Life is Good!

Man, I had a great weekend! My dad came to visit me from Ohio. He got into town a little late due to some car issues, but he made it Saturday morning. It was fun getting to see him meet Colin. Almost everyone on Marcy's side has met him, but my dad was the first one on my side to do so. We had a fun weekend of doing very little. Hey, we live in Cape, so what do you expect? I also preached my last sermon in the series I have been working on called, "What you talkin' 'bout, Jesus?" While I certainly enjoyed preaching, it is nice to have that extra workload off of my shoulders. And to top it all off, my dad and I went to Busch Stadium last night for the Cardinals game. Our beloved Indians were in town, so we snapped up tickets. The stadium is great, and our seats - section 164, row WC - were awesome! They were plastic fold-up chairs placed just behind the lower section, so we were actually able to move them around and lean back in them. Very nice! And to top it all off, our Tribe laid a serious butt-whooping to the Cards, 10-3. Too much fun!

Brennan Manning and Kisses

Now, if that title didn't catch your attention and imagination, then you are simply not alive. Last weekend, our church had the privilege of hosting Brennan Manning for our weekend services. He is booked solid through 2008, but through the fortune of a church cancelling his visit with him, we were able to land him to speak while our pastor was on sabbatical. And what a blessing it was! He gave three distinct messages at each of the services, all focused on the theme of God's amazing love and grace. If you have read any of his books, you will find this theme to be unsurprising, as many of his writings - The Ragamuffin Gospel, Abba's Child, Ruthless Trust, etc. - have this as their central theme. During one of his messsages, he referenced a particular translation of the story of the prodigal son. This translation, when it gets to the part of the story of the father greeting his son upon his return, says that the father, "...couldn't stop kissing him." What a beautiful way to read it!

Rewind now about two months. Colin had just recently been born. As I came into contact with friends and acquaintances, many of them would ask, "So, how is it being a daddy?" My reply to many of them was, "I just can't stop kissing him!" Almost word for word what that translation read. I guess this being a daddy thing is just a glimpse of the overwhelming love that the Father has for me. It means so much more now...

Apple Envy

The new MacBooks are out. They make me hate the whole nature of computers. A couple of months ago, I purchased a refurbished iBook - which Apple is no longer making - and I love it! But, now they come out with the new MacBook, which features the Intel processor (translation: 5X faster), the new iLife '06 software bundle, a built in webcam for video chats, a remote that can control iTunes and the DVD player, and a magnetic power cord to prevent accidentally tripping over the cord and pulling the laptop off the table and onto the floor. The entry level one is about what I paid for my refurbished laptop. Curses! If I had just waited a little longer, I could have the new fancy one. But I know that a few months after that, they would have come out with something else to make me envious yet again. It's a never-ending spiral downward.

Plus, the new 24-hour Apple store opens today in New York City. It features a glass-cube at street-level, with stairs that descend into the store. There you find lots of computers and toys that you can try before you buy. If I ever make it back to NYC, that will certainly be a stopping place. You can read more and see pictures here.

I do love the new Apple commercials, though.

Cliffhangers

Two nights ago Marcy and I finished watching our TV addiction of choice for the year, Prison Break. It was the season finale, and boy, what a great season it was. The plot centers around Michael Scofield, whose brother - Lincoln - is on death row, having been framed for the murder of the Vice President's brother. He robs a bank so he can get put in jail to help his brother - and others, as the show progressed - escape. It's a very intense show, and most of the episodes ended with a cliffhanger, causing me to wait with baited breath for the next week's episode. Every Monday I would say to Marcy, "You know what today is?" She would answer, "It's Monday." To which I would reply, "And you know what that means?" "Prison Break," would be her answer. And I would be giddy with anticipation.

I am also in the process of reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Now, before you question my Christianity or my wisdom, read my post below about this book. Anyway, Brown's writing style is a little annoying to me. I know, the book has sold a bajillion copies, but his chapters are each only a couple of pages long, and practically every one ends with some sort of cliffhanger:

• Langdon could not believe the words that were scrawled on the floor.
• Collett saw that the keys to the Land Rover were missing.

