Waxing Candles with my Ipod (Finally)

Next week I turn 35. It's a significant milestone in many respects, not the least of which being that it's my second anniversary participating in the world of the Ipod, a great gift given to me by my wonderful wife on the occasion of my 33rd birthday.

For my mom and the other one of you who doesn't have an Ipod, in order to purchase music one must open an account at the Itunes store. Said Itunes store remembers you and begins to track your purchases. It then offers recommendations based on your purchasing history.

Some people I know turn those recommendations off. I'm too neurotically-wired to want to "win" to do that. So instead, my goal has been to try to keep the Itunes computer from putting me in the 35-year-old, white, male, Christian box.

To that I end, I have striven mightily to purchase a wide variety of music that I am interested in and have steadfastly avoided buying some songs that would place me squarely in my mid-30's white guy demographic.

Until two days ago, when I collapsed under the pressure.

See, hitherto I have not purchased Michael Jackson's Thriller, even though that was the gateway song into popular culture for me as a fifth grader. I have withstood the temptation to invest any monies on songs from Beastie Boys Lisence to Ill, even though that album more or less summed up my entire junior high experience. I have maintained my fight against The Bangles' Walk Like an Egyptian, as well as anything from Prince's Purple Rain album.

Several weeks ago I confessed in a post about my high school love for all things hard rock: Motley Crue, Van Halen (saw them in concert twice) and mostly for Guns-N-Roses (in concert three times) but narry a song from this trio has sullied my Ipod library.

The band that saturated the radio whilst I was in college, Hootie and the Blowfish, has gotten no love from me at all.

But alas, I could not hold out any longer. On Tuesday I invested 99-cents into perhaps the greatest and most signficant song of my high school experience: Ice, Ice, Baby, by Vanilla Ice.

I know, mock if you must, but I invite you, o self-righteous reader, to consider these hard-hitting lyrics and see if you can withstand the temptation yourself to go and make the purchase:

To the extreme I rock the mic like a vandal,
Light up the stage, and wax a chump like a candle.

I'm tearing up just typing those lyrics. Word to your mother.

2 Approaches

So, being a campus minister for 13 years now, I've been in and to lots and lots of weddings. Two stand out for how differently the ministers handled the rehearsal.

The first one that stands out was my own wedding. We were married in Chesapeake, Va, at my wife's great church, Aldersgate United Methodist. The warm-hearted pastor, Reverend Cofield, started us off with this kind word: "I've never had a wedding go wrong. Every single wedding I've ever done, no matter what happened during the service, by the end of it, the couple was married and were happily on their way."

This was his way of helping us to relax, to enjoy the moment. We all smiled and relaxed and I, at least, had a great time at my wedding.

Many moons later, I was reading in a wedding for a student and really good friend, Brandon Jaycox. At the outset of the rehearsal at the African-American Episcopal church, the pastor led us off with this word: "You practice like you play. If you're not disciplined before-hand, you will not have success in this event or in any part of life. Sound discipline and practice are imperative to reaching the goals you have set."

This was his way of teaching us the value and importance and in some ways the significance of what we were participating in.

Both of these stand out for how intentional they were. Both of them, I think, were a blessing to how the ceremony went.

I just think it's cool how the Lord uses the different temperaments and gifts of people in the same line of work to bless and build up his people. I see this on my InterVarsity staff team. There's three of us now, all very different, but with a common vision and with the ability to make a difference in students' lives.

Take all the job/personality match tests you want. It seems like for many kinds of work, there's space for lots of different personalities.

New Word

I'm working this week with a group of writers to re-write the old IVP classic, the Small Group Leader's Handbook. In the process of working with this great group of folks, one of the writers coined a new term that I think demands instant English circulation.

Dooficity: the personal ownership and exercise of internal doofus-ness. Ex: "I was kicking myself for my dooficity in forgetting to pack my swim trunks for the trip to Water World."

Look for the actual usage of "dooficity" in the new version of the Small Group Leader's Handbook due out a year from December!

Gem of the Week

Got this in an e-mail from my friend Danielle:

I was at a potluck last night, and a friend was recommending churches in the area to another friends who's thinking of going back to church after a hiatus. She was describing one church and talking about how they gave out low-energy light bulbs for earth day. The other friend said he didn't like churches that get involved in politics like that. She responded with, "What's political about caring about the earth and wanting to keep it healthy? Isn't that what we're called to do?"

Perfect point she made. I think sometimes in this highly politically charged society it's really easy to assume everything has a political motive, when really sometimes it's JUST A LIGHTBULB.

Just a lightbulb, indeed.