Family
My wife is a more than just a totally hot babe, she is also an amazing Mother. We spent time driving in the van today and I had the kids take turns saying why they think their Mom is so great. Their answers were great, but they barely scratched the surface explaining the many ways my wife is a Mother worthy of admiration and honor. I love you Molly.
My 9 year old, Jack, had a writing project for his 3rd grade class. The project was to write a short essay about someone he knows who helps people. Jack, fresh off an evening watching American Idol's Idol Gives Back, decided he would write about the great philanthropist he knows, Carrie Underwood. The teacher explained to Jack that he doesn't know Carrie Underwood. He was heartbroken and didn't know what to write. The teacher asked Jack if he might know someone, you know, who helps people. Jack decided to write about his Dad, me, a pastor. Here's the essay. I left his spelling and punctuation in tact.
My dad helps people by preaching, yes he's a paster. He goes to church on Sundays the first and last out of church to awnser questions from the church. And sometimes people from the church come to our house for prayer meetings while kids come in the basement to play (if there are any). I think if I had to chose a dad I would chose this one. Our family sometimes we go to different churches but the church I like most is our church. And I know my Dad is teaching lots of things to the church, such as My Mom and children in church in sunday school, so I know my Dad is the paster in church and he's helping people learn about God. But he is also a good photographer, he also puts his pictures on the wall by the ordering area at StarBucks at the square, you should see them there...So that's my Dad almost my favorite parent.
I have now won the second blog voting contest! That has picked me up, between the two contests, $175 in online bookstore gift certificates: $50 for Westminster Seminary bookstore, $50 for Amazon, and $75 for Eisenbrauns. Woohoo! I will order The Reason for God copies from Westminster and Amazon. Eisenbrauns was a late addition to the first place prize and doesn't carry Keller's book, so I will be picking up some books for my personal library. Thanks for all your effort! And thanks to Scot McKnight for his effort to find some votes for me.
On a side note, the total official vote count for all blogs was "666" as you can see by the screen capture. While some might find that a bit off-puttin', I think it's awesomely hilarious.
O Lord, let there be a blog contest for the cost of hotel, airfare and conference fee for the Total Church North America Conference. I WANT TO GO!!!
Carolyn Mahaney: How to Help Your Husband When He is Criticized
John Piper on C.S. Lewis on writing.
Al Hsu on "The New Suburbanists."
Scott Hodge has some advice for those who are thinking about change.
Makoto Fujimura: A Wedding and the City.
10 Questions Every Leader Should Ask
Joe Thorn is now making my voicemails on his cell a matter of public consumption. I want to be upset, but it represents such a positive side of me that I can't help but propagate it...
Anyone who has been reading my blog for the last year year may remember the poem I read at my Mom's funeral. Mom died a year ago today, April 3rd, 2007. Here is "The Lanyard" by Billy Collins...
"The Lanyard" by Billy Collins (NPR)
The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy lightand taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truththat you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.
Saw Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! with the fam today. Enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Worth watching and discussing. Jonathan Dodson weighs in.
Joe Thorn expands on "The Table, the Pulpit, and the Square." Joe also summarizes Dever on evangelism.
Tom Schreiner, my NT prof from my SBTS days, has been interviewed. Among other issues, he speaks about his new New Testament Theology. It will have a prominent place on my shelf.
Monergism interviews Tim Keller. Keller's next book is listed on Amazon: The Prodigal God.
Scott Hodge shares a bit he is learning from Made to Stick.
After reading an interview with Michael Perry in the April issue of The Writer, I'm intrigued.
NT Wright says "Heaven is Not Our Home."
Exagorazo is talking about missional communities: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
Quick God Story: My family is still sick, sick, sick. Unbelievable virus we are dealing with. We were all feeling better and now most of us are getting symptoms back. Our youngest now has 103+ temp again. Ugh. But all praise to God for this story. Saturday afternoon my debilitating fever and aches stopped and I had tons of energy Saturday night and plenty for the task this morning. I mean I went from the worst day so far on Saturday morning, and then full of energy and vigor Saturday evening. Then soon after gathered worship today my fever came back as did my aches and terrible cough (I didn't cough once during the sermon). There may be some medical explanation for why I had such a dramatic health hiccup, but I know WHO is getting the credit. I was truly singing this morning, "How Great is Our God."
