Life Is Short, Let's Review...

This weekend our church community dealt with the difficult and personal topic of death. Cathy White stood before us and shared about the numerous reminders she's had in the past couple of years about how short life is. Let's be praying for her family as they continue to face health issues.

After each service I (Fred) had multiple people approach me and tell their own stories of facing cancer, losing children and walking alongside friends and family members who are staring their own mortality in the face.

Wow! I had a swirl of emotions going on inside of me.

How about you?

Let's create a bit of space here to express ourselves.

Use the comments feature to share your own journey, express your thanks to Cathy or say anything else that's been on your mind about this topic.

Simpsonize yourself

If you're a big Simpsons fan like I am then you're probably aware that their first ever movie opens this weekend. I'm not the guy who has to see a movie on opening weekend, so I won't be braving the crowds tomorrow - but I do plan on seeing it pretty soon.

To promote their movie, Fox has started Simpsonsmovie.com - a website with trailers for the film and a series of games and special features.

One such feature is a program that let's you create a Simpsons character that looks like you. I made a version of myself for my own blog, but for the Xroads blog I thought it might be nice to see what some of the staff would look like as Simpsons characters. To begin, here's Glen and Greg Gilmore:



More to come!

Again and Again and Again and...

Ever come across a song that you just have to hear again? And again? And again?

Right now I'm listening to a song called "This Too Shall Be Made Right" for the 12th time in a row.

The song is off of Derek Webb's current project "The Ringing Bell".

Here are the lyrics:

people love you the most for the things you hate
and hate you for loving the things that you cannot keep straight
people judge you on a curve
and tell you you’re getting what you deserve
this too shall be made right

children cannot learn when children cannot eat
stack them like lumber when children cannot sleep
children dream of wishing wells
whose waters quench all the fires of Hell
this too shall be made right

the earth and the sky and the sea are all holding their breath
wars and abuses have nature groaning with death
we say we’re just trying to stay alive
but it looks so much more like a way to die
this too shall be made right

there’s a time for peace and there is a time for war
a time to forgive and a time to settle the score
a time for babies to lose their lives
a time for hunger and genocide
this too shall be made right

I don’t know the suffering of people outside my front door
I join the oppressors of those who i choose to ignore
I’m trading comfort for human life
and that’s not just murder it’s suicide
this too shall be made right

Wow! I'm usually drawn to prophetic voices like this, but even more so today. Maybe because I've spent the last week thinking about God's Holiness.

How will a Holy God respond to all the darkness that goes on in our world (and inside of us)?

What does it say about us if we can't mourn the things that God does? Or do what is within our power to right injustice?

Although the lyrics are powerful, the combination of the mournful vocals and ringing acoustic guitar drives home the pain in the song to me.

Hear a 30 sec. sample or go big and drop 99 cents on the full deal at itunes: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=252648283&s=143441&i=252648361

If it doesn't speak to you at all, I'll refund your dollar.

Seriously.

The next Hemingway

In case you didn't realize that you were in the presence of greatness, our very own Chris Stevenson is now a published author. Chris has co-written an article for Rick Warren's ministry tool box, Pastors.com. Click here to read it and gaze at Chris looking all professional-like at the bottom of the page. I also understand that Chris is available to write wedding toasts, screenplays, and dirty limericks. Don't expect him to ever write anything here, though...

I got punk'd. Is that what the kids say? Did I say it right?

A lot of you probably know Bryan and Erika Carter. Bryan is on staff here at Xroads and Erika can be seen on stage singing from time to time.

Well, on Friday night, according to Erika, I accidentally sat my chair down on her toe. The next day she sent me the following picture, making me feel awful that I had hurt her so badly:

(Click the picture to make it bigger)


I saw her at church and she was limping badly. I felt terribly.

After letting me squirm on the end of the hook for a while, Erika wrote me another email informing me that I hadn't actually set my chair on her foot at all and that she had colored her toe with food coloring to make a pretend bruise.

