Are you ready?

In honor of the official start to the football year and the win of the Steelers over the Dolphins:

That's right boys and girls, that glorious time of year is upon us once again. (And there was much rejoicing!)

Time for fellowship and beer.

Time for the thrill of victory, and the tortured agony of being a Brown's fan.

Time for impossibly high expectations in the greater Washington D.C. metro area.

Time for Jeff George sightings, flea-flickers, and "nagging groin injuries".

Time for the final outcome of 60 minutes of epic struggle between 300 pound behemoths to hinge upon a 150 pound place kicker.

Time to wonder if maybe this will be the year that the Icky Shuffle makes its big return.

Time to start setting the over-under on how many drinks it would take to get Kornheiser and Theismann to duke it out in the MNF pressbox.

Time for the glorious triumph of Sunday Ticket over the hated commercial break, and the even more glorious triumphant return of the second-game-nap.

Time for football.

Yea football.

(I, unfortunately, cannot claim authorship of the above. It was written by a co-worker and die-hard Redskins fan. But it was too good not to share.)

Oh, the places you'll go...

So this is where I got to go last week for work. Yeah, it's big...

It's the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank telescope in West Virginia. Over 400 ft tall. The dish is over 2 acres in area, about 300 ft across. There's lots of fog in the morning, and the mountains all around just make it an awesome thing. The last morning there I went up to the dish, and to the receiver room all the way at the top and took some pictures. Very cool.

View from the dish

View from the top of the telescope

Do unto others

Grace. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. Why is it so hard for us to show grace to other people? My mom is working registration for an annual conference for a major denomination. Does she make mistakes? Yes. She’s only human. But the crap that she gets from people is unbelievable. And these are mostly clergy. Clergy! People are human, they’re going to mess up. And yet, when they do, how do we react? I think most of the time we react out of our own sin natures. We do many things…get mad, abuse, berate, criticize and put down. But we fail to do the one thing we want others to do when we screw up. Extend grace. It’s so easy to do, and yet so hard, because it runs contrary to our nature. When I screw up, I really want people to extend me grace. To treat me with kindness when I don’t deserve it. But do I extend the same grace? No. Not most of the time. It’s so much easier to get upset at people than to see them as God sees them. People who need grace just as much as I do. In that, I can be Christ to people. Simply by extending simple grace.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. Grace like rain. We are given grace that we might extend it to others.

If only it came naturally.

A little shameless self promotion

Handbells aren't for everyone. But if you like them, this is for you.

Camp Hill United Methodist Church
presents the
Annual Spring Handbell Concert
Sunday, May 21, 2006
6:30 p.m.

A Giant idea

Have any of you seen these?


It's great! Smaller than a regular grocery cart, but not the hassle of having to carry a basket. Orange juice and 5 lb of hamburger get heavy. But to put them in a cart just seems silly. A whole huge cart for just a few items. So I usually get the basket. But finally, someone who's thinking with the single person (or at the very least, the light shopper) in mind!

Now if only the "buy in bulk" people would start thinking like that. I have a beef with the food packaging industry. Do I need a huge jar of Mayo? No, but per ounce or whatever, it's actually almost half the price of the smaller, single person-friendly jar. Thankfully Mayo doesn't go bad.

But a big thanks to whoever thought up the nifty cart!

O Come, All Ye Faithful

I just had Christmas Eve service. That’s right. In March. I also had Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and Pentecost services. All in one weekend. It’s a new spiritual renewal/faith building weekend thing the United Methodist Church is doing. Dr. Eddie Fox, Director of World Missions for the UM Church, has begun this “Christ the Cornerstone” weekend. My parents’ church was the guinea pig for this weekend. I must admit I was skeptical at first. And don’t even try explaining it to friends. It’s difficult to tell them you’re going to a Christmas Eve service in March. But it was surprisingly refreshing. Dr. Fox spoke for all 4 services on having Christ as the cornerstone of our lives. And so we went through all of the important celebrations of Christ’s life…his birth, death, and resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

As we talked this weekend of having Christ in the center of our lives, and what that means, I began to become unsettled. Dr. Fox was preaching on having Christ at the center, being transformed, and becoming available to let the Holy Spirit work in you and through you. What, he asked, were we willing to give up and sacrifice for this God who gave up so much for us. Will we really allow him to direct and lead our lives? So this got me thinking about where I’m serving, and what I’m doing. Am I really doing my best, and giving my all, and letting God work through me? At work? At church? Everywhere? Am I being Christ to other people?