Speaking of how sick I am, it would really help me turn this frown upside-down if someone would present me something this awesome with Joe Thorn's likeness on it. It would make my year! (HT)
When was the last time you wondered how Michael Foster would approach church planting differently? Exactly. And he promises to elaborate. I'm demanding he gets on it asap.
You need to make your way to the Vintage Jesus Newsroom, where Steve Camp goes for his devotional time.
Poythress, The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses, online free.
PastorHacks is into Jott (and Pinger). I've been using Jott for a while now with great success and productivity. I think Joe Thorn told me about Jott (I had to say that because he will speak harshly to me this week if I don't mention it. I don't like it when Hobbits get mean, especially when I'm sick.).
I may have mentioned this before, but Piper/Bethlehem's accountability stuff is worth checking out.
You should check out Abraham Piper's crazy little experiment of a blog. Alas, he is his father's son. (Only four more words.)
Speaking of numbers, Baptist Reformed types will probably not like Scot McKnight's new article, "The 8 Marks of a Robust Gospel." Why? It's one short. I actually haven't read it yet, but McKnight is always worth reading (even when tragically wrong!). No heckling me please. I'm sick.
Here's Eugene Peterson at the 2007 Writer's Symposium by the Sea (isn't that where George McFly first kissed that chick from Howard the Duck?). The story he tells about Bono is worth the whole thing. (HT)
No question about it. After two of the most important Sundays of my life and in the life of our church, I have found myself without internet 98% of the time at the house. Something is terribly wrong with our phone line and they can't figure it out yet. So no phone or internet until they figure it out. They promised last night to be here to fix it, now they are promising early today. At this point they are giving us refunds on phone stuff until it's fixed, but I want the DSL not the money!
And you might say I should get off my duff and get out to a free wifi place. Oh really! Everyone in my house is sick, including me. Fevers for three of the kids. My youngest was the last well one and he woke up hurling last night. The pharmacy is calling us for antibiotics since we have stockpiled most of it here. I haven't felt right for two days and feel very achy today, as does my wife. And even if I chose to get out of the house and go to Starbucks to get online, I cancelled my wifi there a couple of weeks ago and would have to pay. Ugh.
I'm only writing this after my internet popped on for a minute, not even knowing when I press the "Post" button if it will work. So if you are reading this somewhere near 9:46am central time on Thursday, consider this the moment you witnessed the victory of Jesus over the powers of the Devil. Yes, laying hands on your laptop does work!
I have two orders pending (Amazon and Westminster) for Tim Keller's The Reason for God. I have a book and audio copy coming for me, and several copies to give away. Amazon's is on the way!
The WGA writer's strike is over. I've been following the strike online and through some podcasts, and was hoping the writer's would get a fair shake. It appears they are content, and now we can get back to watching some well-written new TV and movies.
Al Hsu has enjoyed Juno and reflects on the movie's suburban flair.
I recently rented The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, a documentary of one man's effort to beat the high score of Donkey Kong from a guy who you want to see lose it. It's a very entertaining movie that I highly recommend. Rent it and then tell me what you think. Here's the trailer...
I met Jonathan Dodson, an Acts 29 church planter, at the Chicago boot camp. Good guy. Check out two recent articles he has online on Community and Missional Discipleship.
Pitchers and catchers reporting today for the Cubs. Very good news. I've briefly visited HoHoKam Stadium, where the Cubs have spring training, in Phoenix a few winters ago when on a golf trip with my dad and uncles. My rabid-sports-nut-7-year-old, Elijah, reported as a pitcher last Sunday here in Woodstock. They have a handful of pitcher's and catcher's training sessions at our local rec center. He's shorter than most kids his age, but has an arm on him. AND he is accurate. I often have to encourage him to throw harder because he's afraid the kid across from him will not catch it and get hurt, or something. And since I'm helping to coach his team this year, I'm considering trading him to another team for a case of Schlitz!
Some of you know I have an autistic son. My wife enjoyed this video recently, so I thought it was worth sharing...
