dan thompson
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notebooked
| I'm usually not into chick flicks. At the same time, I consider myself a sensitive guy. I'm finishing up one of my graduate classes on marriage counseling. My coursework requires me to choose two movies with a strong marital theme and extract concepts and thoughts that could be used in the counseling setting. I briefly considered t The Incredibles would be a good start ... Ala, "Baby! Where's my super suit!" I needed something more though ... As I flipped through our dvd collection at the house to work on movie #2, I found the "chick flick" section. You know the one. Movies that you leave for your wife to watch when you're stuck working late. Or movies to watch when you're stuck in the dog house and need to have some "together" time. Movies that most men would never confess to watching alone. And there it was. The consummate ineedatishoo chick flick right there next to Beaches...... The Notebook. I asked Lara if she wanted to watch it with me (cause men don't watch chick flicks alone). She said she wasn't in the mood to cry. |
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| I was stuck. For God and country. I decided to take one for the team. I would have to watch a chick flick alone. And so I fire up the laptop and plug in the speakers and sit back in my chair with my own notebook to extract the concepts and ideas I would write about in my paper. I mustered all the manliness that I could and settled in, determined not to let this flick get to me. I should have known better. I fell in love with Lara 19 years ago. And I never imagined in my wildest dreams that my capacity to love her would increase over the years. The Notebook made me weep like a baby. I couldn't hold it together. Especially when Lara walks in the room right when the movie ends. There was no hiding it. I was caught in a non-manly moment. I had been Notebooked. Serving God and growing old with the woman who I pledged to honor, cherish and love is a holy privilege. My love for Lara welled over in my heart and in my eyes. In all it's sappiness, this movie reminded me that love is a choice. It's intentional. It requires effort. And marriage is like a triangle with God at the top and the man and woman at each corner. The closer the couple draws closer to God the closer they draw to each other. It's all about priorities and remembering our first love, God; and the gift that our spouses are to us. May I always keep God first. Lara second. Our children third. Church fourth. and Me fifth. I think we should all be Notebooked now and then. Ineedatishoo. | |
i spy
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Furniture shopping is different than other kinds of shopping. Besides being one of the only places where you can lay down while shopping, it is surprisingly tiring. I am amazed about how sore my thighs get from these outings. It must be becuase I'm doing squats for a few hours to some eclectic music overhead while you're trying not to snag my cell phone on the latest micro-fiber upholstery... I can't possibly be that I'm tired simply because I'm out of shape... |
| At the same time, there is the oddity of having someone following Lara & I and the kids around the ginormous store. Maybe you've met him... Joe Bifrumeenow. And he won't leave us alone. He hovers. And watches us intently. And then tries to answer questions we're not asking. And then we ditch him around the corner by the buffets and china cabinets. All is well. And we're left alone. Just me and my family. Doing squats. Up and down on forty-three different couches. We're doing the "Tooshy Test"; testing the furniture for comfort and lower-back support. Occasionally we find the recliner and stretch out while making silly noises of utter relaxation and contentment. I convince the kids that I'm "resting" my eyes for a few moments. We even play a quick game of "I Spy". I see something "black". And it takes my youngest a few minutes to realize that Dad's spying the inside of his eyelids.... After standing up, I notice something out of the corner of my eye. It's him. Joe Bifrumeenow. And he's watching us from across the showroom floor. And then we lock eyes. He makes his move to come "check on us". We thank him and shuffle out the front door into the blustery puffy cloud day. My thighs hurt and I'm tired. I think I'll go home and test out the living room sofa and play another round of "I Spy"... | |
