Hell hath frozen over

Nobody is going to care about this post, with the exception of Bobby Morton and my dad, but I'm going to throw it out there as an obligation to my fellow man. The Buffalo Sabres, yes I said the Buffalo Sabres, the team I love to sorta root for, is 19-2 on the year with the best record in the NHL.

Also, the Anaheim Ducks, (no more MIGHTY...just ducks with new logo and all) are 17-2, not to mention my New York Rangers are leading the atlantic division at 13-9. The best part of it is....the Detroit Red Wings aren't even leading their division, let alone the western conference. The world has been turned on it's ear ladies and gentlemen. I would expect to see Christ returning here in the next few days because that's end times material right there. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating just a little bit. But I'm pumped. Too bad I can't watch any of it because NOBODY SHOWS HOCKEY ANYMORE!!!

(p.s.-If you're a Red Wings fan, you can go ahead and stop reading this blog because we're not friends)

R.I.P. Sarah Myers (1998 - 2005)

Today is the one year anniversay or the loss of a very close part of my life. On November 27th, 2005, Sarah Myers was taken from me during the night, never to be seen again. Sarah was my first love. I know that sounds a little creepy if you don't know the story behind me and my drumsets, but it's true. I love all my 'ladies' but Sarah was especially close to me. She was my first drumset. She was a little beat up, but her tone had warmed so much over the almost 8 years she was with me. People would ask me how I tuned my drums, and how I got that warm tone from her towards the end of her life. I would just say, "I have no idea, she just knows how to love me I guess." I never had any problems with her. She and I did a lot together. She was in the chapel band with me, played camps with me, jazz gigs here and there and everywhere, she was in bands like Oakwood, Beneath Spreading Trees, and even Fast Eddie and the Hot Carls. She's deeply missed. Lindsay is with me now, and I have Kelli, Ella, Katie, Jamie, Dorothy, and now Megan and Courtney to keep me company. But I'll never forget my first and greatest.



Sarah Myers (January 10th, 1998 - November 27th, 2005)

I finally get Christmas

I was sitting at dinner with my family tonight and we were discussing the usual deep things that we discuss: comma's, onion rings, wireless connection speed and the like. We had stumbled upon the topic of christmas when my uncle made a comment about what christmas would be like if there wasn't an inn for Jesus to be rejected from. I'm not sure how that came up, but as we went down that road, I realized why God set it up so Jesus had to be born in the stable. Can you imagine the hotel marketing this time of year if Jesus HAD been born in the inn? Man would that ever be a nightmare. I mean can you imagine:

Motel Six: "We left the light on for Him."

Holiday Inn Express: Jesus speaks the morning after he was born and onlookers say 'Is He the Son of God' to which Jesus would reply 'Yes.....and I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night."

Days Inn: "Best value under the sun, Best value for the SON!"

Any other thoughts?

The Afternoon with Steve and Jackson

Steve Smith and his son Jackson came over to hang out for awhile wednesday at work. I got to drink from the fire hydrant of knowledge that is Steve Smith, and watch countless women gush over how cute Jackson was. After seeing what I saw today, I know why you don't see a lot of single fathers. I get the impression women's guards drop at the sight of infants. And rightfully so, I mean look at this guy. But anyway, good times. I love getting to spend some time with Steve, not only to absorb some of his know-how, but it's also helpful to remember my humble beginnings at Bethel. I remember really looking up to Steve when I started at school, and it's great to have him as a friend.

The Obligatory Thanksgiving Post

Not to mock, but this time of year, you get people coming out of the wood work asking you what you're thankful for. And I always wondered why it was so hard to answer that question every year. Is it because I'm trying to find the catchiest answer? Trying to put it a way nobody else put it? Or am I honestly just trying to say what I'm thankful for? But even when I do that, I feel like the answer falls short. I think I realized today why that is. I'm thankful for everything. Things that are great, things that suck, things that bless me, things that cause me trouble, I'm thankful that I get to experience all of it. Everyday I'm thankful to God that I exist and I'm part of his family. So from that, I'm thankful for everything. Food, money, traffic, mosquitoes, meatloaf (the band and the food), music, jello, slap bracelets, hospitals, thumb tacks, street signs, I'm thankful for all of it. Now if you'd like to more accurately ask me what I'm really happy about, then I'll tell you. Great family, amazing friends (new and old), GCC, drums, music, computers, camera's, college football, the buffalo sabres, and shoes. Those things make me happy. But I'm thankful for all of it.

