Category: reflections

Driving in reverse

For the past 4 months, our pastor, Brian (aka Brother Treadaway, Brother Brian, Pastor Treadaway, Rev. Pastor Brother Brian Treadaway :-)) has been challenging the men of encounter with the encounter 9. You’ve probably heard me mention it here or on twitter more than a couple times.

Each month we’re given GPS coordinates to an undisclosed location and a set time to meet there. The location varies from month to month. The first month we met at a boat dock and were carried out by john boats to an island in the middle of the lake. The next month we met next to a stock pond while Brian talked about growing spiritually and Scott grilled fish on a nearby fire — illustrating the progress from a baby drinking milk, to fixing our own meals and then fixing meals for others (physically and spiritually). Another month we did a “prayer/Q&A walk.” And this last month we met at a local cometary and talked about our legacy and identity and how Jesus called the disciples out of their known identity — their careers as fishermen or tax collectors, etc — and into a new identity with Christ — as fishers of men.
Continue reading Driving in reverse

Biblically fit

Just how far and seriously are you going to take your faith?

My weight, eating habits are one area I keep falling down on. Over the last 3 years I’ve lost close to 30 lbs., but I still have a good 20 lbs to go and I’m still stuck in the same rut/spot.

But maybe this will help inspire me… from Tripp Fuller’s Doctor

“it’s hard to consume 2000 more calories than you need and large amounts of meat that took even more energy to produce when our sisters and brothers in Christ are starving around the world.”

I missed the gym on Saturday and yesterday due to other things on my schedule – better do everything I can to get back to the gym tonight – and better get me a new workout strap for my Zune so I have some motivation while I’m working out.

Maybe I should put the photo that really kicked start my weight loss a few years back on my Zune as well. Let me tell you – I was a fatty McFatty.

I don’t have that photo online yet – but here’s a photo just a few months before the other one was taken:

hbk and jdb

40 years ago today

Loraine Hotel

Early morning (evening), April 4
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride

In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love…

Pride (In the Name of Love)
U2

Have we changed any since April 4, 1968? Or are we just the same people, worrying about our eight dollar hotdog and ignoring our brothers and sisters around the world who are starving, thirsty and dying of treatable diseases?

(if you can’t see the video, click here)

Interesting family event

I received an email from another Ancestry.com user today (boy technology is great).

The e-mail was in regards to Col. Cullin Earp. Apparently, he’s a Confederate Civil War veteran and his body is being exhumed and moved to a new/more respectful location.

I originally thought the e-mail referred to my 5th great-grandfather, Capt. Cullin Earp, who had been captain of a regiment in Washington County, North Carolina, in 1779. But I quickly realized either my information was off, or the information I received about Col. Cullin Earp was off.

Thanks to my mom’s cousin Mary we quickly (or so we’re led to believe) got things straightened out. Col. Cullin R. Earp is my grandmother’s first cousin thrice removed (that’s not confusing :-)).

My records showed Cullin Earp in our family tree but that’s about all the information I had on him other than his parents, and siblings. Had no idea he was a Col. in the Confederacy.

Well regardless, great information found through this crazy thing we call the Interweb.

Col. Earp (pronounced “Arp”) was just 37 years old when he died in 1865. As a young adult in his 20s, he earned a livelihood raising crops in the Gilmer area. But during the last several years of his life, he was thrust into a military maelstrom that transformed him from a simple farmer into a respected officer and an East Texas hero.

From 1862 through 1864, Col. Earp and his 10th Texas Calvary CSA participated in at least 21 Civil War battles or engagements, a number of which resulted in massive casualties on both sides. As part of the famed Ector’s Brigade, Earp commanded 10th Texas troops at clashes throughout the Deep South, including Vicksburg, Miss.; the bloody battle of Chickamauga, Ga.; the Atlanta, Ga. Siege; and the battle of Franklin, Tenn.

Given a 3-month furlough, he returned to Upshur County in February 1865, likely sick or wounded. In April, Lee surrendered to Grant, ending the Civil War and Earp’s military service. Six months later, he died, survived by his second wife but no children.

Read more about the upcoming ceremony for Col. Cullin R. Earp from the Gilmer Mirror.

The Alphabet Game

I don’t know how many other folks play this, but I always remember growing up and going on trips with my family and as soon as we (the kids) started getting bored, mom or dad would start the Alphabet Game.

Basically your goal is to find each letter of the alphabet on signs, cars, or other objects you can see outside your car window. You go from A to Z.

Apparently Laurie’s family played this too, but with slightly different rules from what I remember. In their family, they had to call out the word and letter they were using so no one else could use it. For example, “Apple – A, Cannibal – B, Cannibal – C, Drive – D.”

We played the game together several times on our trip to Memphis and I also played the game by myself several times while she was reading or napping.

All this to say – Q has got to be the hardest letter to find. I made it all the way to P this morning on the way to work and waited a good 20 miles before I finally saw a Q. And it was on a Quiznos right next to my bus stop.

On my block-and-a-half walk to my office I made it all the way to Z and then back again through the alphabet to X before I walked in the front door of my office. But boy – that Q can drive a guy nuts!