Hitchhikers may be escaping inmates

Saw that sign yesterday on my journey to Tulsa. Got me to thinking. One of the things we've noticed in our various travels around the country in the last year or so is all the signs that are on the road. Some are rather funny really. Here's some of Know Sweat's favorites over the past year including where it was seen.

Trucks Rock, They Also Roll (All over Missouri)
Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving ( Missouri and Tennessee)
Babies are Born to be Breastfed (Arkansas and Nebraska)
and our personal favorite from Kissimmee, FL

The birds the bees and 28 STD's.

I'm sure there are more but this has gone on long enough. Just watch out for hitchhikers.

Rain makes me happy

It is dark as night right now. One of the sweet midwest thunderstorms is about to unleash its fury on us and that makes me happy. I know, I know, rain is "yucky" and a downer. For me, maybe its growing up in Oregon, rain lifts my spirits. Today is a big day for all the summer conference interns and they all trudged in through the rain. They are excited, they have no clue what they are in for but in the midst of it I know they'd envisioned a sunny warm day to start on. This storm is especially beautiful because the wind is picking up and getting louder and louder and if you open your window you can hear it whisper "McPhee sucked. Taylor will win. McPhee sucked. Taylor will win."

This storm may actually be the apocalypse now that I look at it. That or the balance of the universe is thrown off because Lowery called me back and then actually answered my phone call!

Last night we watched Idol, House (that dude is almost a funny as me) and then one of the most painful movies in the history of man. I swear we watched it at half speed. It was really bad. I won't tell you what we watched because I admit I'd find a small amount of satisfaction if you too had to sit through it--in some way it would soften the blow of knowing at this point I'm the only one I know who has utterly wasted their life with it. I am a little concerned I may actually have to account for it at the judgement.

I need good book ideas. I haven't read for a few weeks because I can't find anything to get into--I guess the DaVinci code ruined everything for me. If only they made more books with psycho albino monks and naked dead dudes who write on their chests.

I'm out of coffee....

Take a Deep Breath

Currently I'm listening to the Nooma soundtrack and watching a doe in the grass outside my window. It's rather nice.

I've been having my rear kicked lately. A little over a year ago I began ending many of my prayers the same way, partially as a reminder to myself of how blessed I am, how even when in prayer I feel at the end of my rope God continues to be so good, so good to me.

In preparation for this summer we've been given an amazing opportunity to extend scholarships to students for whom finances play an ever present role in their lives. We've asked the youth leaders to simply fill out a paragraph letting us know of the need and then we give them some nice help towards a week of Know Sweat.

I don't think we were prepared for this.

I'd like to think of myself as at least a non-rookie in the world of ministry. I'd like to think I've been a part of some churches where our folks have gone through some rough times, horrific times and gut wrenching times. But I wasn't prepared for this.

This morning I read through about 18 applications. I want to honor them and their anonymity but let me just say someof the stuff sucks the air out of my lungs. Of the over 100 we've recieved so far I bet almost half have a parent with cancer or some life threatening surgery, we've read about layoff after layoff, single parents (one has 4 girls and just had surgery to remove cancer from her brain) destroyed homes (one had it burn down and they were unable to rescue one of their children), some who've saved birthday money to scrape together the pre-reg money, others who've worked odd jobs, sold things they love to raise the money, so they can go serve somebody. So THEY can go serve.

And so I sit on a beautiful tuesday. This afternoon I'll take some time off and hang out with my incredible wife, my little boy who got his first bike yesterday and cried because it got dark and he had to stop riding, my parents (who bought said bike) and my grandma. I'm sitting at my desk, able to provide for my family and feeling fulfilled each day and I can't help but feel like I wasn't prepared for this. He is good. Even in the midst. Even in my moments of frustrations but I've lived it, I've seen it happen for those I love that he is faithful in the valley and faithful as we trudge up the canyon wall and at times there are moments where the clouds clear, the sun shines and our perspective is so much farther than usual and we see things a littl emore clearly and we realize we are blessed. More than we realize and definately more than we give him credit for. Ultimately that blessing has a lot more to do with eternity than our time here but now gives us that tip of the iceberg perspective we need for now.

Not sure where you are today as you read this but trust in one thing: you are loved and you are blessed. Enjoy this day--He made it so its very good.

Please Don't Let McPhee Win

Somebody in our office is listening to "I'll be home for Christmas" right now. That seems odd and incorrect all at the same time.

My hallway neighbor John bought a balancing game this weekend. It looks like the deck to a skateboard but instead of wheels it has something the size of a can of soup under it. You are supposed to balance on the can without sliding all the way off. He showed me how to do it and it looks quite simple. I tried and it and I think I threw my back out. It's good for me to be laughed at that hard. Another reason I never made it as a skateboarder as I'm quite balance challenged.

My family is in town this week and that is very nice. We had fun over the weekend looking at houses and chilling around the house. Carter is in heaven with all the extra attention.

