Ed Bacsi

Many of my friends and family are Christians. Among them are several really faithful believers, folks who I can pinpoint as excellent examples for me to follow. One of them, Ed Courtney, passed away on Tuesday. I met Ed and his wife Syble during my second summer in Hungary, where they were the pastors of an international church. As I write this post, I am watching a Celebration Service in Ed's honor via a live internet stream. I'd like to share, mostly as a reminder to myself, some of Ed's attributes that reflect our Lord.

His sense of humor could light up a room. Most of the photos I have of Ed show a twinkle in his eye and laughter on his lips.

His wife, Syble, was truly the love of his life. They were always together, ministering alongside one another, and welcoming people into their home with profound hospitality. A person could tell by looking at Ed and Syble that they were waaaay in love with each other, and their love grew day by day.

He had a gentle spirit that made everyone around him feel so comfortable. In fact, everyone in Hungary called him Ed Bacsi, a term of affection similar to "Uncle."

Ed took a personal interest in everyone he met- old or young; Hungarian, American, Nigerian, or Cuban; church members or visitors; Baptist or Pentecostal; believer or nonbeliever. I believe this is what made him an great pastor.

He didn't work to spiritualize everything, nor did he hand wisdom out like gospel tracks. Yet everything about Ed was spiritual, and each time I spent a few minutes with him I came away wiser.

After living in Hungary for about seven years, Ed and Syble moved back to Jackson, Mississippi. I know from reading obituaries and comments from his friends that he served wholeheartedly as associate pastor at a church there. I also know from his friends' comments that Ed was exactly the same in Mississippi as he was in Hungary. His identity went beyond location or situation.

Ed's greatest desire was not anything magnificent or impossible; it was simply that all his family and friends would know Jesus Christ.

I thank the Lord that I knew Ed, and I ask Him to ease Syble's grief and the grief of her family and friends. I hope that in the years to come, God will transform my character to reflect His, like He did for my friend Ed.

Cowden's Confessions: Crafty Crafts

Heather and I visited a couple of craft stores today. We didn't intend to buy anything, just scope out some candles for the church. We left Hobby Lobby okay because we went in knowing that we were just looking. But then we went to Michael's.

Turns out craft stores know how to get money from people like us.

See, there was this wonderful mixture of Fall and Christmas decor all over the place. It even smelled like Fall-Christmas in there. After the initial Fall-mas feeling wore off, Heather discovered the first round of dollar items. They were small games and crafts for kids. She provides childcare for a family at our church now; she watches their three elementary-aged girls after school. They are pretty rowdy when they come home, so the craft store's cheap entertainment section caught her eye. We walked away from there with four items.

Right across the isle from that were the photo frames. We have most of our pictures on our computers, but we've discussed getting a collage frame to display our close friends and family. Guess what? These frames were 50% off! Who can resist, right? So we got one of those. Looks nice.

As any good store supervisor knows, you should arrange all the cheap clearance merchandise in an unavoidable area at the front of the store. It was there that we encountered 50% off Fall decor. At this point, I asked Heather to go get us a shopping cart. This should have been a warning sign. Heather got excited at the idea of making an autumnal centerpiece for our kitchen table (complete with plastic food and leaves). I found a clearance shelf of baskets a few feet away. Now we have our centerpiece.

Just in case a customer could avoid the clearance Fall stuff, some employee had put a bunch of $1 Christmas nicknacks right by the registers. I bought some Christmas notecards to give to folks at church.

Then we began to feel guilty for our impulsiveness, so we wandered slowly backward through the store. Did you know that these scheming merchandisers even put cheap stuff on the opposite sides of the shelves??? We bought a wonderful-smelling fall candle for $4.

After placing the candle in our shopping cart, Wife and I turned to each other and said simultaneously, "Let's get out of here!" So we ran the cart up to the register bobsled style, and as the cashier rang up our purchases, we mumbled things like, "Sales... clearance... good deal... we're suckers..."

Does anyone else have these experiences at craft stores?

Move over, Michelangelo

In our Wednesday night children's worship time, we are discussing the names of God. The kids have been drawing pictures showing the names of God, and the symbolism that goes with them. One of my favorite drawings was done by a boy named Daniel:

I asked Daniel to explain his drawing to me. He told me that one arm was God's, the other was man's, and their hands are touching. I asked what the shiny gold part was, and Daniel couldn't explain that part as easily. He said it is what happens when the two hands touch.