And so on. I know these fabricated sentences don;t make a lot of sense by themselves, but in the context, they would make one think, "Oh, I can't wait to find out what happens next! I must read the next chapter, all two pages of it!" It simply gets a little tiring after a while. It might work for an hour-long TV drama, but for a novel, I just don't think it works as well.

These two pop culture elements of my life have caused me to think about life in general. What would life be like if it were like Prison Break or The Da Vinci Code? What if, every hour or so, or at least every day, we had this huge cliffhanger in our lives that we had to deal with? I wonder how many of us would be able to deal with that kind of pressure on a regular basis. One minute, we lose our job. The next, we find out we've been set up. The next, we find out it's part of a huge conspiracy. The next, we discover that it is a conspiracy that we actually set in motion. And so on, and so on. By the end of the day, I would be curled up in the fetal position sucking my thumb. Thank God for the comparitively mundane-ness of life. Thank God that when I go home, I can simply kiss my wife, hug my child, and pat my dog on the head without having to worry about the government agent showing up at my door with a gun. Thank God that most days, the most exciting thing that may happen is that I get an e-mail from a friend or discover what great salad Marcy made for dinner. Thank God that the excitement of my life comes from an occasional great sporting event or roller coaster, and not from someone holding a knife to my throat. Cliffhangers are great for TV, not so great for novels, and distressing in real life.

Pac Man

If you have ever been a fan of the video game Pac Man - or even if you haven't - you will likely love this video of two people reenacting Pac Man in real life. It must have been finals week...

The Da Vinci Code

I ran across this blog entry when it was republished in Christianity Today. It was written by Barbara R. Nicolosi, a scriptwriter, author, and speaker. She has some very opinionated things to say about The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Her basic premise is that we should stay far away from the book and the movie, as utilizing it for discussion purposes or to educate ourselves with it for those purposes would be similar to arguing with the Devil himself. She likens a discussion with anyone advocating DVC to an exorcism of demons. She criticizes those that might fall away from God because they did so "over this cartoonish, illiterate, dishonest piece of hack drivel..." instead of something bigger and more important like a love affair. Her depiction of "typical DVC inspired dialogue" paints the advocate as a close-minded, rude, sex-crazed, demon-possessed individual. Wow! Nothing like being open-minded, eh?

I just got The Da Vinci Code out of the library (the huge, illustrated, coffee-table version, since it was the only thing left) and started reading it the other night. It's an OK book so far, not great. And I plan on seeing the movie when it comes out, either in the theater or more likely on DVD (since I have a baby now). Why? Not only do I really like Tom Hanks as an actor and Ron Howard as a director. I also need to be prepared. I have heard much about the book, but have experienced none of it first-hand. I need to be prepared to know what I'm talking about when the topic comes up. And come up it will. If I were to take Ms. Nicolosi's high road, and one of my students were to approach me with questions about some of the so-called facts that the book or movie espouses, how would I respond? "Sorry. I didn't read or see it. It is spiritually-unfit for me to consume. And just the fact that you are asking me about makes you the Devil!" Come on! Let's be a little less closed-minded and impractical. Jesus Himself in Mark 5 not only communicated with the demons, but also granted their wishes by casting them into a herd of swine. I am not putting myself or anyone else on par with Jesus, but this book will open conversations with people about God, even if they have skewed opinions of Him. 1 Peter 3:15 exhorts believers to be prepared to give an answer for the hope that in them, and with humbleness, not pride. I would much rather be prepared to dialogue and give an answer for my hope than to condemn...

30 Hour Famine

First of all, allow me to say that I did not puke this year. I consider that to be a big success, since last year involved copious amounts of fluid being, shall we say, expelled from my body. OK, now on to more impotrant things.

Our Famine this year involved many less students than it did last year. I'm not sure of the exact numbers, but I think it was about half as many. Not to mention the fact that there were half the students there than THAT SIGNED UP! I'm not sure what happened. I know life gets in the way sometimes, but for HALF the kids to call and cancel, or simply not show up, was a little discouraging. It doesn't discourage me personally or for the ministry - OK, it does - but it discourages me more for them. They missed out on what I thought was a very good event and an incredible ministry opportunity.

