Catching Up

Well, it's been over a month since I've written anything, which is a good thing, since I've been busy both at work and at home. Here's a list of things I've done since the last update:

• We went to Charleston, SC for Debbie's birthday in November. We stayed at a great Inn, right on the battery (hence the name) that is reputed to be haunted. We had a great time eating, taking a historic homes tour, just walking around.
• Of course, Hokie football ended with a bang, finishing 10-2 and getting a bid to the Chick-Fil-A bowl. We didn't get to as many games as usual, but still caught 4 home games and the UNC game. I was very pleased with the team, especially the defense, in what was supposed to be a down year.
• Richmond to see my family for Thanksgiving, including taking my nephew with us to the UVa game in Blacksburg (his first Hokie game).
• Tacoma (after another short trip to Richmond) to visit Debbie's family for Christmas. Highlights included watching BIL Tim edit BIL Dave's album, visiting the Seattle music experience with BIL Dave, skiing with the clan at Crystal Mountain, and lots of family fun time. Lowlight was getting stuck in the Dallas (see picture of Hampton Inn lobby) in the way back and missing the aforementioned Chick Fil A bowl.
• We went to the Greensboro Colliseum to see the Hokies (women and mens) play a double header against UNCG. It was a great deal $10/person including a Coke and a hotdog. The Hokies swept, and it was a chance to see Hokies between their upsets of Duke and then #1 UNC.
• Visit this past weekend to Grand Rapids, MI to Mars Hill Bible Church with BIL Dave and his friend Shawn for a pastor's conference. It was a great experience that Dave and I had been talking about for over a year. I'll have to comment more later.
• I talked Debbie into letting me buy a new acoustic guitar, and I got a great deal on e-bay on a Takamine EAN-76 that was a refurbed factory second for about a quarter of the retail price. It came Wednesday and it's pretty frickin' sweet. Now I just need to get a new gig, since my last one has kind of petered out.

I've also read a bunch of books (with all the travelling), so I'll give a short synopsis and rating below. All read since the beginning on December!

• A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren: Foundational book for those who struggle with faith in the light of a post modern world. I've been wanting to read it for a long time, and it lived up to expectations. 4 Hokie Birds/5
• The World is Flat by Thomas Freidman: Very interesting read on Globalization, it's impacts, and how the US should react. It's changed my views on a few things and helped me a bit as I plan my career and next career in a very global company and world. It's the last book left from last year's presents (Thanks, Dad!) 4/5
• The Language of God by Frances Collins: I highly recommend this for scientists struggling to reconcile science with faith or people who think all Christians have their heads stuck in the sand. Collins is the PI of the Human Genome Project, and a convert from agnosticism/atheism. The first half is a lot of CS Lewis redux, the second part explains science and debunks creationism without evolution and even intelligent design. If you want to have both a Jesus fish and a Darwin fish on your car (I do!), this one is for you! Thanks to Ann for recommending it, and my sister who gave it to me THIS Christmas. 5/5
• A Good Dog by Jon Katz: Debbie got me this, after I loved the previous Katz book she got me last Christmas. It is a great book, but I warn you very sad. It reminded me so much of Pretzel, who is my "lifetime dog" to Katz' Border Collie Orson. 4/5
• Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller: Another book that's been on the list for a long time. Extremely funny and brutally honest essays on faith in the postmodern world. It's one of those books that just seems to find a soft spot in the center of your soul. Many times, I just thought, yes, someone finally put what I've been feelings into words. One of my longtime friends (15+ years) said when she read it, she thought I could have been writing it. 5/5
• A Churchless Faith by Alan Jameison: I really got a lot out of this book. I bought it on Amazon's recommendation, because I have had so many friends leave the church in the last few years and I am often tempted to do the same. It is based on AJ's PhD dissertation (although quite accessible), which is in turn based on over a hundred interviews with church leavers. He presents a model on why people leave the evangelical church, where they go, and offers suggestions on how to create a "leaver-sensitive church". 5/5
• At Bat: Prayer: Does it make a difference by Philip Yancey. On Deck: Kite Runner (A Novel! How Novel!) by Khaled Hosseini

Top 5 Albums of 2006

I bought few albums this year and listened to very little new music. What I heard I wasn't that impressed by. That said, I had 2 favorites and some other worthy albums and think I can come up with a decent list.



1 - Roman Candle - The Wee Hours Review. One day I will die and go to a place where they play Roman Candle all day long. I have been that good.
2 - Hem - Funnel Cloud - The music soars and the lead singer is an angel. I've heard them compared to Cowboy Junkies, but to me the music isn't that dark. It sounds like a perfect Sunday afternoon.
3 - Josh Ritter - The Animal Years - Just great singer/somgwriter stuff.
4 - The Long Winters - Putting the Days to Bed - Just good guitar pop/indie rock
5 - Jars of Clay - Good Monsters - A typical Jars album in that it falls short on a few tracks, but the lyrics combined with the fact they finally recorded am album with a drummer nudges them into the top 5.

