A digital commonplace for a Regular Guy called Charlie Pharis

Month: November 2005 (page 1 of 3)

Foxworthy Would Be Proud…

stuck-4door
OK, so I was searching the web this morning, looking for some stuff, and I came across the picture above. My first thought…

If you’ve ever got your souped-up Chevy stuck while mud-boggin’…

Well, you know the rest of that sentence, don’t you?

Come to think of it, that picture just might make a great foundation for another Gary Lamb shot. Hmmm…

Building Community, One Dawg at a Time…


You may have surmised, if you read my post after the Georgia-Georgia Tech game the other day, that I’m not really a big Dawgs fan. That’s kind of funny, because I have been a pretty big fan of their coaches.

This article about the “hot seat” reminds me why I like Coach Richt…

That’s where player after player, person after person, senior after senior, stepped up and Georgia became a team.

“It’s what unites us,” [quarterback D.J.]

Shockley said.

Four years, that chair has sat there. They call it “the hot seat.” Each August, players � seniors primarily � are asked to sit there. Every Georgia player and every coach is right there with them. And then they just tell their story. However painful, however difficult, they tell it.

And this…

“That is what brings you that much closer together,” [junior rover Tra] Battle said. “You get past the realization that it is not just your teammate, but this is your brother. This a family member. This is someone that you love. And that is reality of what the hot seat is intended to do.”

Not in a selfish, self-serving my-life-was-more-difficult-than-yours manner, but in a way that allows teammates to understand each other. That’s why [safety Greg] Blue stepped up and told his story.

“It let them know that I can trust them,” he said. “Usually, you don’t tell everybody what you have been going through, but I was able to tell my teammates and my coaches what has been going on in my life.”

And the team starts to understand the person more than the player.

Exorcising the Ghost of Christmas Past…


I’m becoming convinced that many of us just don’t get it when it comes to Christmas.

We’re frustrated by unfulfilled expectations. We’re frazzled by the unrelenting calendar. Some of us are so burdened and burned out by unpleasant and even harmful memories of Christmases past, that we don’t realize the glory of the Great Invasion.

Robert Greenleaf, of Servant Leadership fame, had such unpleasant memories of childhood Christmases gone bad. Yet, he decided to compensate by going all out to celebrate the coming of Jesus.

Check this great story over at the Servant Leadership blog. And then decide, right now, once and for all, that nothing is going to keep you from knowing, experiencing, and sharing the Good News of Great Joy this year and every year.

Sunday Night Unwind, 11.27.05…


Tonight’s unwind is interesting in that it consists of three separate collections with the same title!

Eric Tingstad and Nancy Rumbel’s acoustic guitar set is called The Gift. It includes some of the best-known traditional Christmas songs, but in a way you may not be used to hearing them done.

Liz Story is one of my favorite pianists. I discovered her on the Windham Hill stuff several years ago. Her Christmas offering is also entitled, appropriately, The Gift.

Jim Brickman is another pianist from up on the Hill. A little more “sentimental” in his approach than Liz Story, but great Christmas stuff nonetheless. I really like the Point of Grace rendition of the non-holiday-standard Hope Is Born Again.

You’ll give a great gift to yourself and everyone in your house tonight if you’ll put these CDs on, light up one of Scott Hodge’s candles, and unwind from a weekend of mall crowds and church crowds. I’m using the time right now to finish up some notes to guests from our worship sevice today and some other loose end kind of stuff. All three of these “Gifts” are absolutely perfect for a Sunday night unwind.

Enjoy…