The end

I will no longer be blogging.  If you want to read a past blog, read it now because I'm deleting it next week.    Thanks for being a faithful follower.

"Dance With Who Brung Ya"

Our pastor is preaching a series entitled "Follow Through."  We've been working through Haggai and Malachi and learning about how followers of Jesus follow through and what leads us to shrink backwards.  We've been thoroughly enjoying the preaching and have been greatly challenged.

So this week, one comment that stuck out was when Gary said that we should "dance with who brung ya!"  In other words, when you go to a dance with a particular person, you don't dance with someone else.  He went on to expound about how God has brought us to this dance, but we quickly abandon him for more "attractive" partners.  We've been encouraged to return to our first love and dance this dance of life with the Lord who has brought us into new life.

Carla and I have been discussing about how God has brought us to this dance and what He's brought us from. We've also been humbled about some ways we have sought different "dance partners."  What about you?

The Race Val

So I got a new cell phone the other day...with Sprint so that I can actually use it in my house and where I work.  What a concept!  Anywho, when setting up the security settings at the store, they asked me to choose a security question.  One of the options was "your first car." 

That got me to thinking about the ole' '64 Plymouth Valiant 4 door I bought back in '83.  I bought it for $300 from Mrs. Wadsworth down the street.  Her husband Bob and I sang bass in the church choir until he passed away.  She didn't need two cars so she sold it to me.

I'll never forget that day.  When she opened the garage, I thought I had seen the most beautiful car in the world!  It had chrome bumpers (you younger readers can Google "chrome" to see what that is) and grille.  It had 102,000 miles on it, and a little rust, but to me, it was brand new.

I drove that car for the next three years...using it more as a truck at times.  My horse saddle fit nicely over the bench front seat and the back seat and trunk could haul quite a few bales of hay.  I hit a deer with it the first Fall I owned it, but thanks to Dad and the junkyard, I got it back on the road in no time.  I LOVED that car...and I thought at that moment, "I wish I still had it."

Now I have two very newerish cars that run great, and a newerish Harley Hawg to tool around town upon. So I was thinking as I was waiting for the phone transaction to be complete, why do hold onto the past like this?  Why is our first car so memorable?  Why do we often want to return to those days?  It seems we forget about all the problems and issues and cares of the times long past...

Lord, help me to live for you in this day, thanking you for all that's past, but more so looking forward to what you have in store next!

Friendship or Fellowship? (A Postcript about Facebook...)

Ah, yes, Facebook.  And more specifically, Facebook "friends."  If you read my previous blog about friendship and fellowship, and if you have any Facebook friends, you may have discovered that term is sometimes a misnomer.  Let me illustrate.

A number of years ago, Carla and I loaned nearly $1,500 to some folks in a church we were serving.  They were a young family with three little kids and their house was going up for Sheriff's sale.  The church had helped them to the point of fatigue, so they approached us.  We agreed to pay their tax bill and they agreed to pay up back when they received their income tax refund. 

Well, to make a long story even longer, about six months later, they gave us a check for $500 and the promise that more was coming.  That was the last we ever talked about it.  Carla and I moved on and seldom even speak about it.  It's cool.  You win some, you lose some.

Except a few weeks ago, this person attempted to "friend" me on Facebook.  Really?  Facebook friend?  Now I know you're thinking that they're attempting to send us our money.  Not so much...our new address and information is well published.  Needless to say, I "ignored" their "friend" request.  

At any rate, it just amazes me how we throw around the term "friend."  Fellowship is meant to help us to grow.  Friends are meant for our comfort.  But I'm not sure where the term "Facebook friend" sometimes falls...

PS: Yes, I will agree to be your Facebook friend, even if I don't know you...even if I don't like you...if you'll give me $1,000!   Thanks in advance!

Friendship or Fellowship?

So this has been rolling around in my head for some time now.  A few months back, I participated in a Bible study at our church.  One of the weeks, we focused on the role that fellow Christians play in the life of a believer.  One of the elders in the church put the curriculum together and, in it, he said something very profound and challenging.

He stated that God created friendship for our comfort.  But he created fellowship for our true growth.  Wow...deep stuff, and I'm thinking very true!

We all need friends....people with whom we can laugh and cry and play.  Friends are for fun and friends are to minister to one another in times of need.  I'm so thankful that I've been blessed with a few true friends.  I enjoy them, and I think they enjoy me!   Friends are good, and friends are good for my comfort.

But we also need fellowship.  And I'm realizing as I've been thinking this through that I have far fewer people in my life with whom I'm in fellowship.  Besides Carla, I won't name them here.  But these are the people who are not only friends, and not just friendly.  They're the ones who seek me out when I'm not going down the right path.  And they're the ones who ask me to show them the same things.  They're the ones that inspire me to grow up, and the ones who will let me inspire them to the same.  They're the ones who don't just comfort me when I'm afflicted, but afflict me when I'm comfortable and vice-versa!

