Spirit of '86...

Or maybe '93.

I am filled with unspeakable joy. First the Habs barely make it into the playoffs. Then they knock off the league leading Capitals. Then they take care of the Penguins. And they do so with stellar coaching, blocked shots, phenomenal goal tending, scoring from everyone...and amidst a host of injuries to key players.

Some say that they should not have made it this far. But when you watch them play you can't deny that they totally deserve to be where they are now at.

I'm now watching the final 9 minutes of the game because I had to go to youth.

And now for your viewing pleasure...

Stand By Me...

You gotta love the Muppets right?

GPS...

I would buy a GPS unit because of this alone. They use the voices of Darth Vader, Yoda, C3P0 and Han Solo.

Living legend...

My wife is taking the stage during our second service this Sunday to do announcements. She's never done this before. Although one time she prayed in church and she apparently went up to the stage at the wrong time. So she's nervous.

But then she makes a comment about how the design team was saying that it should be fine as long as she doesn't "pull a Mike".

Wait a sec...my name is Mike. What's the connection?

I once announced that someone was dead during announcements. Not abnormal...except when the guy is not dead. He wasn't even sick. I think he was on vacation.

Now it is apparently known as "pulling a Mike" and I am just finding out about this today.

Tune it up...

Somewhere along the road I stumbled across the music of Zach Williams.

Then I'm at Catalyst West last week and the guy shows up on the stage!

He shared about how his wife was paralyzed from the neck down after an accident and how he started writing music while she was in the hospital. By way of a miracle she is now totally healthy and they have 2 kids.

Gifted song writer. Here's a part of a song called "Hospital".

Thanks to Mike Foster for the video.

ZACH WILLIAMS SINGS HOSPITAL from PEOPLE OF THE SECOND CHANCE on Vimeo.

My students made me cry...

Ok...update. I'm apparently healthy. Well...at least physically. All the test results were normal. All except the occasional extra beat my heart will take. (But they aren't worried, so I'll say that the extra beat is just for Erin! That must get me some bonus points right?)

So now I've been told I need to get some rest. Go for a walk. Talk to a professional. And sleep.

I know that's the simple version and sounds easy, right? But you'd be impressed by just how difficult I can make the easiest of tasks.

This is all new to me. I'm used to broken bones and torn ligaments. I'm not used to no sleep and racing minds.

I think I'm learning a lesson about trust.

I shared a bit of my journey with my high school group tonight. Then they asked to surrounded me to pray. Then the tears started. And while I still attempt to wrestle/wade/journey through this season of life one night at a time, I am reminded of God's love and the love of others.

Post Catalyst...

I just got back from Catalyst West in Irvine, CA.

I'm tired since Jamie and I had two different flights and had to get up at 6am today. (FYI, 6am is unheard of for youth pastors except in the case of allnighters.) The good news being that we caught the final 15 minutes of the United win against Spurs. But I digress.

There's so much to process after the week. I'll probably get some of it down here in the next week or so. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, here's a light little story to hold you over.

Jamie and I got off our Alaska Airlines flight this afternoon and awaited our luggage. He got his and mine was no where to be seen. The woman unloading the cart says that they have two more bags up front.

This is what she throws me.

A grease covered Nike bag.

They have no idea what, or how, it happened.

She adds that I can go wait at the front desk and fill out a "we destroyed your bag" (my words, not hers) form.

I decide to go for it. What else am I supposed to do? Throw this is the trunk of the car and get grease everywhere?

So, I patiently waited my turn behind a couple of irritated individuals who had not even received their luggage. The site of my situation brought some laughter.

A couple of security guards came over to take photos. One asks me if I've smelled it to ensure it is actually grease. I laugh it off and tell her that she can. She declines.

My time finally comes and a couple of people start filling out the necessary paper/computer work. There's talk about trying to get me a new bag. Then a supervisor radios in that they should look at getting it cleaned. The guy working with me laughed and said that was going to be impossible.

