More Festivus News

I posted this a few weeks ago on Facebook.  It’s about an inmate who seeks kosher meals.  No, it’s not because he’s Jewish…this prisoner cites his adherence to Festivus as the reason for his dietary change.

As far as the airing of grievances, watch this. I’m pretty sure this inspired part of Festivus.

In other news, I’d like to show you lengths that my friend Jacob Seegers goes to just to mock me.  He is infamous for going to incredibly detailed measures to make fun of, prank, mock and embarrass me.  His insults usually work on multiple levels too.  In other words, Jacob is far and away the best insult giver/mocker I have ever known.

Jacob also loves a good butt joke and he also loves to put the useless, unnecessary H in my name.  Instead of spelling my name the way it’s supposed to be spelled (Jon or Jonathan) he spells it John or Johnathan.  I reprimanded Jacob years ago about this, and he saw that as an opportunity to NEVER correct his mistake and cause me much strife and anguish.

So a few days ago, I was packing a bunch of stuff and I needed a small box for miscellaneous odds-n-ends. I went into the garage and found a small box that Jake used to send me something last May.  Sweet…perfect fit.  Thanks Jake!  That was the end of it, I thought.

Last night I was standing in the kitchen, bleary eyed and astonished at all the boxes of crap we have in our house when I noticed something on the small Jake box.

Notice:  Not only did Jacob put an H in my name, he forgot at first, then went back and added it.  But that’s not all.  See…where it says “Cula Vista”?  That’s supposed to say “Chula Vista”.  Jacob borrowed the H from Chula to add it to my name.  As a result, he’s left with Cula…which happens to sound a lot like a derogatory word in Spanish for one’s butt.  I don’t know if Jacob is borderline stupid and can’t spell or if this is a stroke of genius because he NEVER brought this up to me when we spoke.  But he’s pretty attentive to detail, so I tend to believe that he orchestrated all of this.

Jacob, you are a tremendous friend with biting wit and scathing sarcasm.  Perhaps we should meet up and have our own airing of grievances.

Ummm…Can we talk? We have some news.

When you start a conversation like that, most people immediately think you’re going to announce that there’s a kid on the way.  Well, that’s not the case this time.   Sometimes I kind of wish we were announcing that Amy was pregnant. It would certainly be easier news to break, but the REAL news is that Amy and I are moving to Birmingham, AL.

Only a few months ago, she and I were both perfectly content with the life we’ve had in San Diego.  We love our jobs, our friends and we live in a dream home.  To choose those things when it is abundantly clear that God telling us to go to Alabama, however, would be nothing short of a freaking travesty.  Yes, we’re going to miss sunny Southern California, its perfect weather and beautiful sunsets.  More so, we are very sad to say goodbye to our friends (whom we love so much), our jobs and our home, but we are also very excited to go where God is telling us to go.

As soon as we arrive in Birmingham, our plan is to immediately become part of the church body and ministry at Brook Hills.  Amy and I are so excited to be a part of the things God is doing in Birmingham, as well as the throughout the world, through Brook Hills.  We’re very excited to call it our new church home.

Also, I have accepted a job as the Video Director at Student Life.  My long-time homie Taylor Robinson was the Video Director at SL for over eight years but now he is big time stuff and runs his own big-shot production company.  So now I’m going to be the Video Director and I am pretty stoked about the team with which I’m going to work.  Speaking of the team, Student Life has no idea what it’s gotten itself into by putting Erin Hicks Moon and me on the same team, but they will find out soon enough.

And that, my friends…is what’s up.

The Waltz

As I read through scripture, I keep noticing that Christ was abundantly clear about who leads in the spiritual dance between us and him. What I mean is that there is a common response from Jesus every time someone came to him wanting to become one of his followers.  What he continually said was “If you want me, then life as you know it stops right here…right now.  This is no longer about what you want or what your plan is.  I’m not joining you in your journey of life, you are joining me.  Come with me, forget about everything you THOUGHT you wanted and walk the path that I am taking you on.  I lead.”  And from what I can tell his response remains the same today as it was when he walked the earth.

