A Little Random Weirdness...

Just to show you how deep the path of weirdness on the internet can go, I'll share with you a little experience my family had this week.

We were watching some Sesame Street videos with Isaac when one had a reference to yodeling. One of my children asks, "What is yodeling?" To which my wife quickly suggests we should show them the goatherd song from Sound of Music. While trying to find that video we stumbled upon THIS video:



Amazing, right? But the weirdness did not end there.

Upon seeing that video, my son Isaac got really excited about sheep. So we started looking for sheep videos....

And we found maybe the greatest piece of YouTube wonder I've seen (at least for this week;):



Hope you enjoyed! What is your favorite internet weirdness o' the week?

What are you leaving...?

I've been thinking a lot about legacy this week.

It all really started when I went to Margaret Boggs' funeral. As I watched the pictures of her and her five children and listened to her son Randy and grandson Randell sharing about her faith and the impact it had on their life, it made me think of my own family. It made me think of how much Randy and his children have impacted my life. It made me think how far a legacy can go.

..And it made me think of what a huge responsibility it is.

On Saturday, our church had a ladies' conference and at one point they asked for who was the oldest lady in the room and determined that it was my wife's grandmother who is in her mid-nineties. And then they asked who was the youngest and found it to be my daughter Shiloh who is just seven. And it just made me realized how truly blessed I have been to enter into a family with a legacy of faith.

But as I read Deuteronomy 6, I realize this responsibility is now in my hands:

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deut 6:6-7 ESV)

For me this week has been a reminder and an encouragement that I need to be diligent in passing on my faith by word AND example to the children I have been blessed with.

How about you. What kind of a legacy are you a part of? What are you passing on to others?

Orange Leaf

Our Creative Planning Team traveled to a magical place this past Tuesday...

Orange Leaf Self Serve Frozen Yogurt.

Now, for those of you who missed the memo, Orange Leaf is a new business popping up all over America featuring multiple flavors of frozen yogurt conveniently displayed in self-serve dispensers.

This is the way it works: You choose your own cup (either large or mega!). Then you fill your cup with your favorite yogurt flavors. Then you travel through the fixin's bar - complete with fresh fruit, whole nuts, breakfast cereals, entire candy bars and every type of liquid sugar you can think of! And then you place your creation on a scale and pay just 33 cents per ounce! Incredible! Ingenious! Indigestion!

So, since our little Creative Team's goal is to creative better creative spaces, we decided to travel to Orange Leaf for a little cultural research...

And here are my team's top 3 observations on why this place is so popular:

1. "It's shiny and bright" - And who doesn't like shiny and bright, right? Amid such a dreary, dark, difficult world, it is good to add a little color and cheer.

2. "It is simple." - While you have multiple flavor and topping options, you ONLY come to Orange Leaf for frozen yogurt. How many businesses, organizations, and churches try to diversify TOO much and create confusion.

3. "People like pulling the lever." - It seems that today's society likes the ability to have input into what they are getting. Whether it's something trivial like yogurt or meaningful like faith, they want to be able to engage in the conversation about what that's going to look like. They are looking for ownership. They are looking for involvement. They are looking for meaning. And somehow they are finding that at Orange Leaf.

Right behind these comments, the most heard statement from my team was "Why is it called Orange Leaf?" To which Tyler Boggs promptly replied, "Because it's too small to be a tree!"

Whether that is true, I do not know, but I do know that we gained plenty of food for thought about what engages this generation and what it takes to create a creative space.

How about you? What are your reactions to our observations? What are your own thoughts about Orange Leaf or whatever your current favorite space is? And how do these translate to our pursuit of Jesus Christ and reaching this generation for Him?

Look forward to some thoughts:)

Some Advice....

I stumbled upon this video a few days ago.



I was searching for something entirely unrelated (I don't even remember what now) when this caught my eye.

I first noticed it because it was attributed to Baz Luhrmann, the director of some great movies such as Romeo+Juliet, Moulin Rouge, and most recently Australia. I've always admired Baz's sense of story and his mixture of ancient and modern - elements I believe that speak greatly into our faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

But as I watched the video (which I later learned only the song was made by Baz - apparently he put out some remix album back in the late nineties!) I was so intrigued by the tongue-in-cheek humor of this pseudo commencement speech for the graduating class of life.

I appreciate the simplicity while questioning the inabsoluteness.

I marvel at the cheeriness despite the overarching message of hopelessness.

And most interestingly, I recognize the emotional pull of these words, but wonder how much of it actually rings true.

How about you. What are your responses. What is truth here and what is not? Why was this so popular? And what should this tell us about how we approach advice in our culture today?

Just some thoughts. Can't wait to hear yours. Peace.

"I Wasn't a Prophet...

...or the son of a prophet but..." (Amos 7:14)

So this past Wednesday, I woke up early and read this verse. I was amused because I often have heard our Senior Pastor quote this but couldn't have really told you where it was at. Now I knew.

(and knowing is half the battle!)

But I didn't think much more about it as i got ready to head to the hospital to visit with a youth group member who was having surgery. Little did I know that this verse was soon to take a new meaning in my life.

I got to the hospital and had a great visit with this fine young man and his parents. As I talked with them, they relayed how the young man was the only one of their children who was always in the hospital. I identified with that as my wife and I were both very cautious children and never in the hospital, but my sons were adventurous, often leaping before they looked. I conveyed that they were probably going to be, unlike my wife and I, the ones always in the hospital.

The surgery went well, so I said farewell to this fine family and headed back to the church. I wasn't at the church more than a half hour when I received a call from my wife stating Isaac, our nearly two year old son, had fallen and busted his head open and blood was everywhere. Obviously I rushed home immediately. My wife had by then cleaned off the blood to reveal a small gash right between Isaac's eyes. Not life threatening, but definitely ER worthy.

So Isaac and I loaded up and back to the hospital I went...

Prophetic? I don't know, but it is funny how we sometimes say things without realizing they might come true.

Have you said anything this week that came true? Have you said anything this week that you hope won't come true?

Peace.