the miracle isn’t that i finished. the miracle is that i had the courage to start.
my run for the day
distance – 4.0 miles
time – 39:12
pace – 9:48/mile
weather – 7º
vd cards
if you are about to end your dating relationship then you might want to use one of the bitter valentine’s day cards that woot released today. of course, you might also want to look at them if you just need a good laugh. here they are.
thoughts on the shack
i finished “the shack” last night and i have mixed feelings concerning it.
it’s mediocre.
i don’t really think it’s the earth shattering book that i have been told about by so many. part of this may be that i heard way too much about how great the book was before i read it. eugene peterson (whom i greatly respect) said the book may well be this generation’s “pilgrim’s progress“. i really do respect eugene peterson but i have to disagree with him. “pilgrim’s progress” is a classic and is still earth shaking after over 400 years. in my opinion, “the shack” won’t last a twentieth of that time. it’s not written well enough or profound enough to last like “pilgrim’s progress.” in fact, i almost quit reading the book after finishing the second chapter. it read like a first year literature student’s work (instead of walking across an icy driveway the character he traverses across a mini glacier). i continued reading the book because of some friends of mine love it.
with the above said, the book got better after the second chapter and i do understand why this book is connecting with so many people. for some it really helps them to begin to see how wholly other (holy) the love of GOD is. for that i’m grateful. for me, however, i connect much better with the fictional portrayal of JESUS found in aslan. the image of CHRIST found within the chronicles blows “the shack” away.
the irony is that i was much more profoundly effected by the description of JESUS found within the book that i finished before “the shack” (which was “the jungle”) than i was by the description of JESUS found within “the shack.” “the jungle” forced me to consider how the love of CHRIST would interact within the world and fight for the weak. “the shack” focused on how the love of GOD would cuase me to think about myself. “the shack’s” message is a great thing but i was much more impacted by “the jungle”‘s message.
i would be intrigued to hear how one of my atheist or agnostic friends would review the book.
okay, friends. i know that some of you love this book so you are now welcome to correct me.
SIDE NOTE – the last pages of the “the shack” absolutely drive me crazy. it’s actually not part of the story. the last pages of the book discuss “the missy project” which is the publishers desire to get people to help them spread the message of “the shack.” how are you supposed to help spread the message of “the shack”? according to these pages within the book you buy copies of the book and give them away. you write friendly reviews on every website you can. you specifically talk to people of influence and encourage them to say positive things concerning “the shack.” when you do all of this the film industry will take notice and produce a film based on “the shack” and the book’s message will be spread. is this really what we’ve come to? not only am i bothered by this concept but the name “missy” comes from a child within the book who is kidnapped and murdered. do we really want to connect the name of even a fictional character of suffering with a plea to sale a book?
my run for the day
distance – 5.0 miles
time – 48:49
pace – 9:46/mile
weather – 17º/snow flurries
now to color in the lines … or maybe outside the lines … hey what lines
the prayer, thinking, doodling, and asking is over. the image above is the logo for tapestry. to be honest i actually liked the design just below this one a tiny bit more (this one was my second choice) but the logo is not about whether i connect with it. instead, the logo is about whether it helps other people to connect with the church. all of the people i have talked to that i believe are in the group that the church will connect with the best said that this logo conveyed the most to them. that’s good enough for me.
so met the logo of tapestry. i think i’ll call it fred. folks, say “hi” to fred. you’ll be seeing a lot of her (yes i know that fred is generally a guy’s name, but the church is a bride and therefore female – girls can be named “fred” too).
fan versus wild
i like my southern roots and therefore it is with great southern pride that i point you to the following fan versus wild article on southern hospitality and nascar racing.
at 1 o’clock on a bright october afternoon, i’m standing in a convenience store parking lot five miles east of martinsville, va. in the 24 hours before the green flag drops on the subway 500, i need to find a ride to the speedway and a $75 ticket to the sold-out race. problem is, all i have on me is $20, a cell phone and a camcorder. And i’m not allowed to use any media connections to get into the race—or so much as mention the letters espn (at least not in that order).
