The Church

From marko's blog, on the church:

reading nathaniel west’s the day of the locust, i stumbled through this paragraph, where the protagonist is trying to hold the drunken woman of his affections, who has recently turned to prostitution:

raging at him, she was still beautiful. that was because her beauty was structural, like a tree’s, not a quality of her mind or heart. perhaps even whoring couldn’t damage it for that reason, only age or accident or disease.

i love the church. my life’s work is to serve christ by serving the church (specifically, youth workers in the church). but i can still be cranky about the bride occasionally, right? when i read these few sentences, i instantly thought of the church; more specifically, of the american church; more specifically, of that segment of the american church that continues to be passionate about slick models and approaches, rather than by being passionate about loving people, or even passionate about loving jesus. sure, they’re not all mutually exclusive — i’ll be the first to admit that. but the idea of a church who is beautiful only for structural reasons, not because of her mind or heart; well, that just caught my attention, because i think there are a wad of ‘em out there.

I need a hero... Or not

Em on a Swing

Memphis Trip

I created this video montage of our trip to Memphis using the tools from One True Media. It's a web based video montage creator that lets you take pictures, video and music and easily compile them to get a nice output, like the one below. If I don't factor in the amount of time to upload all of the pictures, audio and video, the process was a little faster than doing it on my macMini. It's a nice interface, very simple to use, very powerful. There is a premium version for $4/month that lets you use some of their content and store more on their site, which is pretty fair for all that you get. Here's the video from our trip:

Billy Graham Interview

Billy Graham is one of my heroes. His life is such a life of integrity, focus and humility that I'm in awe of his journey. I was reading the Newsweek Cover Story on Billy Graham and thought it was phenomenal. It does a great job telling the story of where he's at in the twilight of his life and the overwhelming message that comes through is one of humility on what he's learned in life and about God.

The author describes him in this way:

He is a man of unwavering faith who refuses to be judgmental; a steady social conservative in private who actually does hate the sin but loves the sinner; a resolute Christian who declines to render absolute verdicts about who will get into heaven and who will not; a man concerned about traditional morality...who will not be dragged into what he calls the "hot-button issues" of the hour. Graham's tranquil voice, though growing fainter, has rarely been more relevant.

The interview talks so much about his humility around how he has come to understand the bible over time - how his journey has affected his understanding of the scriptures and his view of God:

Belief in mystery is crucial to the Gospel Graham has preached for so long—a Gospel centered on the story that, for reasons unknown to the human mind, God chose to effect salvation through the execution and resurrection of his son. "As time went on, I began to realize the love of God for everybody, all over the world," he says. "And in his death on the cross, some mysterious thing happened between God and the Son that we don't understand. But there he was, alone, taking on the sins of the world."

He talks about how politics play into his message and how he has softened his injection of politics into his evangelism, even as his son is now criticized for speaking out in the way Graham did when he was younger:

"You know, I think in a way that has to be up to the individual as he feels led of the Lord. A lot of things that I commented on years ago would not have been of the Lord, I'm sure, but I think you have some—like communism, or segregation, on which I think you have a responsibility to speak out." Such proclamations, however, should not be "the main thing," and he admits he has no perfect formula: "I don't know the total answer to that."

I heard a story a while back on how George Bush senior had called Graham and asked him his take on salvation. I read that same perspective here, which probably really cheeses some people, but I believe is a very humble way to interpret the scriptures on this:

A unifying theme of Graham's new thinking is humility. He is sure and certain of his faith in Jesus as the way to salvation. When asked whether he believes heaven will be closed to good Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus or secular people, though, Graham says: "Those are decisions only the Lord will make. It would be foolish for me to speculate on who will be there and who won't ... I don't want to speculate about all that. I believe the love of God is absolute. He said he gave his son for the whole world, and I think he loves everybody regardless of what label they have." Such an ecumenical spirit may upset some Christian hard-liners, but in Graham's view, only God knows who is going to be saved: "As an evangelist for more than six decades, Mr. Graham has faithfully proclaimed the Bible's Gospel message that Jesus is the only way to Heaven," says Graham spokesman A. Larry Ross. "However, salvation is the work of Almighty God, and only he knows what is in each human heart."

When I'm Billy Graham's age, I'd like to be able to look back on my life and have had a fraction of the impact that he has. The stuff I do in my job doesn't change the world. What Billy Graham has done in his life has helped stop injustice, helped feed the hungry, care for prisoners and bring truth, joy and good news to a world in desperate need for it.

