A Slower Pace

My wife and I went to our first Emmaus “gathering” this evening. It is a monthly opportunity for us to rekindle our Emmaus relationships, involvement and commitment. It was nice to see folks on our walk and in the community again.

There was good conversation followed by awesome worship. The music was inspirational and uplifting. It was a small version of the Christian radio that now dominates my car radio and daily commutes. We sang contemporary praise songs like “Sing, Sing, Sing” (Chris Tomlin) and “Amazing Grace” (the modern version, also by Chris Tomlin).

My favorite was a version of “Blessed Be The Name” by Tree63. Now normally I am a fairly reserved worshipper, probably because of my Lutheran background and heritage. It goes back quite a ways all the way to my great grandparents who were Lutheran missionaries to China. But through the recent experiences of the last month or so along with my immersion into scripture, I have been loosening the reigns of worship to more fully reflect what I believe God calls us to do — completely submit to Him and praise him completely and fully from our hearts. It was during the “Blessed Be The Name” rendition that the moment caught my soul. The beautiful sound of praise. The harmonious tunes of worship. The fellowships of believers. Tears of praise streamed down and stumbled across the smile on my face as I lifted up my voice and my hand in praise of my Lord. It was exactly what I was made to do and such a fulfilling and moving experience. And it brings so many thoughts into my mind. As a guy, to release and reject society’s image of a crying man. As a churchgoer, to embrace this as a more often occurance and seek it routinely. As a worshipper, to completely submit.

It sure has given me a reason to pause and reflect on my worship of the God who made me and who sacrificed His perfect Son for my sake and salvation.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

As most of you know from reading this blog, Sundays are our God and family days. Well, not today — or at least that not how it seems. The kids woke up cranky and we were in some kind of funk. Church wasn’t an option today though because it was a youth involved service we were looking forward to. In addition, my oldest daughter is going to be involved in the service on Mother’s Day next week and will be carrying the crucifix. She needs to go to Sunday school this week to familiarize herself with the ritual and get comfortable with it all.

So I told my wife to go with my oldest daughter and I would stay at home with the young ‘ens. That way she could also go into town afterwards like she had planned. I don’t think the idea took that well until my son woke up complaining about the breakfast menu.

The two oldest ladies were off to church and I started in on my day. The list included getting the smoker prepped for our dinner, mowing the front lawn (an hour and half job), changing the oil in my wife’s truck that just left and is now at 200F degrees, and cleaning out my truck from the planting work of yesterday. I enlisted my son’s help in getting the smoker going. I stuck to my guns and didn’t make him pancakes like he wanted (long story — Mommy makes pancakes for the whole family, not just one person and Sundays usually aren’t pancake days because of the time constraints. Aren’t you glad you asked?). Instead he gobbled down a waffle of the frozen toaster variety (you’re talkin’ Dad here, not a gourmet chef) and joined me on the back patio.

I had planned this meal a few days ago so my charcoal and wood chip supplies were plentiful. I got my son going on filling the wheelbarrow with water (for soaking the wood chips) and I cleaned out the water bowl, grates and filled the charcoal recepticle. Soon we were “blasting off” — the whoosh of the freshly squirted lighter fluid inspiring awe in my son’s eyes. I only hope I instilled some respect of fire when I told him “Only Daddy does this part. You can get a very big owey.”. Soon the baby back rips properly seasoned were on their way to culinary enjoyment.

While prepping the ribs, I was actually able to enjoy both my middle daughter and son play together with the fridge magnet in the kitchen. Of course, while I was out actually putting the ribs on the smoker they were not properly referreed and got into a spat. Given that it was still early and this was round 2 (or 3 or 4), I put them both in their rooms for 1/2 hour. At which time my wife calls to thank me for letting them go off to church alone for some quiet time. All in a day’s work, right?

Well, 1/2 hour is up, I am checking off items on my list, so I have the kids come out to the front yard with me while I mow. I would continually check the corner of my eye, but all body language from them (they were about 100-200 feet away) indicated they were still cooperating and playing well together. Of course this was difficult to determine with my earplugs in and mowing sideways to them. But all in all it looked good. Kinda like how my lawn was slowly appearing as I removed swipe by swipe of tall grass to reveal a smooth green carpet below.

