I remember when I was little, my mom telling the story of when John F. Kennedy was shot. She remembers where she was, what she was doing, who she was with and probably what she was wearing when she heard the news.
For me, having missed the Kennedy assassination by just a couple years, the big news story I always identified with “where were you when” was the Challenger space shuttle disaster. Our school was following the Challenger flight pretty closely as it was the first space shuttle to take a school teacher along. Over 11,000 teachers applied and even though it wasn’t our teacher that made it, it opened the door of possibilities that not just astronauts can go to outer space. I was actually in astronomy class (believe it or not) when a student came running through the science wing shouting the news into each class room and we all just sat there stunned – teacher included – by the news. There was an element of disbelief until the announcement came over the PA system. Nothing else happened that day, we didn’t continue on to our next classes when the bell rang, but clustered around radios to listen to the news reports. My husband, who was already been in college at that time, had no recognition of all that happening and placed no life-memory importance on it. Perhaps it was regional, perhaps it was because I was still in high school and the school placed importance on it where a college likely wouldn’t. Anyone else remember that?
September 11th. Nothing regional about that. It’s not just the people in New York, DC or Pennsylvania that remember. It’s not just the people who work in the airline industry or the WTC or the Pentagon who remember. It’s not even limited to the US in the impact it had on peoples’ lives from the macro to the micro.
I was living in Florida at the time and I was working for a military weapons manufacturer. I saw someone run past my office down to the CEO’s office – they’d heard it on the radio and ran down to his office because he had a small black and white TV. Before I could even get out from behind my desk to see what was going on, three more people went running by. When I got down there, the grainy rabbit-eared picture on the screen was showing the picture of the first tower burning and before anyone could explain what had happened, the second tower was hit right before our eyes. A state of shock… but only for a moment. We quickly turned to each other and did a management risk-assessment. We manufacture weapons for the military, President Bush was just up the road from us visiting his brother Jeb who was beginning to campaign for his second 4-year term as Governor and we honestly wondered if we could be in a convenient target area. We didn’t really give it much weight, but after the Pentagon and Pennsylvania, we began to wonder if we should have.
The boys were 1st grade and preschool at the time. I asked them this morning if they had any independent memories from that day (versus memories of what they’ve been told) and they were just too young. Derek, who was older, remembers that they gathered all the kids to the center of the school court yard to tell them what had happened and the following year they had a memorial and sang a song at that same spot. For Quinn, in preschool, they probably didn’t say anything to the kids at all.
It’s interesting how every generation has that “something” that they identify with of remembering where they were what a particular thing happened. Perhaps it was President Reagan being shot, perhaps it was Hurricane Katrina hitting the Gulf, perhaps it was Apollo 11 landing on the Moon – there are many memorable news events to identify with over the years and generations, but September 11th stands in a rare and exclusive category.
I asked the boys, now teenagers, if there has been a news story in their lifetime that they identify with in this way and they both said there really wasn’t anything. Part of me was relieved that, with the way the media places importance on things that aren’t really important, that they didn’t answer something like “Michael Jackson’s death” or “Lindsay Lohan’s arrest” but the other part of me recognized that we can be quite certain that it will be something – something that has yet to happen – that will be ever burned in their memories as the day their perception of the world or society we live in changed forever.
For better or for worse, I watch a lot of food shows on the Food Network and the Travel Channel. My two favorites are Man v. Food with Adam Richman and Diners, Drive-ins and Dives with Guy Fieri. In the last week, both of these hosts visited restaurants that had interesting breakfast concoctions so this morning I thought I'd give one a try for Derek's birthday breakfast.
Now, I've done the fried egg in the middle of the pancake before and the boys love it (me too) and this one was a variation of that. Now I'll tell you, the first time I tried the fried egg in the middle of the pancake, I was pretty happy with myself that I only destroyed the first one in the flipping process. But by the second one, I'd drawn the perfect hollow circle of pancake batter, cracked the egg into the center and flipped it without breaking the yoke for the perfect over-easy egg surrounded by a golden buttermilk pancake.
