the passion of the Christ

thanks to my friend kerri and fbc for giving us tickets to go see the passion movie last night, here are some of my thoughts..

i guess growing up southern baptist we never really talked about what crucifixion really is, as was evidenced once again by the traditionals that filled the theater last night. many still dressed in their "sunday best" (do they sleep in those clothes?). the congregation looked and acted like your basic 11am sun morning crowd. the packages of kleenex being opened could be heard as soon as the opening music score started - these guys have watched too much tv - probably the same crowd that gives over their life savings to folks like benny hinn.

Ok, on to my review.
First, i would say that this movie is probably more for christians than it is a catch all evangelistic piece. and praise God for that. it is about time that those that follow Christ clue into what the sacrifice actually was. the truth of the matter is that i was relatively clueless as the next person until i joined clay street (AKA The Soul Cafe.) i am so thankful to those that had gone before us like nathan, stacy, and shannon for opening up my eyes and making it all become new and alive all over again. strangely enough, people routinely share their frustration with us (the clay street night folks) that our worship is too dark and dealing with too much of Jesus' suffering and not enough of the "feel good" type of happy Jesus stuff. well this gibson movie may be the best thing for us since our purchase of the Mackie 32 channel board. did i say something about a review????

back to the movie.
one of the things that i am most thankful for is that mel gibson is catholic - using the stations of the cross the catholics really seem to have a handle on the whole process of the suffering where most protestants, from my experience, usually want to get away from the idea of the cross and talk only about the idea that he was raised from the grave. certainly a great point, but don't leave the suffering out - i identify with that much more easily than that of raising from the dead. the other thing that catholics have on us is their respect (not deification, mind you) for mary, the mother of Jesus. most of the tear jerking moments came from their interaction and flash backs and for me it completely worked. it was a great reminder that Jesus was all man as well as all God and it made for a good escape from the violence, albeit a more emotional road at times.

the movie is mostly likely everything you hear about on tv. all the good, all the bad. both critics are somewhat correct. keep in mind that without the holy spirit, the movie just simply looks like a crazy man being killed by crazed church people. with that understanding, the anti-semitism critique is somewhat accurate as is the gratuitous violence. being a believer is different of course because you know more of the story. like i mentioned earlier, there is a lot that the movie doesn't tell about Jesus, so don't expect unbelievers to beat a path to your congregation just because they saw this movie. certainly folks will come to know Christ, but don't rely on this movie to do all of the work for you.

at the end of the movie it was clear to many of the tormenters that Jesus was who he said he was and that was what stirred me. To see God move (the earthquake, the dark sky, the temple veil ripped) even on screen, was a big deal to me. I wanted to yell the famous drew barrymore line from charlies angel's "Now that's kicking your ass!" but didn't think the ladies around me could handle any more trauma for one night. When it was over we quickly made our way out. i didn't want to stick around and listen to any folks' opinion, i wanted to process it all with my own family. Of course being that we did get free tickets, we did have to stay at the end for a few comments from the local clergy, kinda like having to take the time-share compound tour just to receive your free steak knives.

overall i think this is a great movie released at a great time. i am certainly glad i saw it and i think everyone (above the age of about 15) should see it, but i don't know that i ever want to watch it again. who knows. i am sure i'll be one of the first to purchase the dvd, i just may never open it.

a room at the inn

we had a big answer to prayer this morning when some friends of ours in houston said we could stay with them during the surgery. we actually stayed with them for the last one and it worked out perfectly. this will save us a ton of money that we will most likely need for other things. PTL.

well today is the opening day of the passion movie and looks like i have to wait til april to go see it. here in kerrville all the churches have bought out the theaters for the next several weeks. i guess not being part of any organized religious institution may at times have its drawbacks. oh well, i can still go to the ash wednesday service at the local catholic compound, i certainly am looking forward to that.

have a happy wednesday.

i am back at home finally...because the day was so nice, we decided to take a drive. here are some of the pics we shot during the day. have a great weekend.

i'm in sunny florida today where it is supposed to be warm and sunny. well, it's sunny, but not warm. oh, well. i had the opportunity to attend a hockey game last night where i was able to watch the tampa lightning win a great victory over (some other team). At the last minute i was invited to a box section with all the vittles a guy could want - i must say it is the only way to watch a sport, oh did i mention that i got to sit in a leather chair...

i'm supposed to be paying attention in this training class so i'd better cut this short before i get busted (i type too loudly, everyone is looking at me).

have a great week.

