personal
- Turn all my responsibilities for video and sound over to someone else. I don’t know why I even had them in the first place, other than that they loosely relate to the music aspect of the Sunday service. We need to find somebody else to be responsible for making sure the overheads with song lyrics are ready, and that someone is available to run them. It’s a stress that I don’t need on Sunday morning. My fear is that we won’t be able to find someone with a level of responsibility high enough to actually ensure that it gets done correctly.
- Drop my elder apprenticing role for now. While my gifting and desire is still to be an elder and to participate in church leadership, I’m appreciating more and more the counsel my dad gave me this summer: that while there is no real age restriction on eldership, there is a “season of life” where your time is needed elsewhere. Family responsibilities have to come first.
- Spread out the worship team leadership load. Right now I’m responsible for planning the service every week, then leading the practice and then both Sunday morning services. Every week. We have two teams of musicians/singers, but only one leader. I’ve taken maybe 3 weeks off in the past year. That’s just not enough. What I’d like to do is find someone willing to take leadership of one of the two worship teams. That way I’d only be responsible for planning and leading every-other week. I think that would be do-able.
- …a Major League Baseball umpire
- …an FBI agent
- …a US senator
- …a musician in a touring rock band
- …a proprietor of a music store
- …a crew member on a freighter or cruise ship
Christmas shopping... check.
My today didn’t go as planned. But that’s OK - it’s turned out just fine anyhow. Becky showed up on IM at 7:30 this morning (waaaay early for her) and said she was feeling poorly. It ends up she’s got this one-day stomach bug that a bunch of folks around here have had; throwing up and the whole works. So I left work about 8 to come home and take care of Laura.
Laura and I played and stuff in the morning, then she took a nap. This afternoon, we went down to Coral Ridge Mall to get out of the house and so I could start finish my Christmas shopping. I managed to pick up stuff for everybody except Becky. Laura was very good, enjoyed walking at the mall, didn’t fuss much.
Now it’s evening, and instead of going to the coffeehouse as we had planned, we’re sitting here at home watching Northern Iowa play for the D I-AA football championship. Actually, to be fair, Becky told me to go ahead and go to the coffeehouse if I wanted to, but I decided I felt like staying home instead. And now, I think I’m the only one watching the football game… I’m pretty sure she’s fallen asleep here on the couch.
Such is the exciting Friday night of this old married guy…
Just for the record...
…the new snowblower kicks butt.
I probably looked like an idiot using a 5.5 hp 2-stage snowblower to remove an inch of light snow from my driveway yesterday, but it was great. :-)
weekend update
It’s been feeling like Christmas the last couple of weeks, what with the sub-zero temps and the foot of snow we’ve gotten over the last 10 days. Tonight we got the Christmas tree put up. We’ve actually had it since Tuesday, but finally had a chance today to get it decorated and lit up. Actually, in this picture, it’s only about half-done - Becky’s still working on the tinsel, and we still have a mess of needles to clean up on the floor.
The excitement that went along with it was Laura throwing up twice. Hopefully it was just something she ate and not the stomach flu that’s going around… :-(
Tomorrow I head off to Wichita for my DER interview. If you think about it, say a prayer for me… the interview’s at 9 AM on Tuesday. I’ll let you all know how I did.
That’s all the news from the Hubbs' world, where the women are strong, the women are good-looking, and the child is definitely above average. :-)
I met the Queen of Iowa
I met the Queen of Iowa, She was dying on a couch in the suburbs. And of all the things she was dying of, She was more alive than the others…
-- Andrew Peterson, The Queen of Iowa
The Queen of Iowa is a real person. I met her this past Saturday. Her name is Jody. Her story is tragic; she contracted HIV after being assaulted fifteen years ago. Her story is also beautiful; knowing full well that she had HIV, her high school sweetheart decided to marry her anyway. That was eleven years ago. Jody is now in what appears to me to be the last stage of her life. She can’t move. She can’t talk. She can just barely communicate single letters at a time. Her husband cares for her at their home here in the Cedar Rapids area.
