Smooth Via

EIKON Part 2: Wes' Dream

The second in a four-part miniseries chronicling the events that surrounded Matt, Wes, and Austin as they prepared for Eikon summer camp. 

Wes gets caught up in playing his guitar, but is snapped out of it by an old enemy.

EIKON Part 1: Austin's Chips

Over the next couple of days I will post the series videos that chronicle the events that surrounded Matt, Wes, and Austin as they prepared for Eikon summer camp. 

In this episode, Wes takes a bag of Austin's beloved Baked Ruffles without asking, "How will Austin respond?"

Random Thought of The Week (That Was Too Large to Tweet): "Child Care"

Most of the time when I have random thoughts that have no value what-so-ever, I do what every good Christian should do. I take those thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ... and then I tweet them. But occasionally, these random thoughts are too long to tweet, so I think I will begin posting them here in a new segment called "Random Thought of The Week (That Was Too Large to Tweet)."

This week's randomness:

On the way to work this morning, I saw this van (you'll need to click to enlarge it so that you can read the text on the back of the van):

 

What you might not be able to tell from the photo is that the words "child care" on the back of the van are in quotation marks. Why would you put "child care" in quotation marks??? It makes it sound like you don't really provide child care at all. Whenever you put something obvious in quotation marks it usually implies that it's not true. For instance, note the following quotation mark changes to the same sentence:

• Maxwell House is a good cheap coffee.
• Maxwell House is a "good" cheap coffee.
• Maxwell House is a good cheap "coffee."

The first sentence is straightforward (even though it's wrong). The second sentence implies that it isn't really good coffee at all, only that some people say that it is. The third sentence implies that it actually isn't even coffee at all. 

So I return to my original question. Why would you put "child care" on the back of your van that provides transportation for your daycare? It's as if they are saying: Come bring your kids to our daycare center, we provide "child care." 

Ha! No thanks.

 

Holy Hangover

I've never had a hangover, but I can imagine what it feels like because of how I feel every Monday morning. I call it the "holy hangover." I don't know exactly what causes it, but every Monday after weekend services, I feel completely wasted, spent, and well... hungover: headache, body aches, fatigue, irritability, dizziness, loss of appetite. 

If I had to guess at what caused this, I would say it's a combination of physical, spiritual, and emotional exhaustion. I have a lot of responsibilities at Journey, some technical, some directorial, and some pastoral. These three responsibilities keep me constantly switching gears all day long. Yesterday during the second and third service alone, I probably had 15 - 20 people stop me for some of my time regarding one of those three areas. I'm not asking you to stop doing that. I love what I do, and I love it that people feel that I am approachable enough to ask for some of my time on the weekend. I'm just trying to analyze what wears me out so much and leaves me with this holy hangover. 

On a typical weekend,  I go from 6:30am to 10:00pm on Sunday (I'm not even including my entire Saturday). I show up early and oversee worship and tech rehearsal, double check the building to make sure everything is in order and looks nice for the weekend, check in with my host team and greeter team, back to the tech booth to ensure cues are being met, meeting, talking and praying with people between services, checking in with the next set of host team and greeter teams, back to the tech booth, meet, talk, and pray with people in between the next two services, stop in and visit my middle school students in M.S.O and hang out them for a little while, try to sit with my wife during the third service, meet, talk and pray with people after the service, lead a some kind of team meeting, head home for a an hour or two, head to the student center for 3:12 or Uprising, hang with students, pray with students, counsel students, teach students, then finally head home and crash like the train wreck that I am.

Again, I'm not complaining. I love what I do. But if you've ever wondered why I unplug on Monday's and you can't seem to get a hold of me, now maybe you understand. Now on top of all that, three days ago I gave up coffee for Lent. If you're a coffee addict like me and you've ever stopped drinking coffee, then you know that day three is always the worst day! So today, my usual "holy hangover" is magnified by the fact that I am on day three with no coffee!

#christiancrapfail

One of my biggest annoyances with the Christian sub-culture is Christian merchandising. Rarely does my wife ever take me into a Christian bookstore anymore for fear that I will embarrass her in front of everyone. The scene usually goes something like this: 

1. I see some cheesy Christian merchandise that either takes advantage of naive christian consumers (i.e. "Runts" candy taken out of it's box and put into a plastic bag with a scripture verse taped on it, and then charged more than double what it would cost in it's original box), or is just plain offensive (i.e. an action figure Jesus who has "real hand waving action" when you squeeze his legs, complete with 5 loaves and 2 fish).
2. I take said merchandise to the counter and begin harassing the poor sales clerk, or I just get real loud and begin making a scene about it while everyone in the store tries their hardest to act like they don't see or hear me: "REALLY!? 'Real hand waving action?' Does it also come with real miracle working action? If I squeeze his legs will he wave his hand and these loaves and fish will multiply? Where's the baskets? What am I going to carry all of this extra food in if the toy doesn't come with baskets?"
3. Kelly chases me down and sternly 'asks' me to quit embarrassing her, while simultaneously apologizing to anyone she thinks I may have annoyed or offended.
4. Kelly manages to get us out of the store as quickly as possible before any more damage can be done.

That's pretty much a regular scene in our family. Anyway, the other day on Twitter, my brother and awesome guy Josh Via started a the following hash tag: #christiancrapfail, and pure hilarity ensued. Check it out, and add your own to the mix. Be sure to tag it so we can all follow along. Before I go, I'll leave you a short video of one of my all time favorite #christiancrapfail items. One of my daughters found this in an egg at a local church's annual Easter Egg Hunt. It's a suction cup popup Jesus! How appropriate for Easter. "Up from the grave he arose!"

Snow Day - 1/30/10

In spite of all of the problems and madness that winter weather can cause around here, the snow and ice were a welcome distraction for the usual Saturday routine.

I love Journey and hate it when I have to miss a weekend. I even love spending the latter half of my Saturdays at the warehouse getting ready for the weekend and being a part of the Saturday evening service. But I have to admit, that it was nice today to have nothing to do but to play with my girls in the snow, make snow cream, play in the snow some more, watch movies... It was a great day.

We got about 4" of snow, but the top half inch or so was sleet rather than snow, to the point that most of the time, we walked right on top of the snow! The slippery icy surface made was a great environment for rather unique snow day fun. My wife caught some of our antics on camera. Enjoy...

Rock Your Face Off - Episode 3: From the Minds of Matt & Wes

Rock Your Face Off - Episode 2: What's Cookin' with Shef & Adam's Ultimate Challenge

Rock Your Face Off - Episode 1: That Was Smooth

From the Mind of Matt & Wes - A Week Without Coffee

The new feature at our monthly Uprising event is a huge hit, and it's back by popular demand. This month the boys tackle very serious issue of coffee addiction. I have no idea who the modeled the main character after. I'm sure it's completely fictional and any similarities to a real life person are purely coincidental.