Have you ever seen that saying on a church sign? “If you don’t feel close to God, guess who moved?” I’d seen it a few years ago for the first time. I thought it made sense, actually. It’s implication is that if I do not feel very close to God, then I’ve gotta get on my (figurative) horse and get closer to Him. It’s saying that I’ve done the drifting if I feel that way. And again, it made some sense to me. I think know we all have a responsibility to invest time/effort/intention in our relationship with God.

Last week my wife and I were driving and happened to see the same message on another church sign. We began talking about it and realized that this wasn’t always true. For one thing, it’s basing things on feelings. Feelings are great, but they shouldn’t be the final thing we base our relationship with God on. But also, isn’t it possible for God to pull back now and then? I mean, never will He abandon us. Never will He turn His back on us. But doesn’t he sometimes let us do a few things on our own to grow us, to teach us, to mature us? Kinda like parenting (to a degree). And ask Job about God pulling back a little bit. Do you think he knew anything about those situations?

The other night I was talking with some friends about dreams. Not dreams of the future, but the kind you have at night while you sleep. We started talking about recurring dreams, and there was one that I thought of immediately. I’ve not had this one in a while (that I remember), but it’s fairly common for me to have it.

Here’s the dream:

I’m usually at either High School or Middle School. It’s been at college before, but rarely. But at school ready to go to class. But for some reason (I don’t know why) I’ve not been in a while, a few weeks or something, and I’ve forgotten stuff. I’m not sure where my locker is. When I find it, I’ve no clue how to get into it because I’ve forgotten the combination. I can remember scattered details of my schedule like a few classes I’m taking, but not sure what class is what period. When I do make it to class, I stand in the doorway not sure where to sit. Do I sit in my old seat (where is it?) or is it now someone else’s? How has the social structure of the class changed w/o me here? Do we have homework today? Will I get to make up the work or will I get zeros for the time missed? If so, am I going to flunk? What will my teacher’s attitude be now? Was I missed?

Anybody ever had a dream like that? What sort of recurring dreams have you had?

Woo hoo! Here it is again. (Is it really worth doing these each week>)

1. How are you planning to spend the summer?
Uh, working. Of course work is a little different in the summer. Other than it being hotter I end up going on more trips because the kids are out of school.

2. What was your first summer job?
Working for a lawncare service. It was blazing hot most of the summer, but I enjoyed it except for when we didn’t really have anything to do for a few hours. If that was ever the case I was just dropped off at a clients house to pull weeds in their flower beds. But I made enough $$$ that summer to buy my first big camera. That was my goal for the summer. I made money, then spent nearly every penny of it in August. Good investment, though.

3. If you could go anywhere this summer, where would you go?
Seattle, Oregon, England, Australia, Seaside.

4. What was your worst vacation ever?
Never really had one that left a bad taste in my mouth.

5. What was your best vacation ever?
I’ve enjoyed all my trips to Panama City Beach. Not because of the area but just the trip. We were at BigStuf camps. But those weren’t vacations, really. My honeymoon to Seaside was incredible. I’d have to put it #1 right now.

For the very few of you who actually check in to see if I’ve rambled on about something…sorry about the distance between updates. I was in and out of town this weekend, then out of town Tuesday, and then just trying to catch my breath otherwise. Sleep has been another issue. I started reading some fiction books and they make me numb to sleepiness until well into the morning. But it will hit me like a rock when the alarm goes off. But it’s a Mississippi writer, Greg Iles.

Heard some great things about his books, so I dove into one. Good, quick reading. The one I read, Sleep No More, dealt with some far out principles. Thinking of starting another. But it’s really cool to see places not only mentioned but focal points in the story that I’m familiar with. I went to the library and the lady there said there was another Mississippi writer by the name of Burke that I might like too. I’ll check him out some day.

Fiction can grip me and carry me along. I’ll go through a few weeks where I’ll chew up a few books. Then I’ll not read one for a few months. I love to read. Used to read all the time. But now I don’t make the time for it like I should.

Again, to not bog down the front page…click below to continue

After finally getting my bed made after midnight I slept on a thin sheet covering a plastic mattress. I thought it would be a horrible nights sleep, but suprisingly it wasn’t so bad. The dorm room only had a sink so I had to walk down the hall for a shower. But the bathroom was empty and I was out of there pretty quickly. After a nice breakfast and a quick devotion the work gang for Voice of Calvary gathered downstairs in the parking lot. After a quick count we had all that were supposed to be there. There were 3 that wouldn’t be with us that day.