Our family woke up before 6am this morning for the celebration of Groundhog Day. It may not seem like a good reason to wake up early on a Saturday (and at 5:45 this morning it didn't feel like a good reason either), but we were all excited to enjoy the morning festivities together.
The movie Groundhog Day, which was filmed in my city (Woodstock, IL), sparked Woodstock's own week of Groundhog Days. Lots of stuff to do. It all peaked today at 7:07am when hundreds of people gathered to see Woodstock Willie, "the prognosticator of prognosticators," reveal the news about our fate.
Will it be a longer winter or an early spring? For the answer we turn to a large rat who bases his infallible answer on, of all things, whether or not he sees his shadow. Rather than telling you his answer I felt it was only right for you to experience the event for yourself. Thanks to the McCoy "shakycam" (as well as a few photos) you can hear it straight from the rat's (Bill Murray's term, not mine) lips. Here's how it went down. If you want to hear what the other rat said (the slightly more historic one), go here.
My hometown of Pontiac, Illinois is currently going through a time of record flooding that is making national news. My Dad's business is experiencing flooding and many families have been evacuated from their homes. My brother (Scott McCoy) is the Mayor and is finding himself very busy, including doing a live phone interview with CNN after he videotaped a rescue (I can't find a way to embed it).
The photo is from my sister's iPhone as she watched The Weather Channel.
Sorry, but for my kids' sake I had to put this on the blog. They just love it.
I took about 100 photos in order to find the one we liked for our Christmas card. But we had many others that we liked a lot. Here are a couple other favorites (click on them for larger versions)...
It's been some year for my family. We lost three loved ones, including my mom. My wife had brain surgery. I've had significant back and neck problems requiring physical therapy.
We've also had great fun with soccer and baseball and a trip to Disney World. So we thought it would end the year with a bang and take a Christmas photo that represents how much we like being together and how much fun family can be. Enjoy your family this Christmas season.
Zippity Doo Da, it's time for the the Walt Disney World post-game report.
Traveling: Our flight to Disney went off without a hitch. It rained all morning last Tuesday until we got to O'Hare and then stopped so we could keep dry on our way from economy parking. Watching the kids on take-off was fun, all wide-eyed and happy. Our flight back last night was delayed an hour before take-off because of some difficult Chicago weather, but it wasn't a problem. After getting in the air Danny (our youngest, 4) said that we were flying through space. I think he took the pixie dust at Disney a little too seriously.
Flying was a good experience.
The Hotel: After arriving at the Orlando airport we went to the Disney welcome area where they registered our arrival. Our bags had already been tagged so they would pick them up and all we would have to do is worry about ourselves. We hopped on a Disney Magical Express bus We stayed at the All-Star Music hotel on the Disney property. It was one of the less costly hotels that had a suite for our family of six. We got to our room, rested for a bit, and then our luggage showed up at our door.
Our room was spacious enough for our needs (especially with two bathrooms!). We were on the first floor just down the hallway from the very large guitar shaped pool. Each night at the pool they would play music through the stereo, then play some songs the kids could dance to (you know, those line-ish dancing kinda songs) and had a couple of workers teach the kids the dances, and then at 8:30pm every night they played a Disney DVD on a big blow-up screen by the pool. Really cool party atmosphere. The kids went swimming every night after going to the parks.
The hotel had continuous bus service to all parks and Downtown Disney, which made getting around a snap. Disney really has their act together.
The Parks: We visited all four main parks: Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney-MGM, and Animal Kingdom. We loved them all. Molly and I couldn't ride anything jarring or fast, but all four kids rode everything they were tall enough to ride. And that was pretty much everything.
The kids had similar likes. They loved Expedition Everest and rode it three times. Danny (4 1/2) calls it "Yeti" because of the Yeti who attacks the ride. Space Mountain went over huge with the kids, as did Tower of Terror. Only Sarah (10 1/2) and Jack (9) could ride the Rock'n Roller Coaster featuring Aerosmith, and both consider it a favorite. We all enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan, Safari, two stunt shows at MGM, and a bunch more. My favorite ride was Soarin', where they put you in seats that elevate in front of a huge curved screen and made you feel like you are flying over trees and mountains, smells added to the breeze. Brilliant.
