what do you really KNOW?

I had a great conversation with Greg & Daniel the other night at Spicy's. We were there to watch the utter spanking of Tenneseee by Louisville in the Sweet 16. It as an excellent opportunity for engaging coversation, since the entertainment was clearly lacking.

The basic point of the discussion was this: way too many Christians claim to KNOW way too much about God, the Bible, faith, and the appropriate way to flesh out a Christian lifestyle.

This may be the very foundation of Christian division - both personally and denominationally. One person/group says, "I KNOW (this) is true and should be done this way." The other person/group says "No, you're wrong. I KNOW (this) is true and should be done this way." Emotion, bickering, hurt feelings, and anger ensue. They are unable to resolve differences in a peaceful and open minded way. And a split of some kind occurs.

You can simply fill in the blank for (this) .... communion, baptism, faith alone, faith and works, tongues, spiritual gifts, pastoral roles, financial stewardship, worship music, preaching styles, evangelistic methods, salvation, tithing, role of women, the Holy Spirit, physical attire or appearance, care for the earth, treatment of animals, dealing with sin in the church community, medical practices, healing by the Spirit, confession to a priest, vanity, child rearing, home schooling, involvement in political matters, role of the husband or wife, dating, legalism, care for the poor, abortion, age of accountability, liturgy of the service, and on and on and on.

But really ... what do we really, truly, KNOW about all of these matters? For instance, I know that murder is wrong. God specifically and undeniably says it is unacceptable. He also never says anything that might refute that fact. However, He does not clearly and precisely tell me how to dress. I can "infer" from Jesus' teachings and from understanding the character of God that there is a line in which my physical attire could be considered sinful, but I don't KNOW what that line is, do I? Nor does God tell me the exact rules regarding the use of music in church worship. He certainly does not specifically say that it is sinful to either use music or not use music. And He shares no preferences on whether he likes rock, folk, pop, or hymnal styles the best.

There is so little that I know and SO much that I don't. I know God created the heavens, the earth, animals, and people. I know He loves me. I know He sent Jesus to die for me so I could live forever with Him. I know He wants me to love Him more than anything else. And I know He wants me to love my fellow man as much, if not more, than I could ever love myself. I know that Jesus was baptised, so it's both important and meaningful to follow that example. But I don't know if baptism is absolutely 100% necessary for salvation. I know that the disciples and the early church met together to break bread and partake in "communion" to remember Christ. But I don't know exactly how often they did so, whether they ONLY did it on Sundays or Wednesdays, whether they had a "communion prayer" every time before taking it, or whether they took it all at the same time or took it as they felt led. I know that the early church met to worship the Lord, but I don't know how long that lasted, what instruments they did or didn't use, what lyrics their songs consisted of, or whether they were more "pentacostal" or "lutheran" or "methodist" in their emotional and physical reactions to worship. I know that I've sinned and am doomed to eternal death without believing in Christ. But I don't know whether or not someone in the Amazon jungle - who's never been told about Jesus Christ, but who sees the amazing beauty of creation, realizes it has to come from a higher power or supreme being, and cares for the earth and for his fellow man - is saved or not. I can't possibly know.

What I am coming to know the older I get is that God's love and grace is far bigger and wider and greater and more encompassing than you or I could ever imagine. I do know that throughout history He has used people to accomplish His purposes that, if we knew them personally, we probably could not imagine how they could have been chosen by God. I also know that most of the issues listed above (and so many more) have very little to do with our salvation and with God's intense love for His people, and much more so to do with our small mindedness, our inability to put God in a box, our emotional insecurities, our lack of love for others, our desire for power and to be "right".

And, in some backwards way, all of those things are simply another reminder of how sinful we are, how incapable we are of saving ourselves, and just how much we needed Jesus to come to earth, die on a cross, rise from the grave, take away the sins of the world, and be our best friend, our Lord, and our Savior. Is it possible that we could all spend a lot more time focusing on that...and much less time focusing on almost everything else?

the beastie boys felt left out

Somehow or another, I felt it unfair to post a favorite songs list regarding Caedmon's Call without following it up with a similar one for the Beastie Boys. I'm not sure why. It just seemed like something I needed to do.

Considering I've been listening to the Beastie Boys for over 20 years, "License to Ill" was literally the 2nd cassette tape I ever owned in my life, I've had the song Paul Revere memorized since I was 11 years old, and the dudes are now like in their mid-40's and still doing some pretty good stuff, I don't really feel that bad about it.