So I'm thankful for my friends, for sure!   But I'm especially thankful for my fellowship partners...those that help me to be a man more like Jesus!!!

Mom wanted a new blog entry...

...so this is all I have.  I learned, while going to the funeral home today, that the purpose of a suit coat is to hide the wrinkled shirt underneath.

New Years Blessings

Just a few quick lines to say how blessed I am at the beginning of a new year.  First, we who call ourselves The Pittsburgh Project started out our new year together with a day of prayer and seeking the Lord together.  How awesome is that?  What it is a blessing it is to belong to such a group of Kingdom-hearted people!

Then last night I was able to attend the first of four nights of prayer and fasting at Hosanna Church.  There were about 30 people gathered for a time of praying in the new year for four consecutive evenings.  How awesome it was to spend an evening with other "saints" as we sought the Lord in repentance and restoration for how we have behaved as Christians and as a church.

I can't think of better ways to live out "happy new year!"

"I" Problem (warning: this blog post is longer than most and may be continued...)

So I guess it's been like a perfect storm of things leading up to the authoring of this blog entry.  Unfortunately, some of the strongest illustrations cannot be included here because they would certainly be too offensive (mostly, because they would be too personal toward some). 

Let me start with the church and Christmas.  Is it just me, or did Christmas suddenly become about us?  And I'm not even talking about the worldly perspective, but from that of the church.  I saw numerous church signs, websites, and some tweets/facebook updates stately loudly and proudly that "Jesus came to earth for you!"    It must have been a mantra of one of the leading church growth gurus this season...you know, those that I have long unfriended on facebook and stopped following on twitter and reading their "leadership" canons?    I say this because I saw this message (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) in so many church circles this year.  Now it is factual that Jesus came to earth for you.  He came to save you, and me, and the world.  But the truth is that He came for Him.  You see, a faithful reading of Scripture will prove that EVERYTHING God does is for Him.  Everything.  So when He sent His Son, it was ultimately for Him.  Hey, we benefit, to be sure.  But it was not for man that God became flesh and dwelt among us.  But it was so we could see HIS glory, not our own.

A second event that swirled some clouds to form this storm within my soul took place at a public place.  I ran into somebody who I would have considered a "friend" some years ago.  I haven't seen this person in quite some time, and in the ten or so minutes we were able to spend, I heard a lot about him.  His new job and all his new responsibilities and office and stuff.  And then he left.  He didn't ask about me.  I don't know why I'm surprised.  He is a Christian and must have heard the message that Jesus came to earth for him.  It sure sounded to me like that was pretty much his sole focus...himself.

And then there is the book.  It was the one book I asked for Christmas (besides a NASB version of the Bible so I can follow along more closely as my pastor reads) and it is entitled "Radical."  It was recommended by a friend...one who asks about me and who focuses on things other than herself outside of Sunday morning.  She is someone who gave up a lucrative career to follow her calling.  She lives in a rented apartment and buys her clothes and furniture at the second-hand store so that she can be faithful to living a radically different life for Jesus.  It kind of makes me wonder if she made it to church this Christmas, at least in many locations.  Because I think she missed the memo that Jesus came to earth for us.  She is living as though He came to earth for Himself and to draw all people to Himself and that means she must live differently.  So Carla bought me the book and I have finished reading chapter 4 so far.   And the book lives up to its name so far, because in it the author is talking about how Jesus came to earth for Himself.  He came to transform lives so that transformed lives would live for Him and bring others to Him so that they can live for Him. 

Finally, there is "our" church.  Hosanna has been around for 20 years.  It was planted by the same guy who is pastoring it still.  But Hosanna must have missed the memo, because the church doesn't seem to think that Jesus came to earth for it.  Hosanna isn't a "successful" church and Gary isn't a "successful" pastor, at least in the eyes of the run-of-the-mill Christian church in America today.  After 20 years, they should have thousands in the seats and a $150,000 sound system and baseball and soccer fields "for the kids" and a coffee bar and at least 3 services on Sunday, a few on Saturday, and numerous the week of Christmas (so that people can learn that Christmas is for them.)  Gary should certainly have a title like "executive, senior, or lead" by now and should have a staff of many. 

But no.  Gary is bi-vocational and for 20 years while pastoring this little church has cleaned windows to pay the bills.  The church building was paid off last year...$150,000 worth.  There are probably 100 people there at the weekly service.  There is a part-time secretary.  I'm not sure who cleans the church, but I know it is very clean.  The worship team isn't perfect and I don't feel like at the Benedum Center for the next great performance.  The sound systems cracks and frequently makes a noise that can only be described as like a loud fart.