The students that did show up were amazing! They actually raised more money than the group did last year. Despite the reduced numbers, they brought in over $3,000.00! Not bad at all. Plus, they had such great attitudes throughout the event. I heard no whining - except for Jory when I tried to wake him up on Saturday morning. Maybe that was because we gave them pictures of World Vision kids to pray for when they wanted to whine. Maybe it was because I threatened to laugh at them if they did whine. Not sure. And, they served hard at the various service projects we lined up for them, at the grocery store scavenger hunt, and stuffing envelopes for our mission trip fundraiser. Well done, Faminers!

The highlight for me for the Famine was our worship service. Our church's worship leader, Chris Nall, came in and led us in worship songs for about a half hour. Great! And then we had a special guest speaker from Cameroon (he actually lives in Atlanta, now) who is with an organization called Bread for Life. He gave his personal testimony and spoke and answered questions about the living conditions in Cameroon. It was great for me and the students to hear about stuff outside of Cape Girardeau, MO.

If you are a youth pastor and are not doing the Famine, or if you are a student that doesn't participate in it, I would encourage you to reconsider. You won't be sorry...unless maybe you puke...

Miss USA

Let me start by saying that yes, I spent my Friday night watching the Miss USA pageant on TV. Sad, I know. Marcy's family was in town and her niece wanted to watch it since she knew - sort of - Miss Ohio and Miss West Virginia. So we indulged her. It was fine, even though Drew Lachey, one of the co-hosts, was about 4 1/2 feet tall and sounded about as dumb as a box of rocks (rocks are dumb, trust me). We watched as they trimmed the contestants from 51, down to 15, and then down to the final five. The last competition was <dramatic music> The Final Question. Each contestant would be given one question to impress the judges with their poise and intelligence. First of all, I was expecting a little more out of the questions. Instead of questions about what to do about world hunger and how to fix the economy, we got questions about whether or not they felt that pop musicians were role models or not. Silly. But sillier yet were their answers. The only one that didn't sound ridiculous was Miss Ohio, and she finished in 4th place! Some of the highlights - or lowlights - that literally made me laugh out loud were these:

• Miss Kentucky, when asked whether pop musicians were good role models said that she thought that a lot of music was "too much edgy." Interesting grammar, to say the least.
• Miss California, when asked what advice she would give to strengthen families spoke about spending time with each other. Good advice, but then she kept going on and on about how this was so important whether you came from a family of two or a family of 15. Now seriously, how many families of 15 do you know of?
• Miss Florida, when asked if we were too politically-correct as a society, said that yes, we were too PC, especially in "the Department of Religion." Is that a new Cabinet post that I am not aware of? Department of Transportation, Education, and now Religion.
• Miss Georgia, when asked what she would want to teach men about women, said that they were strong creatures. I thought, "This might be good. She can talk about how women can do anything that men can do." Instead, she continued on to say that women wear high-heels, which proves just how strong they are. Come on! Is high-heels the best you can come up with to discuss just how strong women are?!? Sad.

All this further goes to show that Solomon knew what he was talking about when he wrote, "Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised. (Proverbs 31:30)" Physical beauty is fine, female or male, but shouldn't our emphasis be on our inner lives instead?

Reflections on Daddyhood, Part 1

Wow, what a ride it has been! Colin Samuel is now a mere 16 days old, but it feels like a whole new world has opened up to me. That has happened a few times in my life. Events happen that make me feel like life has really started. First, when I was 12 years old, I met and began to follow Jesus for the first time, and I thought, "Now, life has begun." Then, many years later, I met and married Marcy and thought the same thing. And now, with Colin in my life, I feel like life has begun all over again. It is an amazing life, with so much joy, so many highs and lows. I have discovered one of the truly great simple pleasures in life, that being sitting in my recliner with my boy asleep on my chest. It just doesn't get any better than that! And my priorities have been all shaken up yet again. I have been reminded that it is not aout me at all. Any time that I might be disillusioned that it is, I am awakened by Colin's cries and I realize that it is about him. It really is a good life. More reflections to come, I'm sure...

