Running

Yesterday, about a mile and a half into my jog, I ran past a pond which two geese were standing near. For whatever reason, I really enjoy interacting with animals when I'm running. This usually takes the form of yelling "HEY COW!" when I pass by the cow fields or "Hey there puppy" when a someone is walking their dog. When I came upon the geese, I was feeling a bit froggy because I had gone farther with my run than I had anticipated, so I did my best gangsta impersonation, "Whad up, GEESE!" - complete with hand gestures, and repeated several times. It was fun.
Then about 5 seconds later, a nice young lady ran passed me from behind. It was obvious she saw/heard the whole thing. As she passed, I just meekly said, "sorry 'bout that." She didn't smile, but said, "that's alright" and sped up. I'm pretty sure I freaked her out. Oops.

Yesterday

Yesterday, for the second time in history, Murray State University won an NCAA basketball tournament game. The last time it happened, I was 8 years old and I remember it vividly. The guys had been to my house for dinner only weeks before - Paul King, Jeff Martin, Don Mann, Robert McClatchy, AJ Mensey and here they were: being referred to as "Cinderella" on national TV. My Dad and I watched MSU beat NC State, while my Mom took pictures from the baseline. Yep, Mom had traveled to Lincoln, NE for the game; it was so exciting to find her on TV!
I remember being so naif that I was genuinely surprised and upset when MSU lost the next game to the eventual tournament champion Kansas Jayhawks, led by Danny Manning. The refs called a foul on Carl Sias with seconds left that turned the game the Jayhawks way and I began to pout. I distinctly remember my father being amused at this and I got my first lesson in lowered expectations.
Over the subsequent 22 years, that lesson has come in very handy. The Racers tempted me many times to get my hopes up. In 1990, we took #1 Michigan State to overtime; in 1997, #2 Duke edged us out by 3; #3 UNC beat us by 4 in 2006. Each time, the thought crept in: "maybe this time." But no.
Yesterday, it was the same roller coaster all over again, except this time it was "this time." It's so weird that this team, whom I followed all around the OVC during my formative years, is now one of the main foci of the national sports media.
I honestly feel bad for my friends who are Vandy fans, but I have no idea how they feel. I can't imagine cheering for a team who's expected to win in the NCAA tournament. Much less, having that team just punch you in the gut. In Murray, we know to expect the punch.
But yesterday, at the apex of my celebratory leap, I took up that 8 year old's "blind optimism" and have been walking on air since then.

Thanks Racers.

My Work-Out Playlist

This will be interesting to no one.

About a year and a half ago, I was listening to some music while I was running at the Maryland Farms YMCA when Maroon 5's "Sunday Morning" came up on my mp3 player. I really like that song, so I perked up a bit. Suddenly, I realized that my steps were falling exactly to the rhythm of the song!
There have been a few moments of such epiphany in my life: a) my first kiss; b) the day I realized Excel could open web pages; c) the first time I tried hosting a website from my house and it worked; d) the day I downloaded autohotkey; e) the "Sunday Morning" moment. I remember each of these moments extremely vividly. Life changing. Seriously. Hey, stop laughing.
I'm focusing on "e" for right now, though each item on that list could be fodder for a long blog post.
When I got home from the Y, I listened to all of my favorite songs and tapped out the tempo for each of them. Sunday Morning turned out to be a 177, so that was my starting point. I sorted my work by bpm (thank you iTunes) and gathered the ones together that fell in the 160-210 range and grouped them by tens.
I immediately found that I could run about 75% farther than I was running - simply because I was running to the beat.
I've found that anything other than a 4/4 time signature doesn't really work for me, so after pruning 3/4 songs (etc) and ones that don't keep a steady tempo (live songs are bad about this), I settled into a nice playlist. Now each time I get a new album, I run it through my tempo filter to see if there are any additions. So after all this, here is my LONG list of workout songs. (Please don't read the whole list - I'm just putting it up here so I can look back at it later)