And yet this church is raising $30,000 to send to Liberia.  (That is in addition to what four individuals coughed up on their own to go and support the faithful use of these funds to build a school so 200 kids aren't cramped into a house.)  Nearly every week, someone is introduced as giving themselves to Jesus and a life of service to Him.  There are radical testimonies that are frequently shared.  People are living very different lives, and not unto themselves.  The Kingdom is coming to this little slice of Pixburgh.

So what's my point in all of this?  Maybe some contrition for buying into "it's all about me" mentality during the years of my pastoral ministry.  Maybe some sadness of heart for the fact that we have exchanged the truth of the gospel and its radical message of transformation and unabashed Kingdom living into a trite story about our own comfort.  Maybe some regret that I didn't take a bolder stand and have a fuller realization at times that life isn't about me. 

And then the hope...that I am part of a church, nay, a movement of transformed "folks" who are out to, yes, save the world.  That I have saved nearly $700 already for my trip to Liberia...whenever God opens that door.  For a job where I can go live the Good News to people who sometimes don't have enough good news, let alone Good News.  For a renewed sense of awareness and for a few Kingdom friends (like the one I share a bed with and the one I regularly meet for coffee and the one who suggested the book and the one "unsuccessful" yet faithful pastor who happens to serve (and I do mean serve) with the people of Hosanna and the ones who call themselves The Pittsburgh Project) who have this same burden and excitement and reckless abandon.  I praise you Lord.  May my life, my marriage, my work, my recreation, my resources, my friendships, my struggles, my joys, my conversations, and even my Christmases....be about you and you only.  Amen.

Merry Incarnation, er, I Mean Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone.  At least that's how Christians often express their greetings in this season.  And why not?  I mean, are we not celebrating Jesus' birthday?   

Well yes, it's true we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ at Christmas time.  But even more meaningful is the fact that we celebrate the Incarnation.  Ya, that's a big church word but it really means that God came to town.  He revealed Himself.  He made Himself known in the best way we can grasp it, as a person. 

My favorite Biblical rendering of the Christmas narrative (apart from Linus reciting Luke 2 from the ole KJV) is from John 1.  No, there are no mangers or angels or shepherds or little babies.  But there is the simple, yet most profound, explanation that "the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us." 

So, yes, at this Christmas, I wish you a Merry Christmas.  But at this Christmas and throughout eternity, I wish you a Merry Incarnation...and understanding that the very being of God has been made known in Jesus Christ.  O come, let us adore Him!

How to Decorate Your New Home for Christmas for Less Than $650,000!

So we haven't owned a home in 14 years.  Instead we've been living in homes provided by the churches we have served.  Now like anything, there is good and bad to that.  But we are truly enjoying owning a home and being able to invest in decor and decorations that we know (God willing, instead of the bishop) that we'll be here next year to enjoy them!  And we LOVE our house!!!!   We feel so incredibly blessed to be here.  In order to celebrate those blessings, we went out and bought Christmas decorations worth many times the fair market value of our house.  What a better way to prove you're blessed than to decorate!  I'm providing some before and after pictures so you can enjoy the season with us:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

A Quick Jaunt for Some Decorative Chain...An Autobiography by Brett Probert

So today I goes to get a couple of feet of decorative white chain and a swag hook to hang a plant for Carla.  I went to our favorite hardware store...Bellevue Hardware.  Unfortunately, they were sold out of the chain, which was priced at $0.24 per foot.

So I was forced to go to another "big box" store which shall remain unnamed for legal reasons.  After finding the swag hooks in the lighting department, I ask a friendly orange-aproned sales associate if he could help me.  He said, and I quote, "only if you need help with shelves."  So I ask someone where the decorative white chain is to go with my swag hooks.  They tell me in hardware, which is at the other end of the store. 

So I goes to the hardware section, find the decorative white chain, and ask the sales associate who is standing literally 4 feet from the chain if he can cut a few feet of it for me.  And he says, and I swear I'm not making this up, and I quote, "I'm not certified to cut chain."  And that's it. 

So I politely asked if he could find another store employee who was schooled in the art to come assist me.  After a short wait, a board certified, card-carrying member of the white decorative chain cutters union appears to cut my 5' feet of chain.  He handed it to me, and started to walk away.  At which point I says, don't I need an SKU number so they'll know to charge me $0.96/foot for my chain (you'll notice that the price is just slightly, LIKE FOUR FREAKIN' TIMES, higher than Bellevue Hardware)?  He says, oh yeah, and scribbles the SKU number on a piece of scratch paper with a bunch of other writing on it. 

