Choosing leftovers

I have a weird wife. I don't think anyone will be surprised to hear that.

An example:

When deciding which leftovers from the fridge she wants to eat, her primary criterion is whether or not she can finish a certain dish off so that the container can be removed from the fridge and washed. So, if we have manicotti, taco soup, and tuna casserole in the fridge she will say to herself something like, "Well, there is really only one serving of manicotti in that pan, so if I eat it then I can wash the pan and open up some space in the refrigerator. There's a lot of taco soup left, and quite a bit of tuna casserole left. I won't be able to finish off either of those. I'll have manicotti."

I have no problem with this organizationally-minded decision-making process. But I think it's funny.

Jackson

Here is a really excellent post about the tragedy of Michael Jackson's death, the culture that helped shape him, and a call to sharing the message of Jesus Christ.

Mark Driscoll and Southern Baptists

Check out this blog post from Tim Ellsworth on the Southern Baptist Convention and some of its attendees being mad at pastor Mark Driscoll of Seattle's Mars Hill Church.

Ironically, Driscoll is one of the most theologically conservative preachers I think I've ever listened to. And he does preach the gospel very well. It's a good post. Read it.

Webmaster... but not really

Over the next days, weeks, months, and maybe years I'm going to become the primary caretaker of our church's website. I'm really excited about it. If you're interested, I'd encourage you to take a look at centcov.org and report back to me with your input. For a while now I've thought that it could use some sprucing up, and I've got plenty of ideas. The changes might be extremely slow for awhile. At this point I've been given permission to update information and content on the site, but I have in mind some fairly radical design changes and different strategies to really make it a more useful tool for ministry. I don't know if/when I'll be able to really get going on it and make significant changes, but if you take a look at the site now then over time I'll probably ask you to take a look again... and tell me how you think things are coming!

Scum of the Earth

Last night Elizabeth and I attended Scum of the Earth Church in Denver. This was my fourth visit to Scum, Elizabeth's third. We go occasionally because we have a couple of friends who are pastors there and they often invite us when they are preaching. Actually, that's mostly why we used to go. Now we go largely because we love it.

Scum is a very special church. It's made up of a very ecclectic group of mostly young people. Many of them struggle or have struggled with different kinds of addictions. Many have been hurt by Christians/churches in the past. It's largely a group of people that you probably wouldn't expect to see in your church on a Sunday morning.

Scum meets on Sunday nights in a very old building that was a church a long time ago, but most recently served as the house of an artist in Denver who essentially used the building as his canvas. The walls, railings, stairs and other fixtures are all painted funky colors. In some places there are collages of photos all over the ceilling. The bathrooms have wacky tiles and sea shells and mermaids on the walls. If there was one word to describe the building where Scum meets I think I would choose funky.

Anyway, we've come to really love visiting Scum. I've come to realize that the way a church is between Monday and Saturday really tends to dictate what the church is like on Sunday, and if that's true, then Scum is a vibrant, loving community of people who meet regularly with one another to share burdens and triumphs, to get to know one another, to be released from the bondage of any number of troubles, and to love each other. Pastors at Scum have to raise financial support because the church is comprised largely of low- to no-income people.

Last night my friend Josh Cook gave a talk on "Healthy Single Sexuality." In my opinion, it was on healthy sexuality in general (because it was every bit as relevant for married people as it was for singles). It was a fantastic message. When I'm listening to sermons I tend to look around at the crowd and be curious, seeing who's here and who's sitting where. Last night I realized about 3/4 of the way through Josh's sermon that I hadn't shifted my view from Josh the whole night. I'm not sure I'd even blinked! Maybe that's weird, but it illustrates how captivated I was the whole time.

The church's web site is scumoftheearth.net and Josh's sermon will probably be posted there before long, if you're interested (at least I think they post audio of their sermons on their site).

