Pics of My New Guitar

I said about a week and a half ago that I would publish pics of my new guitar. So here they are:

In light of my post yesterday (which had to do with materialism) can I reconcile the purchase of a new guitar? Believe me, I gave that some thot before I bought it. I really only use my guitars for worship - both at home and at church. So, to me, that works:)

Blessed

Saturday, as I was nearing the end of a fish fry I was doing in Muncie, I thot, "I'm really quite blessed". I have already shared with ya'll that I am blessed to have a great family (and the reason (yes, I have to have a "reason" for almost everything) I started my blog with them is that they are the most important thing God has given to me) , but lately I have just been doing some fish frys with some very good/nice people. This may seem like a minor thing but think about it; isn't life sooo much easier when you're working with or even just around people who are not difficult? This maybe goes back to my post about love. I'm not saying we do not love the difficult or annoying people in our lives I'm just saying that it sure is nice to work with people who are not difficult. So a big shout out to Francesville Fire Dept., Pioneer High Scool Athletic Boosters, Avondale United Methodist Church (Muncie), and St. James Lutheran School (Lafayette). Thanks for making my job easier lately!!! And it does not hurt that the weather has been nice lately. It's a small thing in the big scheme of things but I think you would all agree with me that it's just easier to be in a better mood when the weather is 70's to low 80's and not humid as opposed to 80's to 90's and humid:)

Some thing my pastor said this morning reminded me of something I read the other day in Thomas a Kempis' Of The Imitation Of Christ:

"I beseech Thee, my most gracious God, preserve me from the cares of this life, lest I should be too taken up with them; from the many necessities of the body lest I should be ensnared by pleasure; and from all the hinderances to my soul, lest, broken by troubles, I should be cast down" ...

"Oh my God, Thou "Sweetness Unspeakable", turn for me into bitterness all carnal delight which draws me away from the love of eternal things, and attracts me to itself on accout of its offer of present enjoyment; let it not conquer me, O Lord; let not flesh and blood conquer me; let not the world deceive me, and its fleeting glory; let not the Devil by his subtlety cast me down. Give me strength to resist, patience to endure,, constancy to persevere..."

Behold! food, drink, clothes, and all else that pertains to the support of the body, are burdensome to the fervent spirit. Grant that I may use such supports with moderation, and not care too much about them. To do without anything cannot be, for nature must be sustained; but the holy law forbids us to seek superfluities, and luxuries; for did we do so, the flesh would rebel against the spirit. In these things let Thy Hand, O Lord, guide and teach me, that I may not at all run into excess."

WOW!!!

Sundee, Mondee, Tuesdee

Why the weird spelling of the days o' the week in today's post title? My bud Adam and I know a few people who actually pronounce them this way... so we sometimes pronounce them this way. Just another one of the stupid little things we/I do to amuse ourselves/myself:)

Sunday at church we kinda rocked out. The best part was just after the service ended, the worship team did the Petra version of "This Is The Noise We Make". Sundays at LifeChurch are just such a recharge for me... not just the "worship service", but the people I get to be with and talk to while I am there! We had Hildenbrands over after church. We love hangin' with them!!! Yeah, Hildenbrands and Hippensteels. What a mouthful! Then we watched the Colts lose. They'll figure it out. Played my new acoustic guitar a bit out on the tailgate of my truck. My neighbor Alan stopped by whilst I was playing and we talked for a bit. Alan and another neighbor of mine, Drayston, play football on the freshman team at Huntington North. I told Alan I might go watch them play monday night.

Monday I got quite a bit done. Since I have usually worked anywhere from 24-30 hours on Fri.-Sat. I see Sunday not just as day of rest but sort of a day of recovery; then Monday is the day I get to spend time with Sheryl (I have really come to cherish this time) and get stuff done (like clean the showers, mow, fix things, etc.). Went to the eye doctor. Ordered bi-focals. Had hoped I would not need them until I was at least 50, and I probably could have held off a bit longer, but I decided to take the plunge. (Hey Aunt M. L. can you believe you baby-sat someone who now needs bi-focals?:)) Went to the freshman football game. Pretty interesting.

Tuesday I did a fish fry in Lafayette at St. James Lutheran School/Church. Good people! I especially enjoyed talking with Mike M. and Caleb!

I leave you with this from Abe Lincoln:
"I will do the very best I know how, the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing it to the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me will not amount to anything. If the end brings me out all wrong, 10 angels swearing I was right would make no difference."

God's Face

My friend Mike put on a conference today. I could not make it to the conference because of work. Oh well. You do what ya gotta do for your family. He brought in Scot McKnight to talk about his book/way of life called The Jesus Creed. My understanding of this is that you repeat to yourself as often as you can, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength (Deut. 6:4-5)" and then Jesus adds an important amendment in Mark 12:31 "and love your neighbor as yourself". But this is to be more than just a mantra. The idea is to ingrain it into your mind and heart so that you actually act and react in love to everyone with whom you come in contact. To me, that can be pretty tough stuff: it's fairly easy for me to love those who love me or who even just like me, but somewhat harder to love "my enemies" or even those who just annoy me!:) One of the chapters in the book 40 Days: Living the Jesus Creed has to do with seeing God's "face".

