Wow! It has been a long time since I last posted. I have written a little but nothing “post-worthy” has been able to escape my brain. Life has been pulling me in 80 different directions lately and later this week I will board a bus and head to the nation’s capital on a band trip with my stuidents. I wanted to post something this morning because I have a window of opportunity.

Books on My Desk

The Challenge of Jesus by N.T. Wright
What a great book. Wright is the Man! In his quest to find out who Jesus really was and is Wright gives these 4 reasons for the journey: God, Scripture, Truth, Mission. He believes that the better we understand Jesusthe Son the more we understand about God the Father. Wright seeks Jesus out of a loyalty to scripture isn’t afraid of Truth. Finally, we seek Jesus because as Christians we are committed to His mission. I am accepting the Challenge

Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas by Michka Assayas
The Singer on his father. The Singer on Africa. The Singer on God, faith, and politics. The Singer.

These two books have been great. Look for them next week on the Best of page.

Last night I made my radio broadcast debut. The private school where I work is holding its annual benefit dinner next week. We have asked Jim Morris to be our speaker. Morris’ story was retold in the Disney movie “The Rookie.” At 35 years old, he signed a major league contract with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Tampa Bay’s AA farm team plays here in the city so I had a chance to talk about the event during the game last night. Being in the radio booth was fascinating. The announcer had his laptop at the desk with 3-4 browser windows open. He would call the pitches and then use the internet to announce game scores or small facts about the players. He also had two stat books open and update the stats mid-game. One time a player stole second base. He picked up the book called the 1-1 pitch and then talked about how that player had only stolen 2 bases in his whole career. The man needed four arms to complete his braodcast. It was alot of fun. At the beginning of my interview, the announcer thought I had said “Jim Morrison” instead of “Jim Morris.” I quickly recovered by assuring him that it wasn’t the Lizard King who was speaking but the baseball player.

UPDATE
My foot is not broken. The ER doctor did not read the x-ray correctly. So, yeah….

I broke my foot.

To be continued…

Last night, I was messing with some code and… well, I’m not sure. So here we are back at the default scheme. I still haven’t officially moved over from Blogger yet. Hopefully by May 1st, I will make this my permanant home. The look will change so hang on!

I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had time to breathe (not good). We had a retreat this past weekend that went very well. God blessed us with some great weather too. I made a few “youth ministry nuts and bolts” mistakes but I learned some lessons and next time I’ll do even better. It is amazing how God can use us inspite of ourselves. I saw firsthand his strength in my weakness. Anyways, have a great day!

It has been five years, since I spent 6 wonderful weeks in the country of Scotland. For me, just stepping one foot in Scotland made me tingle with excitement. Like many Americans, my love for scotland came from an Australian. Mel Gibson’s epic Braveheart had turned every American into a blue faced, kilt wearing Scotish lord (well, at least in their hearts). I was no exception. Around the time that the movie was released on VHS, my grandmother passed away and we were forced to move into her home near downtown Dallas for about 3 months. I felt far way from my friends and although the house was tiny, I felt removed from my family. I played high school football under Texas friday night lights. To get pumped up, I would watch Braveheart every Thursday. Every Thursday. Widescreen. Both tapes. All the way through. I tried to live the motto “Every man dies, but not every man truly lives” to the fullest extent that a dumb 17 year-old boy could. I loved it! When I went off to university, the campus ministery offered me the chance of a lifetime. Six weeks serving churches in Scotland on a mission trip. I jumped at that chance. When we arrived, I fell in love with the country and her people even more. I’ll never forget traveling to Stirling and climbing the steps in Wallace Tower. In the tower, hung the sword of William Wallace. The sword was much taller than I am. It didno’t look like the movie sword. This weapon wasn’t beauitiful. it was striking. The AP photo above is of William Wallace’s sword. 700 years after Wallace’s execution, the sword is traveling to New York City as the cernterpiece in the Tarten Celebrations. If you live in New York, try and get over to GCS and take a peak at this peice of history. If you miss it you might one day find yourselves dying. And lying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willing to trade… Sorry. I get really passionate about some things.

We have had a pretty relaxing break. Last week, we drove up to Memphis to visit with my parents and grandparents and had an ok time. I did get a chance to test drive a new Mini Coooper S. I liked it! If anyone wants to send me $26,000 to help cut some of the expeses, I would appreciate it. I also spent some time at the Apple store. I played with Keynote and with iMovie HD. The highlight of the visit though was holding the new iPod Shuffle. It was so light that I was afraid that I would break it. Below, is a picture and a link to the story behind it. It seems that at some schools Australia, the iPod has been banned because it causes social issolation. Some kid created a case out of a mint tin. Then he moved into a cave. Huh, maybe they do cause social isolation.

Link

This is the new site. This is the old site.