Friday's Finds

So with the new year off and running, this weekend has lots of hidden little treats for you to experience if you're looking for some fun.

Dwight Slade in concert, Ridley's Comedy Castle, Royal Oak,both Friday and Saturday night:  If you like to laugh (I don't), then Dwight will hit the spot for you.  He was the winner of this year's Boston Comedy Festival, and has performed on Leno and in Vegas, and has been performing live since the age of 14.

Dallas Cowboys vs. Philadelphia Eagles, NFL wildcard playoff game, Saturday night, 8PM:  These are the kind of games everyone loves to watch, when one team's strength goes head-to-head with another's.  Philly's big play potential vs. Dallas's stout defense should make for great theatre in the best 1st round matchup of the NFL playoffs.

Our Sunday morning service:  I know a lot of us attend the Sunday night 611 service, but you should know that Rick will teaching through a book known as "The Prodigal God" for four weeks, and his first teaching is this Sunday morning.  I've read the book and I can tell you that the best stuff is in the first chapter, so if you're gonna catch any of it, this is the Sunday to catch.

Stay safe on the roads this weekend.

The Week Link

First, apologies for not putting out a H.I. life post yesterday, life happened.  I will make this up to you in two ways.  First, I'll make next week's H.I. life post a double shot (you'll see what that means next Wednesday).  Second, for the Week Link today, I'll give you interview that may/may not blow your mind about television/internet/video mass media, and why the church cares gives a hoot.  Enjoy.

Shane Hipps interview

Tune in tomorrow for Friday's Finds.

Super Tuesday

Today's vote is on a subject that has garnered a lot of informal chatter over the last couple weeks, mostly by me.  But with the decade coming to the close, there are some things have gone undefined.  Today's Super Tuesday vote will help put one of these arguments to rest.  

The question that has been floated is this:  Who was the most iconic figure of the decade?  And for the purpose of this exercise, "most iconic" means, in 20-30 years, when you look back on the previous decade, who will be the first person that you associate with the decade.  Examples of past possibilities are JFK with the '60's, Michael Jackson with the '80's, or even Hitler with the '40's.  So for the zeroes, here are the consensus five nominees for most iconic of the decade.

George W. Bush:  Was president during the majority of the decade, and many of his decisions strongly impacted not only western civilization, but global civilization.

Tiger Woods:  Not only was his dominance of one sport unprecedented, it led to him named AP athlete of the decade.  And his fall from grace was as public of an episode as any other celebrity's fall from grace.

Al Gore:  I've been shouted down for this suggestion, but his contribution to internet development (which transformed life in the decade), the fight against global warming and coinciding Nobel Prize, and his involvement in the weirdest election since Dewey/Truman have to make him a contender at the least.

Osama Bin Ladin:  Every decade had it's "villain", and he was easily the most public villain of the last ten years.

Brittney Spears:  One of the most talked about, googled, and successful child-to-adult celebrities we've ever seen.  An extra couple points have to go to her for the historic breakdown in the fall of 2007, when many paparazzi members made enough money to pay for their kid's college by just following her around to see what she'd do next.

So the nominees are in.  Cast your vote for the most iconic figure of the past decade.

The Post Mortem

If you missed last night, then you missed some more Old Testament survey, as we looked at the book of 1 Samuel as a narrative piece.  I'll repeat myself from last night and say that book is a great literary work, nevermind that it's also historically accurate.  It's got tragedy, irony, a hero, a villain, etc., all ingredients used by great writers like Homer and Shakespeare. 

The point that we ended up landing on, especially in the small group setting, was that every relationship we have in our life is a gift from God, and every time a relationship is broken or fractured in some fashion, we are wasting a gift God has specifically given to us.  And there can, and has with some people, come a point where you break so many relationships that you run out of places to turn for love, support, or comfort. 

I hope that you get a chance to join us this Saturday, as we'll go down as a community to make 1500 meals through Cass Community Social Services.  In doing so, there's a good chance that you'll run into people going through the program there, and you'll find out that they're there because, along the line, they've had relationships that have been shattered and splintered.  So if you're into New Year's resolutions, here's one for you to consider: hold the relationships that God has given you with the highest regard.  Let nothing beneath the call God has put on your life destroy the relationships God has given you.