A little "traveling" music maestro...

I have been going like the enegizer bunny here lately. I kind of feel like Phileaus Fogg I have been traveling so much.
So in the last month I have been as far east as Florida and as far west as Las Vegas, as far North as Chicago and as far South as Dallas, TX. I have literally criss crossed the nation on flights the last few weeks. And in my travels I have noticed a few things...
1) Weather - the weather has been really weird here lately. From major storms to earthquakes to tornadoes the US has seen its fare share of wild weather. There is nothing like flying above a storm brewing below you and watching the billows of clouds and the streaks of lighting race across the sky. It is all nice and fun until the captain mentions a final descent and you realize you are going to have to go through that mess to get to the ground.
2) Of all the airlines - Southwest gets you there the fastest. Or at least it seems that way. I fly commercially all the time but each time I get on a Southwest flight it seems like the people who work there are wanting to "get away" more than I do. My all time favorite lines is this, "at Southwest, it is open seating, so grab the first seat you come to and take a load off so we can get out of here", my second favorite was, "come on people we are not shopping for furniture for the living room, all the seats look the same, just set down in one".
3) I love the National rental car Emerald Aisle - it is where you get to pick your own car out without going to the counter. You breeze right past everyone standing in line, pick the car from the aisle and drive away. It is always a fun day to pick out color, style and wether to go business casual or sporty.
4) Bellagio Rooms in Las Vegas - those rooms are pretty nice, but for my money they can't compare in price to the newest Holiday Inns where they are set up in suites. I was in on a few weeks ago that felt like a studio apartment in Manhattan's upper East side. It was actually bigger than the first apartment my wife and I looked at to live in.
5) IHOP - is there a better restaurant? You can get breakfast at ten o'clock at night. Who doesn't like that?
6) Best Airport - well the fastest airport to get through security is Tulsa International, those TSA people there have it going on. Worst, well Denver International wins this cake. Most frustrating? Dallas Fort Worth, because everyone in Texas who has never flew before flys out of there and they all try to bring their gallon sized shampoo on board with them.
7) Nicest City - well some my disagree but I like Pensacola, Florida. The people there seem genuine and nice, of course living on a beach will do that for you.
8) Toughest City - Chicago, have you ever flown into Midway and had to drive to I55? Enough said.
9) Best Airport Food - Cousin's BBQ in DFW Airport. Just make sure to eat AFTER the meeting, because you will probably get BBQ sauce on your shirt.
10) Craziest Aiport - Well that has to be Sioux City Regional Airport in Iowa. They have T shirts that have the call sign of the airport and the word "flying" under it. Their call sign? SUX.

Easter Sunrise Service

So I am feeling a little convicted this morning. Yesterday was Easter and as I was heading to church in the morning I noticed that a few of the other churches that I passed were already having service. Then it dawned on me, they were having a sunrise service and I began to wonder if I had missed the voice of GOD.
I have never done a sunrise service. I am somewhat glad of that fact as I am not really what you would call a morning person. I am more of a mid morning person with a tendency to stay up too late. Call it what you want but I don't do mornings well and I know many people who share this trait with me.
So as I was driving to church I began to think about a Sunrise Service.
Who would attend? Would it look like a normal service but just at an earlier time? Do you need those guys with flashlights directing traffic in the dark as people come to park? Would the presence of GOD be more powerful at 6AM than say at 10:30? These thoughts raced through my mind as I pondered the very existance of a service at sunrise.
So as therapy I decided to list the pros and cons for a sunrise service. Pros first.
1) There will be just a few people there so finding a seat should be easy.
2) I bet there will be coffee available and it will be fresh, not left overs from the first service in the morning.
3) I betcha someone would bring donuts. Actually that would probably be the only reason I would even think of attending a sunrise service. I think it should be written into the bylaws that if you are at the church at 6AM you have to bring donuts with you.
4) No youth. Yep there would be no youth at the service banging on the drums and wailing on the guitars for sure.
5) Haven't had Brunch in a while, it would be a great opportunity to go eat at Dennys when no one is there as everyone else is at the normal services.
6) Nap time starts early. I might even be able to finish up those Saturday projects that did not get completed and still get a nap in right after lunch!
Ok the Cons...
1) You know it is going to be a long service. Pastor is jacked up on caffeine and doesn't have to rush because you know we are going to beat the Baptist to Golden Corrall today.
2) Leaving the house before sunrise will mess with your biological clock. Most people are getting in Saturday night late and then having to leave before the sun rises may mess up their entire week.
3) Do you actually watch the sun rise? Like sitting on folding chairs in the parking lot, in the pouring rain as the tornado sirens sound?
4) Kids. Enough said, we all know it takes an hour to get each one of them ready. And double that time on Easter when you have to doll them up in their Easter suits and dresses. Have you ever tried to put a tie on a one year old? We would have to get up about 2AM to make the service and I would be we would still be late.
5) What if you indeed showed up late for a sunrise service. Like 5 minutes after the sun came up? Would Pastor make you come back for the normal service since you missed it?
6) What if it is a cloudy day and you really don't get to see the sun come up? Does that really count?
7) Who will play the piano or any other instrument in the service that early?
8) Does the Bible say when Jesus rose from the dead and the stone was rolled away? What if it happened at 10AM, are we being unscriptual trying to rush GOD?
9) Does the Pastor have to preach the normal service also for all those that want to sleep in on Sunday? Man that is double the work for him.
10) And the number one question of having a sunrise service. Will the Pastor's wife make it on time? Does the service count if she is not there?

