TheOneCubed

I just have to say I have some of the best friends. Many of them gathered together last night to celebrate my birthday. I wasn’t looking for any big hoopla, but I sure did enjoy it! Dinner at P.F. Chang’s was delicious and I got my butter cream cake, that I love so much :-D. Lots of jokes were shared, both old and new. Thanks to everyone who helped to make my birthday yet another to write down in the history books!

So as a family there are at least three birthdays in July, my cousin who is now 20, my dad - age 54, and myself who will be 23 on Tuesday. In order to consolidate it all - we always do one big family birthday event. Since it’s the summer time this usually means cookout and that means tons of people to my parents’ house, a stressed out mom trying to be the ultimate hostess, and as always some great food. Now each of the things I’ve mentioned can be good and bad. People can get on your nerves but can be a lot of fun, a stressed out mom can drive you crazy but always leads to a great event, and the good food well it’s usually “good” because of its unhealthy nature. I won’t make you jealous by listing the incredible spread my family put together but it did include some things like roast chicken and homemade ice cream (two flavors).

Todd & Dad working on making the ice cream

The evening also brought along some other cool things. I got to see my brother and his girlfriend, Lindsy, again - haven’t seen them in what seems like months. My good friend and basically lil’ sis’ Carolyn was able to join my family for the evening - which I’m sure was a bit ummm . . . overwhelming. Also, for the first time my brother let me take his 2003 Z06 Corvette (now has new rims) out for a spin. Oh my goodness!!!! The power of that car and the control you have at all times is ridiculous! I mean even in 5th gear you can punch it and it’ll take off! Now you must understand, I drive a 1995 Explorer - it has a bit of get up and go but nothing like the ‘vette. Still, I could never drive a Corvette all the time - too small for me.

Now what would birthdays be without cards and gifts? Well funny thing is that between my cousin, my brother, and myself we always try to out do each other with funny cards. These cards vary in approach - either making fun of someone and their “old” age, calling them ugly (in a nice way of course), or some various other oddity that the writers for Hallmark seem to be able to dream up. Now funny thing is, my cousin started all this several years ago by giving my brother a birthday card and since that time the warfare has continued. This year marked a few things however. For one, both my cousin and I got hit with cards commenting on our age (note we are not “old” by any means - even my father isn’t “old”). Two, my brother took it up a notch and got my cousin the “Old Age Combat Hat”.

Thad sporting the hat

That pretty much sums it up in regards to this blog. It always seems to be on the back burner in my mind.

So what’s been going on with me? Same ‘ole, same ‘ole. Work during the day, church at least one maybe two nights a week, church on Sunday, and try to find some relaxin’ time somewhere in there. This past weekend Mark and I went nuts on cleaning the house. It was finally into some respectable shape. It’s fallen a bit out of it - but nothing 30 min won’t cure.

So this week at church there is a fine arts camp being led by the Annie Moses Band. They are amazing! The whole family is musical, several (if not all) of the children have attended Juilliard, the parents write and compose all their music, and did I mention they sound amazing?!?! They pull from a heritage of jazz, gospel, country, blue grass, and mountain music to creat a very unique sound. Moreover - these people are just amazing. Extremely humble, down to earth, and thankful for the opportunity the Lord has given them to praise His name.

Today at church was really quite awesome. The usual morning setup and sound check went quite well and Pastor Horner really laid out a good message. He’s been talking about meekness and he made quite a resounding comment today “Doing things in a meek way does not mean you have a meek heart. Pursuing a meek hear guarantees you’ll do meek things.”

Our world many times sounds off about how to “succeed” one must look out for themselves, pursue what they want, and do what is best for them. However, the Bible tells us something quite different. “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5). Notice it doesn’t say “Blessed are the selfish” or “Blessed are those that look out for themselves” it says Blessed are the meek. The English definition of the word does little justice to the true character of the word. I think this quote (taken from Pastor Horner’s sermon) describes what it means to be Biblically meek quite well:

?Next to the beauty of holiness, which is the soul?s agreement with God, is the beauty of meekness, which is the soul?s agreement with itself. Behold how good and how pleasant a thing it is for the flowers of the soul to dwell in unity, the reason knowing how to rule the affections, at the same time, knowing how to obey.?

~Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible

May our prayer be to allow God to take control of the reigns of our lives and lead us to a place of meekness that we may reflect the true character of Christ.

For complete sermon notes or an audio version visit: http://www.pray.org/sermons/index.html

So I’ve had the latest Jack Johnson CD for quite a while but today was the first time that I really paid any attnetion to this particular song. It’s kinda sad but it struck a cord with me . . . for several different reasons. I thought I’d post the lyrics here - let me know what it says to you.