So as I decided to try this pancake with sausage circle filled with scrambled eggs I thought "how hard can this be?" Four funky-looking blobs later, I decided there has to be a better way. The cook on TV poured the batter circle, decorated the batter with sausage, poured the eggs in the hole, flipped it and voila! Unfortunately, every time I flipped it, the sausage prevented the flip side batter from touching the griddle (like stilts) and the second side didn't brown or lay flat. Don't get me wrong, it still tasted great but it just didn't look right.
My Solution? I put the sausage in a circle on the skillet first (like clock numbers) and poured the pancake batter over it to create my circle and then filled with the eggs and ... voila! Now that's pretty AND tastes great. Try it! The restaurant that was making it also did it with bacon in stead of sausage. I bet that would be good too.Yum!
If you’ve listened to Contemporary Christian Music at all, you’ve probably heard the song I Can Only Imagine by MercyMe. This song spoke to me the very first time I heard it on a multitude of levels.
It’s become a very popular song at funerals (I’ve actually sung it at a funeral myself) because of its inspiring message of wonder and hope, but to me, where it speaks loudest in my life, is the unrestrained joy of eternally serving my Lord.
My favorite line in the song is “I can only imagine when all I will do is forever, forever worship You.”
Music has been a central theme in my personal and spiritual development - I wasn’t even a year old before I started pawing at my dad’s guitar. I even tend to “mark” my life by music – a song that represents an event or something I was going through – refreshing that memory every time I hear it. To this day, when I hear “Here I Am To Worship” I am brought back to the moment of my salvation when I gave my life to Christ, tears streaming down my face as voices sing “I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross….”
When I sing “when all I will do is forever, forever worship You” it is the most exciting part of my vision of eternity in Heaven with my Lord. Yes, of course, worship is so much more that just singing or playing music, but it is the most natural way I connect with God and I believe he wired me that way for a purpose.
I have been so blessed, honored… humbled even, that for the last year and a half I have gotten to experience just a taste of Heaven on Earth as I have served a auxiliary role in the worship ministry at Fair Oaks Church. Being a part of the team that leads worship for the Wednesday night services has been an amazing personal and spiritual journey for me, but more so in those moments when others have let me know that something we sang had special meaning for them or that they were moved by it – well, THAT’s what it’s all about and I know I am fulfilling God's purpose.
This week, the staff and leadership at Fair Oaks Church had to make a very difficult decision. As the church grows and energies could get split in so many directions - it was time to reevaluate and focus on the essentials. It was announced this week that Fair Oaks Church would be discontinuing the Wednesday services to dedicate more energy to everything happening on Sunday on our campus (which is so much more than just the two services!).
I have full trust that every decision my church leadership makes is God-led and support them unconditionally. On a personal level – having felt a bit like I was just expelled ... from Heaven – I went through a tissue or two, which is a bit uncharacteristic for me. I cried less when I was processing the news of my cancer diagnosis. But I trust God as he closes this door that He will open a window to where He wants me to be, and so will I wait. (I’ve gotten very good at that over the last couple of years.)
I want to thank Joel Slater, Mike Zizolfo and Debby White for seeing something in me, for seeing my heart for God and blessing me with this amazing opportunity to help lead others in their worship during the Wednesday services. It has been a true honor and blessing to work with talented and godly musicians like Adam Miller, Nate Miller and Phillip Bassham who also brought their heart for the Lord as well as their instruments every Wednesday and to many practices. It was a joy to work with you, play with you, and worship with you, my brothers!
Stay tuned for new and exciting things to come at Fair Oaks Church. I’ve been there long enough to know that when one ministry is retired, something really cool is around the corner.
Over the summer, the Wednesday praise band had been working on some new music, and one in particular I wanted to share because it captures how how special that small group of people who would meet on Wednesday night are. It has meant so much to me to be a part of this gathering of brothers and sisters in Christ and not just benefit from an amazing bonus sermon from Pastor Stokes, but to be able to share our brokenness with one another and lift each other up in prayer.
This is the song that will forever "mark" this chapter in my spiritual walk.
I remember when I was little, my mom telling the story of when John F. Kennedy was shot. She remembers where she was, what she was doing, who she was with and probably what she was wearing when she heard the news.
