moving, part one...the remix

I've decided to move to a different blog site. So if you're here looking for whatever I've been doing on this site, I'm now doing that over at

www.exchangedliving.com

same me, different look. hope to see you there.

a patriotic quiz...

In light of celebrating the fourth of July this weekend, I figured I'd post a self-made patriotic quiz... it's multiple choice and fully based on scientific fact. Write down your answers and check them against the key at the end. i hope you score well: your patriotic reputation depends on it.

1. Which of the following colors run?

A. Red
B. White
C. Blue
D. Are you kidding?

2. Which of the following song writers wrote "God Bless the USA"?

A. Francis Scott Key
B. John Phillip Sousa
C. Lee Greenwood
D. Bruce Springsteen

3. If the US and any other nation were arm wrestling, who would go "over the top"?

A. The other country
B. Sylvester Stallone
C. The US
D. Neither.

4. Who is the best movie war vet?

A. Lieutenant Dan (from Forrest Gump)
B. Walter Sobchak (from The Big Lebowski)
C. Ron Kovic (from Born on the 4th of July)
D. Rambo (from First Blood and every other Rambo)

5. With liberty and _____________ for all.

A. Justice
B. Freedom
C. Don't blaspheme the pledge of allegance
D. Both A and C

6. Most patriotic hot dog topping:

A. Ketchup, because it's red like the stripes of our flag.
B. Onions, because they make me weep like the National Anthem does.
C. Chili and cheese, because I like chili and cheese.
D. Yes.

7. If Rambo and Rocky fought, who would win?

A. Rambo, because he's a vet and a green beret.
B. Rocky, because he's wearing American flag-themed shorts (and he beat Drago).
C. Rocky, because Hulk Hogan, Mr. T, and Apollo Creed were in one of his movies.
D. America. America would win.

8. What's the best part of a 4th of July celebration?

A. The grill-a-thon day-pass to eat your weight in hot dogs and burgers
B. An all-day opportunity to blow stuff up with fireworks
C. Standing up next to Her and defending her still today.
D. Pruney fingers from swimming all day.

9. "Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime." - Adlai Stevenson

Best reaction to this quote:

A. "Let Freedom Ring!"
B. "God Bless America!"
C. "Didn't Ben Franklin say that?"
D. A, B, quickly think C to yourself, and then immediately say the pledge of
allegance.

10. Which of these is the best way to not forget the cost of freedom?

A. Tape $1.05 to your arm.
B. Think about all of the war vets and patriots who gave their lives for our
freedom.
C. Eat another hot dog.
D. Forget? No. I will never forget. Freedom isn't free: it cost folks like you amd me...

---Let's see how you did---

Answers:

1. D. If you missed this, you're probably a communist.

2. C. I actually had the opportunity to perform with Lee Greenwood when I was in college. People got so excited they almost threw whatever they had in their arms, including babies. It was almost dangerous levels of patriotism. Almost...

3. C. The US would go over the top and win. If you have no idea what this is refering to, check this video out, the final arm-wrestling scene from the movie Over The Top.

4. D. Rambo is the best. Not because he was the best on this list, but because he was also Rocky, who wore the American Flag Shorts and even made the Russians chant "USA". I'm sorry, but no one can beat that level of patriotic power.

5. D. Get the pledge right or don't say it at all.

6. D. No hot dog topping is more or less patriotic if you put them on your hot dog in America. This is about freedom, people. Top it how you want--let freedom ring.

7. B. There is no object with more patriotic power than those shorts (unless he wore a flag, which he couldn't because 1. it might look like a skirt, and 2. it might touch the ground). Because he has those shorts, he would destroy Rambo. Honorary Mention for choosing D: wow, what a fight.

8. C. If you do not stand up EVERYTIME you hear Lee Greenwood sing that song, you have no self-respect or love for this country. Keep sitting, Benedict Arnold.

9. D. This, again, is pretty self-explanitory. Try it. Follow the instructions and see how right it feels.

10. D. Geez. If you forgot, take this Friday to remember. The flag still stands for freedom, and they can't take that away...(hey)


Hope you enjoyed the quiz...it was made all in good fun. Enjoy your 4th! Leave me your scores in the comments....

