to the ordinary

quarantined

I woke up at 4:30a puking my guts out. I had to be at work at 5:15a. Knowing at 5 in the morning they would be hard pressed to find a replacement, I went. I then threw up in the bathroom, trash can, and finally in the back sink before they sent me home.

When I walked in the house at 6:30a, I went straight upstairs and back to bed. Sarah told me not to come down at the risk of infecting our girls. Around 7a, I heard her spaying Lysol up and down the stairs. I'm certain there is a thick shield of disinfectant spray between me and them. I'm still upstairs and quarantined from the rest of the family. I'm starting to feel like "Children in the Attack". I'd move, but the last time I did I threw up orange juice. Much better going down than up, I must say.

Taking a Beating

A few days ago my couch took the beating of its short lifetime. On this particular morning Ryleigh woke and came into the family room. We started her morning routine without changing her diaper. Thirty minutes later she informed us, "Ryleigh wet." Although I appreciated her honesty and candor, she came up short in telling us, "Couch wet, too."

Later that afternoon, as I was sitting on the couch about to go to work, Ryleigh came and snuggled up close to me. What I didn't realize was the strategic ploy she had devised in an effort to vomit on me. She carried out her plan flawlessly and chucked all over my shirt...and the couch.

The couch is recovering, but ok.

Top Ten List

I can officially mark one off my "Top Ten Things I Want to do Before I Die" list.

On Sunday myself and 6 other guys went rafting on the Gauley River -- the Beast of the East. It was incredible. The weather was warm, the leaves are changing, and the rapids were as good as I expected. I had rafted the New River more than a dozen times, and there was no comparison. It would be like skiing in Colorado then coming back and skiing in North Carolina. Everything else pales in comparison.

Sarah cautioned me not to die and to organize my list based on the events more likely to kill me at the bottom.

Deep End

Prior to this, I had never started a church. I've been a part of more than my fair share and experienced worship services across the gamut. Even though I was on staff with a church plant in Florida, much of the structure, vision, values, and direction was already established or in flux through the conversations and prayers of the elders. In the church planting pool, I didn't learn to swim there.

We tested the waters with our big toes. Once we determined the temp was right for swimming and it was the pool we were supposed to swim in, we jumped. Only then did I realize I didn't know how to swim. For the last 4 months I've been scratching to keep my head above water and avoid drowning. It's intense!

For the first time I felt like a major hurrdle was crossed last week when it comes to our Vision, Mission, and Values and the best way to articulate what Mark, Jeff, and I felt, knew, and we're called to do. Maybe it doesn't sound so extreme a situation. I fully believe that what happens in these early days and the direction we set out in now (and the way we go about traveling that direction) will make or break us long-term. Coming to embrace our Vision, Values, Mission, and Driving Principles for me was like learning to Doggy-Paddle and taking my first strokes. It still ain't pretty, but it's better than drowning and will keep you afloat.

Maybe one day we'll be breast-strokin' with the best of 'em, like Phelps.

I'm a bad blogger. It didn't start out this way. Early on entries were coming from every direction at least every other day. Now I'm trying to keep up to get one a month in. Without trying to be winsome or creative (although I just saw a guy wearing a qilt ride his bike past the Marshall University library where I'm writing this -- conjures a lot of creative ideas to write about), I just want to recap the past few weeks:

Heartbreak...A little boy named Tyler (4 years old) died suddenly of a rare heart condition at the end of July. Sarah went to school with his mom, and his grandfather is the associate pastor of her home church...and Joy...on Monday this week Sarah's twin, Sharon, gave birth to a little baby boy named Tyce.

Surrounded...Jeff Brewer and Mark White moved with their families to Huntington to plant Missio Dei Church. They are both good friends, strong men, and love Christ. I'm thankful for the brotherhood, the support, and their willingness to follow God...yet Isolated...we're all experiencingGod chipping away at our sense of identity, worth, faith, and dependence on Him. I can't quite explain it, but we knew in word that this (moving to Huntington to church plant) would be the hardest thing any of us had ever done. The reality sets in and God shows each of us through the same experience very different things about ourselves--things each of us must go through to be more of the men God's called us to be.

Work...endless tasks, time away from family, Starbucks and sub-contracting, cutting grass, washing cars, cleaning house, flooded basement, applications, meetings, and the list grows and grows...and Play...Ryleigh's first amusement park ride (looks of fear to immense excitement), swimming, 4th of July at the lake, Rib Fest, Annual father-and-son Horse Pulls at the State Fair, meals with the Whites and Brewers, arcade, bounce houses, and Olympics.

Missio Dei's website will be launched sometime next week, and I will be directing most of my blogging there. To the months ahead...

Tetris, anyone?

I was born in the 70's but was a child of the 80's. The fat daddy, green-screen Gameboy came out when I was a kid. The thing was about the size of a filing cabinet and could cause Carpal Tunnel if you weren't careful. One of the standards for the handheld gaming system was the game Tetris. The idea was to form lines across the screen by fitting dropping blocks together to make a connection. Once that happend, the line would disappear leaving more room for the continuously dropping blocks. It was my generation's Pong.

The game would get intense when you created more lines, advancing you to higher levels, and causing the pieces to fall faster. I liked that part -- fast-moving, fast-paced, think-on-your-feet fun. What I hated about that game was the first level especially. Pieces dropped so slowly it made me feel like Jack Nicholson in The Shining.