multi-tasking
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Learning about God (listening) is good. | |
stain magnet
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It's been a family joke for years that my brother-in-law will manage to paint his shirt with whatever he happens to be eating. At the same time, I can't seem to wear a white shirt without a blob of coffee finding it's way on to the center of my shirt. I've also ruined a few dress shirts by putting my pen in my shirt pocket without putting the cap back on. That was painful. I'm a stain magnet. I admit it. This morning I pulled out one of our ginormous coffee cups. It was the Mickey Mouse mug we paid too much for at one of the 137 gift shops at the Magic Kingdom in Orlando in 2005. And then we realized that we were out of half-and-half and that the 2% milk just won't do. But then, that's what ice cream is for. It makes for a great clutch play for a decadent coffee experience. And so Lara dropped a scoop of the ice cream into the empty cup and poured the piping hot freshly ground and brewed Starbucks Gold Coast over the top as the coffee became nice and foamy with a slight blob of ice cream that hadn't fully melted yet. |
| I sit down in the living room while the music is playing; the children are playing "elephant" with some over sized blankets over their bodies as they crawl around the floor crashing into each other giggling. I go for my first sip of the decadent coffee with the ice cream blob floating in the middle and then it happened. My soul patch caught the ice cream blob and my white shirt I had just spent 20 minutes ironing caught the Gold Coast. Lara laughed at me as I raced in to the kitchen to grab some paper towels. Of course my only option was to grab that last little piece of paper towel that is glued to the brown tube ... I'm a stain magnet. It's that simple. I just can't get away from it. It's actually the same with our life. People are stain magnets. We have the stain of sin finding it's way on to us all the time. What's awesome as that Jesus washes away our sin. He doesn't cover it up. He washes that stain away. In fact, He makes us whiter than snow. He took on the stain of sin for all of us and actually became sin for us. Only Jesus can deal with the stain of sin in our life. Through faith and belief in Jesus we can receive the free gift of "stain removal". I decided not to change shirts today. I needed to be reminded of how awesome Jesus is and how un-awesome I am. Stains (sin) will always find me. I'm a stain magnet. At the same time, Jesus will always clean me ... When I ask Him (becuase I'm sorry I grieved Him and not simply becuase I got caught or stuck in a bad situation) and allow Him to (when I fully surrender my sin to Him and let Him clean me up without trying to clean my self up.) | |
outside the wake
| I remember going out on my grandparent’s 12-person boat on Black Lake There are the great memories of learning to water ski (thumbs up to go faster, thumbs down to go slower) and tying my swim trunks extra tight to avoid any mishaps when I fell. My favorite place to water ski was outside the wake of the boat. It was always calmer and smoother outside the wake. The challenge was always breaking over the crest of the wake to get there. Usually, that’s exactly when I would wipe out. |
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Getting out of the rough waters of the boat’s wake required going over the biggest rough spot of all before going into the “promised land” of the smooth glass-like waters outside the wake. | |
girly soap
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I have a thing about smells. Especially when it's me. Ever since I received that first bottle of Avon cologne in 6th grade from my Grandma Thompson, I've been all over smelling good. In fact, my dresser is a hall of fame of men's cologne. A little dab'll do ya. Right? But then there's the soap factor. I like a good soap that won't ex foliate every layer of skin in one use; usually bar soap. The problem with bar soap is that after two weeks or so, it becomes the size of an oblong penny. Much like the penny crunchers at the mall that you can grind flat or that piece of silly putty that gets hard after sitting out on the table all night. |