We got to the church and saw that its grouds were grown up pretty badly. Bushes had no shape except for looking like a big lump of mashed potatoes. The weeds were covered with sidewalk..but we had to make it look the other way around, then get rid of the weeds. And there was a homeless man sleeping on the front steps.

But after a short prep talk from the VoC head honchos, we break up into groups. Mowers, weed eaters, weed pullers, hedge clippers, and bust-stuff-uppers. The Bust-Stuff-Uppers were elated when they saw the sledge hammer and axe, but there was nothing for them to do, so they would hang out with the other group, the Stand-Around-With-A-Tool-And-Talkers. Eventually some of them formed a sub group that had no tools, just talked. But it was too early on the first day to do that.

It was kinda funny seeing guys who’d never mowed before have a sudden passion for it. But it was short lived. And they didn’t realize that if you go either in a back and forth motion along parrell lines or in a square that it’s much easier than running trying to make designs in the tall grass. The first guy admitted that the only mower he’d ever used was the popcorn mower toy he had when he was 3.

We also found an open door to one of the buildings. We went in and explored. But we had our selves on guard in case there was anyone in there. We did find a few makeshift beds here and there, but no people. After going up and down 3 floors, we were told that it was best not to be in there so we went back to work.

We break for lunch back at Galloway, then return for the afternoon. Mostly the same stuff. Except that another work group comes. That means more people to add to the two Talker groups. But there’s a new group that’s formed. It’s now a combo of the Bust-Stuff-Uppers (BSU) and new guys we’ll call Let’s-See-What-Kind-Of-Stuff-We-Can-Get-Into. They find open doors or windows in differnet buildings and go exploring. But they didn’t need to be in there…esp. with out an adult.

So the afternoon went pretty much like the first except for the running around inside by some people. We head back to campus for showers, rest, and then go eat supper at Galloway. Then it’s small groups, worship, then a marathon youth leaders meeting about the first day at the sites. It lasted way longer than I had attention span for, but it was needed none-the-less.

Sleep came pretty easily after doing a little reading. I read up on MediaShout because we were going to try and use it at the church the next Sunday for our new early morning worship service. Trying to go “contemporary”…we’ll see.

I must admit, I’m already getting excited about the prospects of fantasy football. My friend Sam talked about it for a few years, then he got me in a league he was in. I joined it and began my own as well. After doing pretty well in both of those leagues that first year…I’m hooked!

So it’s only a matter of time now.

Once again, the Friday Five (on time).

1. Is your hair naturally curly, wavy, or straight? Long or short?
Straight when short, but can get bushy if it gets longer.

2. How has your hair changed over your lifetime?
Seems to have gotten coarser. I probably wear it shorter than I ever have right now.

3. How do your normally wear your hair?
Short. Not buzzed (though I did shave it back in March). But I don’t have to worry with a brush or dryer or anything.

4. If you could change your hair this minute, what would it look like?
Good question. I sometimes see some cool things guys do with their hair. Doing some gel action and getting some of it to stand up and all that. But I don’t invest the time in my hair that others do. Just towel dry it and get it going the right direction with my fingers…and there you go.

5. Ever had a hair disaster? What happened?
I let my wife cut my hair once. Took her over an hour. And it wasn’t pretty.

Am I the only guy I know that’s not seen Finding Nemo now? Even my daughter has seen it…or at least most of it. She went with her grandmother, but they didn’t stay to finish the end. She got restless and couldn’t stay in her seat.

But how does Nemo compare to Monster’s Inc or Toy Story? Both were made by Pixar (just like Nemo) and I wonder if it is better or not.

Yesterday our church carried some preschoolers to the Tupelo Buffalo Park. We carried our daughter, but I wasn’t really sure if the trip was going to be fun or not. But it turned out to be much better than I expected.

Yes, they have the biggest buffalo heard east of the Mississippi. But the have a lot of other animals as well: 2 giraffes, tiger, lion, bear, some monkeys (angry monkeys, I might add), some zebras, ostriches, emus, goads, horses, ponies, a beefalo, a zebra/donkey mix, turtle, duck, some snakes and big fat lizards. Quite an assortment.

She really enjoyed feeding the goats out of the palm of her hand. They had those little machines where you put in a quarter and get out about 4 cents worth of goat chow. But the Daily Journal was there taking pictures, so they were giving free goat chow to the kids to feed the animals hoping to get a good picture. So there may be pictures of our day in the newspaper in a week or so. We’ll see.

I took some pics too, but they’re still on the camera. I’ll try to get them posted in the next day or so.