A digital commonplace for a Regular Guy called Charlie Pharis

Month: November 2008 (page 1 of 1)

Sunday Night Unwind, 11.16.08…

It’s been a cold breezy November day here in north Georgia. All in all, a pretty good day in our world. Some of what made it the way it was…

  • Long-distance birthday wishes to my dad. he hit the big 81 today! And he opined that since he hadn’t seen his name in the obituary section of the newspaper, it had been a pretty good day!
  • The day started waaaaay early for a Sunday! Actually, Sunday was just a continuation from Saturday night. The only sleep I got was about an hour’s worth, sitting right here in my desk chair. Why? I don’t know! I was just pretty jacked up about Sunday, I guess!
  • Not too bad a day at The ‘Crest.
  • The Falcons were thaaaaat close!
  • Today’s One Year Bible selections from Psalm 115, Ezekiel 33-34, and Hebrews 13 are still challenging me on leadership. (Obligatory blog-stat-increasing mention of Gary Lamb: I know, I know…so what am I going to about that challenge now?!?!).
  • A rare day in “traditional church” circles: Not a hymnal in sight!
  • Otis Redding was genius, who left us waaaaaay too early!
  • BTW, did I ever tell you about having a class with Otis’ daughter, Karla? Funny story about the day she was absent from our 200-student biology lecture!
  • New goodies around here, music and books!
  • Music? Harry Connick, Jr.’s What a Night! via the best big brother I ever had, Yo-Yo Ma and friends’ Songs of Joy & Peace via Starbucks on iTunes. Waiting for the new Enya Christmas project to be ready for downloading.
  • Books? ESV Study Bible, half-price at LifeWay, and Gordon MacDonald’s Who Stole My Church? The Bible has already been used, and the other one is waiting patiently until I finish the in-process books in my bag right now!
  • Three “Guys’ Essential” movies on TV tonight: The Godfather, The Godfather II, and Braveheart. Leadership lessons abound, except Braveheart was on one of the Spanish language channels. Kind of funny listening to the “fine speech” dubbed en Español!

OK, sorry for the incoherent, irrelevant ramblings. That’s about all I’ve got in the tank tonight! Gotta get up and get going dark and early as usual about five hours and some change from now! Hope your day was great! Hope you’ll make your Monday count…it’s the only one you’ll get this week! See you later!

Sunday Night Unwind, 11.09.08…

Back in the saddle at The ‘Crest today. OK day, something like this…

  • Had a little musical “meltdown” this morning. The worship “leader” botched it pretty bad! 🙂
  • Recovered, though!
  • Pretty excited in my message about “rejoice!”
  • Great afternoon at our favorite little Eye-talian place.
  • During lunch, I got to be Gary’s living, breathing concordance! (No, being his research flunkie/Scripture-finder is not the big possible team addition he’s talking about!)
  • Hey! The Falcons won again!
  • I’m committed to finishing the “currently in progress” books in my bag and on my desk before starting any new ones. And I’m going to try to be a little more disciplined in my reading for a while.
  • “God of This City” is still rocking my world! I like Bluetree’s lyrics better than the Chris Tomlin version. Also Bluetree’s version is “darker” and more “haunting” to me musically. Plus the back story is challenging.
  • The “service engine soon” light is on in the lovely and gracious “Mrs. Just Charlie’s” car. I hope it’s nothing $eriou$!
  • Good Cal Thomas column, post-election and moving forward.
  • Have you been over to 500uniforms.org and helped my buddy Shaun King make a big difference in one school in Atlanta?
  • Why not?
  • I’m really torn between loving our people and making some wholesale changes for the future. I know that’s not a good place to be, but it’s the “old school” in me, I guess!
  • How do you go about stoking a passion to see your community change?
  • Listening to the first Passion CD, from 1998!
  • Part-time gig at the Y is helping create some “margin” financially, but stress meter is getting pegged more often than not.
  • Some of our Y folks need to read some Patrick Lencioni.
  • Thought I was going to get a new old notebook computer. Turns out it’s going to be $400 to get it up and running correctly. Think I’ll pass.
  • Still seriously thinking about a BlackBerry, though. Probably the Curve. We’ll see…
  • Anyone using the ESV Study Bible yet? What do you think?
  • Laminin.
  • One Year Bible? Today’s readings – Ezekiel 20 and Hebrews 9 – rocked pretty good! Rules, commandments, rituals: just shadows of the real deal, and cannot give life. Jesus, on the other hand IS the real deal, and He gives grace, forgiveness and life!

And with that, I’m out! See y’all dark and early at the Y! Peace!

One Last Post-Election Post…

…then I’m done. Life is way too short to keep focusing on the negative! Here goes…

  • I think it’s very, very sad – and shows a real lack of character – when politicians who create the division and rancor in the country, try to appeal to unity after they win elections.
  • I think it’s very interesting – and very telling – that the silly political pundits who as recently as this week, told us over and over and over that the economic crisis is all because of George Bush, now suddenly start tamping down the hype and the expectations by saying the President really has very limited effect on the state of the economy. It really must be the world’s “suckiest” job to have to lie with a straight face every day of your life!
  • I think it’s disingenuous and downright dishonest for people who actively sought to paint John McCain as the worst possible candidate for President now try to paint him as an honorable man, blah, blah, blah! They’re lying one of those times…which time?
  • I think it’s laughable that a candidate whose whole spiel was “change” can only find Clinton administration retreads for his administration.
  • I think if the country is really in such economic crisis times, we don’t have the money for lavish Inaugural parties, balls, and other assorted shindigs. Let’s get to work fulfilling all the campaign promises. No time for partying! Shut the heck up and get on with it!
  • I think the sad saga of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens may just illustrate part of the real problem with politics in our country. He’s way past retirement age, and he’s now a convicted felon. Yet, he’s determined to go back to Washington. Whoever said that power corrupts was probably right on the money. I’m not sure the Founders intended for politicians to become a permanent power elite in Washington, DC.
  • I think Oprah has cried and bloviated quite enough, thank you. And not just about this election.
  • I think we don’t need any outsiders to tell us how to vote for our Senator in Georgia over the next month. Stay home and keep your money!
  • I think part of the genius of America is that we can disagree with a person’s ideas and still like them, if we are honest and respectful.
  • I think we have a duty when “our guy” loses to be the “loyal opposition.” “Loyal,” because the “other guy” is now all of “our guy.” And “opposition,” because winning an election still does not make the winner always right. And we have the responsibility to hold our public servants accountable to the people they serve.