| I try to use that bar to the very end. And then it cracks in half and I have to fuse them back together to get a good lather on the washcloth. It's like a hard taco shell that breaks right down the middle. It's a button for me; a nerve-ending connected directly to the irritation gland in the middle of my head. Broken soap and cracked tacos are small stuff that I seem to sweat. The other morning, that little remnant was completely unusable, and I had a choice to make. To use Lara's girly-soap or not to. It's that girly liquid soap in a pink squeezable bottle that smells like mangos and tulips on the kitchen window sill in spring time. The other day, I decided that desperate times required desperate measures... So I used the girly-soap. I was out of my man-soap and had to smell like a girl all day. The good news is that I didn't have tacos for dinner. | |
bad boys
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| There is a certain "feeling" that comes over your entire person when you see flashing lights in your rear view mirror. It's that numb kind of "aw man, I can't believe he got me. Where was he hiding at ...." And then there's the classic question the police officer asks ... "Do you know why I pulled you over?" It's just like when Dad & Mom would call me upstairs from my bedroom when I was a kid. I was certain I was busted. I just wasn't certain exactly for "what" I was busted for. And so I start searching my mind for all of the stuff that I could possibly get in trouble for. "Do you know why I pulled you over?" (All I could hear in my head was, "Bad boys, bad boys. Whatcha gonna do when they come for you. Bad boys. Bad boys ...") Hmm. I wanted to say something like, "Well officer, is it for my broken tail lights, my tags bungee-corded to the rear panel, my cracked windshield from the dump truck on the highway this morning, the styrofoam peanuts that were blowing out of my window for the last 3.7 miles around suburbia, the stop sign I just rolled through or the illegal lane movement I just made while trying to sip my piping hot Starbucks?" Instead, I said what every good law-abiding citizen says. "No sir. Would you be kind enough to share with me exactly what obscure Maryland law I just flagrantly violated before I file a Clergy Harassment report." He said, "Your Maryland emissions expired last June. You should have received something in the mail last summer as a reminder." "Really? How on earth did you learn that?" "Mr. Thompson, I didn't have anything to do so I ran your plates while toodeling along behind you while you were singing that one Toad the Wet Sprocket song from 1992. Can I see your license and insurance?" Nice. The pastor is two blocks from his house on the way home from work and sitting on a residential street as the entire neighborhood gathers on their front porches to see what the squad car lights are all about. I wanted to get out of the General Ki and explain to everyone that I wasn't really a bad person and that I really didn't have black smoke coming out of my tail pipes. I wanted to explain that I received my Maryland State Vehicle Inspection in February of last year to get my plates and didn't realize that I still had to have another part of my vehicle inspected four months later. In Indiana, you couldn't get your plates without a current emissions test.... The moms and dads on the front porches covered the eyes of their children and sent them inside to finish diner while the Bad Pastor got it. I thanked the officer for the warning. And drove the remaining two blocks to our house. That "numb" feeling didn't go away for about an hour. Then I got to go back to church and teach class ... Lara & I switched cars today while she has the General Ki emissions testing completed and up to date. Now if I could only get the cracked windshield fixed ... Bad boys. Bad boys. |
BE the church
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Attending church doesn't require much effort beyond the motivation to roll out of bed and into a building. What if we stopped attending church ... ... and started being the church.
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It’s a “roll-your-sleeves-up” approach where folks do something sacrificial and servant-minded. When Jesus washed the feet of His closest followers He gave them this directive… Go and do likewise.
What does it look like to personally serve God? What does it look like to personally serve other people? Is my "serve" sacrificial?