We all VERY much enjoyed the 3D shows at each park: Mickey's PhilharMagic, It's Tough to be a Bug (Bug's Life), Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, and Muppet Vision 3D. The technology is very good and they add lots of fun stuff like smells and water and seat movements and the sensation of stuff on your head or feet. Along with these, Jack most of all wanted to ride Stitch's Great Escape. Previously known as Alien Encounter, this ride is where Stitch (of Lilo and Stitch) escapes in the room you are in and lots of stuff happens to you as they try to recapture him. At one point he eats a chili dog and burps and you smell it. Yuck.
We saw the fireworks shows at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT, both were fantastic. We also visited Downtown Disney for a short while before heading to the airport yesterday. Neat place to shop and eat.
The Magic: I was really blown away by the "magic" of Disney. Lots of people can make amusement parks and big rides that go fast. But Disney can make the smallest and most insignificant of rides seem like a dream and the big rides like another world. They can get you singing songs NOT because they are annoying, but because they are catchy and wonderful.
Everyone was super-friendly. Despite the massive amounts of spoiled, crying and disobedient children we saw, I never once saw a worker seem upset or angry or tired or frustrated. I never once saw a worker do anything to children but talk to them, ask them questions, encourage them to enjoy themselves, and listen to their every word as if the most important they would hear that day.
When we checked in they gave everyone kazoos and people were playing them like they were artists. We immediately felt like the hotel manager was our best friend. When we got to our room there was a personalized message on our hotel room phone from the girl who checked us in and who talked to us just 3 minutes before.
Jack's birthday was last Wednesday. They gave him a special button to wear that day that said it was his birthday. Everyone, and I mean everyone, who worked at the park said "happy birthday" to him. That included bus drivers, the lady selling popcorn, and the security guards who checked our bags for explosives before entering the park. He thought he was the king of the day, and in many ways he was.
Verdict: We had a wonderful time at Disney World. It was everything we hoped for and more. It was everything I remember as a child and more. All of us were healthy the whole trip. I was in pain most days, but it was manageable. Every day as we would pray together we were just so thankful to God for how well everything was going. And we are very thankful to be home. Thanks to all who prayed for us.
See all my Disney World photos. Will there be a video? I dunno. Not immediately, at least.
We are getting up at 3am tomorrow (Tuesday) morning in order to make a 7am flight for Disney World. There's a 70% chance of showers and thunderstorms in the morning so our trip to O'Hare with all our luggage isn't looking like a fun one. And who knows about delays and all that in the morning. I wish they would delay our flight now so we can sleep longer. :)
As most of you know, my post-brain surgery wife can't ride roller coasters. As most of you don't know, I was diagnosed a few weeks ago with two bulging discs in my neck and upper back. I'm in pain all day and all night long. It's been a little better the last week or two, but still painful all of the time. So I will be watching my health this trip as well and not riding certain rides. I would appreciate if a few folks would pray that things go well for my health on this trip. I'm confident all will go well as God takes care of things. Our youngest, Daniel, has been praying for God to heal me without my prompting. What an encouragement that is.
We really only have two things we want to do at Disney World no matter what.
1. Ride Expedition Everest
2. Meet Michael Jackson
Every summer we find time for a trip or two into the city. We usually take the train, hit a favorite spot or two, and hit a few new places. Here's a video I finally finished for our summer trip including the wonderful sounds of Beirut.
Molly and I "endured" the Desiring God Conference: Stand. It was a great weekend together. We laugh together a lot. But this weekend really gave us a chance to be playful and chase each other around a bit, more than the average weekend. I have an amazing, beautiful, fun and godly wife. She is a treasure to me. She's better than 1,000 yaks.
We didn't really pick to go to this conference because of the topic, but because we very much enjoyed the 2004 conference and wanted to try it again. We like Minneapolis and Piper and all. So we went and are really glad we did. All the speakers were great, but we particularly enjoyed John MacArthur's two messages. A great help to us and something we will review together over the next few days. (All audio/video is online for free.)