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Listening to: Lee Greenwood - God Bless The U.S.A.

summer is here (officially)

there are a few things that must be in place for summer to officially begin (in my universe, anyway). it's like the formation of voltron--where each component is powerful enough, but when they combine, it's on. well, those elements for me are:

1. Window-down weather. You need to be able to drive with your windows down at all times (excluding rain, of course).

2. Grilling. Done and done.

3. yard sales. people selling crap they either don't want or can't afford to keep. i love going to them, and it cracks me up that its a part of what i consider summer to be. the world's longest yard sale trails right through this town in august. joy!

4. summer blockbusters. This summer has delivered (for the most part). I'm slated to see wall-e this week, which I'm excited about. the only big name I saw and didn't care for was Indiana Jones...shame on you, George Lucas, shame! shaaaaaaaaaaammmmmeee!!!

5. Sno-cones. and this is why summer is now officially here. The sno-cone (or sno-ball or shaved ice or whatever you might call it) place next to casa fiesta is now open! Let the blue bubble-gum goodness flow! Seriously, i hate the idea of a summer without sno-cones. You should drive to frankfort right now and treat yourself to a spoonful of summer.

thoughts on our Stewart Home Visit

For those who read this and don't know about the Stewart Home, the Stewart Home is a school for students with special needs in Frankfort. They do amazing work with close to 200 students from all over the US and abroad. Some of us at Hope got in contact with the SH to see if there was a way we could help them do what they're doing there. Different groups of volunteers have gone simply to play and help with some of the students at different times, and we've build a healthy connection with the school and its students. Yesterday, we packed up a trailer and threw a party for the students there. We brought a full band set up, clowns, face painters, bubbles, and the likes and decided to just blow the doors off their hinges for an hour or two.

First, to those who went, thank you. It was amazing to see how well our people worked together to make an event like that happen. It seemed effortless, though I know it wasn't. I was even more moved to see so many people come and not just watch; seeing your hearts come out as you worked with the students there encouraged and challenged me so much. There was more pure joy on the dance floor yesterday than I've seen in a long time. It was beautiful.

Second, and maybe this is a little raw, but what is it about dancing and joy that caught us off guard yesterday? Or me, anyway... I don't know how much of what we sang about even translated to the students we were with...honestly, to evangelize was not the point anyway...but when it comes down to the joy in those moments, the pure enjoyment of life itself, I feel like I was preached to by every student there. For me, every song and dance and laugh and shout was a testament of the goodness of life, and the greatness of God in the midst of all life brings us. Within the presence of God is the presence of joy, unquenchable and overflowing and transforming. I mean, I feel like i see things differently after last night. I know afterwards, a few of us were talking through what we had experienced as if something had come over us...something foreign but not foreign at all. Joy had shown up and looked us in the eye and asked us to dance. And so many said yes.

I'm still processing through it all, but I'd love to hear stories from any of you who went...where's this hitting you?


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Listening to: Doveman - Cities

next steps...

Currently, one of my tasks I'm working on at Hope is helping to develop a curriculum for people new to the faith and new to our church. It would be the next step to our new member training class--deeper into the theology and subsequent practice of our faith together at Hope. As we develop this class, part of me is wondering what people (both at Hope and elsewhere) feel like they either need or needed when first venturing into the faith. What lessons were crucial in getting you going in the faith? Or what were you not told/taught that you wish you had been exposed to early in your walk?

There's a guy in Ft. Thomas named Jeremy Pryor who has posted some interesting videos on what he's calling the Story-Formed Life. It's a discipleship course he's designed based on understanding our story within the larger story of God. This link will take you to his youtube page; if you have time, take a look and let me know what you think of this in the ole' comment section.

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Now playing: Sigur Rós - Untitled 1
via FoxyTunes

Steve Shryock Update

As of today, I've heard he's off his ventilator and is doing much better. Keep praying for him, for his wife Donna Gayle and their son Neil.

