Yeah, that’s right, “Ants.”

Though I’ve posted before about my disdain for ticks and mosquitos (I’m incredibly unique), I’ve never really noticed the wonder of ants.

Until this video.

In it, scientists pour 10 tons of cement down an abandoned ant colony structure underground. After the cement is dry they excavate the entire colony and study the structure, which is amazing.

All of this reminds me of what Bittersweet Fountain said on last week’s post about how God didn’t have to create a beautiful world. It could have been boring. Here is their comment:

I see your “beautiful” and raise it by a “complex”. God didn’t have to make the world, the universe so complex.

There’s great beauty and complexity in this video. Check it out.

A few months ago my wife made a power play and announced to me that we were now “Front Row Baptists.”

Those weren’t her exact words, but the gist is the same. Starting next Sunday, instead of sitting 7 rows deep, middle section, far right, slammed against the end of the pew, we were headed to the front row.

I wasn’t particularly thrilled about sitting in the splash zone. Growing up as a pastor’s kid, I had spent many a Sunday morning on the front row. I staged a small revolt as a teenager and was able to move deeper into the crowd like the assassin that saved Julia Roberts in the boat scene of The Pelican Brief, but suddenly that front row was drawing me back. Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!

There were five reasons I didn’t want to change seats:

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(It’s guest post Friday!)  Here’s a post from Courtney Ousley who blogs about life at TheCuriousCalico.  If you want to write a guest post for SCL, here’s how!)

Too Loud for Jesus?

Here in the Live Music Capital of the World (Austin,TX), our church caters to young hipsters who like music. Very, very loud music. For the rest of us weenies, there’s a free stash of ear plugs.

But while you make shalom with your cochlea, ear plugs come with their own set of dilemmas:

1. Do you rip open the package and pop them in right away so you’re prepared for that first blast of joyful noise unto the Lord? Or do you wait until the lights go down and then subtly try to slip them in?

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Not going to lie, when I posted about introverts last Thursday, I was not expecting 1,000 comments.

In fact, I was actually a little concerned that no one would pipe up about the most awkward things that happen at church for introverts.

I was wrong. Very wrong.

Fortunately, there are people a lot smarter than me who recognize how important it is to engage in the introverts and extroverts conversation at church. People like Adam McHugh. I met him last year at Catalyst and he wrote a book called “Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture.” After he saw the post on SCL he emailed me and asked if he could give a few copies away. I said, “Free stuff for the SCL readers? Yes!”

So, Adam is going to give 5 copies of his book away. To enter, just comment on this post by midnight pacific time Friday, April 27. Adam will pick 5 winners at random and send you a copy of his book. If you want to skip the whole contest process and pick up a copy, here’s where to do that.

Thanks for the free books Adam!

Introverts, extroverts, comment away!

Last summer I got stung four times by jellyfish while visiting Tybee Island. If you don’t follow me on Twitter than you probably missed that fascinating series of tweets that mostly involved me saying stuff like “Got stung by a jelly fish again today! Why does this keep happening?”

Looking back on it a year later it’s pretty obvious why it kept happening. I was in the ocean. Where jellyfish live. And I have amazing skin. Pores most people kill for. Just completely irresistible to most forms of marine life. The bigger question is, “Why am I not constantly getting stung by jellyfish, even when I’m not in the ocean? What is keeping them away from me in the grocery store or when I’m playing jai lai?”

Once I had chopped some wood and wrestled a bear so I could forget the pain of the stings, two activities I regularly do to offset the lack of manliness my unbelievable skin generates, I forgot all about the jellyfish.

Until the aquarium.

I saw a trio of jellyfish floating in the water and the first thought I had was one I was not expecting,

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Say what you will about hymnals, they never went blank in the middle of a song. In between verses you never looked down and realized there were suddenly no words on the page. But that happens to worship songs sometimes.

Equipment fails. A coffee is spilled in the soundbooth. A volunteer didn’t load all the slides. The worship leader went too fast with the song and got ahead of the person controlling the words. Any number of things can happen, but the result is always the same.

You look up to belt out the next verse of “Blessed Be Your Name” and you’ve got nothing. The screen is blank. There are no words. This has happened to me a number of times at church over the years and these are only 4 possible things you can do in the audience:

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A few weeks ago my family and I drove to Tampa, Florida.

I don’t know if you’ve looked at a map in a while, maybe a topographical gem or one of those ones that used to be on big rollers in elementary schools, but that’s a long drive.

It’s more than 700 miles.

And we did it during Spring Break, which meant that at 5:15AM in the morning when we were at the Monteagle rest stop, there was a line in the bathroom. I expected a ghost town but there was a line, mostly populated by people from Michigan and Indiana. I’m almost positive those two states were completely empty that week because they were all on the road with us.

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(It’s guest post Friday!  Here’s one from Julie Rhodes, who blogs at Wet Behind The Ears. If you want to write a guest post for SCL, here’s how!)

Believing the Elders are Bond. James Bond.

Unless your church is the renegade Clint Eastwood of churches, it probably has elders. If you don’t think you have elders, you probably do, but they have chosen to keep their existence a secret until the appointed time. If you are aware there are elders in your church, I dare you to name one of them. Go ahead. Try.

A few weeks ago, all the elders at my church were up on stage for a forum with ministry leaders and volunteers. It was the first time most of us had ever seen them together. This was like discovering the man behind the curtain, except they all had proportionate eyebrows.

One of them stood out: The Chairman.

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Last Monday I wrote a post about a worship leader asking a crowd I was in to “hug someone.” (If you haven’t read “Worship Leader Simon Says“, well, I hate to overuse the word ‘life-changing,’ but …)

The most popular comment on the post was something I would have never expected:

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We’re holding another Quitter Conference September 21-22 in Nashville, TN!

Why?

Because I bumped into joy and once you do, you can’t help but share it with other people.

People believed in me and encouraged me to chase my dream. And now I want to do the same for you.

I believe you’ve got something unique you were created to do. Something you were designed for and I want to help you do that. And I want to introduce you to hundreds of other people who are chasing dreams too.

I think there are some smart, simple things you can do to close the gap between where you are right now and where you’re meant to be. Let’s spend Friday night September 21 and all day Saturday, September 22 working together.

Let’s figure out our dreams, face our fears, build support for the adventure ahead and know when it’s time to jump.

You can watch a preview video at QuitterConference.com for more info. But if you don’t have a chance to watch it, just know that I’m excited about the journey you’re on and can’t wait to help you.

The last Quitter Conference sold out. Sign up today to get the lowest rate!