Gator bowl for the Huskers

The 2008 season is wrapping and up and it was a good one for Nebraska. I really was pleasantly surprised that the Huskers won as many as we did considering the injuries to Barry Turner, Philip Dillard, Menelik Holt and Cody Glenn's indefinite suspension from the team.

It's not official from the Big 12 yet, but unofficially we are going to the Gator Bowl and are playing Clemson. It should be a fun game. They have a good defense statistically and they will be a worthy foe for the Huskers.

I anticipate a really fired up Husker squad after a month of practices and preparation for this bowl game. More than anything it seem as though our team has an identity again and I'm thankful that the new coaches have made such an effort to emphasize the development of younger players through repetition and technique. I love thinking about the future and what lies ahead for Nebraska football. To that end, I hope we are able to really build continuity to our coaching staff. In my opinion, it was one of the biggest reasons for Nebraska's success during the nineties.

Those are my thoughts. Go Big Red!

u2

i'm excited about u2's new album and i read this today.

http://www.u2.com/news/index.php?mode=full&news_id=2271

anyone else excited?

80smusic

I really like 80's music. Always have, always will. I guess its from listening to my sisters tapes way back in the day. Who knows?

iTunes has a whole slew of 80s stuff they are pushing. It's like throwing donuts in front of a fat kid. A run down of a few of the bands.

Huey Lewis and the news
Bon Jovi
The Police
Tears for Fears
Men at Work
Michael Jackson
The Go-Go's
Culture Club
Billy Idol
Beastie Boys

Yeah, I'll probably be spending some money on their real soon. Who's your favorite of the bands listed above?

Mingus Springs

East of Prescott there is a little place called Mingus Springs camp http://www.mingussprings.org/. It sits quietly in the pines off of the highway between here and Jerome. What an amazing little spot to get the heck out of dodge and just be. We were able to spend time with Henry who has run this camp for forty years. He's innovative, hard working and content. It's been a long time since I've been around someone who has loved doing what they do and projects thankfulness in a really humble way like that. Henry taught us about gabions as well. He is a heck of a nice guy.

Spending time there today with my friends made me realize how fortunate we are to live where we live. Life is good. Time goes fast. Way too much of my time is spent leveraged against the clock. If nothing else, today was a good reminder to slow things down a little bit. Get outside in the mud, dirt and mess of life. Life can be tough at times, but man do we have it good on this side of things if we just choose to see it.

Hope I get to go back soon to Mingus Springs.

Death by love

New book coming out by Mark Driscoll and Gary Breshears. It's style and relevance to the culture we engage with everyday is amazing. Please check this video out that previews the soon to be released book. Thanks!

Stealing Jesus

My friend Scott Nickel taught a series called Stealing Jesus. It addresses how many of us speak for Jesus, but don't really listen to what he has to say. It's so true. I want to encourage anyone who reads my ramblings. Dad and Mom, Linda in my case. ;)

You have got to check this series out and start digging into who jesus was and what he said. It will change everything you do. Here is the link.

http://www.flatironschurch.com/messages/messages.php

Enjoy! By the way, you can also download the pdfs for some discussion questions. Check out the bibliography page.

Huskers week 1

The Huskers are back in action again. It was a good showing by the boys in red. Especially the first half of play on offense and defense. The second half was not so good. Less emphasis on playing the fundamentals defensively and Joey got a little sloppy with decision making.

Things that really stuck out to me.
1. Passion: Bo and Carl's animation and love for the game comes through. The defense is fast and will continue to improve over the coming weeks.
2. Joe Ganz is a good leader and a solid quarterback.
3. Tight ends actually returned to being a part of the offense for more than a drag route.
4. Speed on defense. Ty Steinkuhler, Barry Turner and Cody Glenn are freakishly talented kids who plays at full tilt.
5. Alex Henery is a weapon and will win us 2 games this year.
6. Our nickel defense was effective most when it delivers those crazy bo blitzes.
7. Players from previous dominant NU teams were once again on the sideline...awesome thing to see again.

This week we play San Jose State. This should be a great game for us on offense to put up 40+ points again. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will get to enjoy the running game a little more with Helu and Castille slicing and dicing between the tackles. Look for some big plays this week to our tall tight ends and a huge pass play to Swift again.

All in all. It's the fall. I'm glad college football is back on the radar again. Go big red!

Baby #3

Well in case you didn't know. My wife and I are expecting a third baby in our home. We found out today it will be early April when we will bring that little one into our lives. We are thankful and very blessed to be parents again.

Regardless, I've been reading a lot of wisdom literature from the bible. Trying to gain wisdom and knowledge to prepare for yet another lesson in humility with next son or daughter that comes home with us next year.