Thanks-

update stuff

hey everyone (or the 2.3 people who might read this)-

sorry I've been out of pocket in the blogosphere (that word is weird); things have been rather busy in real life. a good busy, but busy none the less.

first, a quick prayer request: steve shryock, a member of our church, had a number of bypasses done on his heart last week. all went well, but he has not been able to wake from the surgery. his vitals are all great, but he still needs prayer.

second, as usual, JD Walt has some great conversation going on at his blog. He has a conversation posted today from a friend of his from England in which they're discussing a temple-centric model of worship. here's a quote:

There are so many understandings of what was going on in Temple sacrifices, so let’s start with a taking of the best of creation and lifting it up to the Creator as a free offering being a reversal of the sin of the world (where people simply take anything from creation and worship that). Let’s add the
cost question: you give God the most precious thing you own, and when we
say “give”, we mean give completely – kill, give its life. You cannot have
it back. Yet amazingly the sacrifice is usually cause for celebration and
results in restored relationship between God and his people, not in loss
and grief.

To make a sacrifice is an honour and a joy, not a burden; to abuse the
honour is to curse God and defile his people.


if you have the time, go here and give it a read.

third, some music recommendations, if you're interested:

Ben Cantelon's Daylight Breaks Through could be the best worship album i've bought in a while.

Sam Amidon, or Samamidon, has an album called All is Well. very folk/banjo, very sufjan-esque, very pentatonic, very cool.

And get some Nick Drake in your life.
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Now playing: Nick Drake - Fruit Tree
via FoxyTunes

SB give a poetry lesson

Check out this poetry lesson from Strong Bad.

Hope your Memorial Day was memorable...

free gum?

So i came across this petition a few weeks ago: It's a petition to end the career of filmmaker Uwe Boll. He has vowed that if a million people sign this petition, he will never make another film. I've not seen one of his films, due largely to the fact that they look awful, and from reviews I've read, I've underestimated how bad they really are. All three of his american-released films are in the Internet Movie Database "bottom 100 films of all-time"list. The more I read and watch about this guy, the more of a jerk he seems to be, but that's just me.

So the people at Stride Gum have sweetened the pot a little: they've promised that if the petition gets signed by the 14th of May, they will give out 1 million packs of gum, one to each of the signers. With both my love for movies and my love for gum, I've decided to post this to encourage you to sign this petition. You know you want free gum, and you know you hate bad movies. Signing this may get us both free gum AND less bad DVD clutter to sift through.

On another note, LOST is continuing to blow my mind. Anyone who wants to bounce thoughts around about the twists we've seen in the last few weeks or predictions about the finale, bring em on.

Thanks to the people who've commented on the poetry stuff on here...I appreciate the feedback.

And happy mother's day, mom. I love you...

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Now playing: The Weepies - Can't Go Back Now
via FoxyTunes

a bleeding pine

1. covering

Who severed your limbs
I'll never know.

Nubs, like sad vacancy signs,
drip with old habit,
offering sap to branches
that were cut away.

Prosthetics would look forced
like an evergreen toupee:

one of these things
is not like the other,

evoking laughter and pity.

The scars you bear, though,
almost beg for something
to cover them,

to keep the secret
we all know;

to deny sight the truth.





2. the branch eye

I don't remember the cut--
just the echoing thud.

I looked up and saw
my dripping pine life,
sticky and clean and full.

I lie
among the rusted fallen,
the dead pine straw.

All of us
write love letters to
our old evergreen lives,

fighting the knife and gravity
for xylem and phloem,
wondering if we'll ever do anything

but die
and be dead.





3. under standing


You see things upside-down.

I need a tree like Peter's;
let the blood rush to my head
so I'll see things like You do.





4. the forest of no return

Leaky pine tree,
sing me hope
though your open knots:

There is a hand
that cuts and grafts
fallen limbs
with skilled, willing hands.

Planted firmly,
a waiting tree stands,
overflowing with sap,
evergreen life from open wounds,

full of home
and tomorrow.

someone else's recommendations

This Link is one i got today from another blog i read. i'm still tip-toeing into the poetry pool, but i'm looking forward to exploring some of these books. currently i'm reading jagged with love by susanna childress after reading some of her work in the poetry workshop i took at asbury. her writing, like so many of the poets we read there, made me both want to write all the time and never write again.

kinda cool how i take a class that talks about poetry as a significant means for exploring and wrestling with the mystery of God, then a few weeks later find a resource for poets who seem to be attempting this in their writings.