"For us to be empowered by that face, we have to turn our face to God by gazing at God and by talking to God. If we fake it, we offer to God nothing but a facade. If we face God honestly by offering our true face to God, we discover in God the face of love. We discover that 'God is love'. The Jesus Creed begins in the face of God, for until we see in the face of God the love God has for us, we will not find the strength to love God, to love ourselves, and to love others" (all bold and italics mine)

This made me think of a song by Sanctus Real. Here are the lyrics:

The Face of Love
I’ve seen your face on stained glass, in colored lights
In pictures of you looking to the sky
You been portrayed a thousand different ways
But my heart can see you better than my eyes
‘Cause it’s love that paints the portrait of your life

The face of love
The face of love
You look more like love everyday

I’ve read your words in the pages of your life
And I’ve imagined what you were like
I may not know the shape of your face
But I can feel your heart changing mine
And your love still proves that you’re alive

You are the face that changed the whole world
No one too lost for you to love
No one too low for you to serve
So give us the grace to change the world
No one too lost for me to love
No one too low for me to serve
Let us see…
Let us be your face

Quite challenging...

Pretty Good Day

Bought an electric-acoustic guitar on ebay a little after midnight wed. morning and it arrived today! WOW! I didn't expect it that fast. Needless to say, I gave that ebay seller some very good feedback. I was like a little kid today. "What if it comes today? That would be really cool. Nah, it won't get here until friday at the earliest. Then I won't be able to play it 'til Sunday because I have to work two pretty long days friday and sat. It probably will not get here until monday or even tuesday. But maybe it will come today. That would be cool. No, no, I can wait. Delayed gratification is good. But it would be pretty cool if it came today..." Yeah, I have these kind of conversations with myself on a fairly regular basis. Aaanyway, I played my new Ibanez for about two hours tonight. I will post a pic of it in a few days. It's kinda pretty me thinks.

I also reconnected with an old friend via email today. We have not seen or talked to each other in about five years. He is going to be in Huntington in Oct., so hopefully we can get together.

I leave you with a quote from Sailing Between the Stars (by Steven James) :
"When you've been given a gift that you didn't earn and could never afford and there's nothing you can do now or in the future to pay it back, it can be pretty unsettling. It changes you. It has to, or you didn't realize how undeserving you really were (and are)"

Cool Pics

So my buddy Adam says today, "You didn't post anything on your blog yesterday!". I said, "Well, you don't expect me to post every day do you? A few of my friends who blog don't post every day". So just because Adam complained here's a little something: (by the way, I did not take these photos. I found them on snopes.com). I actually saw something similar to the bottom photo about 5 years ago. It was stunning. I looked it up up on the 'net and ended up at Snopes.
And here are the links if you want to look up the stories behind these photos:
1)"Painted Hills" http://snopes.com/photos/natural/flowers.asp
2)"Fire!" http://snopes.com/photos/natural/deerfire.asp
3)"Fire Rainbow" http://snopes.com/photos/natural/firerainbow.asp

My Family

I do not tell them this often enough, but I have a great family!!! My wife of 21 years has put up with alot from me and loves me still. Our oldest daughter is a freshman at Huntington University and we are very excited about that! She's a vivacious girl with a compassionate heart and she loves to hang out with people. She plans on being a nurse. Our middle daughter is kinda funny because she acts sorta ditzy sometimes but she is actually very studious. She also runs cross country. I think one of the words that defines her is "consistency". She plans on being a pathologist. Our youngest daughter loves to play. She would play from sun up 'til sun down if we would let her! All of our girls have such terrific personalities and pretty smiles and we are just so proud of the young ladies that they are and are becoming...

My First Foray

This is my first foray into blogging (thus the title of this post!). I'm not a real techie guy so doing something as simple as adding an image can sometimes be a bit challenging for me:) As Ross perot's running mate John Stockman once famously said, "Who am I and what am I doing here?". I mean, why do a blog? Does anyone even care what I think? Should they? Don't know. But I'm kinda figgerin' that 1) This is a possible way for friends and relatives to keep up with my thot process/"where I'm at" (if they are on the internet and have nothin' better to do) and/or 2)Even if no one reads my blog it will be a way for me to sorta journal (which my pastor says is very beneficial). I say "sorta" journal 'cause in a real journal I would be sharing some of my most intimate thots... here I'm going to keep it more surface to mid. I'll post about my family, friends (with names either changed or not used at all to protect the guilty:), music, movies, TV,books, church, theology, bible, guitar, a little bit 'o politics, and maybe some other stuff! Sooo here goes..