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446 Miles, BBQ, Fireworks, and the Fourth of July [Day 5]

We departed Sundance, Wyoming with a steady drizzling rain pushing us down the road and had in mind to make Belgrade, Montana (just outside of Bozeman, MT) our goal for the day/evening. There was no real agenda or itinerary for stops or sightseeing for this day. Since it was the Fourth of July, we figured we’d make distance our holiday and push as many miles behind us as we could…I was counting on most people doing parties and cookouts and not being on the road with us. My plan worked; the road was rather barren of travelers and there wasn’t much in the way of attractions along our way for this leg of the journey.

Beautiful Panoramic Landscapes

“Lord how glorious are your works…” (Psalm 92:5)

The journey between Sundance and Belgrade was an interesting mix; there were hills, mountains, high desert, and plains. The views were incredible. We also traveled through the Crow Indian Reservation… not so majestic (sad face). We have traveled (over the years) through a number of American Indian Reservations and the ones we have experienced (Northeast, Mid-South, Southwest, and Alaska) have all been a very depressing to me. I don’t want to get all “soapboxy” about the subject, but I personally feel that we have committed atrocities and disservice to the Native Americans more than any other people group on the planet. I was especially keen to this feeling of depression as I observed the figurative juxtaposition of our own 4^th of July celebration against the witness of a people without a lot of freedom, liberty, and justice. I was also reminded of some of the horrendous atrocities of the “Indian Wars” as we traveled through Little Big Horn, Custer’s Last Stand, and a few other notable battle sites. (sigh).

“Know that the Lord he is God: it is he who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people.” (Psalm 100:2)

Highlights

Not much to recall on this day’s journey… One thing I can say is that my upper body and shoulders are getting extremely fatigued. It’s been five days on the road for daylight to dark and my upper body is Ti – red. I need a break or a serious massage. Fortunately, I think we will finish the drive in a couple more outings. Of course, I have to unload and unpack then, but I’m hoping for an adrenaline rush to get me through that (smile).

Ok, so here’s the highlight of the day …and it didn’t come to us until the very end of the trip.

We decided to eat in Bozeman, Montana (the choices were better according to the Garmin). We arrived around 8pm and I’m pretty whipped; my arms and shoulders are in knots and I’m pretty “flat-lined” of the brain. Seeing an Applebees Restaurant and a Famous Dave’s BBQ close together with a huge strip mall parking lot between them, I decided to pull in and park the Big Ole Yeller Truck. I pulled into an open spot in front of a Camero not noticing (at the time) there was a man sitting in the car. I wasn’t close mind you… I pulled into a spot with yellow lines on both sides of me. The Camero was pulled in perpendicular to the “lined spots” actually taking up three parking spots with his car. Fast-forward… I turned off the engine and opened up the door and Camero-man was out of his car and scowling at me. He says; “You have this whole parking lot and you have to pull up right in front of me???” This was said with little veins bulging in his temples and big veins bulging in his neck. I’m like, (calmly)… “I’m sorry, would you like me to move?” He scowled more and said “no” and then complained a bit more about my choice of parking spot… and I apologized again and asked once more if he’d like me to move the truck… this time jumping back into the seat and making motion to start the engine. He declined my offer again and hopped into his car and moved to the other side of Ole Yeller, still parking perpendicular to the lines and pointing to the strip mall.

Chapter Two

We decided to eat BBQ and had a delightful meal. We took our time and it was close to 10:00pm when we finished and just getting fully dark outside. Remember this was the 4^th of July… and we were in Bozeman, MT. When we stepped outside, heading back to the truck and ready to make Belgrade, MT for the evening and our Holiday Inn Express, we were greeted to fireworks in the sky at every point of the compass. They were being shot in several locations filling the “big night sky” of Bozeman. And… The parking lot, streets, curbs, and sidewalks were FULL of People and I mean FULL. This was Camero Man’s reason for fussing at us. We had parked in an area that would obscure his view of the fireworks. Of course, being interlopers into the land of “Big Sky” and all things Bozeman, we had no clue. We get an “F” in local protocol, but Laurie said I had the attitude of Jesus when I was accosted by “Wanting-to-watch-fireworks-camero-man,” so all in all I think we were able to score a passing grade of C+ as missionaries on this evening.

