The Non-Essential Adventures of D'Art
Why?
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Why do big people wear little clothes?
Why do bicyclist ignore stop lights but still take up an entire lane of traffic?
Why are people always looking for a deal?
Why don’t managers manage and let leaders lead?
Why does my car always seem to find the nail in the road?
Why do people refer to sports teams as “my team?”
Why does my grass grow so fast?
Why don’t we ask more questions?
A Miracle
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Nine years ago today, I somehow found my way right into the middle of a divine miracle. I witnessed something that nine years later still blows my mind. On August 28th, 1999. Kellie Smith said “I do.” To ME!! If that doesn’t qualify as a modern miracle, I’m not sure I can believe in miracles.
Thanks you Kellie for nine incredible years. I love you.
Free Air
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So, if you didn’t know already, I have terrible luck with tires. This morning, on the way to work, my Low Tire Pressure light came on. Dang. At first I thought it was the tire that I patched just a couple of weeks ago. But low and behold it wasn’t, it was a different tire. I couldn’t believe it. The tire wasn’t totally flat so I trucked on into work, thinking that I’d get air on my way home. Hoping that somehow the flat tire gods would show mercy to me and refill my tire while I was at work. That didn’t happen.
After work I pulled into the first gas station that I saw, opened my change drawer, took a deep breath, and then I saw it. FREE AIR. I was elated. I thought I’d pass on the good news. If you are ever on Fairview Road across the street from Southpark Mall in Charlotte, NC. Stop by for some FREE AIR.
Up Late
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Last night I was up late, working on my router that just stopped working, for some unknown reason, a couple of weeks ago. While I was up, I noticed that my favorite sport had come on TV. Men’s Indoor Volleyball. I have an unusual affinity toward the game of Volleyball, since I played in college. Indoor Volleyball isn’t wildly popular here in the US, so basically the only time I get to watch is every four years during the Summer Olympics. To make a long story short I was engaged. USA beat the Russians in the Semi-Finals to play for the gold medal. The match went the 5 full games. It was awesome. Oh, and I crawled into bed at 3:02AM. And it was totally worth it!
Wild Goose Chase
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This past week, I got the opportunity to get my hands on a pre-released copy of Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson. I read the book almost as soon as it came out of the packaging it was shipped in, and was instantly hooked. I began reading at an incredible pace, but soon decided that I wanted to do more than just read the book, I wanted to really digest the words that the author had penned. So I slowed down, took a breath and broke out my journal. This book speaks to the mystery and beauty of God, and how He leads those, who dare to follow Him, on an incredible journey. It challenges us to get out of the cage that keep us locked up. In a day of dry, lame religion, it shows the face of an adventurous Jesus. And He calls us to join him.
Get the Book. Chase the Wild Goose.
Thank you AMC.
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We don’t get to the movies much as a family. In fact the last movie that we went to see in a movie theater as a family was Cars. And that was because it was at the dollar theater. Movies are just to expensive. With the money it takes to buy tickets, drinks and popcorn, I could have paid for 2 years of Community College!
Just a couple of weeks ago Kellie was out of town and the kids were at my parents house, I didn’t have to work, so I headed to the Regal Cinemas. I was going to catch The Dark Knight. I went early in the day, as not to waste an entire day off. I remember standing in line at 2:30 waiting to buy a ticket. The next showing was at 3:05, no problem. It was then I noticed that the “Matinee” pricing stopped at 3:00. WHAT?!?! What a ripoff! I left the line. And still haven’t seen The Dark Knight.
I say all of that to say this. Today we were walking by our local AMC theater and out of curiosity I wanted to see what was playing. Wall-E! Sweet, the kids would love that. Now I’m not sure if this applies to all AMC theaters but our theater pricing is $5 all day Monday through Thursday and until 4pm on Friday. I was blown away. So for $20 our whole family watched Wall-E toady.
Goodbye Regal, Hello AMC.
Things Overheard Today
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Working in a place that is constantly buzzing with people, tends to make conversational eavesdropping necessary, but unintentional at times as well. So needless to say I get to hear a myriad of things though out the day. Here are some things I got to hear yesterday:
- They stripped him down to his powder blue underwear.
- Mom, I’ve got to Number 2 real bad.
- Gostaria de comprar este computador.
- She was giving me the stink eye.
- I posed for Playboy, look it up.
- My kids don’t know Hannah Montana, I home-school.
Olympic Junkie
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Anyone else an Olympic Junkie?!? The opening ceremonies haven’t even aired yet and I’m already addicted. I will watch as many events as I can, and those I’m not able to watch will be TiVOed! This year I’m especially looking forward to Men’s Volleyball, Badminton, Pole Vault, Cycling, Men’s Rings, Swimming, Table Tennis, Water Polo, and Diving.
To get the 2008 Summer Olympics started right, I’ll be ordering Chinese take-out, and watching the entire opening ceremonies.
Quote of the Day
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I’m driving home tonight after small group and out of nowhere, Dahson, my 5 year old, pipes up from the back and our conversation goes like this:
“Dad, I don’t like Veggie Tales.”
“You don’t like the Veggie Tales?“
“No I don’t like them.“
“Why?“
“It creeps me out that they pick things up and they have no arms!”
“It creeps you out?“
“Yeah, it creeps me out.“
Prepreation + Being Apart of Something Bigger than Yourself = Amazing Things
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I have seen this principle at work in a couple of situations this week. Check it out:
Experience 1: Extreme Makeover Home Edition
So I had the opportunity to check out the house that is under construction this week here in Charlotte. It’s being built by Extreme Makeover for a couple that has sacrificed for the good of others. When watching the show on TV, I understand that it takes a lot of preparation. But I actually got to see their work flow chart. Extreme Preparation: Home Edition is what the show should be called. They had times nailed down to the minute on what needed to be done and when. I was blown away. It had to take months to nail those down. Preparation. I’ve heard it said that a minute of preparation saves an hour of perspiration. Work smart, then hard.
We all know how it works, volunteers give of their time and energy to help this family. The truth is, most of the volunteers had no clue who this family is. But there is something built into us all, that need to be apart of something bigger than ourselves. Extreme Makeover has done a great job of making that possible. When I heard of the possibility of helping out, I jumped on board. I submitted an application to volunteer, I must have gotten the word late. After applying on-line I got a message that thanked me for my application, but they had all the people the needed. After all something like 4,000 people had already signed up! WHAT?!?! People need to be apart of something bigger than themselves.
The preparation on the front end plus the expectancy of being apart of something bigger than ourselves yields incredible results. Yesterday Kellie got the chance to experience “Move The Bus” day with VIP seats. How fun.
Experience 2: Elevation Church Spontaneous Baptisms
This past Sunday our church, Elevation Church, broke down some old school barriers. Spontaneous Baptism was the call of the day. Why go through a 3 week baptism class? The Ethiopian in Acts didn’t, he accepted Christ and, “…he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.” So Pastor Furtick preached, and people moved. No class, just the opportunity to show an outward expression of their faith.
Obviously Elevation knew they would be baptising people, the people just didn’t know they had come to church and would leave publicly proclaiming their love for Jesus, through baptism. Elevation went above and beyond to prepare for this week. They had: t-shirts, shorts, bras, boxers, panties, hair dryers, hair bows, hair gel, hair mousse, lotion, make-up, make up-remover, feminine hygiene products, flip-flops, towels, and if that wasn’t enough they were packaged by individual sizes. They were crazy prepared. And it payed off.
Over 600 people were baptised this weeked, because they were given the chance to be apart of something bigger than themselves and the prepreation was off the charts.
Preparation + Being Apart of Something Bigger than Yourself = Amazing Things
