Update on the Heal Scraping

It has become apparent that an update is needed on my pedicure.

Yes - I went through with it.
No - they did not touch my toes.
Yes - they got all of the nasty dead skin scraped off my heal.
No - I will never go back.
Yes - there were other men there getting their feet worked on.
No - none of them were under 87.
Yes - the lady that did the scraping laughed at me several times because I kept yelling at her to stay off the toes.
No - I couldn't understand a word the lady said to me.
Yes - I paid for this service.
No - I don't feel like I have comprised my manhood - I did it for my bride.

any other questions...

New Look

I made some changes to the old bloggy blog. What do you think?

Bye Bye Michelle & Michaela

Tonight our Rightnow Team celebrated the departure of two of our own - Michelle Fong and Michaela Anderson. We didn't celebrate because we were glad to get rid of them, we celebrated because of where they are going. Michaela takes off on Tuesday to fly to an undisclosed location in the Middle East where she will be working for a missions organization this summer. This is the first step for her to full time missionary work overseas. Michelle heads home to San Fran for a few weeks and then begins her process of moving overseas to work with an un-reached people group in Southeast Asia.

How cool is that? I love what Michaela & Michelle are doing. They are living whole-hearted for Christ. They are an inspiration to me because they are showing the world how much they trust in Jesus. Both girls are in their 20's and are very bright. They could be doing any number of things with their lives and making a nice living doing so. But they are choosing this. I'm sure they have people in their lives that think they are crazy. Maybe they are crazy? Maybe Abraham was crazy? And Joseph, Joshua, Jonathan, Josiah (J theme going strong) - maybe they were crazy too? I don't know, but I do know that they were faithful. And that is worth celebrating!

My Wife is Amazing

It's Robin's Birthday today! As a way to describe who Robin is and what she means to me, I thought I would post this poem I wrote about her. Please know that anything good from this poem is because of the person it is about and anything bad is because of the amateur who wrote it...

Beautiful One

When you enter a room my soul leaps for joy
I am still amazed that you have chosen me

I love everything about you:
Your smile, your eyes, your beauty, your grace, your dignity, your work ethic, your friendship, and your love for the glory of God
You are the definition of a lady in every sense

It’s amazing how many people look up to you and covet your wisdom
So many women at our Church pattern their decisions after yours
You are a spiritual leader and the definition of a friend

I am so thankful that we have daughters because I want them to be just like you
You keep a beautiful home - you always know just what to do
My greatest moments are the ones when you are happy and full of joy because you light me up

My respect for you is greater than the depths of the ocean
My love for you is higher than the sky

Your love for me is impossible to describe
You give of yourself in every way, never seeking your own

I love you not only for what you are
But for what I am when I am with you

I Can't Believe I'm Blogging About This...

Tomorrow I will get a pedicure.

I am doing this for my wife on her birthday, but I have made a deal with her that they will not be allowed to touch my toes. They can scrape the dead skin off my feet - then I am done. I wouldn't normally share such intimate and embarrassing details, but I feel like I can here. Not because this blog is a safe environment, but because no one reads it. After all, the only comment I have ever received is from my own mom. And fortunately, I don't mind if my mom knows I am getting my feet scraped.

His Thoughts ... His Ways

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Isaiah 55:8-9

On our very best day... our very best thoughts... fall very short.

Our God is worthy of our praise.

Final Soccer Game

Today is the final Soccer game for The Fusion. We had the genius idea of putting Macy & Mallory on the same soccer team even though Mallory is three years younger than almost everyone else in the league. That way our family doesn't have to split up for practice or games - we are always together.

Our girls definitely have different views of soccer...

Mallory (red bow) loves the social aspect of the game

Macy (red bow) likes to play defense

We're starting the Baylor Bow Head thing early.

Psalm 8

If you are looking for a clip to get your people in a worship frame of mind you ought to check out Psalm 8. I used this recently in both a small group and large group setting.

Small group :: I wanted to get our people to engage in a deeper level of prayer. Our group often focuses on periphery items like Uncle Joes Toe and Aunt Jane’s pain, instead of getting real. I want our people to expect great things from God. So – I talked for a minute or two about that type of praying and then I played this clip. Since its Psalm 8 it was a perfect set up because our people were seeing how Big and Huge our God is and it allowed them to get real with a God like that.

Large group :: I needed to get a bunch of people who didn’t know each other to get comfortable worshipping together. We had the band play one song and then we showed this clip. It took the focus off of ourselves and put it where it should be – on Almighty God!

Shanna Makes Me Sad

Shanna makes me sad because tomorrow is her last day on the job with The Rightnow Campaign. Shanna and I have worked as a team for the last four plus years. She is as much responsible as any other human being for the implementation and success of our ministry and specifically our Leadnow and Fusion Conferences. I have leaned on her in so many ways and it's honestly hard to imagine doing our ministry without her.

I was always told that it takes 10 positive statements to take away one negative statement. So I'm going to say 10 positive things about Shanna and one negative. That way she won't feel bad if she reads this.

Positive

1. She a servant
2. She is married to an Aussie
3. She has bailed me out of many, many situations
4. She doesn't like Aggies
5. She is has backbone - the girl is tough
6. She makes tasty cookies
7. She is passionate
8. She makes everyone else look like they know what they are doing
9. She is the real deal
10. She really, really loves Jesus

Negative

1. She is leaving The Rightnow Campaign

I don't like to say goodbye. And in a very real way I am not saying goodbye to Shanna tomorrow. She is going to work for her church and they are really involved with our ministry. She has even agreed to help out with our Dallas event in September. But I've also been around the block enough to know that things never stay the same. Our ministry and our events will literally never be the same without Shanna working on them. Don't get me wrong, I believe that God will take care of us. I have no doubt that God is in control. However, God is going to use different people to do what Shanna has done and therefore, things will never be the same.

