My Worship Revolution

It was nice to get away this weekend with the wife and kid to visit a friend in the Portland area.  Saturday we were able to roll out to the coast on Saturday to visit some other great friends and former pastors of ours, Boomer and Lisa Reiff who were at Cannon Beach conference center leading some worship.  Haven’t seen them in years and it was great to catch up!  We got to join in on the family carnival they had at the conference center and I destroyed my wife on the blow up obstacle course. 

Sunday morning we worshipped at Imago Dei, which I’ll be posting more about later.  Also this weekend we were introduced to the board game Settlers of Catan.  Fun stuff.  Here’s a few pics from the past couple of days:

How was your Memorial Day weekend???

P.S. – Typepad recently changed their format for posting and I think it’s a royal pain in the behind!!  Especially for pictures!

And really bad at it!
But hey…it' vacation!  For both of us!

Here's the deal.
Early on, Rachel and I agreed we didn't want to use the T.V. as a babysitter for Caleb.  At one point I even pondered the idea of having no T.V., but that would mean no movies or Guitar Hero and that is just WAY unacceptable.  We only get 4 channels at our house, but Caleb has tons of videos, so he spends plenty of time in front of the tube.  So we've started trying to limit him to an hour a day.

Now, last night we hopped in our car to drive to Portland, OR to visit one of Rachel's best friends, Kari.  An 11+ hour drive.  We arrived at 6am.  I drove 9 1/2 hours and slept a little less than 2.  Kari is a first year teacher, and Rachel, having been a teacher herself, was excited to visit Kari's class all day.  Which means I was hanging with Caleb at the apartment for the day.

On no sleep, you better believe the T.V. was planned to get some good use!  We finished an episode of Curious George and the Disney movie Hercules and it was still only 9 o'clock.  I tried to go look for a playground at one point, but little did I realize till we walked out that it was raining outside.  We played in the rain for a few minutes.

Well, thanks to the power of Gawker, you get to watch video evidence of my neglectful parenting of 8 hours in less than 4 minutes.
Notice the amount of time the T.V. is on, and the effort by myself to move as little as possible.
Hey, one day of too much T.V. isn't gonna kill him!
And sorry, the 2 hour nap time isn't the most exciting, but you got everything!
Time lapse is cool.
Check it out:

Rachel told me last night that she had read on a few blogs we both read about a horrible event.
I went to read the story myself.
Even knowing what was coming, my eyes teared up as I read.
Stephen Curtis Chapman’s daughter killed by car in driveway.
The car was being driven by her older brother.  A horrible accident.

Stephen Curtis Chapman is a Christian musician and leader I have always had a great deal of respect for.
Incredible musician.  But more importantly, and first in his life, a great husband, father, and all around family man.  Also a huge advocate of overseas adoptions, having three little girls from China and a whole foundation.

This morning my heart aches for his family.
I can’t imagine the pain of losing Caleb under any circumstances.
My first reaction.  Sadness and disbelief.
And the slight feeling of lack of understanding.  Why?  He, of all people, deserves so much better.

Part of me will always wonder that.  It will always have that question.
But then I moved to another place.
I would never want anyone, anywhere, under any circumstance to have to go through what that family is all of a sudden going through.
At the same time, I see the amazing opportunity for Christ to be glorified.
Life will go sideways at some point.  For everyone.  I really believe that.  And in the middle of our loss and despair, the world is looking to see what we do with Jesus.  Even Christ followers will now see this family have the opportunity to turn to God in the most difficult of circumstances.  Hopefully as the Chapman’s rest in Jesus, those going through similar circumstances can be encouraged as well.

I remember something a teacher of mine at Vanguard said that deeply impacted me.  When we ask why me, perhaps a better question is why not you?  Would you rather your neighbor who doesn’t know Jesus lose a child?  Would you rather your friend who hasn’t experienced the peace of Christ come down with cancer?
Ouch.
Hard pill to swallow.

I wish it hadn’t happened.
My heart hurts.
I pray for their family.
Please join me and do the same.
And I also pray that God will use this situation to bring Himself glory in the long run.

It reminds me of a John Piper video I saw regarding the prosperity gospel vs. suffering.  I’ve embedded the video below.
I love the following quote from the video:

God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him in the midst of loss, not prosperity.

God, please bless and strengthen the Chapman family.  Amen.

A few friends did this and I thought it was kinda fun.  So, here is my top 25 playlist from iTunes:

There ya have it.  Any surprises?

OK bloggers. Your turn.  Post it.
Then link to your post in the comments so we can see what y’all are listening to.

