This past Christmas The AMP Band had an opportunity to lead in worship at our annual Carols by Candlelight event. The evening was entitled “How Many Kings” and it featured some new Christmas songs but mostly modern arrangements of some classics.

I’ve finally gotten these videos of the evening together to post. I hope you all enjoy them as much as we enjoyed playing them.

God is Everywhere.

I spent most today in the bed fighting with a fever. Of course the day I get sick is the same day Cee comes home with pink eye so not the most fun day at all.

Its days like this that remind me that my wife is totally amazing. Without batting an eye she took up the task of caring for a whiney child and a 3-year-old at the same time. Though at least I’m much more willing to take my medicine than Cee is.

I don’t know about you but when I am sick I don’t really want to be waited on or anything. I just want to be left alone, perhaps with some bad movies, but overall just left to sleep it off. And thank goodness for Netflix instant movies because there are a ton of just awful movies on there. I started a few and I think I fell asleep as a subconscious defense mechanism. Oh it passes the time and its better than most daytime TV shows.

Alas, on a more positive note I found out that the Joshua Cup open mic night will be on the eve of the ski trip, Friday February 18. I can’t wait to be a part of that evening. I’ve been working very hard on some new songs and I think I’ve almost finished a keeper. I guess we’ll find out on the 18th.

Well the NyQuil is kicking in and no matter how I feel AMP is tomorrow so I’ll see you then.

God is Everywhere

It is very difficult for me to talk about this. It’s always hardest to admit you have a problem. I can only hope that if I talk about my struggles maybe it will help others deal with their demons as well.

Of course I am talking about a very common addiction that many suffer from and few are willing to admit. I am one of the millions of Americans with Cyber Attachment Syndrome or CAS*. CAS affects many people and it is extremely debilitating. Some of the common side effects are:

Self-importance – the feeling that people MUST be able to reach you at ALL times
Complete loss of social context – no it is not ok to take a call when at a funeral, in the movies, or when your boss has called you into his/her office
An inability to remember any, even the most basic and essential, phone numbers
An irrational anger at poor 3G service (Also mixed with a need to constantly pine for the improvements of the next software rollout).

I realized my CAS had reached a breaking point when it hit me that I’d left my phone at the office tonight. Knowing that I would be there first thing in the morning, knowing it is a 30 plus minute round trip to the office, knowing I wouldn’t see Tiff at all the next day and knowing I had a whiney 3-year-old in the back of the car I still heavily considered driving out to the office to get my missing appendage. You know, “just in case”. It was hard to face but I feel empowered to admit that there is nothing so important that it can’t wait till morning. I might miss a txt tonight from someone wanting to play X-Box and that daily update from NFL.com will just have to wait. I don’t know, somehow the world will still spin…one painful degree at a time.

Friends if you or someone you love suffers from CAS do them and the rest of us a favor…hit them…not on the shoulder, not playfully…hit them in the face…hard. The next time some answers the phone in a theater, pour your drink on them (1st make sure it’s not a matter of national security, that would be embarrassing, then pour your drink on them), call it therapy. If you see someone check their txt messages more than 3 times in a 5 minute span, txt them to let them know they are an idiot (do it with love). And if you don’t know your own home telephone number and/or your spouse’s (or parents for the single) numbers it is time to admit you have an advanced case of CAS.

*Though CAS is something I just made up…seriously people (myself included) get a hold of your lives!

God is Everywhere

So I just watching the Super Bowl. First impressions…the only decent musical act was the Glee chick. What on earth was going on with those outfits and the mics during the halftime show??? The commercials made a stong come back this year. The kid dressed as Darth Vader was easily my favorite.

And as hard as it is to admit it I was wrong about who would win. Oh well, congrats to the Packers and now we begin the saddest time of the year. Oh football I shall miss you so. See you in six months.

God is Everywhere.

A crud is making its way into the Coder home. Tiff and I are both in a race to see who can get sick first. At the same time we are hoping that somehow Cee can avoid this. My plan tonight is to pull out the atomic bomb of cold fighting…NyQuil. Once you take NyQuil you have approximately four and a half minutes to get in the bed or you sleep where you land.

Alas, before I give in to the effects of the drugs I wanted to quickly weigh in with my Super Bowl predictions. Not to brag too loudly but my preseason NFL picks were pretty solid. I picked 4 division winners and 8 of the 12 playoff teams. So in a league like the NFL I’ll call that not too shabby. I had the Falcons losing in ATL to Green Bay (though I thought it would happen in the NFC title game) and the Steelers losing to the Colts on the AFC side. So I had half the Super Bowl.

