Big ups to my buddy John and his family for joining the “high speed” world.  You see, he lives on the “Fiskum Family Farm” out in rural Maple Valley and up until tonight at 10PM were totally dial up.  I’m so proud of them.  Not only for moving into the 90’s but for also catching this fish.  The caption on the original photo was, “John Fiskum catches a fatty” …… think …… think ….ok ….3…2…1…go (insert your own punch line).

John & his wife Stephanie are great people.  Elders at our church and all around cool people to hang with.  They also have a wonderful family.  John is the kind of guy who makes everyone feel great when they’re around him and Stephanie doesn’t know how to have a conversation without laughing.  I hope that I’ll be as cool as John someday.

Name one of your friends that make you smile just at the mention of their name?

Waiting for next meal…

This image should disturb you.  What are you doing to fight world poverty?  This is the question I’m asking myself right now.  My friend Eugene is doing something.  Maybe we can partner with him?

What will you do?

Some of you may be familiar with the haunting photo above.  It was taken by Kevin Carter, a well known South African photographer, of a starving Sudanese child in 1993.  It was first published in the New York Times on March 26, 1993 and won him the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in 1994.  Take a moment to reflect and wrestle with the photo.

I love it when people use the term circa…

Def: Circa…In approximately, about. From the Latin word for “about” and often abbreviated as “c.” For example, “c. 1900” means “around the year 1900.”

So…I would say….”that was popular around the time I was born…circa 1967″.

Click here and use the word Circa in a sentance…

Thanks Natalie for the inspiration.

Starbucks

Everywhere you go…you’re never too far from starbucks.  Now, even when you don’t know you’re near one…there it is…in Target, Safeway, Albertsons, or even our church.  Well, since Seattle is the home of Starbucks and we hail the Pike Place store as the first one….then that is cool enough for me.  It’s cool to live in Seattle because we can visit a place in our community like this…

Why is it cool to live in your town?

How can you not love someone with the name Coffee?  Carlos posted this post today about the CD release tonight for Meghan Coffee.  I’m not going to claim to know her because I don’t.  But, click here to go to her webstite and click here to buy her CD.  Watch the video of one of her songs and prepare to be flored.  The song is Psalm Two.  I love it.  Video….Well Done!

What do you think?

Tuesday mornings are a time for our pastoral team to connect and catch up with how things are going…share whats new…chat about strategy…how are we doing as a team…and hear from our pastor.  This morning was a great time to hear from Troy.  Not only is Troy Jones my boss, pastor, leader….we’ve been friends for 28 years.  Right now Troy is doing a personal focus time on strengthening his “emotional health”.  Here’s a statement he made, “When he’s 60 he wants to make sure he’s not bitter and still loves his wife, kids, life, God, ministry, & people”.  What are the things he needs to do now to make sure that happens and he doesn’t get bitter?  We need to focus on being emotionally healthy.  So below are seven things he discussed today to focus on to move toward emotional health (good stuff).

1. Assume that there will be discouragement and disappointment in life.  This is not to dwell on the negative…live in reality.

2. Decide that life is too short to be bitter.  There are many people and things we can choose to harbor bitterness about…don’t let this happen.

3. Protect your quiet time.  It’s virtually impossible to struggle in any of these areas if you’re having a solid quiet time with Jesus.

4. Remember - there’s always another side to every story.  Don’t always assume that the people who are not on your side are wrong.

5. Get perspective.  It’s amazing how things will change when you allow time between the point of tension and your reaction.

6. Find people who will let you vent and not perpetuate your issue.  In other words…occasionally we need to verbally vomit…make sure when that happens, the people around you don’t let you eat it back up and carry it around.

7. Develop heart questions.  How’s your heart doing?  Be honest with yourself.  A great book (that he’s reading) that covers this point is, “It cam from within” by Andy Stanley.

These are all great points to consider when focusing on being emotionally healthy.  In no way was this to indicate that he is or we all are hitting 10 out of 10 on each point….but they are all areas we need to focus on.

What did you discuss in your Tusday morning meeting?

