ridiculous

OK....it's been two months since i've posted...no biggie, right? Just some thoughts....David Cook wins American Idol. That's my dude and all but I thought for sure that Archuleta was gonna win hands down. Not sure if winning Idol is always in the person's best interest (ex: Chris Daughtry, Josh Gracin)

I'm getting old....actually thought it was really cool getting to meet Richard Marx last week at Wildhorse Saloon. He performed with Matt Scallan (?) who is the lead singer for Vertical Horizon (Everything You Want, I'm A God). Now, some concerts that Sara and I go to are meant for rockin' out (Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard) and others are just to appreciate music. That's what Richard Marx's show was about....great acoustic work, no drums, only played keyboard on a couple of songs...the rest was guitar and that includes Should've Known Better and Don't Mean Nothin'.

And btw, kudos to the people at Wildhorse....we had gotten tickets that were to put us at a table near the front with other people. When we arrived, there was only one seat because there aren't assigned seats in the saloon. We told the manager that wouldn't work and we needed to sit next to each other so the manager grabs a smaller circular table with two chairs and puts it right in front of the stage and the people that had taken our seats were now graced with looking at the back of my big balding head! Felt pretty good for a moment so the picture is how close we were...not too shabby!

Today I made dinner for my wife...she's been working real hard at her job and I knew she could use the kind gesture. Granted, it was Hamburger Helper, corn and some salad but since I had just thought of it at about 3:00, I think it turned out okay. Sara has asked me to do stuff like that in the past and I really appreciate what she's sacrificing so that we can live from month to month while I figure out this whole youth ministry thing. She drives 30-40 minutes to work one way into downtown Nashville (actually West End but close enough) and sees almost 100 patients a day checking with her to end their day with their doctor. She learns quick but she's always enjoyed working in the health field and with people. I love my wife for doing what she's doing for us.

Praying for the tornado victims....it's been a crazy year and we've had some close calls. I thought West Texas was exciting when it came to weather....middle Tennessee has its share and it feels like it's been going on since February. Pray for relief with the gas....$60 to fill up my tank...I'd like to thank George Bush and our lawmakers for allowing this travesty to continue. Just my opinion. Pray for our youth group..a big three weeks coming up with Nashville Work Camp and our summer camp...two things I have never done before. I mean, I've done camp but haven't been a director of one...every day has been a learning experience and I'm finding out something else that I need to do everyday just to stay organized.

This is the answer to my prayer when I asked for leadership opportunities! May I take this bull by the horns and run with it!

nails+grace=Easter

Easter at White House Church of Christ is apparently a two-week event. On Palm Sunday (March 16) we did the easter-egg hunt/potluck celebration that turned into one of the best days you could ask for. The night before, we showed "Passion of the Christ" in our auditorium. It had been a while since some of the group had seen it and I wanted to start a discussion about the concepts of the movie and the focus on death and resurrection around the Easter holiday. That movie led to the final step for one of our kids, Erin Bauer, to decide to give her life to Christ during services on that Sunday morning. She said, "I never understood what the big deal about the cross was until I saw the movie." That quote has stayed with me for the last couple of weeks just to think about how many other people feel that same disconnect between Christianity and the actual reason why we have faith and what grace and mercy is.

As we get older, it's as if worshipping God isn't just a joy or a luxury to do or have, it's part of the weekly checklist. I know...I've been there. My generation and Erin's generation are a very visual generation. Pictures and music are put together to pull at the heartstrings and capture that moment where we are brought to our knees and reminded that our lives are bigger than what it seems and we are not our own...we are his.

Last Sunday being Easter Sunday, that same emotion was hard to grab on to. I don't know if it was the focus of the day, if we had formally celebrated Easter a week too early or what....I found myself kicking myself in the pants because I had too quickly lost the focus on the "big deal" about the cross. I need more Erin Bauer's around just to humbly let me know that my Christianity needs to thrive on my passion for Him and not so much if I can connect on a Sunday or not.....not really sure if this made sense or not. Hope everyone had a happy Easter!

