Hoedown at CCC!!

Here's Christy and Jack all ready for the Bluegrass Breakdown!

Tom, Austin and me after the square dance! (it was hard work playing two chords for twenty five minutes!!)


Jack with his great grandma... NAN!


Rosie and me, complete with overalls!


Where The Fish Are

I know I have been frustrating Norah lately. It’s not really my fault and it’s not really hers either… she’s just three years old, you know? Sometimes at naptime she wants to simply sit in her bed and play around instead of sleeping. When I go back in that room and tell her she had better lie down and sleep, she freaks out; but hey, I’m right! If she doesn’t sleep, it’s bad business for everyone including her! She only thinks she wants to stay up. The truth is, she needs to sleep and would be a million and five times happier if she would just get a little rest (as would everyone else). Norah is also lactose intolerant. When I tell her she doesn’t want seven gallons of ice cream, she doesn’t believe me. And look, I know she thinks she wants seven gallons of ice cream, but she’s wrong, because when she has a bunch of good ole cow’s milk, she starts feeling terrible on the inside which comes right on out to the outside! I know it’s frustrating, but the rules we set up aren’t just arbitrary standards intended to make Norah miserable, they are designed (and tailor-made) to make her happier.

This past weekend was our fifth annual High School Bible Study Retreat. My friend Devon spent the weekend telling kids what it means to really follow Jesus. On the first night He shared with them the story of the miraculous catch of fish from Luke 5. This guy Simon and his business partners had been up all night fishing but had caught nothing. They were professionals who had the best gear, experience and knowledge of when and where to find fish and how to bring them in; however, that night they came up empty handed. They came into shore, tied off the boats and got out to start washing the fruitless nets. At the same time a crowd was forming around Jesus, waiting for Him to speak to them. He stepped into the boat belonging to Simon and asked him to push off a bit so He could preach to the crowd on the shore.

Luke says, “When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets." When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.” I know how Simon (later called Peter) felt. I’ve had people stand over me and tell me how to do something musically who didn’t know a minor triad from a major seventh. You just politely smile and pretend to take their advice while you are thinking and want to say, “Let me handle this, okay? I have been doing this for a living for years now and you don’t know what a pentatonic scale is.”

Whatever he was thinking about this strange command, Simon did put out into deep water and he did let down the nets. What followed changed his life… The nets were so full of fish they began to break! Just listening to Jesus even when he didn’t understand wound up being the smartest thing Peter ever did. Jesus doesn’t just randomly make up things for me to do and He doesn’t arbitrarily take me through hard times… no, He doesn’t tell me to drop the nets over here or over there simply because He wants control, but because He knows where the fish are. Everything He takes me through is part of the perfectly worked out plan of the one who knows absolutely everything… Or, as Paul puts it in Ephesians 1:11, “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.”