However, I was unable to dwindle my list to 10. Partly because I didn't want to take as much time agonizing over it. So I've trimmed it to 12 ... and they are not really in an particular order, so I won't trouble with numbering them. So, here goes:

Root Down (Root Down)
Body Movin’ (Anthrology)
Negotiation Limeric File (Hello Nasty)
Paul Revere (License to Ill)
Brass Monkey (License to Ill)
Check It Out (To the Five Burroughs)
Right Right Now Now (To the Five Burroughs)
Shake Your Rump (Paul's Boutique)
Sure Shot (Ill Communication)
Get it Together (Ill Communication)
The Move (Hello Nasty)
Just a Test (Hello Nasty)

Caedmon's Call

A couple of days ago, I was thinking to myself, "you know (Jason), some day down the road, Caedmon's Call is going to call it quits, and no longer continue making new music."

I'm not sure why the thought came. What I do know is that it made me terribly sad to think about it.

I can remember being introduced to their music in July 1997 at a week of church camp. I remember listening to "Long Line of Leavers" for the first time while driving in Michigan in the fall of 2000. I recall seeing them live for the first time around 1999 and marveling at the use of 30 gallon trash cans on stage during the performance of "Thankful." I've been fortunate enough to see them live 3 times. There are times when watching them that I can't take my eyes off the percussion guy, who plays about 20 different things over the course of a concert. They have at least 2 dozen songs that I've listened to over and over and over and over and have never gotten tired of.

So, with GREAT stress, frustration, changing of my mind, changing it again, and again, and finally just going with what I had...I've compiled my Top Ten favorite Caemon's songs. A few things of note ... I have not heard the entire "Share the Well" album yet, so I have nothing to offer from it. There are no songs on my list from the 2nd Company of Angels album, as I find that to be my least favorite by far. I'm not including the Derek Webb solo albums...if I did, a couple of his songs would almost definitely crack the Top Ten. I've always liked best the songs sung by Danielle Young, and/or the songs written by Derek Webb. Finally, I should say that my list started with 26 songs. From there I narrowed it down to 18. And with great pain, I finally whiddled it down to 10. It made my brain hurt.

So, here it goes, in order from 10th place to 1st place....

10. Sacred (from Overdressed)

9. The Emptiest Day (from Back Home)

8. You Created (from Back Home)

7. Climb On (from 40 Acres)

6. God of Wonders (from In the Company of Angels I)

5. What You Want (from Long Line of Leavers)

4. Prepare Ye the Way (from Long Line of Leavers)

3. Not the Land (from Caedmon's Call)

2. Close of Autumn (from Caedmon's Call)

1. Somewhere North (from 40 Acres)

What are your thoughts on Caedmon's? Any memories? Favorite songs? Hottest band member?

ncaa heinz ketchup bracket update

First round: 15 of 32 winners, 15 total points
Second round: 9 of 16 winners, 18 total points

Recap: My first round was going okay, then went sour in a hurry. Still, I successfully picked 9 of the Sweet 16 teams, including Davidson and Villanova.

Current point total is 33 points. Not bad for the flip of a Heinz Ketchup packet

my ncaa heinz ketchup bracket

I did not enter an NCAA bracket pool. I will lose if I do. But here's how I filled out my personal bracket for this year:

I automatically picked each #1 seed to go to the Sweet 16. For all other games, from the 1st round through the championship game, I flipped a Heinz ketchup packet. If it landed ketchup-bottle-picture up, I chose the team at the top of each bracket. If it landed white-side up, I chose the team at the bottom of each bracket.

At this time, I'm currently 11 for 20 on my Heinz ketchup packet picks. My Final Four are Notre Dame, Villanova, Temple (oops), and UCLA. And I have Temple (oops) beating Notre Dame in the final game. Oh, the craziness of March Madness!

thank you, jake

I feel very honored today. A fellow blogger in Las Vegas - a friend/brother of friends we have here in Knoxville - submitted a recent post based on my personal request.

You can see it here. Thanks, Jake.

an arm, a leg, and a tank of gas

Yesterday evening, on my way home, I stopped to fill up my car. When I was done, I had officially paid the most I've ever paid in my entire life for a tank of gas.