Educating Aaron

Have you ever had an experience where, if someone were to ask you to describe someone to somebody else, you could do it in a heartbeat and have that person described to a tee? And then find out, in some cases you were right, but for the most part completely wrong?

Earlier this month, I got a phone call from my Dad letting me know that my step-dad, Ralph Vitale, had died from a massive heartattack. Ralph was 55 years old and way too young. My Mom and Dad divorced in 1992 and my Mom and Ralph were married in 1995. Ralph was the complete opposite of my Dad....spiritually, physically, mentally, socially....it was as if Mom sought out not to have the same experiences as she did with Dad. Ralph was happy-go-lucky and came from a messy marriage that continued to work into his everyday life even after him and Mom got married. Ralph was a big eater and a big sleeper. He was the only person I knew that could fall asleep at a Lions game....granted, this was back when the Lions were good....I'm sure sleeping at Lions games happens more regularly. (ugh!)

Ralph cared about family...his immediate and adopted family. He took pride in the importance of a good and healthy relationship. His awkwardness, humor and loud laughter were his trademark. He just loved being 10 years old because being an adult was too much work. Ralph was a workaholic but, within his work, he found ways to build relationships and make connections.

Not being in Michigan since 2002 and not seeing Ralph or my Mom since then, I had forgotten these things. I watched people that I had known for years when I lived in Michigan grieve for a person I thought I knew. People knew my step-dad better than his own step-son did. I can blame this on circumstances and distance and family issues and pride. For the five days that Sara and I were up in Michigan for the showing and the funeral, I felt like I was given a lesson in how to live life and how others really look for God qualities in a person when it's all said and done. Trying to carry this youth minister title, I feel like I'm supposed to make sure my group understands that. I feel like I was taught a lesson and humbled at the same time.

The family decided to have Ralph cremated and, on the Tuesday after the funeral, the ashes were delivered to Mom's house. It's humbling to see a body on Sunday and on Tuesday all that remains is in a nice wooden box that is smaller than a loaf of bread. Sara and I have decided that's what we want too. Mom held Ralph's remains close to her that afternoon and we put the urn on a mantle so now Mom has something tangible that will allow her to have Ralph around. If, for some reason, God calls me home early then I would want Sara to have something that she can hold and have nearby and vice-versa.

I guess the point of this is to try and not put someone in a "box" before time runs out and you are in one. Always be learning, relational and caring......people and God will honor you more for the love you give than what you take.

Tuesdays in Tennessee

There are certain things in life that are automatic....Texas and good barbeque, taxes, death and rain in Tennessee on Tuesdays. Every Tuesday since we've moved here it has either rain or snowed...no lie. And guess what it's doing today, Tuesday, March 4th....raining. I thought April showers brought May flowers. Apparently...January, February and March didn't get the memo.

By the way, the colder it is the more I want to eat. It's like hibernation....I'm wanting to store things away for some reason. Can't wait til' summer.

Sara and I move our "big" stuff into our new rental house on Saturday. Everybody hum "Wide Open Spaces" all together now...it'll be nice to stretch out even though we are VERY grateful to Mike Wall for renting us the place we have now. Thank God for the church and people looking out for us....now if I can have just one sunny Tuesday :)

Leap Years and Pepper Palaces

Just a quick random thought....why is it that the year we add a day to the calendar we call it Leap Year? Shouldn't the other three years be leap year since we're "leaping" over February 29 to get to March 1st quicker? All of these poor people who were born on 2/29 in 1972 just celebrated their 9th birthday last Friday. Their special day gets "leaped" over every year except once every four. When someone asks them what it will be like when they turn 40, they answer, "I don't know...I only change ages once every four years. My lifespan is 23!" We need to think of a better name and, come to think of it, this random thought wasn't so quick.