As soon as I saw Daniel's picture, it reminded me of another famous piece of art. This one, of course, painted a few hundred years ago on the ceiling of a church:

Perhaps the most fascinating part of this painting is that Adam (on the left) is so lackadaisical about reaching toward his Creator, while the entire body of God is stretched as far as it can go. Well done, Mr. Michelangelo.

Maybe I'm influenced by the five-month sermon series of Revelation that our church is finishing up, but I like to think of this painting and Daniel's drawing as a before-and-after sort of thing. Imagine the shiny golden glory that will occur when God finally obliterates that space between his hand and ours. Our pastor told us this morning that many scholars find it difficult to distinguish when John, in Revelation 21, is writing about believers and when he is writing about the New Jerusalem itself. It seems that, when God creates the new world, He, the saints, and the City will all be united perfectly.

That's a lot of shiny-golden-goodness. Looking forward to it.

I'm a big kid

Isn’t it fascinating to watch children play? Yesterday Wife and I got to spend some time with a child from our church and her mother. After eating supper together, we all played a few rounds of Candyland, with the little girl winning most of the games. Her rejoicing quickly turned into a silly hop, roll, and run around the room time. The rest of us just watched and laughed. She loved having our full attention, pausing occasionally to determine whether we approved of her actions and to ask if we would join in. We explained that we were all too big to do somersaults in the living room, but she should go ahead.

As I plan weekly worship services, I often find myself asking God if he approves and whether he will join in. Sometimes I stop and realize that to him, I am much like a child dancing around the living room, seeking his approval of my trivial motions. Maybe if I find the right combination of hymns, choruses, testimony, and prayer he will clap his hands and tell me I’ve done a great job. I even try different combinations of things in my personal spiritual life trying to find the perfect balance.

John Piper, author and pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis Minnesota, has said that God is most glorified when we are satisfied in Him. For reasons beyond our understanding, God loves to delight in us, his children. It’s easy to see the joy on a parent’s face when their child works to make them laugh. Imagine God’s joy when he sees us singing, speaking, and living for his satisfaction.

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” –Colossians 3:16-18

Musical Diversity...

It's the spice of life!

This morning, after I tossed my junk into the car and before I headed off to church for the day, I popped a CD in the stereo for my enjoyment. The disc I chose was a recording of Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition (orchestrated by Ravel, of course). As it disappeared into the dashboard, I heard a few familiar notes from the radio. I switched back to FM to listen to the Aqua's amazing hit from '97... Barbie Girl.

That's right, folks. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Barbie Girl. I even sang a few parts myself (come on Barbie, let's go party). And I immediately followed it with Mussorgsky.

Later today, I looked up hymns for church services. I perused church choir music. I listened to the Glenn Miller orchestra's Christmas album. I also played a movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C# Minor, opus 27, no. 2 (aka The Moonlight Sonata).

It's a wonderful musical life I lead.

A quick thought

It's late on Saturday night, and because I'm a music minister now, I need to get up early for church. So I'll keep this one brief...

Wife is away for a week, spending time with her family. I am happy for her, but I miss her a lot. At the risk of sounding cheesy (or maybe rude), I really didn't expect to miss her this much. I expected to be able to preclude my loneliness by having some quality alone time, and while I am having some good time to myself, I am still lonely. In the last few days I've read several chapters of Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller, Crazy Love by Francis Chan, and listened to a couple of podcasts. Here is something that has struck me hard today...

I think that the metaphor of the church as the bride of Christ is one of the most beautiful metaphors God has created. I believe He gave us the gift of marriage to allow us to experience His love from a couple of perspectives. Through marriage we more fully understand romance, commitment, and intimacy from the perspectives of both the Lover and the Beloved. Through marriage we have a unique opportunity to grow deeper in our relationship with God, to fall more in love with Him.

