Ruth Bell Graham

"Never let it end, God
never - please -
all this growing loveliness,
all of these
brief moments of
fresh pleasure -
never let it end.
Let us always
be a little breathless
at love's beauty;
never let us
pause to reason
from a sense of duty."

Ruth Bell Graham
1920 - 2007

Procrastination Award

I've decided to honor myself with my newly minted "Procratinater's Award" sometime later next week.

A Man's Man

Now you may be wondering why I chose the title "A Man's Man" and used this picture to accompany it. I'll get to that in a minute.

The Bible you see at the left is the parallel Bible I got for Christmas (along with the J.B. Phillips translation of the New Testament in Modern English). One of the ways, I believe, to overcome the difficulties of discovering the intentions of the original authors is to read many different versions/translations of that passage. This way you get a nice overall idea of what the intention may be, rather than the focus that particular version may choose. This particular parallel Bible includes the KJV, NIV, NASB and the NLT. It really has been very helpful.

You guys know that I play bass at church. I have an assortment of audio equipment and cables that I take with me when I play. I have to be able to carry all that stuff somehow and at the time, I didn't have an extra bag to use. I started searching around the house and found the perfect bag. However, it didn't belong to me. It belonged to Kim... and it was a Jordache bag... and purple... and hot pink. But it fit the bill, and Kim wasn't using it, so...

Now you can just imagine the amount of ribbing I get from carrying around this bag. If you knew how much money I've spent over the last 5 years on my audio equipment for work, you would wonder why in the world I would continue to carry this bag now for probably 2 years. Being on the worship team can be a source of prideful imaginations, so my (Kim's) bag is kind of a humbling thing. Kind of like my cross to bear (weak, I know). But it really does keep me from thinking a little too highly of myself.

Remember that picture of the Bible above? What colors do you see in the cover? Pink and purple. Now I'm all for humbling yourself in the sight of the Lord and all, but enough is enough, right? I mean I have a wife, two daughters and a female cat. Enough estrogen already. I'm a man for crying out loud! So to soothe my macho ego, I made a book cover for my Bible - a DUCT TAPE cover, complete with a spine mounted pen holder!! I call it my manly Bible. I even wrote on the cover underneath the title - "NOT pink or purple!"

Sounds like somebody has issues, doesn't it?

"If there's anything that upsets me, it's having people say I'm sensitive."

Prayer Request

I found out today that the son of a friend of mine is in the hospital waiting for a heart transplant. His name is Eric Stahr, he's 18 years old and has had a congenital heart condition since birth. He was in the hospital last week having a heart cath put in when he had cardiac failure. Now he is in the hospital and waiting for a heart to become available. I talked to his dad, Mike, today and the whole family is doing well - Eric is especially positive through this ordeal. Please pray for Eric Stahr, for a new heart soon and for his parents, Mike and Mary Ellen. I can only imagine the range of emotions they are going through.

Motivation

Trying to find the motivation to do something is just a nobler way of saying that I'm procrastinating getting started.

Summertime

Well now that summer is here it's time for the annual garage purging. How can a garage get so messy and disorganized in one year's time? Gotta find room inside for that chest that's been sitting out there for months now. What about all that plywood in the corner for hurricane protection? I'm always wanting to add more woodworking tools, but where? When will I ever use this stuff? Gotta make some space somehow. I keep telling Kim that I want our house to move to a "just in time" inventory system. No more of this saving stuff for some later date when I might find something to use it on or with. No more! When we need it, we'll go get it. Sometimes I'd like to just throw it all away and start over.

At any rate when I look at my garage it reminds me of my mind. All the cobwebs, old shoes, dirty rags and broken tools that I call my thoughts and memories make my mind not a pretty home or refuge. It makes me think of the words to the David Wilcox song "The inside of my head".

I got such a mess between my ears
like dishes in the sink
Stuff I don't believe just tumbles in
until I don't have room to think
These dark clouds I've stowed away
just in case of a sunny day
So I can stand in the pouring rain
of every tear I've ever shed
I've got to empty out the inside of my head

This could be a room with such a view,
but its covered up with junk
Blocking off the place the light gets through
so it keeps me in this funk
All my failures are on display,
the broken dreams of yesterday
Stuff I should have thrown away,
but I've kept it here instead
I've got to empty out the inside of my head
I've got to empty out the inside of my head

Not much of a point to this - just some random thoughts as I tackle this day (and trying to find the motivation to get started on the garage). As for my head, I guess I should consider Romans 12:2.

Guess The Author

Without doing an internet search, can you guess who wrote the quote below (hint: it's my favorite author)?

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."