It also ends up that Jody is a big Andrew Peterson fan. Over a year ago, as she started going downhill, a couple of friends arranged to have Andrew and his trusty sidekick Ben Shive flown to Iowa to meet her. They came, visited, sang her some songs. Out of that experience, Andrew wrote his song The Queen of Iowa, which he then recorded on his latest album, The Far Country. It’s a good song.
Last Saturday Andrew was in town with a bunch of his musical compatriots on the Behold the Lamb Christmas tour. In the afternoon, before the concert, he wanted to make a trip out to visit Jody again and sing her the song. So I (as the driver) got to go along as he and his friends Andy and Jill (Phillips) Gullahorn went out to visit her. (The local friends who had coordinated last year’s visit were there, too.) I was not prepared, and I doubt I could have really been prepared, for the emotions and power of that visit.
To even enter their house, you have to take off your shoes and leave them in the garage. (Can’t chance tracking some germs in.) Then, you have to do a thorough hand-washing before you come into the living room. Jody was lying on the couch, wrapped in blankets. She couldn’t really move, only could turn her head a bit. But she had a smile that lit up the whole room. She was so excited to get to see Andrew again and hear his music. She had made a “set list” of requested songs she wanted to hear. So Andrew and Andy pulled out their guitars, and started at the top of the list.
I think they sang for somewhere near 40 minutes. They started with Gather ‘Round, Ye Children, Come from Behold the Lamb. It was a treat to hear that simple version: two guitars and three part harmony, all in the intimacy of a living room. Jill sang Labor of Love, also from Behold the Lamb. I doubt I’ll ever hear a more beautiful performance of that song. Words can’t really do it justice. Jill sang another song or two of hers. We were all choking up as Andrew sang Lay Me Down, which contains these poignant lines, even more meaningful in this setting:
When you lay me down to die, I’ll miss my boys, I’ll miss my girls, But lay me down And let me say goodbye to this world. When you lay me down to die, You must remember this: When you lay me down to die, You lay me down to live.
There were a few times during the visit where Jody began to cough, and her body was just wracked with pain. It was difficult to sit there and see it, knowing that there was nothing that we could do but pray and watch as her husband held her and comforted her. Then the pain would pass, and as she regained her strength her smile would come out again.
Saturday’s visit was a moving experience; one that will stick with me for a long, long time. We insulate ourselves too much from pain and death here in America. Last Saturday’s visit was a vivid reminder of that to which I assent but often forget: that life is short, that death will reach us all, but death is not the end.
Parting is the price, it is the price that I must pay To harbor far beyond the Havens Grey.
-- Andrew Peterson, The Havens Grey
ok, so I'm a little bit excited...
Tomorrow the Andrew Peterson Behold the Lamb Christmas tour is hitting Cedar Rapids! I couldn’t believe it when I first heard about it months ago, and I’m still a bit in awe of the fact that Andrew Peterson, Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken, Andrew Osenga, Jill Phillips, and some others will all be in concert on stage less than 3 miles from my house. (Only 1 block away from the previous place we lived!)
In addition to just going to the concert, I’ve volunteered to help out for the day. I’m showing up at 10 AM when the truck shows up, and then will be the “runner” for the day. This will include taking all the aforementioned musical types to their hotel, to the house where they’re eating dinner, etc. I think it’ll be pretty cool.
I’m also looking forward to just getting to meet some of them; I’ve met the Andys before (Peterson and Osenga), but haven’t met Derek or Sandra. I hope it’ll be as cool as I think it will be…. if not, at least I’ll get to see the concert, and that’ll be great in itself. I’ll try to post some pictures or something next week.
the blessings of a holiday
This holiday weekend we have left Iowa and headed to Wisconsin to visit my family. Thanksgiving with family is a great time; we have all of our traditional things to eat, games that we play, stories that get (re)told, time spent together. It is a blessing.
Last year when we came for Thanksgiving, Laura was just a 4-month-old baby. Now she’s walking, talking, and generally the center of all our attention. Amazing.