Church Signs - Annoying!

If you are like me, you get really annoyed by churches that use cheesy slogans on their church sign. For example:

"CH__CH - What missing? UR"

That is so what it takes to draw people to church (sarcasm). The Wittenburg Door, a Christian satire web magazine, apparently is also annnoyed, as evidenced by these rejected church slogans. Enjoy...

Colin Samuel Fitzpatrick is here!

Our boy has finally arrived! He was born yesterday, 4/5/06, at 2:23 in the afternoon, after a 20-hour labor by Marcy (She's a stud...in a girly kind of way). He was 8 lbs. 8 oz. and measured in at 20" long. He was a little anxious to enter the world, so he stuck his hand out with his head, tearing Marcy quite a bit. She had surgery to get sewn up and is recovering nicely. The boy is a looker, despite the fact that he has the Fitzpatrick nose. All are doing well, and we are so excited to have our boy finally be here!!!

Yawn...

What a boring NCAA Men's Basketball Championship game it was last night. As exciting as the tourney had been up until the Final Four, I had great hopes that this would be one of the best, if not the best, tournament of all time (at least all of my time). But the Final Four was a big dud. Neither of the semifinal games was close, nor was the championship. And the tourney had such promise, too. We had upsets, like Northwestern State over Iowa on a last-second shot; like Montana over Nevada; like Bradley over Kansas (yes, Kansas choked in the first round - again!). We had amazing finishes like UCLA over Gonzaga and Texas over West Virginia (Cursed Texas!). And we had the Cinderella #11 seed George Mason make it all the way to the Final Four, the first time in history that a team seeded that low ever made it that far. It had all the makings for the best tourney ever, but at the end, it laid a great big egg.

It makes me think about what we discussed at youth group the last couple of weeks. Sometimes, Christianity is the same way. In our eyes, it can lay a great big egg, too. But it's not because it's bad. I'm sure Florida doesn't think that the tournament was bad in any way. It is because we have the wrong expectations for it. We expect to be happy all of the time. Or we expect it to be about living a moral life. Or we expect God to show up in some big, dramatic burning bush experience for us daily. Whatever it is, we often expect the wrong things about what it means to follow Jesus, and it ends up being a drag to us. Has this ever happened to you?

The Wal-Mart Inn & Suites

When I was in college, I never really did anything exciting for my spring break. While other friends jetted off to Florida or South Padre Island, I usually had just enough money to pay for gas for my one-hour trek home. But if I had been half as creative as Skyler Bartels, I might have had some seriously crazy stories to tell. Enjoy...

Worship Leader, or Lead Worshipper

I witnessed a really cool thing the other day. I was at the church, getting ready for the Saturday evening service. I was the worship assistant for the weekend, which meant that I was sort of the emcee for the service: I welcomed people, ran through some announcements, read Scripture, prayed, and invited the ushers up for the offering. It was about 45 minutes before the service was to begin, and all of the last-minute preparations were going on: soundchecks, double-checking the PowerPoint slides, running through songs one last time, etc. Currently, our stage is adorned by a rather large stained glass-esque picture of Jesus and some traditional Christian symbols. It was while the band was running through one of their songs that I witnessed this cool thing. The worship leader for the weekend was a good friend of mine, Geoff Smith. While he was singing, instead of facing 990 empty seats, he was turned with his back to the auditorium, facing the huge picture of Jesus. I don't know why he did this. Maybe he was trying to hear the band and the other vocalists better. Maybe he was trying to not be distracted. Or maybe, as I imagined it, he was simply doing what he was called to do, and that is worship God. Maybe he was so caught up in that Jesus hanging behind him that he didn't care what was happening around him. Too often we get caught up in the idea that church is a show that we come and consume, instead of realizing that it is a participatory event. We think that those that are up front are in some way more important because they are up front. In reality, they are just one of the worshippers, just like anyone that is sitting in our comfy seats. But we like to be entertained instead of having to participate and present our bodies as living sacrifices, which is our reasonable act of worship. "Let someone else do it, and let me watch," we think. And that is the wrong attitude to have, if you ask me. I wish we could all just turn around more often and stand face-to-face with Jesus and let it be about Him and me...

