Monday, August 27, 2007

Shaun Groves is coming!


Have I mentioned that Shaun Groves will be here on the 28th of Sep? He's working real hard...

Check this out.

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Friday, August 24, 2007

TGIF!


So it is Friday, thank goodness! The week has been a long grueling week of preparation for this fall, and as crazy as this week is, I know that next week is going to be even more hectic. I finished two grad school classes, paid all my bills, registered a trillion incoming freshmen and gave the ACT three times (three hour test)… So TGIF people!
I am spending my weekend in the wonderful little town of Winchester OH, where I am going to do a whole lot of nothing, which is sweet. I have no set plans, can you believe that?

Anyway, have a wonderful weekend, and you will here from me soon!

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Thursday, August 23, 2007

When the Lights Go Out


So this past week has been hectic and crazy and nonstop and .. pheww. With the beginning of classes just around the corner this is undoubtedly the busiest time of the year for me.

So yesterday at work the lights went out. All of the electric throughout the entire campus just shut down, and for the entire day the staff were limited in what could be done. Initally, we all panicked. With classes and orientation and registration and life starting up in the next week, each of us began darting throughout the office like a chicken with it's head cut off. "But I have this meeting and this email that needs to go out and this file that needs to be sent and this and and and" …

Each of us had a to do list the size of Texas.

So after utter frutation with working in the darkness, we all migrated into the lobby area of the building that I work in. We sat. Ackwardly we listened to the silence and tried to force conversation as with each passing minute we fall behind in our schedule. The minutes turned to hours.

And then it happened.

It the midst of the silence, as if we all just caught the punch line to the joke we've heard a hundred times—We laughed. I'm not sure why, but for me, I laughed because I realized the absurdity of worrying, what little good it really does. I laughed because I think God did this on purpose—no, I know he did.

We loosened our ties (so to speak) sat back, and began to enjoy the dark room. We told jokes and stories and laughed about random things. It was one of the first times that I actually sat down with my co-workers, especially the co-workers that work on the opposite side of the buiding, and really got to know them. It was nice. It was needed.

Why is that? Why is it that God sometimes has to literally shut the business out of your life to get you to open your eyes to the guy down the hall in financial aid, who just happens to be preparing for daddyhood for the first time (with twins). Why is that?

It reminded me of the times at home. In Portsmouth, occasionally we would get hit by one of those massive storms that completely wipe out all electronic devices. No phone, to lights, no TV… nothing. And I remember as a child, and even most recently in my early college years, cherishing those times.

We would light every candle in the house, lay on the floor drinking kool aid and make a shadow puppets until our little arms had turned to jelly. And when we would get tired, we would just lay in the silence and listen to the rain… All of the family together.

Sometimes, I think God has to turn off the world to make you see what's actually right under your nose, at least he did for me.

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Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Falling for God...

I think you would’ve liked to meet Alma and Avery, my grandparents. My grandpa past away in 1995. My grandma, now 90 years old, is still a picture of health.
They fell in love in their early twenties in the hills of Kentucky, as they stayed that way for over 60 years.

Avery, and hard working N&W Railroad employee would spend hour and hours widdling with his tiny pocket knife on the back porch of their small white house in the heart of Southern Ohio. Alma stayed home and poured love into their five children, about 3,000 pots of her famous chicken and dumplins, and homemaid cherry pies. Avery liked to poke and tease Alma over anything he could get her to grin over. They were recklessly in love.

Once a week they would pack up their little white car and head to Sunday morning service in a tiny Freewill Baptist Church about a 30 min. drive south, in Kentucky. No instruments were at the church, just the voices of about 30 brothers and sisters in Christ. I remember listening to grandma sing all the way home. Seven days a week they would sit at the kitchen table, bow for prayer, and share a meal together. They never spent and evening away for the other. They were enmeshed.
Their marriage was for better or for worse- but mostly for the better.

As years past on and health began to fade, I as a small child, watched intently as Alma and Avery grew closer together. Avery had a heart condition and needed constant support in maneuvering throughout the house. My 100lb. grandma would drap her arm around my 6ft grandpa each and every day, 24hrs a day, for the last 5-6 years of his life and assisted in carrying the burden that my grandpa so bravely carried. I watched on the days he could hardly lift his own foot as my grandma would jump to his every whim and cater to his every need. I watched in those years as the “I love you”s became more frequent, the “Thank you”s became more sincere, the pauses in prayer before they said a final ‘amen’ , it was as if they were sharing a moment just for the two of them ...Alma was Avery’s light, and Avery was Alma’s. I, as a 12 year old 5th grader found discomfort with the “lovey- dovey- ewwy-gooeyness” of it all, so I found ease in faking an obliviousness to the obvious. But I would secretly watch. Secretly. Have you ever felt as if you were eavesdropping on something so amazing, so beautiful that it draws your attention so strongly? This was what I experienced every evening with my grandma and grandpa.


Today, when reading the ‘top’ relationship books and articles, I laugh at some perspectives. I laugh because some authors would say that Alma and Avery were too close—too enmeshed. Perhaps, but I don’t think so. I think the two were entwined in a wonderful way. Independence is the key, “Me time” I’ve heard said is important in a relationship. For the lives of Alma and Avery—the only time was “their time”. Alma would deny every hope of her own to fulfill the hopes of Avery, and Avery would deny every hope of his own to fulfill the hope of Alma.

Alma and Avery were just a couple ‘uneducated’ ordinary Kentucky folk who “got it.”They discovered a simple secret and acted on it—to realize the true value of one anthor and spend enormous amounts of time together.

Ya know, it makes me think. Developing a relationship with God is similar to developing a relationship like the one Alma and Avery had—no, it’s exactly like that.
As Gary Moon said it in his book Falling for God “ Transforming Love requires time and a vision of forever.”

That’s the requirement of falling head over heels in Love.

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Friday, August 03, 2007

I just feel like somethin good is about to happen


I must admit, the air of Circleville changes when the week of Mount of Praise Campmeeting approaches us. And although I am unsure about the details of how this week will go with it being held in the new Leadership Center, there is a certain amount of excitement that’s boiling up. Usually I can tell that Mount of Praise is a comin because
A. I wake up singing most all of the Gaither songs that I know. Today’s is “I just feel like something good is about to happen.”

B. I begin craving some homecooked Mount of Praise food

C. I catch the "southern slur" seeping back into my vocabulary. Yesterday I ask a friend "Can ah barrie (BAR-EE) some ...."

Yes, I’m a bit old fashion, But there’s just something about old time campmeeting that doesn’t compare to church. Maybe it’s the]songs that bring back childhood memories in the kitchen with my grandma or maybe it’s the time of family reunion. I must admit- I miss home. I’ve been a bit homesick after not seeing my family in over a month. One thing that Mount of Praise reminds me of is home. Only at Mount of Praise will I reunite with most of my college friends, old church family, and new church family all at the same time.

Campmeeting doesn't have to be 'Relevant to the age' or super entertaining, because well, thats not why people of all ages go to campmeeting. It's because campmeeting is a time of fellowship and revival- that's what makes it beautiful.
So.. yea..
I’m pretty excited about the upcoming week.

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