Anyone have any great practical advice for me? Encouragement or instruction? Just curious.

Once every two months isn't bad..

Well, well, well. It's been awhile since I've written anything. I figure once every two months isn't bad.

A lot has happened in these past sixty days.

1.My new job is incredible and pushes me spiritually, physically, mentally. Love it lots. The team I work with is fun and nothing replaces what you learn through the steady rhythm of life in the summer months.

It's weird getting older and sharing work life with friends that I went to school with. I remember what it felt like to be on camp team back in college and to work with the camp deans back in the midwest. At the time we thought we knew everything and we didn't know crap. But, hindsight is always twenty twenty.

Our summer staffers have worked incredibly hard. Sometimes putting in 16 hour days. It's cool to see them building stronger relationships with God, each other, students and pastors. I'm proud of the great effort they take to seek God first.

2. I spent 21 days apart from family.
Not good, but sorta necessary. My incredible wife had been away from all that she had know her whole life for six months and it was time for a trip back to memory lane. She took the kids to see our family back in Kansas and Nebraska. Good times for them as there were many fun activities planned by our parents who love seeing their grandkids smile and spoil them rotten. My family here at camp helped me get through that time. I was able to spend some quality time with the guys from summer staff here at camp and the program team homies.

3. I'm an uncle.
My brother Nich and his wife Amber helped make me an uncle to Carter Roscoe Herrington on July 13, 2008. It feels great to be an uncle and hopefully I will be able to spoil him in the coming years. It's weird that my baby brother has a son, but amazing to see God blessing our family with another little guy.

4. New challenges.
Trying a couple new things as well. Trying to lose 30 pounds in 30 days which I've heard is unhealthy, but I think it's also unhealthy to not try. ;)
Trying to live the gospel, love people and love Christ's church. I think I've tried one of these at a time, but not all three with all of my heart...so here I go.
............. read some older books instead of the trendy stuff.
............. play my guitar once a day.
..............eat more dark chocolate, drink more dark coffee

All in all.
Life is great.
Head up.
Eyes on Jesus.
Ready.
Go.

Insight

I appreciate the insight I receive from other people I'm working with and studying with. After moving here in January I've realized how much I miss my family and close friends. They've been the sounding board through the recent season in my life.

And I miss them a great deal. I'm thankful for new friendships that are emerging during this season of new things....

Have you ever had someone in your life that could always cause you to think? They had a gift to pull the best out of you?

I'm beginning to see, I'm slow at this, how fortunate I am to have you these new friends during this time of transition in my life. We would call this gift, insight.

Insight is defined as the act or outcome of grasping the inward or hidden nature of things or of perceiving in an intuitive manner. The Bible calls this wisdom and their are loads of verses you can read from the Proverbs alone regarding wisdom.

Take a minute today and thank someone who is a soundboard for you. Thanks to my friends who are willing to speak into my life.

Guitar surgery and guitar players

I love playing my Guild D-30 guitar. The guitar is in surgery right now getting some much needed attention after moving to the driest environment on the planet. Thankfully, it will be safely within arms reach in the next couple of days.

At thirty I realize a couple of things about music now,

1.Playing the guitar is a lot of fun and it's therapeutic.

2.I've always wanted to learn how to play lead guitar, but rhythm is where my strengths lie. I'm cool with that....

3.I hope to learn to play lead guitar like some of my friends Justin Ostrander, Jake Eyler or Holohan I really do nothing that unique to pull all the incredible tone out of the guitar like these guys do. But I'm learning.

Musically I'm trying to listen to some new bands. For instance, Carrie and I heard the band Vampire Weekend on SNL. Amazing band. Fun name. Great music. Really crazy stuff.

Tonight I was reading up on all things acoustic guitar and heard about a guy named Andy McKee. You have to check this video out. It is incredible. If you are a fan of Phil Keaggy you will love this. Videos like this, inspire me to learn and show me that I'm a pleeb musically.

Gospel Music

There's Power in the Blood
I'll Fly Away
When We All Get to Heaven
How Great Thou Art
Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus

There is the order for senior's day tomorrow. Good to go, let's do this thing.

Songs like this give me hope that one day we will return to writing songs that endure for the church about the power of the gospel, hope and faith.

Do you remember when O Brother Where Art Thou? came out a few years ago. The movie was great, but the music was incredible and inspired thousands to remember how powerful acoustic (bluegrass) music is connecting our hearts to our minds.

Well, senior's day won't be that kind of experience, but I'm thankful that I get to play music with my friend Chris. And I'm thankful as well that it reminds me of where I came from and paints a picture of where I think faith leads us.

