Chris's Musings

Man, I am really glad that the weekend is here. I'm defintely going to enjoy the down time, even though I'm struggling to keep from going completely sick like a lot of people I know. I'm fine... my voice is not. I didn't sound good AT ALL at Night of Worship (this is the singer in me critiquing my sound quality for the evening)... so I'm hoping that my throat clears up before Upstreet on Sunday. Yes, this is the uber-musical weekend :-). I just got back from the Night of Worship that my friends Jeff, Bethany, Kyle, et. al. put on. It was a great time to hang out in community and praise God through songs... a great way to spend a Friday evening. Even if, I sounded bad... God obviously cares more about the quality of the music flowing from our hearts than the music that's flowing out of our mouths. Tomorrow I'm going to "Coffee House" - an event that Tony Marchetti and some of his crew started up (at a coffee house in Roswell, GA) that has exploded i...

Sad for me to say this... but this Friday was one of the happier times I have had as a Indiana University alum. The drama surrounding our basketball program may not have come to an end... far from it... but the source of that drama has officially left the University. And for that matter (I hope), from coaching college basketball for good. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=3259751& sportCat = ncb The person I'm referring to is Kelvin Sampson, the now former IU basketball coach . Apparently from reading about what is going on with the program, the drama is FAR from over. Especially if DJ White is going to continue to behave disruptively, blowing off Dan Dakich's (the interim coach) workouts out of protest. Not good. Looking back 2 years ago at Kelvin's being hired at I.U., I immediately had a bad feeling about the whole thing. Kelvin Sampson is a very talented basketball coach that could put I.U. back in the national spotligh...

I've got a relatively big prayer request... today in my inbox came a note from GlobalX (the Buckhead Church missions department) saying that I had been selected for a trip this year :-). Awesome stuff. Knowing the deadlines for applying for the trips and the two trips that I applied for, here comes the prayer request. I am now expecting to get a call from the leader of the Estonia English Camp trip in July... which I was praying about and considering and now am SERIOUSLY praying about as I know that I've been selected for this team. The other trip that I applied for was the College Ministry Launch trip that I went on last year in Estonia in September... which is/was my first choice. Does God have other plans for me? I've done the college launch thing for two years in a row now, counting Croatia in 2006... could God want to stretch me in doing something new? I love Risttee Church and the ministry that they are building there... God is doing some great things through them...

Airportopolis – A Place on Everybody’s Must-Visit List! This week traveling for business, I looked forward to spending a week in a new city, getting to explore some of the unique areas of Pittsburgh during one or more of our evenings. I had a conversation with someone before I left earlier this week to get the skinny on some of the cool things to do and see here, and had a few things on my list for this week. But for whatever reason… partly workload, partly a not-as-ambitious-as-I’d-hope-for traveling team, partly the “bug” going around to some teammates… I didn’t get a chance to check Pittsburgh out… again. I’ve been in the outskirts of the Steel City twice before, each time being relegated to the outskirts of town because of where our clients were located and them being very quick trips. The location of this client, and hence where we stayed, is a place I will affectionately term as “Airportopolis.” Airportopolis (n) 1. Any small pseudo-city that artificially pops up near a ...

At Buckhead Church over the last couple of weeks... going into next week... Andy Stanley is taking us through a series that is really aimed at one ultimate goal... getting us to read our Bibles. What? Christians opening up the book and reading their Bibles? No way! But seriously. It makes sense. Sure, some things are difficult to understand (especially without a good base knowledge of ancient history), but we all read difficult material when we have a goal that requires it? So what's the big deal? We all want to understand for ourselves the faith we have... or if we're an honest skeptic, it makes sense to understand the thing that you say you have doubts about before you outright dismiss it. That makes sense, eh? (bringing out my inner Canadian) Now... let me speak to the non-skeptics in the house :) - or at least those of us that have given our lives to Jesus. Last week (or 8 days ago), Andy actually shared his list of things that happen when he gets out of the practice of bei...

Man, I was looking at this... and the blog that I keep on Myspace, and was thinking to myself... "it's been a while since I've blogged." I think that there's a rational explanation to this... maybe... I'm giving up blogging for Lent. Now, being non-denominational and belonging to a church that prides itself on being non-traditional, that would sound a little odd, wouldn't it? And I think Lent (correct me if I'm wrong), ends at Easter... so I'd officially be breaking my so-called commitment by writing this post today, huh? But, seeing as though I'm not Catholic... I don't care. :-) I suppose a lot has happened since the last time I published some aspect of my life, thoughts, opinions for the Internet world to see. But then again, maybe not. Since the new year, the constant in my life has been travel... which has kept my life interesting but has also made 2008 a blur. Being out of town so much, I'm feeling a little obscure socially... whi...