Bethel vs Taylor

Bethel v Taylor

Images of God

I guess I've always wondered this, and so now I'll ask you. If you could pick any actor to be God, or maybe the closest representation of the God you see in your head, which would you pick? Here are the ones I've thought of, so I'll let you cast your votes. If you must pick someone else let me know.

Choice A: Anthony Hopkins

Choice B: James Earl Jones

Choice C: Ian McKellan

Choice D: Sean Connery

Choice E: Morgan Freeman

Choice F: Donald Sutherland

And yes I realize that God is immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine. But I would guess we've all tried to put a face on him. I'm not trying to be blasphemous or anything, just curious. I personally lean towards Donald Sutherland. Weird, huh?

Rog Wegner at Bethel College

Rob came out to Bethel this morning to speak for part four of the fall series on integrity. He focused on the area of integrity in our sexual lives. As I was listening this morning, I remember thinking "I've heard a lot of this before." Then I remembered the Pure Sex series at church and how impactful that was. Rob did a great job of catching everyones attention in a room that's somtimes hard to control. Chapel can generally go three ways...

1. The speaker has the room totally tuned in, but only because they're making a fool out of themselves.
2. The speaker has the room totally tuned out. Probably shouldn't read straight from a manuscript people. It's not a lecture.
3. The speaker has the room engaged and thinking, and in Robs case...laughing.

It was so nice to get a flavor of what I love about GCC at Bethel this morning. I've had a bit of "no man can serve two masters" syndrome this fall. I started hating Bethel and loving GCC. Luckily God made me aware of that and is helping me to make it through these next few months. But today was nice to merge those two worlds (subliminal college ministry plug). Great job Rob!

Powerball at D-House

Powerball a D-House

I have no idea how this got started

Intramural Basketball 11.20.06

Intramural Basketball 11.20.06

Casino Royale

WOW....It was great. No stupidity, No clever catch lines....well sorta. Just mix some action, danger, good old international travel, poker, fancy cars, and maybe a machete, stew it to perfection, and you get CASINO ROYALE! Loved it. I was a little bummed that Pierce Brosnan wasn't doing bond movies anymore. After tonight, I'm glad. Good things!

Lifeline 11.19.06

Lifeline 11.19.06

I love my life

This is my last few days (playing wise)

Wednesday: Played for Chapel-Dress Rehearsal-Played for Youth Group-Practice for New Community
Thursday: Played for New Community-Practice for weekend
Friday: Played for chapel-Played for Jazz/Percussion Night
Saturday: Played two service at GCC
Sunday: Played three services at GCC-Playing for Lifelilne
Monday: Playing for Chapel-Playing for Concert Band Concert
Tuesday: DAY OFF...but I'm DJ'ing the Basketball game
Wednesday: Playing for worship night at SMMC
Thursday: Thanksgiving

I really really really love that I get to do this

Food Food Food (and drums)

While channel surfing the other day, I accidentally punched in a channel that wasn't programmed into my t.v. and found that I actually get the Food Network. So naturally I was pretty excited. Usually when I go home to visit my family, the only thing that's on T.V. at home is Food Network and HGTV. Since I don't really have a home or a garden, HGTV is kind of lost on me. So I've been watching Food Network almost 24-7. Well my night got even better when Emeril Live had a special guest. Vic Firth, former principal timpanist with the Boston Symphony and world renowned drumstick maker, decided to stop by the show. He played a little Timpani with Doc Gibbs and the Emeril Live band, and he donated some new Pepper Mills that apparently the Vic Firth Corporation makes. Didn't know that. Well needless to say, Emeril made lots of different kinds of drumsticks on that episode. What a great evening.

