This Memorial Day, I want to honor my grandad: Army Air Corps Major Isaac Terrell Spivey of Farmington, NM.
Grandad joined the Army Air Corps (Air Force) in his early 20s and was a B24 Liberator pilot in the South Pacific during World War II. He flew 50 missions, most of them in the pilot seat of a bomber nicknamed Red Headed Woman. Two of these 50 missions earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross, one of the highest decorations that can be given to pilots who serve in the military.
The first mission, in July 1945, had his crew flying over Saigon to take aerial photos of Japanese-controlled oil refineries. The intelligence captured on that mission was a key part in America’s strategy to destroy the Japanese war machine. The mission caught Japan completely off-guard and the crew returned safely (after a 2,500 mile round trip – one of the longest flight missions of the war) only to have the gunner accidentally drop the film, exposing the entire roll.
The next day his crew was asked to do it all again, only this time the Japanese were ready. The Red Headed Woman and its crew flew a second consecutive 2,500-mile recognizance mission, but had to fight off about 45 Japanese fighter planes this time around. In the midst of intense combat, Grandad’s crew was able to recapture the footage and return to base — despite having a large chunk of the plane shot away.
This is only one of dozens of fascinating stories that my grandad could tell you about his time serving in WWII. Some stories are fascinating and some are sobering; He can tell you stories of funny things he experienced and then stories of friends he lost in combat. I love to hear his stories and he loves to tell them.
My grandad is one of thousands of military men and women to whom we owe thanks for the freedoms we enjoy today. To anyone who has served, thank you for your service to our country.
To Grandad, thank you for being my personal war hero.
This video comes from Granger Community Church in Granger, Indiana. This was how they opened up the weekend service during a series titled “Get in the Game”:
I grew up playing the old-school Nintendo and especially loved playing Mario Bros. (who didn’t?). I also dream of being a rockin’ drummer (who doesn’t?). Naturally, I thought this video was awesome.
Even though I love this sort of thing, I must admit that I usually have a twinge of uneasiness when I see popular culture featured so prominently in church. This uneasiness lies in the fact that I feel like pop culture tends to blur the line between the sacred and the unsacred, between what is holy and what is commonplace.
Please understand that I am part of a church that deliberately appeals to the culture, and I love it. I do not sit in service sneering because I am offended at “that song” or “that video”. I honestly enjoy most of what churches do to incorporate “cultural relevance” into their services. I also understand that churches like Granger do this primarily as an “in” to reach people for Jesus — I do not doubt their intentions for a moment.
Still, I cannot seem to shake that nagging feeling that pairing the message of Jesus with pop culture only tends to cheapen Jesus. Do we honestly think that He needs our technology and music and graphic design in order to change lives? If the answer is “no”, then we need to look really hard at whether or not our persistence toward cultural appeal is worthy of so much energy.
What do you think about this issue? Tell me why you feel the way you do about the church and pop culture.
Sidenote: The title of this post is taken from the title of a book written by Tim Stevens , the Executive Pastor at Granger. I have not read it yet, but I know from reading reviews that his book is really making people think about this issue.
I just read today that Christian music artist Steven Curtis Chapman and his family lost their youngest child, adopted daughter Maria, due to injuries sustained in an accident at their family home in Tennessee. The accident looks to have been caused when an older sibling unknowingly ran the child over in their driveway with the family SUV. Read the full article here.
My heart and prayers go up for this family as they are in the midst of this inconceivably horrible tragedy.
Modern television news media has become useless on so many levels. Sometimes I wonder how hard assignment editors have to work just to find stories to fill up their air time. The following video is a prime example of why I don’t spend much of my time watching the local news.
Click on the picture below to view the news story; this is reporting at its crappiest:
Aside from the fact that this completely inane story made it to a live broadcast, I find it particularly bothersome that it aired within the first ten minutes of their 8:00 news (see the timestamp above). Where exactly is the newsworthiness of this story?
To make things worse, the City of Gilbert had to add their personal touch of absurdity by having Greg Svelund, the official city spokesperson, comment on the issue by saying, “I think this is something that can be solved with education.” What?!
