Seven™ Blog

Camp08 was amazing!  I know God did so much in each one of us who went.  We spiced things up this year with some new competitions and some new twists on our camp staples.  Powerball was as insane as ever resulting in a broken wrist (sorry Cody), and Soccer was more exhausting with the added three balls.  Warball had a few casualities, but overall each team held their own and found some way to dominate throughout the week.  Robert Madu made us all “cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs” while at the same time really challenging our spiritual journeys.  The Giraffe proved to be King of the Jungle but the Orange Silly Gooses left with bragging rights until next year.  All in all, it was a great camp and it really brought us all together and helped us realize the best is yet to come! 

After 5 crazy but incredible days at Camp, 77 of us headed off to Charlotte, North Carolina for the National Fine Arts Festival.  We left in two coach buses excited for the week ahead, but already tired from the week before. :)  19 hours later, we pulled up to our hotel in Charlotte just wanting to eat, shower and go to sleep.  Not so fast though, after two Wal-mart runs, meeting, devos and practice we finally got some much needed sleep…in beds!  The week went great; all of the students performed so good.  Our small and large drama groups won 1st place, Keylee Koop’s drama solo won 2nd, Poor Man, one of our large human videos placed 4th, higher than we’ve ever done before and many others did exceptional as well.  We are all so proud of every student that particpated in Fine Arts.  Well done Seven! 

This week I filled up my car with gas. I paid $50. Those of you Hummerers out there are probably wishing you had my car about now (especially if I were to tell you I’m ridin’ in a 2000 green Mercury Sable), but for me – I’m thinking of going the way of all the world and buying a motorbike. I hear they get a cool 70 mpg. Only problem is, my wife is one of quite a few people that think I would look funny on a motorbike. Little Clayton, riding up to the church on his little Harley Davidson… Truston, hook me up dawg, I got something to prove. 

I remember a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away when I had just started driving in high school. I pulled up to a gas station where the sign read: “Regular Unleaded: $.79.” And, no, it was no typo. A full tank was maybe $10, if that! And now, I have to deal with $50 gas payouts every week, and I’m forced to drive like my grandma with no AC just to save as much of this precious, pricey fuel that I can. Do you realize what I can do with $50?! 

• 20 Wendy’s Texas Double Cheeseburgers with 10 orders of fries and 10 small drinks
• 50 items of your choice at Dollar General
• 50 of those dollar dvds in the Walmart bins
• …and a sturdy pair of Fossil denim jeans

Though I sound it, I’m not worried or frustrated – maybe a little frustrated. But, I still have more wealth than 97% of people on earth, or whatever the statistic is. And there are many people in places like Africa that can only afford 5 gallons of water a week… Water. Last time I checked water is a pretty important commodity. That really brings things back to the right perspective. My word of encouragement for today: stay focused on the needs of others, and let God take care of your own. If you do that – you’ll always have what you need. And, in the words of my 3 year old niece, Ellie: “Peace to all people!”

I’m a huge fan of going to the movies, so as you’d expect, over the weekend I saw the latest installment of the Indiana Jones series. I grew up watching Indy whip (sorry, I couldn’t resist) up on bad guys, and having been alive for every single theatrical release, I was pretty excited to see him at it again. A lot of people, though, have been telling me how they were disappointed with it. I have to say - I was not disappointed at all. I will admit there were a few minutes at the beginning that I was thinking “man, Han Solo is lookin pretty old” or “really, with the CG groundhogs?”, but overall I was super satisfied and thoroughly enjoyed the movie. In my opinion, it held true to the style and feel of the previous three, while still modernizing the pace and making for a very entertaining action/adventure experience.

Of course, this opinion comes after having seen two pretty lame movies (Speed Racer, Narnia 2) the previous two weekends, so maybe I was just really wanting to like it. I’m a big proponent of the “who you see the movie with determines your movie experience” theory, so thanks guys for making mine awesome (you know who you are). Either way, I left the theater satisfied and honestly, wanting to see it again. Thank you Steven Spielberg, you rarely (War of the Worlds) fail to deliver. And thank you George Lucas, you needed this one (Star Wars prequels). Also, thanks to the guy who yelled “clap, you punks” when the Lucasfilm logo appeared. So clever. Until, next time (The Dark Knight), that’s a wrap.

