iLog 2009: Week 1

My apologies as the Batcave has been down this week for some remodeling. It all started last Saturday, and I finally had it back in order...well...it's still not completely back in order. I got the computer back up and running late Wednesday night, I think. The days are starting to all run together. I'll post pictures and a more detailed update later today on Sounds From the Batcave. For here and now, let me catch you up on this first week of immersion. Honestly, it's been slow.

Day 1: Sunday
I worked the sound system for ACF like I've done every Sunday but 3 or 4 for the past 13+ months. I have to be there by 8:30 in the morning, and I usually try to spend some time with the Lord before I go, but we were up late Saturday night working on the batcave, so I believe I slept in until 8. (Wow, I used the 3 major conjunctions together in one very long sentence.)
After service and lunch, we napped until game time then headed over to some friends' house to watch the Steelers eek out a thrilling victory over the Cardinals. Good game, great fellowship.
Also, more work on the Batcave.

Day 2: Monday
Back to work at the radio station. Although I'm supposed to be part time now, I put my hour sheet together for payday on the 3rd and realized I had 78 1/2 hours in a little over 2 week time period. My check was around $60 less than what it would have been if I were still on salary. Not bad for part time work.
By the way, our tax return came in on Friday, Jan. 30th. We had prayed for the 2 weeks between filing our taxes and receiving the return over on what to spend the money. So, we've been bidding on some things on the station's Bids For Bargains program. (Bids For Bargains is where an advertiser will trade a certain value of dollars from his/her store/service for that same amount in radio advertising. The station then holds an on-air auction everyday to sell off these items. The opening bids start at half the retail value. Many people get things for up to 50% off retail value. Some items have become so popular that they go for 80-90 cents on the dollar. You're still saving money, but it's a better deal for the station.) So, anyway, we've won Bulldog Furniture open certificates (which mean they spend like cash in the store) and picked up a new dining table and chairs, and a new red leather chair for the Batcave. Since I've been typing this, I honestly don't remember on what day we picked these up, but I know it was this past week.
After spending the afternoon working more on the Batcave, I went to praise band practice up at the Plaza Theater for ACF. Came home and worked some more in the Batcave.

Day 3: Tuesday
Worked at station, napped, worked the Bids For Bargains store at the station till 6:30, worked on Batcave.

Day 4: Wednesday
Worked at station, lunched with friends, napped, received first shipment of new things for the Batcave. Actually, it was a new computer monitor from Newegg (thanks, Chris Provence for turning me on to that site) that I gave my parents, and I took the one they had, because it matched the other one I had in the Batcave. So now I have dual, matching monitors, again. I had that before, but one of the monitors went out, but I'm back in bidness, baby!
We attended Life Group meeting at 7, came home and worked more on the Batcave.

Day 5: Thursday
Worked at station, napped, received second shipment of new things for Batcave, this time from Musician's Friend. I started putting things back together in the Batcave.

Day 6: Friday
Worked at station, ate lunch with a buddy, did a remote from Denny's Home Furnishings, went to the Alumni Association Recognition Banquet at Western Oklahoma State College. The station's owner/manager was out of town and asked Bridget and me to go in his stead. It was a fabulous evening! We even got to hang out with some friends we normally don't get to hang out with after the banquet. Long, but good, day.

Day 7: Saturday
Worked at station till noon, went over to Eddie and Joan Wilcoxen's house and helped with some technical issues in his studio and her office. They bought my lunch for my help. I enjoy spending time with them. He is a consummate story teller, and they are just neat, neat people.
Came home and took a short nap. Picked up last two chairs for dining table out at Bulldog. Good friends came over a little after 6 and stayed until a little before midnight. Time FLEW! We had a great time of abiding and praying and seeking God. I'm sure you'll hear more about that another time.

So, the first week is over, and not a heck of a lot of immersing going on. That will change. The Batcave is in order now, so music should hopefully start to flow soon. Plus, I plan to post everyday or every other day henceforth. Gotta go get ready for service this morning. Til next time!

Soli Deo Gloria

The Press and Teenage Sex

While I no longer do my show at the radio station, I still go in every weekday morning to take care of the early production needs. Eddie, the AM morning guy, handed me an article he printed from The Wall Street Journal website written by William McGurn. You may have seen some of the following headlines and stories, but I have not. I think this article does a great job of clearing some things up, so I thought I would share it with you.