The rest of the family is doing well, too. Ryan generally works long hours and is very busy, which means that when he comes home he sleeps a lot. It’s good for him. He’s so darn funny, too… he keeps us in stitches most of the time. Last night as we were playing cards he made some slightly off-color comment; then he excused himself by noting that he has roomed with guys for the past several years, and, he said “we don’t just push the envelope - the envelope is opened, soiled, and returned to sender!” OK, maybe it’s not so funny in print, but last night we about had to stop our card game we were laughing so hard.
Aaron is the only one that isn’t here; he’s still in Panama working with YWAM. We miss him a lot. He called yesterday for about an hour so we all got to talk to him. He’ll be back home for Christmas - hooray! It also sounds like he’s planning on moving back to the States come next summer. It would be great to have him closer again.
We’re about to head in to Madison to do some shopping. I know, we’re crazy, but we all start to go a bit stir-crazy after being here at the house for a day and a half, so it’s time to go out. Andrew had to work this morning at the lumberyard, but he’ll meet us there once he gets off around noon. I doubt we’ll even buy that much - maybe a new shirt, or a CD, or something in that vein. Mostly it’s the chance to be out and around as a family. Holidays like this remind me that my family is the biggest blessing of all.
it's basketball time...
My first basketball league of the season starts tonight. I’m really looking forward to it. I know my shooting touch will be rusty; I haven’t handled a basketball in months. But it will be good to get out there and run. I’m the captain of a team in the rec center league this year. I tried to just get on a team at the last minute; the league coordinator sent me the names of several other people with the same plight and so we formed a team. I haven’t met any of them. We haven’t practiced. But tonight, at 5:55 CST, we will step onto the court and play our first game. Good times.
It's cold and grey outside...
…and I had been planning on doing yard work. I did a little bit this morning (ran the mower on the front yard and filled up five and a half yard bags with leaves and such) but then it got nasty outside and Becky had a church event so I got to watch the kiddo for a while.
Since it’s not so nice to work outside (and since Becky has my long extension cord at church, so I can’t run the leaf blower), and since Laura is taking a nice nap, I decided it was a nice time to give the blog a facelift and watch football. So, Clemson is on TV beating Florida State, and I’m on the couch with the laptop working on the blog. Actually, it’s about done for now.
I like lots of things about this theme. I think it’s a big improvement over the old one. It was created by Clemens Orth, found by Google, and tweaked by me. The only thing I’m not totally happy with at the moment is the font on the header graphic… it could be better. Maybe when I have some more time to be patient with photoshop, I’ll give it another try.
feeling young
Last night we had a neighborhood potluck dinner, organized by our next-door neighbors. It was a bit chilly outside, but fun to go to something like this where you only have to walk five houses down to get there.
I like the idea of community in the neighborhood. I’m not very good at it, though. Mostly, I’m just not so good at being sociable. Let me clarify. It’s easy for me to be sociable around folks I already know, and it’s easy for me to carry on a conversation with people who are driving the conversation, but stick me with somebody as quiet as I am, and it gets uncomfortable pretty quickly. I’m still learning how to ask the right questions, stuff like that. But over all, it went OK last night. The folks are friendly.
My other observation about the neighborhood folks, though: they’re old. With the exception of our next-door neighbors, who are in their mid-40’s, everybody else there was retired. Many of them long-retired. One of them was telling me that he was recovering from a stroke, and then about his son (or was it a nephew?) that was also recovering from a stroke. “He was really young, too…” the guy told me; “only 60!” I felt very young right about then.
After about 90 minutes and far too much food, everybody wandered off back to their own homes. Laura held my hand and walked all the way back home by herself. She was pretty tired when she got back. But I’m sure it won’t be long until she’s running the whole way ahead of me. Now that makes me feel old.
and he lifts up his arms in a blessing for being born again...
Last week Becky and I were able to leave Laura with my folks and take a couple days of vacation up to Door County, Wisconsin. We’d never been there before, but had heard that the scenery was terrific. We weren’t disappointed. We knew it was going to be dicey as to whether the leaves would still be on the trees at that date, (hey, we’re cheap, we didn’t want to pay peak-season rates for the hotel) but we figured it was worth a try.
Simply put, the scenery was magnificent. We drove down more little roads that were covered by archways of red and gold than I can recall to count. The weather was beautiful, even on the last day when it was raining. We had a very refreshing time, relaxing and taking in all the little towns: Egg Harbor, Fish Creek, Sister Bay, Bailey’s Harbor, and some little places whose names have slipped my mind by now.
