Grandmothers, Sex God(s), and Baby Faces

It seems like I should update. I guess I’ll do just that. I have no theme or topic. I guess I’ll just go stream of consciousness. That’s always fun.

After falling and breaking her leg last week, my grandmother is finally out of the hospital. She is now at Glenwood Rehab. She is doing relatively well. By relatively, I mean she’s doing well for a 94 year old who fell and broke her leg. She seems to be recovering well. My dad visited her Tuesday and said she went to the dining room in her wheel chair for dinner. Really quite an accomplishment.

On the other hand, my aunt (daughter of the above referenced grandmother) is not doing so well. She is in the ICU. She has stage 3a lung cancer as well as rectal cancer. Yesterday she was admitted to ECM because of her outrageously high blood sugar (over 800).

I have long said that my grandmother will outlive us all. As the days and weeks pass, that belief gets stronger and stronger.

I’m off to Opelika again tomorrow. I think I mentioned last week that we are involved in a lawsuit stemming from a project we did there. Tomorrow we go to mediation. Hopefully every thing will be settled there and we’ll avoid a trial. I’m not optimistic.

I have a new project for 2010. This year instead of focusing on writing my own songs, I want to re-write old hymns. I love hymns. I love the language. I love the lyrics. I don’t always love the music. And the music does not translate well to what we do at the 9 am service at Edgemont.

I want to take some of the great old hymns and put them to new FA4C style music. In other words, I want them to rock (and/or groove). We’ve done a few songs like this written by other people (Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing). They are fun and they are so much deeper than the typical contemporary worship song.

That’s the problem I have with a lot of the praise music out there. It’s shallow. Too many songs are no more than “I love you Jesus. We lift you up. You’re beautiful. You’re so great Jesus. I’m so happy Jesus. I like songs that are a little more theologically meaty than that. Most hymns are meaty.

Let me know some of your favorites. I want to use some well-know stuff, but some that are not as well know also. I hope I can get a couple ready for Lent and Easter. So let me know your favorite Lenten and Easter hymns.

I feel like it needs to be said: This may work out about as well as the League of Nations. I have relatively low expectations. I hope to get a couple of songs that sound decent. That may or may not happen, but I’m going to give it a go.

Chocolate Fudge pop-tarts and grape juice do not a great combination make.

Last night we watched a slide show of pictures from youth events over the last couple of years. I could not believe how much older my son looks now than he did in June or July. He had this tiny little baby face in those pictures. I’m still not comfortable being the parent of a teenager. Life is happening too fast!

Speaking of life happening too fast, my 9 year old is causing me great consternation as well. But usually in a humorous way. Earlier this week she came into the living room and announced, “You can’t ask me if I have a boyfriend any more, because I don’t.” I can’t remember the last time I mentioned anything to her about a boyfriend. I know I have, but I have no idea when. As soon as she made this declaration, Misty and I looked at each other knowingly. After our little girl left the room I asked Misty, “Who do you think her boyfriend is?” Last night our son confirmed our suspicions. He found out through the grapevine that she does in fact have a boyfriend. We still don’t know who it is, but I’ll find out. And then I’ll commence Operation: Put an End to This Stupid Boyfriend Nonsense.

I am leading another book discussion group on Wednesday nights at Edgemont. This time we are reading and discussing Sex God by Rob Bell. It’s an interesting book. Should be an interesting group.

The book explores the connection between our sexuality and our spirituality. There’s one problem: I don’t like talking about sex. It makes me uncomfortable. I don’t even like the word sex. I still (after many, many months of agonizing) have not had the “sex talk” with my son. This will be a stretch for me. After last night’s introduction, though, I am really looking forward to leading the discussions. It will be a challenge, but it will be fun.

It’s not too late to join us. We’re starting with chapter one next week. You can read that chapter here: http://www.zondervan.com/media/samples/pdf/0310263468_samptxt.pdf. If you’d like to join us let me know so I can order you a book.

Have a great weekend!