Kelly Clarkson Video

Before anyone starts slamming me for having the Kelly Clarkson video playing on this blog, let me explain. Two of my students from the youth ministry I used to volunteer with in Ohio are currently in LA trying to make it as actors. They have already appeared in an episode of Charmed, and now are in this video, 'Walk Away.' I have to give them some props, and as much exposure as I can. So now, the three or four people that actually look at this blog will know who they are, too. They are the twins that are singing while washing dishes and wearing rubber gloves. Enjoy...

I'm Too Busy for God

That seems to be the message that I have been hearing lately. Specifically, it has come through loud and clear in two articles I have read recently. This one, from Christianity Today, talks about the abundance of new Bibles that are coming out that "hope to make God's word digestible for the masses not in years, but in weeks, days, and—yes—even minutes." First, there's The Bible in 90 Days, a Bible and a curriculum that allows the reader to get through the Bible in - you guessed it - 90 days. But maybe that's too much of a time commitment for you. If so, there's the HCSB Light Speed Bible which combines the Bible and speed reading to get you through the Bible four times in one day. Four times! And finally, there is the 100-Minute Bible which condenses the Bible to 20,000 words in about 60 pages. I think it reads something like this:

"First, there was God. Then there was Adam and Eve, they sinned, then there was Abraham, who was the father of Israel, who became enslaved to Egypt but Moses led them out and they wandered for a while. They liked God, then they didn't, then they did, then they didn't, did, then didn't, and so on. Then came Jesus. He healed and preached and loved. Then He died, but He rose again. Then the Church was started and Paul wrote a bunch of letters. Then there was some crazy stuff that happens at the end featuring horses and trumpets and bowls. The End."

What does it say about us that we need Bibles that we don't have to spend a lot of time with? We're too busy to really spend time in the Word, right? I mean, we have work, and family, and extracurricular stuff, and church stuff. We need something to get us a quick fix in the Word, but it can't take much time. Is that really the best approach to the Word of God?

And then I ran across this article and pictures of a drive-thru church in Daytona Beach. People drive up just like you used to do at a drive-in movie theater. You watch the service from your car, someone delivers the Communion elements to you there, and then you drive away. Again, what kind of message is this sending. That we're too busy to even get out of our cars? That church is really just a show, so why bother participating? That we don't need the community that church is supposed to be about, and instead, I'm in a hurry to get to my real community on the golf course? Now that's the kind of church I want!

Now, before you think I'm getting all high and mighty on you, keep in mind that I admit that I am just as bad as the next guy or girl in this area. I like to think that I am soooo busy in my life that I don't have the time to really sit down and quiet myself and take time alone with God, whether it be through prayer or time in the Word or worship or whatever. I busy myself with some important things, but also with a lot of inconsequential things. Spending time with my family: important. Watching American Idol: inconsequential. Being with my youth group students: important. Goofing around on the internet: inconsequential. May God help me to be more like Martin Luther who is widely quoted as saying, "I have so much to do today that I should spend the first three hours in prayer."

Johari Window

OK, so I was surfing over at my friend Nolan's blog, and I came across this thing called a Johari Window. It was invented by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in the 1950s as a model for mapping personality awareness. By describing yourself from a fixed list of adjectives, then asking your friends and colleagues to describe you from the same list, a grid of overlap and difference can be built up. (from the website - italics mine) I have started one for myself, and would love to hear what you have to say. If you are looking at this blog, chances are you know me a little bit. So help a brother out and make me more self-aware by clicking below and following the directions. Thanks...

http://kevan.org/johari?name=mcfitzie

A Look Back At The Porch

Maybe it was just me, but man, was The Porch good last night! Here's what went down:

First, I get a call in the afternoon from Putty, one of our SIMYs that helps lead the youth band, telling me that no one showed up for band practice on Sunday, so we wouldn't have a band for that night. Bummer. So I figured, "Well, we'll just punt and play some stupid game or something and do some God Rocked My Face Offs." Then, about 20 minutes before we were supposed to start, while everyone is eating and hanging out, Lauren, one of the singers from the band, came up to me and said, "Is it true that we don't have any music tonight?" I told her yes. She said, "That's bad." I said, "I know." She said, "What about doing those iWorship videos? I could lead with those." So we found them on the server, and she and Jen, one of our SIMYs that used to be in the band, picked out some songs.

The meeting started, and we went ahead and played the stupid game that involved marshmallows, which was quite funny. Marshmallows are just fun in a white, squishy package, anyway. We plowed through our announcements, and got to our One Life Revolution announcement, and discussed the Penny War we have going on to raise money for those suffering from the AIDS crisis in Africa. As I'm making the announcement, one kid stood up, pulled out his wallet, and threw some money in one of the jugs. Then someone else. Then another. And another. And another. Then a SIMY. and another SIMY. And another student. And so on. It was crazy how much money they were just giving away like it was God's or something ;-) .

And then, if that weren't enough, we started singing, and everyone was really into worshipping God. So after Lauren and Jen led us in two or three songs, I felt like we should do more. So I got up and said a few words while they picked out a couple more to do. Then we sang some more, and I said a few words. We sang and I read from a Psalm. By the time it was all said and done, we had sung for 45 minutes! It was awesome to see how pumped everyone was to just take the whole meeting to worship God! I can't say for sure, but I think He was pretty pleased with the offering we brought last night. If you were there, that's what worship is about, and should be about in our everyday lives. God rocked my face off last night! I was stressed about the program, and God showed up and said, "It's not about the program. It's about Me." And it was...

Be Your Own DJ

Do you like music? Check.
Do you like downloading songs that you like? Check.
Do you not have enough money to pay for all the songs you want to hear? Check.

Here might be a good alternative for you. Go to Pandora, where you can enter the name of an artist or song that you like, and it will configure a virtual radio station that plays similar music. I just entered the David Crowder Band, and it brought up such artists as Delirious? and the Robbie Seay Band. Pretty cool...

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

We finally got some snow yesterday. It warmed my heart as it chilled my fingers and toes. This 60 degrees in January is crazy! It's not supposed to be that way. Winter means snow. So, while it is practically gone already, I'm glad we had a little bit at least. A few other thoughts:

• During a prayer meeting, people prayed for our country that it would return to its Christian heritage. I'm not sure exactly what they meant by that. Probably a return to prayer in school and an end to abortion. But what about ending poverty and taking care of the alien, widows, and orphans? And would it really do us good to have our government agree with our Christian heritage, or would it simply add to our complacency? Look at Israel in the Old Testament. When things were going smoothly for them, that was when they turned away from God to other idols. And when I was in high school, the strongest Christians were the ones in the public schools, where they had to fight for their faith daily. And who do you think is stronger, the average American Christian that has life easy, or the Chinese Christian that has to worship underground? (I know I'm going to hear from my brother about this post) Just a thought...
• I was ever-so-glad to hear that U2 cleaned up at the Grammys last night, and that Mariah Carey did not. Granted, I haven't heard any of Mariah's CD at all, but seriously, who is more culturally relevant when you look at the big picture? I think about stories of REM winning Best Alternative Music Grammy with their first mainstream album when going up against Nirvana's Nevermind, which etched grunge into the consciousness of America. Or Jethro Tull beating out Metallica for the first Metal Grammy. And when I do, I say, "The Grammys got it right this time."
• Have you heard what is going on at Asbury College in Wilmore, KY? A revival is breaking out there, and God is driving people to their knees. This is reminiscent of the revival that occurred there in 1970. Go God!
• Fitz, Jr. in 54 days and counting! if you have any name suggestions, I would love to hear them...but I can pretty much guarantee that we won't use them. I'm fairly sure that Marcy wouldn't allow us to name our child from a suggestion submitted on my blog. But it could still be fun. So let's hear your ideas.