It's Monday and I'm trying to call a bunch of youth ministers but they are all in Monday morning staff meetings. Simply said I do not miss those.

On the music front I am checking out Aqualung today. It's not bad so far. Also a little Mute Math and hoping I can get my hands on some Snow Patrol.

I'm also going to start a grass roots movement for Lowery to write a book on the Dylan Code. He needs to have something to show for spending 1/3 of his life in concerts with that guy.

Okay, here's to hoping the Mavs and Suns win tonight, Taylor wins Idol and Barry retires. Happy Monday.

It's Quite A Big Day

Today I make the final step towards total residency in Missouri. A drivers license. I passed the test like 3 weeks ago but have just not had the desire to go pay the $35 for the piece of plastic. Actually, since I have to get a special license for work they pay for it so it has nothing to do with the money, just haven't done it. So today I say my final goodbye to Colorado.

I saw a sign on a church this morning. They have "those kinds" of messages all the time but this one seemed especially _________ to me. God answers knee mail.

It's true. But.....

I'll get off that slippery slope before I slide. It is supposed to be 90 today. Family arrives tomorrow. Summer is just around the corner and I'm listening to old school Jars of Clay. Peace.

This Might Be A Waste Of Time

So I have nothing to say today. However, I find myself with a few minutes and a thought that I should post something so that if you happened to swing by today you aren't disappointed to see I've again failed to post.

I don't know if I've mentioned it here before or not but we have turkeys around the office here. No, I mean real turkeys like the kind I like to eat on Thanksgiving. They are huge and I have a theory that one day they will take over CIY. We have a lot of windows in our conference room and they see their own reflection and peck at it so we have this nasty turkey slobber/turkey mucus mess on the outside. It's funny to me because anytime we host something we have to go out and clean off the turkey slime so people aren't grossed out. Otherwise we just ignore it like any mess in our own home we get tired of cleaning up.

Last friday when I was here early a brave Turkey SEAL decided to make an attack on me. I didn't actually see it but his handiwork is evident. Turns out one of them hopped up on the hood of my freaking car. My boss saw it and tried to spook it at which point it jumped off leaving three huge claw scratches in the hood of my car.

This week we crazy Know Sweat kids headed out to the garage to build some new boxes for the summer travel. It brought back memories of high school shop and it was quite fun. One of the new toys we have here at the office is a nail gun. Very nice. "Somebody" showed us how to hold back the safety so you can actually shoot the nails at something. It got me to thinking about turkeys......

An incredibly shallow deep thought

So what's the show you can't miss each week?

It seems like hardly a day goes by where we don't spend some part of our lunch or drive to a project talking about any number of shows. 24, Alias, Lost, Prison Break, Idol, Survivor.

Really there are a number of different shows and some are incredibly popular with all--others not so much. I will admit though it got me made fun of that I like Alias. I was told it was like Teen Girl Squad only with guns. Say what you want Michael Vartan is hot.?

Anyway, I was thinking about these shows because there are a number of them I've seen or follow but most of the shows such as 24 and Alias and others Ang and I don't watch on a weekly basis. We don't watch them because we got used to watching them on DVD. It seemed like most of them happened on Sunday nights or Wednesday nights when we had church activities and we had no TIVO so we simply avoided them like an ex girlfriend in the lunchroom and then we'd rent the season and do our best to not move off the couch until the entire season was completed. In a side note I heard about a guy who watched all of Lost season 1 in basically one sitting.

Here's the deal, I've seen an episode of prison break. It was like 3 weeks ago but it gave me enough footing to talk about last weeks episode and know what the guy was saying. I didn't know all the details but I could follow the basic storyline.

I watched 24 a while back and hadn't seen any of the season but by the end of 1 hour I knew enough to follow along with the plot and had a pretty solid idea what Jack needed to do before the plane crashed.

My point is this:
I think we can treat scripture like a popular TV show.

I think we can sit down and read for 15 minutes and find some nugget of information and then leverage that in a conversation in such a way that we act as though we know what is going on.

Worse yet, I think we can summarize the basic point of scripture in the same way we summarize what is happening in a TV show at the cost of losing all of the little pieces of scripture that make it so beautiful and timely.

An example.

Would you summarize prison break with a sentence like "The are trying to break a dude's brother out of prison because he was wrongfully accused."?

Or a season of 24 like "Jack is trying to stop terrrorists who are going to drop a bomb over LA."

Yeah, that would be true, but you'd be missing so much that makes the show great.

I could summarize the Bible like "Jesus dies for our sin so that we can have eternal life." or some other completely lacking summary of scripture. And all the while I'd make no mention of the time my life was broken and I landed in the proverbs and it got me through. Or the way I can't read the word mercy and get lost. Or how the first time I saw a passage come to life, for the 4th time and how I wondered how I'd missed that point every other time I read it.

So for the sake of discussion and entertainment lets watch or read. But for the sake or really understanding it and having it change who we are, let's really get lost in it.