God dictates the timing that the pieces for Missio Dei fall into place. I have to repent when I want to throw the Gameboy across the room. I also have to be reminded that these are the early stages and must be played-out. There's no code to advance levels like Mike Tyson's Punch Out -- 007-373-5963. We don't get to skip ahead and not go through everything we're supposed to go through, no matter how much we might want to.

Vision

Where there is no vision the people cast off restraint.

Fail to plan; plan to fail.

Aim for nothing and you will hit it every time.

If the think you can or you think you can't, you're right.

It is said that we are all going somewhere but few of us are going there with a point. The experience of seven years of marriage has taught me that it is much easier to fall in a rut and let routine become normative. Watching tv and conversing only during commercials, pat answers devoid of vulnerability, or a total lack of communication with a spouse is much too easy. It is more difficult to be deliberate, honest, humble, and engaging with a spouse. The scenario plays out in many spheres: work, recreation, hobby, and home may all be effected by a casual, haphazard approach to life. Life just happens, passes before we know it, and leaves us wondering why we didn't experience the robust, fulfillment that Jesus offers through life in Him. This is life as worship: every act as a movement for God's glory.

While being grabbed with a vision for Missio Dei Church, I have put a lot of thought into a vision for my own life. In doing so, I now have a vision statement for my life. This is where I'm going, and going with a purpose. The vision statement for my life:

Pursue intimacy with Christ as my first priority; protect my family; preach the Gospel; plant churches.

Maybe you've had a vision for your life without ever articulating it. Answer the question: "What is God's vision for my life?" It could be that you've never thought about it. It may be that you've been spinning your wheels going nowhere. With much prayer and contemplation, develop a vision statement for you life, and move with a point. Converse, work, interact, rest, read -- live with a point.

Innocent Bystander

I got off work last night at 11:30 pm. I've been riding my bicycle to work for the last 3 weeks and locking it up during my shifts. When I unlocked it last night and started to peddle away I realized that the back tire was completely flat. While I was working someone slashed my tire.

It was close to a 4 mile walk home. It took nearly 3 of those miles for me to gain some perspective. Had I met the bike attacker, tire perpetrator, rubber-tubing vandalizer in the first 3 miles I would have fought for my bike's honor, and my pride. I was furious, angry, hurt, and embittered -- running through my head everyone I saw last night, wondering who and why they did it, and what I would do if I ran in to them.

In that moment several things dawned on me:

1. I've done far worse to God than what was done to me.
2. It's just a bike tire. In the grand scheme of things, it could have been much worse. Rapes, murders, abortions, genocides, and heinous crimes of which my mind can't comprehend put things in perspective.
3. Even for something so small I am only able to forgive when God gives me the strength to forgive.
4. When I know God is Just and Judicious, the mantle is removed from my shoulders to impart my own kind of justice when and how I see fit. I don't have to retaliate or give someone what they deserve.
5. Four miles takes much longer when dragging a bike.
6. I needed the time to forgive as I have been forgiven.

Not for the Faint of Heart

A friend emailed me a list of restaurants that I had to visit in Huntington. The most distinct and robust with personality, by far, is Hillbilly Hotdogs. If you eat indoors you will be eating in a school bus decked out with grafitti. The restaurant was featured on the Food Network not long ago and is quite the dining experience.

The menu highlights the Double Wide -- a 10 lb hamburger complete with 2 heads of lettuce, 2 onions, 24 slices of tomato, 24 slices of cheese, and 2 lbs of pickles. For hotdog lovers, the Homewrecker is a 3 lb hotdog with chili, cheese, nacho sauce, jalapenos, and deep fried! If you eat it in under 12 minutes you get a free T-Shirt -- makes the heart attack all the more worth it.

www.hillbillyhotdogs.com/menu.html

Diving In

Since moving to Huntington we joined the local YMCA. It has 2 pools with the warm pool starting at 6 inches deep and only increasing to 3 feet for a large section of it. This allows Ryleigh to have a huge area to roam before the water actually gets neck high...the point at which I discovered she backs off.

On our first trip in, we were having a great time until I noticed something taking place. Ryleigh was in 2 feet of water when she started to slip. It was like slow motion watching her trying to keep her balance but losing the battle. She finally went under! A split second later I pulled her up out of the water. She cried and clung to my neck like a drowning rat.

I could have stopped it. I was close enough to grab her before she went down. I didn't. If I'd stopped her from falling, she may not have learned the importance of measuring her steps. The sheer thrill of complete submergence would not have been a factor, and knowing that her daddy's not going to let her drown would have little impact. We've been back to the pool twice since and she's showed no signs of traumatic experience. She does hold tighter to daddy when traversing the deep end.

Faith is not something we can manufacture and produce more of in our own lives. God gives faith. He gives it to those who cling to Him in circumstances which drown others who live rebelliously idolatrous lives. For each step into the deep end God has allowed us to make, He's met us with the faith required to stay afloat. Every step we've made over the last 2 years has taken us deeper in our reliance on God to keep us from drowning. In this move to plant Missio Dei Church, we at times feel like we're in up to our neck. My comfort comes when I look to my Father to keep his hand on me while teaching me to navigate these waters.