with them for awhile after Michael and Kristen left. (Her brother Christopher, of course, was camped out at the computer, only leaving long enough to prepare various dishes buried in whipped cream.) He leaves for college today and we didn’t even get to have lunch at La Tolteca! Oh well, we’ll have to make up for it in the summer.
On the drive back from their house we saw an albino deer. That was so cool! We really wished we had Carolyn’s camera in the car.
After a busy and tiring week, and an especially exhausting weekend, I slept 9 hours and 20 minutes last night. It was great!!!!
If you’ve read this far, thanks… but don’t you have stuff to do?
Stuff from the Past Few Days
Haven’t blogged much lately. Here’s what’s been going on:
- Carolyn was away last week for three days and two nights. She attended a conference in Towson with the other kindergarten teachers, and really enjoyed it. She said the conference was informative, interesting, and beneficial, but what she talked about most was the food. They ate at some really good restaurants! I’m thinking about becoming a kindergarten teacher. Seriously though, their dining experiences spilled over to my advantage when she came home with an Amish cinnamon roll and some candy fruit slices for her husband. Sweet!
- It felt really weird to be home alone at night. So I watched the first three Rocky movies in one night. I would’ve watched more if I could find them. Hey, it actually turned out to be good research. I’d been studying the movie Rocky Balboa, which is the sixth and final installment in the Rocky saga, and there were numerous thematic elements in it that made a whole lot more sense when placed in the proper context of the entire Rocky story.
- Yesterday at CrossWay we had a ton of visitors. Mostly out of town folks who have had some connection with the church, although there was at least one new local family. It was definitely one of those services where God answered prayer! We’d been having some problems with the technological stuff, so we got here early to try to work them out. Even when it was time for the service to start, we weren’t sure how it would go. But God helped us out, and Josh did a fantastic job in the A/V booth! Several people commented afterward about how smoothly it went. When I mentioned that to Josh, he said it’s because they couldn’t see what was actually happening behind the scenes!
- We had the third week of Hollywood God at church. The movie we used was Rocky Balboa. The message of the sermon was the same as the message of the movie, which is summarized by Rocky in a conversation with his son: “It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward–how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!” Many people are living in defeat not because they’ve been beaten, but because they’ve given up. The Bible encourages us in 2 Timothy 4:7-8 and Hebrews 12:1-3 to focus intently on Jesus so we can go the full 15 rounds.
- On Saturday we had a church work day. We had some real troopers come out and work their butts off! It was only scheduled to last two hours, but most of the people stayed over four hours. And we got a lot done! Josh totally overhauled the setup for the music team, and it looks great!
- After church yesterday we went to Ledo’s with Carolyn’s parents and James & Faith Wenger. James is the mentor that our conference assigned me, and we’ve been meeting for several months now. They live in Baltimore but came out here to visit.
- After lunch we came back to the church to paint. We’d been painting at Steve & Linda’s house, but our group has grown to include Grace (from church and the Training Station) and Mary-Michele (one of the Training Station teachers). It’s stunning how talented they are! I had no idea that Grace even painted, but she brought in a painting she’d done that probably belongs somewhere in the Smithsonian. I was totally floored. We painted together for several hours and had a lot of fun together. Big news: Carolyn finished her first painting! And she even said I could post a picture of it on here! Actually, the deal was that I could post her painting if I also posted my Brett Favre painting. That was an easy deal, especially since I don’t know if the Brett Favre painting will ever be finished (heheheh….). I just can’t get the face right. Her painting will appear here soon.
&$%!^?*
GRRRRR
Sometimes I hate WordPress. I just wrote a very lengthy entry, and when I tried to post it, half of it disappeared.
