Rain, Rain, Soggy, Sloppy Rain

Lately I have been feeling a little soggy, sloppy, slimy. Just like everyone in the southeast. With this relentless rain and temps in the 80's for weeks in a row now, if I'm not getting wet from what's falling out of the sky, it's what's pouring out of me like Hoover Dam just busted open out from under my armpits.

Now Autumn is my favorite season, so I do have the consolation of knowing that at least the temperatures will soon subside, and hopefully we will be drying out a bit too. The other upside is that when the sun does decide to show it's beautiful face again, everything will be so green and lush, like a tropical rain forest in good ole' Dixie.

What a change from this time last year when we were all so parched that an eyedropper full of rain was as scarce as hen's teeth.

I guess this all boils down to the fact that, if you just look around and choose to learn, you can find something positive in every situation. I love the seasons. I think God gives them to us so we can better appreciate his creation. We get to see it in a full array of Fall color, the fury of a powerful lightening storm, the peaceful Winter snows, Spring's verdant bliss, and the lazy, hazy, crazy days of Summer. About the time one is coming to a close, I cannot wait for the other to bring something different.

Life is that way. If you are stuck, just hold on, keep looking toward heaven, and a new season will come eventually. You might even learn some patience in the meantime.

9-11

This is a day that forever take me back. A day that will always make me ache with sadness and swell with pride. A day that I still have nightmares about from time to time. This is a day that makes me so mad that I could easily justify the most horrendous torture imaginable if it meant bringing every last one of those pathetic murderers who knocked down our twin towers and killed our firemen and innocent civilians to justice.

I work out with a bunch of firemen and EMTs. I know that their wives worry about them every time they go to work. I know that they are some of the toughest guys I have ever encountered. I know that I do not have what it takes to do what they do. God has gifted them with a bravery and a sense of adventure that I envy and respect.

The men who walked into those buildings with the singular mission that was to save as many lives as possible were that same breed. Brave, selfless, yea, maybe a little rough around the edges, but when things get as bad as they can get, those are the guys I want backing me up.

Never forget. Never forget. Never forget the surge of patriotism that we all felt together, the fear we shared, the tears we cried, the painful hours we spent glued to the TV, the blood we donated, the ones who are still fighting the fight that began that terrible day, the ones who died that day. Never forget.

Find a Mentor, Be a Mentor

This happy little bundle of joy is Mugisha.

Last week I got to spend some time helping him and several of our other African friends move. Amanda and I met them while teaching ESL on Wednesday nights last winter at Christ Church. I hope I am an encouragement to them. I am truly inspired by them, and intrigued by their culture. In my attempt to enlighten them about the countless things they need to know as they continue to make the transition to becoming African Americans, I have remembered some of the people who have been important in directing my life.

My good friend Amanda Phillips always likes to get information in bullets, not paragraphs. So, in honor of Amanda, I will give a list of reasons why you should find a mentor and be a mentor.

1. There is no possible way you know everything you need to know about what you do/want to do. If you just look around there are certainly people who know way more than you who need to share their skills with you.

2. It is guaranteed that someone around you is suffering because they do not know something that you could be sharing with them if you would just notice, and make them a priority.

3. Relationships, to me, are the most important thing in life. If you are mentoring and are being mentored, you are building on to the quality of your life and others lives around you.

4. You get paid for what you know, not for what you do. It is a way for you to know more.

5. A mentor is someone whose mistakes you do not have to repeat.

6. You will need good people around you when you get old. The people you mentor might be those people.

7. Being a mentor is a wonderful way that you can leave a legacy.




This is Bertha. They pronounce her name "Mmberta." That laundry basket was overflowing with not only laundry, but all kinds of very heavy things, and she was balancing it with no hands while walking!

Louisville

This is a post that somehow got deleted last summer. If it looks familiar, it was posted for a few days and then something happened that made it go away. But it is back for your winter enjoyment

Last weekend, we went to Louisville, KY for me to research the World's Championship Saddlebred Horse Show there. We brought our friend, Amanda Phillips along just for fun. (She's on the right, and my Amanda is the one saying to herself, when are you going to let us get up!?)

There was no shortage of fun to be had. Bardstown Road had some really cool shops where we spent the afternoon just looking around. First things first, we had sushi at The Dragon King's Daughter. It was excellent sushi at a great value. After lunch we stopped into Clay and Cotton. The Amanda's were looking for bargains, but all the colorful stuff in there put me in the mood to take pictures.




I believe these were rolls of paper. It might have been fabric; either way, I thought it made a fun pic.


















Then we went into this funky dress shop, but all I could look at were the Styrofoam heads wearing big hats.



This chick is pretty content with her hat. She knows she probably couldn't do much better with those wrinkles and that big beauty mark.














This girl looks like she really has something going on under her sparkly pink hat. She's got some big ole lips.















Speaking of big... This size L "reading is sexy" t-shirt was at a neat store called "Why Louisville." There were so many cool things in there I can't even begin to describe it. Maybe I can. They had a six foot tall wolf man dressed like a nerd, a box of Mr. T Cereal, some extremely colorful poodle watering cans, pretty much anything you would need.



This little elf man looks creepy, in my favorite kind of way. Like he might jump out from behind that glass and say, "At your SUUH-VICE!"









The KY State Fair was going on at the same time as the horse show. I have never seen such clean cows!





This horse show is the fanciest one I have ever seen. There was a brass ensemble in addition to the regular organist. And the same bugle player who plays for the Derby. It was truly a high falooting ordeal. You know, you might be surprised at just how much those Kentuckians know about horses! Almost as much as us Tennesseans.

Thanks to Jason and Lyndsy Hammil for graciously hosting us. And to Kent Moeller for the passes to the Fair and the Horse Show. We had such a great time!

You Might Stinketh

I noticed this little sign a few days ago and I started thinking; there are a lot of people who saw this sign and took it to heart! A brief explanation: I was at a big horse show and, by necessity, there are designated areas for such things.

Do you ever catch yourself noticing only life's manure? Unfortunately, I do. It's everywhere, and sometimes it seems to demand our attention. The problem is when we come to believe that we are somehow superior in our observations of life. Then, by focusing our attention on negative things, we slip into a bitter and jaded mentality, or a very crappy way of thinking.

John Calhoun was my pastor at The Lamb's Church of the Nazarene when I lived in New York City several years ago. He once preached a sermon on this topic that stuck with me until now. He said that it doesn't take a genius to point out the problems in a situation. They are easy to spot. That sounds simple, but if you actually begin to try to shift your focus away from the negativity as a habit, it starts to seem more and more profound.

What you choose to notice makes all the difference.


At that same horse show, we looked up one evening and the sky was like that beautiful scene from "Gone With the Wind" where Scarlett's dad, Gerald O'Hara, explains the importance of Tara. Now if Scarlett had been paying attention to some poop on the ground instead of listening to her father in that moment, she would have had nothing to say after Rhett delivered his most famous "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" line. That's when she remembers "I know what I'll do, I'll go back to Tara!"

Pay attention to what you notice, and make sure it is not only manure. Think about it. You become what you focus on. As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.

Maybe if you are not happy with the direction of your life right now, you need to consider what you thinketh, because you might just stinketh.