Chris Should Not Have Been Voted Off

I woke up this morning. That alone isn't that different from most days, what caught me off guard was the hour. Part of it could have been that Carter again mysteriously showed up at the foot of our bed at 0 dark 30. But it was more than that. Those types of things I can easily sleep through or at least simply roll over and go back to sleep. Not today. Not after yesterday.

I have found one of the greatest things about ministry is the days you show up to be productive not realizing God has anointed the day for more than simple productivity. Sometimes these types of days scare me, because it is clear you're not the man but He's directing you. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming to feel inspired the way Paul did when he sat down to write. I'm just saying its the day that fly's by, the meetings are more than productive and things that seem big and confusing suddenly find a peaceful clarity, something like a calming of a storm into a smooth sea. I know it is easy for Him to find peace in those moments because he can see the other side but sometimes for us we get mired in the moments and that peace is missing.

I've said before I enjoy what I do and who I work with. I really mean that. They are good, good people and yesterday was one of the most enjoyable days we've shared. And so I woke up this morning thinking. There were questions I didn't think to ask yesterday but more than that there were emails to write and phone calls to make and dates to plug into my calendar and things to finalize and pass along and....

So I'm here. I smile when people ask me how I'm doing, if I really like this ministry, if I'm as happy as I thought I'd be, if I realized what I was getting myself into.

A little over a year I got really pissed at myself. No, disappointed with a strong frustration would be more like it. I'd finally grown weary of doing good. It was time for more and that meant it had to stop being about me and stop being so dang safe.

So now I'm trying to live that out. I'm tired of admiring others for their recklessness. I'm tired of thinking of everybody else as visionary or as though they all have it together.

So for maybe the first time I'm here at 6 AM. In the quiet and early dawn I'm finding myself more awake than I've been in a long time. Coffee helps. Things bigger than caffeine help more.

And now the fun begins.....

Room for Squares

Oh the things to update you on however I have forgotten most of them.. that and you probably don't care.

I will give you a warning, this blog will probably end on a depressing note but with very good reason.

The wedding-as it is now referred to-was a true joy. So was the party. I'd like to think of myself as a detailed person, maybe a little anal at times. I like rehearsals to look as though the dude knows what is happening and the wedding party can simply learn when to move where and enjoy the moment. Mission failure. I felt so underprepared to no ones fault and yet all of it seemed to come as a teaching lesson to me to once again get over myself and then stand amazed when God's hands are all over a deal that really is all about him and what he's brought together. I think those kids have so many amazing people who spoke directly to their lives and had a huge role in who they are and they are incredibly blessed. It was fun to see and fun to share in. And we all love it when the groom cries! I shall think Everything will always take me to the same moment and I'll tell you, the last few moments with a groom before he walks out to meet his bride are my favorites. Other than that it was so good to see so many old friends and my only regret was not getting enough time to spend with all of them. Those people fill me.

I spent Monday night hanging with my fella Pete as I enjoyed my first game at the new Busch. Nice. Needs to be finished but what they have done is very nice. I admit it wasn't as awe-filled as it might have been had I not been spoiled with a sweet park in Denver. Nonetheless it was fun to watch the Rockies kick my beloved Cards butts in the new place. Top highlights for me included the dude sitting behind us who sounded like and was as funny as Dave Chapelle, booing my heart out at Ray King (who consequently sucked it up like old times) and once again wondering what the heck LaRussa does in the dugout with his pitching sucks.

And now the awkward downshift:

On a much heavier note I'd like to enlist the prayers of any readers who believe in such a thing. Many moons ago and different blog altogether had shared the heavy fact that one of my best friends from high school-Tim-had been diagnosed with cancer. I am sad to report that after a brief time of peace it is back. It is now in his lungs. His plan is to do 2 rounds of chemo and then have another surgery to try and remove the tumors. Details other than that are slim at this point but obviously I simply ask for prayers.

I Watched Prison Break Tonight

So I'm rockin' the Mountain View today. Set up today and tomorrow and then a return back to Joplin for board meetings and then up to Quincy. Other than that it's a slow week....

Saw some amazing projects for the summer. This job simply amazes me. It's hard to see houses and know we can't help them. I'm always shocked by people who are so forthcoming with their struggles, so honest about their issues and so honest about their needs.

We were at a site today and honestly it is one of those where you don't know where to start. I'd try to describe it but can't. Safest thing to say is we have a group of 30 coming that week that will work there and we're hoping they can make some type of dent.

We were looking around the house today and got all the way to the back. That's when the lady decided to let us know that her yard was a sort of, oh I don't know, farm for ticks. Ticks and chiggers. Nice.

You know how you find out stuff like that and you instantly start to itch everywhere? Like you can't get out of the situation soon enough? Like how me talking about ticks right now has you running your hands through your hair and right now you can feel something crawling on your leg? Yeah, that's us.

So back to the minivan we head and off we go to another site. That's when I find a tick on my arm. A moment later I feel another one, on my leg. After that is's my arm again. All told, I found 6. Yeah, 6. We found 3 others in the vehichle as well.

So that was my day.