Viva La Vida

I'm a huge fan of Coldplay and I was excited to read this article this evening.

Brian Eno is a great producer and pulls greatness out of each project he directs. And by the way, he is at the helm of their new project. If you enjoy great guitar work and still enjoy listening to whole albums of music and not individual tracks. Pre-order this sucka as soon as you can.

Leading worship

I'm leading worship for Senior's Day on Wednesday. It's been awhile since I've done this. I'm thinking that this maybe the time to bust out some good ole gospel medleys and all.

Any suggestions for the event? I'm listening if anyone has suggestions.

Spring Game Craziness

Last week while awaiting the shuttle from Phoenix to Prescott, I watched the Florida spring game at Dick Clark's in Terminal 3 at Sky Harbor.

Florida is a great program. They have the returning Heisman winner and a boatload of talent. They are fast and really good on offense. Tim Tebow played with a 102 fever. Pretty incredible, really good coach and crazy fans. All of these things impressed me, but then I checked huskerpedia and saw this article.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3346892

If you thought college football fans were nuts you were right.

Go Huskers!

No country for old men

I recently enjoyed watching No Country for Old Men. I'm going to cautiously recommend this movie knowing that some people will automatically not watch it for the same reason we avoid most stuff that challenges us, but regardless.

This movie was great. I enjoyed the barrenness of the film which was shot entirely in Texas. I just flew over the area in which it was filmed on my way back from Kansas and the landscape begs for a movie of desperation to be shot there. I remember hiking in on the edge of West Texas and New Mexico over ten years ago. The land is vast and empty. I thought the land is as much a character as the actor is in the film.

The villain/psycho killer (Javier Bardem) was a crazy glue sniffing type of character who was also fairly moral, strangely enough. He's chasing down an everyday guy (Josh Brolin) who stumbles upon a boatload of heroin and money while hunting one day. (Woody Harrelson) shows up in a fairly comical arrogant role and then is humbled while in pursuit of Bardem's character.

The sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) weathered as ever and wise, is sadly comical and he steals the screen with his believability as well. He is hot on the trail and is slowly piecing all of the elements together, but is always a step behind if you know what I mean.

The pace of this film was great and I enjoyed this film way more than I thought I would. It was a pleasant surprise. It reminded me of the best parts of westerns and the best parts of thrillers that I've enjoyed as well.

The Coen brothers have made other thought provoking films such as Fargo and O Brother Where Art Thou?, they have an uncanny ability to make difficult characters likable. For those who are fans of The Usual Suspects or Boon dock Saints you should enjoy this film. If you dislike dramas that are dark stay away from this film and rent Live Free or Die Hard. Although you will dislike No Country for it's heavier story and content. I think it deals with the subjects of greed, malice and vengeance as honestly as any movie I've seen.

Giddy up. I'm watching Once with Carrie tonight. I hope it lives up to the hype.

And can it be?

College football is not that far away. I'm so excited and cannot wait to see what the Huskers look like in their first game.

I know it's again western michigan, and can it be that we may have a defense again?

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1200&u_sid=10304518 can it be?

Only ten days until the spring game.

Wichita

Ahhh, Wichita....

Finally got here. Interesting day it was my friend. There is one person who reads this. Thank you Linda. :)

American Airlines stands for, your flight has been delayed thirty minutes do to backed up air traffic above the city. Fun.

Seriously, I'm weird. I love spontaneity. Just not when it inconveniences me. I love flexibility, but only when I'm not always willing to reciprocate. As much as anyone I want a second chance, but, you can see where this is going, I don't want to hand them out.

Today was a reminder of patience, grace and not being in such a big hurry. Sure I only got to see my in laws for like ten minutes before they went to bed, but I did get to see them. And that is why I came here to make connections, albeit brief ones, but to do it face to face. To expect others to be spontaneous, flexible and to extend grace during my time here.

Wichita. All these things came to mind as I was driving here. As much as I hate being away from my family, friends and home. I love what happens when I have the chance to think. When my flight is delayed and the rental car bus is late. Great things happen when my plans are delayed. Am I willing to see these things in those moments?

Sick

Well, the family was sick today. No, fun at all. I thought Charis had avoided this quick takeover of the family, but then she literally blew up all over her car seat.........

With one of my best friends in the car.

In that one moment I realized Jenn may wait for ten years before she has kids. This comes on the back side of many conversations that have gone like this. Kids are great they're so much fun you guys should have one, blahhhhhhhh.

Oh, fun times today. I read a lot, sent emails, cleaned the house, did laundry, made coffee and tried to avoid the sick bug. So far, so good.

