Recorded for Historical Purposes

Tara had her baby! Originally due June 23rd, Kevin and Tara had a baby girl, who looks a lot like her mom, born apparently yesterday. I have no details, only pictures on Facebook. Congrats Tara!
My old friend and mentor, who’s career I have chased for the past decade, has accepted a new job in a direction different from my own. This marks the fork in the road where my path turns away from his. I will always owe who I am and what I have, in no small way, to my old Sunday School teacher, boss and friend. Good luck on your next adventure, John!
Last night was the final VPT meeting — at least in the shape its been for the past 8 months. We love you guys! You rock, and we’ve had an amazing year teaching you and learning from you. I can’t wait to see what God has for us all next!
Tomorrow we start the first missions team meeting at church! This, among many other challenges, will be a big focus of our summer, as we help a team of students get ready for the biggest adventure of their young lives. I am honored to be a part of the leadership of this group, and I know that this is going to be a life-changing experience for everyone who comes.
Randy is out of jail, again, and hopefully for the last time. This time he has a baby boy to look out for, and some real and tangible support from professionals who have way more experience than Nic or I. It’s my sincerest prayer that my one-time teenage son, and life-long friend can make it work this time.

The Spirit of Adventure

I don’t usually just post whole articles from my devotional. Usually I try to wrap some of my own thoughts around them. But today’s devotional just resounded so perfectly, that I figured I’d post it pretty much without change…
Suppose God tells you to do something that is an enormous test of your common sense, totally going against it. What will you do? Will you hold back? We tend to say, “Yes, but— suppose I do obey God in this matter, what about . . . ?” Or we say, “Yes, I will obey God if what He asks of me doesn’t go against my common sense, but don’t ask me to take a step in the dark.”
Jesus Christ demands the same unrestrained, adventurous spirit in those who have placed their trust in Him that the natural man exhibits. If a person is ever going to do anything worthwhile, there will be times when he must risk everything by his leap in the dark. In the spiritual realm, Jesus Christ demands that you risk everything you hold on to or believe through common sense, and leap by faith into what He says. Once you obey, you will immediately find that what He says is as solidly consistent as common sense.
By the test of common sense, Jesus Christ’s statements may seem mad, but when you test them by the trial of faith, your findings will fill your spirit with the awesome fact that they are the very words of God. Trust completely in God, and when He brings you to a new opportunity of adventure, offering it to you, see that you take it. We act like pagans in a crisis— only one out of an entire crowd is daring enough to invest his faith in the character of God.

Poetry

When I was a teen, I used to write poetry all the time. As an adult, though, I haven’t really been able to. The emotional angst that I felt back then had to be let out in some way, and poetry was a fun challenge. But nothing has really driven me to being that distraught in years.
Nothing, that is, save for the crappy laptop they gave me to use at work. The thing inspires such rage in me that I can’t contain it. So once again, I pick up the quill, and write my poetry…

 
An Ode to My Craptop

Oh Latitude D610, Dell Latitude D610
I’d be much better off with just a paper and pen
Your keys fall off at the drop of a hat
Why, oh why, must you play me like that?
Your screen is so small with resolution so high
I need a microscope to find the Start menu by
Exploding batteries aren’t the only dumb part —
Sometimes in the morning, you won’t even start
Your wireless connection is so very bad
It drops every 5 minutes and makes me SO MAD
Your performance is sluggish
Your tech specs are rubbish
Dell Latitude D610. My Dell Latitude D610
If you weren’t a corporate lease
   I’d throw your butt in a recycling bin

This is my crew, in whom I am well pleased

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This month, for Nine12 Serves, we went to a downtown soup kitchen to do an industrial cleaning.
This month, like the last 2 previous, the Vertical Production Team, has shown up faithfully at, or about, 7:30am in the morning, on their Saturday, ready, willing, and even joyful to serve God in a tangible way. Lending their strength, their spirit and their passion to some of the most humble, but important ministries in the area.
We mopped floors, we disinfected chairs, we polished counters, we cleaned windows, we scrubbed cabinets, and we asked God for His blessing on the people who serve, and are served in that kitchen, and in the little chapel attached.
These are not kids with lots of spare time on their hands. They have homework, they have sports, and almost all of them have their own ministry in the church that they help in. But they make an offering of their time so that they can show others the love of Christ who has saved them.
And I could not be more proud to know them, and to lead them.

