Total Church

Beginning next Tuesday I'm going to be commenting on the book Total Church with my friend Nathan Cook and others. For more info, as well as to join the conversation, go here.

God loves me...and here's proof

Two years ago Mandy, Adam and I took a trip to New England. Our last stop was Boston, where we spent two nights with Kerry and Kevin. Kerry was Mandy's best friend in high school. One of the highlights of the trip (and there were many) was discovering the Tassimo. Kerry and Kevin had recently gotten one, and they shared their delightful coffee with me. I was immediately taken with this wonderful little machine, and felt that I too needed a Tassimo.

After a few days the need wore off. After all, I already had a coffee maker and an espresso maker. I really didn't need anything else. And that was the end of that. Actually one year later, I incorporated this story into the first sermon that I preached at our church. It was a sermon on the Advent Conspiracy, and I was illustrating the need to fight consumerism. As silly as it might sound, I felt pretty good about myself. I often succumb to consumerism, especially when it comes to tasty gadgets such as this one.

You've probably already figured out that the story didn't end there. A few weeks ago Mandy and the boys went to Paducah to see the grandparents. One day Mandy and Micah went to St. Louis, where Kerry and Kevin now live. At some point Mandy told Kerry about me preaching about the Tassimo. She thought that was really funny, then said, "You know, that thing is packed away in a box. Do you think Robert would like to have it?" Mandy's response: "Oh yeah!"

That night Mandy called me to say that she had a surprise for me, and the next day when they came home, she carried with her the Tassimo. I was definitely surprised, but thrilled. I promptly ordered some coffee pods off Ebay, and it's been bliss ever since.

So...I know that God shows his love for me in ways much more meaningful than this one, but I have to say that this is pretty good lovin.

The Phases of Friends

Mandy's final project before Micah comes has been to burn all of our VHS tapes to DVD. This morning we watched our wedding. It was the first time that Adam had seen it. At the beginning I told him that Mommy was hiding in the back, and that when she appeared, she was going to be dressed in white and would look very pretty beautiful (he always uses those words together). Needless to say, he was very excited!

As we watched, Mandy pointed out that all of my groomsmen now live outside of Tennessee. The funny thing is that while I was in California, most of them lived in Tennessee. Anyway, it got me thinking about the life stages we all go with, and the friends that we have as we go through those stages. At our wedding, our high school and college friends were with us, but we also had many of our newer friends from Nashville, where we spent our first year of marriage. During that time in Nashville, I began to lose touch with my college buddies. Then we moved to California, met new friends, and once again lost touch with friends.

Now that we're back in Tennessee, it's happening all over again, though we've been able to reconnect with friends here (facebook has a little something to do with that). I realize that I'm not very good at keeping up these relationships, especially when long distance is involved. I know that some of that is inevitable, but some of that is also just part of my personality.

In each phase of life, Mandy and I have been blessed to have some very significant friendships, and I'm very grateful for that.

Fall is Here

Saturday was a great day. We spent it with the Currier's and the Thomas' in Arlington at Uncle Fudd's Pumpkin Patch. Mason and Lyndon are two of Adam's best friends, so it was a treat to see them all playing together at the Pumpkin Patch. Here are a few pictures.

Labor Day weekend

We had a very busy Labor Day weekend. Perhaps it has something to do with being in California the past six years, but we had four different invitations from people for this weekend. We spent Friday night at my dad's cabin on Pickwick Lake. There were twelve of us in all. We were there for less than 24 hours, then drove to the Nashville airport to meet Adam's new cousin, Addie Mae. Mandy's aunt and uncle spent the past two weeks in China in order to adopt Addie Mae, and they wanted the whole family at the airport when they arrived. It was awesome to see how so many people's lives have been changed by this little girl. I'll try to write more about Addie Mae sometime soon.

That night we went to see Mandy's college roommate, Samantha. Emily, one of Mandy's other roommates, and her husband Matt, were there as well. It was a quick visit. Sunday morning we were back at Leslie's, but Addie Mae, still on China time, was asleep. We ended our time at Shane and Steve's house. Shane and Steve were friends of ours from the Church@Hickory Hollow. They now have three kids. Bryan and Liesl Dunlap were there with their two kids, as was Michelle Mattox. It was so good to be with all of them. I'm grateful that we will be able to see them more frequently now.

We got home around 7:30, put Adam to bed, and were asleep by 9:00. We were all drained, and Mandy and I were both fighting colds, or allegies, or a little of both. Adam was a trooper through it all. He's such a great little kid.

It was great seeing so many people, but I think we'll try to spread our trips out a little more from now on.