Weekend Recap

What a fantastic weekend to be in the presence of God!

First, on Friday night, I shamelessly weaseled my way in to go see Avatar in 3-D at Potomac Mills with my friends Mitchell Wilson of Mitchell Wilson Band fame and Cheapshot the Buffman. I saw on Twitter (follow me http://www.twitter.com/i268Ben) that they were the last two guys to not see Avatar. Becca responded that we hadn't either, and then I tweeted a "thanks for the invite" although no invitation had been given. But can you uninvite someone who has already thank you for inviting them? What would people think? So I got to go.

I'll say this about Avatar. Its visually the most spectacular movie I've ever seen. The computer graphics were so life-like and the 3-D was intense. That's about all the good I can really say about this movie.

I know I'm not the first person to say this, but goodness it was awful. I guess after Titanic and Terminator, James Cameron can do whatever he wants, but did he actually have to pitch this to a studio? Did he say, "It's Ferngully meets Dances With Wolves, but with giant Smurf-cats. Oh, and they speak a gibberish language. Also, it takes place on another planet/moon in 2154, but they will speak as though it were 1994."

I could not stop laughing the entire movie, which is fine if you've made a comedy. But there was not a single laugh intentionally written into the movie. My biggest problems were

1) the 20th-21st century dialogue. For all the painstaking care in creating a new world, creatures and native language, why couldn't Cameron spend any time thinking about how a 22nd century human would talk? I guess its hard to promote radical environmentalism and anti-US military-ism without such comments as "they're going to do some kind of shock and awe," "they're going to drop daisy cutters" or what-have-you. References to jujubees also were disconcerting. To think that in 2154, a genocidal Marine colonel would compare the way the natives (Na'vi, how original) defeat humans to eating them up like jujubees would be like me talking about how I get chewed up by mosquitos like I was parrafin wax.

2) the amazing/terrible technology. The main character gets placed into a chamber that allows scientists to transfer his brain into a fully-formed giant Smurf-cat that becomes the person while his real body sleeps. Yet, to get into this hyper-advanced chamber, he has to wheel himself to it in the same wheelchair used by FDR. I love the not-so-subtle dig at the health care system too.

Despite the movie's lameness, it was great to hangout with some good friends. Memo to that car on 610, *I see you*. We all see you.

Saturday. Woke up and met up with over 70 other men from church for a day of community service projects. Some of the guys helped chop firewood for the SERVE ministry, as well as to deliver to people in need. The rest of us went to Fredericksburg to clean out trash from various Tent Cities, where area homeless reside. We went to an area off of 95 behind the U-Haul store where the old mini-golf course used to be. It was raining, it was chilly and extremely muddy. What I saw was heartbreaking. I didn't have the chance to meet any homeless, but I know that some of our guys did. It was hard work, but well worth it. It became even clearer in purpose to know that the next day, two of the people we encountered met Christ. The project is certainly ongoing because we just scratched the surface of cleaning these areas.

Saturday night Becca and I went to MarriedLife Live. Becca, Molly, Cheapshot, Matt Fitz and Dina played live and sounded awesome. The message from Mark Gungor was hilarious and so timely for married couples. The only problem is that in talking about how couples keep score, every small act of kindness since then has brought about a "ding" from Becca.

Sunday. Becca, Molly, Cheapshot, Matt Fitz, Troy and the gang led worship on Sunday morning. It was awesome. At least the parts I was there for were awesome. My baby girl Chloe decided she had some things she needed to get off her chest, so I spent the message and end of the service in Noah's Cafe. From the looks of things, Pastor Todd was on fire and the congregation really connected with Steve Fee's "No One Higher/The Stand" Medley.

At I-268 Sunday Morning, we had a small but fantastic group participating in the "Tough Sayings of Jesus II" lesson on the Fig Tree, the Parable of Sheep and Goats, and Jesus clearing the Temple from Mark 11 and Matthew 25. In case you missed it, Jesus cursed the fig tree in what looked at first glance like a world-class temper tantrum. But on closer inspection, you discover that the fig tree was not producing "taqsh" which is a spring-time precursor to the actual fig fruit of the summer and autumn. No taqsh=no fig fruit. So this tree was not valuable to do its job; in fact, since taqsh was primarily consumed by the poor and travelers, it was not making itself available to the least of these. In parallel with the sheep and goats, the sheep were rewarded--not because they tended to the poor and suffering, but because in obedience to who God is, they acted as sheep and although they did not even realize that they were serving Jesus directly, it revealed their character. Similarly in clearing the Temple, Jesus was highlighting that the Israelites had sacrificed honest worship for the appearance of worship and manipulated the poor and the traveler by charging extra for exchanging currency and forcing them to buy overpriced doves for sacrifice. We learned that Jesus is looking for followers who have substance, who desire to live authentically and humbly.

In the afternoon, we had a chance to have Chloe dedicated, and I can't say enough about how special that time was with Pastor Todd, Susan, Staci Rowenhorst and all the friends and family who came to support us. It is such a tremendous responsibility to raise a child, and we are blessed to have a community like this to be a part of it.

Sunday night, Becca and Toluca Road led worship for Elevate, the student service, and Pastor Zac continued the "Story" focusing on Adam and Eve, and the fall of man, the introduction of sin into the world. He did a great job, especially when I turned on my GPS and the voice lady started talking--really really loudly. He didn't skip a beat, even though I was fumbling furiously to turn her off and the students were laughing. Awful awful. I love this series Zac is doing. It is so vital to let students know that they fit in to the story of God, and not just in the "you're a sinner, Jesus died on the cross and your saved" part. But the, "look at how and why God created the world. See what it was intended to be. See why it isn't like that anymore. See why Redemption is so important. See how redemption leads to restoration, not just of you as a person, but you in the context of the beginning of things to make it how it was supposed to be."

It was a phenomenal weekend and has led into the start of a pretty tremendous week. Zac said something in the contest of the fall of man that has stuck with me. One of the consequences of sin was that the earth, which man had been given dominion and stewardship over, would become an antagonist. Man would be forced to battle with the earth in labor, to produce food, etc. We also started fighting against time. So when it rains or when you lose an hour of sleep to daylight savings, it can create weariness. Weariness is defeated when you become other-focused. This kind of weekend highlights the benefits of being other-focused. The challenge is to be other-focused daily.