Congrats to Dale Earnhardt Jr.  He finally wins again after a drout in the winners circle.  He’s got a new number, sponsor, & team….and he’s winning.  Yea, I’m a Jr. fan.  He’s a great guy and a great driver.  I didn’t get to watch the race until TIVO last night.  Just as good…even better as I ff through the commercials.  The race came down to gas mileage and strategy.  That’s why I love the sport.  It’s so much more than just driving around in circles.  Go Jr.

Also, Tiger did pretty well on Sunday.

Who are you rooting for today?

FATHER 1: Today is the day that we celebrate being a father.  To be honest with you…and I was laughing about this today…one of the best things you can do for us on fathers day is just leave us alone.  Feed us and let us watch NASCAR or golf and we’ll be happy.  I know that sounds selfish…I’m just being honest.  This is my son Drew.  Fathers day means a lot to me because I get to reflect on my relationship with my kids.  Specifically Drew.  As an adoptee (me), we experience emotions of “body identity”.  That is trying to identify who we look like.  I’ve gone through my whole life wondering who I look like and who looks like me.  My son, Drew, is the first person I’ve ever met who I can make this connection with (of course my daughter Brooke as well).  When Drew was born he was the first blood relative I’d ever met.  Yea…let that sink in.  I love my kids.  I love their mother even more.  She is truly the best part of our family.  It’s great being a dad every day.  Especially with such a wonderful family.

FATHER 2: Somewhere out there is a guy who would be considered my biological father.  At times I wonder if he ever thinks about what happened to his son 40 years ago?  Does he even know I exist?  Don’t feel sorry for me…I don’t loose any sleep over this one.

FATHER 3:  This is the one who deserves all the honor.  40 years ago he made the choice to bring me into his family and raise me as his son.  I’m sure it wasn’t easy raising 4 kids (I was the youngest) and the money that it cost.  Yet, I never knew that we were ever in need of anything.  He even worked extra hard (as did my mom) to send all four of us to private school.  Never once did he ever give me the reason to think I was anything other than his son.  He has a biological daughter, biological son, and 2 adopted son’s.  We were all loved, provided for, disciplined, and cared for the same.  As fathers go, he wins the prize.  It’s one thing to love the child who is biologically connected to you…that’s easy - but to bring 2 additional kids into the home and love with the same Godly love as he did is another whole level.  Let me introduce you to my father - Sonny Lichty.

Who are you especially proud of today?

I spent yesterday at the softball field watching my daughter Brooke and her team participate in one of their fast pitch tournaments.  I was literally there from Noon until 10 PM.  Their last game was supposed to start at 8:00 and it started at about 8:30 PM.  I remember at the beginning of the season wondering what the weekend would look like if there was a tournament?  Would it keep us from doing what we wanted to do?  Would we feel like we weren’t able to accomplish anything?  Would it be fun?  Would I like it?  Then, I talked to my aunt Jennifer whose daughter Shelly played fast pitch for many years.  She said, “get ready…it’s expensife, takes a lot of time, and you’re gone every weekend”.  But then she said, “and we loved every minute of it.  It was a lot of fun”.  So, I listened to her and we’ve baby stepped our way into this world.  I mean come on…Brooke is only 12.  Well, I can honestly say, it was fun and I love it.  It wasn’t a waste of my time and I feel like we accomplished a lot.

And when you look at the smile on her face…you know you’re at the right place.  I’m so proud of her.  She has improved so much with her game.  Especially with her hitting.  She is doing a great job hitting the ball and getting on base.  So, I’m hooked.  I’m ready to be the dad that spends the day at the park with his daughter.  Again, she’s one of the best things I’ve got going for myself.

So, what did you do on Saturday?

I am the kind of person who is all for taking any song that will compliment the message of Jesus Christ and make it part of the service so people will connect and move forward on their journey toward Christ.  I’m even cool with youth groups doing really cute/funny stuff to make people laugh and make a point.  Tonight as I was reading one of my favorite blogs by Prodigal Jon called Stuff Christians Like I was enlightened by what could be done with Justin Timberlakes song, “Sexy Back”.  Side note: Prodigal Jon is a great writer.  Read some of his stuff……OK….click here to view the video.

 Is this creative chaos or bad taste?