max (my 9 year-old) and i were sitting outside the other night, just chillin’ and chatting. after a long silence, this exchange took place…

Me: I really like spending time with you, max.

Max: me too. [grin] I really like spending time with me.

Man Replaces Wife’s Name on Gravestone With Picture of a Cow
Serbia: 58-year-old Zivomir Nesic, a farmer from Markovac, has had his wife’s name removed from their pre-ordered gravestone and replaced with a picture of a favourite bovine of his.

The change came after a massive fight with his spouse. “I always said my wife was a cow so, if I’m going to have a cow on my grave, I would rather it was one I actually liked,” said Nesic.

(ht to dave barry)

just read this in a revelant mag interview with anne lamott…

what does it mean to you be be a believer?

i have a very pathetic and innocent relationship with jesus. [the things] i’m sure about are the things the kids in church sing: that i’m loved and never alone. i am a complicated and worried person. to konw that i can just say “hi” and “i am so lost,” and he says, “hi, hon. no, you’re not. let’s breathe. get a glass of water. do you want to call a friend?” simple works for me.

here’s the link.

scot mcknight scored a 21. clearly, they’re only measuring computer nerds, or scot woulda scored much higher. there needs to be a whole new test for theology nerds.

a couple weeks ago i was tagged by stacy for an itunes shuffle meme. first 15 songs on shuffle mode (with a no cheating commandment). here’s mine:

1. alegrias, by pepe romero, from the album viva guitar, vol. 4

2. christmas time is here, by vince guaraldi, from the album greatest hits

3. over the rainbow, by ray charles and johnny mathis, from the album genius loves company

4. tears in the rain, by joe satriani, from the album the extremist

5. call me when you’re sober, by evanescence, from the album the open door

6. atmosphere, by tobymac, from the album welcome to diverse city

7. burn in hart, by danielson, from the album a prayer for every hour

8. missing link, by squirrel nut zippers, from the album bedlam ballroom

9. they came to die, by lisa gerrard, from the album whale rider soundtrack

10. say i, by creed, from the album human clay

11. can you be true?, by elvis costello, from the album north

12. da funk, by daft punk, from the album homework

13. jokerman, by bob dylan, from the album greatest hits, vol. 3

14. please don’t talk about murder while i’m eating, by ben harper, from the album both sides of the gun

15. overcoming lies, by jeff johnson, from the album a thin silence

so, there you have it! i’ll tag tash mcgill (get a little kiwi in the mix), dave palmer (ooh, a ccm exec who doesn’t listen to ccm), damien o’farrell, and christian dashiell.

here’s the perfect witnessing item for the hot summer months! toss a few of these puppies… er… duckies… in the neighbors’ pools, and in no time, they’ll be knocking down your door, begging you to lead them in the sinner’s prayer!

really, what says “the majestic gospel of jesus christ” better than a “colors of faith ducky”

truly deserving of the coveted jesus junk of the month award.

(ht to topherspoon)

seems like it’s been a month of particularly amazing reconcilliation moments for me. but this latest, which occured the other day when i was with my family, in line for tickets to nancy drew (which so completely sucked, but which my kids both loved), and i found myself in an embrace with a guy that both surprised me and brought with it a deep level of healing.

i should back up a bit.

a couple years ago i got tweaked by my understanding of the actions of two people, a married couple i knew of, but didn’t know personally. i didn’t have the whole story, but thought i had enough. and i was smokin’ ticked. so i blogged about it. i convinced myself of a few things:
1. the people i was writing about would never read my blog
2. i was righteous in my anger
3. and, i used (i told myself) uber-cryptic language, so no one would know exactly what i was talking about, even if they knew the situation.

i was completely wrong on all three counts. my “righteous anger” was only a 1/2 compound word off: it was self-righteous anger. and as that bubbling lowered to a mild simmer (my life wasn’t impacted even to a fraction of how their lives were impacted), the only thing i was really holding onto — ready? this is a seriously lame admission i’m about to make — was that my blog post didn’t need to be deleted, as it didn’t, technically, have anything inaccurate in it (actually, it had lots of inaccurate stuff, i later discovered).

a year and a half passed. and out of the blue i started getting that danged annoying nudging from god that i was supposed to seek reconciliation with these people i hardly even knew. and what became even more clear to me, as much as i tried to avoid it, was that i was being called to not defend myself even in the tiniest bit. no justification. no explanation. no “yeah, but….” no pointing out anything they had or hadn’t done.

it was hard. i don’t do that selfless thing well. i’m super-gifted at reminding people of their part in any conflict. but their hurt was so deep (mostly because of things about the story that had nothing to do with me). and it was clear that i had done nothing more than add to their pain. really add to it.

over a long coffee meeting, several months ago, they forgave me and we talked about the whole mess. really, this was the first i got to know these wonderful people a bit.

i’ve seen them in passing a few times since then, and it’s been friendly. but we haven’t had a chance to stop.

until we ran into each other in the theater ticket line the other day in the late afternoon. and, after a few nice words and greetings, just as we both turned back to face the ticket booth, the man turns back to me again and says, “you know what? i’d like to hug you.” or something like that. actually, i kinda missed the words, because i was so completely caught off guard by the beauty of the moment. right there in the ticket line in broad daylight. right in front of the ticket booth workers and a few other theater patrons.

it was one of those hugs that said thousands of words more than could have been verbally offered in a 2-minute passing moment.

i was just looking for a post from a couple years ago, and stumbled onto this moment i’d completely forgotten about. instant tears!

max dances into salvation
Tuesday October 04th 2005, 2:07 pm
Filed under: personal

this conversation took place saturday, in the hallway of the sacramento convention center, between max (my 7 year-old son) and jeannie (my wife):

max: mom? i think i want to be a christian.

jeannie: really? what do you think that means?

max: [i don’t remember his exact quote here, but something like…] i dunno, like, opening your hands to god or something?

jeannie: well, yeah, kind of. it means that you want to live your life in the way that god wants; it means that you want to be like jesus as much as you can.

max: yeah, that. i want to be that.

jeannie: then i guess you are.

max: huh?

jeannie: some people think it’s important to actually say some kind of prayer to god, but what’s really important is that you know that you want to follow jesus.

max: [starts dancing down the hall and singing, in a silly voice] i’m a christian, i’m a christian…

jeannie: would you like to say something to god about what you’re thinking?

max: [stops] yeah. [looking angelic] god? [back to silly dancing] i’m a christian, i’m a christian

riddle posted the pic, but i dug a bit more and learned that there is a world’s ugliest dog competition (here are all the competitors), which, this year, was held in petaluma, california. and, interestingly enough, the finalists were all “chinese crested” or a mix including that breed. seriously, what’s with the tongue hanging out? too strange.

so here’s to elwood — a seriously ugly dog, who seems to be very loved.

i think i’m in a blogging lull. you may have noticed that this past week or so had lots of embedded video posts, and very few posts with words i had to think about as i typed them. the embedded videos were cached up in my drafts, and i was able to simply time them to go live while i was in mexico. but now i’m back from mex and from the emergent board meeting in los angeles, and i’m sitting at my desk, and my “drafts” repository has a few post titles sitting there without any real content (mostly personal stuff). i don’t think i’m depressed or anything.

it’s just a blog lull.