Category: Unwinds (page 3 of 8)

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!

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!

Long, interesting day today. In case you’re interested – all two of you – it went and is going something like this…

• The soundtrack for tonight’s Unwind is courtesy of Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis. Love their new CD, Two Men with the Blues! Some reviewer talked about how Willie’s losing it vocally. Maybe, but the blues in his voice is the real deal! (Can I get an Amen?)
• “The Boy” was home for a surprise visit over the weekend. Always good to spend a little time with him. Even if some of that time was spent in Bass Pro Shop! (Camouflage light switch covers, anyone? Maybe a largemouth bass mailbox? What about a toilet paper roller made out of deer antlers?) And we think Jesus Junk is way out there!
• Talked about power this morning. Which was especially apropos since many of our people had been without it for about 12 hours!
• Overheard one of our women say something like…“I was so focused on Charlie’s sermon I forgot to take notes!” Cool. I guess…
• Had a great opportunity to bless a couple in our church in a very real, specific way. And that was very cool!
• Lunch. O’Charley’s. Saw about 7 of my Y folks who were paranoid about what they were eating. Too funny! (I guess it’s kind of like when you see your teacher in the grocery store or something like that!)
• Talked about Barnabas this evening. I think of all the characters in the Bible, I’d like to be like ol’ Barney! Encourager and all that jazz…
• Mad dash after our evening service to the lake for a farewell party for my Y boss. Pretty low-key affair, about a dozen or so folks. Good food, good fun, lousy Jimmy Buffett/Kenny Chesney wannabe providing the entertainment. (The bottom of the check said, “Live music 3-8 pm Sunday.” One of our Y peeps observed: “It’s after 8, and there hasn’t been any live music since we got here, but that guy keeps on going!”)
• The shrimp po-boys aren’t quite the same in Cherokee County, Georgia as they are in N’awlins, but they’ll do in a pinch.
• I just realized that next-to-last bullet point was very un-Barnabas-like. (“Forgive me, Lord, and bless all the pygmies in the Congo!”)
• Treated Dr. Jerry Vines to Starbucks on the way home. He was just in from Springdale, Arkansas. “Not the end of the world, but you can see it from there,” I opined.
• While at Starbucks, I watched one of the baristas roll his own smoke. I thought that was a lost art that went out when Moses was just a corporal. Interesting….
• Finishing up a little reading, then off to bed, because 4 am comes dark and early!
• Oh, one more thing…our little a/c replacement is only going to be less than $15,000. Notice I said “only.” Lots better than the 19 grand we originally thought it was going to be.

I’m out. See y’all in the morning!