For a while now, I’ve had a huge burden for my parent’s church. Part of it, I’m sure, has to do with doing a lot of growing up in that church. But I think most of it is a feeling that a lot of these people don’t have a life transforming faith. That they’re content to sit in church on Sunday mornings and that’s it. This weekend really pulled at my heart strings. However, I’ve been going to a different church for about 3 years. One in which I really feel fed spiritually. And I met a lot of my close friends there. But I’m feeling a stronger pull back to my parents church. How do you pick a church home? There are going to be problems with any church you go to. I don’t necessarily agree with everything the UM church does. But I love the people of this church dearly, warts and all. And am really feeling like maybe God is pulling me back there to serve. What if I needed to go to this other church in order to learn things that will benefit my parents’ church? And if so, what would that be? I have no idea what I would do, how I would serve, but I’m feeling this pull. Is it purely emotional? I certainly feel a stronger bond to a lot more people at my parents church. Or is this truly a new direction God is leading me in? I definitely feel more spiritually fed at the second church. But is that a good reason to stick with a church? After all, it’s not about me being fed. But about worship, and serving and loving others as Christ served and loved others.

I don’t know. So I’m feeling very unsettled. I feel like I’m being pulled in two directions and I don’t know which way to go. Sometimes I wish there were easy answers.

Because I like to laugh

"Squawks" are problem listings that pilots generally leave for maintenance crews to fix before the next flight. Here are some squawks submitted by US Air Force pilots and the replies from the maintenance crews.

(P)=PROBLEM (S)=SOLUTION

(P) Left inside main tire almost needs replacement
(S) Almost replaced left inside main tire

(P) Test flight OK, except autoland very rough
(S) Autoland not installed on this aircraft

(P) #2 Propeller seeping prop fluid
(S) #2 Propeller seepage normal - #1, #3 and #4 propellers lack normal seepage

(P) Something loose in cockpit
(S) Something tightened in cockpit

(P) Evidence of leak on right main landing gear
(S) Evidence removed

(P) DME volume unbelievably loud
(S) Volume set to more believable level

(P) Dead bugs on windshield
(S) Live bugs on order

(P) Autopilot in altitude hold mode produces a 200 fpm descent
(S) Cannot reproduce problem on ground

(P) IFF inoperative
(S) IFF always inoperative in OFF mode (IFF-Identification Friend or Foe)

(P) Suspected crack in windshield
(S) Suspect you’re right

(P) Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick
(S) That's what they're there for

(P) Number three engine missing
(S) Engine found on right wing after brief search

(P) Aircraft handles funny
(S) Aircraft warned to straighten up, "fly right" and be serious

(P) Target Radar hums
(S) Reprogrammed Target Radar with the lyrics

(P) Mouse in cockpit
(S) Cat installed

Please, don't do it

Don't make the Pittsburgh Steelers the favorites to win the Super Bowl. They've been the underdogs this long, and it's working for them. And since they get to choose what jersey they want to wear, they should stick with their road jerseys.

But I am giddy. Yes, yesterday, decked out in my Jerome Bettis jersey, I was cheering the Steelers win over the Broncos. Who'da thunk it? The first #6 seed to knock off a #3, #1, and #2 seeded teams on the way to a Super Bowl. Yep. Giddy is the word for it.

I hate being sick, though. I was sick all weekend. Didn't help that I went out in the field on Thursday for work. I only made it 2 hours at work. Had to go back home to bed. Spent a lot of time in bed. It's no fun being sick by yourself, either. Mom was home alone sick, too, so I went to keep her company. Two days of being home and just sleeping or staring at the wall was beginning to drive me crazy. Gotta thank my brother for giving me his cold.

And for the record, I'm picking the "One-for-the-Thumb" over the "First-in-Franchise-History". :-) Go Stillers!