Notes from the Trail

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Carolyn and I went to see Zathura tonight at the Rave theater in Little Rock, We’ve been up here the last few days for Thanksgiving. What a great holiday! I wanted to comment on Zathura, since the way it’s being marketed will cause many to decide NOT to see it. The trailers are relatively tame, and the hype around it is almost non-existent.

However, Zathura is GREAT. Thoroughly entertaining, fun, and an all-around great movie. Even Caro liked it! (and that’s saying a bunch!) I would encourage you to make it one of your holiday movies.

Big Screen Ticket vs. Home Screen Rental
While Walk the Line and others are getting attention and hype, I have a different perspective as to what kind of movie warrants my $7.50. If a movie is a great movie (like Walk the Line) but does not require the big screen to enjoy it, I will normally wait for it to come out on DVD. We don’t have an endless supply of $7.50 bankrolls lying around, so decisions must be made around the Noble house about which movies we attend and which we purposefully rent.

Therefore, Walk the Line is a renter for us. The compelling story will not be in any way diminished by watching it on my 27″ Sanyo with surround sound. However, Zathura, Harry Potter, Narnia, and others of grand scale beg to be seen and experienced on the big screen.

That’s my “screening process” for deciding which movies deserve a big screen ticket.

Agree/disagree?

Waaaahoooo! Yip. Yip. Yip. Yip. Ever had one of those ethereal moments of sublime happiness? Nope? Sorry. But I’m there. Right now. Consider this…

• a hot cup of Lipton’s French Vanilla black tea
• an Apple Powerbook G4 867 purring on your dining room table
• a hefty bucket of Juanita’s mixed peanut brittle at your side….

And you get an evening of ecstasy. Wow. Step back and mourn for your average evening. Me? I can hear angels singing. Aaaah.

OK, got that out of the way. Sorry for the moment of gloating bliss. If you’ve been having a bad day, well, suck it up. I’ll probably have one tomorrow. Let me have my evening of sheer delight.

The Anti-Blogger
I hooked up with a great friend the other day. In Arkadelphia. A converted Reddie… That’s all the hint you’re gonna get. OK, so he looks like Woody Harrelson, but no more. Anyway, over latte’ from Thrio’s, he informed me that he had actually read my blog, but had just about decided that blogs, for the most part, were a bunch of hoo-ha.

I was a little disappointed that my blog had not caused heaven to descend around him and completely transform his little, meaningless life, but I didn’t let on.

“What do you mean,?” (you anit-blogging Nazi, I thought).

He proceeded to tell me that it just appears to him that in a place where people have actually very little human contact… in just such a place, people would be the most real, authentic, and willing to share their failures… since there wasn’t someone they had to look at when pounding a keyboard. He explained that most of the blogs that he’d seen were all a little, well, (in my own words here) - Brady-Bunchish. Just a little too happy. Perfect family pictures, inane dribble about one did with one’s day, about what one ate (or didn’t), etc.

He just didn’t see the point. His feelings echoed that of my sister, who upon looking over my blog, attempted to post a comment along the lines of “What the hell is this?!” I still laugh about that.

And with that being said, for my friend the anti-blogger, I thought I might post just a few thoughts to make his day better…

• My incredible wife of 13 years now had her third battle with Hodgkin’s Disease this year (the first was in 1991, and the second was in 1995)… For a period of 6 months, she had chemo, and at one 4-week period, drove to Little Rock (an hour and a half from here) 5 days a week for treatment. We have a ton of medical bills from all this that we have no idea how we’re going to pay… Caro is in remission (again!)
• My design business that was started in August of 2003 to help us financially while we started a new church is about as thriving as bacteria in a tub full of bleach.
• Our church that so many seem to think is “cutting edge” and “contemporary” and dynamic and all that jazz… well, it’s OK. We’re just ordinary folks trying to live out a fresh expression of discipleship in our area. But it hasn’t grown much (if at all) in the past 6 months, and we’ve had to tap our savings this month to pay what little staff support we do receive…
• My own personal foibles and weaknesses are so many that I wonder how in the world I can even influence a possum, much less a thinking person, toward the Lord Jesus.
• I’m losing more and more hair on the back of my head… dangit.
• I’m 37 years old… and what the heck am I doing?…

Get the drift?

I hope this made all you anti-bloggers out there delight in my dismay and doubt. I’m only a fellow struggler. So imperfect. Yet I am earnestly convinced in the existence of a perfect and loving God. I DON”T have all the answers. I’m NOT thrilled about our financial uncertainties. Things aren’t all good at the Noble’s. Yet, here I am…

Choosing to Blog Joyfully
The things I write about, well, he was right. I choose to blog about things that are uplifting, sometimes insightful, and perhaps challenging. I don’t like to focus on what’s not right. Heck, I worry about that enough in my head. Why make you miserable too?