Sara and I went to Winterfest in Gatlinburg, Tennessee for the first time. Winterfest and Gatlinburg are literally two seperate events. If you've never been to Gatlinburg before going to Winterfest, you are in for brain overload. Due to a scheduling mishap by the previous youth minister before me, our group stayed in a town just outside of G-burg called Pigeon Forge that is, well, a small Gatlinburg but with much more go-carts and a Gatti's pizza.

Winterfest was incredible. Jeff Walling brought it...again. The praise and worship time was incredible. For two full days, you're getting fed love, grace, mercy and reality about where our teenagers are in their walk with God. Youth ministers all over get a reality check on where their group compares with others and if their ministry is sizing up with what it should be. Granted, I've only been "on the job" for a couple months but it gets you excited about where God will take you if you and the kids let Him. The big question of the weekend was, "Do they care?" A survey taken prior to the weekend said that teenagers today don't. I see that in some but I see the complete opposite in others and the passion of being a child of God and carrying that over to college life and adult life starts in two places: the home and the church building. The problem is that sometimes kids never get from home to the building and so that flame quietly fades away. You see kids that want to believe in something so bigger than themselves that they fight for that connection with God and for a relationship with others that also have that similar passion.

It's like the long walk I made on Saturday night to the Pepper Palace....this little store in a small mall that serves spices of all different flavors and alarms. Being that it was my first time to G-burg, W-fest and the first time with this group, I was properly initiated. My job was to survive the hottest sauce in the universe, galaxy, solar system...can't remember. Luckily, a doctor (who is also one of our elders) was standing by and provided a quick tip on how to properly sample this sauce. You take a mini-pretzel stick (fitting for a little store in a small mall), lightly dip the pretzel into the sauce and then try not to get any of it on your tongue...oh! and dip just enough so that people can see that you're sampling it. Did that (maybe a tad more than I should have) , went down OK and then the forehead started glistening but I did it. I also have the sticker (it's on my shirt) in my office to remember the occasion. Sometimes, to be able to get through what seems like an impossible situation, you need a little guidance and a little guts. The moment will pass, you may sweat a little but it's rewarding at the end not just for you but for others as well. There was a Wendy's on the first floor so the 99 cent frostee was a great finishing touch.

Comparing Pepper Palace to living out the mission wasn't my intent when I started writing this....that's the kind of writer I am. Maybe I'll just "leap" into something else random next time and see where that leads me.

sniffing, sneezing and super bowls

So, I'm trying to recover from what is the second day of this flu thing. I went to a doctor in Hendersonville, TN yesterday and she said, "You don't have the true flu...you have a different strain where your temperature doesn't get as high but you feel much more miserable" I'm not sure if that was supposed to make me feel better or not, but after leaving her office and saying hi to a friend from church who works there, I felt like I was going to pass out. I sat down, started coughing, put my head between my legs, began to sweat and then was rushed off to a room to lay down to have an EKG done and was administered about 10 ounces of sweet tea. I have probably slept more in the last day than I have in the last three or four days. Today is a little better....my temperature went from 102 yesterday down to 98 today...now it's just coughing and sniffling...yuck.

I meant to do this earlier in the week but didn't have the time. Super Bowl XLII was incredible and the big question is where it ranks in all of the greatest. I'm shocked that alot of Tennessee residents were willing to list this as the greatest of all time. Here's my Top 5 (and of course, these are the ones I was alive for):

5. Super Bowl XXIII (1989) San Francisco vs. Cincinnati. The Bengals have a 16-13 lead with just over 3 minutes remaining. The Niners take over at their 8-yard line and Joe Montana drives them down the field throwing the game-winning touchdown to John Taylor with only 34 seconds left on the clock. It was San Francisco's third Super Bowl championship. This is also the game where, on the last drive, Montana looked in the stands and then said to lineman Harris Barton, "Hey, look over there, isn't that John Candy?"