Marriage isn't perfect, though. We are a rebellious creation, prone to disobey the Creator who loves us, and so our relationships with one another are flawed. As we become more Christ-like individuals, our relationships become more pure, but we can never quite reach the relational perfection we were originally intended to experience. So I think another experience marriage gives us is that, as we learn to love our spouses as Christ loves us, we become more like Him, all the while loving Him more in contrast to our imperfect selves.

Yes, I am 8 years old

I feel like a kid again. Wife and I brought several items back to Waco from KC this week. They include: her wedding dress, my bicycle, some delicious granola my mom made, and my LEGOS! YES! We have spent the last few evenings building Lego sets. And I have spent the last few mornings, between breakfast and going to work, building even more. Love it love it. I love the creative aspect of Legos, the constructive aspect, and the sound they make when I rake my hand through them. Ah, to be young again.

In other news, Wife and I went on a date tonight! That's right, keeping the romance alive. I won't tell you how long it had been since we had been on a date because I cannot remember. This time we went to Uncle Dan's BBQ. It was alright, I give it a B minus. Having grown up in Kansas City (the barbeque capital of the world, people!), I consider myself somewhat of a barbeque connoisseur. Connoisseur is really another word for snob. Anyway, Uncle Dan's had decent food, though the brisket was a bit dry. My complaints were the lack of barbeque-restaurant atmosphere and the small portions. An excellent BBQ eatery piles on the meat. Uncle Dan's workers (nephews?) did not.

We continued our date at the movie theatre, where we saw Iron Man 2. It was, in a word, awesometasticlysweet. It had all the makings of a good movie... a thousand fight scenes, cool technology that doesn't exist, a lack of mushy mush, and Scarlett Johansson (just kidding, wifey!). Heather would have enjoyed it more if she hadn't had a headache, but she liked the movie pretty well. We'll probably buy it someday.

Lessons from Grandma

Some of you may know that my grandma Jan has been fighting with cancer for several months. In the last few weeks, her condition deteriorated and we were told that she didn't have long. She passed away this afternoon.

Grandma was never loud, rarely bold or outspoken, but she taught me powerful lessons through the way she lived.

I believe that one of Grandma's greatest joys was delighting in her family and friends. Most of the photos we have of her show her smiling gently as she watches her family... watching us open birthday gifts, swim in the lake, or chat with one another. I can still remember her laundry closet, the "art gallery" as she called it, where she displayed crafts and drawings my sister and I made. They stayed there until she moved about three years ago. I recall going to her house in elementary school and spending the afternoon cutting out cookies and icing them with her.

Grandma also demonstrated for me the meaning of humble service. She loved to host holidays and birthday celebrations. She never once complained about preparing meals (and they were always huge and delicious). Her house was continually spotless, though I can't remember ever actually seeing her clean it. Anything the family needed, Grandma would quietly provide. A gift card would occasionally appear in the mail with a note telling me it was "for a rainy day." Never needing to be asked, and never asking anything in return, Grandma served us.

As I said before, Grandma wasn't outspoken. Yet she always seemed to me a strong person. She could be independent if she needed to, but she was also a very gentle wife, mother, and grandmother. Always listening, she could tell when a conversation was becoming passionate or confrontational, and she would quietly interject a calming word or gentle pat on the arm. She understood the value of peace in our lives. She understood the need for silent mornings sipping "lake coffee," for quiet Bible study during the day, and for listening to nighttime crickets from the screened porch. She never failed to point out how still the lake was in the evening, and always noticed a hummingbird in the backyard.

I can think of no other way for the Lord to call Grandma to himself than "softly and tenderly." She was a woman who truly understood God's grace for us, and lived daily in his peace.

The good old days?

Working at a college textbook store sometimes makes me reminiscent of my own college days. I've been out for nearly a year now, and I'd like to take give an introspective retrospective perspective on my college memories.

What I miss:

-Hanging out with Justin, Kyle, and the guys that randomly came over to our apartment

-Late nights with pizza, soda, video games, and movies

-Being surrounded by music

-Having to stay organized (oh man I love organizing!)

-Working toward goals, both large and small

-Walking around outside

-Learning stuff

-Late-night Wal-mart trips

-The ability to shirk real-life responsibility with the excuse of being a college student

What I don't miss:

-Constant assignments

-Busy busy busy schedules

-Dramatic girls, err, people

-Changing dorms/apartments and roommates

-Packing up and moving every summer

-Crummy meals all the time

-Being Heather-less (awwwwww)

So, readers old and young, what do you miss or not miss about your college days?