Ribs on the smoker, front lawn mowed, fountain pump installed (a quick win) and it was now time to turn on the NASCAR race. My wife wasn’t home yet and a lot was done…..with the kids, or 2/3 of them anyways. I deserved some R & R. Talladega was the answer. When my wife got home, her words were “Is that thing on?” — referring to the race. She then told me the little story of the sermon given by the youth pastor (remember? it was youth Sunday) entitled “Hide and Seek”. She felt it was written just for her where there are times when you don’t feel God is close to you (as in when the kids were fighting this morning and we were in a funk) but then He pops out to reveal Himself to you (the first radio song on the way to church was Martina McBride’s “Blessed” — lyrics covered here in this post — followed by the beautiful hot air balloon race that ended right by church with over two dozen balloons looking for a place to touch down). The church message was perfectly timed and enjoyed.

I balanced the next few hours with the NASCAR race at Talledaga, letting my wife’s motor cool down so I could change the oil and instructing my son on the finer points of watching a NASCAR race. He sat down with me the entire race. Of course, he snuck in a few hour nap. I enjoyed my driver dominating and leading the most laps. A huge wreck extended the ordeal. My wife couldn’t believe how long it was going and added to her previous comment — “Is that thing STILL on?”. I pulled the ribs off during another red flag crash and we chowed on dinner with the race still on. I finally enjoyed my driver taking the checker flag which released me to go work on the rest of my list (after driver interviews of course).

A quick oil change to my wife’s truck led me to my truck. I was going to begin cleaning it out when my wife and kids joined me. They all took over while I could go for extra credit — the back lawn. With the property requiring almost 5 hours of mowing, I have tried an alternative philosophy of doing the front pasture (1 1/2 hours) on one weeknight, the front lawn (1 1/2 hours) on another weeknight and the back lawn (1 1/2 hours) on another weeknight. This leaves the weekend whole but does not neglect the love and care needed by the grass. Last week’s rain didn’t allow me to test my weeknight mowing theory so I was a little behind. So extra credit for mowing the back seemed appropriate. Of course, halfway through required a trip to WalMart for gas. This bumped me up against the light limits because I didn’t get back until 8:20pm. I had just started contemplating the headlight option for the mower when I took my last swipe. By the time I got it airblown off, parked and in the garage, the clock read 9:18pm. My son was enjoying a DVD and my wife was almost asleep (remember that long nap during the race?). He wasn’t going to bed anytime soon so I grabbed the paper for some wind down time to keep him company.

Wow, quite a long posting for no philosophical insights, political rantings, or interesting thoughts (Sunday sermon speak excluded). I guess this post just gives you a regular, ordinary snapshot into a weekend day here. Maybe that’s what the transformation to Kentucky has become. It is no longer this test of turbulent, new waters but a slowly revealing look into our adaptation to scenery that is now more familiar to us.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Heard a great sermon today at church. Pastor Paul went into an analogy of stones — how they can be used for evil (as in throwing at people like they did in the old days when they stoned someone to death) or good (as in building structures and foundations). We all have a stone but it is what we do with it that matters. Are we going to build something with it? Or throw it in anger? Pastor also mentioned that when you throw it in anger, you are still left with your anger and bitterness. However, when you build something with it, you end up with a whole that is greater than the original stone. It is a very nice parallel to our lives. The gospel referred to us as “living stones”. It all depends on what we do with our stone.

He also went on to describe a term I hadn’t heard before — “consumerism Christianity”. It is defined as that safe belief of not getting involved and taking from the church, from the service and from relationships but never giving. It becomes isolationism and benefits no one. Your faith, religion and spirituality need to be exercised regularly. By giving, by participating, by involving yourself. You end up being a stone in a greater group of stones built for good that has a value greater than the sum of it’s parts.

What are you doing with your stone?

