BigJolly says…..

hasn’t hit but it’s one of those things you know is coming, you just aren’t sure when. Going to head out to church in a bit, 2 is already gone to run in the Houston Marathon. Hopefully, the worst of the weather will hold off until everyone is safely tucked in at the trailer park.

Yesterday was pretty much a day of rest. Did make it to the first ever Car/Bike show at the church. Turnout was far better than I expected, especially considering the rain showers all day. No one likes to put 12 coats of Meguiars on and then drive through drizzle and muddy streets. SU hopped on the back of the Marauder and we headed over for a couple of hours. Ended up with 14 show cars and 5 or 6 bikes. As JM remarked, this is a good thing, it might help our church overcome the yuppy image. Didn’t think about that but it is probably true. Noticed there weren’t any of our new members there. Interestingâ„¢ (stole that â„¢ from Headshaker - had to Google it to get the alt-code).

A miracle is scheduled to be on display in class today. And I do mean a true miracle. BIL is (hopefully) going to be there with his guitar to play a song during our prayer. He still doesn’t have full use of his hands and will be using just 2 fingers but that doesn’t matter a whit. Just his being there is an example of a miracle in itself. A testament to faith, action and modern medicine. I hope I don’t cry too much. Danny Boy is coming just to meet him, he went through it with me at work as it happened.

Better head out, late. Couple of pics from yesterday:

I found several interesting quotes on the topic of holiness and striving to be a “better” person. What is holiness? Good question that has a lot of answers, it’ll be interesting to hear what the guys have to say this morning.

“One day as I was reading the second chapter of I John, I realized that my personal life’s objective regarding holiness was less than that of John’s. He was saying, in effect, ‘Make it your aim not to sin.’ As I thought about this, I realized that deep within my heart my real aim was not to sin ‘very much’—Can you imagine a soldier going into battle with the aim of ‘not getting hit very much?’

That quote is by Jerry Bridges in his book the Pursuit of Holiness. I think he makes a pretty good point.

If you hired a gardener to take care of your lawn and then went past his house and saw that his own yard was sloppy and unkempt, would you trust him with the care of your lawn? Or, if you went to the dentist to get your teeth checked and sat down in the chair only to look up to see that the dentist had a mouthful of rotten teeth, would you trust him to work on your teeth?

How can a Christian expect any positive response to his ministry if his life is not holy?

I couldn’t find the author for that one but it too hits home. But least anyone think I’ve gone off the deep end and have become a subscriber to the “perfectionist” theory, I like this one too:

Nobody’s perfect. That truth, which ought to make us tremble before a God who is holy, holy, holy, is usually invoked instead to excuse sinful behavior, to make us feel better. How often do we hear people brush aside their own wrongdoing with the casual words, “Well, after all, nobody’s perfect”? People claim they’re not perfect to boost their self-esteem, but it is another evidence of a vanishing conscience. There is accuracy in the claim, but it should be a timid confession, not a flippant means of justifying sin.

Scripture recognizes that we are not perfect. Even the apostle Paul wrote, “Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:12–14, emphasis added).

That one is from an awesome book by John MacArthur, The Vanishing Conscience. So, while no one can be perfect and only God is Holy, we are directed to strive to become more like God, more like Christ. Like I said, it should be interesting listening to the guys this morning.

dial up and I don’t even bother to mention that help is on the way!!! AT&T, bless their hearts, has just finished setting up out neighborhood for DSL! Got a flyer in the mailbox Monday and had myself subscribed within 30 minutes! WhooHoo! So, if all goes well, on Friday, the 11th, the Bigjolly will once again be in surfing heaven at home.

Time Warner can kiss my big ‘ol behind. Nothing like competition. And, I’m saving over $30 a month. That’s right, per month!

Thank you AT&T.

for the big Motorcycle Safety Foundation course the weekend of 8/11. Getting pretty excited about it actually. Saw JM for a bit at church last night and stoked the fire more.