Tags: Billy Graham, Newsweek

My Mom

My Mom is doing her third round of chemotherapy and this time she's got the triple threat going on: three different chemo-treatment simultaneously - two via transfusion and one pill and these are toughest treatments yet. My Mom amazes me how tough she is. She doesn't complain and she always looks on the bright side. If she's not feeling good her attitude is that she'll be feeling better soon and that it could always be worse. Please take a sec and pray for her, that she'll have the strength she needs and that her nausea will subside.

Erika, Maddie and Olivia

Maddie is spending the night over at Dana and Eli's house tonight to help Dana babysit tomorrow. Maddie loves babies and loves being the big girl in the group, and the girls love her. She spent the night at her friend's house last night, came home and crashed for an hour and then headed over to Dana's tonight for round two.

Em Skating in full gear

Knee pads, elbow pads, hand guards and a helmet. She's taking no chances.

Jackpot!

My brother Dan and I have planned the trip around finding good deals on gas throughout the Memphis trip. Today, we found the Holy Grail on our last leg in Ohio. We stopped to see my brother/sister-in-law Ed & Stacy in Dayton and they showed us the way. We made it home around 8pm after 13 hours of travel and about $250 worth of gas and 1,600 miles.

We had a fantastic trip, the kids had a blast seeing Libby, their Aunt and Uncle and understanding where they live and just how far they travel when they come to Michigan. We miss Jon, Beth, Libby, Stretch and Zoe a ton, but we're so proud of Beth for what she's doing at St. Jude's and we're proud of Jon for the choice he's made to stay at home with Libby and be a full-time Dad.

You can see all of the pictures from the trip here at the Kurt Family Photo Album.

Matthew and his toys

My 10 year old Nephew Matthew loves playing with Libby's toys. He was very good at them by the end of the trip and had even mastered some of the basic colors, except blue, which he's always had a tough time with. As a baby, Matthew used to be deathly afraid of a tickle-me-cookie-monster toy and wouldn't go near our toy box until we would remove it. I have video footage of this very fact. I plan on pulling out that video footage and some combination of these pictures for his wedding reception someday.

(In reality, my nephew Matthew is a great kid, very smart, can quote Napoleon Dynamite verbatim and can hold his own against any of his uncles in verbal battle, and as a Black Belt, can whoop up on most of us as well).

Libby's First Birthday

Yesterday was my niece Libby's first birthday and one of the big reasons for our trip down to Memphis (the other was to see Beth... oh yeah, and Jon too). Libby shared her birthday with her friend Isabelle, whose birthday was today. We went over to Damon and Jen's house nearby... actually it was more of an invasion. Jon had thought he'd warned Damon and Jen of what to expect, but after spending 24 hours with us, Jon was reminded of reality and was afraid. Showing up with our 6 kids to their house and pool reminded me of the scene in Caddyshack where the Caddies get one hour each year to use the country club pool. We had a blast and Jen and Damon and their parents were very hospitable.

Being a first birthday, I thought this scene was funny, watching all of the parents and grandparents trying to capture the moment forever.

The kids swam non-stop and afterwards we headed over to the hotel... to swim... again. We ordered pizza and hung out talking about what a cool thing we're passing on to our kids by valuing each other as siblings and giving them the chance to spend all this time together. We went back to Jon and Beth's where I wrapped up some of the computer projects I was working on and we called it a night, ready to wake up early for our drive today.

Sun Rise in Memphis

We got on the road about 6am this morning and have about 12 hours left on our drive home. Jon and Beth were kind enough to wake up to see us off and help us load up. We're caravaning back with Dan and Kris, stopping in a couple of hours for breakfast. Cathie and the kids are out cold and will hopefully sleep for a while.

It's Hot at Night in Memphis

The Blues on Beale Street

Jon, Dan and I headed down to the infamous Beale St. Downtown to hear the Blues. As the movie goes, 'No one gets out of here without singing the blues', but since we were with Dan, thankfully we did (Today is Dan's b-day, so we took the appropriate care of him).

St. Jude's Hospital

We finally got a chance to see where Beth is doing her fellowship at The Danny Thomas St. Jude Cancer Research Hospital. Beth took us on a tour and we got a chance to see the artwork, with each area being custom painted for the kids and some of the kids artwork is displayed.

Jon and Dan screwing

Dan has been helping Jon with projects around the house and I've been working on Jon and Beth's computers. According to Kris, Dan isn't very good at screwing or hammering, but he's very good at sawing.

The Peabody

We came downtown to The Peabody to see the famous march of the ducks at 5:00. The ducks march from the fountain, through the lobby and up the elevator to their palace on the roof.

Emily and Zoe

Jon and Beth have two weiner dogs that have finally been socialized enough not to bite the kids, much to Emily's delight. The girls have been playing with the dogs like their own personal puppies. The girls haven't put them down yet.