Neighborhood redevelopment (i.e. painting run-down houses, cleaning up empty lots, painting over graffiti) Grant-a-wish” service projects for needy families in the church Adopt-a-room or apartment for an elderly or needy person Special delivery care packages Senior service projects Disaster relief kits Blanket or sock drive for the homeless Car clinic Computer clinic Health & Wellness Fair Art fair “Adopt” a public school with school supply kits Professional clothing drive for job seekers Baby showers for pregnancy clinic. Invite teenage girls to shop for free formal dresses donated by church members Community clean-up of a park or beach, followed by a picnic lunch for everyone there Let local firefighters know how much we appreciate them with a breakfast or lunch at their station Shop for the disabled and seniors at ACC Zoo-safari with disadvantaged children, or take them to other outings in the Metro DC/Baltimore area. Distribute food and household supplies in attractive baskets for families suffering with illness or other crises Parking meter feeding Gasoline giveaway Flower seeds during spring Moving day burgers or pizza at apartments or dorms Grocery cart return service Love baskets for families in crisis Bag of quarters giveaway outside the local Laundromat Mother’s Day flowers Beautification of ACC landscaping and grounds Clean-a-Garage/Basement for single parents or the elderly at ACC Spring Cleaning Projects at needy families at ACC
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welcome to the team
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| ACC is growing. God is transforming lives all around us. It's humbling to be a part of what God is doing here. ACC experienced an awesome Easter celebration a few weeks back with 470 in attendance. Maxed out parking. Maxed out children's space. Maxed out everything related to our facility. And that's a good thing. In the local church, we're sometimes tempted to try to "manage" growth much like Ben Bernanke and the Fed try to do with the economy. Yet at the end of the day, God is the one who brings the increase. And far be it from me, or any other leader in the church, to try and slow down what God is doing. (For that matter, far be it from any of us to try and speed up what God is doing at times too!) We simply need to follow His lead. And follow His timing. God has led ACC to need a full-time Worship Arts Minister. Scott Spivey, our current part-time Worship Leader, has declined this full-time opportunity as God has directed him to continue developing other means of serving God as a vocation. His love for God and his ability to help people connect with God in worship has been awesome. And we will miss his God-honoring service to ACC. At the same time, God has pressed upon the hearts of the ACC leadership to extend the call to serve in this new full-time ministry position to Jeremy Hazelton. He has been in full-time ministry for seven years and brings a passion to help lead other people to engage God in an intimate personal way. He and his wife Audra will join us in the early part of May. You can check out Jeremy's blog and email him at jhazelton@arundelcc.org. We are continually in awe of how great of God we serve. We praise Him for His perfect timing and for His perfect provision. It is our prayer, that the Baltimore/Washington DC area continue to experience the love of Christ through ACC; to experience life-change; to find their way back to God. Welcome to the team Jeremy! |
high-hanging fruit
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Life is busy. There are tons of things going on. |
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Living for the weekend would be low-hanging fruit. Doing just enough in life to get by is low-hanging fruit. Investing in superficial relationships. Talking only about the weather sports and your job. Existing in a marriage rather than engaging in a marriage. Meeting physical needs and basic necessities of life. The path of least-resistance. Living for personal happiness. All low-hanging fruit. We use the filter question of “What’s in it for me?” to help us decide which of the remaining low-hanging fruit we can consume. If you are going through the motions of life picking low-hanging fruit by the boatload, I want to encourage you. Stop trying to make yourself happy. Stop depending on other people to make you happy. | |
strength training
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Hanging out with other men who love God is so encouraging! This morning at Band of Brothers we had about 35 men gather together for a great breakfast and some time to kick the tires about matters of life and faith. (There were some good laughs too...) We discussed the idea of gentle strength today. The idea that in our weakness God is shown to be strong. At first blush, this concept is an exercise in classic irony. Yet consider this.... When I'm weak, I'm showing that I can't do it alone. I'm shown to be dependent on God. And when I'm dependent on God, He is shown to be strong. You might call it strength training. God desires us to be dependent on Him. When I go through life confident in myself, I am essentially saying that I don't need God. In fact, the usual approach is to only depend on God when depending on me stops working. I'm asking God to pick up where I left off. |
| God doesn't want us to do life our way. He wants us to do life His way. He wants us to rely on Him to lift and carry our lives. Knowing and living out the idea that I need to be 100% dependent on God and 0% dependent on me or other people is a pretty big deal. I need to empty myself daily and sometimes hourly of the urge to do life my way. I need to allow God to work in me and through me. I need to be dependent on Him. I want to be weak, so that He is shown to be strong. It's strength training. | |
habit of happiness
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I had the privilege of photographing a wedding this past Sunday afternoon. (I've been shooting weddings for 15 years now.) It was a charming, small, intimate wedding. I still get sappy about weddings. It's a big deal to choose to covenant with someone else for the rest of your life.