Friday night we ate at a restaurant that had live jazz all evening. Saturday morning we had pecan rolls at a bakery/restaurant that were “hailed as the best pecan rolls in Wisconsin”. They weren’t kidding. Door County has no chain restaurants or hotels any place north of Sturgeon Bay. It was refreshing to be able to choose between a bunch of unique cafes, restaurants, and supper clubs, rather than asking myself “so is it Subway, McDonalds, or Applebees tonight?”.
Two establishments particularly caught my eye on the trip; sadly, I only got a picture of one of them: The Pudgy Seagull Restaurant. (I’ll post the picture ASAP.) The other was for somebody’s “Ho-Made” bakery items. For that special personal touch in baking… OK, I won’t go there.
So it was a great weekend. It was no fun to wake up this morning and realize it was Monday and that meant I had to go back to work…. but it was at least nice to be well-rested while doing it. :-)
priorities of time
I wrestled in an earlier post with issues of time and busyness. I’m still wrestling with it. I think I’m making progress this time… maybe. Becky and I have talked about things quite a lot. She’s supportive (no suprise there) of my desires to get the schedule cleaned off and getting my time priorities changed, and she’ll help keep reminding me so that I don’t just forget about it after a while and drift back to the same old way of doing things.
My “ideal situation” right now is still what I mentioned before: I’d like to just dump everything church-related for a while and see how my schedule settles out. Then I could slowly put it back together the right way, and see how much time I have to do church-related things.
Let me reiterate here that I’m not trying to get out of church responsibilities; I just need to act on what I’ve recognized: that the church can make do without me for a while, but my family can’t.
I don’t think my “ideal situation” is going to happen - it’s just not fair to everybody at church. I think there’d be too many hard feelings and misunderstandings to make it comfortable to continue attending if I just totally dropped my responsibilities there. So I need to find a tolerable compromise. One has suggested itself here recently that just might work.
I’ve put these plans of abdication on hold for a week or two since I promised my pastor (who is also a good friend and has really been my mentor for the past several years) that I wouldn’t make a decision without discussing it with him again, and he’s on a well-deserved vacation to Florida until the end of this week. We discussed it on the phone back before he left; he expressed his desire to talk it over so he could give me some “objective” advice. I laughed out loud. I hope I didn’t offend him. Good advice he will have in abundance. Objective? Not for a minute. He has a stake in this as well; if I dropped everything musically at the church it would have a big impact on Sunday worship services. I know it sounds conceited, but, sadly, it’s true.
What I need to hear him say is this: “I don’t want you to leave things totally. I think there are ways you can reduce your responsibilities without dropping everything. But, if you think it’s what God is calling you to do, then I will support you on that.” I think I will hear it, but I haven’t heard it yet.
I will be continuing to pray for God’s leading in this area. I need wisdom. And Lord, if You want to just send a couple good worship leaders to Noelridge, that would be fine with me, too. :-)
it's a Monday...
…and stuff is a bit crazy here at work. Fortunately for me, I’m taking vacation this afternoon to help a friend move, and then Wednesday afternoon through Friday as we take a short vacation to Door County, Wisconsin. It should be beautiful this time of year - most of the leaves should still be around. I’ll have to post some pictures once we get back.
[end of random thoughts]
I'm full!
I was remembering those Taco Bell ads the other day - the ones where a guy eats a burrito or something, and then comes out and reports in the glorious celebration “I’m full!” And everybody cheers. And it got me to thinking. Why is it that they think they need to celebrate being full?
I struggle off and on with being frustrated with my weight. I have a desk job, and I don’t exercise much, and so I’ve battled “the bulge” for several years now. And as I got to thinking about it the other day, I was trying to remember the last time I really felt hungry. Typically what happens is that I eat my meals with largeish portions at regular times, (the family’s gotta run on a schedule, after all), and I eat so much that I’m never really hungry - I’m just eating because I’m not too full and hey, it’s time to eat.