June Bugs

Memphis has these giant Circadia bugs, about two inches long that chirp very loudly all night. They're creepy looking things, but over time I trained this one to sit on my shoulder and do tricks.

The 'ol Miss and the little Miss

Walkin in Memphis

We went downtown to the Mississippi Riverwalk, a to-scale replica of the old lady, complete with bridges and towns. It's about 100 degrees out and the kids can walk in the mock river the whole way down.

Corky's in Memphis

We got into Memphis yesterday afternoon around 4:30 and went to Corky's BBQ, which are hands down the best Ribs I've ever had. Dan and Kris are staying at a nearby DoubleTree, so we went over there swimming and then came back to Jon's, hung out for a while and then crashed by about 10. The kids were beat after the early morning.

Kentucky - 8 hours in

We left at 5am and we're almost into Tennessee, stopping in Kentucky for lunch. We've passed Big Bone Lick State Park which is next to the ctown of Beaverlick and south of Rabbit Hash.

Vacation Montage

Here's a 3 minute synopsis on what we did last week, all put to music:

Ted & Sherry

Our friends Ted and Sherry have a beautiful boy Ethan, and were recently thrilled to find out that they were pregnant with number two. We got a call tonight to hear that they've had a miscarriage. Cathie and I have been through this a few times and it sucks, it hurts and it's something that sticks with you for life. Please pray for Ted and Sherry.

Vacation #2 at the Butcrack of Dawn

I'm heading to bed. I'm getting up at 4:30 AM to be out the door by 5AM and on the way to Memphis with Dan and his family. It's a 12 hour drive, so the early start should help us. The kids are stocked up on books and videos to entertain them while I've got my iPod charged up and ready to go. I rigged up Nate's PS2 to a dual screen system in the back so he and his cousins can play video games while the girls watch movies on the ceiling mounted player.

When I was a kid, we had a buick with 6 people in it and we traveled down to Florida 24 hours straight. No video games, no ipods, nothing but each other to fight with and entertain ourselves with. Wish us luck.

We get back on Sunday evening.

Ted at Colbert

I've been telling my friend Ted that he needs to do something worthwhile to make my blog and he's finally done it. Through back channel connections Ted was able to score tickets to see the taping of the Daily Show Spin-Off 'The Colbert Report' with Stephen Colbert. It's showing tonight on Comedy Central, so set your Tivos to tape.

Rays Family Blog

The Rays family now has a blog. With five boys, there is never a dull moment. As my kids put it when they found out they have there very own slurpee machine, "Dad, they must be millionares or billionares!" Not sure about that, but if Nate turns out as well as the Rays boys have, I'll be a happy Dad.

Vacation

We had a fantastic vacation at Will's roommate's (Mom) cottage. Linda has a fantastic place in Shelby, MI right off Lake Michigan. It's a fantastic cottage that sleeps 12+ in the woods. The cottage is 10 minutes South of Silver Lake Sand Dunes, and about 20 minutes North of Michigan's Adventure Amusement Park. You can sit on the deck and not hear a sound other than crickets chirping and the wind blowing through the trees and at night you're remote enough that you can see more stars than you new existed.

We arrived on Friday afternoon along with our friends the Niemi's. They have three kids about the same age as our kids, one boy and two girls. The kids had a blast playing together wherever they were. Friday, Saturday and Sunday we hung out at the beaches during the day and in the evening went . The kids slept in until 9 each morning, which was great. We spent the mornings drinking coffee and hanging out, the days at the beach and the evenings watching the sunsets at the beach followed by a camp fire.

At some point, a dog wandered over to Linda's cottage who according to his tag was named Roy. You'd of thought the kids had never seen a dog before. They got the dog water and he followed them around as they hiked through the woods. The dog was there for maybe two hours tops, and we must have heard 30 times through the rest of vacation, "I miss Roy."
On Sunday, Mark and I took the boys over to the Silver Lake Dunes to bleed off some energy. The boys had been having these water-noodle sword fights the past few days and had been asking non-stop about when we were going to the dunes, so they could have a water-noodle fight on top of the dunes. They finally had their battle. We climbed to the top of the highest, steepest dune and ran 100+ yards straight down into the lake.

Backing up to Linda's cottage is this giant hill. Saturday evening, the boys and I climbed the hill and decided we'd navigate our way over to the Lake Michigan through the woods, using nothing but our Y chromosome. It was a hike, but we made it without getting lost... Kind of. We ended up coming out of the woods at the Lake, but not sure how to get back. We could have/should have cut through the yards to the lake, walked until we found our way back. Instead, we followed the road we didn't know all the way around, back into town and back to the cottage - about 4+ miles total. The boys slept well that night.