I need help

I needed to be over at Bethel this morning at 8:30 for soundcheck and rehearsal for chapel, so last night I set the alarm for 7:25 thinking that'd be enough time to get cleaned up and grab breakfast before I had to be there. Well I finally rolled into conciousness this morning at about 8:10. I wasn't late, but I was little upset that I couldn't shower or eat now. I looked at my alarm clock and phone and thought "Why didn't my alarms go off?" I was just a little confused on how it would be possible for them both to not go off. Isn't that the whole point of a back up. I lay there thinking about it, and sat up and started to get dressed before I realized that THEY WERE GOING OFF!!! Full volume, right next to my head, they were both blasting away. I couldn't believe it. Is it physically possible to tune something out that much? I mean at that point they had been going off for almost an hour! You'd think by that point my upstairs/downstairs neighbors would come ponding on my door at least by then. I mean that's just scary. It's not like I'm tuning out one rhythmic sound. We're talking about two conflicting, shrill noises at different speeds and different pitches. Do I need to get a bed that just flips you out of it at the appointed time in the morning? Do they even make those? Help

Bethel v IUSB

Bethel v. IUSB

Bethel - 92
IUSB - 75

Here come the holidays

I'm usually a Pepsi/Mountain Dew drinker. But since the holidays are upon us...I have switched to the three official beverages of the holidays. I've been drinking apple cider like it's going out of style the last few weeks, and as soon as I finish my turkey and head back to bethel, the egg nog party (non-alcoholic of course) will be taking place at my apartment with all the EYPie boys. And let me put the rumors to rest...no I will not be filling the bath tub with egg nog...tempting...but no. And lastly, gotta switch to Christmas Coke. Like it or not, it IS the officially caffinated, carbonated, and canned beverage of the holidays. Look at the can, Santa loves it, the polar bears love it, and I'm just guessing.....if Mary had let her infant Savior have pop, Jesus might have drank it too. Well maybe not, He's probably got something better....like super egg nog or something. But for me, christmas coke is upon us.

New Song!

New song on my myspace page!!!

First Bethel Home Game

Pilot Basketball

Family Thanksmas

Family Thanksmas/Lifeline

Since my brother is taking off for australia on wednesday and my extended family is scattered about the country, we decided to have the myers family 'thanksmas' last saturday down in Springfield, Ohio. I could tell you all about it, but the people that actually care were there, so I'll just put up the photos. There's a frew sprinkled in from lifeline last night as well.

God Sighting (It's not about me)

I was driving down main street wednesday night to grab my bass from my apartment and head over to St. Mark. I was pretty pressed for time, so I'll just say I was in a bit of a hurry. As I was driving down the street, I noticed that there was a van parked on the sidewalk outside one of the houses. I saw and elderly man with a walker attempting to get the car door open and get into the van. One thing leads to another and this man looses his grip and falls, holding onto the door handle for dear life. He eventually looses his grip on the door, and is now competely face down on the group. That is the precise moment that my car passed this whole scene. After 10 seconds or so of wrestling over whether or not I should go back to help him, or whatever dumb excuse I was thinking of to not go back, I finally turned around and headed back to help the guy up. By the time I got back to 'the scene' which was about a minute after he fell, three other cars had already stopped to help this man get back up, and people from surrounding houses were coming out to lend a hand as well. I was just amazed at how quickly people saw a need and met it. I don't know why I thought in my head "I should go back because nobody else is going to." I don't know if this story makes you feel the way it made me feel, but it really lifted my spirits to see that people really do care for one another. Ironically enough, the guy who was actually hands on with the man; the guy who obviously got there first was driving a Comcast cable van, which was in the lane next to me on the road. Apparently he knew instantly what the right thing was to do. That lifted my entire day. Just thought I'd share.

Bethel Needs the Clock

It seems to me that a good majority of Bethel is a little ticked about this clock that's going in right on the shores of the Bethel beach. I don't know the story, I don't know why people are so upset. But Bethel needs the clock, and I'll tell ya why. If there's one thing that all the real college's have, other than a rec center and a football team, it's a big ole clock. Both of my brothers, parents, aunt's, uncles, and cousins have gone to Miami University (OH) and their campus has like 3 of em. Notre Dame's got one, IU has one, Ohio State, UT, UCLA, Harvard, Stanford, they all have nifty clocks. We need one too! So what if ours is only 10 feet tall. It's a start. Seems like a cheaper fix than the rec center and the football team anyway

Help a brother out

Proverbs 26:4-5 (NLT)

4 Don’t answer the foolish arguments of fools,
or you will become as foolish as they are.

5 Be sure to answer the foolish arguments of fools,
or they will become wise in their own estimation.

I was reading this passage awhile ago and was kind of puzzled by the placement of these two verses. I'm guessing something get's lost in the translation between the original Hebrew and english. I tried checking some other translations for some clarity, but with the exception of the Message, I couldn't find much help. The Message says


4 Don't respond to the stupidity of a fool;
you'll only look foolish yourself.

5 Answer a fool in simple terms
so he doesn't get a swelled head.

I guess my question is, does the Hebrew use two different words for fool or arguments? Or am I just reading too far into it.