The date has been set

ok, so let me catch up. the texas children's hospital called this morning to recommend tyler for his next surgery and we set the date for march 29th. we are still unclear as to how involved this will be or how long the hospital stay will be or how to even discuss it with tyler. he knows that this is likely to happen, but up until now has always had a hope that it wouldn't be needed. pray for him that he will not stress out over this one - leave that to us.

yesterday i was informed that i have a new boss (again for the 4th time in 10 months) - bill stacy. he is currently the director of marketing for us which means that he likes to spend money. our hope is that he will allow us to spend our way back to success. i know it sounds like a republicanesque type of idea, but when it comes to technology, the biggest spender is usually the winner.

at clay street we have had an electrician there for about a week running new lines and re-wiring switches and what not. i am excited to finally have a ton of this done. of course while verifying that the new electrical does in deed work, i discovered that the sacred mirrored ball has indeed experienced some sort of abuse. with the spot light burnt out and the tiny little carabiner that holds the ball to the rotor missing, my stress level has reached an all time high (not really). i am certainly convinced that the longer you are involved in christian ministry, the longer the list of names of people you need to kill, if you could ever find the time. i guess with such little time, it would be better to spend time teaching the passion of christ instead of anything else of such a destructive nature.

what else? oh yeah. my friend jeremiah has redone his blog page and of course it looks great. it is becoming more evident each day that i am going to have to break down and learn some code so i don't have such a chump blog site anymore, but there again, so little time.

have a great week.

ad campaign for clay street

ok, so let me know what you think and yes i know, my feedback option still doesn't work, sorry. by the way, it is still being worked on so you have to endure the layout guides, they obviously won't appear in production. the logo is nathan's handiwork, i can't take credit for that.

i'm in (not really sunny) long beach, california for the rest of the week visiting with my dad and going to a telecom conference in san diego. we visited probably the hippest library i have ever seen, complete with electronic everything as long as it had the word mac on it - really i don't think there was a pc in the whole complex - note to self.

we crossed a picket line to buy some groceries, visited the most excellent video production system of any ministry i have ever seen (i tried to get out the door with a new sony dv cam, but got caught), and ate some great sea food. we have had a really good time.

today we are on our way to san diego, one of my favorite places on the earth. i am so looking forward to it

doesn't play well with others

ok, so i klepto'd the title from a bumper sticker, but it fits.

all my life i have wanted to play keyboard in a band or by myself or whatever. i haven't really worked hard at that goal, it's just something i've wanted to do. kinda like watching the olympics and saying "i wish i could be an olympic skater" but reality says you have two left feet and you live 250 miles from the nearest patch of artificial ice.

well i've been given to opportunity to play keyboard at clay street and i so want to do it. long story short is that 35 years of playing my own thing translates into the fact that i can't follow rhythms and beats of normal everyday musicians - which is pretty important. it's a real hard pill to swallow 'cause deep inside i can play, but i play to my own metronome. part of me says that the music is so good already that i don't want to take a chance of messing it up, and part of me says to quit making excuses and dodging a chance to learn something. anyway, hopefully the father can use me in this area somehow.

we don't have a verdict just yet but you can certainly tell from the photos that something is amiss. we should hear from the doctor later in the week concerning what they want to do.

the picture on the left is tyler's bad side, the picture on the right is his good side and how a normal shoulder should look.