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Scripture provides practical insight into the negative qualities that we are to shed personally. At the same time, Scripture provides insight into key traits and characteristics that we are to exhibit and model. That being said, the goal is not to fix the short-comings in the lives of our mates but rather to make those adjustments in our own life. One might consider this. Build up the positive attributes and qualities in your mate (outward focus) while working on diminishing the negative attributes and qualities in your self (inward focus). Both are a choice. Both require intentionality. Both require the allowance of the Spirit of God to work in you (inward focus) and through you (outward focus) with the expressed purpose of bringing glory to God. By keeping the focus on God’s glory as primary, the practical steps to bring about His glory will unfold in the way each mates listens to one another, speaks to one another and lives out the commitment they made to one another. | |
soul patch
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I had a fuzzy upper lip for the first few years of our marriage. This is partly because Lara & I got married while I was in Junior High and partly because the Navy only let me have a mustache. And I did. Or so I thought. Not to mention my 90210 side-burns. |
| I look back at those photos and wonder where the caterpillar came from. I was so bent on looking "older" I decided that a mustache was my ticket to respect. It seemed to work for Tom Selleck and Alex Trebeck. I tried different versions of the stache. Squared off ends. Rounded ends. Handle-bar curves over the edge of my mouth. Pencil thin (ala Erol Flynn/Johnny Depp). Somehow I messed up one morning and ended up with a "Hitler". That had to go right away. After the Navy, I finally had the freedom to be a real man. I grew the entire beard. And then came the goatee. And the chops. I do have to be careful of looking like Chico and the Man ... I've had a few "Dan Looks" over the years (I usually cycle through them all in any given calendar year). They almost always involved the 90210 burns. Yesterday, I had a haircut that I thought looked okay before I left the barber shop. It's tough to say what happened. Somehow I just "knew" that the guy was new at this hair-cutting stuff. (His name was Cecil.) And when he spun me around in the chair to look in the huge mirror as he held the hand held mirror to show me the taper job he did on my neck, it all seemed to look ok. The problem was. My eyeglasses where still tucked neatly in my lap under the ginormous haircutting tent/bib thing that they make me wear to keep the hair off of my clothing. All I could see in the mirror was a fuzzy, blurry neatly trimmed head of hair popping out of that tent. So I tipped the guy (30%) and off I go. The first thing I do is check out the new "do" in the rear view mirror. I'm running late and I realize that this is not the same haircut that I just saw moments ago and tipped so generously. So I race home (it was my day off) and head straight to the master bath to check out the damages. I was not happy. In fact, I was convinced that I was going to go digging around the garage for the professional hair-clipper set with all of the attachments and blades and snap a #1 on that bad boy and have Lara even out my entire head. I was pretty upset. The only thing that prevented that course of action was the fact that Lara had just used my clipper set on the dog two weeks ago. There was no way on this planet I was going to let something that went through the fur of my dog's entire body go all over my head ... I had to do something. But going back to Cecil the Green Barber would have taken an other hour. I didn't have an hour. So I busted out the Mach 3. And cut off my goatee and mustache. And then I made the all-important calculated precision facial hair fashion decision of the day ... I left my soul patch in place. You know, it's that sassy tuft of hair under the lower lip ala Howie Mandel. Besides the fact that Lara feels like she's kissing another man, the folks at our LifeGroup last night and also my breakfast meeting this morning confessed that they couldn't stop staring at my soul patch. Not only did they stare at the soul patch they laughed at the soul patch! They confessed that they thought I looked like I was a much younger now that I had Mach 3'd the goatee. So much for my ticket to respect. It doesn't matter. I needed a change. And the soul patch is here to stay. (I still have the 90210 sideburns). At least for today.... | |
late night lite rock
