I miss that bass.

Five Iron Frenzy was a great Christian band that I had connections with on several levels. But I stumbled on this video after not seeing it for a long time, and it reminded me of this really cool bass that we used to have in our youth band in Colorado that we ended up selling to Keith, the bassist from Five Iron Frenzy. You can see the really cool silvery glittery bass in the below video. I don't think it still has all the stickers we put on it though.

Why Hockey Rules.

Why Christians Should Read Fiction

Well, I finished reading "The Dumbest Generation" and it was very informative, interesting and of course, sobering.

One of the main points of the book is that younger generations are descending into an almost "anti-literacy" mindset. This comes in several different forms:

1) The younger generations only read books and periodicals that will keep them in tune and in touch with their own peer groups, i.e. teen magazines, Harry Potter books, etc.

2) The younger generations do not read for the sake of reading (and learning). They will read only what gets them by on a test. They will only read classic literature if they have to in school.

3) The younger generations aren't interesting in learning facts and memorizing historical data; after all, if the information is at a click of a mouse (Wikipedia), why keep that stuff in your head? You can find it just as quickly on the computer.

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts on this topic in the future, but for now, I'll focus on a great article from BreakPoint WorldView magazine on why Christians should read fiction. Unfortunately, a lot of Christians shy away from reading fiction (which the author of this article gives several pushbacks that Christians use), or they read really bad fiction pushed on them (like the Left Behind series). Here are the ten reasons she gives for reading fiction - you can read the descriptions for each in her article.

1. Our view of the world beyond our door widens.

2. We learn empathy as you walk in a character’s different-sized shoes.

3. God uses stories to heal.

4. Fiction unmasks us.

5. God’s redemptive story permeates.

6. Novels allow for paradox, causing us to ask the kinds of questions that help us search for God.

7. Reading novels critically helps us navigate the Scriptures better.

8. Reading a novel connects us to the Creator

9. Reading a novel builds community.

10. Reading stories brings us face to face with Jesus, the grand storyteller.

Baseball Card Generator

I thought this site was kind of fun, you just upload a picture and pick your design and you can make a baseball card of yourself, your kid, your boss, etc.

Have fun!

June 11, 1996

Thirteen years ago today was a very special day for me.

Why?

The Colorado Avalanche won their first Stanley Cup! I had watched the first three games (well, I watched the whole playoffs), but couldn't watch this one. I was listening to the radio when Uwe Krupp scored and I had to stop the car I was driving and run around like a crazy man for a few minutes.

That seems like a long time ago.

Debby and I were not married yet. (We were engaged)
I was a youth minister at my home church.
I was driving a 1988 Ford Bronco II.
I was living in an apartment with a friend of mine near the University of Denver.
My little brother had not graduated from high school yet.

A lot has happened in the last thirteen years, no doubt.

The Dumbest Generation

I'm starting to think that there's a lot of truth to the idea that every generation distrusts the generations younger than them. I remember thinking in college and in my early twenties whenever I had to deal with a crotchety, critical old person, "I will never be like that. I will not think younger people are going to ruin the world."

Well, I'm not exactly old, but I find myself thinking along the same lines as the old people I dealt with at a younger age. I would say at least once a day there is something that happens - whether I'm driving, or in a restaurant, or sad to say, at church - where I think, "Once these kids (read: anyone younger than me) take over the country, we're screwed!"

Of course, I don't have any facts to prove my fatalism towards the younger generations. Now I do.

I picked up a book from the library called The Dumbest Generation, by Mark Bauerlein. In this book, he does use facts to attempt to prove that young people under 30 only excel when it comes to social networking. Everything else they are failing at: reading, working reliably, voting, making decisions, etc.

We'll see if his facts back up his assertion. To be honest, I'm not worried about the generations under me, because I also see evidence to the contrary. Plus, as young people grow older, they will I'm sure become more responsible - just like me, right? Ha! However, this book I'm sure will give some insight as to what the problems are now and what needs to be done to fix them.

Life After God

Douglas Coupland has written a lot of great books, one that even defined my generation, for awhile at least (Generation X).

I checked most of his books out of the library, although I did end up buying one of them, called Life After God. I think I bought this in Arizona when I was in between jobs and didn't know what was next.

