I beg your pardon! There was lots of love!

On Saturday, Brittany and I went down to spend some time with her parents in Nashville. I had to get a speaker I had special ordered at Sam Ash for the new speaker cabinet I just built. (I'll post pictures on that soon.)

Anyway, Mr Steiner thought we should go somewhere different for dinner. So we headed south to the famous Loveless Cafe. I've heard stories about this place and even seen a special on TLC about their biscuits--but nothing could prepare me for the delightfulness that I would find there.



I have no idea what heaven will be like. But I do know one thing: there will certainly be an endless supply of the Loveless Cafe biscuits in heaven. They were a-maz-ing.

If you ever get the chance, GO! We even saw Alfonso Ribeiro there. Can a home-cooking restaurant get any better? I submit that it cannot!

Dr Seuss should have written a book of the Bible...

I worry about the state of the church a lot--when I say church, I mean to say the church at large, the global brotherhood/sisterhood of people who would call themselves followers of Jesus.

I think we can all agree that humanity, over the past two thousand years, has greatly messed up the church. To look at its current state greatly disturbs me--especially when evaluating the church here in America. (It can be so political and country club-like and I could go on and on...) I know that there are people everywhere working to restore the original vision of Jesus' life and message. But I still feel like there's a tremendous amount of tension among Christians--there exists a lot of grief and strife and heartache that has no place in the church.

I don't think these thoughts are anything new. We've been going through Romans on Wednesday nights at Ekklesia--and its amazing to read about the 1st century Jews and Gentiles within the church at Rome. In his letter, Paul is constantly discussing the stress between the two groups. They would have both identified themselves as followers of the Way, but one group always thought they were better than the other. He was always reminding them that God cares for everyone and doesn't show favoritism.

With that framework in mind, I present to you the infamous Dr Seuss:





Combine my previous thoughts and those videos and gee whiz... blows me away. (The psychedelic 70's moments and the Carpenters-esque music just add to the fun.)

What say ye?

Promises and all that jazz...

Not to be a tease, but I have four posts on the way. They include:

1-camping, otters and disc golf
2-Dr Seuss, the emerging church and love
3-grace, bad "evangelism" tracts and Methodism
4-Paul and "hell"

Soon!

Break's over...

Well, I think I've decided its been long enough.

Here's the issue: I like to stir the pot. Which is fine normally. I get away with pushing buttons and fanning the flames a lot. I don't mind the negative reactions that come my way--I like the fight. When it affected those I love and care about, however, it made me pause and think.

I don't know how to approach this. I like asking questions. I like talking about the things no one else wants to talk about. I like being able to put it all out there. I like being completely honest and not having to hold myself back. I want to continue these things.

I do not, however, want to cause grief or hurt feelings.

So I'll be walking a fine line. At times, I'm sure I'll cross that line. It happens. I will not be anything but true to myself, though. This is who I am.

There's a possibility of posting a ton of videos from the past few weeks--mainly political and social commentary. But here's a quick run down of my thoughts and events from the past month or so:

-I like to blog--I missed it
-I got to see Shane Claiborne speak at Lipscomb
-Sarah Palin, in the words of Andrew Sullivan, is a "farce"
-Brittany and I have set our sights on moving to Spain
-we got a new puppy--a lhasa apso named Penelope Jane (pics to come because...)
-we finally got a camera
-I like it when people who are supposed to be on the Late Show w/ David Letterman don't show up and he harasses them all night
-Bobby came into town for a couple of days--high five
-Kaleidoscope threw it down at the Capital Art last Monday night
-my concerns about the government keep growing (can we say multi-billion dollar buyout of groups that let greed overtake their good sense?)
-disc golf and scooter rides offer moments of sanity when I need them most
-Barack Obama is not the answer to our problems--he may be the best choice of the available options, but that's about it
-I can't handle much of the Grateful Dead
-my wife is an amazing human being that makes each day spent with her better
-we decided to sell the VW Jetta--its all scooter all winter, baby!
-I setup an appointment in October to let Mr Wes Carter do his thing
-leaves have started changing, fall is coming, my allergies are getting worse
-I need to play music as often as possible--I might otherwise explode
-I like to blog--I missed it

Drum roll, please...

Well, I blog a lot. If you are going to call yourself a "blogger," you need to be about the business of posting regularly. And I do. I put a lot of thought, effort and time into my more lengthier posts--but even if its short, I only post something if its worth you reading or watching.

I am incredibly grateful for all of you that read my blog--I typically have several hundred hits a week comprised of anywhere from 75-125 individuals. (I have my blog monitored by SiteMeter.) I am even more grateful for most of you that post comments on here--I thoroughly appreciate the conversation. Regardless of whether or not I agree with comments, I am always glad that the discussion goes on.

However, for several reasons, I'm going to take a break from blogging. I will continue to read the blogs that I normally do and I won't turn comments off on my own blog--I just won't be writing any new posts or comments for a while. I don't know how long. Maybe a week. Maybe a month. Maybe two months. Long story short, I'm taking some time off from it all.

Please, by all means, read some of my older posts if you haven't before. I've written on a lot of fun (and a lot of not-so-fun) stuff. But either way, there's a year and a half's worth of posts to read if you'd like.

Here's me, sadly waving goodbye:



I'll talk to you later...
-JD

Normally, I'm a Colbert kind of guy. But...

This is too good for you NOT to watch.

The infamous John Stewart, everyone:

John McCan't...

I don't get it. I really don't get it.

Why would anyone in their right mind vote for John McCain? Why?

I've only been able to discover two reasons someone might vote for him as president of the US:

1-He's a Republican party candidate and they're voting Republican no matter what. (Why they'd do that, I don't know.)

2-He's "pro-life." (I put that in quotations because he's not 100% pro-life. He's about 75% pro-life when it comes to his voting record and past statements on his stance.)

I can't find any other reason someone might vote for him. And those two don't make a lot of sense... actually, the first makes no sense. But the second makes some sense. I just don't see how you can boil everything down to that. You want to support someone who doesn't support the killing of babies, right? But what about the Iraqi babies he doesn't mind killing? I'm pro-life, sure. But I'd take it a step further: (to quote Rick Warren) I'm whole life. I care about the child after its born--about its healthcare and education and the economic circumstances of its family and so on. Being pro-life is a big picture issue. Its not just a political stance. Being pro-life isn't about voting Republican. In the same vein, for a president to call himself/herself pro-life, they need to be more holistic about it than simply being opposed to abortion.

I'm not the biggest Obama supporter. (I'm actually a big Clinton supporter, but that's old news and another post). But telling people I'll vote for Obama brings with it a set of assumptions from a lot of folks. Collin and I talk about this all the time: I'm not a Republican, I'm not a Democrat, I'm not a conservative, and I'm not a liberal. But sadly, in the current US political system, people assume that if you're not one, you're the other. Please don't. Just because I'm opposed to John McCain doesn't mean I'm opposed to right-wing political stances. Just because I'll vote for Obama doesn't mean I'm pro-abortion. My world view is much bigger than that.

Voting for a president is such a big decision. I hope we put all of our thoughts, feelings, logic, reason, and experience behind who we vote for. This is the next four years for all of us, but the repercussions will last much longer than that...