My favorite memory of Shanna is from our very first Fusion event in 2004. We were the first ones to arrive in the Dallas Convention Center on November 12th and the last ones to leave at something like 2 am on November 14th. As we left that mammoth, empty space we paused for a moment to just soak it in. I'll never forget that. The look on Shanna's face completely captured my emotions: it was a mixture of absolute praise to God for what He had just done and amazement that He let us do it.

Don't tell me it will be the same, because it won't.

I'm gonna miss Shanna.

Chiloso

Chiloso is so good.

Things I'm Thinking About...

I just watched the movie Jesus Camp. I'm thinking about that...

The movie reminded me of a discussion I had with a group of Pastors last month. We were talking about the real issues that our culture is dealing with - the issues that the church rarely discusses. As a part of our conversation one of the Pastors said that he thought one of our problems in church is that we are always telling people that this is going to be their best year yet... Or that this is their moment... Or that the best is to come... His point was that we are selling our churches a bill of goods that may not be true. He went on to explain that when we make promises to people about their situations we can give them a false hope and then it makes their circumstances become their God. Here is the bottom line - is Jesus enough? Do we need our circumstances changed? Or do we just need Christ.

At Leadnow+DC, Donald Miller made a point that the Bible tells us that we will grow like trees planted by streams of water. He said that a tree doesn't grow very fast. He even conducted a scientific study by taking a lawn chair out to the forrest and watching... The trees grew - a little (it's a joke people). The point is that while God can do anything, the way that He has orchestrated our growth is for it to be slow and steady. But we live in such a consumeristic society that we want it all and we want it now. I wonder what it would look like if we just simply tried to be faithful in the things that God gives us each day. Not looking towards some super Christian experience or accomlishment, but seeking out a life of simple obedience.

Frontline Band

We did a Leadnow event in Washington DC last week and had the band at Frontline Church lead worship. They are really good! They are led by Stephanie Cuomo and are one of those groups that leads worship from a passionate and real relationship with Christ. Check em out.

Shipment from DC

Over the weekend we received 4 pallets full of all of our gear we took to DC for the Leadnow & Fusion Conferences. I took a few hours to unpack all of the items and re-pack them to get ready for Dallas. As I worked on the inventory I couldn't help thinking about the guy that drove the truck all the way to DC and back. His name is Nate...

Nate is an amazing man of God. He is a professional truck driver who happens to go to my church. When he heard about our need he made sure that his own company would send him on any routes in the Northeast. Of course, God arranged it for him to need to be in Baltimore the day after our event. So Nate, volunteered to take all of our stuff to DC. And when we got to DC and met up with Nate he stuck around the whole weekend helping out in any area that he could. Nate is a big, strong man. He can easily do the work of two men, but the amazing thing is that he always does it with a servants heart. Nate has one of those contagious attitudes that all servants have.

I admire Nate.

Stand-by

I flew from Orlando back home to Dallas earlier this week. It was one of those situations where I got to the airport much earlier than my flight was scheduled to take off. So I got on the stand-by list to catch an earlier flight. The earlier flight would get me home four hours before I was supposed to land. Four hours may not seem like much, but these were no ordinary four hours. This was the difference between 6 pm and 10 pm. If I get home at 6 pm, then I get dinner with my family, time to play with my kids, a chance to connect with my wife and... it was a Wednesday night - so I also had to watch LOST. Now getting home at 10 pm would mean dinner on my own, the kids already asleep, and Robin waiting up for me with LOST already recorded and the pause button being utilized. Watching LOST is not an option at my house...

So I am at the airport and the new handy technology will post a list of passengers and their number on the stand-by list. I'm at slot 16. This doesn't sound good. I approach the counter and ask how many empty seats they have on the flight and I am told that there are six. So basically, 10 people have to not show up for their flight for me to make it. Not looking good. As our departure time approached they begin to calling people on the plane. You know the routine: Group One, Group Two, etc... They don't do the stand-by people until the end. It's now 10 minutes until departure and they rattle off the first six names. A lot of people have gone down that hallway onto the plane. I'm not feeling good about this one. They call out for three more. Then two. Then another group of three. Now we are talking. My name is number two on the list. It's four minutes prior to departure. The images of dinner with family vs. dinner alone are racing through my head. Will they call me? I'm waiting for the beautiful words to come through the mic - "Passenger McCartney, Passenger Marc McCartney would you please see the attendant at the counter."

They call the next name. It's a minute before departure - they look like they are wrapping things up and ready to go. But don't feel bad for me - I've been here before. The stand-by list can be cruel. She offers the hope of catching the earlier flight, but she rarely comes through. I've been the next one on the list more times than I care to count. I can handle it. It will be a late night, but at least I have my iPod and PSP. I'm gonna be okay.

You see you have to tell yourself these things because you don't want to get your hopes up. You don't want to get disappointed. But deep down inside, you do still hold out hope... And then it came. My name. My time.

I made the flight. I ate dinner with the family. Yes - we ate at Chiloso. I played with the kids. Robin and I took time to talk about stuff. We watched LOST and talked about Jacob. It was good.

I love that stand-by list.