To Oklahoma and Back

You’ve probably noticed that the blogs have dried up lately – nothing new in a while. Well, there are several reasons for that. First, I spent an extraordinary amount of time studying for a mid-term in Systematic Theology. I’ve probably never studied that long for a test – approximately 10 hours. Historically I don’t do well on test. I’m better at writing papers, I think. Memory is not one of my gifts, so I try to stay away from things that require it. After the 10 hours studying, I took the test, and feel as though I did pretty good. By “pretty good” I mean that I understood all the words.

Second, I’m trying to be more intentional about how I spend my time at home. Honestly, I’ve always been intentional about my time at home, I was just intentionally working on different stuff – sometimes even the blog. With the addition of our second daughter, I realized that I am even more needed. More than that though really; the need for me to be present at home pales in comparison to the joy I experience by being with our girls. With every piece of research I read and with every story I hear, I become more convinced that there is a fathering crisis in this country. Too many Dads don’t spend time with their kids, they don’t know how to connect with them, and many of them are say horrible things to their kids when they do spend time with them. I could tell you endless stories of absentee fathers and dads who call their kids fat, stupid, lazy and unlovable. I never want to be that guy. So, if it means that it takes me longer to get my writing projects done or I have to read at midnight, then so be it.

Speaking of spending time with the family, the third reason I haven’t blogged much lately is because I spent this past weekend at an event in Lawton, OK speaking to a group of teenagers. (Remind me sometime tell you the story of meeting a very cool C-list actress, having to toss out my contact lenses and speak without really being able to see anything, and how I realized that my life was indeed crazy when I was changing my clothes in a church nursery.) The best part of the Lawton trip was meeting and spending time with some very cool emerging Christian artists: Shades of Green, comedian Hoss Ridgeway, and Watershed Worship. I’ve very pumped about the generation of artists – true artists – that are coming up in the church in general and churches of Christ, in particular. Not only did they bust me out some free t-shirts, my two new free Shades of Green CD’s will soon be dropped in my iPod.

Well that's enough blogging for now. Catch you later.