A few weeks ago, someone (or several someones) thought it’d be funny to throw lima beans all over my yard while I slept. This was also the night they wrapped my car in saran wrap after painting the windows and dropping handfuls of Fruity Pebbles all over my bushes and mulch.

Well, unbeknownst to me, those beans are not entirely harmless, as first thought. It seems those beans have transformed my front lawn into a veritible lima bean wonderland. I have pulled them out by the roots and they have returned with avengence. My parents spent far too long on their far too brief trip here stooped over in my front yard, trying to fight back the tide of limas. But to no avail. They have returned.

Just this morning I mowed them down and I can nearly guarantee that in a few days all those sprouts will be back again, laughing at me as I’m sure someone (or several someones) are right now.

The other day we got a phone call at my house. It was a friend of ours, a woman in our church asking if our son would like to come over to their house and play with their son, who is about the same age. My son and their son have played together on Sundays during The Wave, but never outside that setting. We thought that’d be a great idea. We agreed, set up the day and time, and hung up the phone.

Then we went to my son and said, “Hey Crews, Paul wants you to come over and play with him at his house.” Crews began to think out loud, trying to remember who Paul is. He finally said, “Is he the Christian with the glasses?!?”

How are YOU known? Are you the Christian with the curly hair, the Christian with the nice smile, the Christian with the blue eyes, or the Christian with the great sense of humor?

I thought it was amazing that my son recognized Paul as a Christian first before any other descriptions came to mind. I thought to myself, “Wow, Paul’s doing something right if that’s how he’s known.”

So, how do people know YOU? What’s YOUR reputation?

Not only does Paul, my son’s friend have a good reputation, but the Apostle Paul had quite a reputation as well. In fact, we’re even told in the book of Acts, chapter 19, that demons knew who Paul was. Check it out in Acts 19:11-16:

God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.
Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. (One day) the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

Did you get that? Paul had such power and authority that even pieces of cloth he touched, when taken to sick people, made them well. Not only that, but demons knew Paul. And people knew Paul. These seven sons of Sceva tried to use the name of Jesus “whom Paul preches” to cast out demons and the demons begin a conversation with the seven sons and basically said, “Who in hell are you?”

Imagine living a life so sold out to Jesus that you build a reputation among demons! And don’t think that Paul was some hot-shot either. Remember Paul was the dude who, before meeting Jesus literally tortured and imprisoned Christians for following Christ! If God can turn his life into one that is known among demons, then what can God do with YOURS?

14 years have come and gone.
14 years have past.
14 years of hoping that
14 years would last.

14 years I’ve spent right here
14 years with her.
14 years have flown so fast
14 years a blur.

14 years I’ve loved them all
14 years so grand
14 years to have the joy
of holding my lady’s hand.

14 years have seemed more like
14 days but then
14 years will start anew
When this poem comes to an end.

I was recently reminded that the #1 rule of blogging is to write and publish regularly. To some that’s once a week, and to others it might be once a day. I wish I could be so regimented. My Dad’s blog is updated every Thursday; you can just about set your clock by his blog. Not so with me and my blog. But hopefully, as the song goes, what I do share is “precious and few”.

There’s a song by Sting called “Heavy Cloud, No Rain”. And even having just returned from a truly remarkable week away with 77 students, I can’t say that there’s one thing that really is jutting out in my mind as to what I could share here. But if there were, it’d probably go something like this…

I just spent a full week that felt like a month in a place of discomfort, hard work, sweat, no privacy, and gloriously divine breakthroughs of God’s Spirit. It was awkward and awesome. It seems that I spent most of my time either behind the wheel of the minibus or behind the trigger of my megaphone, conveying information like: “It’s cabin devo time!”, “Everyone to the dining hall”, “Here’s Alex who’s going to do our bedtime prayer”, or “Hurry up! We’re waiting for YOU!”

But through it all, no matter what, there was an unmistakable knowledge that God was not only near, but here. No matter the environment, no matter the conversation, no matter the snag in the plans, no matter the tension, no matter the triumph, no matter the trial, God gifted us with a clear indication of His presence. And that to me was the best part of all.

Throughout the week, we had worship experiences each night (I hesitate to call them “services”). We went through Mark 4:1-9 and studied each soil type that Jesus talks about in “The Parable of the Sower”. The compacted soil on the path, the rocky soil, the weeds that choke, and the fertile soil. On the final night we talked all about the crop that Jesus spoke of; 30, 60, or 100 times what was sown. And we concluded with this question: “What is more important than eternity?” As humans we get so wrapped up in this world, our culture, our stuff, our status, our comfort, our image, our worth, and all the other things that serve as gods to us. But what will any of that matter in light of eternity? I dare you to find something that weighs more than eternity. If you do, please feel free to enlighten me, so that I don’t continue to waste my life on something that actually matters.

There are 2 days left to vote on which blog is better: Faith’s or this one.
The results have been rolling in and haven’t surprised me in the least.
After all, Faith’s blog really does have it all, even random pictures of gymnasts.
And let’s be honest, this blog is blatantly devoid of random pictures of any sport.
That fact alone is a glaring support for Faith’s blog over this blog.

Not to mention, have you seen Faith? She’s adorable. And I…well, I’m not.