Just wanted to let you all know that it's a really great church, and we'll probably continue to visit as long as we live in the area.

blogging from church

This is a little weird. I'm blogging from church. But it's okay because I'm not in church. I'm in charge of "working" one Sunday a month at church, which means I show up before anyone else and make sure everything is set up and ready to go. I also answer phones and help people find things and really just be around and available to answer questions and handle crises (like how every couple of months our ceiling will start leaking water, or a toilet will overflow or something).

Anyway, the first service is going on right now, and that means that for about the next 45 minutes I won't really have much to do. So I'm blogging.

Yesterday Elizabeth and I took a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. This is one of the three weekends this summer when admission to national parks is FREE so we decided to take advantage! We hiked for a couple hours along a beautiful river that was full of rapids. The turn-around point of our hike was at a place called Calypso Cascades. A huge cascading waterfall that was, simply put, tremendous. We loved it. On the way back down the trail it rained quite a bit, which wasn't particularly fun, but it was still an enjoyable and beautiful trek. After our hike we drove along Trail Ridge Road -- the main road that goes all the way through the park. It's also the highest continuous paved road in the continental U.S. We'd never driven that road before, and it was awesome! I never realized how high 12,000+ feet was. I think the fact that it was a cloudy rainy afternoon even added something to it. For much of the drive we were higher than many of the clouds. The road literally travels along the very top of the mountains. It was like another world up there. Usually when you're driving through the mountains you're still really driving between the mountains, so you still look up to see everything. On Trail Ridge Road, however, the tops of the mountains are pretty much level with you. We were looking down onto a whole bunch of snow and clouds. Anyway, that's about the best I can describe our trip yesterday. Just believe me when I say it was awesome.

So today I'm sore (from the hike) and tired (from a lack of sound sleep the last couple of nights). But I'm excited about the day nonetheless.

A couple of funny stories from our hike (it was a terribly busy trail on probably one of the busiest days of the year):

As we were hiking up the trail we passed a family headed down. The little boy, who couldn't have been older than 5, said, "...yeah, and the sooner we get down, the sooner we can get in the hot tub."

On the way down we passed another family where a little girl (probably 7 or 8) was offering to give her little sister (4 or 5) a piggy-back ride. Her dad said, "No, I don't want you giving her a piggy-back ride while we're on this trail." The older daughter complained, "But you did it." To which the dad replied somewhat irritated, "I'm also 38, and much stronger than you."

Elizabeth? Did I miss any of the funny stories?

Hammertime

Even though I'm extremely introverted, I LOVE people. Why? Because they do stuff like this...

My folks are famous!

My friend Amanda Salmond has been writing about 50 people who have impacted her life. Today's entry was my folks! Go here to read about how mom and dad have affected Amanda's life.

connecting

If anyone's interested, you can now find me at facebook.com/jakerohde.

Also, twitter.com/jakerohdingo.

Also, right here.

facebook usernames

Facebook is going to allow users to create usernames so that you can have an easier individual URL for your profile. In other words, if my username was jakerohde then my profile could be found at something like facebook.com/jakerohde. That service starts tonight at 12:01 a.m. eastern time... and usernames are available on a first come first served basis. So if there's a facebook username you're dying for, you might need to stay up a little later.

And the Winner is...

A Few Good Men

The Princess Bride

Winner: The Princess Bride

An epic matchup, but there's not a movie on the planet that can beat The Princess Bride. And I don't think there ever will be.

There. It's over. You can stop being bored by my blog.

Socks

I got a new pack of socks today because I needed some pretty badly. The pack advertised that it was a "re-sealable bag." I'll be honest. That's not a real hot selling point to me when we're talking about socks. I don't need to re-seal my plastic bag of socks after I've opened it. Maybe there are people out there who need to keep their socks "fresh," but I'm not one of them. Are any of you?

Final Four winners are here

The Final Four matchups are dynamite, but the winners have arrived. Want to know who's competing for the championship? Read on.

(Drama) A Few Good Men

(Family) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Winner: A Few Good Men

I hated to see Wonka go down, but I tend to like Aaron Sorkin-related stuff, and I tend to like courtroom dramas, and I tend to like things that are funny... so A Few Good Men is three for three there.