Of course you know, this means war.

Nice surprise

I don't usually get that excited when I find out that someone famous is a Christian. That sounds bad, doesn't it? I mean, I like to find out anyone is a Christian, but I'm not one of those guys who feels the need to prove to other people that "Christianity is cool" by pointing to celebrities who belong to the faith.

All that being said...

I just read on Wikipedia that Alton Brown, host of Good Eats on the Food Network, is a Christian. That's really cool.

I also found out that he the director of photography for the R.E.M. video, "The One I Love."

Alton Brown is awesome. If you don't watch Good Eats you should start. It's a cooking show where Brown explores the science behind cooking. He's really funny and relatable. He's also a friggin' genius. The other night on a reality show competition called The Next Food Network Star he determined that a Chilean Sea Bass was farm raised instead of coming from the wild based on the deformation of it's dorsal fin.

On a similar note I was once able to determine that Greg Gilmore is from Owensboro based on the shape of his foot. True story.

Rated G

Mingle2.com offers a function that will rate your blog based on content, just like the MPAA does with movies.

How did we do?



The only red-flag was the word "porn" showing up a few times. Apparently you can say "porn" a few times and still be appropriate for all ages. Good to know.

In other shocking news my personal blog also got a G rating. Nobody is more surprised than I am. My mother is very proud, though.

New arrival

From blog regular Keith Wright:

"Our newest granddaughter, Cassidy Arin Wright, was born on July 2. Her
father, Bradley Wright grew up at Crossroads, but has been in North
Carolina for several years. Cassidy surprised us all by not allowing
her parents time to get to the hospital. She was born at home,
delivered by her dad, just a couple of minutes before the ambulance
arrived. Definitely a memorable arrival!"



What an awesome story! Congratulations to Keith and his family!

Feast on the Field Update

This past Sunday, hundreds (400-500) of people came out to the Church-wide potluck. The weather was close to perfect, the food was incredible, and I think people in general had a good time. It was great getting to see people connect with others that they either didn't know or hadn't seen in a while.

If you got a chance to attend, I hope you had a good time. We intend to do even more things at Crossroads like this so that we can continue to be a family that keeps growing. We got a chance to take a couple of pictures and we put them on our new picture gallery. Take a look at http://www.xroadschurch.org/gallery/main.php/v/FeastField/?g2_page=1 (We are still working out one kink in our gallery, so be patient for a couple of days.)

So that's enough from me, let's hear from you some of your experiences:

1. Did you get a chance to connect with anyone?

2. What was your favorite food that you tried?

I heart Youtube

Youtube is fast becoming my favorite site on the internet. Wanna know why? Because with Youtube, I now suddenly have a treasure trove of weird stuff at my fingertips.

Let me explain.

I saw the Cannonball Run for the first time when I was just a little kid. The movie itself kind of blew past me, but what I've always remembered from the film were the outtakes. As the credits rolled, they showed footage of Tom Selleck, Dom Delouise, and the rest of the cast laughing hysterically at themselves while they forgot their lines.

I don't know why that stuck with me the way it did. It's really kind of a stupid thing to have in your head, but it's always been there. At many points throughout my life I've felt compelled to watch those outtakes again, but actually going out, renting the movie and fast-forwarding to the credits always seemed like a step too far.

But now, thanks to the wonder of Youtube, those credits were a mere internet search away.

Voila:


Pretty dumb, I know, but finding them scratched a weird little itch in my brain.

Now here's your homework assignment. Go to Youtube and find a video to show the rest of the class. A video of something you love. A video of something from your childhood. A favorite TV show, a commercial. Find a video of somebody doing something you've never seen before or never thought you would see and bring it back here.

Every video has a web address (called a url) to the right of it. Just copy that url and paste it in the comment section of this post so everyone can go watch what you've found. If enough people participate I'll throw the videos in a post so they'll be easily accessible.