So whats new?

So whats new in your life? Well I can tell you in mine I have recently discovered a disturbing piece of news. My two sons spent all day Saturday working with Dad. May GOD bless those two boys as I am not the easiest person to work with. They always seem to be standing right where I need to go and for some reason they don't realize it until I have to tell them. So anyway we are sitting taking a break and my oldest looks over at me and says, "hey Dad, know what?" So I respond that I did not know "what" and he says, "you have grey hairs in your beard". "No I don't I replied, they are blond and it just looks that way as they are covered with sheetrock dust." At this point my youngest says, "Dad I don't think that is dust, sheetrock is white and those hairs are grey". So it is official, I am getting old. I have lost the hair on my head and I have started to see grey in my beard, it is all downhill from here.

I wonder...

There are things I spend some time wondering about. Like... Why do buildings make such weird noises when you are all alone in them. Are those noises there all the time and you never notice them till the you are in the building all alone? It should be quiet in the place when all the kids are gone and your wife is away at a conference, shouldn't it. Peaceful right? But I find as soon as I am all alone in the a house, the house starts to make weird noises. Like it misses all the activity so it decides to make up for it. In the first church building we pastored we were sure it was haunted. Really, a haunted church. The church had originally started out as a hospital back in the early 1900's and in the 80's was purchased by the church and remodeled. Well remodeled was a loose term, the patient rooms soon became small sunday school rooms with a table instead of a patient bed. The childrens Pastor's office was originally the room where they shot the x-rays. There was an upstairs area where the nurses would sleep when not on duty, a kitchen and all sorts of little nooks and crannies that hospitals always have. All of that is well and good till you start realizing that people actually died in that place. Souls were seperated from their physical bodies all over that building. So when weird noises started happening when you were all alone in the building, you said a little prayer and moved the 9 iron a little closer to your desk. I know you are thinking, the 9 iron? Well yeah, if an aparition appears I really need a club that I can hit, so the driver stays in the bag. Anyway I digress. So not long after I took the pastorate I am in my office in the back of the church and I hear this noise sounding like someone running on the hall upstairs. It starts loud right over my head and then slowly gets quieter as the runner heads to the other side of the building. I did not count the steps but I am pretty sure it was 13 exactly, like I said I did not count them but I know if I did it would be 13 steps. So one day I am sitting in my office and I hear the "runner" going down the hall. Clutching the 9 iron I walk into the large expanse of the hallway and say with all the authority I have in my voice, "hello?". It kind of croaked out, it sounded more like Dorothy when she landed in Oz than Sylvester Stalone in Rocky. Of course received no answer, that would have been really frightening. I went back to my desk and attempted to resume my work. But just as I was about to sit down, wham wham wham again going down the hall. I jumped and ran to the hall to pear outside to see if the upstairs runner had decided to come downstairs. Again I said "hello?" with no answering call to ease my mind. At this point my adrenaline is running on overdrive, I am so thankful that the women's leader wasn't dropping by my office, it would have been really hard to explain how I accidentally bashed her head in with a 9 iron as we were makign the funeral preperations. So after I returned to my desk, before I even got halfway across the office I hear the runner again sprinting on the upstairs hallway. Finally fed up, I headed for the stairs to confront whatever was up there. The church really never did much with the upstairs area, it was a collection of rooms for the nurses to stay overnight, a small bathroom and a few storage areas full of stuff. But I climbed up those stairs and found myself standing on the very hall that the runner had been running up and down on. There was a fine layer of dust over everything, and thankfully no footprints going up and down the hall. Although footprints left in dust, as I learned on Scoobie Doo were a sure sign that it was not a ghost I was dealing with. So I made my way down the hallway just to make sure there was no one there when I heard it, a slam that made my heart jump into my throat and my pulse go into racehorse mode. That slam was followed by another and another as it reverberated down the hall. But there was no apparition that was apparent at that time. I know that I closed my eyes at the first slam but after the third slam or so I realized I was still breathing so I took a peek and saw nothing hovering in front of me. So as the slams slowly lessoned I worked my way toward the origin of the sound. I ended up at the end of the hall where there was a large closet, a couple of storage boxes and an old hospital bed. As I was examining the area I heard the slam again but this time from really, really, really close. It was right behind the closet door. So I opened the closet door, ready to fight for my life and saw nothing at all. It was just a closet with normal closet things in it except it had a window in the back of the room. Later I would find out that the last addition to the hospital had been made on that side and that window was the access to the attic. So as I made my way to that window which was propped open I finally solved the mystery of the runner in the hallway. It was not an aparition, thankfully, not really sure what a 9 iron would have done to a ghost but I am sure I probably would have pulled my head when I swung and hit it thin anyway. There was no ghostly activities happening, there was an old attic fan set into the side wall of the attic that we had never used. And apparently whenever the front church door opened, it created a vacumn in the building with enough force that the building would "burp" through the attic fan, 13 times starting very loud and slowly getting less forceful till the atmospheric pressure balanced. I realized this as the attic fan started burping as I was looking right at it. What had happened was one of the church parisioners was opening the front door and dropping off supplies into the foyer. She opened the door, laid down the supplies and went back out to her car, as the front door closed and the attic fan burped. Every time I came out of my office with the lame, "hello" she was back at the car getting another load. By the time I got back to my office she had opened the door, dropped off her packages and headed back to her car starting the cycle all over again. Again I am thankful that no one was injured by a poorly swung 9 iron. Although I did have a lot of fun messing with other people who were all alone working in the church by themselves.