reggie asked me to fill in on bass this next week and i am so excited to be able to play matt redman's song "blessed be your name" - one of my new favorites. yippee.

we had a cat scan of tyler's shoulder and upper torso this morning. lemme tell you - there's nothing like doing an internal fly-by of all the major organs of your son. i was certainly impressed as i watched on the monitor. unfortunately the scan seemed to show exactly what we thought...his right shoulder is messed up...the term FUBAR comes to mind, but then i'm not a doctor so i shouldn't use technical terms like this, huh?

the 5th time's a charm

we made it to houston and back safely - ptl - it was nasty weather for most of the trip.

the surgery that we thought we would have to have in a few months has been changed to another one. because we are literally on the edge of the medical science in this area, the protocol changes periodically. apparently since our last appointment, the childrens hospital's 3D rendering software for cat scans has changed dramatically and now they can see what the root cause of the problem is and not just a symptom. the doc felt certain that he knew what the problem was, but just to be sure he has ordered one of these new scans. after this surgery (a removal of part of the shoulder bone) tyler should have much more range of motion with his arm. we are certainly pleased with the new discovery, but at the same time dismayed that we have to go through this again. it never gets easier, the pain just grows deeper.

fate awaits

we return to the Texas Children's Hospital in Houston on Thursday of next week to determine if Tyler needs more surgery. please pray that he doesn't need this next one (his 5th surgery).

i think i am comforted more by the questions than i am the answers. or maybe it is just that i don't really trust those giving the answers, dunno.

by the way, i am working on the feedback part of my blog, i just haven't placed the tags in the right area. don't give up hope.

Happy New Year!

I thought i'd start the new year with a bang and write on my blog - so here it is.

:) Kerry

had my usual wednesday guys meeting earlier in the week and while there we talked about the christmas service on the 21st. we have been talking about showing pictures of people's childbirth moments (directly after birth, not the Discovery Channel rated R type stuff) and i brought up that we need to remember that for some folks childbirth is not a positive emotional time but a very painful time. no sooner had i said anything, one of the guys there said "i knew you'd bring that up, i was just waiting for it" - like this was my own personal prison and i was all too eager to lock everyone else up in with me. wow, and these are my so-called "christian" friends.

you know, maybe i'm completely wrong and subconsciously am trying to spoil everyone else's perfect birth moment experience, but the way i look at it, the Father gave us our experience for a reason. one of those reasons was to make us (Dianna and I) sensitive to others who have had issues in this area. i don't think it is too much to ask that church service planners remember this and keep in mind that there may be others out there that don't connect the way their perfect little family experience does.

want examples...ok, how about the viola's who had their son die during delivery when the cord wrapped around his neck, about 2 years ago this month. how about the behrends who had their young child die during a swimming accident last summer and now they have to spend their first christmas with only his memory. do i need to go on? christmas can be a time of great joy or great sadness. surely it is wise to understand that and demonstrate what the coming of the christ-child has to offer in that respect. or is that just a bother, like me?

so sick of cheap churchy cliches and sayings, sick that followers of Christ accept them as words from the Master, and even more sick that we think we can win the world by tossing out these cheap stupid sayings that only those on the inside know what the hell they mean anyway.

turn or burn - get right or get left - i've proven the truth to you so now decide your eternal fate - NOW!!!

ENOUGH ALREADY.

new family pics

i'm a sucker for a trial membership to almost anything. the most current one is smugmug. it seems to be one of the best photo sites without having to know much code. go check it out here and let me know what you think.

Pax!

another 23 bite the dust

i was going to say another one bites the dust on thursday when my boss quit but i thought that would have sounded rude, but now that 23 were let go on friday i guess i could have said anything i wanted - anything would have paled in comparison to 23. i must stop my comments at this point...i don't want to be number 24.

well another one of our management team quit today - our executive vp and general manager of kerrville telephone. not real sure what that means for five star or for me personally, but surely it can't be any worse than the way things have been since our vp was fired last april.