College Basketball Class

I won’t lie, I’m disappointed that KU lost tonight. I didn’t really think they’d make it through the season undefeated, but I always hope they’ll beat K-State – it’s the rivalry thing.

The last time K-State beat KU in Manhattan was 1983 – the last episode of M*A*S*H aired that year, gas was $1.29 a gallon, and Ronald Reagan was still president – and I was not quite 3. I have no doubt that tonight’s win was a big one for K-State…

But still, was it necessary for the K-State fans to storm the floor as if they’d just won a national championship? I can hear my middle school and high school coaches now – when you score, act like it’s something you’re used to doing and when you win act like it’s something that you’ve done before too.

And, as I head to bed tonight, I will rest well, knowing that, if nothing else, no KU player has peed themselves while on the floor this year.* And I can say with much confidence that one won’t either. I remain proud to be a Jayhawk!

*I’m resisting the temptation to post the video here, I want to be the bigger person. But, if one were to go to youtube and search some key words they could find video of Bill Walker at the end of the K-State/Oregon game earlier this year.

Speedlinking – January 30, 2008

- Two great recent posts from Michael: Ministry is Crap and Pastor Exchange. I think it would be great fun to be involved in a pastor exchange some day.

- Lenten Songs for the Journey from Vince.

- A great article about Obama’s Faith from God’s Politics.

- I rediscovered a fantastic series of maps last night that show the incredible political diversity of our country. Definitely worth checking out!

The Gospel According to Zits

I laughed out loud when I read this this morning and had to pass it along for others to enjoy!

Youth Sunday 2008

This coming Sunday, February 3rd, the Ridge Youth will be leading all three worship services at Ridge UMC. Last year’s Youth Sunday was a great time and I am getting increasingly excited for this experience!

I’ve been working with our four preachers and am excited about the gifts they are going to share. It is also a communion Sunday and we’re putting together a drama to help us celebrate communion.

If you’re in the area, plan to come out for worship on Sunday morning. We worship at 8:30, 9:45, and 11:00. If you’re not able to make it, I’ll post their sermons after we’re done with the weekend and you can check them out then!

NKOTB reuiniting?

I was in the 3rd grade when I got New Kids on the Block‘s Hangin’ Tough album from my mom for my Birthday. She had heard they were going to be as big as the Beatles (or something like that). I, like most of my peers, rocked out to New Kids until their fame faded away at the rising of other boy bands in the 90′s.

A couple of days ago I saw a headline on the web alluding to a potential NKOTB reunion. As I just logged onto Yahoo News it was there on the front page “New Kids Are Back.” What’s next, a Milli Vanilli reunion?

theclingerfamily.com

Heather and I spent an enjoyable day at home yesterday doing laundry and playing with our new macbook. The result is a new web presence for the Clinger Family.

I hope that you’ll visit regularly as we plan to continue updating it with pictures and more. We’ve got it set up where you can comment on pictures too, so we hope people will take the time to do that!

And I’m open to feedback about style, format, content, etc. I’ve done a little bit of the work on Ridge’s website with Yahoo’s sitebuilder, but am definitely a novice with all of this.

I found working with iWeb on the mac to be much more simple and rewarding and look forward to continuing to learn more.

Happy Browsing!

Friday Inspiration – Jason McElway Story

I first heard Jason’s story a year or two ago and was most impressed. Then last week my dad sent me a link to this video in an email titled “blog this.” So, I am.

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

Helping Others Do Their Job

A couple of random things to make known…

1.) I’m an organized person. I’m organized in the sense that I usually know what is in each of the piles teetering dangerously on top of my desk and sprawled throughout my office. I am organized. I am not neat.

2.) Ridge Church hired a new custodian in November. He is doing a fantastic job!

The story…

Dave, Ridge’s new custodian (and an all around great guy), sat himself down in my office earlier this week so we could have a little chat. Essentially he said to me this, “Hey buddy, clean up your mess so that I can do my job. I can’t vacuum around those piles on the floor. I can’t dust or clean around the junk on your desk.”

My initial response was to say, “Dave, don’t worry about it. I’ll never expect you to clean around my mess. If my office is a disaster, you don’t have to worry about dusting or vacuuming.”

Dave didn’t give into this though; he continued to ask (very lovingly) that I straighten up my stuff so he could do his job.

What I have realized is this… Dave doesn’t care whether or not I want him to clean my office, he wants to clean my office. He has expectations of himself regarding how he’s going to perform his job and it isn’t fair for me to impede his job performance because I’m being a slob.

My office has since been straightened and is nice and clean. And I’ve found myself thinking these last few days – what other things could I be doing differently/better to help others better do their jobs? This is a question I will continue to ponder and one that I invite you to ponder as well. What can you be doing differently to help others better do their job?

It’s not Curiosity Killing the Church

Take five minutes to watch this video from Nic Askew and Seth Godin.

I love the juxtoposition of fundamentalism and curiosity. So much of this spoke to me about the church and about getting people to engage in and own their faith in the 21st century.

Are you curious? Have you found that curiosity to be encouraged or stifled by the church? Are you active in a faith community? I’m guessing that your answers to those three questions will be closely related.

Speedlinking – January 22, 2008