$40.60

For a 2002 Mazda Protege LX with a 13 gallon tank. Wow. I'm curious....what are you spending on a tank of gas right now?

poor easter bunny

Poor Easter bunny. He/she just doesn't get the kinda love that Santa does. No letters from kids. No movies about him. No cookies and milk waiting by the fireplace. No sitting in his lap asking for certain things...why would you, when you already know he's just gonna give you candy.

Of course, who doesn't wanna get em some candy?

what's your voting criteria?

This picture was taken at a Batesville, Mississippi muffler shop:

So, what criteria do you use in determining who you vote for?

making it official

I guess I need to officially declare myself a vegetarian. I haven't actually done that yet. It started out as an interesting thing to know about, then evolved into going a few days without meat and realizing I wasn't morphing into an alien, and now, after 2 weeks, I'm ready to say I'm going to commit to not eating meat.

I need to also say I hope to NOT be constantly be talking and blogging about vegetarianism. But, for the short future, because of the changes in lifestyle and the adjusting, it will certainly be on my mind. I'm not really trying to champion the vegetarian cause, and I don't think someone who eats meat is gross and disguisting and should be forced to butcher a baby calf with their own hands so they can experience the horror of killing an animal.

Also, I will consider myself an "Octo-Lavo" vegetarian....meaning I will still eat dairy products. Cheese, eggs, milk, etc. I also will not be overly concerned with whether or not something I'm eating was made with animal by-products in some way. These are steps taken to become a true vegan. But I find them daunting and frankly too difficult. It's like saying, "yes, I'm concerned about the atmosphere and fuel consumption, so I'm going to buy a 40mpg car" vs saying "yes, I'm concerned about the atmosphere, so I'm going to ride my bike to work from now on." Much bigger commitment, much harder work, and just not for me at this point. My main focus is simply no longer eating meat.

Why am I doing this? (and i should say, at least at this point, my wonderful wife is along for the ride herself, way to go Erin!) Why be a voracious meat eater and hamburger lover for 32 years, and now this? Wouldn't the Atkins diet be more fun? Won't I starve to death?

Well, there are several reasons.

1. I'm not much of a diet person. I don't want to cut out sweets, and I have a hard time with small portions. Vegetarians can eat to their hearts delight. They actually can eat MORE food than meat-eaters, because the food they're consuming has fewer calories per volume than meat does.
2. Meat provides only two nutritional products....protein and iron. That's it. But it also provides lots of fat, calories, and cholesterol. And you can get PLENTY of protein and iron by eating grains, nuts, vegetables, tofu, tempeh, and fruit.
3. An estimated 15 - 20 MILLION farm animals are killed every day in the United States in order to meet the demand for meat in our country. The processes used to raise, feed, fatten, kill, and process these animals are no longer natural (not like your grandfather used to do it on the farm). Frankly, these processes are unhealthy. They're unhealthy to the animals, to the land, to the farming industry in general, and to the food and products derived that we eat. We simply eat and waste way too much meat as a society. As a result, we've turned raising livestock into a type of industrialized factory in order to meet the demand.
4. It's been estimated that the amount of crops/grain/corn/oats used to feed and fatten livestock in the US alone could effective end world hunger as we know it.
5. It costs less. Eating out at restaurants costs less. Cooking at home more often costs less than eating out. Making almost all of our meals to take to work for lunch costs less. A pound of tofu costs $2.00, much cheaper than most meats.
6. I already feel heathier. I don't feel nearly as hungry throughout the day. When I am hungry, it's not so much a "craving" as it is just noticing that I'm hungry. In the last 2 weeks, I've not had one meal where I felt bloated afterwards (you know, like you feel after eating the Wendy's double cheeseburger and fries?). And I've already lost about 4 pounds.
7. I don't really like to exercise. Never have.
8. I appreciate what I'm eating more. I think more about where the food I'm eating came from, how it was produced, the work that went into growing and harvesting it, the fact that God provided it directly from his own hand in creation. It has somehow added a spiritual aspect to eating that I never experienced before.