Chapter Three and Epilogue

It wasn’t easy getting Ole Yeller out from the sea of people and from under the “pyrotechnic big sky of Bozeman” and we got a little twisted around to boot. The Garmin doesn’t like getting turned around in parking lots and starts freaking out like “Rainman” repeating “recalculating, recalculating, turn left then left, then.. recalculating, turn right then left, recalculating…” so, I got kinda lost and had to go about 5 miles into the gunpowder and sulfur smelling crowds of Bozeman before I could find a “recalculated route” around the congregations paying homage to the “technicolor fire gods of the sky.” In the end, we found Belgrade… the Holiday Inn Express… and a great night’s rest. I’m ready to press on to Spokane, Washington today. Pray for us as we take on the Bitterroot and Swan Mountains. God Bless!

A Certain philosopher asked St Anthony: Father, how can you be so happy when you are deprived of the consolation of books? Anthony replied: My book, O philosopher, is the nature of created things, and any time I want to read the words of God, the book is before me. (Desert Fathers: CIII)

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I dunno, some of you might be familiar with the movie Bye-Bye Birdie…and some of you not. Whatever; with the internet, you’ll be able to figure it out easy enough. Cliff’s notes version is that it is about a young rock singer who has been drafted into the army ala’ Elvis (if you don’t remember Elvis, I’m really getting in trouble with dating myself). Anyway, to the point… Read the rest of this entry »

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It’s been awhile, so I thought I’d spread a little “link love” sharing who I’m following and what kinda stuff I’m grazin’ on…

Are you interested in blogging? Oh, so, good stuffs here

I’ve talked about You Version on many occasions, it keeps on getting better and better. Digital Leadership did a great head’s up article on this latest update this past week. Check out all the specifics here.

I mention the Jesus Creed website quite a bit in my blog and recently mentioned the book 40 Days of Living the Jesus Creed as a Lenten devotional that Laurie and I are follwing together. I thought I’d link back to Scot’s Jesus Creed website in case you were interested in learning a little more about that.

How religious is your state? This is an interesting survey…not sure what it really means, but interesting nonetheless.

If you want in the “conversation,” you need to speak the lingo…

I really enjoyed Larry Osborne’s Sticky Church book; since reading it, I have been taking note of his blog posts. I thought this one was not only timely, but thought provoking as well.

Bringing it on American Idol…I bet you didn’t know this (I didn’t)

An interesting comment that prompted a remeberance of a quote from C.S. Lewis:

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal…Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat, the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.  The Weight of Glory,  C.S. Lewis

And with that last quote…I’m reminded of my meditation for the day: “Love my neighbor as myself” (Mark 12:31) (Leviticus 19:18)

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Oh man…this is too much and hilariously well done. I found it while looking at 10-top ten lists on Todd Rhodes’ Monday Morning Insite page. HT Todd!

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Found a lot of cool stuff around the webworld and blogosphere in recent days and thought I’d share some of it with you. Let’s start with church marketing guru Richard Reising who makes an excellent point about helping to bridge “outsiders” to be “insiders” with his continuing Starbucks analogy.

Brian McLaren furnishes a passel of interesting links from one of his “blog round-ups” here.

There is an intriguing analysis from Ed Stetzer on the latest data from the Barna group looking at behavior and experience during the Christmas season. He furnishes us with a few more links to look at as well.

I’ll be teaching an adult Christian ed. class this winter on “how to read the Bible,” so I am continually on the lookout for interesting topics and material to help me with my endeavors. Michael Spencer aka internetmonk.com gives props to some books and thinking that might help me out. I thought some of you might like his information as well.

I would have missed this one if it weren’t for Scot McKnight’s head’s up post (his weekly meanderings). Scot shares an insightful and thought-provoking article from Tim Keller on the gospel message. If you’re looking for something to kick-start your morning or your thinking, this is it.

Tim Stevens (executive pastor at Granger Church) was one of the speakers at the recent Sticks Conference I attended (and blogged about here). He offers up some thoughts on denominational association and influence on his blog that I thought were worth reading and sharing. Mark Beeson, senior pastor at Granger, tags on his thoughts about the topic here.

Monday Morning Insight blogger, Todd Rhodes, shares this link about the coming trends in mulit-site campuses with this post.

I think this entry from stuff Christians like is hilarious…not only is it funny on its own, but I can totally relate (LOL)!

If I haven’t provided you enough fodder for thought yet, how about this furious barrage of links:

• Emergent-Missional 2008 highlights
• Reading the Christian Mystics and more here…
• Can’t get enough??? Try this from Themelios.
• Still not enough??? Here are Trevin Wax’s Kingdom People Blog with a few links and a chance to win his favorite books of 2008.

HAPPY Blogging!

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It’s been awhile since I’ve shared some “link-love” and have stumbled across some exceptional postings (in my opinion) from the blogworld over the past few days. Some of these you might have seen, so if it’s a repeat for you…just click on through.