LOST interests...

there are few things on TV that interest me more than the show LOST. it is, in my humble opinion, one of the most well-written shows on TV, and perhaps that has even been on TV. right now, due to the writer's strike, we are in a mid-season break, and it is driving me insane. i've read blogs and message boards, theories and ponderings, and i'm now at the point where im having to turn to other shows to help me bridge the gap until LOST starts again. here are the shows that are helping me out:

1. Rob and Big. Rob and Big might be the most oddly brilliant show MTV has aired in its ever-growing catalog of reality shows. Rob the pro skater and Big the body guard/best friend simply do whatever fairly-wealthy, slightly bored people do in hollywood, which includes an impressive list of oddities: buying a mini horse, turtle racing, reviving a stripping career, impromptu skating sessions and, of course, doing work.

2. Rock of Love 2 w/ Bret Michaels. OK, there is no real justification for liking this show, other than the drama that is created when 12 semi-trashy or semi-crazy or semi-obsessed women are thrown into a house to fight for the front man of a bad who was relevant when i was 9. don't get me wrong: i love poison when they show up on my ipod, but wow...this show makes bret seem like he's chris martin, but single and with more bandanas. thank you VH1.

3. America's Best Dance Crew. Yes, i watch a dance show. You watch it and tell me it isn't amazing.

If this list is evidence of anything, it's that LOST cannot come back soon enough. If you have shows i should add to my list, holla back and let me know. (oh, and if you have any of the seasons of Battlestar Galactica, let me know...i watched a show about it and i actually want to give it a try.)

a captured prayer

They frame your wedding memories snap by snap
as we pose, nesting smiles on canvas faces.

A joyful blessing, now frozen forever,
sent as a flashing prayer to the viewers

that will come. Acting now as both a prophet
and shaman, factoring what we know into

what we hope, saccharine-sweet prayers that He,
whom precise doctrine names but never holds down,

would bring destruction, with winds like Katrina,
to your now-constrictive views of love, and build

you both, red brick by red brick, into a house
through trust and conflict and reckless sacrifice.

Caught here, this mystic picture of glory, now
smiles, full of trick and treat; a framed communion.

A pose; a barrack for the storm warring forward.

two things i'm thinking about...

one, i heard a story last night. it was of a church that was going to have a drawing for a wii at an event they were having. the thing is, the way you got your name in the drawing: to make a decision at the event. YES, YOU HEARD ME RIGHT. if you came down to the altar and made a decision to follow Christ that night, you were entered into a drawing to win a wii.

this makes me so angry that i am choosing to pretend this story was made up so i don't have to face that this is the condition of evangelism in some spheres of the church.

i would go on a long diatribe about evangelism right now, but i'm still brewing over this and what it means for us in the christian context. any thoughts are welcomed in the comments section.

the second thing, and i put it here so this post has some merit to it, is a quote from a book i haven't read, but am now tempted to add to my stack. i found it on the Sojourn/Jim Wallis site God's Politics. feel free to respond to it as well:

"The question we need to ask with any spiritual discipline is, What does God want to accomplish through this practice? ... Perhaps we can see, then, that the discipline of fasting has to do with the critical dynamic of accepting those limits which are life-restoring. Our culture would seduce us into believing that we can have it all, do it all, and (even more preposterous!) that we deserve it all. Yet in refusing to accept limits on our consumption or activity, we perpetuate a death-dealing dynamic in the world. That is whey the discipline of fasting is so profoundly important today."

- Marjorie J. Thompson
Soul Feast

bikes and gravel

Cautiously peddling towards
the house beyond the paved road,
the house every mother had
warned their brave children about,

I felt my stomach crawl up
towards my throat and sit, brooding,
rumbling like an angry cloud.

We stopped shy, picked blackberries
and licked our chops hungrily.

This was my first rodeo.

everything

these are lyrics from a song on Kevin Smith that have meant a lot to me as i've prepared for this weekend and what it celebrates. this is the same guy who wrote the song tonight that we sang over Advent, and i think he writes lyrics in a way not a lot of people do. you should check him out.