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Today was my oldest daughter’s first communion day at church. It was a very nice service. An added touch was after each child received their first communion from the pastor, they would then turn around and give communion to their family who were standing behind them in a public show of support. It was a very special gesture and it was one more of these milestones that will choke me up on her way to adulthood. I am intent on focusing on these moments because I believe that in today’s day and age, they whiz by us too fast. I would equate a child’s life to a drag race. The anticipation on the line for the arrival is enough to make you go crazy. Then the green light and the race is on. The first few hundred feet while you are still accelerating are still captured in your memory. Their first crawl, first step, first words, first day of school. Sometimes those things can’t come fast enough. Then all those moments accumulate and become compressed in time as you careen down the track of life, accelerating as you go. Finally, before you know it the race is over, you begin slowing down and you can reflect back on what you thought you saw and the little that you captured. I am trading my dragster for a moped. It doesn’t look cool and it sure isn’t fast but it will get me there and ensure I don’t miss out on the beautiful scenery.

More notes for our wondrous day — in celebration, I fired up the BBQ smoker and added some more baby back rib experience to my BBQ knowledge. They turned out very good and we had a nice celebratory meal. While tending to the smoker, I was also able to enjoy the NASCAR race (although my driver was involved in the lap #1 wreck and never recovered) and a few of the NCAA tournament games, all in hi def of course. And U of L easily defeated Georgia Tech to make it to the Sweet 16. That will make things interesting for all of those fans here in the area. And finally, I got a little dirty changing the oil in the trucks and doing some needed preventative maintenance while the kids rode the scooter in the garage and played with the dogs. When the weather turns, a priority is getting a TV in the garage because there is nothing like having a race or game on while you are out there tinkering. All in all, a nice and productive day at home with the family. The big orange ball descending through the trees topped it off. It was so beautiful I had to come inside and tell my wife to look out the window.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Today was a very nice day all the way around. First, while we had to get ready for 9:30a Sunday school, we had gone to bed early so getting up wasn’t a big deal. We had a nice breakfast and were on time. the 10:45a service was a little different today. First it was a special music service. A few times a year, the church will have special groups come and participate in the service highlighting music from different heritages. Today’s music was of Scottish and Welsh descent. It made for a nice departure from our usual service. They also highlighted the tartans (the various plaids) of the different Scottish clans. It was also new member Sunday so we gave up our usual “towards the back of the church and ideal for those with kids” seats for ones up front. It was very nice to be warmly welcomed by the members of the church and all of the new members received the congregation with the pastor after the service. What a nice place to be and one more step towards us completely settling in. And finally, the service lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes! That is WAY more than us Lutherans are used to. We are the in and out in one hour guaranteed church. We used to give my grandpa who was a Lutheran pastor a hard time about that.

The way home for a late lunch saw a Wal-Mart pit stop so I could grab some BBQ smokin’ gear — charcoal, lighter fluid and hickory chunks. Chicken was again on the menu and it was gonna be a beautiful day to do it. We hit 60F degrees on a sunny, cloudless sky. No NASCAR today so I could focus on the BBQ and whatever else. Which turned out to be running wire for the dogs underground invisible fence. We had this in California and it is a great product that keeps the dogs safe and where you want them. I didn’t know how much of the property I could circumnavigate, but I had 7 spools of 500′ wire and I was ready to use them. I was able to multi-task running the wire, stoking the fire, soaking the wood chunks, testing the dog collars and setting the training flags for most of the afternoon. When the chicken was done, so was the invisible fence — at least the dogs would be contained. I still need to go back and bury the wire. The only place I buried it was under the gravel driveway. But it is usable now and the dogs can spend more time outside. Which after today, they will want to do. It was so nice to have a breeze in your face, the sun shining down and not have to wear a jacket. The dogs just ran around with the kids and I was secure in the fact that they would all just stay around. Unfortunately, after dinner I went out to waterproof the wire nut connections and I could feel the cold front coming in from the west-northwest. It seems we are due some rain and possible snow throughout the rest of the week. Too bad. I was getting used to the fact that spring was here early.