my run for the day
distance – 5.0 miles
time – 49:41
pace – 9:58/mile
weather – 6º
the end of the beginning of the beginning
five months ago the fam and i moved to central wisconsin. as most of you know we moved here for the purpose of planting a church that has a passion for those who aren’t really the biggest fans of the church but are still interested in JESUS. for some people this means they have burned by a church. for others it means they have never really seen how a chuch can relate to real life. whatever their reason they are not going to connect with a church that has all the answers so we want to be a church that is okay with questions because we really believe that JESUS is the answer. i’m know that somewhere there’s a very effective plan for doing planting a church like this but no one ever told me where that plan was and therefore i have done the only thing pam and i could think of doing … hanging out and meeting people. i’ve been as close to being stalker as you can get without actually receiving a restraining order. okay, hopefully that’s not true, but i have looked for every opportunity i could find to get involved in random conversations and get to know people. the past five months have been the beginning of the beginning. last night was the end of the beginning because last night we had our first core group meeting. “core group meeting” sounds pretty formal for a group of people getting together to eat, read the 1st chapter of acts, pray, and dream about what a church could be, so i’ll just call it a gathering. anyhow our gathering was great (at least in my opinion it was). after it was through i kept finding myself thinking “a new church is going to grow from what we did tonight.” it was amazing.
now we beginning of the end of the beginning. due to a prior commitment we’ll miss this coming sunday but after that we’ll start having a gathering at our house every sunday night to eat, read the book of acts, pray, and continue dreaming. this will become the church and eventually we’ll have a public service (that should continue to have eating, biblical discussion, praying , and dreaming). my guess is that a once a month service (previews or trials) we begin in may and weekly services we’ll begin in september. of course, the weekly service isn’t the church. nope the church is the people and that began last night.
if anyone reads this blog and is around stevens point on a sunday evening please come and join us. the food will be good (if pam cooks instead of me) and the friendship will be excellent.
see what you're missing
for some strange reason our friends and families have said that they would visit us in central wisconsin but they would not do so during the winter. this makes absolutely no sense to us because there is so much to do around here during the winter. for example, today uwsp put on a family cross country ski day at the boston school park. it was great, free cross country skiing and free hot chocolate and cookies after you were through. this happened 5 minutes away from our house. after we were through cross country skiing we decided to grab some ice cream and then hit the sledding park. we almost rented a tobaggon and went down the track but it cost $2.50 and we only had $1.70 on us. we are most definitely going back to do the tobaggon because you ride down an ice covered track. it was amazingly fast.
i can’t believe you people won’t come up here during the winter.
10 minute film school
this video is great. it’s robert rodriguez talking about how he made his film “el mariachi” for $7,000.00. it went on to gross over $2,000,000 which definitely a pretty good return on investment. i’m just placing this up here since i mentioned in an earlier post that i believe within enough time, creativity, and initiative you can do must anything ministry-wise for very little money. the video is a good example of what i was trying to say. i personally love how he faked machine gun fire.
my run for the day
distance – 3.0 miles
time – 30:31
pace – 10:11/mile
weather – 23º/light flurries
tapestry logo
a friend of mine has been nice enough to throw some of her graphic design expertise this way by agreeing to do a little design package for tapestry. yesterday she sent over the first version of possible logos. they’re above. i’ve printed them out and i will be staring at them, thinking about them, praying about them, dreaming about them and most importantly doodling on them (the logo has to look good with doodles – that’s a must). on a whole, i think she did a spot on job.
do any of y’all have any thoughts.
my run for the day
distance – 2.0 miles
time – 21:39
pace – 10:50/mile
weather – 22º/snowing
got game?
i have $40 worth of best buy certificates that are going to go bad soon. i’m thinking that i might buy an xbox 360 game. it turns out that i basically spent my birthday money back in november for my boys to play games they like (i.e. guitar heriii & madden ’08) while i play halo 3. i’m sure i would probably love those games but i really have been that interested in trying them. so i was hoping some of you might have some recommendations. so do any of you have any games that you absolutely love to play?