Everything

Feel the mystery in this simple bread:
God would let me set a crown of pain upon his head
I’ve lived enough to know I’ll never understand
How he could trade the nails for mercy scars on either hand
His mercy scars his feet and hands

You were courage,
You were afraid;
A warrior on his victory parade
You, the thief that steals to give
The guiltless dies so that the traitor lives
You were God and You were free--
You were broken and poured out for me

And the shocking truth held within this cup:
God laid down to let me raise a hand and spill his blood
His word all along, His love over all-
The unassailable broke bread and cup to break my fall
His love for me was over all

You were heaven made of clay
The lead and author of this play
You the master, You play the fool
Fulfill the law to break the mortal rule
You were God and You were free
You were broken and poured out for me
Just for me...

Your eyes smile with no remorse
As you take my enemies by force
You the lover, more than friend,
You take my breath away with my sin
You are God and You are free-
You are everything I need

There Will Be Vader

A Gift for those who loved both There Will Be Blood and The Star Wars Trilogy.

so i had this dream...

i'm trying to think how to best get into this dream... it was one or the most vivid dreams i've had in a long time. i was in a house, though i'm not sure who's, and i was with my room mate andrew and peyton and eli manning, which is really weird, namely because i would not waste a deuce on either manning, let alone give two (guess that makes me conservative). but for some reason, andrew, peyton, eli and i were hanging out at this house. there were other people too, though i don't remember who.

so anyway, at one point, i'm walking outside with some people, and al of the sudden these people come out and just take people away. it was very much like the Others in LOST--it was like they came out of nowhere and just took people away. soon after that happened, i would wake up (in the dream), start walking around the house, and it was the exact same scenario, but with the people missing. picture groundhog's day, but where the previous day's happenings had effect on the day, but only i knew that it happened. (oooh--did anyone watch daybreak? that show with Taye Diggs that showed after LOST during early season 3? it was just like that. i loved that show.)

so i start investigating this phenomenon in my dream...i'm asking people questions about things, and people just start getting snatched away from inside the house as well as outside. these Others are taking people at will. i try doing other activities, but sooner or later, we end up in this situation where someone is to get ganked and i know it. at one point, i'm outside in this area where there are steps going up towards this green garden area, and the Others come out, and they have guns, but i know them from somewhere... i start asking them why they're taking people, and they just talk to each other and to hidden others in military talk as the take yet another person from my dreams, and soon after i wake up in my bed again (still in the dream).

so at this point in the dream, i start getting the feeling that some of the people around me know why they're getting taken and aren't telling me. i distinctly remember at one point i'm in a kitchen/dining area in the house, and i'm talking to peyton and eli about these people getting taken, and how i'm looking through the house for them, cause i know they're around. at as we're talking, ANOTHER ELI WALKS THROUGH THE DOOR! and i'm like what the heck! they look at each other, like oh crap! the gig is up!, and all three of them bolt with Others coming out of the shadows to protect them. these people in my dream know what's going on and they won't tell me! (even more than before, the mannings are on my bad list. i'm glad they didn't go to LSU.)

so now i'm waking and interrogating people, threatening them even, so i can figure out whats going on. and people are starting to see that i'm aware of the fact that a larger conspiracy is building against me, and they're turning on me to save their neck. as soon as i confrot people about it, they escape away with other Others, and i'm yelling "why are you doing this?!?" i remember at one point i go outside and i'm in that garden area with a 6 foot bo staff or something, swinging it around, threatening the Others to come get me. but they won't.

even andrew turned out to be in on it. we were talking and i just looked at him and said, "who are these people? why do they work in shifts to trick me....are you in on this?" Andrew smiled and said something to the effect of "they're watching you all the time." thanks, andrew.

wildly, i woke a few times in the night, and went back to sleep into the dream again (i love when that happens).

i'm not going to analyze this or seek a meaning... but i do think some of this stuff would have made a great pilot on ABC. OK, maybe not ABC...the WB?

LOST brackets ?!?

check it out.

while these brackets aren't as entertaining as the show is, i still think it's cool.

Sayid vs. Locke. I'd pay to see it.

any thoughts on LOST recently? like how about that desmond-centric episode? i've watched it 7 times and each time it's better.

wisdom

When wisdom cries out,
the streets ring
with the timbre of your voice.

She sounds like you.

Whispers dropping alms,
echoing leftovers of Solomon.

