I must remember this next time I have a job interview. Which, by the way, is Thursday at 10:30. Its a good tip.

BTW, I did have an interview last year where the interviewer called me into his office and chit-chatted with me for a minute. Then he pulled out a folder with my name on the front, flipped through a few pages then closed it. He excused himself and left the room. I sat there staring at the globe on his desk fully aware that there was a large window right behind me. I think they were seeing if I’d peek in the folder since their questions had nothing to do with the job. At least I didn’t steal the globe.

I finally picked up Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” by Il Giardino Armonico. These guys breath new life into the piece. Really. I think this is the third recording of “The Four Seasons” that I own and it is by far my favorite. The samples on Amazon don’t do it justice; they don’t hit the best parts.

SNORT…What? Wow, what time is it? Oh crud, its late. How’d that happen? Anyway, here’s a brief update (in no particular order):
Matrix Reloaded: Okay. It is the 2nd in a trilogy after all.
Phil Roy: Check out Undeniably Human. I like it.
School: On summer break, no classes, just a Field Ed. Shew.
Work: Busy doing everything. Interview for Assistant Team Leader on Thursday. Will be the shift manager in charge of the whole store the night of the 21st.
Family: Catching up. Ben is off to Albuquerque in the AM for a month. We bought season passes to the local “aquatic center” but have yet to be able to go. Too cold or rainy.
Computer: Back light repaired. 256 MB stick out, 512 MB stick in. 640 MB of memory goodness. Oohhh. Doesn’t slow down when I run Accordance now.
Church: We’re going to be leading a small group some time soon. Figuring out how that will happen and doing some recruiting amongst some new folks.
Car(s): Astro Van is dead. 1994 Buick LeSabre with 54K miles took its place. I need to balance the tires. Nice clean car. Someone from church/seminary is giving me their Geo when they move back to Boston in July.
Missions: Lisa will be going to Asia in September and I won’t be. School will have started. Bummer. Great prayer opportunity.
Jams: The Apple Music Store is fantastic! I feel sorry for Windows users (for many reasons) who will have to wait till the end of the year before they can enjoy it.
Finding Nemo: Fantastic (notice I did not say “Fintastic”) movie! Pixar has done it again. The seagulls only say “Mine!” How accurate.

More later.

If you get an e-mail forwarded to you with a quote from Colin Powell to the Archbishop of Canterbury, know that it is almost accurate.
According to Urbanlegends.About.com:

Although U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell did utter words similar to the above, he was not in England at the time, nor was he addressing the current Archbishop of Canterbury, nor was he responding to a question about “empire building.”

Just so you know, ya know?

I got some “feedback” after whining about the counseling class I took last quad. Just to prove that I’m not completely anti-counseling let me say that I am getting a lot out of the grief counseling I’m taking this quad. I read J. I. Packer’s book “A Grief Sanctified” which is a presentation of Richard Baxter’s tribute to his wife, but as Packer says, “This is a book for Christian people about six of life’s realities–love, faith, death, grief, hope, and patience. Centrally, it is about grief.”

There are a ton of great quotes but two that helped me a lot were:

The idea, sometimes voiced, that because Christians know death to be for believers the gate of glory, they will therefore not grieve at times of bereavement is inhuman nonsense. (p 10)

But grief counseling, like marriage counseling, is not magical in its effects. Counseling can only offer understanding of what is actually going on inside and suggest what might be done about it. Just as it cannot bludgeon an estranged couple into marriage renewal, so it cannot jolly grieving persons back into cheerfulness. (148)

Man, these are two powerful truths that we need to remember.

A parting quote that had nothing to do with grief but I thought it was great:

Richard and Margaret, his wife, were Puritans. That means they were gloomy, censorious English Pharisees who wore black clothes and steeple hats, condemned all cheerfulness, hated the British monarchy, and wanted the Church of England and its Book of Common Prayer abolished?right?
Wrong?off track at every point! Start again. (p17)

Michael Card is on campus this week. This is his first visit to Trinity, long overdue if you ask me. I listened to him speak at chapel yesterday and my family (minus the youngest) went to his concert last night. The man is amazing. He’s won many music awards, written a bunch of books (I bought two), built a log cabin, and has taught astronomy and physics! Shew.