But now on to real life. We have Green Bay and Pittsburgh going head to head in the biggest game of the year. Green Bay’s offense has been fantastic and Aaron Rodgers, in his 3rd full season, has taken the next step to be a top tier QB (something we’re hoping to see from Matt Ryan next season). But as well as he’s played its all come from a new found running game and that is where it all falls apart for GB. Pittsburgh’s defense is going to be the difference tomorrow. The Packers will not be able to run at all and Steelers won’t miss tackles on Rodgers the way the Falcons did.

It won’t be a blow out but I don’t see any way Green Bay can withstand the onslaught that is the Steelers defense. Big Ben and the Steelers win their 3rd title in 6 years and officially become the team of the decade. I hope everyone enjoys the game.

God is Everywhere

So I found a leak in my roof this evening. I was sitting at the kitchen table listening to the rain when I felt a most unwelcome drip on my head. Yeah, so that’s a not the best way to start the weekend. Alas, this too shall pass. We’ll make sure this doesn’t ruin the weekend but I will admit I don’t have much to say tonight. So there you go. See you all tomorrow. God is Everywhere.

Thank you so much to everyone who had nice things to say about my video yesterday. It was very nice. I have though found that is hard to find something to say every day so today I’d like to dip into the archives.

Here’s a lesson I learned the hard way about car care and how some mistakes can be undo. It is a sad tale but at least it was funny. This was originally posted in June 2009 under the title “Chicken, Cars, and Cat Litter”. It’s hard to believe this happened almost two years ago. Enjoy.

“Chicken, Cars, & Cat Litter”

This past weekend we had a chicken bar-b-q to raise money for the youth ministry. It was a great success. We sold out and thanks to the Macon Meat Market (*plug) donating the chicken for us we made an excellent profit. I was very happy with the event. However, I wish they had donated a slightly sturdier box for the chickens…

I’d like to take a quick moment out of the story here to just say, my wife rocks. She went to go pick up these chickens and as nice as the people were it still smelled like a meet market. But she was a trooper and not only got them but took them back to the church and put them in storage all on her own. Sadly, her good deed was not without incident.

On her way away from the market one of the boxes collapsed, spilling chicken juice and whatnot (we won’t discuss the whatnot) in the back of my RAV4 (*plug). I’ll let you take a moment to think about that…I KNOW…now add 90 degree weather…I KNOW…if you feeling a little sick its understandable. Take a second to compose yourself, I’ll wait.

So after both Tiff and I took a turn scrubbing down the back and then took it to be shampooed the smell was unbelievably unbearable. We’re talking driving with my head out the window like the family dog. Actually, that’s not true, after the shampooing it was just overpoweringly nauseating. The main bullet point of my presentation here is that it was bad, very bad.

And of course my use of the past tense is somewhat inaccurate. At the time of publishing riding in my car is like having to sit next to the sweaty fat kid on the bus in August. I hate when that happens…note to self make sure to always get to the bus early. So I took the carpet out of the back of the RAV and in what would have to be described as an act of desperation I put cat litter in the storage bin. The carpet still smells really bad but miraculously after a day or so the litter has reduced the smell in the car substantially. I’ve never been so happy to have kitty toilet paper.

***As an aside this further proves what a horrible pet the cat is; even the kitty litter is more desirable.***

God is Everywhere

I got some exciting news over the weekend. I was told that the Joshua Cup was reopening after some renovations and they were reintroducing their music format. Not only was I excited by the number of “re” in that sentence, but the idea of playing at the Joshua Cup is awesome. As of this weekend they are going to have an open mic night once a month. Sadly I missed the first one but February is a new deal.

For those who may not know, the Joshua Cup is a coffee shop in downtown Macon where I have played more gigs than probably anyone else (I don’t know if this is still the case but at last count I had). They use to have a weekly open mic that I visited every Monday evening. I also played several featured gigs there over the years, including my CD release party for “God and a Guitar” way back in 2001 (No not 2001, surely no one was alive back then).

What a good looking kid

That CD release party was not only a great time for my music career but it was also the place where Tiff and I started dating. Here you see an actual picture of said CD release party. It was a great night with friends and family. And I sold a bunch of CD’s (never bad).

Tiff and her friends came out and stayed the whole evening. They stayed through my first set, two other acts that were with me, and my second set. And if you’ve ever been to a coffee house show you will know that can make for a long evening. But I’m glad she was there…and I’m even more glad that she is still here (sappy moment).

But I will always remember the joy of playing at the Joshua Cup. One thing I have missed lately is writing my own material. As primarily a worship leader who doesn’t write worship songs I haven’t really had an outlet for my own material. Since finding out about the Joshua Cup I have made a pledge to not only be at open mic night but when this month’s date rolls around I will have a brand new jon coder song to debut. This will be my first new song in well over a year. I started work last night and I will say this may be a long road. It was like working out for the time after I long layoff (so I’m told…jk).