Church pics! Yaaay!

Here are some pictures I took of FBC Mart, where I am the new music minister.

This is the front of the church, with the sanctuary on the left and the building with classrooms on the right.

Here is the sign in front of the sanctuary, telling how it was established.

This is the front of the sanctuary.

The sanctuary has some very pretty stained glass.

Here is part of my "office." I didn't take a photo of the messy part. It'll take a while to tidy up.

Hey, blog! It's been a while.

My wife bought the Glee version of Jessie's Girl on iTunes this evening. She's playing it over and over and over and over (and over) to see how many times it takes before I snap like a drumstick on an 80s pop music snare (dzjhhhhhhhhhhhh). <--Lame simile AND ridiculously-long-snare-reverb mockery.

This only happens because, of the two iTunes gift cards we got for our wedding, she claimed the one with a higher value.

She's lucky that I am a very VERY nice man.

Cowden's Confessions.... #2

I came home for lunch today while Wife was at work (we work together now). Upon observing the food in the refrigerator and cabinet, I determined my choices were:

-Peanut butter and jelly sandwich

-Leftover pasta from yesterday (which I knew would be tonight's dinner)

-Cereal (Wife's breakfast)

-Eggs and bacon

I decided to enjoy menu item #4, with a pear added for nutrition.

I cooked up the bacon, which we all know produces one of the most holy aromas on earth. (I believe it is the earthly metaphor how the throne room of God smells.) Next I cooked my eggs, added them to the bacon plate, and, with much joy in my heart and stomach, took them in to the living room. I sat down on the couch, picked up my plate, set it on my lap and... gasp... the bacon slid off onto the floor!

In an attempt to justify my next action, I should explain to you that we recently purchased a vacuum, and Wife loves to use it. I'm at least 42% sure that she has vacuumed the bit of carpet that caught my bacon within the last month. That said, and keeping in mind how incredibly delectable bacon is, you'll understand that I picked it up, examined it closely for any sign of foreign nasties (hair, dust, small rodents), and returned it to my plate.

Then I ate it.

Shhhhh.... don't tell my wife!

And so what we have learned applies to our lives today...

I have a church job now. I'm the part-time music minister at a smallish church about 30 minutes from home. I'm happy with it.

The church's vote went down Sunday evening, and already I have a lengthy to-do list. My pending tasks are mostly of my own initiative, because I was well-trained by Dr. Hicks and company, and I understand the importance of my part-time music minister position. Don't worry... I won't bore you by listing them. Instead, I will tell you what I've learned during my first two days of being a music minister:

1) Planning two traditional worship services a week means I perpetually have hymns stuck in my head. Even hymns I didn't know I knew. Currently in my mind's jukebox is All the Way My Savior Leads Me. Any of you youngin's know that one?

2) Because of my need to always make noise, my wife will learn many new hymns.

3) I went to the church today to poke around and get a few things done. By exploring the entire building I learned that there are 10 pianos (3 in good shape), about 15 children's classrooms (2 are used currently), and 5000 storage closets. I firmly believe that there are more things stored in a church than are used.

4) Behind one closet-looking door I found creepy stairs that led to a very creepy basement under the sanctuary. Dark, gray, musty, and scary. I think I will have nightmares about this basement, even though I didn't dare enter it.

5) We all know that taxes are confusing. Minister's taxes are confusing times 1000. My first task as a minister was to decide between a W-4 and a 1099. Wife and I did research and talked to about 5 people, and still don't know which to do.

6) Some pastors love to talk. Actually I learned this is during the interview process.

7) This one is no surprise. Secretaries at small churches are the most helpful people I know. They can answer any question, and find anything. Our secretary found me a blank legal pad, because I had no paper at the church.

8) Music libraries are often cleverly hidden. I have no idea where mine is.

9) When a church has been without a paid music minister for a while, everything music-related (and some things not music-related) ends up in the music minister's office. Choir robes, music books, hymnals, magazines, desks, chairs, shelves, filing cabinets, crayons, anything the youth minister doesn't want, car tires, small mammals, leftover orange drink... okay, I made up those last three.