Here are the "highly recommended for running" ones
174 - Mambo No. 5 by Lou Bega
177 - Rock Me Amedeus by Falco
177 - Sunday Morning by Maroon 5
183 - That Swing Song by Two Or More
185 - Zoot Suit Riot by Cherry Poppin' Daddies
185 - Aserejé by Las Ketchup
187 - Albuquerque by Weird Al Yankovic
188 - All That She Wants by Ace of Base
189 - The Remedy by Jason Mraz

The first half of the list
171 - Me and Becky by Chris Rice
172 - Waterfalls by TLC*
172 - Leave Me Alone (a cappella) by John McLemore
172 - Shiver by Maroon 5
173 - Death By Beauty by Sylvie Lewis
174 - Live High by Jason Mraz
174 - Voice of Truth by Won By One**
174 - Mambo No. 5 by Lou Bega***
174 - God Is My Redeemer by Glad
175 - Good News by Chris Rice**
175 - I've Got News by Andrew Peterson
176 - Springs of Life by Ginny Owens
177 - Ramona by Randall Goodgame****
177 - Rock Me Amedeus by Falco***
177 - Sunday Morning by Maroon 5***
177 - He Restores My Soul by Kepano Green
178 - Secret by Maroon 5
178 - Pillar of Fire by Andrew Peterson
179 - You Found Me by FFH
179 - Hosea by Andrew Peterson
179 - The Difference by Rescue
180 - Shiloh by Andrew Peterson
--- - Love Handles by Sean Altman
181 - Sing To The Glory by Acappella
181 - Daisy Simone by Sean Altman
181 - Keeping the Faith by Billy Joel**
182 - Everything's OK by Chris Rice
183 - Rodeo Clowns by Jack Johnson
183 - Gloria by Glad
183 - Consume Me by DC Talk
183 - Free by Ginny Owens
183 - Love Enough by Andrew Peterson
183 - That Swing Song by Two Or More***
184 - Rocket by Andrew Peterson
185 - So Excited by Rescue
185 - Forgiven Not Forgotten by The Corrs**
185 - Next To You by Randall Goodgame
185 - Mrs. Robinson by Simon and Garfunkle
185 - Zoot Suit Riot by Cherry Poppin' Daddies***
185 - Aserejé by Las Ketchup***
185 - Africa by Toto
185 - Only Truth by Acappella
186 - Do Right by Take 6**
187 - Albuquerque by Weird Al Yankovic***
188 - All That She Wants by Ace of Base***
188 - The Rumor Weed Song by The W's
188 - Testify To Love by Avalon**
188 - Good to Be Free by FFH
189 - The Remedy by Jason Mraz***

Okay, this is getting ridiculous, so I'm going to stop. I'm still not sure why I'm blogging this, but oh well.

*Where I usually start these days
**Sometimes gets skipped
***Highly Recommend for running
****Where I used to start - I need to speed back up

My favorites

Top 4(ish) of 2009 - in no particular order

Books I read:

1. Lee Camp's "Mere Discipleship"
2. Don Miller's "A Million Miles In A Thousand Years"
3. C.S. Lewis's "The Problem of Pain"
4. David Sedaris's "Me Talk Pretty One Day" (not the first time I read it though)

Movies I saw:

1. Star Trek
2. Avatar
3. Up
4. Zombieland

Albums I heard for the first time:

1. Andrew Peterson's "Resurrection Letters, Vol 2"
2. Andy Gullahorn's "The Law of Gravity"
3. Derek Webb's "Stockholm Syndrome"

New TV shows I like:

1. Community
2. Glee
3. Modern Family
4. Sing Off

Youtube Clips (sorry, I got carried away):
1. Autotune the News #2 2:40
2. Autotune the News #6 3:01
3. A cappella MJ medley 3:56
4. Weird Al song- "CNR" 2:42
5. The Web for Beginner 1:37
6. ...Goes the Dynomite 3:54
7. Literal TotalEclipse 5:33
8. Letterman v. Phoenix 5:04
9. Murder News Hilarity 0:10


Top 4(ish) of 2010

Books I want to read (but haven't yet):

1. Andrew Peterson's "On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness"
2. Andrew Peterson's "North! Or Be Eaten"
3. Francis Chan's "Crazy Love"
4. David Dark's "The Sacredness of Questioning Everything"