4. Super Bowl XXXVIII (2004) New England vs. Carolina. Thank God this game was good because, if it wasn't, it would've become the "wardrobe malfunction" bowl...maybe, in some circles, it still is. The Panthers and Patriots battled back and forth, mostly in the fourth quarter, in a closely contested game that set up the clutch field-goal kicking of Adam Vinatieri. The Panthers had tied the game at 29 with 1:04 remaining on a Jake Delhomme-Ricky Proehl touchdown pass. On the ensuing kickoff, Panthers kicker John Kasay kicked the ball out-of-bounds to give New England the ball 1st-and-10 at their own 4o. It was enough time for Tom Brady to get Vinatieri into range for a 41-yard field goal with :04 seconds left and a 32-29 win in Houston.

3. Super Bowl XLII (2008) NY Giants vs. New England. They broke up the perfect season, they finished what they couldn't in Week 17 and they showed everyone in the league that defense will always win championships. Eli Manning's touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress won the game but there are two other things that stand out in the Giants win over New England. 1) The long conversion pass from Manning to David Tyree where Manning somehow gets out of being sacked and Tyree catches the ball above his head, gets pummeled, and still hangs on to move the chains and keep Tom Brady off the field. The Giants' defense was unstoppable putting pressure on Brady all night long and keeping him rattled and unnerved. There was always the threat that Brady could hit Randy Moss deep at the end but the Giants kept doing what they had been doing well all night....played outstanding defense to give them another championship.

2. Super Bowl XXV (1991) NY Giants vs. Buffalo. It was the Bills' first of four consecutive Super Bowl losses, all to NFC East teams. Once to the G-Men, then to Washington and then twice to Dallas. All I have to say is...Scott Norwood, wide right.

1. Super Bowl XXXIV (2000) St. Louis vs. Tennessee. There's no way the Titans should have stayed close to the greatest show on turf. The Titans were lucky to be there to begin with thanks to the Music City Miracle on Wild Card weekend. So when Kurt Warner throws a 73-yard touchdown bomb to Isaac Bruce with 1:54 remaining to make it 23-16, the game was over! No way the Titans can move the ball that quickly with the kind of offense they have. Or could they? Tennessee had already come back from a 16-0 deficit so Steve McNair went to work, avoiding sacks and using Kevin Dyson. With 10 seconds left and no timeouts, McNair threw a slant pass to Dyson at the three-yard line. Dyson moved toward the end zone and would have scored if not for a great open tackle from Mike Jones to stop Dyson at the one. The picture of Dyson stretching out toward the end zone as the clock hit 0:00 and knowing his team needed a touchdown to win is why that game is my favorite.

So, apparently, my Facebook account is suffering from "overboard-itis"; it's a contagious disease that begins to spread when your friends want to know what kind of fruit, season, car, snowflake, smile or toothpaste you are (i exaggerated on some of that....slightly). Before you know it, your account begins to look like a used car lot.....too much junk and not alot of good quality. One of my friends from ACU, Garrett, put it best...."it looks like Facebook threw up on your profile". And, he was right. In the best interest of trying to find out useless information about myself, my Facebook profile had become a mine field of arrows, quotes, hugs, pillow fights, flying snowballs and random gifts.

Have I become a Facebook pack rat? Afraid to get rid of things because I may need to refer to someone's message, gift, superpoke, funwall or vegetable comparison? Now, I don't consider myself to be obsessive-compulsive (you should see my office) but I am very uncomfortable in random messes. I could give this to God but I think God would show me an example of, "God helps those who help themselves....take some time and clean your mess up". So, yesterday I went through and got rid of things that I knew I wouldn't refer to and even removed some friends that I really haven't talked to or had deep relationship with except on their birthday. In the midst of trying to keep things simple in life, work and church, I'm finding that it's best to keep things simple on Facebook as well.

Now, excuse me while I throw some snowballs at people...it is February in Tennessee after all!