On the way home from church, my wife and I chatted about the 10:45a service that has been our choice for the new church. We aren’t late service people. Although it can be a challenge, we like getting up early (we have to get up early for school and work, why not for church?), getting to church and having the rest of the day to get things done. Well, the 10:45a suits us so much better, not from a time standpoint, but because there are more people (4 to 5 times more), more kids, it is a louder service (so much the better to hide our kids’ noises with), and contemporary. While we would rather it was early, it gives us so much more that we are willing to sacrifice the day for it. That’s when we realized that we should be focusing the day on that priority — worshipping God and enjoying fellowship with family and friends. It seems in California, we always had something going on that we wanted to “get church out of the way” so we’d have the rest of the day. We did not take the time to relish the service, commune with others and enjoy the moment. We both agreed that from now on Sundays will be about getting a nice start in the morning without having to rush, learning in Sunday school, worshipping and communing at the 10:45a service and spending the rest of the day with family. If we can fit in a shopping trip or chore or two then so be it. But it will not be the driving force of the day. I look forward to many more Sundays where we just go to church, hang out as a family, BBQ smoke a meal, play in the pasture and enjoy the day.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Today was a little bit of a challenge because two of the kids were kinda sick. Not enough to really stay at home in bed but enough to be wary of the kind of bad day we could have since they weren’t feeling 100%. And rain was the order of the day. So late church was in order but I had to take my oldest to Sunday school. She is prepping for communion and can’t miss a class. So wave 1 of the family went early for the 9:30a Sunday school with the rest of the family reinforcing the group for 10:45a church.

That all seemed to go well given how two of the kids felt so we grabbed some lunch at the local Sonic and headed over to where the church bowling event was happening. Now, none of my kids had ever been bowling before. There were about 8 families from the church so we got to meet a few more people. And, man, was it fun. It was so funny to see the kids struggle with the 8 pound ball, manuever it into position, coax it down the lane with their body language and explode with happiness when they knocked over more than one pin. There was even one series where my little boy got a spare, both my girls got strikes, my wife got a spare and I knocked down…..seven. It was pretty funny and we all had a great time. We will definitely have to do that again as a family. NOTE: bumpers are the best thing in bowling since they drilled those three holes in the ball for your fingers.

After church and bowling, I had to race home so I could catch the rest of the NASCAR Daytona 500 (get it?…..”race” home…..hahahaha — I know, that was pretty bad.) I’m a pretty big NASCAR Cup fan and, while I don’t particularly like the Daytona 500, it was a race that had many firsts for me. It was the first race of the season, it was my first NASCAR race here in Kentucky and it was my first race I got to watch in HDTV. And all I can say is “WOW!!!!!”. I got the attic antenna dialed in and tuned it on the 42″ Sony wide screen at around lap 60 (of 200). I was in heaven and my wife just couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. The cars and picture looked spectacular with all the detail. Now I just have to get the cable run so I can remove the “temporary” cable running across the hallway from the attic down the stairs to the TV. If you haven’t seen an HDTV picture yet, especially a sporting event, do yourself a favor and check it out. It is the new wave of TV. Oh, and by the way, my driver won the race so I was thrilled! What a great start for the season. I can’t wait until next week’s race at Fontana, California. This was a race I had been going to since it’s inaugural race in 1997 with my dad and brother-in-law. It was a great tradition but me moving to Kentucky and my bro-in-law moving to Washington state kinda made it difficult to continue it. To all my friends attending next weekend, I will miss you, the BBQ, the comraderie and the fun. Enjoy it for me — I’ll be watching you on TV.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Well, our church streak is over. We missed the service this morning. We just couldn’t get it going for the 8:15a event. Hopefully we’ll get back on track next week.

Still cold today although a break to more milder temps (40’s — woohoo!) is coming for this week.

And I successfully upgraded my ReplayTV in the family room. Swapped out the 40GB hard drive for a 160GB hard drive ($59.99 after rebate) to give me 160 hours of TV…..or how I’m gonna use it — 53 hours in high quality mode to at least utilize some of the capabilities of the new TV in that room. I’m still doing geek stuff but the dial up is killin’ me!

…..Dan at aslowerpace