I'm gonna love this gig.

Real Irishmen keep their phones in their pockets.

True story...

This afternoon wife and I walked to the grocery store that is two blocks from our apartment. On our way back, I spotted a phone in a phone case (the kind that clips to a belt) lying on the ground. I picked it up and confirmed that it was indeed a phone and it seemed to work fine. I decided to find out who the phone belonged to, so I took it back to the apartment and investigated its address book.

I called the number labeled "home" and a woman answered. I explained that I had found the phone on the ground and was trying to figure out where I should take it. She was happy that I called because her grandson, the phone's owner, had lost it last night. She said that he was in town until tomorrow, and when she heard from him, she'd have him call me. A few minutes later, though, she called back and told me to look in the phone for Tommy, lost-phone-man's boss who was in Waco with him.

I called Tommy and left him a message explaining all and asking that he call back. He did, and told me the phone's owner (whose name is also Tommy) was staying at the Econolodge in room 128. Econolodge is about a block from the apartment, so I drove over there to room 128. I was greeted just before I got to the door by a man with Subway sandwich.

"Hey, is that my phone?" asked the man.

"I dunno. Are you Tommy?" I replied.

He was. "Yeah. Great! Where'd you find it?"

I told him I found it a couple blocks up the street on the sidewalk.

He seemed to understand. "In front of Scruffy's?"

"Scruffy's" to which Tommy referred is Scruffy Murphy's, which you will know from a previous blog post is an abandoned-looking-but-apparently-open-for-business Irish pub halfway between the grocery store and our apartment.

"Yeah that's right," I told him.

"Oh yeah," Tommy explained, "we were so drunk last night. I figured I dropped my phone, so I looked all over their parking lot but couldn't find it. Thanks for bringing it back." He suddenly looked around to see what he had readily available. "You want half a sandwich?"

Well, having a wife who never lets me go hungry (hence the original trip to the grocery store), I declined Tommy's half-a-sandwich, wished him a good day, and made my way home.

Moral of the story: If you're going to have a few too many at an Irish pub in Texas on a Wednesday night, make sure to secure your phone in a better place than a belt clip.

The Fly

by William Blake (1757-1827)

Little fly,

Thy summer's play

My thoughtless hand

Has brushed away.

Am not I

A fly like thee?

Or art not thou

A man like me?

For I dance

And drink and sing,

Till some blind hand

Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life

And strength and breath,

And the want

Of thought is death,

Then am I

A happy fly,

If I live,

Or if I die.

Walls, Responsibility, Faith, and Waiting

I feel as if I am surrounded by a wall, an impossible list of things keeping me from where I would like to be. There are dozens of bricks in this wall, each of them conquerable, but together they are insurmountable. I hold my breath because at any moment the bricks may give way, and the wall will crumble. I try to wait patiently, but the anticipation is constant and unending. For the most part, I am hopeful and excited about this wall falling around me, but deep down I am terrified that I am waiting for something that will not happen. I feel helpless because time and again I have tried to demolish the barrier, but I don’t have the strength. So I hold my breath and wait. And I wait, and wait some more.

Bills. Car repairs. Groceries. Student loans. Driver’s licenses. Credit card payments.

Heather hasn’t been able to find a full-time job. I love her so much, and I want her to find a job that she will enjoy. I don’t want her to be unhappy, especially for my sake. Am I selfish for bringing her here? Am I irresponsible?

How do I know we’re supposed to be here? Someone pointed out to me (very sensitively) that perhaps our trouble with jobs and finances indicates that we shouldn’t have come to Waco. Maybe we made our own plan instead of following God’s. How do I know?

I don’t. I have no way of knowing for certain that this is where we should be right now. As I think back, I cannot remember an explicit directive from God to move to Waco after marrying Heather. I can’t remember an instruction to go anywhere else either, or to stay where we were. We moved here because, of all the places we could have gone, Waco had the most purpose. The seminary I feel led to attend is here, and that’s it. We had no holier reason than that.

I know that I’ve made mistakes, choosing selfishness over glorifying God, and I know that I haven’t pursued him as diligently as I could have. But I also know that despite my mistakes, for which I receive forgiveness, I am still God’s son whom he loves. He is an intricate God with an intricate plan, and my calling within that plan is not to a place or time, but to faithfulness in my pursuit of Christ.