It seems Janet Elise Rosenbaum of Johns Hopkins University conducted a study called "Patient Teenagers? A Comparison of the Sexual Behavior of Virginity Pledgers and Matched Nonpledgers," and published it in the Jan. 1 edition of Pediatrics. The numbers show little difference between those who pledge and those who don't, and that most do not make it to the wedding night as virgins. Well, the press had a field day. The following are the headline and a few excerpts from McGurn's article (click on the headline for the full article):

"Like a Virgin: The Press Take On Teenage Sex"

"Virginity Pledges Don't Stop Teen Sex," screams CBS News. "Virginity pledges don't mean much," adds CNN. "Study questions virginity pledges," says the Chicago Tribune. "Premarital Abstinence Pledges Ineffective, Study Finds," heralds the Washington Post. "Virginity Pledges Fail to Trump Teen Lust in Look at Older Data," reports Bloomberg. And on it goes.
In other words, teens will be teens, and moms or dads who believe that concepts such as restraint or morality have any application today are living in a dream world. Typical was the lead for the CBS News story: "Teenagers who take virginity pledges are no less sexually active than other teens, according to a new study."
Here's the rub: It just isn't true.

...the only way the study's author...could reach such results was by comparing teens who take a virginity pledge with a very small subset of other teens: those who are just as religious and conservative as the pledge-takers.

The first to notice something lost in the translation was Dr. Bernadine Healy...[who]...pointed out that "virginity pledging teens were considerably more conservative in their overall sexual behaviors than teens in general -- a fact that many media reports have missed cold."
What Dr. Healy was getting at is that the pledge itself is not what distinguishes these kids from most other teenagers. The real difference is their more conservative and religious home and social environment. As she notes, when you compare both groups in this study with teens at large, the behavioral differences are striking. Here are just a few:
- These teens generally have less risky sex, i.e., fewer sexual partners.
- These teens are less likely to have a teenage pregnancy, or to have friends who use drugs.
- These teens have less premarital vaginal sex.
- When these teens lose their virginity
they tend to do so at age 21 -- compared to 17 for the typical American teen.
- And very much overlooked, one out of four of these teens do in fact keep the pledge to remain chaste -- amid much cheap ridicule and just about zero support outside their homes or churches.
Let's put this another way. The real headline from this study is this: "Religious Teens Differ Little in Sexual Behavior Whether or Not They Take a Pledge."

What...parents hope to do is direct these [sexual] desires in a way that recognizes sex as a great gift, which in the right circumstances fosters genuine intimacy between a man and a woman and at its freest offers the possibility of new life.

[However,] these families live in an environment where most everything that is popular -- television, the movies, the Internet -- encourages children to grow up as quickly as possible while adults remain locked in perpetual adolescence.

For these parents, the good news here is that the striking behavioral differences between the average American teen and the two teen groups in this study show that homes and families still exert a powerful influence.

Really, please take the time to read the entire article. There's honestly not a lot more, but it will help to fill in some blanks. Again, I hadn't been exposed to the uproar of media hype following this publication, but it sounds like the liberal media. At the bottom of this article on WSJ.com, it has links to some of the headlined stories. See if you can pick the one that is different:

Related News From the Web
The truth about teens and sex - The Boston Globe JAN 03. 2009 boston.com
Study: Religious Teens More Likely to Abstain from Sex JAN 03. 2009 foxnews.com
Virginity Pledges Don't Work, Study Finds DEC 29. 2008 news.aol.com
Abstinence Pledges Have No Effect On Sexual Behavior DEC 29. 2008 huffingtonpost.com

Ah, you never know what you might find when crossing the Kingdom. Father, help us to redeem this world.

Soli Deo Gloria

A New Beginning

In oh, so many ways. First, welcome to my new blog. I will continue to post to my others, but this one shall be reserved for more focused thoughts on God, church, life, and all thoughts pertaining to, but not limited to, God, church, and life.
(wow, that was a big, complicated sentence)

Second, welcome to a new year! '08 is gone and '09 has arrived! May God bless you and keep you in the new year, and may He cause his face to shine upon you.