I remember as a child standing at the edge of a diving board afraid to jump in. I knew how to swim, I wasn’t afraid to put my head under water, and when I jumped in from the side of the pool I didn’t even need to plug my nose. But, for some reason, jumping off the diving board gripped me with a paralyzing fear. After a few minutes of waiting, and after the lifeguard threatened to push me in, I took the plunge. It was scary, exhilarating and fun all at the same time. After my head bobbed above the water I laughed out loud and swam towards the ladder only to get out and jump again.

Throughout life I have faced a lot of these moments. Sometimes I jump and sometimes I take the walk of shame in defeat. But I have realized every time I swallow my fear and go for it I find myself swimming to the ladder to try it again. I was afraid to eat sushi, but now I would consider myself an addict. I was afraid to ask my best friend to go on a date with me, but now I’m beyond happily married. I was afraid to drive my brand new jeep down a simple dirt trail, but now I can’t find a hill too steep enough or a hole too deep enough to scare me.

My whole life I have had an underlying fear. It was created by my parents love and concern for my safety. It was fed by horror stories I would hear. It was given credibility by a seaming endless number of negative statistics. They have been called coffins on two wheels, donor mobiles, idiot machines, and rebel transporters. Simply put, I have been told that motorcycles are dangerous. Because of this foundation of fear I would never consider riding a motorcycle. But yet other things in my life I have been the most fearful of are now the things I enjoy the most.

So I jumped off the diving board. I crunched some numbers, took a class, got my license and bought a bike. I’m not saying I’ll keep it. I’m not even sure it’s for me. But all I know is it feels better in the water than it did standing on the edge of the diving board thinking about jumping.

Everyone has pet peeves. Recently, I have been thinking about mine.  A lot. I was out of town and hanging out with a bunch of guys when one of them asked, “what’s your biggest pet peeve?” I really didn’t know what to say. Oh, I got pet peeves, but I didn’t know what would be my biggest. That was tough. Thus, I have been thinking about mine. I still don’t know what would be my biggest, but i definitely got a top 5.

Here are my top 5 pet peeves, in no particular order:

1. Driving slow in the fast lane. (Really!?!)
2. A dirty car. (Ugh)
3. A cluttered room. (UGH)
4. Depressing movies. (Hello, its called ‘a happy ending’)
5. Socially unaware comments. (Dude, you’re below the clouds)

Some of my runners up are when people are unwilling to try something new, smacking your food while eating and uncommited people.

As I think about it more, my top 5 may change. I may even find the biggest. In the meantime, what about you? What’s your biggest pet peeves? Maybe we can change the world together, one pet peeve at a time.

March is here and the eyes of the sports world are on college basketball. Even if you’re not a sports fan, you can get caught up in this madness. We’re talking ‘the big dance’, ‘the field of 64′, or ‘the ncaa tournament’. It’s here and it’s the greatest days of sports. Men will take vacation days, women will get babysitters, students will skip school and the whole nation will watch. The first 4 days of this madness should be a national holiday. So get ready to cheer for your favorite team.  And if you don’t have one, there’s 64 to choose from.

Bring on the upsets. Bring on the last second shots. Bring on the miracles. Bring on the underdogs. Bring on the goliaths. Memories will be shared. Heroes will be made. Legends will be told. Cinderella has her ticket and always shows up. Let the Madness begin.

Last weekend was sweet for so many reasons. And not just for the nuggling. One, it was our first retreat in like six years. Two, I had the best time hanging out with some awesome new friends I made. And three, having a weekend to refresh and relax truly rocked! Massive bonfire anyone?

Now, I did get schooled a bit by Annalise, Caleb and Cooper on the basketball court, but I think I at least got an ”E” for effort.  Saturday, eating a half gallon of butter pecan ice cream with Refuge and XS7 was fun, but nasty at the same time. Then having to run everywhere, do a walking pyramid and then do 300 push-ups as a team; we were kinda dying. All was okay afterwards, though, since Dillon and Zach did the “Beyonce” on stage. Not to be out-done, of course, was Will and Hunter lip-syncing to the Backstreet Boys.