So the last few days I’ve been making a bigger effort to eat less, and to enjoy the feeling of being hungry between meals. It’s a little different, but it feels good. Now if I could just couple it with some exercise, maybe I’d be getting somewhere…
So forget about all those Taco Bell commercials. You don’t really buy their food, anyway…. you just rent it for a while. :-) My new cause for celebration: I’m hungry!
a general arrrrrgh... and then woohoo!
I’ll come up with a more thoughtful post one of these days, I promise. But for now, more boring information! :-)
I’ve been trying to get ahold of a wireless USB adapter that will work with my Tivo so I can transfer programs onto my PC.
Step 1: I went out and bought some wireless adapter at random from Walmart. Oops. Bad idea. Tivo doesn’t support very many adapters. Took that one back and got a refund. Arrrrrgh.
Step 2: Researched carefully, bought a WUSB12 that the online forums assured me would work fine. Got it online, it arrived via Fedex yesterday. It didn’t work. It ends up that certain versions of a WUSB12 will work with Tivo… but there wasn’t any version info avalilable on the online store. Arrrrgh.
Step 2.1: Figured I’d need to return this one as well, requested an RMA number.
Step 2.2: Realized that maybe I could sell it here instead to get out of the “store credit” hassle.
Step 2.3: Listed it on the buy/sell newsgroup here at work this morning. Sold it within 1 hour. After I send in for the rebate on this puppy, I’ll actually be a few bucks ahead. Woohoo!
Step 3: Go to a local store and purchase one that I can check the model/serial/version number on before I buy it, or, at least, that I have the ability to return locally if it doesn’t work. No time to do this tonight, but tomorrow, maybe.
That’s all for today’s episode. Tune in tomorrow when Chris goes to BestBuy and asks, “hey buddy, ya got a D-Link DWL-G122?”
in another life, I would like to be...
I keep a little running list of things I’d like to do if I had another life to live. Not that I’m complaining about my life now - it’s great and right where God wants me. But this is still a fun little list to keep. Feel free to add your own!
In another life, I would like to be…
I’ll add more later when I think of them.
my blog is boring
Becky was bored the other day and reading over some blogs (something she doesn’t do very often), and after about an hour she informed my that my blog is boring. While other folks (my siblings and friends) tend to write about their feelings, what’s going on in their lives, what they’re learning, deep stuff, my posts tend to be more “informational”.
I thought about it a bit and agreed with her; because I tend to post quickly, my posts end up being short bits of information, updates on my life, and occasionally reviews of things I’ve heard or read. You find precious little in the way of soul-searching or philosophizing. I’m not sure if it’s because I don’t do those things enough in the rest of my life, or if I just don’t get them transferred to my blog with much regularity.
In my defense, I did point out to her that blogging styles differ greatly depending on the person; I gave her for reference Geof’s more terse, informational style, Kari’s writings on life (and her book reviews), and Michaela’s picturesque essays. I don’t think she read them; she had to go do something else. She did remark, though, on how my being able to reference, from the top of my head, several other blogs for examples just made me even geekier. I suppose she’s right.
Also in my defense, I noted that when I extra time to just sit and write, my writing style changes. Reference a post from the pastor’s conference this summer. She acknowledged that this was true, and that I don’t have much time to write. Of course, then last night after I’d spent 45 minutes catching up on my blog reading while we were watching football, she remarked that if I hadn’t spent all that time catching up on other people (most of whom I’ve never met), I’d have had time to write some stuff myself. Probably true, but I just wasn’t ready to write last night. Reading was good.
So I guess from time to time I should try to make my blog more “interesting”. In the mean time, bear with my “informational” style. :-) Hey, if anything, a blog should represent the personality of the person behind it… and mine does. Good enough for me.
the sweet relief of work completed
Last week was killer. I had soooo much to do. I’ve talked about this already so I won’t go on and on again.
It all went really well. The wedding was beautiful. The music worked out just fine, and the song that I was singing (and had never sung before) was right in my comfortable singing range. All good.
Saturday night after the wedding, my brothers and I went over to the church and worked up our worship set for the Sunday service. After we got that together, it degenerated into a Caedmon’s Call/Derek Webb jam session… good times.