On Saturday Ohio State played at Minnesota and on Sunday Green Bay played in Minnesota, so the city was buzzing. It was kinda fun to be around for the bad Minnesota football (I shouldn't talk...Bears...ugh!). And we saw some hispanic celebrity at the Residence Inn lobby. No idea who he was. I asked two people who he was. One said he didn't know. The other explained it to me, and I couldn't understand him. Oh well. He did have a huge bouncer and a small posse, so he must be really important. It was an out-of-body experience. Well, actually it wasn't. But it was interesting.
Marc Heinrich (Purgatorio, on hiatus) pulled us aside and said "hi" early on in the conference. Erik Reymond (Irish Calvinist) introduced himself outside Brit's Pub while we were indulging in some scotch eggs (please click the picture for a larger, more delicious view!) and adult beverages on Saturday night. You should check out his blog if you haven't yet. Good guy. We were privileged to meet a handful of other folks who have kept up with the blog in some form or another. By the way, when I go to places like the Southern Baptist Convention I get recognized for my stellar blog and metrosexual hotness (that's what Joe Thorn says about me, anyway). But at the Desiring God Conference we were most often recognized for Molly's hotness...er...Chiari...ness. Most conversations went like this. "Hey, Molly, I'm _____. So great to meet you. We've been praying for you. How are you doing?" Molly replies, "I'm doing great!" I say, "Oh, hi. I'm Steve." ______ responds, "Who?" I've been demoted, but my superior is something else!
Chiari-head and I are going to the Desiring God Conference tomorrow. The kids are hanging in town (thanks Hoekstras and Fabians!), playing soccer on Saturday, going to church, yadda. Me and my honey are going to get our Piper on.
Here are the top 10 things I/we hope to accomplish this weekend.
10. Spend three days looking into my wife's eyes (and hope that is followed
by something fun that married people do when no kids are around).
9. Take some photos of objects that don't have our kids in front of them.
8. Make a wrong turn, and be ok with it.
7. Overhear that the Cubs actually won a game.
6. Sleep naked, with no concern that the kids will walk in and see...well, you know.
5. Buy a bunch-o-books. Last time (2004) we really scored!
4. Wonder at the brilliance that is Justin Taylor.
3. Eat a Scotch Egg (or two!) and consume a pint (or two!) at Brit's Pub.
2. Miss our kids.
1. Spend three days remembering how to shut up and listen to God.
Just wanted to quickly update you on what life looks like several weeks after Molly's surgery.
The three biggest problems right now are...
1. Molly can't lift much of anything. Still under 5 lbs right now. That's to keep from ripping her neck muscles apart. Once we were out to eat and she was stranded at the counter with a tray full of food and drinks that was too heavy. The kids and I were like, "Where's Mom?" I went looking and found m'lady looking in need of rescue. Fortunately I have muscles to spare!
2. You know how you will go to bed and just start to drift off to sleep and then jolt yourself awake? Molly still has a little of that. That's really the only remaining symptom, and it's so insignificant we usually don't even talk about it.
3. Molly is just dying to start working out more, but can't do much yet. She is walking on the treadmill and that's about it.
Yeah, after an awful summer and long post-surgery recovery life is pretty much back to normal. We took a train trip into Chicago yesterday with the kids and she did great. We don't assume there will never be any Chiari related stuff in our lives again. We know that symptoms could come back someday. That keeps us on our toes and thankful for the time that things are great, like now.
By the way, the best question we get asked is, "So, what did you guys do this summer?" Love that, because we will unload the story on people and enjoy their disbelief. It's quite the conversation starter. It also stops conversations. Like when someone is whining about their silly problems and I drop the Chiari-bomb all over them. They suddenly have nothing to say about their lives. :)
I have a short list of things I'd like to reflect on now that we have some distance from the symptoms and surgery. I'll try to get them written sometime soon. And the next appointment with the surgeon is in mid-October.
Watch the PGA Championship online for free 9am-7pm each day. Nice
Drew Goodmanson gives a nice history of his church's website, Kaleo, through version 5. Helpful in thinking about church websites.
"Church Squared" by Stetzer
We are hoping to make a train trip into Chicago again before school begins. Here are two videos of previous trips...