Ok, so let’s start with this one from i-monk with a thoughtful and timely piece on the Church as the Bride of Christ.

If you’re looking for a little sarcastic comedy relief, Jon, the author of stuffchristianslike is on a roll again. Rather than link you to one post, I’m shooting you to his mainpage. Scroll and click, he’s got some hilarious stuff there the past few days. Might even wanna pick yourself up a “sidehugs” Tee.

More articles on the church and some of the latest social movements affecting it. This is from Ben Witherington III site. It is an in-depth review on Frank Viola’s Book Reimagining the Church. I haven’t read this one yet, but it is on my “get to read list.” The article is in multi-installment format and is due for a response from Frank Viola soon.

Here’s another couple of series from Bill Easum I have been following for the past month or so. One is the Apostolic movement and the other is tracking the other “conversations” in the emerging church. These are multipart articles, so you’ll need to follow them on the main site. These are very thoughtful posts and worthy of the time to read.

Finally, just a couple more quick vids I found from links on other sites. I believe this is the latest in cutting edge wholesome, Jesus-inspired, entertainment. I mean…hey, Christians like to relax and be entertained too.

It’s not the Lo-co-motion…

He’s my friend too!!!

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heheheh special appearance by… “moi”

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…so more link love to share!!! Wow, I can’t believe that it’s Friday again already. Where did the week go? Here’s another collection of places I’ve been cruisin’ around the blogosphere this week. I hope you are encouraged, challenged, provoked to think some, and moved to chuckle a bit among a few other emotions. Now, qualifier aside…on with the links:

First up, my good friend Nate has relaunched his blog. Rather than introduce you to him myself, I’ll let you get the scoop directly from him at his blog: Thy Kingdom Come or www.natewigfield.com

I’m a reader, so I’m always checking out other peeps’ reading list to see what I should add to my own. I got a forwarded advance of chapter one from Craig Groeschel’s soon-to-be released “It” (late July or early August). Here’s a link to chapter one if you want to preview it too. Looks like it might be a good read.

I’ve been saying for years that one of the greatest challenges facing the American church is our lack of understanding of what it means to be a “subject of.” We (in the church) talk about Jesus as King…Jesus as Lord, but we have no concept of the term or experience with its implications; the very foundation and underpinnings of our nation was based on rebellion and the refusal to be subjects of the king. Generally speaking, we Americans have democratized chrisitanity (italics and lowercase because I think our version of christianity on the whole has little to do with Christ Jesus). One need not look very far to see the divisiveness of our thinking and attitude toward “one King to rule them all.” Church denomination and affiliation is most often all about the Jesus we have created in our own image. “We like the Jesus we create…He’s the one we will serve…” Yeah, right; only until he (Jesus) does something we don’t understand or agree with, then it’s time to vote in a “new Jesus” or move to another church that has a “better Jesus.” Anyway…I liked the article I read here, it reflects some of my own thoughts.

I read this and thought it was an awesome gesture…in the world and not of it, Babeeeey!

Another thought-provoking post from prodigal jon and his Stuff Christian’s Like blog.

Oh, and did I mention I like to read??? Well, for the times you might not be able to read, but have the ability to listen you can now get these free (read-public domain works) audio books. I found this site (LibriVox) and a loooonnng list of titles that can be listened to direct from the site or downloaded and made into CD’s or loaded into your favorite MP3 player. Here’s Thomas a Kempis’ Imitation of Christ…for example. Cool huh?

Had enough? How ’bout a few more quickies…

• Interested in the Emerging Church?
• Taking the pulse of the emerging church…
• This is here for my own reference; you might like it too!
• We’ll end this Friday’s links of love with a laugh

Have a Blessed weekend!

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Throwin’ out a few happenings from around the blogosphere with some Friday Link Love. Some hits I’ve enjoyed this past week follow:

From Stuff Christians Like:

• Score your male worship leader
• Score your female worship leader

Other thoughtful and funny stuff on jon’s site, but I especially got a kick out of these this week…I think you will too.

Do It Yourself Deity by Bishop David Roller. This is a nice piece which helps us to look again to the mirror of our own soul. Checking our personal motive in comparison to the mission and kingdom of God to which we, as followers of Christ, have been called.

If you’ve got some time, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this talk…

What is your answer to Perry’s “What if” questions?

A post and some thoughts on religious pluralism. I plan to share some thoughts of my own in a future post here on the icrucified blog.

And now, to end where we began…a little funny and levity back on the “Stuff Christians Like” website and a few pages from the SCL Dictionary. Kudos to Jon for some really hilarious stuff!

Have a very wonderful and blessed weekend!

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