I went up front to pay, and when I handed the cashier (I'll call her "Jan", mostly because that is what she had written on her orange apron at this unnamed big box hardware store) the scratch paper and she enters it in, she says "that number isn't right.  What's the right number?"  So I said "I don't know...I didn't write the number down...the certified Master Decorative White Chain Cutter did!" 

After a call to hardware, which BTW was a wrong number, a line of about 17 people waiting behind me in spite of the fact that I'm telling Jan it's $0.96 per foot...can't she just key that in..., the manager or someone in authority came over to help.  (I know they were an authority figure because they had an orange apron on.)  Instead of just looking up the price, she decided it was a great time to school Jan in the fine art of how to search for an unknown SKU number in the 'puter system.  I thought that was a great idea, because Jan is probably now a certified SKU number looker upper, or something.

After only six hours, I was able to walk out with my chain and hooks, although I must admit, it felt more like A BALL AND CHAIN!!!

Anyhow, I'm glad I missed church last week because the sermon was about complaining and since I wasn't there, I'm allowed to complain.  But in order to reign it in a little, I've decided to keep the name of the store a secret.  Thanks for letting me rant.

Loss of Innocence (sniff, sniff)

So the other day I was working with a couple of groups of college student volunteers at TPP.  I love working with groups like that because you meet people from around the world.  Perhaps most interesting at times is the different dialects I experience from across the US.

Welp, I said to one group "let's weed this hillside up to those jagger bushes."  And one student, not from Western PA, looked at me and said "what?"  So I repeats myself and said "just go as far as those jagger bushes."  At which point she said "what's a jagger bush?"

Now what ensued was a discussion that led to a heartbreaking revelation: "jagger bush" isn't a real term.  It's a colloquialism of Western Pennsylvania.  People from other places don't call them jagger bushes.  They call them thorn bushes, or they call them by their proper names. 

Alas, at the tender young age of 45, my innocence was shattered like tender young skin laid bare by the hapless destruction of a jagger bush...

Hosanna!

Since stepping out of the pastorate and into a more "boots on the ground" ministry earlier this year, Carla and I have been searching for a church.  Our desire was to find a church in our community that really represented us and our neighbors.  We wanted to find a church that was alive and where people were real.  We wanted to find a church where we were challenged to grow and serve in crazy new ways.  We wanted to find a church where people were friendly to outsiders and to one another.   We wanted to find a church where Sunday morning was a time to honor God and a springboard to a life of service and ministry.  We wanted to find a church where people shared life with each other and with a lost and hurting world.  We wanted to find a church that was diverse...ethnically, socially, economically, generationally...because that is the reality of our Brighton Heights neighborhood.   We wanted to find a church where the lost, hurting, and dying were finding a truly new and incredible life in Jesus Christ.  We wanted to find a church where the worship wasn't perfected by practice, but practiced as an offering to God, and therefore perfect in His sight.  We wanted to find a church that understands the Kingdom and is living as a true light in the community.  We wanted to find a church where the preaching was inspired before being inspiring and where the message was captivating because it was truth.  We wanted to find a church that gave sacrificially to see the Kingdom come at home and around the world.  Quite simply, we wanted to find the perfect church!!!!

So we visited churches...many of them.  We visited some that were very close to our house and some that were not.  We visited churches that were big and some that were small.  We visited churches that were affiliated with a denomination and some that were as independent as they come.  In our search, we had some pretty humorous experiences (remind me to tell you of the church with the marble communion table with the chiseled inscription "Come Unto Me" and a fence all around it....I swear I'm not making this up!) and some that were just downright discouraging.  Some churches we went back to a few times and some we walked out of before the service even ended.   Some churches we really liked but weren't close or there were other minor reasons.

But finally, I think we've settled into a church home.  Indeed, the characteristics that we searched for and that I listed in the first paragraph really seem to exist in this little church in Brighton Heights.  It is called Hosanna, and we are loving it.  Hosanna is an expression of praise (and originally meant "Lord, save us") and we feel like it lives into both of those meanings.  It is not a perfect church (and if it was, it isn't now 'cause I'm there!!!), but it is the perfect church for us.  We walk there holding hands together, get to worship together side by side, and get to walk home hand in hand with a stopover for an awesome Panini at the Brighton Cafe.

Thank you Lord for leading us to the Northside of Pittsburgh.  Thank you for a beautiful home of our dreams in a great neighborhood.  Thanks for a great ministry opportunity at The Pittsburgh Project.  And thank you for our wonderful new church home.  May these things continue to come together so that our lives and every aspect of them can be an offering to you!

Peace, bro.

