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Carie, my wife, took this picture with my new phone.  I cropped a thing or two out and this is what we came up with.

The tree in the background will eventually have apples.

So there’s this pub in West Boylston that I eat at every Friday at noon called “The Finders Pub.”  I love hanging with my friends and talking about current events and the domination of the Celtics over whatever team they happen to be playing against this week.  The Finders boasts over 32 televisions, including several large screens, and usually I meet with between 4-10 guys there every week.  Today was Darren’s last week with us (pictured on left) as he’ll be moving back to Virginia on Sunday. (but more on that later)  Anyways, this is the Finders, and it’s one of my favorite places in the world to have lunch. 

Where do you like to congregate?

Is it good or bad that everytime I consider the way that the web 2.0 works, I ponder the anti-christ and how he is eventually going to find me because of my belief system, and the web has become is tool to do this?

This is obviously because of the way I have been taught about what the Bible says about the end times, but no matter how hard I try to ignore this, it always comes to my mind.  I’ve gone through these phases where, at first, I knew the web was a part of the whole wretched plan of satan to destroy the Kingdom of God.

Next, I realized I was a bit misguided and decided that the web could be used for good too.  But eventually, it would catch up to us and I would some day be sifted out like tares and wheat for my beliefs, but who cares, now is now, and I could worry about that some other day. (I would of course, be a part of the wheat)

Now I just don’t care what goes out about me and who knows about it.  And if some middle east dude decides to link up Israel and the Arab nations and create a massive country that combines the United States and Europe, so be it.  This does not change what I’m called to do and who I’m called to serve.  I would just assume love my God and my community, and share my adventures around the world.  If somebody doesn’t like love, then he or she can “sit on a tack.”

But until then, because of my background, I’ll always keep in my mind the teachings that started in the 1800’s that imply the anti-christ is out to get me whenever I post anything on this darned blog.

Let’s all sing together: “There’s no time to change your mind, the Son has come and you’ve been left behind.”

Is that bad?

Tonight, theres a lot going on in my life.

I could be watching game 2 of this series.
Or I could watch another new episode of Lost, which is on fire right now.

But I also have my life group tonight, where 10-13 of my friends will come together to laugh, cry, talk, play, philosophize, pray, eat, and basically do whatever close friends do when they hang out.  So despite the fact I love the Celtics, and that I love the idea that Jack wil eventually be free of the island, I’m headed out to hang with these peeps.

Good times.

What are the top 5 reasons to attend Fellowship Church on Mother’s Day?

5.  The people don’t smell like tomato soup.
Let’s face it, a lot of places you go to these days, the people all smell like tomato soup.  Whether it’s the movies or a local restaurant or even watching the kids playing soccer.  That’s right, tomato soup.

4.  There will be lots of moms there. (and none of them smell like tomato soup, as far as I can tell)

3.  The band will be singing a special song to moms, but its not about moms, and it’s way better than this song about moms.

2.  Two words:  Free stuff.

1.  You’ll find out in the book of Hebrews what is just as important as a mother’s love.

SUNDAY MORNINGS @ FELLOWSHIP (10:30 AM)
325 Bullard St
Holden, Massachusetts 01520
www.fellowshipholden.com

Today would be a good day for you and I to go out and get a gift for mom on Mother’s Day.  A card or some flowers, maybe a new imac, if you’re feeling generous. Either way, I thought today I’d post this video that we did at Fellowship Church last year on Mother’s Day. It’s Steve, Mark, Mike, and I lipsyncing to the Backstreet Boys song, “The Perfect Fan.”  Totally crazy!

How’d we do?

It would appear that restaurants can treat their employees any way they want to, a practice that has evidently been going on since I worked at a Ponderosa steakhouse in the early 90’s. 

Last week my sister-in-law,(we’ll call her sis for the rest of this post) came home not very happy from what had transpired at her new work establishment, Via, a sweet Italian restaurant on Shrewsbury St.  She started there about a month ago,and so far, has loved the work environment and the money.

