The Amory Railroad Festival isn’t quite in full swing, but the FUMC Food Booth…aka The Chicken Coop is becoming a time sucker. I’m away for just a little bit, but about to head back up there. It’s fun, but sometimes it seems there’s not much going on and I’m expected to just sit there…other times it’s slammed packed w/ activity and it’s not so bad then.

We told a lot of people at the church yesterday about the pregnancy. We’re excited, but some of the girls at church were screaming and jumping up and down and looking like they were about to cry. It’s good to feel appreciated, I reckon.

Gotta dress the kid in some warm clothes for the night and head back up there.

1. What do you do for a living?
Work at a local church at the Youth Minister

2. What do you like most about your job?
Being about to see changes in a kid’s life because of their relationship with God.

3. What do you like least about your job?
Church politics. I know, shocker…but they do exist.

4. When you have a bad day at work it’s usually because _____…
I’ve let things affect my attitude. If someone’s being crappy, I shouldn’t let it bother me. Either that or I don’t realize it til the end of the day, but my time management has sucked and I got absolutely nothing done that day.

5. What other career(s) are you interested in?
Working for Habitat for Humanity building houses. Or web design…though I’d have to do a lot of learning first for both.

I have a daughter. She’s two. This will be her third Easter. Why does every woman think they have to have a new Easter dress every year? Why does every woman think a two year old kid needs a new Easter dress every year?

I smell a conspiracy!

Tonight was the Maundy Thursday service at our church. To be honest, I really wasn’t that pumped about going. Wife was gone to work, still needed to drum up something for supper for me and The Kid. Needed to feed the dogs and let the go out. But being an employee of the church…kinda makes you need to be there.

But as I sat and listened to the scriptures from Luke and John being read….the scriptures of the Last Supper and the final night before Jesus was taken to the cross, I was taken back about 18 or 19 years. I think it was on the same night, the night before Good Friday. A church in town was having a little lockin or gathering of some sort for their kids. A friend invited me. I didn’t really know what to expect. I think I was in either 5th or 6th grade. I knew we would probably stay up and goof off and have fun, but I was told there would be a devotional time…whatever that was. My mom said that we’d read some in the Bible about what happened before Jesus was crucified. I was more interested in packing my sleeping bag and some cool stuff to take (lots and lots and LOTS of rubber bands).

But I got all my stuff together early and I had about 30 minutes to kill before my friend Drew’s dad came to pick me up in their truck. So I sat on my couch in our den. I had my stuff and on top was my little Bible that my own church had given me. I was a big reader, but hadn’t really read the Bible much except for trying to find some of the cool stories like David and Goliath or Noah’s Ark. But I figured since I had a little time to kill, I’d brush up a little on what I figured some adult would read to me later that night.

To be honest, it was probably the first time in my life I’d sat down to read something from the Bible. I don’t really remember how I found it, or in what book of the Gospel it was…but it grabbed me. It grabbed me in a really firm grip. I began reading and kept on going. I read about the Passover, of Jesus and His last night, of His disciples and Him giving the bread to someone and telling him to go turn Him in. I read through the beatings and the killing…I read til I heard a horn honk. Then I closed my Bible and gathered my stuff and ran outside.

Later that night I smiled with pride when I could answer all the questions the adult asked about Jesus and his last few hours (I’d just read about it a few hours ago myself….but dang that pride). And I goofed off and lost more sleep than I needed too that night. I used those rubber bands to shoot paper-clips at people too. But the most memorable time of that night was on my couch in my den. That was when I conciously began a journey with Christ, even though I didn’t pray to receive Him as my Savior until a few years later. He did something within me that night on that couch.

If I’m honest I have to say that I don’t read the Bible like I should. I wish it would grab me in a firm grip and never let me go. But I know in my head AND heart that there are many riches held within it if I would just go digging…. I need a childlike faith again. A newness…a freshness. The Sunday School answers come out too easily these days, it seems.

Lord Jesus, give me a passion and a hunger for You and You alone!

We test drove a new vehicle last night/this morning. Actually got to take it home and park it in my driveway. It was nice, not 100% what we wanted, but close. Price was w/in range, but maybe not where we wanted it for what we would be getting. It was in the ballpark, but we took it back to look around the rest of the ballpark.

But it amazed me how easy it would have been to be dishonest and drive the sucker to Oregon. They didn’t know from Cooter Brown. They ran a copy of my DL and got my phone number…that’s it, then let me drive off with the car. Man…if I wasn’t so honest, I could have … well. Not that it was a temptation at all, but you know.

Things are fairly laid back right now…but I know I shouldn’t let it fool me. This weekend is Easter. It will be busy. There’s an Easter Egg hung on Saturday that my wife is in charge of. Then Easter day will be busy. Church then stuff with the family. But next week is the kicker. We will have preparations getting ready for the RailRoad Festival. It’s the local festival where tons of people w/ nothing to do and redneck tendencies come to our small town. Many churches put up food booths and try to make a little money. We are one of those churches. And it just sucks the time out of the week.

I’ve thought about getting a hotel room or something, that way my wife can pretend that I’m out of town. It seems that I spend about that much time away from home (even though I’m still in town) during this week. It can be fun, but it can be a bit of a drag too. And even though I’m up there a lot, sometimes I wonder how much I’m really doing…

I can’t figure out smokers. I grew up in a home where a parent smoked. I hated it. And I think my nose got desensitised to it a little bit. The worst thing was to go to school and have a teacher or friend ask me if I’d been smoking or something because of how my clothes smelled. I remember when I was about 4 or 5 and it was really cold out. I was riding in the car w/ my mom. My mind didn’t yet understand the science behind hot/cold air and condensation. My warm breath in the car came out in a smokey vapor. It made me mad and I told my mom, “See, I’ve been around you too long when you’re smoking! Now I’m breathing smoke out of my mouth too!”

The Wife works at the Sports and Wellness Center at the local hospital. I was going up there to get her to sign some papers for the closing on our new house mortgage (we re-fied at 2.25% less on our rate! Woo Hoo!) and I passed by the local clinic on the way. I noticed a few nurses standing outside one of the side doors puffing away. And I thought, “Nurses….smoking. Do they not see that it’s unhealthy? My mom used to work at that clinic in one of the offices and I know that the nurses’ kitchen would always have a gaggle of nurses sucking down their nicotine before they had to go stick a kid w/ a shot. I just thought that people in the medical profession would refrain from smoking..guess it makes too much sense.

So then I pull into the parking lot of the Wellness Center. I park and crawl out of the car (that’s another story in itself….more coming later) and I notice a woman walking to the front door puffing away. She stops and stand by the door taking deep drags on her cig before she goes in to work out. Sheesh…I just don’t understand it.

When I first heard of Jack Black, I thought they were talking about Frank Black, the guy who used to sing with The Pixies and then did so solo stuff as well. But Jack Black has been in a variety of movies, some serious, some … well … not so serious.

I watched School Of Rock over Spring Break. Pretty funny. A role just ripe (and right) for him and his style. But it seems that he’s going to shift gears a little bit because he’s been cast in Peter Jackson’s (of Lord of the Rings infamy) remake of King Kong.

This should be interesting….(and no, he’s not playing the big ape.)

I’ve seen this a few places, but thought it was cool enough to regurgitate.

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the first and last ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can still raed it wouthit porbelm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Is that cool or what???