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I think who and how we are is determined by memory. What do you remember?

Allen Burris

Listening for God

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Communication

It's really ironic. I've been thinking some about the social media bootcamp I attended last week. There are so many really neat ways to communicate, but it is much harder to do. All the ways to do it should make it easier but that's not the case. This irony was brought to my attention recently.

When I was organizing the trip to do disaster relief in tornado torn Tuscaloosa, I was working with 11 others guys. Some of them used email but not all; some texted but not all; some used Facebook but not all; some used cell phones to talk but not all; one did not have a cell phone. I could go on about categories etc., but my point is this: I could not communicate with everyone at the same time in the same way. This made organizing the trip harder. It wasn't that long ago that you could simply send out an email and have everything covered. Those days are gone.

I'm not sure how communication will continue to evolve. Doug Pagitt, the guy who led our workshop last week, says it will soon be visually based. We will use short videos. I'm not sure about that. I just don't know. I do know that it is getting harder to communicate with the church family outside of assemblies. We need to have multiple points of contact with each person and then use different media to send out a message.

Wednesday evening we cancelled all activities at the church building due to the dangerous storms approaching (and what a good decision that was!). I sent out an email, texted several, tweeted on Twitter, and sent out a Facebook group message. All of these need to be updated and refined. I am looking at website called Posterous as a possible solution.

Got close!

We had a big tree, less than 50 yards from our house, go down last night, and another tree close to it snapped off. This was during the 2nd tornado warning. We went to the basement and had not been there very long until Ben said, "I think I heard a tree fall." My 52 year old ears did not hear it.It is a really big tree. The root ball is about 15 feet tall.

This damage is so minor relative to what others in the area experienced and is not worth mentioning in the context of Joplin and Tuscaloosa. I was a little surprised to find these trees this morning. I really thought the 2nd wave of storms seemed minor. It didn't seem like the wind blew that hard.

My brother-in-law's mother was one of the ones hurt in the storm last night. She lives around Heltonville and sought shelter in a neighbor/relative's home. That home was destroyed, and she was hurt. I think she will be OK.

I'm sure the daylight and time is going to reveal lots of things today. As a friend wrote this morning, "Let's all pray for those out on East 50."

Hanging around

Last night was my first ride since the hilly 50 miler on Saturday. I rode with 6-7 guys from Parkview, since our route south from Spring Mill Park is still flooded. All the guys I ride with are much faster, stronger, and more experienced than I am. This is good! That means I will improve, if I can hang with them for a while. I got dropped at about 8 miles last night.

I could only do 20 miles last night, due to wanting to watch Luke and Ben play softball. I missed their first game but got there for the second. I think the ride turned into about a 40 miler for the other guys. My plan is to ride at least once a week with the fast guys and ride a few times on my own.

Looks like we are in for some bad weather this afternoon and evening. Crazy! I am trying to figure out if I can go to Joplin to help out for a few days. I need to sit down and take a hard look at the scheduled activities for the next few weeks. Today, weather permitting, I hope to help a couple of people locally with their downed trees.

Yesterday's container load was neat. I've had a little time to reflect on it. One of the neat things was the teamwork involved. It was fun! After it was all over, people stayed around. I think everyone was simply enjoying being around each other, feeling a sense of accomplishing something eternally significant.

I think I could start rambling here... Lots of things going on with lots of people. Some good. Some bad. That's life, eh? Luke took off this morning. He will live in Nashville this summer - his first summer to not live at home. I'm OK with that. I want him to become his own guy. He is getting quite involved in Guatemala and hopes to do his senior engineering project there - building a bridge. If he does that, then I want to go down with him to watch construction. We'll see...

Lester has finished his course work at Butler for the most part and is now doing his pharmacy rotations, learning pharmacy in different contexts. He will become a doctor of pharmacy in May of next year.

Rebecca graduates next week and is looking forward to being done with high school. She did not like the first 2-3 years but seems to have enjoyed the last part of high school. She has done really well. Ben is looking forward to the new football coach and the "pukeful" workouts this summer. Part of the last statement is true.

OK, see I did ramble, so now I must Ramble On to something else. Why am I thinking of Led Zep??

Transition

The old song says, "life is filled with swift transition..." It may not always be swift but it's always happening. This time of the year is one of those for me, and it always seems to unsettle me. I think it has to do with school ending and all the schedule changes. I always enjoy it but it takes a few days to get used to it.

I hope to do something this summer that I have a really hard time doing: relax. Even though the summer is relaxed, I seem to always place pressure on myself to get ahead on a project or prepare for something in the fall, etc. It usually ends up being a point of frustration before it's over, so this summer I am hoping for a one day at a time approach. I will do plenty of work, hopefully a lot of reading, but I am not going to strive to conquer any big project.

This last year has been crazy, hectic, productive, and a host of other things. I need to cruise through the summer with faithfulness to the day to day duties. This I will do, along with lots of riding and some running. I am going to be gone a fair amount also. It's all good.

Help Build Hope

I am excited about this upcoming project! It's so simple and easy and a great way to get lots of people involved in doing something so real and so good. It mostly happens on Saturday June 11.

On that Saturday morning we are hoping to have 200 volunteers show up at the Mitchell High School front parking lot. There we will build walls that eventually will turn into 9 houses for people living in Haiti - people who are still recovering from a devastating earthquake.

How does it work? About 15 people will gather on Friday to organize all the materials, cut boards, etc., in preparation for the big build day on Saturday. Then on Saturday these 15 will lead 200 people in building 8 x 8 foot walls. All the materials and tools will be provided. After the walls are constructed they will be loaded on a container and shipped to Haiti. A team there will receive the walls, place them on lots, and roof them for people desperate for housing.

We are looking for 200 people to come and help, hoping some can bring $65 OR find someone who will sponsor them for $65. We are also looking for individuals and organizations to provide sponsorship.

Let me know if I can provide any information!

I really like Reinhold Niebuhr's Serenity Prayer. You can see why it's so popular. What strikes you about it?

I try to read/say this prayer every day, along with the Greatest Commands, the Lord's Prayer, the prayer of St. Francis, along with a couple of Psalms.

The line in this prayer that strikes me is this:

"That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next."

I will settle for "reasonably happy," in light of all the suffering and injustice in the world. Seems to me it would be irresponsible to be totally happy!