So on my way home from The Pittsburgh Project today, I stopped off at the local thrift store.  Now it's called the Red, White, and Blue Thrift store on Ohio River Boulevard but my neighbor calls it "The Boutique on the Boulevard."  Sounds much classier that way!

Anywho, in the midst of my buying two long sleeve t-shirts and a vase for our hall tree (all for $5!), a guy who I'll call "Dan" starts talking to me.  (I'll call him Dan because he said "Hey...what's your name?  My name is Dan."  He said to me "Wow, you keep it up, bro."  I said "keep what up?"  And that's when the conversation started.

He told me that it looked like I was a man at peace.  He said that so many people are running around in this world all bothered by the stuff life throws at us and he could tell by my face that I was living a life of peace.  He said he thought I had figured out a way to not let the stresses of the world get me down.

Well, I hope he's right.  I mean walking a life of faith in Jesus has really changed my heart.  The things I once worried about I find I worry about less.   The more I surrender to Him and keep my heart focused on Him and His purpose for me, the less I find that I'm stressin' about the stuff.  You know, the stuff?

So thank God for the peace.  It sure does pass my understanding.  And I hope not only my new friend Dan but others can see the peace on my face...'cause it sure is in my heart!

When I Grow Up, I Wanna Be a...

Yesterday I was working with a group of volunteers from a local college.  Almost all of them were college freshman and through the course of the day I asked them what they wanted to do when they grow up.  I didn't hear too many clear cut answers, but maybe I shouldn't be surprised.

First of all, so few people actually stay in the same career field these days.  I personally think this is a good thing in that we have permission to dream fresh dreams and do new things with our lives.  That is what walking by faith is all about...to understand that God has big new plans for us around each new corner.  When we get into a complacency, almost any complacency, we are in danger of following His will for our lives in the past.  I believe the Lord is always calling us to some new plane (or helicopter), and that means our lives should be in a constant state of flux.

I also think that the younger generation sometimes feels forced into going to college.  This puts some in the position to make decisions about their future before they know enough about themselves to make that call.  I think that was probably the case with me in some ways...I went to college because it was the thing to do for people with grades like I had.  I don't regret it, and never have.  But I think the healthier (and cheaper) approach might be for some to simply get gainful employment after high school to discover more about who they are.  Then when they figure out what they like and dislike, what their true strengths and weaknesses are, and what their calling from God may be at the time, they can make decisions about future educational pursuits or career choices.

Now for me, at 45 and in my uptheenth career, I'm still trying to decide if I want to be an astronaut, or a cowboy, or a fireman, or a ...

Oh Deer!

So while Carla was at work and there was a lull in my homeowner repairs, I went out for a quick 180 mile ride on the Harley.  Now in the middle of the afternoon in the summer on a country road, out jumps a deer.  Luckily, I was paying attention and was able to avoid hitting it.  (Non-motorcyclist factoid: If you hit a deer on a motorcycle, it hurts you as much as it hurts the deer.)  But then, I settled back into my comfortable ride.

Then alas, some 25 miles later, another deer jumped out.  This time, I whipped out my camera and snapped this photo so I could blog about it.  jk  lol  rofl  lmao omg  lmnop. 

But seriously, it got me to thinking about a conversation Carla and I had this morning about how God is always calling us to be uncomfortable.  He wants us to be constantly stepping out and taking Kingdom risks.  He wants us to be living radically different lives than the world around us.  And this always, ALWAYS, causes discomfort.  So are you settled into the ride of life?  Are you comfortable with where you are?  Then I ask you, do you think Jesus is? 

I'm just sayin'...

Tipping Point

So I just got back from a week's vacation (more on that in another blog, perhaps) and ended up heading to Murrysville to meet mom and dad as they were passing through on their way out west.  Why did I meet them there?  To take the old records, of course, so they can haul them across the country so sister Felicia can record them to .mp3 and memorialize them forever.  Why, you ask?  Good question!!!

A few years ago I read a book entitled "Tipping Point" which was a fascinating review of what makes something just seem to take off.  I saw this phenomenon in action.  You see, several months ago, M&D brought me their entire collection of old record albums with the instructions to "throw them away or sell them and keep the money or whatever you want to do with them..."  Fortunately, I stored them in the attic of the man cave.  Because a week or so ago, I saw a news story that Mitch Miller had died.  I simply emailed the link to the story to my siblings and parents because we often decorated the Christmas tree while singing along with the album shown here. 

Well this began an email flurry about not just the Mitch Miller albums, but ALL of them.  This ended with me strapping a bunch of old record albums, that just two weeks ago nobody in the world even knew existed let alone cared about, to the Hawg and drove in emergency fashion to Murrysville so they can be expedited across the country! 