But here’s the deal… just as Paul wrote to the disciples in Thessalonica… “in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with joy…” (1 Th 1.6), so too, I choose joy. IN SPITE OF what I don’t understand, IN SPITE OF cancer, IN SPITE OF sad checkbooks, IN SPITE OF… you name it.

[In fact, I preached a message somewhat similar to this last night at Monticello's community Thanksgiving service at First Baptist... You can hear it on Journey's website, if you'd like.]

But here I am… life is real, raw, and confusing sometimes. Things AREN’T perfect. Not situationally, at least. But deep down… I am truly, really, honestly, JOYFUL. I love life. I am able to endure all hardships - mystically, mysteriously, really - I believe, because of my confidence in my forgiveness. Being forgiven, freed, and given purpose enables a person to embrace life even when there are sharp edges.

So.

Right back atcha, you anti-bloggers, you! ;)

I’m going to keep sitting here tonight, popping my brittle (the cashew mix is the best!), drinking my tea… (it’s cold now because I’ve been typing to you the last several minutes… time for a refill), and enjoying my Mac.

Crunch, crunch, sip, sip, type, type. Life is good. in spite of.

Upon a rock he reclined there
Steady blowing, growing colder was the air
Restful, wistful, reading in autumn rays
Water lapping, leaves falling, all a form of holy praise.

A Tolkien book, a small-town pastor
Under heaven’s canopy enjoyed his Master
With tales of fiction, pages worn
Captured mind as leaves were torn
From limbs on high and drew the sight
Of man from page to colorful flight
Till they lit on land and lake
Some to sink and some to bake.

Gusty hour of wondrous beauty
Replaced the normal day and duty
This man in awe retired till later
Trodding pine path, praising Creator.

I’ve been on a personal retreat the last several days and therefore have been “blogless.” I’ve missed keeping updated on several folks while I’ve been gone.. Matt, Justin, Kenny, and another blog I’ve been following: nextreformation.com. I’ve also gotten hooked on gizmodo.com - a haven for all gadget lovers.

The picture to the northeast is of a small rock on the shores of Lake Degray. I stayed at the lodge there these past few days. An absolutely beautiful place! The family and I took off for Arkadelphia on Sunday afternoon on a whim. Caro was taking pix at a crafts fair in Dumas and called and said, “Wanna Fanta?” uh, I mean, “Wanna go somewhere?” I said, “Sure!” In the next two hours, I’d packed and we were off.

We enjoyed a great 24 hours! Shopped in Hot Springs and walked some trails. Beautiful. Then Caro and the kids left Monday evening while I stayed for a coupla more days to read, reflect, relax, and refresh.

I typically try to do a couple of personal retreats each year, one in the spring and one in fall. They do wonders for my focus and spirit. This one was no different. I used to be pretty “legalistic” in how I approached these getaways. I’d take my Bible, notebook, and guitar and forbid myself any entertainment or contact with the “outside” world. Almost a monastic experience. However, I’ve learned that’s important to balance myself during these times, and this experience was uniquely refreshing for me.

I walked the trails that my family had walked on Monday, hearing the echoes of my kids’ laughter in the trees. As a cold front blew in on Tuesday, I sat on the shore of Lake Degray, reading Tolkien’s Lost Tales 1, listening to the steady wind gusting through the woods behind me. I was tranquilized by the sun glittering on the lake in front of me… So inspired I actually wrote a poem! (scary!) See it in another post.

One thing I’m sure about… of all the unique and wonderful things I noticed, read, saw and heard over the past several days… I LOVE LIFE. It is only through the lens of faith that a person can truly enjoy simplicity, solitude, and communion with the created. And when that faith becomes personally focused and directed into a humble relationship with the world’s Redeemer and Messiah, Jesus Christ, all of life becomes a gift and a stewardship.

As I packed up to leave on Wednesday, I was struck by the simple declaration of joy that my daughter inscribed on my dusty Dakota… “I love evrybity.” I love everybody. Thanks, Adelyn, for that reminder of simplicity and faith. It’s the same declaration that God made in the cross of Christ.

Loving life because of Him who only is life….

You sense it; we all sense it. The very way we get our news and information has radically changed. During any election year, do you really believe anything a network news anchor says? Or how about all those talking heads that are supposed to be “experts?”

Toodle on over to Terry Heaton’s insightful blog on cultural shifts. He’s got a great entry there on the demise of the mainstream media. It’s a must-read for those of you trying to understand how to communicate with more people today.

Around the House
I worked around the house all day while Caro was in Dumas taking pictures for their Arts & Crafts festival. Cleaned out and organized the storage room behind our studio. Since we built the add-on studio three years ago, it’s been accumulating junk. What a sense of progress! Hooray.

Now onto the next 100 things on my around-the-house list…