When she filled out an application for working at Via, she wrote down that she was able to work 6 days a week.  The day she could not work was Sunday.  She attends church on Sunday morning (Fellowship Church represent) and generally tries to rest the remainder of the day.  So she was very up front with them that she was available the remainder of the days in the week, but Sundays were off limits.

So she was surprised to see that she was on the schedule to work for Mother’s Day Sunday, May 11, 2008.  She immediately went to the scheduling manager and they debated for the next several minutes as to why she should have to work or not on this particular Sunday.

How’s this for an answer Via  - “The answer is NO.  She was up front with you, and she told you the truth, saying she could never work on Sundays.  You hired her that way, and from the schedule you’ve given her in the last 3 weeks, I suppose you think she’s doing good work (5 days a week), so leave her alone.  She can’t work on Sundays.”

A similar situation happened to me 16 years ago when my scheduling manager at Ponde-gross-a tried to make me work on Mother’s Day Sunday.  My dad, who is a pastor in the midwest, had a few things to say about that, and so that case was closed.
But what about sis, who needs the money and likes working there, but is already being disqualified in her work schedule (coincidentally, this last week she was cut down to 3 days of work) for saying she could not work on the very day that she told them before they hired her that she could not work?

My assumption is that the scheduling manager will eventually forget this Mother’s Day and that she will be on for 5 days again after about a month, but what about next Mother’s Day?  Does she have to fight and then lose days of work again?

I say she goes to work for Chick Fil-A, because they’re closed on Sundays, but she’s not agreeing.

This post is a part of Watercooler Wednesday with Randy Elrod!

Welcome to MoMo’s! HERE are the guidelines. If this is your first time giving your “amazing story”, PLEASE take time to read them. It will save us both a lot of time.

To join me, write a post today (or a post you’ve written from last Monday to Sunday) sharing something tht has happened to you this last week - anything funny or interesting, crazy, fulfilled, too busy, hilarious, wistful, or any number of out of the ordinary happenings that made you happy or miserable last week.  Put a link in your post to this post permalink (not my general URL) and then put the permalink of your post (not your general URL) here at the end of this post. Thanks.  By the way, I do this because I love stories.  To tell them, to hear them, and to read them.

So tell me your “Inspired by the truth” story every Monday…

Here’s mine.

As many of you know from here and here and here and maybe even here, last week was an amazing week, and I learned more than anything that I wanted to “live in the speed of love.” (This is a quote from Vince Antonucci’s book, “I became a Christian and all I got was this lousy T-shirt”)  But in thinking back to last week and toward the future of my life, I want one more thing.

I want to be the person who lives his life, not who watched others live theirs.

I love watching TV, and I love watching sports, but I don’t want to waste my life watching everyone else do their thing.  I want to be used by God to live a life of action for Him (when He calls me to) and when He doesn’t, still I don’t think moving is that bad.  Things like exercise,walking up to someone I don’t know and talking to them, and taking the occasional risk are all a part of doing living a full life, and I want to be that person.

For me, more times than not, that means relationally.  I love talking to people and learning from other people who have been there and back again.  But sometimes I get slothful and would rather just sit back and watch TV.  As I get older, this is not happening less, but more, and I want it to change.

I want to actively find out about you and what makes you tick and succeed, so that I can learn something to better prepare me for ticking and succeeding.

Except on Sunday afternoons.  I still like to nap and watch sports on Sunday afternoon.

What does “Living your life”mean to you?

I love it!  Not only did my Celtics go to round 2 today, but my NHL Penguins advanced to round 3 sweeping in the first round, and only losing 1 game in the 2nd.  Today was evidently a great game, and the thing I love about it was that I found out about the victory from a Twitter friend from Canada.  Life is good.  I would love to see my teams win the Stanley Cup and the NBA Championships this year.

Would you love that for me?

In case you haven’t heard the Boston Celtics crushed the Atlanta Hawks in Boston this afternoon 99-65. 
I enjoyed the game.

Did you?