But still, the poll isn’t over yet. So, I should get back to blogging.

We returned on Saturday from a week away at Kilmarnock. For those who don’t know, Kilmarnock VA, is a town in the Northern Neck region of VA, near the Chesapeake. It’s a very small town with HUGE opportunities to serve people. We partnered with an organization called Interfaith to help bring hope and healing to people living in homes in desperate need of repair. We replaced roofs, painted houses, built wheelchair ramps, and anything else could find to do in order to bring help and joy to those homeowners; who were usually elderly and extremely low income.

Some of the things I learned/was reminded of at Kilmarnock this year:

1. The physiology of the brain and its development is incredibly amazing to watch, especially in middle school students.

2. Serving others is the solution, no matter what the problem is.

3. You can plan good, but you can’t plan God.
Our week was fully of serendipity and miracles. God did amazing things that we didn’t ask Him or expect Him to do. Oh sure, we expected God to do something, but not what He did and when He did it. (Silly God, didn’t you read the script we wrote?) God’s presence was made known to everyone there, I guarantee it. Some listened, followed, and obeyed. And to them God has given power, passion, authority, a new sense of mission, wild abandon, and a fire in their eyes for the Kingdom.

4. I’m still dead set against pranks. And I’m pretty sure I always will be.
Some might argue that pranks do have a place in a healthy group image. To them I respectfully say, “Are you insane?” I’ve never seen a prank do anything but damage property or damage feelings. And yes, there were pranks on this trip.

5. I’m in awe of how God orchestrates things to have the right people in the right place.
We had 20 adults on this trip to lead the 77 students. Every adult blew me away with their passion for Jesus, their nonstop love for students, their examples of holiness and servanthood, and their availiability to God’s Spirit, no matter what. We didn’t take chaperones and we didn’t take wardens. We took spiritual leaders and it was obviously that God used all of them to accomplish His purposes on this trip. These 20 adults gave up a week of their vacation time to spend it sweating, working, and loving students. It was incredible and I’m so thankful for each of them.

I want to thank anyone who prayed for this trip, and assure you that prayers were definitely answered and are still being answered now. I want to thank the students who participated not only on the worksites, but also with God throughout the week. You’ve come away from this experience different than when you left, and that was the whole point.

Kilmarnock 09 will be one for the books, that’s for sure. It was memorable and monumental in the life of this student ministry. And now we get to the work of allowing God’s Spirit to continue the work right here that He began over there.

Well, if you’ve listened to the Day 3 Kilmarnock Podcast, and if you listened to the special “addendum”, then you know that the gauntlet has been thrown down. With recklessness never before witnessed now or ever, it was declared that Faith Price’s blog is better than this one.

Now, I’m not one to shy away from a challenge, so I have chosen to let the people speak. Look to the right and you’ll see a simple poll (until it expires one week from today) so that once and for all, we can see clearly who’s blog reigns.

Now, a word about Faith. Faith is great. I really like her. But when I’m faced with such a challenge such as this, well….the gloves come off.

So, take a peek at Faith’s blog you can find it here.
Then, come back and cast your vote.

Okay, Faith. Let’s do this.

I wonder if anybody else notices things about themselves as they get older. I wonder if anyone shares these generally non-positive things with anyone else. (And remember this is a blog, so I do mean ANYONE else.) I’d guess its more likely that most of you noticed these things long ago and the fact that I’m just now noticing them is once again a testament to my slow processing speed.

One thing I noticed this morning is that I thank people a lot. Maybe too much. Maybe way too much. Thanks so much for reading that sentence. Really. Thanks so much.

Case in point: It’s 9:17 a.m. right now in the past 10 minutes I have written 2 emails to 2 different people. Within both emails, I was thanking them. Not for anything specific per se, just in closing. As in…

Thanks so much,
Jerry

But here’s the weird thing I noticed. When I type the word “Thanks”, my fingers automatically follow “Thanks” with “so” as in “so much”. As if “Thanks” is insufficient. I’m not kidding. It’s a freaky subconscious thing my fingers do when I’m typing “Thanks so—see? I did it again. So, I admit, I’m a bit overboard with “so”.

And if you ever call me on the phone, I’ll thank you before saying goodbye. Even if you called me. Even if in the context of our conversation I agree to some huge favor you’ve asked, like donating a kidney. Even if I was totally right and you were totally wrong (Okay, that one doesn’t really happen). No matter what we say on the phone, I’ll thank you right before I say goodbye. I just do. Its a habit. Thank you.

I’m thinking about having brain surgery to correct it.

Another thing is, I use commas a lot. In fact, its been said that I overuse commas. Some would say that the previous sentence shouldn’t have a comma. To that I say, “Tough toenails, I’m the one typing.” Seriously, I do like commas and for someone who does an awful lot of typing I’d fully expect the comma button on my keyboard to wear out first. And I’m still upset that it has to share with the <. I mean who uses < ? I just looked down at my comma button and no joke, the < is just about worn off. I can't wait until its totally gone and then its just me and my , ready to conquer the world.

I don’t mean to psychoanalyze myself, but my love of commas might come from the fact that I don’t like things to end, I mean end. And periods just seem so final.