Clean Caffeine

We are down in LA working at the Dream Center and I saw a first...a Starbucks in a laundrymat, or is it the other way around?

anywho...checl out all of our updates at http://www.cedarpark.org/youth

Treehouse Update

Ok, this is one of those projects that I have been working on as I have time. The girls and I have been having a lot of fun putting it up. next step is roofing and siding.

When it's all done we plan on having a treehouse campout! We'll see how that goes.

Pregnant Man Runs for President

Ok the title was just to get your attention. Here's the real thought:

I was watching the news the other day and the story about the pregnant man came on again. Pregnant Man! Give me a break. It takes more than a beard and boots to make a man. Just because some lesbian gets pumped up with testosterone doesn't mean she is a man. Here's a little science for you: if you have a uterus and need to take pills to grow a beard, then you are a woman.

I mean honestly if John McCain started taking pills to darken his skin and his hair black and curly, we wouldn't be saying he was the first African American GOP candidate for President. Pills and surgery can't change what you are, just what you look like.

It seems as if the media is bent on making this story "ground breaking" news. I just think it is ridiculous. Here is a decent take on it that isn't what Oprah would tell you.

Rainy Day Garage Sale!

So we thought, "it's June, great month for garage sales!" Little did we know it would rain like crazy and barely break 50 degrees. But we are hard core--break out the tent shelters.

The kids (and cat) however are more about movies on a rainy day.

Blogging Across the Country

I was just looking at my google analytics reports and I have to say I love the map overlay feature, which shows you a map layout of where your hits have been coming from, right down to the town. Well I was a little surprised to see that my blog has been read in a straight line across the country, from Washington State all the way to Virginia! In all I think I have hit 21 states, but enough to connect a line from west coast to east coast.

Probably not cool to anyone but me, but if you haven't set up google analytics on your blog yet....get crackin'!

Scriptural Voyeurism

So I have realized something about myself lately that makes me cringe: in my interaction with the Word of God, I have developed a tendency to be content as a spectator. In the world of sports there are two kinds of people--those who enjoy watching the game, and the athletes. The same is true in the worlds of music, art, relationships, you name it. As a culture we have become too content being spoon fed the Scriptures, and not ever participating ourselves. In sports, the athlete can still be successful without the spectators, but absent the athlete and there is nothing to watch. What we need is to commit to become Scriptural Athletes who compete, train, and practice on a regular basis.

You know you are in danger of becoming a Scripture Spectator when:

• you read something and almost right away the only thing you can recall are the "main details" not individual words or phrases
  
• you have not memorized any new pieces of Scripture since you were in college, or sunday school.
• when you hear someone else read or quote Scripture you subconsciously try to finish it as if to say to yourself, "I already know this one."
• when you read the stories in Scripture you only see words on a page and not faces and people and real life stories.

Now I realize that when we live our entire lives as Christians and have been reading the same stories and verses for many years, we can develop callouses to them, and the subtle nuances of Truth can wash right over us without ever being absorbed. I firmly believe that if that is the case, we need a new set of behaviors to achieve new results.

Here are a few that I am committed to:

• read a new translation
• memorize significant portions of Scripture
• read the Scriptures out loud
• visualize the stories, put yourself in them.

Make this whole process alive, not some dead old ritual. This is our field, our instrument, our canvas. Make it meaningful.

In a Few Words

Just read an interesting blog on Music Thing regarding pop music. Apparently since 1890, of the 37,000 songs that have made it into the top 100, collectively fewer than 9,000 words were used in those songs. That's not a whole lot of words.

Maybe it's that what we consider to be new and fresh, really is just a regurgitation of what was "new and fresh" yesterday, or we really don't care what's new and fresh. Or maybe it's just that there aren't very many good words out there?

Or just maybe it's that there are some super nerds out there with too much time on their hands to analyze pop music for the last 109 years. Seriously guys get a life....but until then, keep posting your findings, cause it's pretty cool.

Smith Family Robinson

Last weekend I started building a treehouse for my kids. We are all excited about it, but I think up to this point I have been having more fun with it than the kids. Sometimes I think I am just a big kid who is allowed to play with power tools!