Here, allow me:
Dog Park Etiquette 101:
Lesson 1: Dog poop is stinky
Lesson 2: A lot of dog poop fermenting in one area is even stinkier
Lesson 3: To minimize the stink, pick up Precious’ poop
Lesson 4: Should have told you before Lesson 3 to use the plastic bags and not your bare hand, you flippin’ idiot
Lesson 5: Don’t ever leave the house if you are dumber than your dog
I’m pretty sure that I just saved the taxpayers of Gilbert a lot of wasted education dollars.
David G. Clingensmith, Sr.
March 31, 1931 – April 21, 2008
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” Psalm 91:1
We will miss you, Grandpa.
Saturday, April 26 will mark the end of 44 days straight of this:
In my never-ending struggle to produce even the most minute amount of live, straight-swimming sperm, I have tried many unusual things. Some things have helped, some have hindered, but none have done the job they were ultimately supposed to do.
This photo represents my last medical effort. Time alone will tell if this final path of modern medicine can help lead Heidi and me to the final destination that has eluded us for so long now.
Just so you know, I hate needles. I can’t tell you what a hurdle it was to stick this into my body for the first time. In case you were wondering, this shot is given intra-muscularly (meaning that I have to bury the needle to the hilt so that the fluid can be injected into the muscle). Learning to inject myself was definitely one of the biggest fear-overcoming situations in my life.
I love trying to overcome my fears, but I certainly won’t miss these needles when they’re gone.
See above.
Public speaking is not easy.
The fear of speaking in front of a group is one of the top fears in American society. Beyond simply overcoming the realization that all eyes and ears in the room are fixed on him or her (a realization that intensifies self-consciousness), a good public speaker must be interactive and engaging in order to be effective in delivering a message. Having to communicate under these circumstances can be daunting for anyone.
While I am generally comfortable around large groups of people, I am incredibly unconfident speaking in front of them. I don’t mind the publicness of speaking, I mind the fact that I am oftentimes unable to communicate the message I want at the quality I want to deliver it.
In order to learn to overcome this life-long struggle, I went today to my first-ever Toastmasters International meeting. The goal of Toastmasters is to help you “become the speaker and leader you want to be,” and these people aren’t playing around.
Without going into too much detail about the meetings, the goal is to make attendees comfortable with public speaking by making them speak publicly. Then the rest of the group goes about dissecting the speech’s content and delivery. Ultimately, the speaker gets almost immediate feedback on the shortcomings of his or her speaking ability. It can be nerve-wracking to have people pick you apart like that, but as long as you don’t take things personally and you use the critiques to better yourself for the next speech, this group really seems to help.
Even though I was a first-time guest, the group gave me the opportunity to participate in what they call table topics. During this part of the meeting, members are all given a word of the day (ours today was goad). One person is then picked to stand up at the podium. On the spot, they are given a random topic to talk about for two to three minutes and they have to find a way to incorporate the word of the day appropriately in their presentation.
I was asked to talk about my first car, and I had to find a good place to use the verb goad. I started off fairly well and was enjoying myself until I said “ummmm” for the first time. Allow me to let you in on a little Toastmasters secret: they have a person at each meeting whose only task is to listen for “filler sounds” and then hit a desk bell each time the forbidden sounds are used.
The sound of that ringing in the middle of my speech was unnerving. In three minutes, I got dinged seven times. I could tell that the poor lady ringing the bell felt bad at having to keep picking on the new guy, but she was just doing her job. I was so frazzled at the bell that I kept losing my train of thought and I even forgot to use the word of the day. They were kind enough to let me know that everyone gets dinged a lot on their first try, and that I was nowhere near the group record of 17 dings.
Either way, I have a long way to go, and I’m sure I’ll have more stories to come.
Pray for me.
I hope your Easter celebrations are a blast. Enjoy the time with family, the time to rest, and most importantly, the time you spend celebrating the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead in order to make it possible for us to spend eternity with him.
He is risen indeed!
