what is S.O.A.P.?

This week several things stood out in SOAP-but none more than a single sentence from today’s reading: Romans 14:23, For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

A lot of effort has been taken to define sin.  I’ve put some thought into it myself.  Seems a bit silly now, really.  Paul gave us one. Sin is whatever does not proceed from faith.

I’m not sure how I’ve missed this my whole life.  I suppose it’s because this chapter always gets me pondering ‘disputable matters’–I’m always thinking doctrine when I read Romans 14, not theology.

So I’ll be putting some thought and some self-evaluation into this.  Sin is whatever does not proceed from faith.  Any action (or inaction) that isn’t the result of the fact that I trust Jesus, is sin.  My head’s spinning.  Good spinning. Pirouetting, I suppose.

I don’t often miss college.  Dont’ get me wrong, it was a great time and I have a lot of great memories.  However, college was a necessary step for a desired destination.  It never felt like home.

However, since I’ve been working day in and day out with Matt Farrand (our assoc. pastor) a lot of college memories keep getting pulled up.  It’s close quarters for long hours, and it takes on a dorm-like feel at times (much to the dismay of our wives, who also work there, and are often pulled into the foolishness against their will).

Yesterday’s memory: scrounging.  College was all about scrounging for food.  The combination of extreme poverty and extreme laziness led hungry guys to do all sorts of scrounging to piece together some sort of a meal.

We scrounge all of the time at the office.  A lot of cereal gets eaten.  A lot of strange food combinations are concocted.

Yesterday Matt’s hunger combined with his desire to keep working and not go out for food, led him to do some classic scrounging.  Peanut butter, of course, is a scrounging staple.  But when Matt went after some PB, he found only scarce remmants.  Worse still, the PB was out of reach!  So, like any varsity scrounger would, he did what he had to do:

I’m so thankful for my Dad.  As I was growing up he used to sing his own version of an old song:

I was looking back to see
If she was looking back to see
If I was looking back to see
If she was looking back at me

That memory popped into my head this morning, seemingly out of nowhere.  Made me smile.  He would sing it and laugh.  Good stuff.

Here’s the thing, I used to hear him sing that tune and then, almost invariably, I would stop and work through it in my mind.  “Does that even make sense?”   I was about 4…and it was mind-numbing for me.  I’d work it out though, and every time I decided that it did make sense.  Those people may have been a bit paranoid, but the song made sense.

It made me think about how much I hung onto every word my Dad said.  And, predictably, that made me think about how I’m a Dad now.  Then it made me think about whether or not I wanted my son to hang on to all of the stuff that I say.

My conclusion: “uh, no.”  Sobering moment.

My last blog post was the day after my son was born.  He’s 8 months old now.  The reality of parenthood squeezed out what little margin remained in my schedule.  Blogging was an expendable activity.  Blogging got cut.  Now, 8 months later, I’m starting to get my feet back underneath me.  I realized that I’d missed the ole blogosphere.

That was a couple of weeks ago.  It wasn’t sufficient motivation.  However, when it was suggested to me that a “Pastor’s blog” would be a nice addition to our new church website (coming soon), it proved to be the nudge I needed.

I’ll take a little bit different approach this time.  No idealistic rules this time around (see my very first post).

And here’s the good part, there will be more pictures!  Here are a few of my faves from the last couple weeks:

Well, he made it! And he’s perfect! I’ll stick with the facts, and let the pictures do the talking.

Bryce Stephen Lee McCarter
10lb 9oz!
22″ long

more pics at mccarters.smugmug.com

 

 

 

Many thanks to all of you who gave suggestions for how I should spend my iTunes Christmas gifts. I’m about halfway through the spending…and wanted to let you know how the different albums have been working for me…and let you know that I’m still open for suggestions.

It’s been some great stuff so far…here’s the rundown in the order in which they were purchased:

Modest Mouse: iTunes Essentials album
8.5 out of 10
This is a new band for me and I love them! They’re quirky and original and fun. It’s pretty refreshing to hear an album where no song sounds alike, and all songs sound different than everybody else. I like the vocals…but the strength of the band is definitely the lead guitarist who is the source of most of the creativity, and who’s riffs really make the band stand out from the rest. It’s a good upbeat, ’soundtrack for life’ type album.

I docked them half a point for random and unnecessary profanity…and a full point for the fact that their lyrics are pretty surfacy (you can’t give a ten to a band that doesn’t ever say anything meaningful!)

One Republic: Dreaming Out Loud
7.5 out of 10
Another winner. They lack the creativity of a Modest Mouse…but for a pure pop band, they’re pretty stellar. In fact, I haven’t enjoyed a pop band this much in quite a while. They mix in the cello from time to time, and I love that! They got docked because the album wasn’t consistently good. The good songs are great…the rest just aren’t. Lyrics get a bit sappy, too.

Coldplay: iTunes Essentials album
10 out of 10
Yeah, that’s right 10 out of 10! This is maybe the most critically acclaimed band of all-time, and this album is a hits compilation…so, yeah, it was incredibly good song after song. Coldplay is as good as it gets if you ask me.

Leeland: Sound of Melodies
6.5 out of 10
Another winner. 6.5 seems pretty low, I realize…but I’m excited about this band. The kid who wrote and arranged all these songs is 18 years old. He’s original, has something to sing about (Jesus, to be specific), not too canned. All the stuff that I’m liking quite a bit, I’m expecting to love 2-3 albums down the road from now. I’m so impressed with this 18 year-old, great vocals! The lyrics have the farthest to go…but if he’s writing this way now at 18, he’ll be an incredible lyricist in a few years.

**I also bought Demetri Martin’s stand up comedy special ‘Person.’ …because he’s my favorite comedian. That was the best $1.99 spent out of the whole lot!

Today is my five year wedding anniversary.  Five years!  I’ll venture not to be too sappy with this, but I’m going to take a moment and talk about my wife, Sharon.

There are lots of things that can be said about her…she’s beautiful and godly and funny, and the whole Proverbs 31 package.  But what I’ve recently been most taken by, is that she’s pleasant.

Yeah, that’s right, wonderfully pleasant.  In fact, my wife is unbelievably pleasant!

Nearly every morning I get up well before she does…inevitably I wake her up getting ready.  There’s no grunting or whining about turning off the lights or how I need to keep it down. No, she sits up with squinted eyes and disheveled hair, and smiles as big as she can, with arms extended, looking for a hug. I invariably apologize for waking her up, and she (still smiling) invariably says that she’s glad that I did.  And the fact that she’s 9 months pregnant (meaning she has to get up several times a night, she can’t sleep the way she’d like to, and who knows what it does to her hormones) hasn’t changed any of that one bit.  It’s not a mood or feeling…it’s just who she is.  She’s pleasant!

When I come home, I’m welcomed.  But not just any welcome.  If she took it one step further, there’d be confetti involved.  It hasn’t decreased as we’ve been together, or faded in it’s intensity…because it’s not a phase, it’s who she is.

We work together.  Our offices are connected, and for me to ever walk in or out of my office, I have to walk through hers.   For most that would be very annoying (I’m hyper, too…so it happens all the time)…but it’s not to Sharon.  At the very least I get a smile and a wave every time I walk by…but hugs are kisses are the norm.

Maybe all of this makes you want to vomit.  That’s OK.  I delight in it.

By the way, you might get the wrong idea from the picture I’m painting here.  You might be getting the idea that she’s overly emotional or air-headed or clingy.  If so, you’re definitely getting the wrong picture!  She’s not any of those things.  In fact, she’s brilliant, and tough, and fully capable of standing on her own two feet.  She even-keeled and sharp and she’s a fantastically gifted leader!  I don’t know who you are (I can’t tell who reads this…), but I know she’s smarter than you!

But she doesn’t know that.  She’s incredibly humble.  All pleasant people are.

She’s still human.  She has tough times, and low points.  She’s not numb to discouragement or disappointment.  But even then, believe it or not, she’s always pleasant.   Seriously, always!  It’s who she is.  And I get to live with her and work with her everyday of my life.  My pleasant life.  Thanks to her.

I can’t wait to see how she loves our son!  Bryce is extremely blessed…because he will grow up in a pleasant home.  You can’t measure the value of that.

Sharon, if you’re reading this…you’ll never know what it means to me.  Happy anniversary.

Christmas has come with it’s bounty…and left me with $115 in iTunes gift cards!  Fantastic!

That’s 10-12 new albums!  I have no intention of spending it on anything other than music.  So, that’s where I need help.  There are few things better than coming across a really great new album…and I’m determined to get a bunch of them.

So…what do you suggest?  What are you favorite albums of all time?  Don’t bother with anything country…but other than that, I’m open to just about anything.

Just leave me a comment with your suggestions. Thanks!  I’ll let you know later what I end up buying.

We were in staff meeting yesterday, brainstorming about how to promote an upcoming workday, and the idea came to spoof the old “I Dream of Jeannie” TV show…all to make a pretty sarcastic, but funny point.  The great part about it, is that my wife, Sharon, stars as the genie!  What makes it all the better, is that my wife is about 71/2 months pregnant in the video, and she looks absolutely adorable!

if you’re a Vineyardite, then you’re getting a sneek preview to the announcements for this Sunday (but please still show up on time .

All the work for this, from concept to completion was done by two of my best friends: Chris Fowler and Matt Farrand.  Thanks guys, you did an awesome job!   

‘Death Cab for Cutie’ is one of my favorite bands. If you’re unfamiliar with them, the name probably paints the wrong picture. They’ve picked up some critics since they signed with a label…tagged as sell-outs. Indie music snobs turn on any band that signs with a label. It’s madness.

I like their sound (they’re known for their vocals, but their drummer is phenomenal)…however, what I really like is their occasionally brilliant lyrics. The lead guy (Ben Gibbard) does most all of the writing, and he is a great storyteller. I think great storytellers just state the obvious in succinct terms and in ways the rest of us never thought to put it. And, of course, they have a point…or in the case of “What Sarah Said” a question worth asking.

“What Sarah Said” tugs the ole heart-strings because it tells of a horrifying place, that most of us have visited: the waiting room of an ICU. I’ve been to several. They’re all the same. They all smell the same, and are filled with all the same faces. Listen below and follow along with the lyrics…if you’ve been there, every word will ring true…

And it came to me then that every plan is a tiny prayer to father time
As I stared at my shoes in the ICU that reeked of piss and 409
And I rationed my breathes as I said to myself that I’d already taken too much today
As each descending peak of the LCD took you a little farther away from me

Amongst the vending machines and year-old magazines in a place where we only say goodbye
It stung like a violent wind that our memories depend on a faulty camera in our minds
But I knew that you were a truth I would rather lose than to have never lain beside at all
And I looked around at all the eyes on the ground as the TV entertained itself

‘Cause there’s no comfort in the waiting room
Just nervous pacers bracing for bad news
And then the nurse comes round and everyone will lift their heads
But I’m thinking of what Sarah said that “Love is watching someone die”

So who’s going to watch you die?…

What a question!  Now, I admit, it’s a bit super-sappy…but it’ a good question still.  Who are the ones who would endure that dreadful scene and sit with you til the end?…lamenting that their memories of you will always be insufficient?  And once you’ve compiled that list…compare it to the list of people in whom you now invest the bulk of your time?  Do they match?  They should.