All right! That’s it! Thanks for playing! And unless something else stupid comes up about this historic election, that’s all I’ve got to say about that!

One Slightly Bitter Post to Clear Out My System…

Now that this loooooooooonnnnnnnggggg election cycle is finally coming to an end, I’ve got a couple of thoughts and observations. (Note: These are the ponderings of a disappointed, slightly cynical, slightly bitter American. I’ll be OK…just let me process these things a minute.)

  • Funny, how our nation has been in existence over 232 years, and for the most part, the mainstream media is telling us that we have never had a President until this very day!
  • I hope that same media will now be as diligent in telling us how rotten, awful, corrupt, stupid, and whatever negative adjectives you can think of this new administration is as they have been in telling us every single day those things about the current administration. (BTW, I’m not holding my breath!)
  • In fact, I really don’t wish that kind of treatment on anybody. President Bush has not been perfect, but I believe he is a good man, with noble intentions and a fairly reasonable intellect, who has always had the best interests of our nation at heart. President-elect Obama, I believe, is the same kind of man, and I hope no one tries to smear his character like the unprecedented smearing of President Bush’s.
  • I wish all those suddenly-spiritual folks calling for unity behind, support for, and prayers for President-elect Obama will remember they need to be doing the same for President Bush for the next couple of months. (Hmmmm….funny, isn’t it, that they should have been doing that all along, but weren’t.)
  • Funny – not “funny ha-ha”, but funny tragic – comment from an Obama-maniac at the YMCA this morning: “I think it’s wonderful that we elected that nice little ni**er boy to be our President! He’s the best!”
  • Where do I send my change of address forms for my gas bill, mortgage, etc.? After all if we elect Senator Obama, we’ll never have to worry about paying those things again, right?
  • Some change! I paid two cents more for gas this morning, and the stock market is down. Silly me…I thought everything was going to be immediately better?
  • Oh, somebody somewhere in the world is blaming the United States for every problem in the whole wide world. I thought they were supposed to like us now?
  • I’m not really crazy about President-elect Obama, but I sure nothing untoward happens to him. Vice-President-elect Biden scares me a lot!

OK, I think that just about does it…feeling much better now! The sun came up in the east this morning. I had a great workout already, and I’ve got great things to do for the Kingdom of God. Oh, and I’ve prayed for President-elect Obama already.

I’ve got one more post-election post, but it’ll be some time later today!

Sunday Night Unwind, 11.02.08…

I just finished up a pretty hectic weekend, filled with a LOT of driving! So now I’m finally home, and I’m wiped out, but just too jacked up to go to bed! Here are some highlights, thoughts, etc….

  • A trip to south Georgia and back, while not nearly as long as it used to be, is still a killer. TWO of those trips in 72 hours is even worse!
  • Had a great time at my home church today. It was the annual “homecoming” celebration our tribe is famous for (let the reader understand!).
  • I don’t know what a “normal” crowd is like for that church, but it seemed to be a pretty good turnout today.
  • Did you know I have a big brother who can sing? Did you know he’s the best big brother I’ve got? Oh, did you know he’s the only brother – big or otherwise – that I have?
  • Oh, and did you know he did a great job today?
  • It doesn’t take a lot to make my mom and dad happy and proud.
  • I stoleborrowed some a couple of lines from a couple one of my heroes today. (EDIT: I am now giving him props on the blog, but he stole the lines from someone else in the first place!)
  • I used a great Winston Churchill quote.
  • Throw in an Andy Stanley reference and you’ve got it made.
  • Had a cool kid get baptized before the first service this morning. Great touch on the baptism, Bob! Thanks!
  • I talked to that kid during my message in the early service.
  • It’s really tough to remember names of people you haven’t seen in a lot of years. It’s even tougher to admit you can’t remember them from Adam. But in the long run, that’s better than just acting like you really do know who they are when you have no clue!
  • Some people change. Some people never change. Some people really need to change.
  • Did I mention my mom and dad were proud and happy?
  • I think all church guitarists secretly want to bust out a little “Sweet Home Alabama” or “Layla” or “Smoke on the Water” or “Walk This Way” or something!
  • I felt sorry for the kid who obviously lost a bet, and was wearing an ugly, garish, obnoxious FloriDUH Gators t-shirt to church – and looking none too happy about it!
  • The only thing worse than obnoxious redneck UGA fans is even more obnoxious redder-neck FloriDUH Gators fans. Yes, I saw plenty of both on the road this weekend!
  • My wife predicted yesterday that one Florida team would lose and one Georgia team would lose. She was right, but she was wrong!
  • I love listening to Christy Nockels sing “Hosanna.” Perfect for a Sunday night unwind.
  • Oh, last thing…we may have to make a pastoral visit to the Cherokee County jail over noise and a sign ordinance. I’m just saying…

Hope your weekend has been great! Hope you made your momma proud! Hope your team won! Hope you did something great for God! Hope you have a great night! I’ll see you dark and early at the Y in the morning! Peace!