Third, my time at the radio station has been dramatically cut. When the economy bottomed out in October, so did ad revenue, and so did the funds for my salary. So, no more morning show, and no more headaches and major responsibilities at the station. Scary? Most definitely. Exciting? You have no idea. I now have been given the time to pursue those things that I know God wants me to pursue, and to discover other things He may want me to do, as well. It also will allow me time to work with my father, which will be a treat and hopefully a viable means to support the family until these other developments really take off.

So, please pray for us as we enter this new, exciting, scary season in our life. Also, I will keep you on the mailing list from Sounds From the Batcave (if, indeed, you were on it) for this blog, unless you tell me otherwise. If you would like to be added, please let me know.

Thanks for your prayers and support, and be encouraged!

"...therefore...hope..."

ACF's men's retreat is this weekend. As of right now, I'm going. However, I'm not sure what my boss was thinking when he said I could go, unless he thought the rest of the employees at the station could handle both him (station manager) and me (program director) being gone. To add to the distress, our AM morning guy informed me that he would not be there Thursday or Friday. I will be gone Friday. Matt is gone all week. Added pressure will be upon the rest of the staff. Can they do it? I think so. They're going to have to handle it. Fun stuff, I'm sure.

I'm currently reading from the gospel of John. This morning was the passage about Jesus turning water into wine. The commentary from my Life Application Bible mentioned how most of Jesus' miracles were the renewing of fallen creation: blind to see, lame to walk, dead to rise, etc.

That is interesting. I guess I never looked that much into it. It makes sense. The Author of Life rewriting a bad story line. Isn't that what he does for you and me? He redeems fallen creation. Thank you, Lord, for being our savior. This from Lamentations 3:21-24:

But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
"The Lord is my portion," says my soul,
"therefore I will hope in him."

I give you the situation at the station and the men's retreat to ask for your prayers. I give you the passages of scripture to encourage you. Therefore hope.

Soli Deo Gloria

Music Permit

If you make a rule, then some idiot's going to try to enforce it. This morning's "Eddie's Stuff" produced this little gem:


Amazing how quickly we forget the original meaning or intent of a rule or law. We do it today with the seperation of church and state, and so many other things. I received this email from my father yesterday:

THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY WAS INSTITUTED TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL. NOTE: IN 2008 THE BUDGET FOR THIS DEPARTMENT IS NOW AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR. THEY HAVE 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES. What do they do?????

How quickly we forget. Reminds me of the pharisees. In being so strict in following the law, they forget why they were following it in the first place. So strict, so literal. No room for interpretation. No room to use your brain and do the right thing at the right time. Thank You, Lord, for Jesus and His love. Thank You for Your grace.

Sharp Dressed Man

Ahhh, yes. How many of you immediately thought about ZZ Top? Kudos to you. If you don't know who ZZ Top is, well, granola bars to you. For those of you who don't remember that Kudos were actually (if they aren't still now) some type of granola bar, just know that I'm not crazy. Seriously. Back to the song.

On my morning show, there is a segment called "Eddie's Stuff". Our AM morning personality comes over, and for 10 minutes, or so, gives us his unusual "stuff" for the day. Today, he talked about the "Shower Suit". It's a suit made of 100% wool and is supposed to dry very quickly. You can shower in it or hang it up and run water over it. It's designed with the always-on-the-go business exec in mind. So, the song I played following "Eddie's Stuff", and tying in with this last story of the morning was, indeed, "Sharp Dressed Man."

All of that to get here:
I look good today. Seriously. Khaki, flat-front pants, nice, button-down green striped shirt. I look sharp. I am, indeed, a sharp dressed man. However, before you get too jealous of my wife, please know, that when I sit down, my pant legs hike up to about my knee. Well, maybe not that high, but I do, in fact, look like I have "high-waters" on. Yes, a lot of sock is showing. Fortunately, my socks are similar in color to the pants, but still. Yikes! It's like they don't fit right or something.

Lesson: humility
You know, just a bit of humility to keep me from getting "too big for my britches."

Be encouraged.

P.S.
Learning from my "10 Lessons", I wrote this little anecdote down this morning, so I wouldn't forget it. Aren't we all glad I did?

Don't answer that.