Didn’t actually stay at church, SU and I skipped out for a birthday celebration. Sure ’nuff, the Popster called today asking why we did that!

I think that SU and I might lead a bible study together on the topic of divorce and recovery. I know, sounds strange that we would do that since we haven’t been and aren’t playing to be divorced, but we see this a lot at church and could use the class to learn as well as teach. Very disturbing stats in a Barna survey as reported here.

A recent study by the Barna Research Group throws extreme doubt on these estimates. Barna released the results of their poll about divorce on 1999-DEC-21. ¹ They had interviewed 3,854 adults from the 48 contiguous states. The margin of error is within 2 percentage points. The survey found:

• 11% of the adult population is currently divorced.
• 25% of adults have had at least one divorce during their lifetime.
• Divorce rates among conservative Christians were significently higher than for other faith groups., and for Atheists and Agnostics.

So, we’re thinking there might be something we can do to help. Who knows?

I thought that everything went very well today. Class was good even with a lower than usual turnout due to the severe thunderstorms in the area. Missed a couple of chords here and there but nothing disasterous. RSm did a good job researching “self-control” and presented a thoughtful lesson. The guys were pretty talkative and it was nice.

Talked with JM about bikes, I’m starting to get pretty excited. I’ll take the MSF class shortly after vacation if all goes well and then the search is on. Kinda like the Triumph Bonneville and America right now but who knows what I’ll end up with.

The sermon was interesting to say the least. The substitute preacher was all over the map, never quite understood what it was he wanted to say. Not sure if he shouldn’t have just read out of The Purpose Driven Life as that was what he referenced the most. But he did have one great point and that was that it is really easy for church goers (very regular ones) to fall into a rut and do the same things over and over again. I’d have to agree on that one which is why I go to “church” at Katies on some Sunday nights.

Lots of family at church today for the Popster. SSh, SSu, BT and the nephew. We all went to lunch together and had a great time. Good to see them all together.

Of course, I also had a Fathers Day present from SU for being the daddy to her girls. She bought the Buddy Boy a bone, not just any bone, but a Mammoth one. Bigger than the Goliath one I had bought him. Love the man, love his dog. Late.

Minolta 5D from the pony express yesterday. Wow, just like new, I’m impressed! Good seller off of Ebay, always a blessing. It’s a crapshoot but if you carefully read the feedback, you can usually pick good sellers to buy from.

Anyways, here is the first pic, a snapshot down by the Houston Yacht Club:

Like I said, just a quick point and shoot, no reading of the manual or anything else. Not bad, nice colors.

war going on and we’re (um, the good guys) not losing? Think again. Check out the coverage of an evangelical youth rally in San Francisco here. Now, beyond the usual misleading quotes and characterizations, notice two things:

Equal coverage - you would think that news coverage would reflect the event. In this case, note that the “counter-protest” (strange characterization in and of itself given that there wasn’t a protest to begin with) is given equal footing with the rally. Of course, given that 25,000 people are there to put forth a positive message, I suppose that it is only fair that the “crowd” of 50 of the “rainbow of San Francisco’s left — from abortion-rights advocates to anti-war activists to atheists” is represented as being mainstream. Man, that is a weird city.

Government condemnation - well, I think this is a first, at least from what I’ve seen. An official city condemnation of a group that is promoting clean living, abstinence and life. Man, that is a weird city.

Notice also that the participants in the rally were NOT AGAINST anything or any group. The were FOR stuff that you would think an average person, religious or not, would say are things that, overall, are good for a society. Ask yourself if a society is better or worse off if

STD’s are reduced or eliminated

Fewer babies are born to teenagers

Illegal use of narcotics is reduced

Teen suicides go away

Like I said, I think the average Joe/Jane would say, yeah, those are good goals and don’t seem to be particulary obnoxious, even if the basis for the reductions is a belief in the Bible. Unless, of course, you are of the rainbow variety in San Francisco. Man, that is a weird city. Late.

felt like you were swimming upstream while people were flying by you on the downstream? And they were happy and you were not? But you wanted to get to a place that can only be gotten to by going against the flow?