“I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”

He is not a God of, “Let’s dwell on what you could have done differently,” but a God of, “Let’s move on from here." It is not by confidence in my past that I face the future, but by faith that my future is in and through him. I’m still afraid, still uncertain about all these bricks around me, but “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.

“My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.”

Nighttime Adventures

Don't be scared by the title, it's not what you think.

Those who are diligent in their blog-following will remember my post awhile back about going to Walmart at night. You will also recall my wife's post from yesterday about getting old. I will lend a hand to the not-so-diligent bloggers, and tell them that both these posts emphasized that Wife and I don't go out late (as in after 7 pm) anymore.

Well, tonight we did. And what an adventure it was!

Without further ado, things I learned upon venturing out at nighttime...

1) First thing I learned is that I cannot see in the dark anymore. Yes, I had my headlights on. Yes, I was wearing my glasses. I even had carrots for dinner! I suppose I'm inheriting my mother's night-blindness. Anyway, it made our adventure even more, well, adventuresome.

2) Texas road crews perform repairs on the interstate at night. This means all the traffic on I-35 South is jammed into one lane, and is backed up for a few miles.

3) A driver should always bring Garmin along, even when going to Walmart. Sure, Garmin reduces the adventure-factor, but she does inspire navigational confidence.

4) Waco has several bridges over the Brazos River, most of which a traveler on I-35 cannot see. A traveler trying to avoid a nighttime traffic jam, however, gets to drive on these bridges. And one bridge has neat-o nighttime lights!

5) Waco also has many one-way streets, making navigation a guessing game. A traveler unfamiliar with the downtown streets, who doesn't know where he's going, and cannot see in the dark may very well drive the wrong way down a one-way street. That is, until his wife shouts nonsense and points at all the "Wrong Way" signs.

6) One block north of our apartment, there is a building that appears to have housed, at one time, an Irish Pub called Scruffy Murphy's. By all outward appearances, Scruffy Murphy's is closed now, which means they no longer host weekly karaoke. By all inward appearances, though, (meaning cars in the parking lot at night and lights on inside) Scruffy Murphy's is not closed, whether legally or otherwise. Upon Wife pointing all this out, my stomach entered into "fish and chips and possibly corned beef" mode. Mmmmm. Here's hoping.

I'd like to know... What sort of adventures bring new discoveries to your life?

Exploring

Far from home

On barren terrain

Unprotected, alone

No one closer

Than death's hand

The brave scout ant

(Written by me!)

Cowden's Confessions... #1

Once, when I lived with Justin in Bolivar, we left some food in containers in the fridge for a looooong time. We forgot about them for a couple weeks. After that we decided it would be too icky to clean them out. I think they stayed in the fridge for two or three months.

One day Justin and I were both in serious cleaning moods and decided it was time. We set a trash bag outside on the porch, filled the sink with hot water and a little bleach, and performed the cleaning relay-style. He handed me a container. I ran outside, popped the lid off, and spooned the contents into the trash bag. Then I ran back inside and Justin threw the container into the sink. We did this with everything in the fridge (about eight items, I believe).

It's not something I'm proud of, and I think I've learned my lesson. Also, I have a wife to make sure this never happens again.

Grrrrr Texas

Today I discovered two things Texans don't do well: 1) Design highways, and 2) Drive on their poorly designed highways.

These shortcomings made for a scary trip to DFW Airport to see Wife's mom. I've never made such an amazing evasive maneuver as I did today. Afterward, as I gasped for oxygen and tried to loosen my death grip on the steering wheel, Wife told me I did a great job and she was proud of me.

I think we can all learn a lesson from Texas drivers:

Drive the speed limit (or less), don't tailgate, and don't slam on the brakes on the interstate.

By the way, Texas legislature passed a law last month that drivers ages 18-24 must complete a driver education course to apply for a license. We're checking to see whether this affects us, since we're already licensed in other states. Bleh.

New things

Here in Texas, the television shows this really annoying commercial for Jack-In-The-Box. The company's creeping-looking spokesman talks about how he likes trying new things. Then he bungee-jumps off a bridge and falls to the pavement below, ending up with his pointy hat sticking into the ground. "New things," he says less-than-enthusiastically.