Anyway, I love his writing style, and I'm rereading Life After God after finding it in a box the other day. Two quotes have been stuck in my mind all day long:

"And then I felt sad because I realized that once people are broken in certain ways, they can't ever be fixed, and this is something nobody ever tells you when you are young and it never fails to surprise you as you grow older as you see people in your life break one by one. You wonder when your turn is going to be, or if it's already happened."

"Brent then said that humans are the only animal able to feel the pain of sorrow that has stretched out through linear time. He said our curse as humans is that we are trapped in time - our curse is that we are forced interpret life as a sequence of events - a story - and then when we can't figure out what our particular story is we feel lost somehow. 'Dogs only have a present-tense in their lives,' he continued. 'Their memories are like those carved ice swans you see at weddings, that look good but melt in an hour. Humans have to endure everything in life in agonizingly endless clock time - every single second of it. Not only this, but we have to remember having endured our entire lives, as well. What a drag, no? It's amazing that we all haven't gone mad.'"

Duck Pictures

One of these days I'll write about my duck adventure that took place this last month. But until then, here are some pictures of the eleven ducklings and the mama duck that we took care of.

Brooke Fraser.

If you haven't heard of, or heard Brooke Fraser, you're really missing out. She is a star in her home country of New Zealand, and she also sings with the Hillsong United worship band. I love her voice and she's a really good songwriter. Here are a couple of my favorites, in video form:

Below is "The C.S. Lewis Song":



Next is "Shadowfeet":



And this one is called "Albertine":



I would love to see her in concert, with or without Hillsong United.

God On Mute.

When I picked up the book The Search For Satisfaction, I also found an interesting book called God On Mute. I probably wouldn't have picked it up except I saw that it was written by Pete Greig, and I remember hearing his name associated with a 24-7 prayer movement (which was confirmed when I looked at the back jacket) and that he was an English "bloke".

This has been a great book so far. God on Mute is essentially about unanswered prayer and how we as Christians deal with God not answering our prayers. Greig uses his own story - watching his wife undergo brain surgery for a brain tumor - as the key narrative, although he uses a ton of other stories as well, stories that are...well...heartbreaking.

The new name for my blog comes from a chapter in this book called "Naked Prayer" (although I chose "Pray Naked" because that idea has intrigued me since a band called The 77's put out an album called that, and yet had to change the name to just The Seventy Sevens because of the outcry by Christians regarding the title. People, it means to pray with complete honesty...as in nakedness.) and at the end of this chapter, he shares a story that I thought was kind of amazing:

----

In 1842, an Irishman named Joseph Scriven graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, and promptly fell head over heels in love with a girl from his hometown. They got engaged and, with great excitement, planned their wedding and began dreaming about their future together as husband and wife.

The eve of their wedding arrived at last, and Joseph's fiancee saddled a horse to go and see him. Tragically, it was one of the last things she would ever do. A little later, Joseph saw his bride-to-be riding toward him, and he grinned. But suddenly, just as she was crossing the bridge over the river, her horse bucked and threw her like a rag-doll down into the river below. In blind panic, Joseph ran to the river, calling out her name. He plunged into the icy waters, but it was too late. His bride was already dead.

Heartbroken, Joseph emigrated to Canada, where eventually he fell in love again. In 1854, Joseph was due to marry Eliza Roche, but she fell ill and grew progressively worse. The wedding was repeatedly postponed until, three years later, Eliza died. Joseph Scriven would never again give his heart to another.

Back home in Ireland, Joseph's mother was deeply concerned for her heartbroken son, and he in turn was concerned for her. One night, Joseph penned a poem to comfort her, little knowing that it would become one of the best-loved songs of all time. Several years later, a friend found it in a drawer at Joseph's house and was deeply moved. "The Lord and I wrote it together," Joseph explained. That poem, forged out of so much disappointment and pain, continues to call millions of people in their own Gethsemanes to admit their grief, their trials and temptations, their sorrows and their every weakness to Jesus in the privilege of prayer:

What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
Can we find a friend so faithful,
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness
Take it to the Lord in prayer!

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things...

err, websites, that I look at for entertainment value.

#1 - Awkward Family Photos

There's just something about other people's family portraits that makes you feel good about yourself. And also helps you partially forget about those pictures of you with a mullet.



#2 - Fail Blog

Another website to remind you that when you do something really dumb, there are a lot of other people out there in our world that also do dumb things.



#3 - Graph Jam

Using the latest technology of graphs and charts, one can find hilarity in almost anything in life.



#4 - I Can Has Cheezburger

There's just something about cats and silly captions that is doggone funny.