My stupid mouth

John Mayer had a song on "Room for Squares" entitled My Stupid Mouth. The pre-chorus in the song said this...

"Mama said, think before speaking
No filter in my head
Oh, whats a boy to do?
I guess he better find one soon."

There was also a funny line on the T.V. show Family Guy where Peter said something rediculous and Brian asked him...

Brian: "Do you actually hear yourself talk?"
Peter: "I drift in and out."

All joking aside, I say some things sometimes that just aren't smart. I think one of my wisened elders pointed that out to me in the most gentle way possible today by saying. "If Jeff has an opinion, you're gonna hear it." That hit me like a ton of bricks. And then tonight, as I was about to drift off to sleep without a care in the world, I read that one of my friends was pretty offended by something I said about them, in a way that I thought was more of a joke, but really hurt him. And must I even bring up the Mary Poppins fiasco? So many times I just blurt out (or type) things wihtout really thinking of the ramafications. Then I usually have a God moment a week, or a day, or an hour later in which I feel Him gently saying, "that's not love." I'm workin on it. I'm making progess for sure. The last five months, I feel, have been a crash course in what not to do. I feel sorry for some of the people at GCC who probably have to say, "Well that's just Jeff, he's a little weird." The people at that church have more patience with me than I've ever seen. And there's people at Bethel, people I've worked with, student taught with, played with, dated, and whatever else that had to dish out an overwhelming amount of patience and understanding to deal with me, not to mention my parents. Maybe it's part of growing up, maybe I just have a unique case of 'foot-in-mouth-itis', but whatever it is please know that I'm working on it, I really am. If anything, it's taught me a lot about being humble and asking for forgiveness when it's needed.

Funny part about the rest of that John Mayer song is that the last part of it really caught me when I was reading the lyrics to quote it for this post...

"One more thing
Why is it my fault?
So maybe I try to hard.
But it's all because of this desire.
I just wanna be liked.
Just wanna be funny.
Looks like the jokes on me
Just call me captain backfire."

As much as I want to be funny, loved, accepted, or whatever, I have to watch what I say and do. 'Just trying to be funny' isn't an excuse for acting like an idiot. I seem to remember somebody saying something about that in the bible. I think his name was Salmon or Solotaire or somethin. Speaking of dumb jokes...

Memory

I remember when I was taking drivers ed in high school, my instructor told me something that really stuck with me for some reason. He was a retired police officer, and he told us that "a police officer can follow any person as they drive through town and find a number of ways they are breaking traffic laws." I think basically what he was saying was that if you're out of line, they can and will get you, but you can't be perfect either. I don't know why I never thought about how that might transfer to my spiritual life until today, but that just really hit me. No one can keep the law, we can't even keep the law's we make up to keep ourselves safe. I don't know why I remembered that, but it hit me today in a whole new way.

First Night in the Big Room

LIFELINE took a big step tonight and moved into the 'Big Room' at church (for those of you unfamiliar with this term, the words 'sanctuary' 'worship center' and 'auditorium' may also apply.) Corey pulled some corey strings and brought in 1000 Generations to lead worship and do a little song and dance for us. Corey rocked as usual, talking on the topic of "What is the wise thing for me to do?" But I'd really like to give my HTML round of applause to the students in the tech department that really worked their tails off to pull last night together. These guys did a fantastic job, and they don't usually get much love. So this is my payment to them. YOU GUYS ROCK!!!

A New Adventure

Well as it's gotten colder and colder, I think my adventures in walking have come to a short halt for the winter months. So I've got to come up with something better. Several ideas came to mind, but none of them really had any staying power with me. I've been listening to a lot of Andy Stanley and Rob Bell lately, which have been fantastic and really stretching. But I think I'm going to swing another direction and spend the winter with N. T. Wright. I can't imagine how he finds the time to write all the books he's written, but they're all great. After reading "The Original Jesus" I was hooked. I think I'm gonna start with "The Challenge of Jesus" and then get into his series of ...."for everyone" books. I've been wanting to learn more about Pauls letters, so the "Paul for Everyone" books will probably be my first target. Anybody have any suggestions?