This commercial weirds me out every time. First, the spokesman guy/thing looks scary to me. Second, if he's going to bungee-jump, he shouldn't do it over concrete, and he ought to make sure his setup man is reputable. Third, even if he somehow manages to survive the death jump, he should think about quitting this "new things" way of life.

Pingpong ball head, ice cream cone hat, no pupils, big red smile... Creepy, no?

All this is intended as an opener for tonight's remarks about a couple new things Wife and I have experienced recently...

1) We bought a new vacuum. We have been waiting for months (I know, it's gross) for the finances to buy one, and today was the day. Wife used it immediately when we got home. Our next big purchase: a fan to blow the air around the apartment.

2) For the first time ever, I beat Wife in the game of Battleship today. In fact, she only sank one of my boats, and didn't hit any others. (We had a controversy after the game over one of the spaces, which was marked differently on her board than on mine.) The important thing, though, is that I won. Finally.

3) Wife and I, along with our friends, have begun writing a new musical about the hardships of graduating college without a job. We're all in the same boat, so we're teaming up to spread the... er... joy.

Well, that's about all. Hope you weren't expecting anything monumental. What's new with you?

Bahhhhhhh!

Question: What is the easiest song to get stuck in Stephen's head?

Answer: Benny and the Jets.

Buh buh buh Benny and the Jetsssssssss... BENNY! BENNY! BENNY BENNY BENNY BENNY and the Jeeeeetsssssss...

Over and over and over and over since yesterday! Darn you James Marsden and Katherine Heigl!

What song has been stuck in your head lately?

A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I did nothing creative today. I have to say it is a rare day when I don't do something creative. Sometimes it's music, sometimes I make an artistic project (I include coloring maps in this category), occasionally I'll read a poem or some fiction. I don't normally engage in a BIG creative endeavor, but I usually do something artistic or imaginative during the day.

We are created in the image of God, who is THE Creator. The ability to create, and appreciate creation, is a big part of what sets us apart from the rest of nature. It's very important that we nurture that aspect of ourselves. Our society has made it WAY too easy to stay in a logic-filled, down-to-earth, here-and-now bubble, staying indoors with our computers and televisions.

Remember nature? Trees in bloom, hot sun, cool clouds, how rain can feel good instead of being a nuisance? Remember books? Those collections of other people's ideas and stories, printed with ink that you can smell on pages you can feel? Have you ever really listened to music that is new to you? If you begin to explore (especially in other cultures), you will find that the world of sound is endless. Have you ever perused an art gallery, or even flipped through an art book, and stopped to notice the details of a particular painting?

We need to continue finding new ways to stimulate our creative side (yes, we all have one). It's a crucial way to connect with our Lord, and to grow personally. I'm gonna do better tomorrow.

Come, let us with our Lord arise!

Come, let us with our Lord arise,

our Lord who made both earth and skies,

who died to save the world he made

and rose triumphant from the dead;

he rose, the prince of life and peace,

and stamped the day forever his.

Happy Easter everybody!

Wife and I visited our prospective church this morning for their service. I played a violin solo during the offering, and we *gasp* sang in the choir! There was no choir special or anything, we just stood with the choir at the front during to singing. Yeah, we rocked the hymns.

After church we came home and made ourselves a delicious Easter meal! Check it out: ham, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, and rolls. MmmmmMmmm! Then we took an Easter lunch-induced nap. This evening we went to Columbus Avenue Baptist (a big church in town that we frequent) for the Mwangaza Children's Choir, an incredibly cute choir of kids from Uganda. We got there a little late (I'm pretty sure they changed the time and didn't tell us), but it was a fantastic concert. I learned that during foreign children's choir concerts, Wife sits on the edge of the pew, eyes wide, with a big grin on her face. Don't worry... we didn't steal any kiddos.

We came home, and had a delightful Sara Lee strawberry cheesecake and coffee while we watched Get Over It, an Easter classic (haha) with Kirsten Dunst, Ben Foster, and Martin Short. Funny flick.

We missed family, but got to talk with them on the phone. It was a good Easter.

What did you do?