Please pray not so much for mom and dad's trip, but especially that the records get there soon and can be recorded STAT!

Man Cave!

Welp my man cave has just taken a few big steps forward to perfection.  Recently, I added a small, dormitory sized refrigerator.   Now this evening, I have added a TV!!!!  So, true story, I'm blogging from my air-conditioned man cave while enjoying a cool beverage and enjoying the evening news.  Good stuff!  Indeed, I am blessed, even if I am bald!  Now, if I just had a urinal....

All By Itself...

So I was walking back from doing a little shopping at the neighborhood grocery store this morning when I noticed these stalks of corn growing out of the side of the little cliff above Brighton Road.  There are some almost ripe ears on them so I may rappel down in a week or two and harvest them, but that isn't the reason that I write.

The curious scene of corn growing in the middle of the city on a side of a cliff got me to thinking about a favorite passage of Scripture.  In Mark 4, Jesus said "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.  All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.  As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."

This just served to remind me of how often we try to do the things we should let God do all the while trying to get Him to do the things that we're supposed to do.  The "all by itself" phrase in Jesus' parable is, in my estimation, His way of saying that the farmer has a role and ought to play it.  But when all is said and done, there are some things only God can do.  We should be doing our stuff, and quit expecting Him to do it.  We should be letting Him do His, and quit trying to do His job.

Now I was going to go on to conjecture what some of "our jobs" and "His jobs" may be, but perhaps I'll wait.  Maybe I'll build on the list that you, faithful readers, provide.  Bring it on!

Feeling Very Blessed, Even if I Am Bald...

So yesterday I got to preach for the first time since I stepped away from Cornerstone.  My friend Jeff St. Clair asked me to fill in at their "contemporary" service and I did so.  I had a great time...I felt very free to share what the Lord placed on my heart and had an absolute blast doing it!

Afterward, this sweet lady started gushing about how much she enjoyed the message and how I was welcome to come preach anytime and yada, yada, yada.  And then she said "do you ever let your hair grow out?"  I swear, I'm not making this up!  The point she was making was that I might be a better preacher if I didn't shave my head...

Now this strange exchange got me to thinking.  I am truly blessed.  I love to preach, but I realize that I love that I'm free from the crosshairs (yes, pun intended) of every pew sitter (or in some cases, chair setters) and their endless need to dictate how I should live my life, right down to my hair.  I realize just how free I feel and how blessed I am to be at this stage of my life as I stare down the corridor of middle age.  (Notice I didn't indicate that I'm there yet!)  Jesus said when He sets us free, we'll be free indeed.  I feel that my life is such a living testimony to that.

I have a wonderful wife...my best friend and such a Godly influence on my life.  I am loving the ministry that God has opened for me at The Pittsburgh Project.  I have not looked back one day since I started there!  We have a gorgeous, just-our-size dream home with wonderful neighbors in a great neighborhood in the coolest city in the world.  We have some great friends, some great ways to pass the time, and a sense of calling that we are living out.  In brief, I'm feeling very blessed, even if I am bald...maybe especially because I am!  Thank you Lord!

Now if we can just decide on a church to call home so I can start to criticize  "my" pastor...

I won!!!

Well I have become both the envy and enemy of my newest neighborhood.  I, hater of gardening and most inept at all things green, have successfully won the "first ripe tomato on the block" unofficial contest.  My prize is pictured here for your enjoyment.  I planted our urban garden on the weekend after Mother's Day and calculated late July as when our "78 day Big Boy" tomato variety would produce its first fruit.  But alas, on this the fifth of July, our first tomato is ready for harvest.  We will have another ripe by the end of the week!

This is much to the chagrin of our dear friend and neighbor, Paul, who has held this coveted title for years.  Another neighbor, Sally, said "I have never known anyone to beat him..."  The problem is that Paul loves to cook and bake and share his creations with us.  Plus our respective dogs Shadrach and TeeBoo are the best of friends and daily playmates.  I was fearful this unseating of a longstanding champion would jeopardize our mutual jocularity, but alas, Paul just delivered two piece of his delicious homemade Blackberry pie.   All is well in Brighton Heights...

Caution: Toys You Play With May Alter Your Life Forever....

So I was having lunch yesterday with a friend who was showing me the plans for the new house he and his wife are building.  It is going to be a very cool house...one story ranch with full finished basement.  The property is awesome and the house is going to be sweet!

But he was relating how difficult it has been at times for his wife to visualize how things will look.  As we talked, it dawned upon me a notion that I had latently thought about but never fully expressed: that men tend to think better spatially because of the toys they play with as children.