On Monday the Niemi's headed home and the five of us went to Michigan's Adventure Amusement Park in Muskegon. It's a fantastic park for the price. $24 admission gets you into both the water park and the amusement park and it takes about a day to hit them both. They've got a bunch of good roller coasters and a ton of rides that work for big and little kids. Nate and Madeline are both tall enough to ride all of the coasters there and they both love them. They've got a wicked wooden roller coaster called Shivering Timbers. I'm not sure if it still is, but at one point it was the longest wooden roller coaster around. In true wooden coaster style, it beats the crap out of you. Here's video of Maddie riding Shivering Timbers. Watch her expression as the ride progresses:

We had a beautiful day at the park, hitting the rides, spending about 4 hours in the water park, and then back to the coasters. We got home around 8, grilled out and then had a fire. We spent today at the beach and then came back and packed up and headed home. We stopped by to see my Mom and then got home around 9. It was a great vacation, but not quite long enough.

I almost hate to tell anyone about Linda's cottage because it's such a hidden treasure. She rents it out and I highly recommend it for a family vacation, or even a weekend getaway for couples. If you're interested, you can drop Linda a note here about availability. The place is perfect beautiful year round.

You can see the rest of the vacation pictures here in the Kurt Family Photo Album.

Tags: Silver Lake Dunes, Michigan's Adventure

Update on my Mom

Here's the latest update on my Mom from my Dad:

We were very disappointed to learn from the latest CT scan that some new spots were apparent on the liver. In March, spots on the liver were found, but they were infection and near as could be determined, not malignant. We were hoping for the same this time, thinking infection is easier to treat. However, we learned that the spots on the liver are malignant.

We have spent the last two weeks waiting for our oncologists (one at Sparrow Regional Cancer Center in Lansing and the other at U of M Regional Cancer Clinic in Ann Arbor) to determine the best course of action. We learned today that Lynn will begin receiving two chemo treatments simultaneously- one by pill twice daily and the other by infusion once every three weeks. A port will be surgically implanted later this week for this infusion.

This will not be easy for Lynn as they both have serious side affects; nausea, loss of appetite, hair loss, loss of taste, etc. Lynn has been such an inspiration to all of us for her determination to beat this cancer. We pray that this is the treatment that will put this cancer in remission.

Lynn started physical therapy at home a couple weeks ago. She does some stretching and muscle building exercises. She is very dedicated to doing this on a daily basis even though she becomes very sore from doing them.

Happy Anniversary

Fourteen years ago today, Cathie and I were married at the MSU Alumni Chapel. I was in my senior year at MSU studying Computer Science and Cathie had just graduated with a degree in Family/Community Services and had gotten her first job with Big Brothers/Big Sisters. We honeymooned in New Smyrna Beach, FL as Hurricane Andrew destroyed Miami.

Cathie and I were talking tonight about everything that's gone on over the past fourteen years, including:

• I've had three jobs (MSU IM Dept, ASG and Xerox) and Cathie has had two jobs(Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Metro Detroit and Clinton County)
• We've lived in 5 places (University Village, Burnt Tree Apts in EL, Apts in Novi, house in Livonia and our house in South Lyon.
• We've had 5 different pets (2 cats, a dog, 1 guinea pig - and a bunch of fish, which are barely pets)
• We've been members at one church (Crossroads, for 12 years)
• We've had three amazing children (Nate 9, Madeline 8, Emily 5)
• Both of our parents are still happily married and continue to be great role models for us on what love for a lifetime looks like
• We have 7 nieces and nephews
• All of my brothers, my sister and Cathie's brother Ed are now married. My adopted brother Will is close, we hope.
• We've had two roommates (Will for 2 months and Jess for a year)
• I've taken approximately 100,000 pictures
• Cathie has completed one photo scrapbook

Most of all, I've fallen deeper in love with Cathie than I ever thought possible. I've learned what it means to be connected with another person at a soul level. I've learned to and serve my wife and honor her in everything I do and say. I am married to my best friend in the whole world and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with her. Cathie's grandparents just celebrated their 60th anniversary, my parents their 40th and Cathie's are coming up on their 37th - all of which seem an eternity, but all amazing examples to us on what a lifelong commitment looks like.

Tags: MSU Alumni Chapel, Anniversary

On the Bathroom Mirror at the BK Lounge

"Even the King has to Wash His Hands..."

Kandra and Kevin

There's an ongoing joke at work that one of my friends and co-workers, Greg Kandra looks just like Kevin Covais from American Idol. I got this e-mail today, picturing Greg and his son. The resemblance is striking.