Others considered: the fray: how to save a life, Guster: Ganging up on the Sun, Leeland: Sounds of Melodies, the Who: Endless Wire

Sabbath

So, yesterday was a true Sabbath for me in many ways. As a present day English speaker, I am at a disadvantage not being able to read my bible in Hebrew or Greek. Thus, I'm at a severe disadvantage when I try to understand what the Book is telling me. I'm reliant on translators to turn it into a language I can understand and then theologians to tell me what it means. What I've heard is the number of words in Hebrew is approximately one tenth of the number of English words. So when you try to translate, you have to chose which one of your approximately ten English words that may translate to the author's one Hebrew word is the one he wanted you to read. For most of my life, the Sabbath meant you dressed up, went to church and sang hymns and listened to preaching and maybe attended a class. Likely, you go to a cafeteria afterwards while still dressed up. Maybe you can catch an NFL game until it was time to go to prayer meeting or youth group or whatever. Hopefully you made it home in time to watch the Wonderful World of Disney, or later, the Simpsons. My life is much of the same now: one or (usually) two church services, catch Quizno's, dogs for a quick walk, back to help with youth group, maybe catch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

My understanding now is that Sabbath means simply "stop" or "rest" in Hebrew. It's a day to not work, to marvel at the wonder of God, to take care of yourself. Since we went to Saturday night service this weekend, I was able to: go to the gym, give the dogs a proper walk , finish reading a book ("A New Kind of Christian" by Brian McLaren), do my reading for small group (2 chapters in "Abraham" by Bruce Feiler), balance the checkbook, and finally start a book that my Dad got me LAST Christmas ("The World is Flat" on Globalization), have a leisurely cup of coffee, eat leftover pizza for lunch, take a nap. All before Debbie made it home from church (she played violin all three services this weekend).

God gives us the Sabbath to remind us that work and progress and acheivement isn't all there is to life. There is also resting, enjoying, pondering, taking care of yourself. Realizing there is a world beyond what you experience during the rest of the week. Recoginizing the miracle that is that world and the wonder that is it's Creator. God grant me the wisdom to take more Sabbath.

Random Thoughts Again

• This blog's content is very different than I anticipated. I thought it would be more of a travelog, but it's much more of a journal. Cool.



• Great article on leadership and science and even faith a little bit this morning in the News and Observer. I'd like to meet this guy. He seems to have done really well at the things I struggle with.



• The Hokie game sucked last night. The offensive line played terribly and the defensive line got no pressure on their QB. It is very rare that a VT football team gets out-efforted, but last night was one of them. We need some leadership from within the team to step up and straigten things out. (This is the kind of brillance I was expecting from this blog). However, I look forward to the game next weekend against Southern Miss. 7 pm kickoff leaves time for good tailgating, and Southern Miss is the type of team we need to play and beat. For the last 20 years, no one has played harder game in and game out than USM.



• I'm really into the new Natasha Bedingfield song. It runs SO against my normal musical tastes to like this song, but the lyrics really strike a chord with me for some reason. Every once in a while, a pop song does this to me. The last one was Mmm..Bop by Hansen. Anyway, I first heard the song when a couple who sings at church every few months sang it. It's catchy and the lyrics really make me think and feel good. Which I need.

The Little Things

Here is the "inspirational speech" I wrote for my leadership class a few weeks ago. I found this ridiculous cartoon on the web as an illustration for the blog. It cracks me up.

I'd like to talk to you about "the little things"

I struggle with little things. I like big ideas, the bigger the idea, the more I get excited. So as I wrestled with which of my big ideas to talk about with you today, I got a wake up call. On Monday morning, as I was rushing off to work, I stopped to give my wife a little kiss. She stopped me and said "No, I need a hug. What if something happens to you and you don't make it home today. This is important.

A hug - a small thing, but potentially hugely important.

We spend a lot of time chasing big things, ignoring the little things: stopping to say good morning to a coworker, promptly returning a call or e-mail from a customer or small vendor, helping a technician with a question...but maybe we should stop and think what we're doing.

In our last class together, I introduced a concept by Buckminster Fuller called the "trim tab". Fuller was a futurist famous for the geodesic dome, or "bucky-ball" amoung other things. He spend his time coming up with big ideas about how to insure the sustainability of the human race.

The trim-tab is a small rudder-like device placed on the corener of the main rudder of a plane or a ship. The main rudder is large and takes a lot of energy to turn. The trim tab is smaller, so it needs less energy to turn, but it leads the larger rudder around. It makes a hard task easier.

I like the idea of the trim tab. Fuller believed we should all be looking for "trim tabs" in the world around us: small actions that can bring about big change. So maybe, the little things are the ones that can make the most difference. Maybe saying good morning gives you and your coworker the perspective to carry through the day. Maybe you start a relationship with the small vendor that grows to be key for the company. Maybe the conversation with the coworker brings a key change to an important process.

Like I said, I'm into big ideas. I'll end with a story about grad school. Those who know me know I tell a lot of stories about grad school. I used to go see a friend in his lab to talk about our favorite things: baseball, beer, whatever. There were several sign in his lab that read "Lab Philosophy: Leav things a little better than you found them." This wasn't put their by a budding philospher, nor was it an official democratically approved lab mantra. THe person who put it up was a mentally unstable control freak. But maybe she had a point.

I believe we are here to make a positive impact on the earth and the people living on it. Maybe the best way we can do that is by paying attention to the little things.