The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. It has been almost a full week during which my electronic life has been on hold. No updates, no blogs, no faces in books and no tweets. This has led many to believe that the previously mentioned lockin had done me in. Though this would not an unreasonable assumption it is not so; we came, we locked, and we made it through with minimal loss of life. No, nothing terribly interesting has distracted me. Rather, it was a week full of meetings that never ended, computer repairs that take forever (if you’ve ever dealt with Dell tech support then you know what I’m talking about), and other various activities to prepare for taking some vacation this weekend.

With summer drawing to a close we decided to take a few days out of town. Part of the time we’re spending with my family and the plan is for Tiff and I to get away for a day or so on our own. It has been fun so far. Grandma has already had her chance to buy Cee plenty of new clothes (thanks for that), and we celebrated Amanda’s 25^th birthday. It will be odd not being at LDBC on Sunday but I do look forward to a chance to worship without having to worrying about any other responsibilities.

All in all it is shaping up to be a weekend of minimal exertion (Which, by the way, is my preferred method of operation). It is always good to get away and put some distance between myself and all the things that tend to dwell at the back of my mind. It seems to always put it a little more in perspective. So to all of you reading this after a long day at work, you should try not doing that, its a lot more fun. Just a thought.

 

First, let me start by saying thank you to everyone who had really nice things to say about the previous post concerning Tiff. For those wondering, no, I wasn’t in any kind of trouble nor was I trying to build up points so I could get something. I actually began writing that post several weeks earlier. It sat in my draft box forever because I kept adding to it and rewriting parts. The more I worked on it the more I realized that I it had become more than just a blog post. I was actually putting into words feelings that were too formative for words and it was much more of a humbling task than I ever thought possible. So I am very happy you all enjoyed it and thank you once more for the nice comments. I’ve had more hits on my blog in the last few days than ever so it  was fun to see it make the rounds. Alas, now all the warm and cuteness aside, lets get on with the foolishness.

Lockins are from Satan! There I said it. They are evil things and should not be permitted by any decent beings. As I stand on the precipice of another of these evil rites of passage for all youth workers, I find myself wondering who came up with this idea. Who was the genius who thought locking yourself into a confined space with a large number of other people was a fun idea. In most cases that is called prison! Alas, perhaps I overstate. The lockin is truly a unique event. It is the only thing I can think of that you dread as it approaches, you’re miserable after the fact, but it’s a lot of fun during the actual event.

If you’ve never been to a lockin, the basic premise is simple. Show up at the church one evening stay all night while playing various games and eating junk food, and go home as the sun rises on your foolishness. Now, I know what you’re saying…”awe, that sounds like fun,” and yes it does sound like fun but that is where the evil beast ensnares you. All you need to do is walk into a room of youth workers and simply say “lockin,” and you will see grown men cry, there will be gnashing of teeth and some will just curl up in a corner. Its evil and it must be stopped!

To accurately recreate the feeling of being the leader at a lockin do the following: About 8:30pm go to your living room, turn on the tv to an all infomercial network (the more of the late Billy Mays the better, or loop the shamwow commercial), and on the other side of the room play the stereo on a ridiculously high volume. Every couple hours, if it can be arranged, have someone set off an air horn an inch from your head or perhaps beat you with a wet sock. Place a chair exactly in the middle of the room, and begin squeezing your head in your hands for the next 12 hours. And don’t stop! Unless you’re stopping to consume gross amounts of unhealthy junk, then you’re free to do so as long as you eat enough to cause at a mild cause of heartburn (no Tums allowed!), and then get back to your squeezing. Now after 12 hours of this self-induced horror you should have a basic understanding of what lockins are for youth ministers. I’ve heard it said that lockins are how youth ministers punish themselves for their misdeeds in a scarlet letter type fashion.

I guess really what I’m trying to highlight with this presentation is that I don’t like lockins. Unless you’re reading this and I’ve asked you to help with said lockin. In that case they’re a lot of fun and I have just kidding around. If I’ve not asked you to help then its all true. Run! Run and hide your children!!! And by the way, what are you doing this Friday night?

God is everywhere.

