Just Charlie

A digital commonplace for a Regular Guy called Charlie Pharis

Month: July 2007 (page 1 of 2)

July 29, 2007 / 1 Comment

Looks Like Another “Sleepless in Canton” Night…

I’m tired, but I can’t go to sleep…for the second night in a row!

Last night (this morning), I hit the sack around 12:15 a.m. I had just dozed off when the phone rang. It was the alarm company alerting me to an “incident” at our church. The conversation went something like this…

  • Me: Hello?
  • Alarm Guy: Rev. Pharis? This is North Fulton Alarm, we’re reporting an incident at Stonecrest Baptist Church on Arnold Mill Road. Should I dispatch the police?
  • Me: Sure, and I’ll be over there in a few minutes.
  • Alarm Guy: How long will it be before you get there?
  • Me: Oh, 5 or 10 minutes, I suppose.
  • Alarm Guy: Will it be 5 or will it be 10? I’ll report you’ll arrive in 7 minutes. What will you be driving so I can tell the officer?
  • Me: A red 1999 F-150 pickup.

Of course, when Cherokee County’s Finest arrived, we scoped out the place and found nothing out of the ordinary. I piddled around a bit and came back home. Here’s where the sleepless night took a turn for the weird…

I got back in the bed, and had just gotten to sleep again, around 2:30 a.m. The phone rang again. And this is what ensued…

  • Me: Hello?
  • Caller: Rev. Pharis? This is the alarm company, reporting an incident at First Baptist Church of Chattahoochee.
  • Me: Huh?!?!? What did you say? It’s been over four years since I was the pastor at Chattahoochee. I think you probably need to call somebody else!

Well, at that point, the sleep was gone, so I just got up. I paid for it all day today, and it looks like I’ll be up again tonight. Call me if you’re up and can’t sleep. Unless you’re employed by the alarm company from four years ago…then don’t bother…

July 26, 2007 / 0 Comments

Thursday Night Thoughts, Part Deux…

What happens when your mind races and goes nowhere…

  • Banks, country clubs, gay porn? Yeah…change it!
  • I’m blessed beyond measure to get to hang with some of the people I get to hang with. Thanks, guys!
  • Little kids. Swimming lessons. Too funny!
  • Don’t ask!
July 26, 2007 / 0 Comments

Thursday Night Thoughts…

Just some stuff rolling around in and out of my head tonight, in no particular order…

  • Helping people start on a healthy fitness habit is a lot like being a pastor. If you’re not careful, you can talk about the stuff and neglect doing what you’re talking about. Put it another way: YMCA wellness coaches may be in danger of having their own advances in weight loss, fitness, etc. take a hit while they try to help others start their own good habits. Diligence is the key in anything, I guess.
  • It’s official: Summer is just about one week too long. The lovely and gracious “Mrs. Just Charlie” is back at her school this week, and she’s already a lot happier. And I’m not on her nerves quite as much.
  • I never want to strike out preaching like I did last Sunday. Never again.
  • People who need excuses the least are the ones who seem to find the most. (See the thought at the top of this list).
  • People are not really very realistic. If you’re 32, about 5’7” and you weigh 270+, chances are you’re probably not going to lose 100 pounds by Christmas. You might, but it’s not likely. Especially if you sign up at the Y on Tuesday, and you’ve already got an excuse or three by Thursday. (See the thought immediately preceding this one).
  • 60+ year old former computer engineers with bad knees and a great sense of humor are probably more likely to achieve their fitness goals than 30-somethings who have too many excuses.
  • Funerals are sad. Sometimes even more so.
  • Being out of the loop stinks. Especially when you try really hard to act like you’re in it.
  • British accents are very cool.
  • 2.5 miles before the sun comes up is, too.
  • Jack Johnson is all right.
  • Unexpected good news is very good. But its goodness is somewhat diminished when it’s immediately followed by disappointing news.
  • “The Boy” rocks!
  • I’m learning to depend more on God and my Day-Timer.
  • Bivocational? Nothing to it! Quadri-vocational? Now that’s a trick!
July 26, 2007 / 0 Comments

Thursday Night Thoughts…

Just some stuff rolling around in and out of my head tonight, in no particular order…