Sunday morning the music went well; it was nice to have a strong lead guitar…. way to go Andrew!
Then came the sermon. I hadn’t prepared quite as much as I would’ve liked, but the message got out anyway. It’s a funny thing; you preach a sermon, and then the first 5 people that come up to you all say things like “hey, you made me think of [this point] or [that point]”, and I’m standing there thinking, “wow, those are good points, how did I miss those?” But then I recognize and appreciate that God used my words to speak in specific ways to specific people, even if it wasn’t what I thought I was going to teach them. Praise the Lord!
My family all took off for their respective homes after lunch on Sunday. After a short trip to the local sweet corn festival, it was time to come home and crash. The Cubs and the Cardinals were the Sunday night game on ESPN, and the Cubbies found a way to win the game! I can’t make sense of how they can drop 8 in a row, including getting swept by the Reds, but then can take 3 out of 4 against the league-leaders… but it was a fun game to watch, a nice way to end the weekend.
Next weekend we’re going to Wisconsin to visit the family again (gotta take the chances to see Aaron while he’s in-country), and I’ve just about got everything taken care of. I still haven’t managed to get ahold of the replacement pianist yet for Sunday… two e-mails and a phone message, and still no response. I hope she’s in town…
a busy weekend
I haven’t posted much this week… it’s been just a bit on the busy side. There’s been plenty to do at work, which means little boredom or free time, and the evenings have been just crazy.
This afternoon my family is coming to visit, which I’m very excited about - I haven’t seen my brother Aaron since Christmas since he’s been in Panama doing missions work. They’ll be staying all weekend.
Tonight I have a wedding rehearsal for a friend; I’m playing the piano and singing. Last night I had to write a transcription of a song that she wants played that there’s no sheet music for. It’s an instrumental from the soundtrack to the movie Love Actually. It’s a nice little instrumental, not too tough. Still, extra hassle having to transcribe. I just don’t trust my memory enough to do it without some music.
Saturday is the wedding, and I also need to get music together with my brothers for leading worship on Sunday. Still not sure what we’re going to do, but I’ll try to get a couple of them involved.
Sunday I’m not only leading worship, but also filling the pulpit since the pastor’s on vacation. This’ll be my third time preaching a full sermon, so I’m not really worried about it, but it’s just another thing I have to try to stuff into my brain so that I’m not just totally reading it off of the page. The sermon is going to be from 2 Thess 1:11-12, if you’re really interested.
I think by Sunday night I’ll be ready to collapse. About my only remaining task after that is to ensure I have a musician lined up for next week’s worship, since I’ll be taking the week off. I can’t wait…
the great escape act
I haven’t written many (any?) posts on my first year’s worth of experience as a parent… not sure why. But there was one little episode tonight that was too funny.
I was sitting at the dining room table, eating a late supper - a Whopper and fries from Burger King (yum yum). Laura was sitting under the table near my chair, begging french fries. I noticed as she was sitting there that there was a diaper sitting next to her on the floor; I assumed that it was one that she had pulled out of the diaper bag during one of her usual unload-the-whole-bag-on-the-floor sessions. So, I think nothing of it.
A few minutes later, we’re about ready to go for a walk. Becky asked me how her diaper was, if she needed changed before the walk or not. So I reach down to feel her diaper…. and, lo and behold, she doesn’t have a diaper on. Somehow, while wearing a shirt and overall shorts, she managed to get her diaper off and out of her clothes. I wish *I* were that coordinated. :-) She was having a great time, very comfortable. Thankfully we caught it in time, so there were no puddles (or worse) to clean up.
Just another adventure in parenting.
a busy week...
This upcoming week is gonna be a hum-dinger. Tonight is softball, first umping, then playing. Tuesday night is a church leadership meeting. Wednesday night is worship team. (Note to self: gotta get WT reorganization plans going.) Thursday night Mark Smiley is coming over for dinner. Friday night my folks, brothers, sister, and friend come to visit for the weekend and celebrate Laura’s birthday. They stay until Sunday night, and then Monday I take off to Norfolk, VA, for the DER conference. Maybe I can get some rest there… :-)