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.

Last weekend, my wife and I took a trip to my hometown.  I already posted some of the thoughts I had on our visit.  But the following is the story of why I went and what I experienced in one main point.

I received an email from the wife of my former youth pastor last month who told me of an old friend of ours who had lung cancer and who didn’t have very long to live.  She had heard of a benefit dinner their church and friends who hosting for them at the end of March for some financial needs they were having as a result of Bob’s sickness.  She wanted to know if I would consider attending.

I didn’t have to think long.

There are certain people who go through your life and are here and gone, that might leave a passing mark but who will fly as quickly from your mind as they came into it.  Bob was not one of those people.  He was always at church with a smile, telling me “I could do it,” and brightening my day each and every time I saw his wife and him.  He encouraged my service for God any creative way I wanted to serve Him, even if it meant disrupting the lives of a few old conservative churchgoers in Rural Ohio.  And he fixed my car.

My first car was a Pontiac 1000 (not a Chevette), and I paid a whopping $300 for it from a friend of my dads.  My best friend Clay and I worked hard to make a sound system out of a 6 speaker box from the 70′s and a tape cassette walkman that Clay hardwired into the car.  The first tape we played was Petra’s “This means War.”

About 2 months into the infatuation period between my car and me, the red clunk broke down. I had very little money and no car knowledge, but Bob stepped up and said that he’d fix my car, and all I’d have to do was pay for the parts.  The cost for my parts came to about $2 less than I had at the time.  ($36)

Bob was at church and at youth group, where he helped the youth pastors faithfully for several years every Sunday with a smile and a word of encouragement.  And now he was in need…and sick…

It didn’t take me long to think.

I talked to Carie, who said that it would be an okay weekend for us to go back to the homeland, and I booked to airline tickets, apparently just in the nick of time.

There’s a lot I could talk about now, like the 50 people or so that I hadn’t seen in about 15 years, who meant so much to me, many of whom had poured their life into my own.  Or the new church that Bob and his family attend now, that I believe is making a tremendous impact in this small community for Christ, and that found it in themselves to host this amazing event for a family in need.

But I think I’ll focus in today on being able to fly over 1000 miles across 3 states, and see someone who had poured there life into mine for what now seems to be such a brief season, and be able to tell them (and show them) how much they meant to my life, and how much his example showed me how to follow Christ in a way that I believe Christ wanted to be followed – quietly, humbly, joyfully.  It was also important to me to look into his eyes for what I knew would be the last time and share with him just exactly what he meant to me.

It’s my opinion that we all need a Bob in our life. It seems that we have plenty of people who are constantly talking, convincing, prodding, and even sharpening.  But we also need a Bob – someone who quietly and gently just loves God and us with a smile that could encourage a baptist to clap.

Now, I’d love to hear your story.  Read the guidelines.  (if you don’t know how to particpate in a blog carnival) and let’s swap some stories.

Today will be a break for Monday’s Moments because I am in my birthplace in Ohio and couldn’t seem to find internet until today at noon and don’t have enough time to put it out there.  Poor planning on my part – and of course this does not constitute an emergency for you!  See you next week at Monday’s Moments,and I’m looking forward to hearing your amazing stories.

By the way, Does anyone know who won the basketball games this weekend in the NCAA?  It would appear that I’ve been out of the loop.

Until next time…

For those of you wondering what a blog carnival is all about when I talk about “Monday’s Moments”, a storytelling blog carnival every week, you might want to chck out where I came up with the idea in order to get a better understanding of what it’s all about.  Randy’s carnival  around the “Wednesday Watercooler” is growing and filled with a lot of very cool posts on arts, culture, blogging, and life.  Check it out now!

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.

My Easter was special for even one more reason than it already is this year.  It was a typical Easter, though for the first time I was doing the preaching on Easter Sunday.  I became the lead pastor of FC about 5 months ago, though I had been here at this church for about 8.5 years.

And the service was great!  After the service, I did the typical thing and talked to a lot of people, Fellowshippers and Guests, and had a blast just chatting away.  Then like usual, I walked home, where Carie had made an amazing dinner we were able to share with some family and friends.

Before dinner this year though, I was able to confer a degree.  Ever done that on Easter Sunday?

You see, though my father-in-law, Tom, lives in New York, some of his mail, for whatever reason, still comes here.  And this week, his degree came from Liberty University. 

I knew that he had worked hard over the last few years on his MBA,and that he was doing it online.  And last July he finished his course work.  So in the mail, all the way from Jerry U. came this cardboard cylinder that one would only put something of value that coudn’t be bent or destroyed in.

So before our services on Sunday morning, I “conferred” (yes, very much intended) with Tom’s wife, and we decided to have a ceremony before our Easter dinner that day.

