Singing "Jesus loves Me"

I love my wife. Marjorie would be one of the first people to admit that she's not a singer. She can sing. And she can sing usually in the right key and pitch. But she has a natural alto voice....but unless there is an alto singing right next to her or very strongly on a recording....she can't hear the alto part. So what ends up happening is she sings the soprano part or melody that is not natural for her voice......and she kind of sounds like an older woman who sings in a choir....does that make sense? [just to clarify here that I'm not telling you anything that we don't joke about and she would admit to]

Corban has been waking up every other night or so with some weird dreams or something. Just crying for no reason. Usually it's my job to get up with him when he wakes in the middle of the night.

The other night Marjorie heard him first and I was OUT....like totally in a deep sleep. I kind of heard something but couldn't force myself to get awake very fast. I heard her say, "he's crying." and then I heard her get out of bed.....which woke me up a little. This is what happened next.....it rocks.

Marjorie walks into Corban's room and tries to just comfort him in his crib. Nothing doing. So she picks him up and holds him close and starts to sing Jesus Loves Me. Instantly he's calm. Instantly he's relaxed and starts going back to sleep in her arms. This isn't the first time this has happened. Since he finally arrived home, he has always instantly responded to her singing Jesus Loves Me. No other song does it. Just that one.

I woke up enough to get out of bed and sneak in to see this all happen. Two things instantly went through my brain.

1. I would rather hear my wife sing Jesus Loves Me than anyone else. Not Natalie Merchant, Placido Domingo, or Mac Powell. Her voice is sweet in my ears. I'd rather hear her sing that...PERIOD.

2. There is something remarkably perfect with the fact that Jesus loves us. My son understands Jesus as best as a 2 yr. old can.....which is severely limited. But I think that something is ingrained in us to understand Christ's love for us. Such a simple song. Such a simple truth. Yet I think sometimes as adults we think of it as "kiddie". Why do we give up singing Jesus Loves Me?

Pictures

New pictures over on my Family Pictures blog. Let's face it, they're mostly of my awesome son.

WOW

This is wicked cool. I've watched this a bunch of times and it blows me away every time. I've posted some videos here before but take the time and WATCH THIS! I've never been a huge Sarah McLachlan fan, but I now have some respect for her.

aagh

Today is one of those days.

You know. The kind where you wish you would catch mono, or phenmonia or maybe you could rob a bank.........just so you could go into hiding for a month or so.

To top it off I have a 10 second loop of a video game song stuck rolling through my head.

Blah's

I've had a case of the blah's this week. I haven't wanted to do anything but sit around and play with my son. I haven't wanted to read. I haven't wanted to think. My brain is a big jumble of things.

Why do we think we're so important? That seems like a pretty loaded question now that I see it on the page. Let me explain. I just read a thingy about this "movement" through YouTube. (I'm intentionally not linking to it) The idea is that they're trying to get as many people as possible to post a video that tells President Bush to get out of Iraq. Ok I don't care what your political persuasion is or what your thoughts on the whole Iraq thing are.....that's not really the point.

YouTube is definitely a new phenomena. Celebrities have definately been made. That has already been well documented. I guess I'm still not convinced that a couple hundred or even a couple thousant videos on a website are going to really change the Presidents mind. I mean thousands of protesters haven't changed his mind, the entire Democratic Party hasn't changed his mind, other governments around the world disagreeing with him hasn't changed his mind......so I'm having a hard time believing some videos on YouTube will.

In my last post I mentioned that Time magazine had decided that I was the Person of the Year......well me and everyone else that uses the Internet. I'll admit that the idea of it was kind of cool to me. Power to the people and all that. Information Super Highway. Well the more I've been thinking about it, the more I think that it's a crock......at least partially. Who is reading all these blogs? Other bloggers. Who is watching our YouTube videos? Are we finding cures for AIDS? Are we changing the fact that people are starving every day? Are we doing anything about the 13-15 million orphans in Africa? Are we changing governments minds to eliminate 3rd World debt? (I know all about the One campaign......but are we really doinog anything?)

If we're such a force to be reconned with.....why hasn't anything changed? Why aren't I invited to speak at the U.N.? Why haven't I been asked to have tea with Bono? I have a blog. I spend WAY too much time on the Internet every day. I was named Time's Person of the Year for crying out loud!

Ok enough of that.

Content Note: I have a bundle of questions that I've been coming back to time and time again over the past month or so. I think what I'm going to do is start posting them here and asking lots of questions.....I guess what I'm looking for is some outside input. I don't how often people actually check in here....so the response might be limited, but if you have a couple minutes I'd love some replies......so look for those to start in the next week or so.......(assuming I'm motivated to do something)

I'm sure you've all seen these....but just in case you haven't you should check out Blendtec. It's a company that makes....Blenders. But these are some serious blenders. Their advertising is amazing. They have a series called "Will It Blend?" It's almost like a short segment you'd see on David Letterman. There's a stiff styled scientist with dry humor who puts crazy things in a Blendtec blender. If you have some time watch some of these things. For those of you who aren't going to take the time to go to the site.....here's a low effort one for you.....




My son is definately very Type A personality. Any of you who know me, know that I am NOT. I forsee some butting heads later in life.

When is it going to be Winter?

Why haven't I written any music in at least a year?