And now, for no reason at all and with no conclusions attached, here are some random quotes from today's news…

Source Uncited (and therefore suspect, but interesting nonetheless)
“In an interview just last week, Falwell said he stands by his statements after 9/11, blaming “abortionists,” gays, lesbians, the ACLU and People for American Way for helping to cause the attacks.
In the same interview, (last week) he said he is asking God to grant him at least 20 more years of life in order to complete his mission. He cited a story in which a man on his deathbed, asked God for 15 more years and received it. Falwell was encouraged by this story, hinting that God is willing to intercede in death, granting renewed life for a blessed few who are righteous enough to deserve such. Falwell was hopeful that God would be as impressed and generous with his own request.”
More quotes from Rev. Falwell
From Top Ten Myths About Divorce…
#2 Living together before marriage is a good way to reduce the chances of eventually divorcing.
Many studies have found that those who live together before marriage have a considerably higher chance of eventually divorcing. The reasons for this are not well understood. In part, the type of people who are willing to cohabit may also be those who are more willing to divorce. There is some evidence that the act of cohabitation itself generates attitudes in people that are more conducive to divorce, for example the attitude that relationships are temporary and easily can be ended.
More divorce myths

This Chair Be High, Says I

This week, and all of a sudden, Benjamin hit another major development milestone. I’m not sure if it can be attributed to all the attention Grandma and Grandpa Watters showered on him during their visit this weekend, or maybe to him getting dedicated in front of the church (along with 12 other babies) on Sunday… most likely the credit goes to his new high chair, which Nicole was very excited to go pick up on Monday. Whatever it was that did it, Benjamin is now eating food!
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We’ve been very unsuccessful in getting him to take a bottle. He would go for it when he was tiny and not yet aware enough of what was going on to be picky, but as soon as his grasp of reality got good enough, he became very adamant about his preferred milk-delivery mechanism. We were worried that we’d have to force the bottle on him before we could get him to eat food, and in fact we hadn’t had a lot of luck with the watered-down rice cereal we’d started on. That is, not until he could sit at the table with us in his very own chair.
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Suddenly, not only was he interested in the food, and happily slurping water from a bottle (still won’t take a bottle of milk), he was grabbing at the bowl, opening his mouth when the spoon came close, and hollering for more when his meal was all gone. It was like someone flipped a light switch, and food suddenly seemed pretty good to him.
This is exciting for a lot of reasons. One, now I can feed him (as shown in the picture — pictures of Nicole feeding him are not available online for obvious reasons). And two, now we can have a babysitter for more than 3 hours blocks! Anyone wanna sign up?
PS: New pictures in the Flickr stream…

I'm ready for my bionic arm now

My skin graft got infected. Apparently I use my arm too much (you know, for LIVING!) and one of the stitches (probably) worked its way under the new skin and has created an angry red infection about the circumference of a baseball (fastball, not slowball) on my arm.
So that’s awesome.
I’m not allowed to work for a couple days, which is gonna be just fantastic for my release schedule. And I have to take Keflex again — which I love because of how it makes me poop all the time.
So ya, any time they want to invent that Luke Skywalker arm, they can sign me up to beta test it.
And PS to Shannon: NO, they aren’t actually going to cut my arm off! The worst that could happen is that I’d lose the skin graft, and they’d want to do it again (to which I would say, screw you, I’ll just wear a giant band aid for 4 months, cause I’m not goin through that again!)