Housequake

I was being soooo responsible. I was going to bed early. No matter what it took. I was in the bedroom by 9:30, and much to Becky’s annoyance, had turned the light out by 10. We enjoyed a few minutes of conversation on many deep philosophical questions. We then began to speculate that our time alone might not last. You see, there were the distant rumblings of thunder last night. As it turns out, our eldest daughter has an especially acute sense of hearing when it comes to the sound that lightning makes when it splits the air. True to form, within minutes, we had a young girl that was only 40% lucid (she has the rather useful skill of experiencing terror from the waking world without necessarily being awake) standing at our door saying incoherent things and crying. The situation was soon under control. We cajoled her into settling down between us for a few minutes until the storm passed on in the distance. Except it didn’t. The lightning became more frequent, and the timing and magnitude of the thunder reported that it was growing nearer. At this point, we decided the bed was entirely too big for the three of us, so I was assigned the responsibility of checking on our youngest. As expected, she was wide awake and quietly sobbing. As she is much more easily consoled that our older child, this was easily remedied by adding her to the family meeting in our room. Only once all parties were present did the gathering tempest feel obliged to grace us with its best efforts. At this point, the lightning was almost constant, the peals of thunder of significant duration, and of significantly increased volume. And then the housequake hit. You’ve experienced it before. You’re sitting/lying/standing there thinking, “Wow, that last spot of thunder was loud.” and then one hits that makes you actually speak aloud something to the effect of “DANG!” or perhaps “HOLY CRAP!”; an impact of thunder so pronounced that you feel the house move under you and the sound of the house rattling lasts after the thunder has faded. There were several of those last night. It really puts you in your place as a human, kind of a stark reminder that we are quite as big as we think we are.

After a half dozen instances of the housequake variety of thunder, things reverted to a more or less normal degree of thunder and wind, and we tried to sleep. Somewhere in the middle of the night, our little one woke me up for perhaps the 4th or 5th time. As with each of the previous times, it was her quiet conversations with me, her sister, her mom, her blanket, the pillow, and anything and everything else in the room (she is quite content conversing with people or objects that don’t really hold up their end of things) that roused me from my sleep. The difference this time was that there were no lingering traces of thunder, wind, lightning, or rain to prevent her (and her sister’s) exile back to her own room this time. On the one hand, I didn’t get much sleep last night. On the other hand, it was a cool, family kind of moment too.

Back in the Saddle

They say that whenever you fall off a horse, the most important thing to do is to get right back in the saddle.  Several weeks ago, when I made my spectacular impression on the trail, roots, and rocks at Dausett Trails, I did so.  I rode for another hour or so, dreading every bump.  Once I got back to the campground, however, I felt I had fulfilled the obligatory post-falling saddle time, and put the bike away for a while.  Healing and all, you know?  Well, I decided this weekend I was healed enough.  Granted, I wasn’t bunny hopping, or riding my bike down any stairs, but I did get back on it.  I spent the afternoon riding with friends, new and old, on the paths of Peachtree City.  Where else in the world can you put in 23 or so miles on golf cart paths and know that you have barely scratched the surface of what is available? It was plenty hot, but a great ride.  We were an interesting crew, with 2 of us on mountain bikes, one on a fixed gear road bike, and the fourth on a BMX bike.  Props to the other Kevin, as I think he worked harder than any of us.  BMX bikes were just not meant for long distances.

It was a fantastic way to spend the day.  At one point, I was talking to my buddy John about how my weight had gotten up into the mid-180’s.  He jokingly (I thought) said that I would probably be in the 170’s after today.  I got on the scales when I got back and clocked in at 178.4.  After a good meal and some re-hydration, I was back into the 180’s again, but just barely.  I see more Sunday rides in our future…

On The Verge

A great deal of anticipation and hype is about to stop taking baby steps and move to the far more impressive “Grande” size.

This Thursday, I get to spend some time with the folks that have expressed an interest in working with youth as volunteer counselors.  They come from a lot of different places and levels of experience, and I am grateful for the interest that each of them has shown.  God has truly graced me, as I have 7 counselors on the list so far, and one other gentleman that has agreed to help with music for a while.  Getting to start revving the engines with these guys will start to really build the excitement for the program that is to come.

It’s been very exciting getting launched with Lighthouse Church these last couple of weeks.  I’ve taken advantage of the time to get familiar with the adults that have been there forming the church.  Perhaps more importantly, I’ve taken the time to chase down and get to know as many youth as I could find hanging around.  There are definitely a lot of great students already attending (and working) at Lighthouse, and I know there are others that don’t know they belong here yet.  I am anxious to get started on the work the God has called me to do here.

Fiction or Rant?

