Greenbrier Church: BIG Vision

Oh...it looks like I forgot to publish this. I wrote this at the end of August and never formally submitted it, apparently. Not the first mistake I've ever made.

Hey there,

Every now and then at Greenbrier Church we roll out our core values and re-focus on them over a few successive Sundays (a vision series, if you will) and that's just wrapping up. While said values are mentioned and touched on on a regular basis by Chuck (his holiness) and whoever else may be speaking, these past four weeks were an in-depth look and I've found it refreshing. Being rather involved with what goes into making a Sunday morning happen, I sometimes find myself bogged down in the business of doing church vs. the reasons we're there and the rewards that come from them. I've been energized to take it all in again and be reminded about why we're building and demolishing a church every Sunday.

Below is the link to our online Podcasts of messages. The vision stuff starts on 8/8 and rolls to 8/21.

If you've ever wanted to know what that church that Doug goes go it all about, this a good time to tune in.

Click Me

The Best of the Best

This is the best version of Let Her Cry and I saw it in person. I love how subtle it is and having the piano is amazing. It's from the CMT Invitation Only event that I went to last year in Nashville.

I had the show saved on my DVR but had to give it back earlier this month when I cancelled my cable. Maybe I'll see it again one day.

More like 1001

If I owned a fancier camera than my iPhone, I might have to submit this for a Pulitzer.

Books: Check'em Out

It's been a few months now, and I'm certain a few people have noticed, but I've given up on Facebook and officially cancelled my account. It's nothing personal against anyone I was "friends" with; I just needed to do it for myself and my own physical and emotional well-being.

I feel kind of bad about it, since I used to sing its praises and invite everyone (and many family members), but I just don't need Facebook anymore. For me, and I'm surely not the only one who feels this way, it wasn't a positive influence or conducive to living a good life. While weighing the pros and cons of my favorite social networking site, I decided the cons had it. I'm not saying it's like that for everyone, and maybe it would be different if I was happily married with with children, but this single guy doesn't need it anymore.

With the exception of a handful of people, I'm able to contact and be contacted by everyone I'd ever need without Facebook. There are casualties in war, as they say, and the few people I only talked with via Facebook have taken the bullet. I'm sure they're not crying themselves to sleep at night, though. After all, it's just me.

Instead of having my laptop on the coffee table with Facebook open in one of my browser's tabs all day, I'm doing other things more...like exploring other types of books. I read a lot more now (Stephen King and The Bible mostly) and usually hit up the gym five days a week.

While I can't say that I'll never re-up with Facebook, since I've always claimed to be a Doug of second chances, I don't see it happening anytime soon.

Grovetown Green Thumb

Having purchased them a few days ago, I finally decided the weather was nice enough this afternoon for me to plant my annual flowers this year. Well, it wasn't so much the great weather, but more so that I donated blood after lunch today and couldn't go to the gym. I suppose I could have gone to the gym, but I'd have probably passed out on my favorite elliptical machine.

All in all, planting things in the ground isn't that tough. Dig a little hole, put the plant in, and push the dirt back in tight around it. Done and done. One could spice it up a bit by adding some sort of fertilizer or Miracle Grow something, but I'm confident my soil is in top-notch shape and up to the challenge of nurturing my orange marigolds and white impatiens.

My back yard is kind of bland, so I'm mulling throwing in some foliage* back there, too. Maybe a few rose bushes would looks nice. The trouble with "maybe," as I've learned in my life, is that "maybe not" is also an option.

*Foliage is not to be confused with my favorite factoring method: FOIL. Well, I take that back. I think my favorite method is actually trial and error factoring. I can usually look at the equation and figure it out in my head before writing anything down.

When Nature Calls

Hazel and I took a few days this past week to get away from things and clear our minds. OK, so maybe it was just me getting away and Hazel was along for the ride. Either way, we had three great days and two great nights of camping out at Mistletoe State Park last Wednesday through Friday.

I'd been thinking about it for a while and the weather and circumstances seemed to align for it to finally happen this week. I realize that I'm technically alone 90% of the time, anyway, but is anyone really ever alone anymore? While I do get lonely some, since Hazel isn't the best conversationalist and answers almost everything with a nose lick (which is actually helpful, sometimes), I'm always seconds away from almost any interaction (or distraction) I could want with HDTV, high speed Internet, and a cell phone. I really just needed to get away from all of that for a few days, refocus, and hopefully come back with a clearer mind. So far, I'd say, "mission accomplished."

This was my first time camping there, so I didn't really know what to expect. The ranger guy who checked us in explained the campsite options and we chose a "normal" site. That meant we had power and water hookups (which we didn't even use) and were in amongst other tents and, mostly, big RV-type things. We did a drive-by at all the site options and decided that #34 was the best one. Not only because of this guy, but it was right at the water, had a real fire pit area with stones already made up, and had no one at either of the adjacent campsites. That's win-win-win right there. Someone actually backed a motorhome deal into #33 about an hour later, but it ended up being fine.

In general, we spent the mornings hiking, afternoons reading, and evenings sitting by the fire thinking and praying.

Wednesday and Thursday I read until all the daylight was gone. I finished up Crazy Love, by Francis Chan and Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis. I can recommend them both and have a copy of each for lending if anyone is interested. It'll be a little like buying a used textbook in college, though, as I tend to underline things that move me and/or strike me as important. I also read through all of Exodus and enjoyed it, for the most part. I really enjoyed the story and history of it, but it seemed like at least 20% of the book was repeated verbatim towards the end and, honestly, that got a little boring.