What am I worried about? I'm worried about getting bored of eating the same kinds of vegetables and fruits. About not having time to cook and feeling tempted to grab a pizza from down the street more often than not. About resorting to eating cereal way too often. About friends and family feeling weird about it, not knowing what to cook or where to go out to eat (which really isn't an issue). About giving meat a try again down the road and it making me sick because my body isn't used to it. About how it will affect our son, Eli, since it's almost impossible for a child to be a vegetarian and go to public schools and eat from the cafeteria. We're not really pushing this on him, but we'll simply be more careful about the things we feed him when we're at home. About the "stigma" that people have about vegetarians...that they're all hippies, animal rights activitists, and want to make you feel guilty about eating an innocent animal. None of which describe me.

I'm certainly open to questions or comments of any kind. This has been a pretty big deal for Erin and I, and is not so much a diet as it is a lifestyle change. I'm pretty excited about it, actually, and hope to stay committed. Before you know it, I'll be driving an old VW Bug, wearing tie-dyed shirts, working for Greenpeace, and saying "dude" like a true Lebowski fan. But I'll be lovin' me some zucchini!

some brief updates on life, music, and vegetarianism

My son turns 4 in about 3 weeks. Amazing. That means it's been nearly 5 years since I lived a single day without thinking about our child. Some thoughts are wonderful. Some are maddening. Some are frightening. But for roughly 1700 days now, I've lived life as a father, rather than just as some guy.


I changed the strings on my guitar last night for the first time in roughly 5 years. Actually, back before we were even married, Erin had bought me a package of Elixir guitar strings for my birthday. Right around the time I had stopped playing. I've kept the strings ever since, and finally had occasion to use them last night. It was tough....I never ever have liked changing out guitar strings....but it still felt good.



Because of the example, testimony, and recommendation of our friends Emily & Chase, we bought a rice cooker this weekend. Black and Decker. 14 cups (cooked) capacity with a steamer basket so you can steam veggies while the rice cooks. Non stick removable cooking bowl. Already used it, and I'm very excited. Finally, a kitchen gadget I really feel like I'm going to get real value out of. Unlike the waffle maker, toaster oven, sandwich press, and hard-to-use electric can opener that have graced our kitchen at some point.


12 days with no meat. But plenty of rice, broccoli, zucchini, squash, ramen noodles, pasta, baked potatoes (dan quayle spelling), veggie pizza, a veggie burrito from Salsarita's, the veggie plate at Shono's in the City, homemade whatever-I-can-think-to-put-on-it salads, tofu (marinated in heinz 57 sauce this weekend), peppers, and Mello Yellow....a staple vegetarian drink.

Nine days without meat.

And I'm still alive! =)

crap, darn, shoot, &@%#!!!

Yesterday afternoon in Knoxville produced one of the hardest, heaviest, scariest storms I've seen around here in a while. It only lasted about 15 minutes, but some of my co-workers were really freaking out, thinking we may need to take shelter in a bathroom or something. The rain was coming down sideways. The tin roof of our facility of creaking and sounded like it may rip off. Water was coming in every door of the building, wetting the floors and carpets. Pretty much everyone here was huddled at a window or a door or in the distribution center looking out of the open bay door. It was wild.

And the sunroof on my car was open. $%&#@!!!

MY guitar hero

We went to Kentucky this weekend to visit my family. We're trying to visit every 2-3 months so we can see our nephew/cousin, Grayson, grow up. Here's a picture of Eli and Grayson:

But, there was another highlight to this trip. We do not own a video game system at our home. The last one I owned was an original Playstation that I ended up selling about 6 years ago. I hope to hold off as long as humanly possible before Eli gets a game system for himself.

My sister and brother-in-law, however, own a Nintendo Wii. And while we were there this weekend, Rodney went out and bought Guitar Hero III. We all had fun playing and laughing and making fun of each other's lack of skillzz. But when it was Eli's turn to take it on, holy cow. He watched others play and did a great job of being patient and waiting his turn. When the time came, his aunt Kari Jo took care of the "strumming", while Eli's job was to hit the colored buttons.

After going through a "slow" practice session, we let him go through a practice song at the full speed. I believe the song was "Slow Ride." And my little homeboy hit 25% of the notes! And Kari will probably admit that some of the misses were from her strumming, not his misses, so he may very well have gotten over 30% of the notes at full speed.

But not only that, he was TOTALLY into it. He was screaming out the colors when he changed them, jumping up and down, frantically getting to the next color button in time, grunting. It was freaking hilarious. And he never let down either, even though the songs on that game last forever. It was a blast. I certainly hope he's got some actual music skills as he gets older.