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| We don't watch too much TV. Yet occasionally, I'll lay in bed at night and channel surf. I will click and click and click and click. And click. Until my eyes hurt. Or until I've fallen asleep in some highly uncomfortable position with a pain in my arm that feels like somone slipped a tourniquet under my armpit. One question. Why can't I find anything watch in spite of the 79 channels?! I will go around the bases 7 - 8 times and land on a commercial everytime! And the next thing I know, it's midnight. And I have just wasted at least 1.5 hours of sleep while listening to Lara snore and watching the most recent episode of something on HGTV ... Ughhh. The other night something facinating happened. Two soft-rockers strolled on to the screen in their studio living room to invite me to re-live the soft-rock of yesteryear. (Is Air Supply still together?) I have to admit. I was hooked. No shame. I'm out front with it. And so for the next hour, I watched a TimeLife Infomercial. Nice. While some might like John Denver ... I forgot how much I liked this stuff. Seals and Crofts: Summer Breeze, Gary Wright: Dream Weaver, Orleans: Still The One, The Doobie Brothers: What A Fool Believes, America: You Can Do Magic, Air Supply: Even The Nights Are Better. And don't forget Bread, Chicago, Nicolette Larson, Ambrosia, Hall & Oates. I was tempted to purchase my "first cd with no obligation whatsoever". Somehow. Someway. I turned the tv and the lights off. And went to bed. Late night lite rock. It was worth it. Sailing. Takes me away. To where I've always heard it could be. Don't it make my brown eyes. Don't it make my brown eyes. Don't it make my brown eyes blue... |
new website
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| We launched our new website last Friday for Arundel Christian Church (ACC). It's at www.arundelcc.org. It's a great resource to help folks understand what we're all about, where we're going, how we're going to get there and how folks can be a part of the process. We want to help people understand that they matter to God and that they can experience a life of meaning when they embrace Him. The entire trajectory of life can be transformed through a relationship with the Living God. And that's a good thing. Actually, there is no better thing. We want people to experience this for themselves. We don't cram Jesus down people's throats. At the same time, we do want people to explore and check Him out. Come as you are! Don't do life alone! Take a few minutes to look around and tell a friend. |
stage fright
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| There was a time when I was pretty certain that I would make a career out of music. I was convinced that I would earn a degree in music and go in to being a studio musician and perhaps tour with a group somehow. I was very much in to the music/choir/drama/speech scene in junior high and high school. Those are some of the best memories of my life. Especially the marching band trips each fall. I can still remember how nervous I was to get up in front of the entire student body in Junior High as a finalist for the annual speech contest. It was one of those "stage fright" moments. I didn't win, but remember seeing the sea of faces staring at me. And it was scary yet good to develop a sense of confidence. At the same time, Piano lessons and I never got along too well. That would explain why I didn't do so hot in that new Music Theory class my senior year of high school too. I took my first drum lesson when I was 11. And I loved it. I bought my first drum set when I was 14. (I still have my Pearl Deep Force: Export Series kit with Sabian cymbals.) After applying to a few different colleges for music, I realized that I wasn't nearly as good in the field of music as I hoped I might be. I was average. I could carry a tune vocally. I could hold my own instumentally. I could do ok bustin' some suave dance moves for show choir and the stage fright was less and less of an issue. I didn't mind being in front of people (too much). But I was just average. And I began to see my dreams slipping through my fingers as high school graduation loomed closer. I didn't realize that God had other plans for me. I didn't realize that he had been laying the beginnings of a foundation in my life. Last week on Easter morning, I had the privilege of playing drums at our church (with three other musicians who are much more talented than I by the way). We played a five-song set that was exhilerating (I actually dropped my drum stick twice! I hadn't done that since a marching band field show in the fall of '88!!!). It was great to praise and worhip God with the clash of the cymbals and the sound of a sassy rhumba beat that I couldn't help but groove in to much to the chagrin of the rest of the combo who were wondering why I suddenly went "Latin" with the rock beat. It was good to worship the Creator of the universe, the Lord God Almighty, for His goodness and His patience with me and for His work in my life. Whether it's playing