That’s been pretty convicting because that’s not how I have interacted with Christ in my life.  I have spent years, if not decades, asking Jesus to come walk along side of me and join me in my journey.  When Christ “took over my heart” I didn’t forego the direction I chose for my life.  I didn’t stop and say “Okay, you lead.  I follow.”  No, I said “Hey…here’s where I’m going and I’d love it if you came and gave it some Jesus flavor.  And from now on I’ll make sure to include you in my decisions.”

Is that following the Lord?  Is that surrendering one’s self fully? That is certainly not the picture that was painted in the Gospels.  I’m realizing that, by his mercy and grace, the Lord has sought me and stayed with me anyway.  But he has also been waiting for me to quit leading and start following. That’s a big step for me because I have no idea what direction he’s heading.  Am I willing to give up the safety and security of my plan to follow his?  God grant me the courage and faith to do so.

The Gospel According to Gladys Knight & the Pips

One of the things my parents unintentionally passed on to me is a keen understanding of music history.  No, I never spent hours being lectured about the great classical composers of the 15^th-17^th centuries- I learned about greats like Patsy Cline, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, The Righteous Brothers, Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys, The Byrds, Diana Ross and a whole litany of artists that span the early days of Mo Town, Rock-n-Roll, Blues, Country and Pop.  Whenever the family would load up in the trusty old Chevy to traverse the hot Mexican countryside to do the Lord’s work, we’d escape reality between stops with dad’s music collection of what we called “The Cruisin Oldies.”   To this day, I get those songs stuck in my head.  As a matter of fact, I woke up this morning with a  line  from  “Midnight Train to Georgia” stuck in my head.  You know the part, where Gladys Knight proclaims.  “I’d rather live in his world than live without him in mine.”

After singing that line to myself for the 400^th time, I started thinking about what it really means. Gladys is declaring that she’d willingly give up everything for the man of her dreams.  She’d forego her “own world” to be with him in his.  And that brings us to the place in which I find myself today.

See, I’ve been at a veritable loss for words lately because God is revealing himself to me in ways that I’ve never experienced.  Through His word, Christ is showing me that He is not the means to an end…He IS the end.  He is the prize at the end of the race, the treasure after which I should be running.  If I were to lose everything but still have Him, that would be far more than enough for me. I now realized that I’d rather live in His world than live without Him in mine.  I agree with Jesus about who He says I am and I want to live on His terms, not mine.

A few years back I got the privilege of working with Shane Barnard & Shane Everett.  They were doing a weekend-long youth rally at my church and one day we were all sitting around talking before one of the evening services.  Someone asked them about their plans as musicians, where they felt like the Lord was leading them and how they planned on continuing their musical career.  I was pretty interested in what their answer was going to be…because at the time I played in a band and playing music was all I ever wanted to do with my life.  But their response to my friend’s question shocked me.  The Shanes jumped in quickly, almost interrupting my friend and said “The minute we feel the Lord leading us to do something other than music is the minute we’ll put down our guitars and do something else.  We do this because we feel like it’s what God has asked of us, but we’re just waiting for Him to tell us to stop. We just want to love Jesus and serve him…not matter what.”

Or maybe my wife said it best.  The description on her blog reads, “I have discovered a God who is worth everything. And to have Him, He asks from me just that: EVERYTHING. I have decided that He is worth it.”

This is the ground on which I stand.

Is it possible to miss someone you never knew?

Grandpa Whitt with my brother, Aaron

This is a picture of my grandfather, Robert Whitt.  I never got to know Grandpa…he died a few months before I was born, but all my life my dad, my brother, Aunt Karen and Grandma have told me stories about Grandpa.  From those stories, I grew to love and miss Grandpa Whitt almost as much as those in my family who spent time with him.

The Pops himself...Ron Whitt

I will tell you this.  if Grandpa Whitt was half the man as this guy….he was one hell of a stand-up guy.  When it comes to being a good dad, my old man knocked it out of the park.  Happy father’s day, Pops.