A Quarter of an Inch!

I have been cutting my own hair for the last seven or eight years. The routine is simple, lay out a sheet of newspaper on the bathroom counter, take out the clippers with the quarter-inch guard already on it, and zip it over my balding head.

Monday morning I awakened around 6:15 after a weekend of restless nights and the weighty thoughts of a few clients I was going to see that day with whom I had been struggling or had been particularly burdened. I set out the newspaper (Baptist Standard sheets) and plugged in the clippers. I zipped the clippers from the bottom right corner of my scalp up to the top of my right ear. The hair fell on to the paper and I thought, "that seems like an awful lot of hair." I looked at my clippers, and there was no guard!!

I instantly panicked because I had been ribbing my wife for a while now about going to the skin and knew she hated the idea. "She's going to think I did this on purpose!" So with one strip of hair gone. I awakened her and looked down at her with wide eyes and said, "I think I messed up!" She grogily asked me what I was talking about, and I turned around to point to the patch of missing hair. She said, "Well, I guess there's not much you can do about it now." rolled over, and went back to sleep.

So, taking my wife's words of wisdom to heart, I completed the task. I never knew a quarter of an inch of hair added so much until now.

Ashton on the News

Ashton was invited to be a part of a week-long mentoring program sponsored by the City of Abilene called MIMES. Click on the video to learn more about the program and to see my beautiful daughter on the news! Pay more careful attention when the story shifts to the zoo. Ashton is wearing a green shirt and is briefly interviewed. Enjoy!

My Aching Back!

Well, we finally bit the proverbial "bullet" and purchased enough grass sod to start a front yard. Before the sod was delivered, we decided to use one pallet in the back just off our back porch to keep Holly (our chocolate lab) from tracking in a lot of dirt/mud. We have plans in the Fall, to spray in a big back yard and the north side of our house to round off the yard.

The big purple semi pulled up to our home at 9:00 AM and delivered 8 pallets of sod for us to lay before the day ended. The workers included my fabulous wife, mother-in-law, 12-year-old daughter, 9-year-old son, myself and two dear, dear, DEAR friends Corey and Dustin. Corey helped in the morning hours and Dustin showed up for the afternoon. Oh! I can't forget Scott who laid out the last 3 rectangles for us. The kids worked their little buns off for about 2 hours and were pretty much spent. The both headed to the showers and then to a swimming pool with friends.

By lunch, we had about 5 pallets!! Yeah for us!! I had to go show our old home to a prospective buyer around 3 and by the time I got back, Laurie and her mother had most of the back yard pallet emptied.

This morning we all got out of bed VERY gently. But we think it looks pretty good. We just need to keep it watered... hello high water bill!

The Man with the Horned-rimmed Glasses

I have jumped on the "Heroes" bandwagon late. Fortunately I have been able to DVR most of the episodes via SciFi Channel marathon. When I watch a series like this I am VERY anal about watching all the episodes in order. Last night I started episode 17: Company Man and had to turn it off because it was late. This morning I finished watching it as I ate breakfast. By the end of my second cup of coffee, I was crying like a baby!

One thing you have to understand about me is that I am NOT a very emotionally expressive person when it comes to television and movies. The last time I remember crying in a movie was during Passion of the Christ. When Jesus looked at Peter across the courtyard after the denials, it tore me up! Well, today, Heroes had a very similar effect. If you are a fan of the show and have not gotten to episode 17 yet, DON'T READ THIS BLOG! There are major "spoilers."

For those of you who have not seen the show, a little background is important. You see, there is this "man with the horned-rimmed glasses" that is a supporting character. At the first of the series you think maybe he's the "evil villian -- Sylar" and then you get confused as to whether or not he is a "good guy" or a "bad guy." He's the father of "the cheerleader" Claire, but he is also very connected with an organization that captures these genetically mutated people and "tags" them with tracking devices. He knows about his daughter being one of these genetically mutated people and throughout you wonder if he is just waiting for the right time to get her, or if he really does care about her and is trying to protect her. His motives are always in question, and most of the time I thought he was just an evil man.

All your questions are answered in episode 17. You find out that he really does love his "Claire Bear" and has to make the ultimate sacrifice for her. In order to protect her, he submits to this mutated guy who has the ability to erase memories on varying levels (e.g. erase the day, erase a lifetime). The "man with the horned-rimmed glasses" knows that if he has any recollection of his 16 year-old daughter that his "company" could track her down and ultimately end her life. So he tells this memory eraser to "go deep and take everything out." It was a very emotional scene because Claire is with them and is begging him not to do it. He knows it's the only way to save her.

I sat there crying thinking about my own daughter, how much I love her, and how terrible it would be to have to scrape all memories away of her. The times I would push her on the swing, swim with her as she begged me to catch her "one more time" off the side of the pool, or just hear her call me "daddy" or "dad." That would be TERRIBLE!

We can learn a lot from "the man with the horned-rimmed glasses" about sacrificial love. A love that puts its object before his/her own desires and endures pain because it is what's best for the loved one.

Transcendence is Immanence

I am currently reading Phillip Yancey's newest book, Prayer: Does it Make Any Difference? Yancey is one of my favorite Christian authors because he has an incredible balance of fundamental theology without being a fundamentalist. He is not afraid to ask tough questions and put them in print. One of his first books I read was Dissappointment with God. The title says it all.

This weekend the portion I read had to do with the "otherness" and magnitude of God and trying to understand it in terms of His affection for us. It has been my experience that we tend to vacilate between unhealthy extremes: God as our friend/buddy; and God as One to be Feared. Yancey explained that it is his "otherness" that allows him to be intimate. It is precisely because God is not bound by our earthly concept of time that he is able to attend to all of our prayers at once. In essence he was saying that it is His trancendence that enables Him to be immanent. That is a beautiful insight!