drums in worship, proclaiming the word of God in front of three services, teaching about God in a classroom setting, facilitating a discussion in my family room for our weekly LifeGroup or chatting one-on-one with someone about life and faith, God has been and continues to be the Author and Perfector of my faith. God refines us. He prepares us. He desires for us to bring Him glory. It was a watershed process for me to recognize that my plans in life need to line up with God's plans for my life. I needed to surrender my wants and desires. It's pretty cool to line with God instead of constantly asking Him to line up with me. I have no other ambition in life than to be used by God as His instrument to help other people connect with Him. May the Lord of the Heavans be praised and worshiped by all the nations. There's no need for stage fright anymore. God wants to use me in spite of my short-comings. I just need to let Him .... |
coffee casualty
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| Coffee travel mugs make too much sense. For some reason, I can't choose from the three varieties in our kitchen cabinet in the morning. So I grab one of our ginourmous mugs that completely dwarf a standard size coffee cup and fill 'er up. And then I get in the General Ki - the 4-door Rio with manual transmission and no power steering.... I can't explain exactly why this has any semblance of logic. Intentionally leaving the travel mug in the cabinet and driving to work with a huge cup of "open" coffee that won't fit in to the cup holder in the car and trying to make turns, while down shifting and the like. Surprisingly. I rarely have a "coffee casualty". Last week I had one (a coffee casualty) anyway. You see, I was down to the last several sips of my coffee while driving. And after grooving to some sassy 80's music on the local radio station, I concluded that I really didn't want the cold remains of the bottom of my cup. I decided that it was time for a drive-by coffee dumping; and waiting until the next stop light seemed too long to wait. After all, I couldn't put the cup down anywhere. It's too big and has cold coffee in the bottom.... So I delicately and ably put the cup in my right hand and hold the steering wheel with my pinky finger while I crank down the window with my left hand. I then experience the cool morning March air whipping through the car as I transfer the cup into my now free left hand and wait for the next two oncoming cars to whiz by lest they get splashed by what would inevitably happen next. So I quickly hold the fancy large cup out the window by the handle hoping that I won't drop it. And then it happened. I rationalized my next decision like this. "My wrist only bends in one direction. And so I'll dump the coffee in the direction that my wrist bends. Forward." However, there was a minor detail that wasn't factored in to this important decision of my morning commute... Pouring coffee into the wind with an open window is not a good idea. I had to pull over and wipe myself down. It was that bad. My entire left side of my body was coffered in coffee-spray. I have never seen coffee separate into so many tiny particles. It was a Coffee Casualty that felt more like a tsunami or front row seats at Shamu Show at Sea World. It's a good thing I had a treasure chest of Starbucks napkins (you know the brown ones) packed into my glove box. For such a moment as this. I smelled like Sumatra Extra Bold for the rest of the day .... At least I could put my cup down .... |
spring cleaning
| In the last 16+ years or so, I have come home a handful of times to a living room that has been rearranged. Lara gets in one of those moods and wants to spice things up a bit. I don't mind at all. At the same time, I usually feel bad that I wasn't around to help muscle the couch and tables around ... It's amazing how just moving stuff around can make life feel we've accomplished something. It's amazing how just moving stuff around can make life feel fresh and renewing. It's amazing how de-cluttering can free us to see the room for what it is and actually enjoy being in it rather than just existing in it in the midst of the stuff that ends up in the corners and under the end tables. It's funny how piles of magazines, newspapers and books can become "furniture". We also recently went through our closets and cleaned out the stuff that was just taking up space. What a difference! Last weekend, Lara cleaned out the storage room at the house. You know the room. The one with the water heater, sump pump and furnace in it along with a life-time full of boxes full of yearbooks, board games, bed frame parts, and misc. electronic pieces and tons of empty "original" boxes from a stereo I bought in 1993 that must be serving some purpose. |