But just like writing here for you fine people, writing songs again (even bad songs) encourages I part of me that has been sleeping for I while. I really look forward to sharing some songs with you. I will keep you all updated on when the big event will take place and how the song writing is going. I hope some of you will make it out. Until next time.

God is Everywhere

As a disclaimer, you will find no spiritual insight or really any redeeming qualities in the following ramblings, but I felt it was extremely important for me to address a growing problem in our super markets. That’s right, things have gotten out of control at our once peaceful grocery store…or as I like to call it the food distribution experience…and I’m not even talking about the misuse of the self checkout (I would talk about the self checkout but blood pressure has been a little high lately and I think that discussion might just finish me off).

Anyway, in the beginning there was the shopping basket. This was a revolutionary step forward in shopping. Finally we were free of the burden of carrying each and every item we longed to purchase. With the advent of the basket we could easily carry 5-8 items and all was well. But if the basket was a step forward, then the shopping cart was our onramp to the shopping super highway. With the shopping cart it was possible to collect a week’s, nay a month’s worth groceries or at least a couple of heavy things when you’re parked far away and you know what a pain it is to try and get those out to the car, anyway.

The shopping cart made the grocery store not a regular stop but an event, or at least a way to spend the better part of a Saturday. Shopping was now something to be planned. Coupons had to be cut, lists had to be made, and cart placement for each item became essential (cold stuff together, bread and eggs in the top section, etc).

And all was well. The basket/cart system served us for over two decades. Then it all went sideways. It started innocently enough (these things always do). We were introduced to those kid friendly monstrosities, the cart/car combo. These 6 wheel-behemoths have the ability to block an entire aisle and take roughly 30 feet of clearance to safely turn in the store. And somehow they seem to always be driven by 90lbs moms with multiple kids and enough food to scale Mount Everest. Unless these women are secretly training for the strongman competition the weight of these cart/cars is obscene.

What happened to the idea of kid sit in the cart and if you are good you might get something at the cash register. Which that never worked either cause the kid always wanted two things and then they throw a temper tantrum and things get messy. Basically there’s no good way to take kids to the store and these monster carts are doing nothing but proving that point.

And now there is what I like to call the bascart. This strange contraption is a mini cart. For when you don’t need a full size cart but you’re still too lazy to carry a basket. I will admit that at least the bascart is an improvement on the short lived basket stroller, but that’s about the best I can say of it. This ill-conceived shopping accessory was made of a small cart frame and you set your basket on it. Basically it was the equivalent of taking a radio flyer to the super market except you would have looked much less dorky with a radio flyer. Alas, goodbye basket stroller, we hardly knew ye.

And with the introduction of the bascart on the small end came the oversized cart for when you just need more stuff. It has room for two kinds in the top and while it is not as clumsy as its car-welding cousin its bulky design makes it useful only if your attempting to burn some of the empty calories from your last trip to the store.

With so many grocery carrying options presented it is easy for a shopper to feel overwhelmed. I mean we are being asked to make major decisions about our shopping trip before we even enter the store. The pressure mounts as no one wants to face the embarrassment of selecting the wrong cart size. Then you face the walk of shame to get a different size or you try and make what you have work and hope no one notices…but let me let you know…they notice, they always notice…and they mock you. It’s too much to expect of an already over taxed population and I for one am here to say nay nay!!! Just say no to over-carting. If it doesn’t fit in a basket get a cart. If it doesn’t fit in a cart you don’t need it. And if you’re thinking of using a bascart…why!?!

God is Everywhere. (I’m not sure where in here, but I just take my word for it)

One of the greatest inventions of our time is the recliner. Let’s be honest electricity and the phone are nice but what are they without a comfortable place to enjoy them from? In college I had an old recliner I had bought at a church yard sale. I know it was old because the base was a stone slab and I don’t think they used those for a while. Yes, my recliner could withstand gale force winds. I still miss that chair and I’ve wanted another one ever since. That’s why I am excited to announce the “The Deal”.

Tiff and I just bought a new recliner! Hooray! It currently lives in our living room where it will reside for the next year before taking its rightful place in my “Man Room.” Now some of you are wondering what Tiff gets out of this deal. Well last time she was pregnant she had a hard time sleeping while lying flat and sitting in a reclined position was the only way she could rest. So this time the recliner will help her when she can’t sleep. But after this new kid thing is past my man room will at last have its crown jewel. What a glorious thing to behold.

It is at this point I feel I should perhaps back track a little. I feel that some of you may have been distracted from the glory of a recliner by this baby talk so let us review. Tiff is pregnant with our second child and is due in mid-June. We are obviously very happy and even more so after getting good early reports from our doctor saying everything is going well. We’ll find out what our little person is in a few months and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping for a boy but I’ve long ago excepted that my thoughts on what is best pale in comparison to the all knowing gracious hand of God. And besides I’m already getting a recliner out of this deal…what more could I ask for.

God is everywhere.