Seriously...I played for countless hours in our "dad-made" sandbox with my matchbox cars and Tonka toys.  I developed some serious transportation systems in that sand and in the piles of dirt around our home addition in the early '70's.  I built untold numbers of homes from Lincoln Logs and the set of "Bricks" we had...a precursor to Legos.  And I believe those years of looking down on my imaginary world, literally looking down, taught me to think about things from a bird's perspective.  I believe it allows me to visualize things and imagine things from an aerial perspective better than children who played with dolls (read: GIRLS!).

For what it's worth, that is the unveiling of my long-held view.  Now bring on those sexist retorts!

Kids!

So let me just tell you how much I love working with the kids God has put in my life at The Pittsburgh Project.  My main responsibility is 3rd and 4th graders and we do all kinds of things...games, Bible studies, prayer and worship, tutoring, ecology, performing arts, field trips, and the like.  Good times are to be had by all!!!

But what really trips me up every time is their humor and their love for life.  The other day I was "in the face" of one of my third grade boys trying to reel him into control and scare him into some respect.  While I'm in his face with my voice slightly raised and my face working hard to look serious and stuff, he says "Mr. Brett, did you shave today?  You need to shave...your whiskers are getting long." 

So I'm like trying to keep from laughing and maintain my tough guy stance, but to no avail.  I busted out laughing, and he did too.  Thank you Jesus for the joy you show us in the lives of kids.  Thanks for reminding us that we must become like them to truly experience the kingdom of God...

Sessy!

So on Wednesdays at The Pittsburgh Project, we always have staff meetings.  They start at noon with a brown bag lunch, then some sharing time, then a Bible study and prayer.  I love Wednesdays because I love our times together.

However this week was a real treat.  Our Executive Director (and/or our chaplain-type-person) provided lunch, then brought the ice cream man to our alley and we all got free ice cream!!!  (Lib called it a "sessy," which she says means gift.  None of us never heard the term!)  I got a Heath Ice Cream Bar...yummy indeed.  It was fun as all 50 or so of us lined up like little kids...and it was a blast to see the smiles of childlike joy from each person as they walked back with their favorite frozen treat.  Then we played games in the gameroom...ping pong, air hockey, four-square, fusbol.  It was a great afternoon.

That is one of the many things I am enjoying about the ministry of TPP...that there is a true sense of teamwork and an unforced balance of hard work and playing together.   One feels appreciated there because one IS appreciated there.  My hats off to our TPP leadership, and I continue to serve with joy, with or without the ice cream!!!

Requiem for a Friend

A friend died of cancer this week .  She loved the things that God created for us to enjoy...flowers and plants, animals, and the people in her life.  She loved to laugh and she loved to make others laugh too.  She was a giving soul, and I was blessed to know her, albeit not as well as I would have liked....

Her passing has me down...she was too young and it seems to unfair and so hard for her husband and daughters.  The thought of not being able to be there at her daughters' wedding or being able to move to Florida to fulfill a longtime dream is such a bummer.

In her last days, her husband said to me that some things just don't seem that important in the light of what was happening.  How true...how fleeting life can be and how we seem to focus on the truly unimportant and often ignore the things that mean the most.

So today, in MB's honor, I am going to try all the more to focus on the things that mean the most to me:  My God, my wife, my family, my friends, and my ministry to a lost and hurting world.  Love and obedience...the things that God desires the most...are the things I seek to give today.

Enough Already!!!

S

So I came home tonight and decided to go for groceries...which in and of itself isn't so bad.  It's when you get to the checkout and it is time to find the right "rewards card" (read: gimmick to annoy you) in your wallet.  Of course, Carla has the one I need so they'll look it up...except we've moved like 83 times and changed our phone number like 114 times since we've had the card so they can't find it.  I applied for a new one so I could save 8 bucks...but it took longer to fool around with the rewards card bullcrapola than it did to actually shop for groceries!


And then I need help getting to my car...not because of the groceries.  No, I can handle them alright.  I need help carrying ALL THE FREAKIN' REWARDS CARDS!  Everywhere you shop you have to have a "rewards card." (read: card from hell.)  WHY?  WHY CAN'T WE JUST LOWER THE PRICES WITHOUT A CARD?  

OK, I'm done.  I feel better too.  Now I'm going to work on the addition to our home to store all our rewards cards.

Where's the Joy?!

So as many of you know, I hain't a pastor any more.  So I have this weird experience of having a weekend!  Wow, I could get used to this!  Part of the cool part about a weekend is that you get to go worship in church.  As a pastor, I found it very hard to worship...always thinking about what I was preaching on or what was happening next or what went wrong.  And even on vacation, I would always critique and compare the pastor of the church we would visit...forgive me Lord.