They ask me if I'd like a replacement bag.

The first one that they bring out is about half the size of my grease-covered bag. The same guy from earlier chuckles and points out my stuff won't fit. So they head back and return with a brand new suitcase.

The only catch is that I have to leave my grease-bag with them.

This is no simple decision. I've had that bag a long time. It's made a number of trips. It has history. We have memories.

Ok, so I didn't think about it too much.

I thanked them for the luggage upgrade, transferred my stuff over and was on my way. Now I have a new suitcase.

Going retro...

Aidan and I had guys night while Becca was out and Erin was doing school. We watched The Phantom Menace on VHS. Can you say retro? Aidan loved the movie though. At least it wasn't because of JarJar Binks.

Then I settled in to watch Sherlock Holmes, which I was enjoying in between naps. But I'll have to try and watch the last 30 minutes sometime today so I know how it ended.

As for today I'm not planning much. Watched some soccer. Will watch some hockey. And probably some more hockey. Tough Saturday, eh?

Sorry for the lack of substance in these posts lately. I'm hoping I'll have some good content after the Catalyst trip next week.

Thursday...

Today I...

• had a chest x-ray
• had some blood drawn
• had an ECG
• got hooked up to a holter monitor

I'm wiped. My brain won't shut up.

And this stupid monitor itches like crazy. It comes off at 9:20am tomorrow.

I'm praying that all of this is nothing more than stress related.

Roll call...

Who's here?

Come on now. Don't be afraid.

Say hi.

Where's the blog...

This month is turning out to be way crazier that I ever thought. Which doesn't bode well for May because I know that next month is supposed to be insane.

A few things that are looming/happening:

• A trip to the doctor. I'm just shy of being a wreck right now. I'll spare you the details, but it's enough to drive my mind crazy.
• Catalyst West trip with Jamie next week.
• Erin & I are joining forces with some of our favorite people in the world to head off into another part of the world. We're doing some marriage mentoring in what our denomination calls a Creative Access Nation. Stoked and nervous. Stay tuned.
  
• I need to catch up on some blogging about what I've been reading. I still owe a couple of reviews for free books I got in March. (And a couple of freebies to give out, so stick around.)
• Got "new" furniture. (New to us anyways.) Friends are great. And now the youth room has some "new" furniture too as it gets the hand-me-downs.
• What's playing for music? Mostly John Mark McMillan and The Avett Brothers.
• I have a few people inquiring about some of my Star Wars stuff. Hopefully I'll be able to free up some storage space in the next few days.
• Part of our summer vacation is officially booked and paid for! Woohoo!
  

Ok...heading back to the couch now.

Trivial...

In comparison to the rest of the weekend I know this is not that important. But it still leaves me feeling crappy. United lost to Chelsea. On an apparently offside goal.

(sigh)

At least my Habs beat Philly last night.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled Easter programming. I know I will.

What a weekend...

It was nice to have a weekend of rest. Hanging with the family, hanging with friends, and just trying to recover for another week to come.

The Hamilton Bulldogs were in town this weekend to play the Abbotsford Heat, so on Friday night I threw on my Habs jersey and headed out to the game with Aidan in tow. I even convinced him to wear a Montreal Canadiens shirt. (This is a big deal since he is trying his hardest to convince me that he cheers for the Canucks.)

Final score 2-1 for the mini-Habs. Some quality father-son bonding that saw us ditch our upper level seats for row #2 after the first intermission. Sure, it wasn't a great line of sight, but Aidan loved pounding on the glass and seeing the players up close.

Last night Erin and I headed out to game #2 (I was still sporting the jersey) as part of our "date night" (yes, I have a great wife who will take me to hockey games!) and watched the Bulldogs thrash the Heat 4-0. Funniest moment was Jim Playfair (Heat coach) absolutely LOSING it on the bench. Thank you YouTube! We missed it because we were a little late getting back from the mini-donut run. But here's a video:



Anyways, this is about the closest I'll get to watching some of the Habs (or future Habs) play anytime in the future, and I'll just say that it was a great part of the weekend.

newTunes...