GRRRRR
10 Random Things
10 Random Things:
(1) Today is when voters here in Maryland, along with Virginia and D.C., get a shot at the national spotlight. I’m registered Independent, so I can’t vote. In my 14 years of voting eligibility, I’ve been registered as a Democrat, Republican, and now Independent. I’m thinking about switching back to Democrat so I can vote in the early rounds. Might as well. As you can see, I’m not exactly a strict party guy. (Good thing, since I don’t have a party.)
(2) Carolyn and I recently finished watching the complete series of Voyagers. That’s “complete series” as in the whole one season it ran. Too bad it didn’t go longer! Great ’80s show, complete with hokey one-liners such as, “I work alone, kid,” and those fantastic corny ’80′s not-so-special effects. And of course Phineas Bogg, with his open shirt, falls in love with a different woman in every episode. But it’s still a classic–I definitely recommend the show!
(3) Recently I’ve been getting hits on this blog from people researching Babe Ruth’s infamous called shot. Let there be no doubt about it–the Babe called it. In the third game of the 1932 World Series, the New York Yankees were playing the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. The Cubs were heckling Ruth, and finally he’d had enough: he’d let his bat talk for him. So he pointed to center field and knocked the next pitch over the wall–exactly where he’d pointed. I know of at least two sources which confirm the truth of this story. First of all, I’ve heard a recording of that at-bat, and the announcers themselves mention the Babe calling his shot. Second, a friend of my dad’s who passed away in the mid-1980s was there at the game, and he confirmed the story. Below is a picture of Ruth pointing, right before he homered.
(4) Speaking of blog traffic, there are two topics that repeatedly bring more hits to this blog than anything else: searches for surfing, and searches for chapstick–more specifically, chapstick conspiracy theories and chapstick expiration dates. In fact, if you Google “chapstick conspiracy theory,” this blog is the first listing that comes up. Weird.
(5) Last night I cleaned the house because we were going to have a church meeting here. The meeting ended up getting rescheduled, but at least the house is clean now.
(6) Carolyn is off from work today because of the election, so she’s going to visit the Training Station with me. She hasn’t yet met the Tuesday/Thursday kids. She’ll love ‘em!
(7) Butch Marvin, whose ministry has had a significant impact at CrossWay the past couple years or so, is doing a two-week series at CrossWay in May. (If you’re reading this and you’re on our Worship Planning Team, I’m not holding out on you–I just got the email confirming the plan!) His messages are about “Becoming a Hope Dealer.”
(8) Today a group of ministry leaders in the Berlin area are meeting to plan a special event called “Celebration of the King.” It will be held on Friday, April 4th, which marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It’s an attempt at bringing together the black and white communities in this area, which is the most segregated place I’ve ever lived. We’re going to honor Dr. King and worship his King, King Jesus, who is also our King!
(9) Next week I’m getting to meet with some pastors from the Ocean City area. I’m really looking forward to it, because I’ve been wanting to meet these guys and get to know them.
(10) CNN.com is the dumbest news website on the Internet. I need to find a good source for up-to-the-minute news. They used to be a great news source, but now they mostly just have stories about people doing horrific things to children. Whatever happened to real news coverage?
Preaching: Greatness or Effectiveness?
One of the best preaching blogs on the Internet is “Biblical Preaching.” I don’t know how they come up with such rich and helpful material every day! Today Peter Mead writes on there about the difference between being a great preacher and being an effective preacher, and he explains why we should aim for effectiveness rather than greatness.
You can read the full post by clicking here.
Bummer
WordPress just ate one of my posts!
I wrote about having a great lunch yesterday with Merv Stoltzfus, our conference guy. Don’t feel like writing it all again. Bummer.
Blog Facelift
Over Christmas break I’m hoping to take some time to work on this blog. Many things will stay the same, but I’m planning to really overhaul it. The web address will be the same and I’ll keep many of the same links in the sidebar. But it will have a new look (a new template), updated categories and links, even a new title.
It’s coming soon!
Bible Study
A friend of mine in Tennessee recently shared some great thoughts about Bible study on her blog. I’d encourage you to check it out here.