But now, we're kinda looking for a place to put down some roots, or maybe a couple of places to call our church homes!   So on Sunday, we're back at a place we've been to a few times and as the worship service started, I began to weep.   Part of it was tears of joy...I was so caught up in loving on God.  But part of it was tears of sadness...for all those in my life who have never found this joy.  

Even among many Christians we have known, people seem to lack true joy.  And when you're a part of a group of people who have it, you get caught up in it and get bummed for those who don't.   I'm not talking about happiness, you know, at good stuff that happens.  I'm talking about true joy...that peace that transcends our understanding and, quite honestly, all the bad and good stuff in our lives.

At least I'm grateful that we've found a few great churches so far that are oozing with that true joy.  And maybe most of all, that He has led me to The Pittsburgh Project where I am literally surrounded with those kinda peeps everyday!

Free from "social" media...

So this morning I met a great friend for coffee...for like 2 hours.  We met in a quaint little coffee shop just up the road...The Muddy Cup in "downtown" Bellevue.  The coffee was great, the atmosphere was even better, and the conversation was phenomenal.  And it got me to thinking...

Lately, I haven't been on facebook as much.  I have been on twitter even less.  These little e-gadgets are designed to put us in community with one another.  And in a sometimes sad, often inauthentic, way they do.  I believe what these so-called "social media" tend to do is to create a sense of community which really couches the reality of isolation.  

Often, facebook updates are attempts to gain self-pity and to draw attention to oneself.  Twitter, it seems, caters more to the ego.  We tweeters tend to espouse our own intelligence, or worse, to "retweet" the insightful maxims of alleged gurus of a particular field.  And what, at least to me, tends to be the end product?  Isolation.  

And yet a conversation on the porch with Carla, my best friend in the world, is priceless.  It isn't proud, or selfish, or inauthentic in any way.  The chat in the "the farthest thing from Starbucks" coffee shop this morning is tacitly irreplaceable by any alleged "social" media. 

I'm not deleting my facebook page, or shunning twitter for eternity.  But as I find myself less and less attracted to them, I find myself having greater and more inspiring, and yes, more "social," interactions than ever!

The REAL meaning of Easter

So I'm leading worship for the Easter party at The Pittsburgh Project the other day.  I had maybe 30 K-2nd graders in the room at the time and I asked them why we really celebrate Easter.  One little boy raised his hand and said we celebrate Easter 'cause it is Jesus' birthday.  Nice try.

So then another little girl raises her hand and she said "we, um, we celebrate Easter, um, 'cause we celebrate, um, Jesus' recreation from the dead!"  (note that I added the bold and italics.  You can't really do that while you're speaking.)

So for the past week I've been thinking about Easter and how it kinda really is Jesus' recreation from the dead.  He recreated death...so that in Him, we no longer must fear it.  He recreated death...so that in Him, death can be not only and ending of a chapter but the beginning of forever.  He recreated death...so that in Jesus, death is victory instead of victorious.  

I guess He knew what He was talking about when He said that we must become like little children...they're a whole lot smarter than we are sometimes...


Happy Easter, and may you experience a recreation from death!!!

Fit to be Tied

So Mom and Dad came to visit today and at some point Mom says something about how one size 9 shoe by one manufacturer isn't the same as another size 9 shoe of the same manufacturer and how frustrating that can be.  Which reminds me...

So now that Carla is the full time employee in the house and I'm just a part-time bum, I'm doing the lion's share of the housework.  Most of the time, I enjoy it, but let me just get something off my chest.

In this country (the country from which I'm writing is the USA so when I say this country, that's the one I'm talking about.  So many of my readers are from other countries...I don't want there to be any confusion.) we have som'n called the ASTM.  Now that's a bunch of letters meaning that somewhere in a cave or something there are "standards" for stuff.  Like there's a piece of metal or something one inch long.  Like for real.  So if you want to make a tape measure that measures an inch, you compare your inch to the "standard" inch to make sure that the inch you're selling is a real inch, or something.  (Note: this also works for tape measures that are longer than an inch...simply use the same inch and multiply it by the number of inches on your tape measure!)

So I'm thinking the other night as I'm making the bed after doing the laundry, why don't we have an ASTM fitted sheet?  Now just wait, imagine with me what it would be like if a fitted sheet would fit?!  Crazy, eh?  I mean like one fitted sheet doesn't fit one way and another fitted sheet doesn't fit another way and I'm throwing a fit and fit to be tied and all that, but the fitted sheets don't fit.  None of them.  Ever.

So I'm thinking we should have like an ASTM fitted sheet, made out of titanium or something, in a cave or lock box or vault where they control the temperature.  Then when someone wants to make a fitted sheet, they can compare it to the ASTM fitted sheet so it will fit.  Then I won't have to throw a fit, or be fit to be tied...