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| There's also the three boxes full of cassettes that I will surely do something with one day ... Lara spent several hours cleaning it out and installing some shelving we picked up at Lowes. It looks amazing! We were even able to stuff the ginourmous piece of exercise equipment that we bought two years ago and used 5 times that has been sitting in the middle of our family room in there too. I did that in my office yesterday morning. All I did was move a chair and a credenza and add a tiny table. I also decluttered tons of "stuff" that has just accumulated in piles on my book shelves. And you know what? The place feels like a new office! Our 13 year-old was actually inspired to move her room around a bit too. Can't wait to see her clean room when I get home. Call it spring-cleaning if you like. I'm convinced the same idea applies to our priorities in life. Sometimes our top-ten list of important things to do can be reshuffled; reprioritized and de-cluttered. And suddenly the rut that our lives can get in to can be renewed. Can I encouraged you to intentionally de-clutter and remove some of the things in your life that are just taking up space yet "seem" important. Can I encourage you to move prayer and time with God in His Word into the number one slot? This critical placement anchors your life and orients your day; regardless of what else is going on. Your day will be that much sweeter. By de-cluttering your life and making God the priority, you will be encouraged and renewed. | |
rethinking Jesus - His person
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There is this fascinating yet crucial teaching in the Bible about Jesus. It deals with two key ingredients of the Person of Jesus. There is the deity of Jesus. And there is the humanity of Jesus. Together, these two aspects of Jesus’ nature help us to understand what He was qualified to do on our behalf. |
Jesus is the Son of God and is one with the Father; which proves that He is fully God (deity).
Jesus is also born of a woman and became flesh and lived among us and had the same qualities and characteristics of a man; which proves that He is fully human.
At the same time, Jesus is both God AND man. In fact, Jesus is at the same time, fully God and fully man. This is crucial to understand, because this enables Jesus to be the only Mediator and Intercessor who can give you and I access to God. Jesus is the God-Man who reconciles man to God. | |
pre-party adventure
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Lara & I love to have people over. It's something we've always had fun doing for the last 16 plus years. There are more than a few stories of the happenings at the Thompson gatherings. Yet there are also a few stories of happenings moments "before" the Thompson gatherings. I call them pre-party adventures. Last night was one of those nights. Thursday nights, our LifeGroup (18 people) gathers at our home to hang out and do life together around 7:00 p.m. I've found that I look forward to our LifeGroup nights. Not just because I get to hang with great people and study the Word of God. Not because I get to chow on some great food. Not just because I have an excuse to drink my Starbucks Gold Coast at night. But because the house has a reason to be clean. It's awesome. We have a built-in weekly motivator to have the place looking presentable. (Anybody else pickin' up what I'm layin' down? Guests = Clean House. It's a win-win formula.) So last evening, at about 6:45 p.m. the house is looking sharp. Everything is ready for "show time". Jazz music on? Check. Candles lit? Coffee brewing? Check. Chairs set up to accommodate the gang? Check. Dog put away? Check. Large fuzzies that collect in the corner picked up and thrown away? Check. Tea pot on? Check. Pillows straightened up on the couches and love seat? Check. |
| "Sweety. What's that smell?" It's now 6:49 p.m. T minus 11 minutes 'till "show time". "Some chicken juice oozed out of the package and on to the stove top when I was making dinner and I had to clean it up with the antibacterial spray. " (We have a flat electric stove top.) "So what is that disgusting smell?" "It must be the residue of the antibacterial spray heating up on the stove top under the tea pot." It's now 6:51 p.m. T minus 9 minutes 'till "show time". "Quick! Turn the stove off! Wipe that nasty stove down again with some hot water! Light some more candles! Open the windows! Open the front door! Create a draft!" (Did I mention that it was 28 degrees outside?) It's now 6:55 p.m. T minus 5 minutes 'till "show time". And then our first guest walks in wondering why the front door was open when it's so cold out. The digusting smell has started to dissipate as the draft and the vanilla almond candle does it's magic. Another guest arrives. Show time. Another pre-party adventure is complete. At least the house is clean. | |