A Review of Michael Crichton’s State of Fear

Let me start by saying I feel I have earned the right to be opinionated on Michael Crichton’s writing style. I have earned this right by long-following his written work (never really followed E.R., for which he was the principal writer). Like any writer, he has had his ups and downs. Like any author, he has agendas that flow through his work.
After having read 8 or so of his books, here are certain things I have learned to expect. I have learned to expect that he is no respecter of the lives of key characters. Historically, they have assumed room temperature with frequency, and often in technicolor. I have learned to expect numerous tutorials, usually of a highly technical nature, built in to the text so that I may become as well informed as Crichton. This is usually critical to understanding either the plot, or the particularly grotesque end to which some character will soon come. I have learned to expect the unexpected. I have learned that while, like any author, he has an agenda, to expect that it will be wrapped into a well crafted story. I have learned that while he is one of my favorite authors (Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain), he is still capable of stinking up the joint (Disclosure and Lost World). I have learned to expect time stamps on every section in the book (he uses a journal style) and bits of “supporting evidence” to be included directly in the body of the text.

Having thus set the stage, there were many of the Crichton-esque elements I have come to expect in this book. It was a techno-thriller, with a myriad of details and tutorials to satisfy my nerdy soul. It was written with all of the document excerpts and date and time stamps I have come to expect. There was an agenda, but alas, it was not wrapped in a particularly well crafted story. As I had seen him do in the past, I am afraid he stunk it up in this much like he did in Disclosure.

In State of Fear, Crichton tackles the family of Monsters Under the Bed known as Global Warming, Abrupt Climate Change, and their various offspring.  His position appears to be that adherence to these concepts takes either a tremendous amount of faith or a profit motive.  He provides tons of support for the idea that global warming is more about junk science than it is about saving the environment.  It also seems clear that he isn’t saying that environmentalism and being considerate of the world we live in isn’t a bad idea, but instead that there are a lot of nut cases involved in the cause.  I found the arguments he posed to be very interesting.  Unfortunately, I was looking for a good fiction read.  This was not good fiction.

There was plenty of action, and isolated scenes were really pretty good.  The problem is, the story did not really work as a whole.  It was somewhat predictable (in a bad way) and I didn’t really buy they characters working together as they did.  The story left tons of loose ends.  Sometimes this can be good.  Sometimes it can leave the reader with interesting unresolved questions to answer.  This time it was just annoying.

My advice to Crichton: pull you great research and advocacy for a sane approach to respecting our world into a decent non-fiction work.  Maybe you could make it a response to Al “internet” Gore’s magnum opus.  Meanwhile, write a nice piece of fiction that happens to have a message, unstead of the other way around.  That’s when you are at your best.

My advice to the book buying public: buy Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain.  They are both fantastic books worth every page.  By the way, don’t let the fact that you have seen the movie version of Jurassic Park stop you from reading the book.  Both the book and movie have dinosaurs and involve an island, but there aren’t many similarities past that.

A Roadmap for Great Talks

A Brief Review of Andy Stanley’s Communicating for a Change

Most folks that have heard Andy Stanley talk would have to admit that, love him or hate him, the guy can communicate. (Feel free to put me in the “love him” camp: his megachurch, Northpoint, may not be the right place for everyone, but I have decided they do a pretty fantastic job of the thing they set out to do.)

The subject of this particular Andy Stanley co-written project (he’s extremely prolific) is his guidance on putting together effective talks that have one particular goal: creating change in the lives of those that hear them. He is clear from the onset that if your goal something else (such as giving a comprehensive historical review of the contents of the Pentateuch and their implications in a post-modern world), his approach is probably not the right one for you. As a new youth pastor, and therefore a guy very interested in putting together and presenting talks that speak truth into the lives of students in a way that changes them, this book was exactly what I needed.

The book is arranged into two parts. The first is a parable that joins a pastor struggling with the effectiveness of his sermons, and follows him through some unexpected encounters and how he learns from them. This would be the portion likely contributed by the co-author. The second part them takes you into further explanation on the points suggested in the first half, this time more directly and clearly authored fully by Andy.

The parable reads easily, is interesting, and is engaging. The real-world example helps to provide some context for the detail in the sections yet to come. The second, instructional section is also quick and easy to read, and is very consistent with the Andy that anyone who has ever heard him speak has grown to know. The language of this section is suprisingly casual in tone (I recall him using the word “dis”) and feels almost like a conversation over a cup of Starbucks. The advice is very practical, with each chapter ending a reminder section that covers the highlights of the action the reader should take.

Overall, there were only a couple of minor criticisms of the work. First, Andy says several times in the course of the text that he is not trying to get the reader to present talks like him. This is somewhat true, but not entirely. There are several things that are so prototypically Andy from a style perspective (he suggests the use of several “transitional” and “attention focusing” statements that are absolute hallmarks) that a listener familiar with the younger Mr. Stanley would immediately recognize them as such. The second item is that the last few chapters read a bit like “Andy Saves the World” as he recounts several stories of how he either could have helped someone’s style had they listened to him, or did so when the fortunate soul did listen. These are both minor issues that do not noticeably detract from an excellent tutorial.

All in all, the book may not be welcomed by seasoned speakers that are confident with their craft. For those that are experienced, but always open to new ideas, the book may not revolutionize things for you, but I would bet you find some nuggets you will use. For folks like me with little experience in the area and a desire to start giving life changing talks, it goes on my must read list. I highly recommend the book to anyone with a desire to learn and a need to put together talks. It is a short and easy read with a great payoff.