Movies I want to see (but haven't yet):

1. The Fantastic Mr. Fox
2. Where The Wild Things Are
3. Inglourious Basterds
4. (500) Days of Summer
5. An Education
6. The Princess and the Frog

Artists whose new album I want to hear:

1. Caedmon's Call
2. Andrew Peterson
3. Vocal Union (yeah, like that'll happen)

TV Shows I'll probably stop watching:

1. Lost (it's ending)
2. The Office (losing interest)
3. The Big Bang Theory (meh)
4. How I Met Your Mother (we'll see)

------
Miles run:
2009 - 540(ish)
2010 - 701

Weight lost:
2009 - 5(ish)
2010 - 20 (6 so far)

New places:
2009: Belfast, Ireland; Saskatoon, Canada; Manitoba, Canada; Voodoo Doughnut; Glacier Nat'l Park, Montana; Coure D'Alene, ID; Erin, TN
2010: Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away! You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go. Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

Hosanna

The following is an excerpt from a sermon by Russ Ramsey. To hear the context, you can download the free podcast called "The Rabbit Room Podcast." I transcribed this from Episode 12, so any typos or grammatical mistakes are mine. I pick up around the 24:08 mark, where Mr. Ramsey is discussing Luke 19:28-44, particularly verse 38.

--begin transcription
"Blessed is the King!" - those are strong words in the ears of Caesar. And everyone knows they mean Jesus. Some of the Pharisees who are present, they go up to Jesus, and they say, "Hey! Stop this! Make them shhhh! Because You know what could happen if this gets back to somebody in the higher ups."

...

See, Israel had struck a compromise with Rome and it is insidious when you look at it. The compromise was this: they (Israel) could continue their worship practices so long as they obeyed Roman rule, paid their taxes and kept the peace. But any hint of insurgency was going to be dealt with, make no mistake, swiftly and without mercy. And this, for Rome, was just brilliant. Because, think of it, Rome had persuaded Israel that their right to worship the God that their national identity was built upon was a privilege that was granted to them by Caesar. That is just politically brilliant. If you want to be an oppressor, and you don't want to constantly have to be bullying people to keep them in line, and their national identity is built upon their worship of one God in stead of many, let them. But make sure that they understand that you can take that privilege away in a heartbeat. And then they will worship with the knowledge that their privilege of worship is granted to them by Caesar. What this does, is it takes the religious leaders and it divides their loyalty between the God of their Bible and the ruler of their occupying force.
--end transcription

There is much more that Mr. Ramsey has to say, but this knocked me down with its available application to today's American Christians.
It is a brilliant political plot, indeed, to make sure that all religious Americans are constantly reminded that their religious freedom hinges on America's existence and domination. With an unspoken hint of "the ends justify the means," it's a quick jump to a holy war.
I do believe that God has blessed America. I balk at attempting to assign a reason for that blessing (or a reason for that blessing's apparent waning).
If America ends (and I have NO idea what that means), I will still be able to praise my Lord and Savior: Jesus, the Christ. Nor will I be beyond the reach of His Love.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Resurrection Letters, Volume 2

I just wanted to write a little something about an album I just on iTunes. It's been out for over a year, but hey I'm a little behind the times.

It's Andrew Peterson's "Resurrection Letters, Volume 2." To answer the first, obvious question, this is from the liner notes: "These songs are bound together by the theme of resurrection in our lives and in the world around us. It wasn't until we were recording the album that I knew I wanted to tell a bigger story, and that this would be part two. Part one is Christ's resurrection, which made a way for ours; it was the turning point in the Great Story. I'm currently working on the songs that will comprise Resurrection Letters, Vol I." -A.P.

Now that that's out of the way, I will try to express how this poet has touched my life through this album. The beauty of his myriad poetic and musical tools is surpassed only by the message they convey. The message I've received so far from this album is this: "For better or worse, God is Love. What's more, he wants you to experience His love. Yes, you. No really, you!"

From the first lines ("Come broken and weary / Come battered and bruised / My Jesus makes all things new.") to the Celtic end of the album there is a humble acceptance of all who'd claim the love of God.

