deep fried faith: life, church and the dirty south

Cantaloupe

 

Good stuff from Francis Chan

http://www.catalystspace.com/content/read/public_passion_vs_private_devotion

Childbirth

It's taken me a while to get my thoughts together about the first few days of February. It was a wild ride. I guess it begins with the nine months of preparation, physically, emotionally and around the homestead. We nested pretty hard in the baby's room (a room she has only spent about 2 hours in during the first 3 months of her life). We read books, slept late and had childbirth classes with our friends D. and Corrie and the doula Corrine. We were in labor for about 48 hours before the baby came. It was pretty rough. I found it hard to watch Sarah go through the contractions but I still wished they would hurry up and get stronger and more often. She wanted so badly to have a drug-free natural childbirth (in a hospital, no doubt, we're not that crazy) that you can imagine the disappointment we felt after two days of labor when we found out the baby was breached and would have to be C-Sectioned immediately. The surgery was uneventful, except for when I looked over the blue curtain and saw the doctor stick his hands inside Sarah's abdomen and pull out a tiny butt. After that, we were parents.

the blog is dead. long live the blog.

Well, I looked at my blog today and was embarrassed. The last thing I wrote was in January, which isn't a really big deal in itself since there are bigger lapses than that if you look back through the archives. The embarrassing thing is that the last 4 months have been some of the most amazing of my life.  We had a baby and now we have a baby.  The church has moved out of its original home at the Powerhouse.  I'm learning how to be a father and a husband and a friend and a pastor all at the same time. This week, in honor of my 27th birthday on Tuesday, I'm going to catch up.  I'll be putting down some thoughts I've had and adding cute baby pictures.  It'll be fun.  Just like old times. As for the blog's neglect - I blame twitter.  Writing paragraphs is such a chore now...

TV Observation

Yesterday, we got cable again in the Ward household. We haven't had it for a year and didn't really miss it. The only reason we went back is so that Sarah would have something to watch during maternity leave so she wont go stir-crazy (although I think a crying baby + daytime TV might do her in). We started watching LOST last night but couldn't have for the full 3 hours of time travel. I'm sure we'll finish on the internetz tonight. Sarah made a great observation as we were going to sleep: It seems like the longer a television show runs, the higher the level of general unhappiness in the characters. It's definitely true of LOST. And HEROES (a show we loved but gave up on early in this season). It was a little evident in Friday Night Lights this year, and if Peter Berg weren't the Shakespeare of modern television I'm sure it would have been much worse. We don't watch Grey's Anatomy anymore, but I can't see one of their commercials without wanting a Prozac. And Prison Break never lets up. Anybody else notice this? Of course, most of the

Granite Eyes Facing Eastward: Obama's Inauguration and Ole Miss

The Inauguration snuck up on me. 

I watched the election as closely as anyone I know.  Every AP wire story I could find.  Every Tweet and every post that came across my RSS reader.  I walked by the Ford Center Debate site so many times that I surely made it on some government watch list.  I watched the returns in the hospital as my wife and unborn daughter were being monitored after an Election Day car accident (they were both fine, by the way).  I saved the commemorative magazines and I congratulated my neighbors who had an Obama/Biden sign in their front yard.

But I wasn’t ready for the inauguration.  It already felt like we had a new President.  The swearing in seemed like an formality.  It wasn’t until I saw shots of the crowds gathering, until I heard people chanting in the background of the NPR broadcast that I decided that this wasn’t an event that I needed to experience alone.  I needed more definition than a webcast could offer.  

I made my way to campus, where the festivities were being shown on the big screen in the Journalism Building.  I parked near the Circle and cut through the Grove as a rare Mississippi snow fell and a biting wind blew.  It was a gray day and campus felt cold and empty.

The room was warm and filled up gradually.  People old and young, black and white, Americans and Internationals took a seat as the former Presidents found theirs.  We watched the frail elder Bush, the defiant Clintons, the abivalent W. 

The gravity of the moment was lost on me until I saw several people snapping pictures from the side of the room.  

The Orchard Year in Review and Animoto

Here's the 2008 Year in Review Video:

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/2683224[/vimeo]

Blake and I have made some pretty impressive slideshows in the last few weeks.  When people see them, they ask, "Is that more of that Mac magic you are always throwing down?"  Surprisingly, this time the answer is "no." It's a web-based program Blake found called Animoto.com that allows you to upload pictures and music and then - Voila - a killer slideshow.  You have to pay to make one longer than 30 seconds (3$ a video or 30$ a year).  But if you do this sort of thing often, it's well worth it. Here's another example:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wNnaYKG3b8[/youtube]

You can also download them to your computer, upload them straight to YouTube or embed them from Animoto iteself.

2008 on tapdraw.net

This should go along with my 2008 Twitter year in review.

Some of my favorite stuff from the last year: Baby Excitement Reflection Surviving the iPocalypse There was a visit from the MS Atheist Blogger (and friend). A collection of pictures from my trip to St. Louis. My Two Year Church Planting Writing Extravaganza There was a lot of election stuff:

• Pat's Voters Guide
• Debate Recap
• General freaking out over whether the debate would happen or not
• Important interviews

And as always, a shameless plug or two for Twitter Anybody got a favorite?

Read through the Bible in 1 Year - YouVersion.com

I found YouVersion.com several months ago.  It has a lot of features that I like: Journaling sidebar, several different translations, a community aspect to reading the Bible and an amazing iPhone app. Today is a good day to check out YouVersion because they also have a 1 year Bible Reading plan and it restarts today with Genesis 1, Psalm 1 and Matthew 1.  If you stick with it everyday, you'll read through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice in 2009. If you have an iPhone or Blackberry, you can read it like I do: before I even get out of the bed in the morning.

MyTotalMoneyMakeover.com

I know I've been doing a lot of internet reviews lately, but this one is something really special.