I talk a lot about my wife here and on the book of faces. Usually its good, sometime I get in trouble, but after almost 6 years of marriage it has been nothing if not interesting. I think any honest couple will tell you that there is nothing easy about marriage and ours is no exception. In our short time together we’ve bought a car and a house, both been unemployed at one point, gone through a complete career change, begun a masters degrees, had our first child, and much more. Honestly if we had known all this was going to happen ahead of time there may have been some 2^nd thoughts. However, all of these things, both the wonderful and unpleasant, have brought us to a better place than either of us could have gotten to on our own. And I believe the key is that it brought “us” to this place. Even on the worst of days I can’t even imagine anything but us.

This is my wife: Tiffany is a 1^st grade teacher, though she has not always been so. Just a few years ago she was working a job that didn’t satisfy her in a college financial office. Now while too many people would just accept their fate Tiff decided to do something about it. Over the past 2 years she has taught in a classroom while going through a very difficult certification program with summer and night classes. Of course, as is her way she has overcome those obstacles. Through red tape, course scheduling issues, and an entire change in the structure of the program she is a part of she is now set to finish her masters at the end of this year. She faithfully stayed with me through an extremely trying experience as church staff in the midst of a church split, and she continues to amaze me with her devotion. She is strong, resourceful, and far more compassionate than I could hope to be. She has a heart that cares for all her students no matter how annoying they seem to me. She is a talented writer and an extremely handy youth minister. She is passionate, strong willed, kind, and beautiful (very beautiful!). Anyone who know her know that she never fails to speak her mind or let her opinion be known. She neither has to be, or wants to be the center of attention, but she has always been there for me, usually far more confident in my abilities than I am.

She is not perfect, and I don’t try to overlook her imperfections. The same passion that serves her so well also tends to make her react, at least initially, more out of emotion than logic and she is very possibly the least patient person alive when it comes to wanting something she has set her heart on. But these are not imperfections that need to be fixed, rather they are part of the mixture that makes her who she needs to be, and I love her more today than I did when we began this journey six years ago.

I am convinced there is no one else in this world that would put up with my eccentricities, and all in all ridiculousness. And if all of the already mentioned reasons weren’t enough to draw me to Tiff, there is a 32 inch reminder of our love running around with an infectious smile and her mom’s good looks. And that is Tiff and I’s greatest accomplishment. At this point not only can I not imagine a world without “us,” I can’t remember what it was to not be a part of “us”. Its as if that was a part of someone else’s story. For that matter its getting harder to recall a day without having Cee constantly going with another Veggie at the ready and a heart wrenching “Hello Daddy”. It is easily the most humbling and beautiful thing I hear every day. And on top of that I now have a non-embarrassing reason to walk through the toy aisles in Wal-Mart. Score me! But I digress.

 

 

To Tiff and Cee, I love you. God is Everywhere

 

This week has been full of basketball camp. I know it may shock many of you, but no, I was not the attendee of a basketball camp. Though your boy does have some mad skills (honestly, I have no idea what that means). No, instead our youth ministry hosted a kid’s basketball camp. As far as begin a technically sound fundamentals training forum it was a colossal failure, but it was a good fundraiser, service project, and outreach event. We’ve had almost 80 kids over the last week and I’ve had the joy of sharing a lot of my favorite Bible stories with them as we talk about doing our best in all things. And while this week has confirmed once again to me the children’s ministry is NOT my calling, it has been a fun week, though if I don’t hear Father Abraham or Big House for a good while I won’t be sad at all.

Really there was only one major problem this week. In my planning I designed a logo and theme for the week, like you do for these types of events. I had it proofed, corrected the mistakes and mailed out cards advertising the event. I then sent the design on to the t-shirt place. They’ve always done good work for me in the past. Well about 3 days before the event begins they call and tell me the design won’t work, its too small. They assure me they can and will have my shirts ready if I can send them an updated logo. So I went home and fairly quickly redid the logo from scratch and sent it on to them. While I had it open I created a couple of video loops for the event and went to bed happy. The first day of the camp began and they called me to confirm the art. Well, since I was with the kids I just ok’d it and went to pick the shirts up. So how excited was I when I found the following. Oh well, God is still everywher.