And finally: For those of you who are cheapskates like me. This site is AWESOME! A bunch of posts ago I told you about Woot, which is a site that offers a new item for sale Cheap every day. Well this new site is like the Master of all one day cheap sale sites. It is a mega list of all the internet pages that offer items for sale or free every day. You can check it every day or even several times a day and they update it and new offers appear and old items disappear. They do all the work for you. I have to credit Brandon for hooking me up with this. Caution! Once you start looking....you will be tempted to buy junk you don't need! DODTRACKER Hotlist

I'm SO in Control.....and other stuff.

So as you will recall I have had a problem with my R key on my laptop. I tried solving that by e-baying a new R key from someone. Well I was super stoked once the new key arrived. Guess what? Apparently there were two different model keys for the same laptop.....and my new key didn't fit my laptop! UGH! So I kept trying to type with a shaky R all the time. Then it hit me. Why bother looking for another R key? It doesn't have to say R on it....I know which finger to use to make an R......so I stole the Ctrl key from the lower right side of my keyboard and switched it with the R.....since I never use that Ctrl button anyway....I'll never miss it. For the first time in my life I'm finally in Control!

Even if you're not a hockey fan this is ridiculous. With seconds winding down in the game and the Dallas Stars up 5-4.....Patrik Stefan of the Stars gets the puck and has an opportunity to finish the game for good. All he has to do is put it into an empty net.....no goalie....no defense....just him and open ice...........NOPE!!!!!! The end result.........watch the video....



I also just stumbled across something CRAZY! Remember I told you about the two guys who hitchiked to all 50 states in 50 days.......well one of those guys has a new project. His name is Scott McDonald. (Coincidently it was his brother who did the whole trading a red paperclip for a house.) So anyway....his new project is this.....he is going to rename himself. He will be changing his name on Feb. 2. His new name will be chosen by the highest bidder. 10% of the money he gets will go to a home for children in Thailand who have been abandoned because of AIDS. So whoever is the highest bid gets to name him. The current bid is $36,789.10 from a company that sells coffee online. If they win Scott's new name will be Finest Freshest Fastest. WEIRD. Here's the blog for you to keep up with if you're so inclined.

Well I now have 30 seconds of fame. As most of you know I'm a big supporter of World Vision. Particularly the program 30 Hour Famine. This is a great youth activity where kids go 30 hours without food and raise money to fight hunger around the world. I was able to go to Brazil with 30 Hour Famine two summers ago. I was already impressed with WV, but that summer I was blown away by the approach they have. ANYWAY......the 30 Hour Famine material is out for this spring. In the DVD promo stuff, there is a clip on their Study Tour which is what I did in Brazil. Guess who appear briefly in the video? Yes Sir! There is a clip of my blowing bubbles with some kids. There's an even shorter clip of me playing soccer with some children in a village. So if you're a youth leader who got the DVD.....it's time to play Where's Aaron. Also, on the Fundraising part of the video is a youth leader named Brian Silldorf. Brian and some of his youth were on my boat in Brazil. Good times!

And Finally.......Albert Einstein, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pope John Paul, George Marshall, Mahatma Gandhi..........and YOU. Yep YOU. Since 1927 Time Magazine has picked a Person of the Year. Over the years there have been some pretty amazing people to grace the cover of Time as the Person of the Year. Well this year. It's You. No joke. The idea is that because of the internet YOU....all of you....me included...are the Person of the Year. With things like YouTube, MySpace and so on....the world has gotten smaller. We are impacting each other in bigger ways than before......well something like that. I'm not sure I totally buy it.....I'm the Person of the Year!

Ought Seven

I started the new year standing on top of a stool dropping a 3 ft. yellow balloon down into a group of waiting teenagers. I was at an amazing youth retreat all weekend long. Great times of worship and teaching. I've been at only a couple retreats that would rival this weekend. Really good stuff.

Couple quick things.

I got Marjorie a great book for Christmas. She finished over the weekend at the retreat. I'm through chapter 2. REALLY GOOD. It's called "There is No Me Without You" by Melissa Fay Greene. The reason it's so good is that it's about a really amazing lady named Haregewoin. She is from Ethiopia and takes in orphans. She cares for many of them. She also lets some of them go to two American adoption agencies. One of those agencies is AFAA which is the agency we used for Corban. There is a very good chance that Corban may have come through her orphanage. The book is amazing in that it not only talks about this woman and her orphanage and her work......but really takes on some of the problems in Africa as well. The lady who wrote the book has adopted two Ethiopian children as well. She also has a website which is here.

I never make New Years Resolutions. I know that I have a hard enough time doing what I have to do most days far less starting something new just because it's a new year. However each new year makes me reflect a little on the past 12 months. It was good year. There have been a lot of changes in our lives. For instance as I write this I am staring at a Thomas the TankEngine ride about little car thing. That wasn't here this time last year......but then again....neither was a little boy who's peacefully sleeping upstairs.

One of the guitar players in the worship team with me this weekend had this really rad device that I hadn't seen before. Granted I haven't really been shopping guitar gear for a year or two. I've seen string winders before....and even string winders with pin pullers.....but this one has a cool string puller. This I haven't seen. It pulls your string before you play so there's less de-tuning with new strings. I loved it.

Ok i'm done now.......I'm just too tired to keep writing. My body is still recovering from the weekend