well, we had a cook-out-eat-in tonight. lots of rain, lots of left-over hamburgers, eleven people (fewer than we would’ve had without the rain, but more than i thought would come in spite of the rain), and about an hour and a half of balderdash. not a bad evening.

if you didn’t see the under-ladder walk or the mirror break, check it out.

let it rain, baby.

for more info check this out.

c ya b ya.

we’re putting on a couple of big cookouts for the age groups that i lead. i wanted something a little better than sending out an e-vite, so zach and i recorded some stupid videos to tell people about them. here’s the one we made for the 20-something group. their cookout is on friday the 13th in june.

check out the rest of the discussssssion over at ragamuffin soul.

Your friends have voted on your strengths and weaknesses:

STRENGTHS:

most artistic
most talented
coolest

WEAKNESSES:

most trustworthy
best scientist

so don’t plan on calling me with your science needs. because even if i didn’t suck at science, i couldn’t be trusted to help you anyway.

if you want a particular photo from the slideshow, leave me a comment and i’ll try to accommodate your request.

happy wednesday, everybody. (it seems that there are only five of you, and four out of five of you stay updated through a feed reader…see here if you wonder what in the world i’m talking about…) a new feature of wednesday worship posts will be the previous sunday’s set list. on sunday, may 18 we sang the following songs:

everyday – as recorded by lincoln brewster
holy is the lord – as recorded by chris tomlin
i surrender all – as recorded by brian littrell (yeah he’s the ex-backstreet boy)

(**side note, every one of these songs was guitar-driven. that’s how i roll.)

please enjoy this week’s musical worship offering: let me sing, by todd fields of north point community church. this song wasn’t really my fav when i first heard it at catalyst convention last year, but it has grown on me. we’re gonna teach it to the church this sunday. if you’re a blog reader AND you go to my church, then you have the distinct privilege of being ahead of the pack and in the know… here you go.

i’ll work a few quick hits on the last several days into this wednesday worship post. it has been a crazy week.

1. gretchen and i drove to atl, packed, cleaned, connected with friends, signed over power of attorney to sell our townhome, drove back to marion, rented a storage facility, and returned to work/life in a matter of 54 hours. w00t. i’m totally beat. i may not fully recover for a few days.

2. everyone in my band will get to meet “tired adam” at practice tonight. “tired adam” is generally less friendly, less tolerant of dumb jokes, less willing to be flexible…just an all-around stand-up guy. anybody would be both honored and lucky to get to meet him…hopefully he doesn’t scare off any of the talent 2-nite.

3. a guy i know wrote a post on his blog that not only strongly contradicts many things i have learned about ministering to un-churched, post-modern, de-churched, normal people…but does so in a very pointed and critical way. also, it’s worth noting that he disabled comments on just that post. i haven’t really figured out whether it makes me mad or just sad…more mad i think. i’m still considering whether or not to post a response. i probably won’t, mostly because he seems to have drawn the “battle lines” in a very aggressive place, and i don’t think it will edify anybody to get in a spitting match. if you’re a person who prays, you could pray for me on this one. preciate cha.

4. my tired body didn’t handle a lunch of hunan beef very well this afternoon. i’ve had an upset stomach pretty much the rest of the day.

5. on the other hand, i really enjoyed the company i shared [staff] lunch with. probably a fair enough trade-off. they’re not the slickest-suavest staff around, but they’re fun to work with.

6. don’t know if i mentioned how tired i am. so, yeah, i’m pretty tired.

7. last friday evening we finally got over to mount vernon to see some of my college friends. i love those dudes, and it was good to reconnect finally. (we’ve been in ohio for over a month, and it was the first chance i’d had to see them.)

8. the sale and closing of our house seems to be moving along and approaching rapidly. …but it still can’t come soon enough. we love that house and the neighborhood and the city and all that, but that mortgage has been such an albatross around our necks… when i hear for sure that the sale has closed and we no longer own it, i might plant a big, wet kiss on the first person i see…hopefully gretchen will be close by, because i don’t want a lawsuit on my hands for frenching a complete stranger…

9. stopped by the fusion church office yesterday on the way out of town. those guys (and gals) are rock stars. i loved my time working there, and i remember it fondly. i don’t claim to know or understand god’s plan, but i do feel like i have some insight into the past few months’ events. i feel very strongly that we are where we’re supposed to be here in marion. and if tony hadn’t had to lay me off, then i probably would never have left, even though i was working outside outside of my gift set and passion. so there you go. as gretchen said yesterday, “god is not an idiot.” wise words from the woman god gave me.

10. i miss my daughter. she’s staying with her grandparents until friday, and that might just be a couple days too long for my taste. i’ll admit, though, that the past three days would’ve been a hundred times harder with her. but i still miss her.

have a great day.

it’s supposed to be hot there this week, so we’ll probably take advantage of the neighborhood pool we still pay for, and hopefully we’ll get a little time to hook up with a few friends. as i write this, i’m really experiencing some serious emotional movement… that’s the only house we’ve ever owned, and it’s the last time we’ll ever go in there as far as i know. once we get all of our furniture out of there, it’s all very final. yeesh…

i gotta get some rest. later.

so here you go: i’m adam. i live in marion ohio. i ain’t no holla back girl.

let’s have it. who are you, where are you from, and how did you find me?

