home group

saddens me sometimes how many pastors have a difficult time finding genuine friendships within their church; i'm so thankful to Christ that my experience is different. our home group is about 5 months old or so, and already it's starting to feel a little like home. Roni and i really are starting to love the friendship and support we find there. refreshing, blessing, encouragement in abundant supply. one can't put a pricetag on that--it's like it comes straight from the hand of God.

tried playing guitar for worship again last night (vs. cd). stuck with songs that felt easy to play (satsify, be the center, here i am to worship). seemed to survive all right--no one walked out :) asked Ronni to sing really loud, which helps me stay in rhythm.

going to Comerica Park (the new Tiger Stadium) tonight for the first time with my dad, sister (Grace), and son. to say Colin is excited would be the understatement of the day.

speaking of Detroit sports, how 'bout them Lions, eh? 2-0 sure feels good for September. Roy Williams has impressed me...seems like a man among boys out there sometimes.

the evangelical outpost

stumbled across a thoughtful, provacative, intelligent blog today. called the evangelical outpost, i noticed it while googling "evangelical" for some sermon research. intriguging posts on all sorts of topics, and seems to be host to a vibrant community of thoughtful commenters, as well (much like this blog, too, of course). check it out here. for a sample that highlights the comments of the many-perspectived blog-followers this web log attracts, direct your attention to the post entitled "creation and differentiation: an interpretive framework of genesis 1 (part 1)"

naturally has a bit of a political bent (just like most people), but not as much as one might expect (from a blog entitled the evangelical oupost).

tripping the light fantastic

tonight was "date night", which really means family night until Colin goes to bed. it's the one evening a week that we preserve from any other commitments, church or otherwise. put on some remixes of U2 songs and danced the night away in the living room. Colin's got his own style: a disco / martial arts / gymnatics / ballet hybrid. lots of tumbling and kicking and punching and leaping and twirling. Ronni and I showed him a little bit of swing dancing (no tosses, mind you...probably not great for either the baby or my back, not to mention that we never really learned that part of the swing anyway).

discovered an added benefit to the new windows that were recently installed: much better sound insulation. we cranked the bass on "Mysterious Ways" to the point of picture rattling, and didn't get a single complaint from the neighbors. worth the investment right there.

pitiful

we snapped this picture a couple of weeks ago at a gas station in the mountains of Pennsylvania, on our way to NYC:



it's smack dab in the middle of the entrance to the gas station, requiring everyone entering the station to squeeze by it on the way in and out. after paying for our gas, i asked the attendant how the car came to be so mangled.

"trucks keep running it over," she replied, matter of factly.

"you're kidding...? you mean right here in the driveway, they run it over? or it was run over on the road, and so now you just use it to hold the sign?"

"nope," she said. the resignation in her voice was acute. "right there in the driveway. every couple of nights. it's like it's not even there. what can you do?"

move back to civilization, i thought, but didn't say. different approach to assertiveness there in the Allegheny's, it seems. new york city folk were positively meek, by comparison. needless to say, we were very deferential to the truckers the rest of our travels.

i'll be back

been super busy, and don't have a home office (rearranging the house to make room for the new baby coming in december)--thus the lack of updates. i'll give more details on our trip out east, put up a couple of photos, and maybe even post more frequently when i get the home office up and running again...