"You want answers?"

"I think I'm entitled to them."

"You want answers?"

"I want the truth!"

"YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"

(Comedy) The Princess Bride

(Action) Man on Fire

Winner: The Princess Bride

Well, Man on Fire certainly had a good run, and you'll see when I post my top-to-bottom rankings that while it's pretty high up there, it was definitely the beneficiary of a weak genre. Unfortunately, not a real threat to the masterpiece that is The Princess Bride.

"Good bye, boys! Have fun stormin' the castle!"

"Think it'll work?"

"It'd take a miracle. Buh-bye!"

So here we go. The championship contest is set. Will it be A Few Good Men taking down the 20+ year old classic, or will The Princess Bride overcome the all-star cast and brilliant dialogue of the best court-based movie in the land?

Knock-out

For all of us who hate obnoxious show-off guy.

Round 4 - The Final Four is here!

Hey everyone. We've only got a few contests left in the Movie Madness tournament. This post will take care of all of the round 4 games so you can see who made the Final Four.

Drama

(1) The Shawshank Redemption

(11) A Few Good Men

Winner: A Few Good Men

The last #1 seed has fallen. It wasn't without a fight, though. As you'll see at the end when I rank all of the movies top to bottom, these two movies are neck and neck. This was a triple overtime 3-pointer-at-the-buzzer kind of win.

"You got Dramamine?"

"Dramamine keeps you cool?"

"No, Dramamine keeps you from throwing up, you get sick when you fly."

"I get sick when I fly because I'm afraid of crashing into a large mountain. I don't think Dramamine will help."

Family

(9) Rudy

(6) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Winner: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

I hate to say this, because I really do love Rudy, but the fact that it made the Elite Eight was really a testament to the weak nature of its side of the division. Willy Wonka gets funnier every time I watch it... and that's more often than I'd care to admit.

"I saw this in a movie once. Guy signed his wife's insurance policy. Then he bumped her off."

"Clever."

Comedy

(4) The Princess Bride

(10) A League of Their Own

Winner: The Princess Bride

And this is where my wife's favorite movie ends its great run. Sorry. The Princess Bride doesn't really have a lot of competition anyway, so no need to fret.

"Which way's my way?"

"Pick up one of those rocks, get behind the boulder. In a few minutes the Man in Black will come running around the bend. The minute his head is in view, HIT IT WITH THE ROCK!"

"My way's not very sportsmanlike."

Action

(9) Man on Fire

(6) The Boondock Saints

Winner: Man on Fire

It's not just the revenge the Creasey carries out that makes me like this movie, but that's part of it. Even though outside of the movies I'm not a fan of vengeance.

"Creasey's art is death. And he's about to paint his masterpiece."

So here you go. Our Final Four matchups are set. Looks like some pretty strong competitors if you ask me!

A Few Good Men

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

The Princess Bride

Man on Fire

Stay tuned to see who comes out on top.

Something Funny

Click on this link for a t-shirt sold on Amazon and scroll down to the customer reviews. Read them. Laugh.

I love baseball

Regardless of how closely you follow sports, here are two stories you should know about.

Yesterday afternoon in a college baseball game that would send the winner to the Super Regional (on the road to the College World Series) the Florida State Seminoles defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes by a score of 37-6. That means that Florida State averaged more than 4 runs per inning. Thirty-two of FSU's runs came in the first five innings. I bet Ohio State was wishing College Baseball had a mercy rule of some kind.

On Saturday night in another postseason college baseball game Texas defeated Boston College 3-2 in 25 innings. A left-handed Texas relief pitcher, Austin Wood, entered the game in the bottom of the 7th inning with one out and one runner on base. Wood proceeded to pitch 12 and a third innings of no-hit baseball. In total he pitched 13 innings. This guy averaged between 10 and 14 pitches per outing for the whole season, and on Saturday night he threw 169 of them, giving up just 4 walks and two hits. For the most detailed and entertaining story on the game check out the Stat of the Week/Hero of the Week section of Peter King's football column Monday Morning Quarterback.