1. really great service on sunday. i think that a lot of people connect with god in a very real way. very cool.

2. i stuck a mute math song into the prelude music, and i got really good comments on it. old(er) dudes love mute math when they hear them…they just have no idea who they are.

3. i gotta give a report at board meeting tonight. if i could do nothing but write reports, budgets, and schedules, boy i’ll tell ya, i would be in heaven…because i’d have died already…of boredom and self-loathing.

4. pastor riley taught us about samson and delilah yesterday. we were going to use this as a transitional video, but we were afraid that there would have to be a serious transition just to introduce the transitional video…which is supposed to act as a transition into the message…anyway, it didn’t work out, but it would’ve been funny.

5. we want our own house, our own space. we absolutely love living with dave and nancy, but it’s getting to be time. they just have so much nice stuff that ella could so easily ruin! that’s really my only issue, actually. they’ve really taken us in like family, and we love them. but ella is a destructive force to be reckoned with, seeking to destroy everything in her path.

6. dave and nancy’s house phones have songs that play when they ring. but if you’re sitting in earshot of two phones, you can hear that they are playing different songs…it’s pretty funny.

7. we went with our ohio family to mothers’ day dinner on sunday at the country club! i took care of feeding and entertaining ella so that gretch could focus on stuffing her face. the prime rib was the best thing there. really good. good times…

8. why…why…why…delilah?! (see number 4.)

9. i help with the student ministries band on sunday evenings. it’s tough getting in there after a long morning, but it’s pretty awesome, too. i don’t want to make them mad or insult them or anything, but i do want to push them. i think i’m gonna push them pretty hard. they have the potential to really rock if they’ll come along with the pushing.

10. ella decided that last night was the night to wake up at 2:30 and not go all the way back to sleep until about 5:15. gretchen and i each got up a couple of times, taking turns trying to calm her down and get her to go to sleep. when she finally crashed, g and i had each been up for at least an hour and a half. the only diff is that my girls are both still asleep as i write this, and i am…not…zzzzzz–snort! what?

11. one of my friends came home from college with dreadlocks on his head. his mom called him a hypocrite. i don’t really know how a hairstyle can make you a hypocrite, unless you’ve always said things like, “i’ll never have that hairstyle, because it’s wrong.” if you’ve always said that, and then you come home with that very hairstyle, maybe you’re a hypocrite. it’s pretty sad, actually, because i think this dude is closer to christ than he’s ever been, dreadlocks or not (he also has a nose ring…gasp). and he would love nothing more than to be able to talk through some of the things god is teaching him and dialog with his parents about the way it’s affecting his goals and vision for his life, but mom can’t see or hear anything but the dreads. that sucks.

12. off to work. gotta pick this week’s music, pick next week’s music, chart any music that i need to change, upload any new resources to my website, finish the paperwork on my credentials situation (nazarene denomination stuff), verify that the singers this week are in fact going to be there, notify my band of this week’s music, write my report for board meeting, find a transitional video for this week (that won’t require a transition of its own), finish my essay for my bible college application (yeah, i’m going to bible college), and find time for lunch and dinner…

here i go.

anyway, just as i was about to log on, ella started crying. so gretchen goes in there for a minute and soon emerges with the sounds of ella’s cries following her from the dark room. i guess ella wanted to see big papa. so i go in to rescue her.

i pick her up and say, “honey, it’s night-nights. you gotta go to sleep.” she’s all worked up. her perfect little fat butt is resting on my old callused hand, and she wraps her perfect little legs around my old fat belly. she struggles to gain control of her perfect little sobs in between perfect little breaths. finally, she calms down a little and rests her perfectly soft cheek against my old, freckled shoulder. i can feel her perfectly straight, strawberry-blond hair on my old, sore neck. i sing her a few lines of the song i made up last night while i was putting her to bed…”little girl, it’s been a long, long day. we saw the cows and pigs and watched the doggies play. little girl, don’t you cry on me, ’cause you don’t need your mama when you’ve got your daddy…” i normally sing her “thunder road,” but tonight i don’t feel like sharing the moment with the boss. just daddy and ella.

i run my finger up and down the tiny bumps of her perfect, fragile spine. then i trace her perfect, thin shoulder blades, all the while marveling at the remarkable way god put her together like a 3d puzzle of the most advanced level. she’s finally settled, and she’s ready to go back to bed. so i put her down, and i hand her the dolly/blanket that our friend courtney gave her, and i shush her a couple of times. then i step back and watch her settle on a final sleeping position while i rub her tears into my shoulder.

i was supposed to write about today, and church was good, and the youth group was pretty cool…but i just don’t care about all of that very much right now.