Knowing is half the battle. (the other half is violence)

Hop Scotch in the 'hood.

It happens every Saturday. I start the day with a long list of things I'm going to get done, and by the end of my day, or more accurately at the end of my energy, too many of those things are left undone.

It's HOT. I was out on the bike before 7 a.m. and home before 8 a.m, when it was already in the mid-90's. I rode half of my normal Saturday distance, emptied both of my large water bottles and was still dehydrated. I think my long rides may have to wait until cooler weather. I can't leave early enough to get in a long ride and get home before triple digits.

OK, I've been just a wee bit critical of all the fussing over Michael Jackson's death. That is not because I don't think he was incredibly talented, but because a) he was also at least weird (if not perverted) and b) I get irritated at our celebrity obsessed culture. Again tonight his death was the lead story on at least two of the network's news programs.
And was anyone surprised to see Jesse Jackson's mug in a photo with the family? Ever the opportunist...
Al Sharpton is next.

Most of the pop stations are playing nearly all Jackson all the time. On the way home from town today I heard what is unquestionably my favorite Michael Jackson song, "She's Out of My Life." No fancy production values, no track-over-track-over-track mixing. Just Jackson singing with a keyboard background. The pathos of that song, and especially his rendition of the last word, is outstanding.

I may even watch some of that soccer match tomorrow. No Wimbledon on the middle Sunday of the fortnight, so it's either soccer or NASCAR. Either way it's sleep-inducing - as though this preacher needs that on a Sunday afternoon.

Cool ad for a Samsung camera.

I also heard, driving home from town, my first car dealership commercial that mentioned the "Cash for Clunkers" program. They'll be fighting for the chance to take Stealth Reliabity off my hands. It's great to feel wanted.

I'll leave the house about 5:30 a.m. Monday and pick up Steve about 6 a.m. Then it's a 12- to 13-hour drive to Denver. The Grace Gospel Fellowship annual convention starts after lunch on Tuesday. Up until Pathway Bible Church (a one-off congregation) I have served within the GGF, both as the pastor of four churches and as a prof at Grace Bible College for 10 years.

Year One of the curriculum project has been done for a couple of weeks and I've filled a few orders that were mailed in. But my promo letter, which went out about five weeks ago, said I'd be at the convention with the CD's available for inspection and sale. I'll have a table in the lobby area with almost 100 of both the Student CD's and the Teacher's CD's, a notebook containing a hard copy of everything on the Teacher's CD so they can see what's included, and brochures with an order form for those who want to go home and mail in a church check. I have NO idea how this will go. I've had dreams that no one even stops at my table and I come home with all the materials I packed for the trip. If I sell enough there, or get follow-up orders for enough CD's to recover my costs I'll be happy. I didn't do this to make money.

The drive Monday will be 12 hours of pretty boring roads. North to Flagstaff, across AZ and NM to Albuquerque, and then north to Denver. Steve said he'd bring his collection of Michael Jackson CD's, and I'll take my Carpenter's Anthology, so we should be good for tunes.

It's summer, which means that Pathway, like churches everywhere, has people gone on vacations. Because nobody here is from here, families go "back" to visit parents/grandparents. In our case that means Missouri, Delaware and Illinois over the next few weeks. Preachers don't like summer vacations - we want record attendance every week - but also know everybody needs a break. We're looking forward to mid-October and a Mexico cruise with my family. In fact, Pam's all excited because her passport came in today's mail.

Tomorrow at Pathway we'll look at 1 Cor. 14 in the worship service - the central NT passage on speaking in tongues. In Foundations we'll continue our journey through the Book of Esther. That's a great narrative with all the plot twists of the perfect novel...except that it's a true story. We're having fun watching the storyline unfold and learning lessons as we go.

But my head is still back in Ruth, the book we did before Esther. For years I've had a project in my head - turning the Book of Ruth into a musical using popular songs from yester-year. Stage production.
It drives me crazy because I can see and hear it all in my head but lack the skills to get it down on paper.

The opening scene is built around the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." Can you hear it? The rift that starts the song? Only this time it's...
"Elimelech, Elimelech, Elimelech, Elimelech
"Out in Moab, in lonely Moab, a widow weeps tonight....."

Narrators keep the story moving along and the actor/dancers act it out, and at the point when the other daughter-in-law turns back to Moab we get a few bars of Simon and Garfunkle's "Homeward Bound."

Ruth, at that same point on the road, sings "I Will Follow You."

More narration with acting/dancing. And at the point where Ruth goes out to glean in the fields:
(to the tune of, "Lollipop, Lillipop")
"Barley crop, barley crop, harvest the barley crop....
(then that down-the-scale riff:) "Boom, boom, boom, boom...
"Ruth and Naomi got nothin' to eat,
"Just the clothes on their backs, the shoes on their feet.
"But there's no need to worry 'cause Ruth's got a plan.
"She's gonna do whatever she can.

"She'll go to
"Barley crop, barley crop, gleaning the barley crop......."

Can you see it?? This works!!