So I think this week is going to be my week of pretending that I'm at conferences.  On Thursday I'm looking forward to getting a taste of The White Board Sessions conference put on by Ben Arment through a new site called ConferenceChannel.org.

Today I watched the opening sessions streamed live from the Purpose Driven summit at Saddleback.  Good stuff.  Rick warren has a great heart and while I'm not a huge "purpose driven" fan, I love to hear Rich share.  Here's some quotes worth sharing from this morning:

• Institutions NEVER institute change.  They are always the last to change.
  Don't look for institutions to change the world.  They are there to preserve the change of the last generation.
• If everyone leaves as soon as your service is over, you don't have a church, you have a performance.
• Never confuse prominence with significance!
• Decide early if you want to impress or influence.  You can only impress from a distance, and you can only influence by getting close and allowing others to see your flaws.
• If you have no friends who are not believers or are of disrepute, you are not living a Christlike life.
• The pastor available to everyone all the time isn't worth much when he is there.
• You have to be unselfish to grow a church.  It takes time and sacrifice.  Some churches would rather keep "their music" and let the rest of the world go to hell.

And now to complete a Santa Cruz bicycle post trifecta.  As part of preparation for my upcoming triathlons, I’ve been hittin up a spin class, or in this case, a 24cycle class at 24 hour, every Thursday evening with Ryan and James.

It’s been great.  Lot’s of sweating.  Workin hard.  And our instructor…she’s a trip.  Everything you’d expect in a fitness instructor, in a good way.  Energy, fun, loud, rockin with the music.  Seriously, it’s great.  Keeps it entertaining and actually encourages me to push just a little bit harder.  Of course, don’t know how fond I was the first week when she walked up and turned up the tension on my bike.  Taught me not to try and over-achieve! 

Last week in class, she pulls out a camera.  I mention she should email them to us, and she says she’ll post them on her blog.  Well, I haven’t seen it show up on her blog yet, but I was stoked to check out the blog.  So she now has a link in my new "Santa Cruz Locals" bloglist that replaced my tired Fave Five list. These are bloggers around the Santa Cruz area I’ve found that I like to follow (that aren’t CLC bloggers).  So if you wanna read about some Santa Cruz fitness, swing by her blog and leave some love.

Of course, this got me thinking.  If she’s taking pics for her blog, maybe that gives me permission to take some video from my SD1000 to give you a taste of triathlon training. 
Hmmm…whatcha think?

In the spirit of my last post…
Went to Lulu’s fo my weekly hang time with Ryan this morning.
Ride my bike there sometimes, but today I was running a little late.
Little did I know it’s bike to work day/week.
Here was the scene between Lulu’s and Jamba Juice:

Free breakfast from Jamba Juice.  Free Bagels.  Surveys.  Bike accessories.  Free massages for bicyclists.
Man, I chose a crummy day not to ride!
And it’s kinda pointless for me to ride to work…all the way across the parking lot.

I’ve mentioned in the past on this blog the many oddities that exist in Santa Cruz.
When Charlie was here a few weeks ago at a midnight movie, he said several times, "This is the weirdest city in America."
It also just so happens that Santa Cruz takes pride in that title.
I try to share some of those unique Santa Cruz experiences with you here.
Here is an excerpt from a video I’m throwing together of our Goonies Midnight Movie Scavenger Hunt last Friday night.
A post on that to come very soon I hope.
As we were waiting outside the theater around 10p.m., this came by:

Only in Santa Cruz.
But you know what…
That’s one of the things I love about this city!

Exactly one week before Caleb was born, Ryan Michael Farmer was born.
My nephew.
Son of my sister and brother-in-law.
Well, they didn’t waste any time, and yesterday out came boy #2.
With no further ado, welcome to the world, Noah Timothy Farmer!

Now I’m just super bummed that I live so far away and I can’t be there to meet the kid.
But I guess that pic sent via text message will do for now.

Hi.  My name is Bobby.
Yes, I love to document parts of our lives via video.
Yes, I then like to put it up on YouTube.
Yes, I then like to broadcast it on my blog for the world to see.
Yes, I even filmed Rachel’s LASIK surgery experience.
I think all the doctors thought I was kinda nuts walking around with our Canon SD1000 the entire time.
But now you get to watch them cut open my wife’s cornea.
Instrumental music from Paul Wright‘s new album, Diego’s Diaries.  All songs inspired in my old hood.
Enjoy!

By the way…Rachel actually has very blue eyes.  But they looked really green on the screen.

Who else out there has had LASIK?
I’m just glad I watched Rachel’s after I had it done!

And there will be more videos coming this weekend.
Next up…Goonies midnight movie scavenger hunt.
Stay tuned.