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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.

Well, I finally got an iPhone.

Anyone who knows me knows that it’s been a long time coming.  I even wrote about it on my blog a while back.  I had this plan to read through the Bible and then go buy one when I was finished.  It was a good plan too.  I would read some and then post some of my notes on the blog.  I was enjoying the accountability and everything was moving along just fine until several of my friends told me that I had the most boring blog in the world.  ”Lame,” they said.

So, I gave up.  And then I forgot about it.  

BTW, I do still read the Bible regularly during my personal time.  I just prefer using a reading plan like this one, as opposed to strictly reading it all the way through book by book.

…And then months went by…and the price went down…and then the day finally arrived…

I was the first person in line at the Oxford store.  I meant to get to the store between 5:30 and 6a because I had been warned by ATT employees to get there early if I wanted to get one. But then I woke up at 4 and couldn’t go back to sleep.

I pulled in the parking lot at 4:30a and listened to the BBC alone in the parking lot for about 20 minutes before the second person in line showed up. He was a nice older man who was buying a phone for his daughter. We spent the next 3 hours trying to figure out the HAM Radio he had bought the day before (Irony?).

By 5:15, there were about 8 of us.

By 6, closer to 15

By 8am, the line stretched to the end of the building and the excitement was growing.

Then they opened the door and the iPocalypse began.

I stood in the store for over an hour and watched all of the iTunes screens at all of the kiosks show the same thing – nothing. I also watched all the people (this guy included, I suppose) wait in the rising heat for a chance to come in the store.

About 9:30, they let me take the phone home unactivated and by 10:30a, it was fully operational.

Just in time for me to take a nap.

Last Friday night, I took two of my friends to the Doorknob of the Universe**. On the way back, I couldn’t help but wonder how that entire experience was discovered and then evolved. In my head, I guess someone just happened upon it by keen observational skills or a well-placed drunken collapse.

The most curious part happened after that, though, when said person thought: “man, this is amazing. I have to bring someone else to see this.” And then, either that modern-day Christopher Columbus or someone else who came along on later trips said, “wouldn’t this be even more delightful if people were blindfolded?!?” And so, in some valiant attempt to create even more spontaneity, they went racing for their bandannas.

That’s the nature of a truly special experience: it happens to someone and then sends them racing to bring other people to it. Along the way, they try to think of everything they can to make it even more exciting for whoever they bring along with them.

I think there is an obvious correlation here for the Church (the people, not the institution). When an experience with God truly moves us, it sends us running to find other people who we also want to enjoy it, and it sends our minds searching for the right words, the right way and the right place in which to create that kind of moment.

**I apologize for my vagueness about the DotU. I cannot reveal more about what it is, however, if you don’t know and you come to Oxford, I will gladly blindfold you and take you there too.

In an effort to shed a little bit more light on the Doorknob, I will record below a condensed version of a conversation that has happened several times here in the Velvet Ditch.

Person 1: (bored) What are we going to do now?

Person 2: (excited) We should go to the Doorknob of the Universe!

P1: What’s that?

P2: It’s the Doorknob of the Universe.

P1: Funny. No really, what is it?

P2: (being a jerk now) I already said, it’s the Doorknob of the Universe.

P1: Where is it?

P2: Can’t say. It’s the Doorknob of the Universe.

P1: Cute. How do we get there?

P2: I’ll drive you there. But you have to be blindfolded.

P1: Why?

P2: Because it’s the…

P1: …I know I know I know. You are a child.

…….and later….

P2: (reduced to begging, wins)

I don’t know why.

(the one on the left is Margaret Buell, the one on the right is my hungry wife)

Last night, Sarah and I watched the Frasier finale.

I know, I know it actually aired several years ago, but it was meaningful to us because we’ve been on sort of a Frasier run lately. Actually, we’ve watched about 200 episodes since her cousin let us borrow the DVD boxed sets in May. It was our end-of-the-day routine, watching an episode or two.

I like the series a lot. The dialogue was sharp and the characters likable enough. I think that the writers even realized how annoying Frasier could be and they saved the long-term struggles for Niles, Roz and Martin. In fact, I think that’s what made the show enjoyable for 11 seasons. Every week you got to watch pompous Frasier search for his place among all of the other characters who were much more advanced in finding theirs.

I think the thing I enjoyed about this Frasier run has been that it – along with E.R. (160 episodes and counting) and Lost (which we have to wait until February to see again) – has brought TV back to the place in our home that it was a couple of decades ago. Many people from earlier generations talk about gathering around to watch “I Love Lucy” or ending their day with Johnny Carson. Now, with so many channels to choose from and almost anything on demand (not to mention pirated on the internet), TV is something that people often do alone, on one of the 4 or 5 sets in their house, atleast until someone comes in and wants to watch something else. It’s been so good for Sarah and I to finish everyday watching the same thing, laughing at the same thing, and – last night – tearing up at the same thing.

Farewell Frasier. You had a good run.

Please don’t screw it up with Back to You

Bonus: Here’s another farewell from the past. It was a lot less cheesy when I was 12.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DAiyvutMe4]

Last night, Sarah and I watched the Frasier finale.

I know, I know it actually aired several years ago, but it was meaningful to us because we’ve been on sort of a Frasier run lately. Actually, we’ve watched about 200 episodes since her cousin let us borrow the DVD boxed sets in May. It was our end-of-the-day routine, watching an episode or two.

I like the series a lot. The dialogue was sharp and the characters likable enough. I think that the writers even realized how annoying Frasier could be and they saved the long-term struggles for Niles, Roz and Martin. In fact, I think that’s what made the show enjoyable for 11 seasons. Every week you got to watch pompous Frasier search for his place among all of the other characters who were much more advanced in finding theirs.

I think the thing I enjoyed about this Frasier run has been that it – along with E.R. (160 episodes and counting) and Lost (which we have to wait until February to see again) – has brought TV back to the place in our home that it was a couple of decades ago. Many people from earlier generations talk about gathering around to watch “I Love Lucy” or ending their day with Johnny Carson. Now, with so many channels to choose from and almost anything on demand (not to mention pirated on the internet), TV is something that people often do alone, on one of the 4 or 5 sets in their house, atleast until someone comes in and wants to watch something else. It’s been so good for Sarah and I to finish everyday watching the same thing, laughing at the same thing, and – last night – tearing up at the same thing.

Farewell Frasier. You had a good run.

Please don’t screw it up with Back to You

Bonus: Here’s another farewell from the past. It was a lot less cheesy when I was 12.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DAiyvutMe4]

I’m at UpTown and THIS GUY is talking as loud as he can.

I held off the urge to blog for so long. I was actually proud of myself for doing so, but now I feel like the time has come.

Why?

Well, a couple of reasons. First, I have read a lot of blogs and I have learned from a lot of blogs and often I feel like I should be adding to the conversation instead of just spectating.

Second – and most importantly -, I feel like I am at a point in my life right now that I may never be at again. Being a 25 year-old church-planting husband (in reverse order) has created opportunities for insight, growth and struggle like I never imagined possible. And God, in His goodness, has been so faithful to give me His Word as I’ve needed it at every step along the way. Therefore, I blog with the hopes that I can pass a little bit of what I’m gaining along to other people and that, through conversation about those things, I can continue to grow.

Thirdly, my writing skillz have grown weak.
Maybe this will help.

my bloggers prayer:

Dear God,
Give me the grace to love my opinions last: behind You, Your Ways, and other people. Grant me the wisdom to never confuse the internet – no matter how prettily the 1’s and 0’s can be arranged – for true community. Amen.