After the sun had fully set I lit the fire and spent the rest of the night thinking and praying. It was really great. If I'd been at home, I'd have gotten in 45 minutes to an hour of reading/prayer ("quiet time") in the afternoon and then spent the rest of the night watching TV. Here I got to have great, honest, heartfelt prayer without distractions and it was awesome. I certainly had specific areas and people to focus on, no doubt, but I also just sort of let go and drifted for a while. One thought would lead to something else and next thing I knew I was praying for people I hadn't talked to since high school (as one example) and have no idea what's going on with them. I just went along with my flow of thoughts (stream of consciousness, so to speak) and it felt great.

Overall, it was an awesome time and I hope to go back soon. On one of our hikes, we went up into the "walk-in" camping areas. Here you park your vehicle and hike into the woods ~200 yards to find a campsite. I think we might do this next time. It's half the price, still on the water, and there's no big RVs around. Who calls that camping, anyway? We'd be willing to share the next adventure, so let us know if/when interested parties are available.

I took a few pictures here and there and uploaded them online for your viewing pleasure. Most have captions that cover what was going on. Click here for the pictures.

Dream a Little Dream of Me

I usually forget my dreams shortly after I wake up, if I remember them at all, but there's one from a few weeks ago now that's managed staying power.

It's not uncommon for me to dream about being back in school or some twisted version of a school I once attended. I've had dreams where I was in college but taking classes at Evans High School and at the end of the semester I realize that I never really dropped that class like I thought I did, so I'm gonna get an "F" and not graduate(or something strange like that). This most recent dream is more about the content than the setting, however.

I was in the room at EHS where I had the second semester of Spanish 2, but it wasn't Spanish class. I think it was a math class. Anyhow, on this day the class was getting a test passed back. I remember looking at my paper and being a little miffed that I'd only gotten an 88, since I always got an "A" in my high school math classes. I also remember that there were 24 questions on the test and I had only missed three. That's all I remember about the dream.

For whatever reason, I thought about it later the next day while sitting with my laptop so I decided to see what 21/24 questions correct worked out to be. Well, it's 87.5%, which rounds up to 88! I'm not sure why I think this is so cool, but it freaking is!

Now, if only I could tap into this subconscious math instinct and take it to Las Vegas or something.

There Really IS a First Time for Everything

It's cold outside! How do I know this (besides the fact that I have cold air seeping through the cracks around my back door)? Well, earlier tonight I spent about 15 minutes standing on my porch with a couple of "elders" who represented The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints. That's a mouthful. Being the first house on the right as you come on my street, I've heard my fair share of door-to-door sales pitches, but I've never had religious sales before tonight.

I'm not very confrontational by nature, nor am I overly rude, and I was a little curious so I let them go with their spiel. They're lucky my DVR was getting Heroes for me, though. Here's the Cliff's Notes version of what they had to say:

-Jesus appeared to Joseph Smith ("the prophet", nonetheless) many years after his death and, through him, reestablished God's church on earth.

-Both guys were holding The Book of Mormon and asked if I'd heard of it and read from it. I said that I'd heard of it but didn't own one and hadn't read it. I assured them that I try to read some scripture from The Bible everyday, though, which they gave no response to.

-Baptism in The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints is the only way to fully restore holiness to oneself and be cleansed of past sins.

-There was something else about the Great Apostasy, which I didn't quite get and don't remember since I was thinking of a polite way to ask why my baptism from a few years ago in my church by my pastor wasn't good enough.

-They asked me if I would commit to a true cleansing of my soul at their January baptism service on the 24th, and that's when I broke the news that I didn't need it. They were nice about it and said they didn't want to argue or disrespect me, but they felt that wasn't real, basically.

-They invited me to worship with them on Sunday at 1pm out in Harlem and asked if I would commit to come. I said I couldn't commit to that right now.

At some point I asked for a Web site or some source material where I could research and learn more. One guy presented a card with www.mormon.org at the bottom of one side where I could also order a free DVD about finding faith in Christ. They said that they'd be the ones to deliver the DVD if I called the number and ordered it. I already have faith in Christ, so I don't plan to.

As they wrapped up the obviously canned presentation, complete with excellent eye contact, they asked if we could pray together. Always being a fan or prayer, I took them up on it. The main guy asked if there was anything specific I'd like prayer for, so I mentioned my employment issue and we prayed. Fairly straight forward, "Gracious heavenly father..." type prayer. Had I not just heard a quarter hour about The Prophet Joseph Smith, I'd have thought they were just straight up Christians by the prayer. I'm not sure why I was surprised, I just don't have a good frame of reference when it comes to Mormon prayer, I guess.

Aside: I'd Give Anything just came on my iTunes. What a great song!

They thanked me for the time and said they hoped to see me soon. I wished them a good evening and advised them to keep warm. They tried to hit me up for others that I knew of who might need a visit and I had to shrug and say I didn't really have anyone for them. One of the first rules of salesmanship, don't ask the clearly skeptical guy you've just pitched to recommend others for you to hit up.

I'm not religious scholar, didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, and I don't really even know most theological differences between the major factions within Christianity, but I'm pretty confident that a religion that values a book so much that the sales force carries it around instead of The Bible isn't the way to go.

Aside: One of my fondest memories is of a Sunday morning back in the fall of 1999 when I went to pick up my girlfriend (at the time)for church. Walking out of the back door, her mom says, "Elizabeth, where's your bible? Doug's a baptist and all good baptists carry their bible to church." "Doug's not a baptist," she replied, "he just loves God." Word.

While I've never read from The Book of Mormon, I flipped through one at a hotel in Montgomery, AL on the way back from my friend Jason's wedding in Baton Rouge, LA a few years ago. My only memory of it was that the first page had a painting of the aforementioned Prophet Joseph Smith. Jesus was relegated to the second page. Yeah, good luck with that.