His clever rhyming schemes and his use of the natural percussive rhythm of the lyrics combine to bring a smile to my face. It's clear that these works were carefully and purposefully crafted.

My current favorite track is "Rocket" - but I'll probably over-play it and eventually pick a new favorite. Fortunately, there are plenty of gems from which to choose. Possible usurpers would be "Hosanna", "Love is a Good Thing" or "All You'll Ever Need."

I don't know what the motivation behind "Hosanna" was, but I'd like to speculate. The song sounds like something you'll hear in every contemporary Baptist church every Sunday morning: a happy-clappy, up-tempo praise song. The difference is in the verses' lyrics: "I have lied to everyone who trusts me. I have tried to fall when I could stand. I have only loved the ones who loved me. Hosanna!" The verses confess a lifestyle of sin and the chorus announces the triumph. Brilliant!

Please listen to "Love is a Good Thing." Even with the limited versions of love that I have experienced in my life, I found it throat-lumpingly true and beautiful.

This post is becoming too long, so I'll just leave you with the last line of "All You'll Ever Need": "The blood of Jesus, it is like the widow's oil: when it's all you have it's all you'll ever need."

Andrew, thank you for this album.

Community

Yesterday was honestly one of the best Sunday's I've had at Otter Creek in a while (I guess since Dr. Camp's last sermon). I thought Philip Duncan did a GREAT job - like, really good - at song selection and just helping to mold the service. I couldn't even sing all of "Blessed Be Your Name" because I was so choked up. The thing that got me the most was seeing Doug Sanders sing those words on the front row with his glasses off and his eyes closed. And then seeing that guy (I can't remember his name, but he's a doctor that sits front-and-center every Sunday) limp over to put his hands on Doug. Sheesh, I'm even tearing up just thinking about it right now.

Josh's message was terrific. And Danielle's testimony was incredibly powerful too.

The message made me think of this past week's episode of Community - have you been watching that show?

There is a scene between a middle-aged African-American lady (Shirley) and a late-20s blonde white girl (Britta: the pervasive love-interest character). Shirley had been doing crazy stuff all episode - she was way too passionate about Joel McHale's character doing something she perceived as offensive - though in the universe of the ethics of that show, it was completely within bounds. Turns out that she was just projecting her anger about what was going on in her life.

Shirley: "My ex-husband came by this morning and he asked for his ring back. It was his mother's and he wants to give it to his new girlfriend."
Britta: "Shirley, that sucks."
Shirley: [Talks about her feelings on the issue for a bit]
Britta: "I totally get that."
Shirley: "I feel better now."
Britta: "Let's go check on Annie."

The scene I'm talking about starts a little after the 13 minute mark. (It may get taken down at some point - if so, sorry)



This formula gets screwed up from the start SO often. In stead of saying "Shirley, that sucks," the response is often, "You're better off without him!" or "It's time to move on - let's find you a man!" or some other form of "Stop feeling sad!"
As we saw yesterday at Otter Creek, sad feelings are valid. In stead of, "It was God's Will" or something like that, it seemed like Danielle would've appreciated a "Danielle, that sucks" mixed in there. It seems like even in trying to "comfort" someone in grief, the confidante still tries to turn the attention on themselves sometimes - wanting to be remembered as the one who gave the great advice or something like that in stead of letting Shirley/Danielle just talk through the crap that they're feeling. Like most things in life, real issue that are messy probably won't get wrapped up as quickly or neatly as the TV conversation mentioned above, but it's a good framework for starting to walk with someone through their suffering.

What's more, the final piece of the "Community" equation was "Let's go check on Annie." Annie was another character who was upset about something (comparatively trivial). Perhaps an important step in overcoming grief in her own life, Shirley needed to then go "check on" another member of their community.

Britta completely exemplifies a Christian example in this scene.

I'm not even going to apologize for using this cheesy cultural reference. There.


"One another" hits:

John 13:34 - "'A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.'"

Romans 12:10 - "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves."

Romans 15:7 - "Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God."

Ephesians 4:2 - "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."

1 Thessalonians 5:11 - "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing."

1 Peter 3:8 - "Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble."