Boyz in the Sink

I love this song.


lyrics (by popular demand)
Mr. Lunt: Baby I know your eyes see right through my disguise
Boyz: (Larry, Jimmy, Junior): And no one can deny
Mr. Lunt: Baby that I’m the one whose love is no surprise
Boyz: And he can’t tell you no lie
Mr. Lunt: But there’s a secret I’ve been hidin’ I can’t keep it no more
Boyz: There’s this thing about himself he’s never told you before
Lunt: Baby!

Chorus:
Boyz: He needs to tell you something
Mr. Lunt: I don’t got a bellybutton
Oh I need to tell you something
Boyz: Have you figured out
He don’t got a bellybutton
Boyz: Bellybutton no, oh no no

Lunt: Baby please don’t squeal, just tell me
how you feel
Boyz: ‘Cause his love is for real
Lunt: And if you went away, my heart would never heal
Boyz: So to you he appeals
Mr. Lunt: There’s something missing in my middle and it’s hard to ignore
Boyz: There’s this thing about himself he’s never told you before
Lunt: Baby!

Chorus

Khalil: Bellybutton!
Boyz: Uh, uh
Khalil: Bellybutton!
Boyz: Uh, uh
Khalil: You say your bellybutton’s missing, there’s no reason for alarm
It’s a common thing for gourds, it won’t do you any harm
You’re technically a fruit and with that much being said;
Your umbilical equivocal is up there on your head!
You could opt for a prosthetic but of course you’d have to know
It’d be covered by your shirt, but not your HMO
Khalil: Bellybutton!
Boyz: Uh, uh
Khalil: Bellybutton
Boyz: Uh, uh

Mr. Lunt: a stylish something absent from my midriff’s décor
Boyz: There’s this thing about himself he’s never told you before
Lunt: Baby!

Boyz: He needs to tell you something
Mr. Lunt: I don’t got a belly button
Oh I need to tell you something
Boyz: Have you figured out
He don’t got a belly button
Boyz: Belly button no, oh no no
Lunt and Boyz: No belly
button!

Lunt: Do I at least get a lollipop?

Vacuum Adventure

Last night I was vacuuming the house. I reached the final room, plugged the vacuum in and the adventure began. The vacuum wouldn't start, since I knew there was a short in the wire I wiggled it as I always do and the vacuum started right up. A few seconds later I noticed an unusual vibrating sound. I looked at the plug and smoke was pouring out of it. !!! and I cut the vacuum cleaner off. To make a long story short once the plug was pulled out of the wall (being in there less than a minute) a prong was missing and the plug was black. Very odd. No more upright vacuum cleaner.

Here's a couple of hasty pictures I took. We had to kick the circuit off so my camera didn't recognize anything until the picture was taken, so they're a little blurry.

Love

Happy Valentine's Day!

On a more serious note, what is love? What does it mean to be "in love?"

Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 describes love this way:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Just for clarity, here is a paraphrase:

Let me not declare any reasons why two
True-minded people should not be married. Love is not love
Which changes when it finds a change in circumstances,
Or bends from its firm stand even when a lover is unfaithful:
Oh no! it is a lighthouse
That sees storms but it never shaken;
Love is the guiding north star to every lost ship,
Whose value cannot be calculated, although its altitude can be measured.
Love is not at the mercy of Time, though physical beauty
Comes within the compass of his sickle.
Love does not alter with hours and weeks,
But, rather, it endures until the last day of life.
If I am proved wrong about these thoughts on love
Then I recant all that I have written, and no man has ever [truly] loved.

1 Corinthians 13 says (ESV and NIV combined):

[And I will still show you a more excellent way]

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy (resounding) gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers (the gift of prophecy), and understand (fathom) all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have (If I give all I possess to the poor), and if I deliver up my body to be burned (and surrender my body to the flames), but have not love, I gain nothing.Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant (proud) or rude. It does not insist on its own way (self-seeking); it is not irritable (not easily angered) or resentful (it keeps no record of wrongs); it does not rejoice at wrongdoing (Love does not delight in evil), but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things (always protects), believes all things (always trusts), hopes all things (always hopes), endures all things (always perseveres).Love never ends (fails). As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away (the imperfect disappears). When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways (I put childish ways behind me). For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.So now faith, hope, and love abide (remain), these three; but the greatest of these is love.

(Now, go look it up in your Bible and read it in context of 1 Cor 12 and 14. It's not just talking about "romantic" love, as is often misconstrued. It's talking about your love of everyone, specifically in relation to the use of spiritual gifts.)

Those two are pretty good descriptions, in my opinion, of love. Of course, I could be missing something terribly important. If you have insight into love then please broaden my perspective on the matter.

Now I have a question for you: Do you fall in love? or Do people fall in love? It's talked about often, and I want to know what your opinion is on this matter.

Always Find the Sunrise

Did you know you can actually talk yourself into being happy? I'd heard it said before, but my thoughts tended to be skeptical, i.e. "whatever," "sure you can," "yeah, right." That skepticism did stop me many times from trying it out, but finally I said, "what do I have to lose?" Except I didn't actually think that. I was feeling pretty terrible when I woke up that morning, but I said to myself, "I can go to work miserable and pull everyone else down or I can go in cheerfully and make work a better place." So as I drove to work I talked to God, told him what was bothering me, and that I wanted to minister to my coworkers. I sang to Him and had a nice time. I had decided to be happy; I had asked his help, and I was happy. It's an attitude choice, a matter of the heart. For even if there is nothing else to be thankful for (which is doubtful) there is always the sunrise. And every day it is spectacular, even if you can't see it. So when you are down, choose to be happy, and always find the sunrise.

no, I didn't take the picture. I don't remember where I found it, or I would give credit by linking to the original source

Vagabonds

We are the desperate
Who do not care,
The hungry
Who have nowhere
To eat,
No place to sleep,
The tearless
Who cannot
Weep.

by: Langston Hughes

This basically sums up what I have to say about ministering to the homeless:

I tell you the truth...

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love
-1st Corinthians 13:13

The King will reply, `I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
-Matthew 25:40



Let us bring the greatest of these to the least of these.

original image source 
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The Influence of Babies on Single Men

Bob with my daughter, Virginia Hope

The Influence of Babies on Single Men
By Douglas W. Phillips
 

Some of the manliest and most visionary single men I know spend time in the company of babies. And they love it. They love to hold them, play with them, and rejoice in the hope which is new life.

They do this because they have rejected the culture of radical individualism that teaches men to view their lives in isolation of families and Christian community. They do this because they are around other men — now husbands and fathers — who speak of covenant, generational faithfulness, and the duty of men to raise up a godly seed.

They acknowledge that their own mission as men will likely someday be directly tied to their role as fathers. As single men, they prepare for fatherhood, and they begin to pray for the babies that the Lord may choose to send to them. They recognize that children are a rich blessing to be greatly desired by any man who is, well — a man!

To this new breed of men, babies are a reminder that we are all heirs to the past and ancestors to the future. They remind them of their priorities in Christ. The presence of babies in the life of single men is an encouragement to pursue a Psalm 127 vision that someday their own families will be mighty in the land. Babies are a reminder that our spiritual fathers, like Abraham, were men who longed for the hope of children. They remind them that the greatest example of manhood in all of history rebuked other men who would not “suffer the little children to come” (Mark 10:14).

The result is that single men who are around babies and family culture become highly motivated to “get their act together.” They experience positive, holy peer-pressure to set aside childish things and to be about the business of men. This means that they must prepare their fields without (Proverbs 24:27) so they can start families of their own and have babies. Malachi 2:14 reminds us that “real men” acknowledge that the pursuit of a godly seed is not merely an afterthought. It is one of the key reasons delineated by the Creator for marriage. For all of these reasons, the presence of babies in the life of single men not only tenderizes their hearts to the preciousness of children, but it motivates them to be men of God.

In contrast, individualistic cultures prioritize lifestyles that have the tendency of inoculating young men against healthy, manly feelings toward babies and children. Not all of the expressions of individualism are inherently wrong, but the net effect has been devastating for our view of babies and manhood. For example, the modern trend of never-ending formal education tends to give men a “dormitory” vision of life, and to push marriages back later and later. The Bible encourages husbands to rejoice in the wife of their youth, which is why Christian culture self-consciously prepares men for marriage and family leadership sooner, rather than later in life.

Individualistic cultures breed materialism, the great foe of manly maturity. Materialism is poison to the single man. Success is defined by the acquisition of things, rather than obedience and the pursuit of spiritual objectives. Marriage and babies are largely viewed as an encumbrance to personal freedom. In addition, materialism trains men to demand immediate gratification. This leads to sexual impropriety, indebtedness, and even impatience and anger. In contrast, cultures that force men to deal with babies and children tend to encourage the manly disciplines of self-sacrifice, patience, and kindness.

Individualistic cultures are family-fragmenting by nature. The consequence is that the hearts of our single men become invested in destructive peer culture, rather than a balanced, multi-generational Christian community.

The simple truth is this: The longer men are away from babies, the more selfish they tend to become.

Single men need to be engaged in manly pursuits. They need the company of sturdy men and the influence of older, wiser men around them. But they also need to be around babies.

Frankly, men are designed to battle, but they need to know what it is they are fighting for. They fight for the King and for His Kingdom. This fight includes the defense of women and the little ones our wives have brought into the world (Nehemiah 4:14). But how will our men know the preciousness of the treasure they seek to guard if their love for babies is never cultivated?

We need men who learn early in their lives to treasure children. Men who love children tend to be the most visionary, stable, and self-sacrificing. We need a new generation of visionary young men. Visionary young men aspire to live lives of significance that transcend the here and now. This is why we need to place babies in the hands of our young men and then talk to them about the true dreams and aspirations of the righteous man (Psalm 112, 127, 128).

Crayons

Standing on the edge of brilliance
I find myself rather dull

I used to want to be brilliant, but I've grown to realize that if everyone were brilliant - all would be dull. So I'm okay with not being the brightest/sharpest crayon in the box. We need variety for a beautiful world, and we all color the world in our own quirky way.