So before dinner yesterday, we all sat down and I asked Tom if he would stand up, and that I had big news.  Everyone kind of got nervous as I stood and smiled, probably for different reasons.

Tom probably thought “grandchild”.

Carie probably thought “emergency”.

Our guests probably wondered what the heck I was doing.

But in the end I was able to hand over to Tom his MBA degree from Liberty University, an accomplishment I know he worked hard on, and I was honored to be able to give the diploma to him on Easter Sunday 2008.

Welcome to Monday Moments! 

HERE are the guidelines. If this is your first time giving your “One shining moment, PLEASE take time to read them. It will save us both a lot of time.

To join me, do 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.

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

Yesterday, as I mentioned here, I encountered a virus on my computer the likes of which I haven’t seen for a for about 5 years.  I was doing some google searching on “authentic community” in preparation for the next four weeks at Fellowship, and I came across a web site that looked like it “could” be useful, with a video on the front page that said I needed to access a “Flash player” to download it. 

I’ve downloaded a flash player or a shockwave player or an adobe reader lots of times and just figured this was another one of those times, which it was not, because when I pressed the button, it brought up a popup that said I had let viruses into my computer and “do I want to run a virus scan immediately?”  The immediate answer, by the way, should be no. But in a fit of reaction, I hit yes.  Hitting yes to this,and not the first pressed button, was indeed the thing that released the virus onto my computer. 

Earlier I was thinking of a good way this could be used as an object lesson or as a point to make about life, but really I just remember how ticked off I was that I could instantly make that decision and allow a crappy virus onto my own laptop, and how I wasted a whole morning trying to fix this mess I created. 

So no lesson here today, except to be careful kids, of the buttons you press on your computer. It could end up being more trouble than its worth.

Until next time…

Guidelines

1.  So what exactly IS Mondays Moments (MoMo) anyway?

M0M0 is a “blog carnival” (that concept is explained here). Basically, the idea is that on Monday you post a story that happened to you in the last week–anything funny or interesting that made your life last week (from Monday to Sunday) crazy, fulfilled, too busy, hilarious, wistful, or any number of out of the ordinary happenings that made you happy or miserable last week.  You post a link back here to my MoMo post, and enter your link in the “Mr. Linky” form at the bottom of my post.   

2.  You do not have to ask me first before you participate in MoMo.  Just jump right in. 

3.  You are not required to use the MoMo banner, though you are more than welcome to do so.

If you do, please be sure you’re using the the current one, at the top of this post.  If you don’t know how to add an image to your post, you can follow the instructions here. 

4. Please only leave a link if you have written a MoMO post.  Please mention MoMo in your post, and link back to my master list here.

From here on out, I’ll just delete “empty” links.

5.  Link to your MoMo post, not to the front page of your blog. 

This makes browsing so much easier for everyone, especially when people browse around in the archives.  For an explanation on how to do this, go here.

6.  Please DO NOT host your own MoMo “Mr. Linky” at your site.

I’d like to keep “Inspired by a True Story“ as the only homepage for Monday Moments, for simplicity’s sake. 

7.  Please be patient with your e-mail questions.

In particular, if you have a question that could be answered by using the “Help” section in your blogging software (“How do I upload images?” or “How do I link back to you from my page?”), please check there for answers first.

8. When you enter your link on Mr. Linky, you will most likely notice that it says “delete link” next to your name.  If you click on that, it will let you delete what you just posted.  No one else can see it, just like you can’t see the “delete link” next to my name on my computer.  Make sense?

9. Enter a 3-4 word description of your post, in parentheses, after you put your name.  Be descriptive, be specific, and BE BRIEF.

For example, where the box below says “Your Name”, you might put:

Billy (The worst day ever)

-OR-

Steve (Guitar Hero Champion)

-OR-

Carie (My great husband)

Make sense?  This will make it a jillion times easier to browse through the tips.  PLEASE KEEP YOUR PARENTHETICAL TITLE TO A MAXIMUM OF 4 WORDS. Mr. Linky freaks out sometimes when the “Your Name” portion gets too long, and it can mess up the alignment of the whole deal, making it harder to read.

10. I’ll put my MoMo post up no later than 12:01 am (central time) each Wednesday.  Frequently, I’ll have it up an hour or two earlier.

I know this is a lot of information!  Please know that I’m just trying to find a way to make it easier for people to browse through all your wonderful creative ideas.  Thank you SO much for participating in this–YOU are the reason it is such a success!

11.  I reserve the right to delete any links that are inappropriate.

12.  These guidelines were based on and used from Randy Elrod’s “Watercooler Wednesday” guidelines.  Check out that blog here.