Last night he told a story of his grandmother’s maid, her name was something like ‘Betty’. She was a woman who loved Jesus but her husband was an abusive drunk. Michael said that before Betty would buy a bed, she’d make sure she could fit under it. One night Betty’s husband Henry came home drunk and angry. Betty was under her bed praying. When Henry reached the top of the stairs he slipped and fell all the way back down. He lay there unconscious. Betty said “Do you know what my sweet Jesus did? My sweet Jesus pushed Henry down those stairs!” After that story, Michael confessed that he was terrified to speak in chapel because of the professors here. D. A. Carson was sitting a few chairs away from us and everyone turned and looked at him. He smiled pleasantly. Michael confessed that it was his friend Don Carson who had him the most worried. “Do you know what my sweet Jesus did?” Michael asked. “He gave Don Carson a stomach flu for the past two days!”

The trees are melting. Monday we got hit with snow and freezing rain. After that the rain turned into a thick mist and the temperature dropped. That left the snow preserved beneath a thin, crisp sheet of ice, protecting against light foot prints. The trees (and my truck!) became encased in crystal. When the sun rose and shined on it, it was magical.

This morning, the temperatures are rising and the trees are releasing their cache of rain they’ve been hoarding for the past few days. They weep at the loss it seems. The snow-covered ground is rejecting the cast offs from the trees and power lines. Ice cubes sit on top of the snow.

Funny, I thought da’ Nile was in Egypt, not Iraq! “If we pretend like the American troops aren’t here…” Updated: 4/5/03

As part of PT 525 Personal Assessment and Introduction to Ministry, I had to read J. Oswald Sanders’ book Spiritual Leadership. It wasn’t deep or lofty, but it sure was quotable and motivating. I used a FranklinCovey day planner for a few years, even attended a 7 Habits of Highly Effective People seminar but once I was given a Handspring Visor Deluxe, I ditched the paper. Unfortunately I also threw out a good part of my organizing habits too. After reading Sanders’ chapter The Leader and Time, I was so convicted that I ran out and bought refills for my day planner and moved back in. I also copied that chapter and the one before it, Prayer and Leadership, cut them down to size and put them in my planner a few months out. I want to review those chapters again too keep me motivated.

There were so many good, quotable phrases that I couldn’t pick any out. I wanted to quote the entire thing!

Something that I really appreciate about the PT 525 class is that the prof didn’t say “read all of Sanders by this date” or even “read 100 pages of Sanders by this date.” Instead the assignment was to read Sanders for 4 hours over the week and write a reflection paper. That meant that I got to pick the chapters and read them slowly and reflectively (which was the point). I even reread about 5 pages, something I couldn’t do otherwise.

Update: Pastor Dan was out of town Friday so no meeting. I did get the job description and it seems like things I would be good at. What scared me the other day was as I was daydreaming about the position I began planning what I would do. My heart stopped and I immediately prayed that I would do what Christ would want in His church. I hope I don’t fall into such foolishness again either with this ministry or any other.

I spoke with the window washing company and came away pretty discouraged. I turned down the “mini route”. When I spoke with the man at church who introduced me to it, he was very positive. He felt I could replace my current income with window washing only a few days a week. I just have to wait for the right route to open up. I was afraid I’d be putting them off by saying “no thanks” so often but Jonathan assured me that they understand. Cool. If I get hired as District Pastor, it is a part-time position so I will need a “mini route” to make up the diff.

No resurrection of the van at this point. However, some friends have stepped up and offered to loan us their vehicles so we don’t have to keep renting. That’ll help and it takes the time crunch off finding a car this week.

Income tax return has already come and went. Paid off a credit card and paid back some school loan money I’d tapped into. Oh well. My dreams of an iPod must remain only dreams.