Guitar Strings...GRRR!

On Saturday, in preparation for leading worship yesterday at church, I decided to change the strings on my guitar. For those who don't know about changing guitar strings, when you put on a new set, they take a little while to "settle in" and stay in tune. After changing my strings I played for a while and things seemed to be in good shape. The next morning at practice some minor re-tuning was needed but no big deal. Then service came.
On the first song my 'b' string seemed to be a bit out of tune, so I re-tuned it and went on my way. But after each song it was more and more out of tune. I tried to play only low strings or adjust the fret or two during the song, but mostly it just sounded terrible. By the next to last song my 'b' string was dropping a minor third (down to G# or as bad as it could possibly make my guitar sound) after just a few strums. One of the women helping sing that morning stepped up to the mic and said something to the effect of it being good that God hears the praise of our heart, out of tune guitars and all.
After finishing, I went and removed the string and put it right back on. Problem solved (although I still don't know how the first time I put the string on things went so badly). Just a good reminder of what is important as I lead worship times and youth group things. Our hearts have to be offering all of ourselves to God.

Teens Need Adults!

I know, I know, I've gone post crazy! Two in a day!

I just read a blog post over on YPulse about the dangers of growing up in the suburbs. Basically, the thought is that suburban kids have higher rates of drug and alcohol use than inner city kids. Here is Anastasia's conclusion:

The article points to the need for more adult interaction with teens -- I don't think this has to be just parents, but what cities often offer that suburbs don't is a bigger sense of community and less isolation. My sense is that teens who live in cities do interact more with adults than the kids getting wasted on the golf courses....

I hope our youth group here in Lander is a place that is providing opportunities for those relationships between students and adults. I know relationships with adults had a huge impact on the choices I made as a teen. Just a good reminder of the importance of building relationships over making things that are flashy or cool just for the sake of being flashy or cool.

Utah Symphony Orchestra

Last night Shiloh and I went and heard the Utah Symphony Orchestra here in town. It was a nice evening out and the music was excellent. But as always, something much funnier happened during the performance (otherwise, why blog about it?)
Sitting in the row in front of us was a family with four kids. Their girl, maybe 9 or 10, thought the first half of the evening was the worst thing she ever had been to in her entire life. First, she tapped one of her brothers on the shoulder and pretended to yawn to show how boring this all was. Then came my favorite part of her act. She used her right hand to form a gun and put it up to her head and took the shot. Now that is all well and good, but she used her left hand on the other side of her head to show her brain blowing out every time she pulled the trigger. Occasionally she also would add sound effects. "pow" "bam" and other explosion related noises. Hilarious! She spent the second half of the night pretending that she was the conductor, which was mostly a distraction from hearing the orchestra play Beethoven's 7th Symphony which they did in amazing fashion. Also, the conductor had incredibly bouncy hair, my wife and the high school girls sitting behind us all said so. And best of all, it was a night out with my wife!

HA!

At youth group on Tuesday night I asked students to answer a couple of questions so that I could share the answers with parents to hopefully spark conversation and open up dialogue. My favorite answer of the night:

Q: What is the biggest thing your parents don't understand about you?

A: That I keep my room dirty so I don't have to look at my ugly carpet.

It's a Marathon

I was talking this morning with one of my youth volunteers over breakfast about the Dalai Lama. I had just read that when the current Dalai Lama dies, the powers that be will re-find him when he reincarnates as a baby. They will spend the next 20 or 30 years educating him on his past lives and training him to be a spiritual leader. Obviously I don't agree with the whole reincarnation thing, but I love the view of how things happen. They realize that history is long, and great things can take a long time to accomplish. So they spend a couple decades getting ready for each generation. In my experiences of church in America, we usually go for the quick payout and want immediate results. The Bible, however, models something different.

John the Baptist's whole ministry was one of preparation.
Moses wandered and wandered and wandered in the desert.
Jesus spent 30ish years preparing and 3ish years ministering.

And then this afternoon I came across this quote from Mike Yaconelli:
Jesus knew hurried disciples become ex-disciples. Modern youth ministry needs to understand our mission: planting, watering and waiting... in other words, unhurried discipleship. Jesus knew, and so should we, that discipleship lasts a lifetime.

In other words, this May when seniors leave the youth ministry, I don't need to be concerned that they have met some predetermined criteria for having been successfully discipled. I do need to be concerned that they are equipped to continue on the journey of knowing and following Jesus for the rest of their lives.

In your place of ministry are you willing to be a preparer if that is where God calls you to be and leave the results and the time line to the Holy Spirit?

Driving Your Phone

A couple days ago I was putting together a toy kitchen set that my kids got from their grandparents for Christmas. Being the responsible male I am, I was occasionally glancing at the directions. As I looked, I saw instructions for cleaning the toy phone that came with the kitchen. I decided to read that section, as it seemed pretty obvious to me as to how to clean a little toy phone that has batteries in it. Here is what I read:

Directions for Cleaning Phone
Slightly dampen a cloth with water or mild detergent solution and wipe surface. Never submerge in water or spray liquid directly on steering wheel.

And that's when I realized why they had instructions, I didn't even know the phone had a steering wheel! And until I find the steering wheel, I am going to be watching my kids very closely to make sure they don't submerge the steering wheel in water. That sure was a close one!

Prayer

"Lord teach me to know you more, to love you more and serve you more faithfully in my life"

-St. Ignatius