Great Day at the Park

Sunset on Lake Michigan

Beach Campfire as the Sun Sets

Vacation

I get home tonight around 2AM from Seattle and then leave tomorrow on
vacation. I've got my e-mail box cleaned out and I'm ready to take a
break. My internal clock is already off by three hours, so I'll be
golden for vacation. I'll be blogging from my phone if the cell
coverage works on the west side of the state. We're staying at Will's
Mom's cottage out in the Whitehall area. We're going to spend 5 days
hanging out at the lake, going to the dunes and spending time as a
family. On Tuesday we're heading to Michigan Adventure Amusement Park
for the day. It's the best option for $20/person. You get
roller-coasters and a water park, all in the same day.

Advertising inside the Porta-John

Gary Player in the sand

Tom Kite at Greater Seattle Classic

We took a customer to the Greater Seattle Classic today and watched the Pro-Am event. It was pretty laid back and we had a chance to talk to some of the players and hosts. As we watched one hole, one of the amateurs accidentally shanked a line drive right at the pro, who just barely dodged it. As his caddie approached us a minute later he said, "That would have been worth the price of admissionm huh? Seeing a pro get hit in the nuts?"

On our way to the next hole one of the guys riding in the cart started talking to us, thanking us for coming out. It turns out it was Alan Mulally, the President of Boeing. Nice guy. Had no idea who he was as we talked.

After it cleared up, the scenery was beautiful. We got to see a number of big name players, like Gary Player, Tom Kite, JC Snead and Jim Colbert.

Tags: Greater Seattle Classic, Gary Player, Tom Kite, JC Snead, Jim Colbert, Alan Mulally

Fish Chucking at Pike Street Market

Travel Tip #3379

If you choose not to check your luggage and not remember to buy shaving cream, here's a tip:
They say that shampoo can double as shaving cream. "They" lie. Ouch.

My Steps

I may falter in my steps, but never beyond your reach.
-Rich Mullins, "Sometimes by Step"

I got up around 5 to go running and hit the gym. There are some fairly big, long hills in downtown Seattle, and I kept running finding them. This song came on my iPod and that line really struck me.

The Church can change the world

In church on Sunday during Fusion (our junior high youth group) we were talking about the purpose of the church. We looked at the early church in the book of Acts and talked through why the church exists. These junior high kids get it in a pretty impressive way. Their big takeaway form the whole thing was the point that "The church can change the world", (for the better) and each kid had to make sure they explained this point to our pastor.

I'd read this article that Will referenced and I've been thinking a lot lately on what the church's role is in politics. How should the church engage political systems in order to have an impact, without trying to hoard power for itself and become the political system it's trying to influence. On the flight out to Seattle, I was listening to this message from Rob Bell (Mars Hills Church in Grand Rapids) on Politics and the Church. The biggest part that hit me was this quote from Rob

The church exists primarily for the well being of everyone who is not a part of her.
-Rob Bell

There's this scary opinion out there of people that say, "In order to really be a Christian, you must hold the same political beliefs as I do, because I care more about this area than you do, and that makes me more of a christian."

Rob talks about the role of the church in politics, but also what unity looks like in a church with differing opinions. He gets into Galatians 3 and Ephesians 2:15 around unity:

What if we could be the kind of church where in a broken, fractured culture where there are all of these debates, opinions and television networks devoted to people ripping each other's head's off, What if we could be the kind of church where the protestor and the solider came together at the cross saying, "We have a bunch of things that we disagree on, but between us we have the resurrected Jesus and that's bigger and that's better. " What if the church could be the kind of place these people socially, economically, educationally, politically are all over the spectrum but they have this unity that can't be explained and it's so powerful."

Great message. I don't have any real conclusion here. More just that I'm thinking some of it through.

Tags: Mars Hill Church, Grand Rapids, Rob Bell, Politics, Fusion, Christianity

Nate's Bad Teeth

Nate's spending the night at a friend's house tonight as a part of a birthday party. I just got this picture via e-mail from the parent hosting the event. Thanks Jen! This kind of picture makes a parent proud.

Seattle at Dusk

Romans 12

I Read Romans 12 this morning. Wow.

9-10Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

11-13Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

14-16Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.

17-19Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. 'I'll do the judging,' says God. 'I'll take care of it.'

20-21Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

Tags: Romans 12

Pike Street Market

I got up early and met up with John, my co-worker who came in from Hawaii at 5am. We hoofed it around town to get some coffee (there is a coffee shop every ten feet) and I was hoping to see some fish tossing at the market, but it was too early. It's overcast and cold, but it's a cool downtown.