Well, that is how I feel at church lately. It feels like everything that I think is important to achieve is not important at all to the rest of the church. The entire focus is on growth in numbers, not people. By that, I mean the focus of the leadership. I too want to reach more people, but in a way that is meaningful and lasting. Statistics are always interesting in the way that they are used. Did you know that our church had the largest single day offering in it’s history last week? Sounds great, doesn’t it? Well, let’s put that into perspective. Did you know that the offering was only a couple of hundred dollars above last years, before the move? Do you realize that we now have more than double the number of people attending church on Sundays then we did last year? Are we really reaching people or are we just the fad church of the day in our little community?

Swimming upstream is tiring. I noted to SU that I no longer have stress at work (great job) but have replaced it with stress at church. Where is that respite from the world? I only find it on Sunday mornings, in class. Before and after, it isn’t so good. Late.

How often do we find ourselves wearing masks? More often than we think, I believe. What? Me? No. Yes. Maybe so?

I think that from time to time we all wear masks and that is not such a bad thing. For instance, should I show the scorn I feel on my face when I find you without your mask? Possibly but possibly not. Is it sometimes okay to “mask” our feelings to avoid unnecessary pain to another? Yes, I think so. But that is not why I undertook todays word discovery.

Once again, I turn to answers.com to see what is lurking there. As always, there is more there than in a traditional dictionary, such as dictionary.com although they are getting more comphrehensive. I’ll just create my own as such, almost mirroring the wordnet answer:

1. conceal - hide under a false appearance
2. actively conceal - to cover
3. overwhelm - as in light a cigarette to cover a fart (ahem, SSh)
4. protection - keep me from getting hurt

Why this word, today? Mostly due to BIL’s condition and response. What would you do if the entire world (as you know it) was able to glance behind the carefully constructed mask that you have held up for a lifetime? Would you be happy? I think that if you answer in the affirmative, then perhaps you have built your mask over such a long period of time as to allow it to attach itself to your flesh. Oh, but of course, I’m an open book, examine me! Well, I promise, I won’t be saying that. And I think that if you examine yourself carefully, you will not either. And the truth is that, although you may pretend otherwise, the whole world (as you know it) for the most part ALREADY sees behind the mask and chooses to allow you to continue to wear it.

Think you are immune to this analysis? Look in the mirror and think again. Ah, yes, I’m the bigjolly, nothing affects me, I laugh life away. Ha. Oh, and you, there in the corner, lurking, thinking that you are fooling the bigjolly by always wearing a smile in public, do you think that the bigjolly can’t see the pain behind the smile? Do you think that the pretense overwhelms the reality? Please, do us all a favor and rip the mask away, if only for a moment. This isn’t a movie, this isn’t a cliche, we CAN handle the truth. Ugly as it may be. Late.

as a miracle, but what is happening with BIL is no less than amazing. I mentioned that he started to return a bit last night, well, today has been remarkable. His SU called this morning to tell us that his progress continued and that he was talking a bit more. And was able to respond better, to respond to specific commands. As in, the doctor told him to give him the thumbs up if he understood and he did. Then he told him to open his mouth and stick out his tongue, and he did. He asked where he was and how long he had been there. He allowed his SU to feed him ice and asked for more. No longer do the doctors and nurses classify him as non-responsive.

After lunch, SU, Pop and I dropped by to visit him. Amazing. Pop immediately noticed the difference from last Sunday, a week ago. His color has returned and the bloating is subsiding. He recognized each of us. He said “it’ll be awhile” in response to something we said. When Pop turned to leave and walk away, BIL sat up and called him back, motioning to him. When Pop returned, BIL squeezed his hand and told him he loved him. Amazing. Simply amazing.

There is still a long road ahead but his kidneys seem to be funtioning and his mind gets clearer by the hour. The pneumonia is cause for concern. The mass amount of drugs he has had to have pushed is a concern. But he is alert, alive and that fuels our hope. Amazing. Simply amazing.