At least to me they are new. But do yourself a favor and go listen to this guy.

John Mark McMillan.

He's the guy who wrote "How He Loves". You know, that song which most people think is by the David Crowder*Band. I hope it's not getting overplayed in your circles, because it's still a sweet song.

Now go listen. I've had it playing pretty much nonstop today on Grooveshark. Love it. But I can't seem to find it on Canadian iTunes. Once again, we've been robbed.

Here...

Signs of a good youth worker...

Want to know if you've got good youth workers in your ministry?

Clue #1: A student will enter the room, look around, and if they do not see a particular leader within 3 seconds, they will then ask "Is (insert leader name) not here tonight?"

Clue #2: A leader will go out of their way to get beaten by a pillow, attend a sporting event, or ask a student about their week.

Insecurities...

Have you ever listened to someone talk and then wondered what they were even saying? They say something, not even necessarily directed to you, but the topic they are speaking about causes you to question whether they are even using the same language as you.

I do that. A lot.

I just find myself stuck, not knowing how to process what I am taking in. And rarely will my brain won't kick into overdrive and help me out. I mean, come on, the least my brain can do is make a half-hearted attempt at translation, right?

It makes me wonder if my brain is actually turning to mush because of too much TV. Or maybe it's the caffeine...or the lack thereof.

Maybe it's because I don't read enough. Or maybe I just read the wrong things. Or maybe it's because I took the wrong classes. Or went to the wrong school. Or got hit too many times in the head with a soccer ball. Or fell down the stairs that one time for a video project I made in high school.

Or maybe I'm just insecure?

Don't miss...

When it comes to music played in/by the church, I have to say two men/bands go under appreciated in most Canadian circles.

Charlie Hall.

Robbie Seay Band.

The latter is releasing an album this Tuesday.

You can listen to it here before it releases.

Marching...

I cannot tell you how many times I have started typing something only to delete it. I can't find the words that will form the sentences that will bring about a paragraph that will sum up what is going on in life. (I wonder if these words will last.)

No gas...

Yesterday my team played in the semi-final. Going up against a team we've beat in the past, we knew that we had a chance to win. It's better than previous years where we went in expecting a loss but hoping for the best.

The game was very similar to the last one we played against this team with lots of hard battles and some very similar styles of play. Only last time we walked away 1-0 winners.

This time we couldn't seem to get through their defense. Maybe my 3 weeks without playing added to the lack of opportunities. Maybe it was our lack of control in the midfield. Maybe it was that the other guys wanted it worse than us.

Whatever the case, we tried. After 90 minutes we were even. We head into two 15 minute extra time halves. And 3 minutes into the first half, they spring one of their strikers on an apparently offside run. He scores. We're left looking at the ref AND the linesman wondering where the call was. Nothing.

And we never recovered. I ran out of gas, cramped up and spent the final 15 on the bench. That was hard to take. Those are the moments that you want to be out there. But I just didn't have it in me. Maybe I should get in shape for next season?

Most of us feel like we were robbed. A few of their players will admit that they got lucky on the goal. But if we're all honest I think we'd admit that we just didn't deserve it. Although, if it had gone to penalty shots I'm almost certain that we would have won. Our keeper is likely the best in the league and their keeper was a replacement who went in after their original keeper was injured in the second half.

All in all, a decent season for our team. We improved from last year. And I like playing with these guys, but I'm beginning to wonder if we'll be able to keep the nucleus together for next season.

I guess we'll wait and see.

I dare you...

A few of you took the dare on this one. (oops! Apparently the video is now gone, but can be found here. There's now a ukulele cover of the song too. )

I apologize for the few minutes of your life that you will never get back if you did indeed watch that one. If you haven't watched it, please do.

But in an attempt to redeem myself and spread some joy, watch this: