Gone Fishin!

(The picture shown is a bronzed memorial display that was present at the Purpose Driven Chaplain’s Conference at Saddleback church last week) I’ve been away from FT Jackson for the last week at a Military Chaplain’s conference at Saddleback Church in southern California. If you are not familiar with that church, their pastor, Rick Warren, wrote the book “Purpose Driven Life”. Over the last few years that book has been the best selling book in the world. As with any really popular book I’m always a bit hesitant. Popularity as we all know is not a determining factor in the truth of anything. I had read the book and since I saw it at Wal-Mart came to the conclusion that it was shallow and devoid of any real value, even though when I read it I was blessed. I thought it was a book that just made people feel good about themselves. I in turn projected that in my mind on what they were doing out at Saddleback. I assumed that it was a shallow church. I also assumed they were just popular becaus

Tomorrow I’ll be the pall bearer for Hannah Chambers. The reason I am the pall bearer is that Hannah died when she was four months old and only one is needed. Her mom and dad are two of my best friends on this planet. Nate and Angie called me back in June with news that their baby had been born, but there was a problem. She was born with an extra chromosome. Most children with this condition never make it to term but Hannah did. She showed her strength by making it here with us. Its not surprising, her dad is a very strong man. Not only that he’s a good man too. Her mom is probably the sweetest person I’ve met. Hannah from the beginning had difficulty. Nate and Angie knew that this day was coming. We all prayed for Hannah. She lived a life much longer than anyone expected. In spite of all that it’s a hard time. We all ask why. I’m not sure there’s areal answer for that… at least I don’t have one. So I won’t try to guess why with some existential patronizing platitude. I will say this.

In my job I get to meet some outstanding folks and a few characters. Some of the characters are also outstanding folks. The one I speak of today is pictured here(right). His name is Drill SGT Settles. I first met him in Florida at our orientation weekend for the 2/485th back in May. Since then we have had many opportunities to talk and get to know each other. He is the son of Christian missionaries (automatic cool points for me). He has also spent time on active duty with the “Old Guard” up in DC. Those are the guys that take care of all the funerals at Arlington. It’s a special job. He’s also a hard Drill SGT. He is the loudest Drill SGT as well. He can run way faster than me so I stay out of his group in the morning runs. He’s rough on our soldiers, not in a bad way. The young soldiers that come to us need it, desperately. He makes me laugh a lot too. This blog is not an attempt to build him unnecessarily, but an attempt for all that read to get to know the people that work the 18 ho

Saturday is my little boy’s birthday. He’ll be 7 years old. Its hard to believe that. The day of his birth is so fresh in my mind. I remember doing a Bible study with my friend Will on my back porch at the time. I remember him looking through the sliding glass door of my house and saying, “Hey dude, I think there is something wrong with your wife!” Sure enough, something was definitely up…it was labor. Tammy was gripping the cushion on our couch so hard that I was sure the fabric would tear. Now my wife is a baby producing machine. Some women have labors that last hours into days, not Tammy. She was just ready to be that little boy’s mom. We jumped in the car and sped down I-40 to Iredell Memorial Hospital and about 90 minutes after Will’s statement of the obvious, Jack appeared in the world. We didn’t know whether he was boy or a girl prior to his birth and what a surprise. I remember that day wondering what he would be like. I remember looking at him and trying to figure out how was

Its official, I’m part of this new generation. For my birthday my brother bought me an ipod. Now I never saw what all the fuss was about. My buddy Carl Cartee http://www.carlcartee.com/ raved about these little gismos. My buddy Jared McAdams www.kennygotsaved.com says they’ll change your life. I wasn’t sure about any of it till I logged on i-tunes. That’s the place where you can download songs and other audio formats. I wasn’t all that impressed until I realized that you could also download these groovy things called pod casts. Now, some of you are saying “Wow, what a geezer!” Some of you are amazed at my technical savvy. Either way, these pod cast things are too cool for high school. I found one that reads through the bible. Every day you get a chapter or two downloaded automatically to your computer. I was blown away. Also you can get great speakers and authors in these pod casts. I’ve subscribed to my favorite egghead theologian, “Ravi Zacharais”. He’s brilliant and witty and he