For those of you who missed it, sorry, you better come next year. For those of you who were there, you know what I’m talking about when I say: “Wow!” God showed up and definitely helped refresh and “reseven” us. Is that even a word? I say yes, and you know what that means: “Done!”

No, this blog isn’t about our current series being available in high definition. Although, in some ways it is. It’s what got me thinking about my status in the world of HD.

Before getting my new Samsung HDTV last November, I wasn’t allowed in the secret club of the high definition experience. But now that I’m in, I’ve become an expert (snob?) of all things HD, and I’m loving every minute of it. There truly is nothing like watching NFL games, Lost episodes, and nightly news broadcasts in spectacular widescreen beauticity.

For that reason, I was ultimately forced to get the XBOX 360 HD-DVD player over the holidays. The price was at an all-time low and I wanted to rock King Kong and Planet Earth in it’s native HD glory. But my decision to go HD-DVD versus Blu-ray was one that, sadly, I should have waited on. Yesterday marked the official whistle to end the two-year deathmatch, that was the HD format war. Just like LaserDisc, and BetaMax before it; HD-DVD goes down in history as the loser in the consumer video arena. It’s sad to see it go, but more sad because I was not only an owner of HD-DVD, but also it’s second-place ancestors: BetaMax and LaserDisc.

Perhaps fate has it that I always be an early adopter of possible technology successes or maybe it’s just a hard knock life. What will happen in the future for HD? Will Blu-ray be the next DVD? Or will HD downloads make it big enough in time to run clean-up? What are your thoughts? Time will certainly tell us. I do know this, I’m not getting a Playstation. So there.

It’s super bowl weekend and everyone’s going nuts. The pats, the g-men, the spying and possibly the biggest story of them all… Extreme Bowl 13. Yeah, the press has been all over this one. No one had a clue how this forty homegroup tournament would turn out, but on Saturday, February 2, all our questions were put to rest.

In junior high, we had an intense day full of exciting games. But it was the championship game that was the one to remember when Havoc (the EB12 champs) squared off against 3d. An early lead by 3d made everyone think they had it locked up. But a late first half touchdown by Havoc and a quick second half start put 3d behind. However, in the end, it was 3d pulling away and taking the EB13 trophy.

In senior high, we may have broken every Extreme Bowl scoring record. When the final score is 74 to 71, you’d think you were talking about a basketball game… But no. That was the offensive onslaught that was Taken versus Hype. It was a back and forth game that stayed close all day, but Taken stayed tough and etched their name on the trophy one more time.

Props to everyone who was at EB13. It was an awesome day with hundreds of students, thousands of memories but only two champs… 3D and Taken. Congrats. Everyone else, start practicing. Cause EB14 will be here before you know it.

The holiday season has past us once again. It is definitely one of my favorite seasons of the year. The season is crazy. The malls are packed, the weather is cold, houses are decorated, lights are everywhere, and Christmas parties happen almost daily.

This year, as I drove home from Christmas in the middle of the night (thanks to Jordyn and Avery, who now dictate my schedule), I began thinking of all of the holiday memories and Christmas gifts that stood out to me over the years. There are tons. Some made me laugh and some simply made me smile. It has been years and years of good times. 

Some of my favorite memories were: building a snowman on Christmas morning, drinking hot chocolate, eating all kinds of desserts (especially peanut butter and chocolate ones), the rubik’s cube family tournament held one year (I won in 43 seconds), driving around town searching for Santa’s sleigh on Christmas Eve with my dad, leaving milk and cookies for Santa every year, watching those old-school animated Christmas movies curled up on the floor, playing games with family, and, of course, watching the movie Elf every year. Very nice. However, no memory will replace my top two, my first Christmas married and my first Christmas with my twin baby girls.

Some of my favorite gifts were: the official vibrating electronic football game (think late 1970’s), the classic Atari video game station, my dog named Pepper, my complete Star Wars action figure collection, a Grapette pencil with $20 bills wrapped around it found in my stocking each year, my first tree house built in my back yard (it was massive), my 50” lcd screen tv, and everything my wife gets me. I hope she reads that. There are loads more that I could list, but the best memories and gifts are simply being with family and friends. That is what it’s all about.

So what about you? What memories and gifts stand out to you over the years? Think about them. Don’t forget them. Let every holiday season add to them, that’s her job.