Humility

I read a book recommended from Mark Driscoll's blog via theresurgence.com. Let me say for the five people that read this. I admire and love the effort theresurgence.com takes to support the church and help with resources for disciples of Jesus. I'm loving it and here is my suggestion to you all. Humility by C.J. Mahaney.

This book is killing me guys. It's an easy read and good reminder of how important common grace is for the Christ follower.

Taking risks

I spent today working with my team. It was great and the beginning of some great things for ucyc. We are taking risks, calculated ones in the near future. But bigger, more uncertain things lie ahead of us.

I was reminded of this idea tonight while watching my daughter Charis walk on the front porch. It is a blast watching my kid walk...it makes me smile. When she approaches a step because she has no depth perception, she will lay down on her stomach and slide and tell her feet hit the ground.

This looks hilarious, but it makes perfect sense. In fact, she gets it. She realizes that right now for her to get to where she is going she has to drag herself, get dirty, scratch her legs, crawl, scrape whatever to reach her goal. She has to risk to reach her goal.

We have to risk to move forward with anything we do.
Will I risk and ask for forgiveness?
Am I willing to risk security for integrity?
Why is it so hard to truly trust God?

Life is good and presents us so many choices. Will I choose to live a risky life?



I

Notes from Sunday

The following are some of the notes from Kinnaman's talk at CCV.

What is our motive as we follow Christ?
-Make disciples or make Christians to occupy buildings?

Christianity no longer looks like Jesus intended it to look.
-This is a difficult statement to make and even more difficult to understand.
-The message of Jesus will be offensive does mean that we have to offend.

What are the images of our faith?
How are they being expressed in our lives?

Depth in our faith.
-We've embraced Jesus, but haven't become disciples.
-He shared a freakish stat about the amount of Christians that don't embrace a Biblical world view. If you've read the book you've seen this chart.

He shared from Luke 7.
-Jesus feet are anointed with oil by the sinful woman.
-Jesus tells the parable of forgiven debt

She gave because she was forgiven much by Jesus. Simon didn't give because he embraced an idea, but not a faith with depth. His faith was a barrier to others and not a bridge.

Is your life a spiritual barrier to others?

Valley of the sun

So, I was fortunate to spend a couple of days in one of my favorite places this week. Phoenix...it is a great city. Sure it's busy, you can see the air, traffic is as backed up as a guy who ate too much cheese. But I love it and it's nice to feel surrounded by people. There's something comforting about it.

I'm heading back there tomorrow to here David Kinnaman share about his new book unChristian. It's excellent and is a must read for anyone who takes their faith seriously. He will be sharing at the alternative service at CCV.

In preparation for tomorrow, I've been searching my heart. I would like to think I'm culturally savvy enough to take on any subject. But, I think that's my biggest issue. Pride. I'm all of the chapters in that book and it's embarrassing. I need redemption from it all. I need hope and grace to navigate through this life.

In the midst of this crappy reality. I seek to follow Jesus. Praying that humility will be embodied in my life on the road ahead.

It dawned on me how much opportunity I have to cling to hope. Hope is the fuel for living in a timely way with timeless faith.

Allergies

For as long as I can remember I've been allergic to something. Milk when I was little. Penicillin when I was a toddler. Girls when I was in junior high. Bills when I was in college. When I was young, my mom would always warn me to avoid cats and so I did with a holy passion. Unfortunately, last year I found out I'm allergic to dogs and everything else in Kansas. Allergies, they suck, really bad. For those of you fortunate enough to not battle allergies. I heart you.

I was reading about some organic vitamins that would help me lose visceral fat, rest better and fight against harmful allergens. And I thought, sweet, let's go for it and then I read reviews of the products through amazon and the comments spoke to otherwise. My hopes crushed..

I say this because this morning while David was wiping his eyes like an old lady at a Neil Diamond concert, it donned on me that we all could move to Hawaii. Because everyone from the midwest moves here to get away from allergies, but then it sunk in that there is more green in Hawaii than there is in Kansas. Although we might accidentally run into the cast members of Lost and make the journey totally worth it.

Fellow allergy sufferers I feel your pain. I heard Iceland has no allergy issues. Maybe that would work?

Catching up...

Today was a beautiful day. The weather is so nice here that at times I have to scratch myself to remember that I live in Arizona in the mountains. What an incredible gift to live, work, raise kids in such an amazing place.

Don't get me wrong, I loved Manhattan. The sun didn't come out quite as often as it does here.

I'm trying this blogging thing out. My friend Chris encouraged me to try. Of course his blogs kicks butt and mine reads like the part of the paper that you take to the bathroom with you just to make it through the experience.

For better or worse, I'm here and I will apologize in advance. :)