  • Helping people start on a healthy fitness habit is a lot like being a pastor. If you’re not careful, you can talk about the stuff and neglect doing what you’re talking about. Put it another way: YMCA wellness coaches may be in danger of having their own advances in weight loss, fitness, etc. take a hit while they try to help others start their own good habits. Diligence is the key in anything, I guess.
  • It’s official: Summer is just about one week too long. The lovely and gracious “Mrs. Just Charlie” is back at her school this week, and she’s already a lot happier. And I’m not on her nerves quite as much.
  • I never want to strike out preaching like I did last Sunday. Never again.
  • People who need excuses the least are the ones who seem to find the most. (See the thought at the top of this list).
  • People are not really very realistic. If you’re 32, about 5’7” and you weigh 270+, chances are you’re probably not going to lose 100 pounds by Christmas. You might, but it’s not likely. Especially if you sign up at the Y on Tuesday, and you’ve already got an excuse or three by Thursday. (See the thought immediately preceding this one).
  • 60+ year old former computer engineers with bad knees and a great sense of humor are probably more likely to achieve their fitness goals than 30-somethings who have too many excuses.
  • Funerals are sad. Sometimes even more so.
  • Being out of the loop stinks. Especially when you try really hard to act like you’re in it.
  • British accents are very cool.
  • 2.5 miles before the sun comes up is, too.
  • Jack Johnson is all right.
  • Unexpected good news is very good. But its goodness is somewhat diminished when it’s immediately followed by disappointing news.
  • “The Boy” rocks!
  • I’m learning to depend more on God and my Day-Timer.
  • Bivocational? Nothing to it! Quadri-vocational? Now that’s a trick!
July 26, 2007 / 0 Comments

An Earworm of the Worst Kind…

Last night – or maybe it was at the crack of dawn this morning, I don’t remember just now – I heard the Suzanne Vega/DNA “classic” Tom’s Diner. And now I can’t get it out of my mind. Between that and Ace of Base’s Beautiful Life, it’s just been one of those “catchy tunes” kind of days…

Crap! Now, I’ve got it really bad! Add some ATC to the mix and your earworms are really getting ridiculous!

July 23, 2007 / 0 Comments

Leaders ARE Readers…

Came across this fascinating article in the New York Times about the libraries of CEOs. A couple of quotes that are sticking with me this morning…

Serious leaders who are serious readers build personal libraries dedicated to how to think, not how to compete. Ken Lopez, a bookseller in Hadley, Mass., says it is impossible to put together a serious library on almost any subject for less than several hundred thousand dollars.

Forget finding the business best-seller list in these libraries. “I try to vary my reading diet and ensure that I read more fiction than nonfiction,” Mr. Moritz said. “I rarely read business books, except for Andy Grove’s ‘Swimming Across,’ which has nothing to do with business but describes the emotional foundation of a remarkable man. I re-read from time to time T. E. Lawrence’s ‘Seven Pillars of Wisdom,’ an exquisite lyric of derring-do, the navigation of strange places and the imaginative ruses of a peculiar character. It has to be the best book ever written about leading people from atop a camel.”

C.E.O. libraries typically lack a Dewey Decimal or even org-chart order. “My books are organized by topic and interest but in a manner that would make a librarian weep,” Mr. Moritz said. Is there something “Da Vinci Code”-like about mixing books up in an otherwise ordered life?

Could it be possible to read Phil Knight’s books in the order in which Mr. Knight read them — like following a recipe — and gain the mojo to see a future global entertainment company in something as modest as a sneaker? The great gourmand of libraries, the writer Jorge Luis Borges, analyzed the quest for knowledge that causes people to accumulate books: “There must exist a book which is the formula and perfect compendium of all the rest.”

The article refers to Sidney Harman…

Mr. Harman reads books the way writers write books, methodically over time. For two years Mr. Harman would take down from the shelf “The City of God” by E. L. Doctorow read the novel slowly, return it to the shelves, and then take it down again for his next trip. “Almost everything I have read has been useful to me — science, poetry, politics, novels. I have a lifelong interest in epistemology and learning. My books have helped me develop a way of thinking critically in business and in golf — a fabulous metaphor for the most interesting stuff in life. My library is full of things I might go back to.”

July 22, 2007 / 0 Comments

Sunday Night Unwind, 07.22.07…


My Unwind actually started before I got home after our evening service. I had a pretty personal and intense time of worship in our auditorium after everybody else left. Part pity party, part prayer time, part Bible study, part vision thing, just an interesting time alone with God and my thoughts. The Everything Glorious CD from the gang over at Passion provided the soundtrack, and I just put it back on when I got home.

Especially powerful right now is Kristian Stanfill’s rendition of Jesus Paid It All and Chris Tomlin’s I Stand Amazed (How Marvelous). Old songs with a great new twist…

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