Relational Evangelism

We are doing a series on realational evangelism on Sunday nights that is really thought provoking. What if... how many times have we asked "what if" and then failed to act on that impulse. What if, I purchased gas for the next person who pulled in behind me at the pump? What if, I offered to mow the neighbors lawn when they vacationed over the summer for free? What if, I offered to pick up some groceries for my neighbor and then refused to take their money? What if, I just walked across the room and introduced myself to the person who is all alone? What we discovered last night that we all entertain "what ifs" in our lives, but seldom do we act on them. So we made a list of the obstacles that kept us from taking that first step to reach out to someone. They are as follows: Fear Rejection Pride Laziness Communication Skills Lack of Knowledge Predjudiced Uncertainty Too Busy The company we keep Self Confidence Annoying People Appearance What we realized last night is that all of those "obstacles" were not obstacles that the person we are to talk to must overcome but they are "obstacles" we must personally overcome. Each of those "obstacles" (obstacles sounds so much better than excuses don't you think?) deals specifically with US. And in building relationships with other people it should be all about THEM. So what keeps you from stepping out and meeting a new friend? And how can you overcome the "obstacles" regarding it?

So what about the book...

A while back (three years to be exact) I started writing a book. It was one of those, I have a little down time so I sat down and started writing. It is a book that will not change the world, it is a work of fiction but it all comes from somewhere deep inside my cavernous melon. Now I don't want anyone to think I am Max Lucado (I am not that deep), Frank Perretti (I am not that creative) or Ted Dekker (I am not that crazy) but I enjoy all of their writings so I penned my work with some aspects of theirs played out in my story. In describing it to someone one day I said it is like an angelic battle of psychopaths played out in the recesses of someone's mind at the same time also in another realm of reality that is really not real. Confused yet? So anyway, I have these friends who are book publisist, not book publishers, but those that help get the word out about the new books the publishers are publishing. Confused yet again? Anyway, they know books, so I have gleaned all sorts of information from them. Stuff like how many words should a first novel have? In case you are wondering somewhere around 90,000 (I am at 39K right now, so I have some more work to do). How do you know if it is any good and worth publishing? They suggested that I let teenagers read it as they will tell you if it is good or if it is like warm puke, gotta love the honesty of the American teenager. So I made a first draft the other night and gave it to my 14 year old son to read, it sure is handy having a teenager in the house. He is a voracious reader and it is right up his alley as far as fantasy meets the fantasical and is fantasticlly unreal and impossible. So last night my son spent about two straight hours in the living room reading my book while his sister was watching "Prince of Persia" with Jake Gyllinhal on the TV. Talk about tough competition! And he has ADD to boot so keeping focus is an issue, but I apparently passed the teenage litmus test as he kept reading till bedtime. My wife picked it up this morning and found some notes he left for me in the margins for me, nothing too bad and he is over half way through already. So keep your eyes open for a new novel soon to find it's way somewhere, if I ever get it finished...