Simple ones often
simply listen, finding more than
simple words.

My poverty begs towards
this mumbling absence,
ears cupped,
straining to catch any
offered change.

Cloudless, prowling thunder.

I listen with my head to the ground,
well within its grasp,

afraid to breathe
too loud.

Fearing sound,
knowing that my simple silence
may bring it near.

about post secret...

just a word on the Post Secret project i link to the left. Kari left a message about the content of the site, and i do apologize if any of you got more than you were bargining for when you clicked on the link. post secret is a community art project started by Frank Warren. its origin story is quite fascinating, and the entire project presents some interesting ideas on ideas like confession, community, secrets, and art. this site is by no means Christian or promoting things of the faith, but obviously has elements very close to the heart of the Christian faith.

i think it raises some interesting ideas on the place of confession, especially confession within community. this community of artists, confessors and (admittingly) voyeurs really struck a chord with me when i saw their traveling art exhibit at UK last year. i've bought the books, given some away even, due partially to my awe at the mix of artistic expression and raw honesty, and partially because i want to see things like this in the community of which i'm a part.

so maybe this is a positing post: where do (or should) confession and community intersect for the church?

i apologize for any material posted on the post secret website that catches you off-guard, but i hope you see why i think it's a thought provoking art project. i'm keeping the link up, though i'll tag a little warning on it. if you go there and it stirs up stuff you want to dialog about, comment freely!

snow makes me cold

i have this weird relationship with snow. i like to play in it. i like to make snowballs and throw them in a snowball fight. i like the way it makes the rolling hills in central kentucky look when covered with snow. i like watching bojangles antelope-sprint through it, with the snow on his doggy nose.

i do not like shoveling snow. i do not like having to run my car for an hour to get it to thaw out. i do not like how no mater how i try to protect my feet from the wet/cold, they always end up wet and cold. i do not like how my honda civic becomes a death trap when snow is near.

so, right now i have this weird tension with snow, and i don't know how to resolve it. and everywhere i go, there's snow, so it's hard to avoid. i don't want to pretend we don't have issues, but i don't know if anything will ever change...

in this silence

In this silence,
I find my heart asking
for what I sometimes fear:

for You to bring Your death
to what is now not me
anymore.

My cowering darkness
clings to this
lack of talk,

knowing that when You speak
it has no where to go,
no where to run.

My will betrays my fears,
praying haphazardly
for Your violent words;

words that can make
an apple pie from scratch
now threatening to make something new

out of me.

musings of late...

"When God created man in His own image and likeness, it was so he would have a life as similar to God's as possible." --Andrew Murray, Covenants and Blessings

I've been thinking a lot on this statement lately. While I'm in no place to really expand on my thoughts right now, the more I read this statement, the more profound it becomes. Andrew Murray continues to be one of my favorite writers, and I've read the introduction to this book about five times. I'm not ready to move past it yet because I don't think it's sunk in.

I'm attending lectures and workshops at Asbury this month--the topic is "A Movement into Mystery: Modern Psalms and Psalmists." We're looking specifically at recent American Poets (the teacher's speciality) and their writings as a means of spiritual pilgrimage, and at poetry and psalm writing as both a discipline and a needed component of wrestling with the mystery of God. The first night really ignited some interesting things in me, bringing a lot of dormant creativity out of its cave. Strangely enough, we've been writing psalms in our Thursday night bible study every once in a while for the past year. We've talked and are now preparing to launch a blog for our church called Psalms of Hope--a place where people in our community can post their own writings as well as read the thoughts and struggles that shine through other's psalms. I've really never tried anything like this, so I don't know how this will result, but every time we've written things in our bible study, people both see things on paper about their own heart that they didn't know were around, and are blessed in the readings and thoughts of others. SO--check it out.

YAY LOST!!!

ok, i know its been a while, and i'll try to get back into the habit... but i just had to post to say that LOST is the most amazing show of all time ever. period.

if you're watching and want to start some dialog, i'm down. here are some topics for discussion:

the oceanic 6
the frieghter four
aaron austin
jacob and the shack
sayid (wow)
jack's beard (my inspiration)
who's in the coffin?

or create your own thread/discussion...

friggin amazing...