WORLDS ARE FORMING

No.

Say it ain't so.  M&M's has a commercial featuring Iron & Wine's cover of Such Great Heights.  Boo.

Everything IS bigger in Texas.

This was the view from my office window the other day. When I saw him out of the corner of my eye, I thought he was a small bird or something.  Really!  No joke.  Anyone know what he is?  (Besides prehistorically awesome....)

Don Chesworth.

Check out this guy's new blog: bepassersby.  Don became one of my closest friends during this past year at PTS.  We lived in the same hall, studied, shared music, sung, played, and laughed alot together.  I'm grateful for the guy.  Quite a bit.  He is leaving this week and taking a year off of school to serve at a church in Santiago, Chile.  So, check it over the next few days/weeks/months.  He is a deep thinker with a huge heart, and always has something engaging to share.  Don: be well.  God is with you.  You are loved.

Reeb.

Today is my sister Rebecca's birthday. I like to call her Reeb.  She, in turn calls me Reat.  We don't see each other too often.   Here are a few things I love about her... 

Rebecca is...

...beautiful.
...one of the most generous persons ever.
...hilarious.
...persistent.
...family.

Happy (somethingth) Birthday, Reeb.  May the year to come be full of the best.

Sermon: Talking about the first sermon for the last time.

I promise. I know in the grand scheme of matters of the world right now, this isn't huge, but this has been a big deal for me.  So, thanks for your patience as I have journeyed into the world of preaching.  As I've said, I have appreciated your support and prayers and interest.

All in all, the sermon "A Wonderful Mystery" went well. Psalm 8 was the text, and proved to be a thick passage.  I spent a good deal of time attending to God's Word, praying, and looking to commentaries.  Jesus showed up.  I had to have it done for my supervisor on Thursday, so that was a gift.  It won't always happen this way, but I was able to step away from it Friday and half of Saturday, just to get some distance.  That was huge.   Click on the following link to read it.  Let me know if it doesn't work.  It may have some odd characters in it.  Sorry, just do your best to decipher through it.  Download cleveland_sermon.htm Please don't mess with it or use it against me, thanks.

My church has five worship services on Sundays.  I preached at the two "contemporary" services, which are more laid back.  In preparing the sermon, I wanted to do something that would challenge and stretch me as a preacher and that would challenge the congregation as well.  I think it did that.  The sermon was well-received, and I think it challenged many people.  I saw plenty of faces with question marks as well as plenty of faces who resonated with the message as well.  Perfect, I say.  NOT A PERFECT SERMON OR INTERPRETATION, but I did my best to be faithful to what God was teaching me.  I was most nervous about the benediction, always have been.  (It went fine.  I used the benediction from Ephesians 3.)

The songs I chose all had to do with Creation and God as Loving Creator.  Some of my favorite songs that our worship team knows.  (Lord Most High, Prince of Peace, God of Wonders, O The Deep Deep Love of Jesus, Just As I Am, Good to Me, Agnus Dei, All Hail the Power of Jesus Name)

To change things up, I had photographs I have taken of Creation rotating on one-minute intervals behind me on the big screen.  They turned out well.  (I actually preached in two different sanctuaries: one in the morning, one in the evening.)  I wasn't sure how the congregation would receive it, but I heard positive feedback and that it was engaging, not distracting.   Toyed with different ways to incorporate prints of the pictures into the whole worship experience.  You'll see a picture of them on the steps of the sanctuary, as well as on tables.  Though they looked great on the steps, they were more accessible on the tables in the foyer.  (Check out more pictures in the June album to the right.)

So...sermon is done for now.  It was a great experience, and I am glad that I am done with it.  I continue to learn. Once again, I am grateful to God for your support and prayers, and for my faithful proofreaders: Fletcher, Linds, Cap'n Jones, Hanny, and Momma C. 

I'd love to hear your feedback, good, bad, or ugly. 

OK.  Done with this sermon silliness.

Josh Cleveland: world's third craziest person!

It is confirmed.

Looking at my stats and referrers page today (where you can see who has visited the site, and how they got here) and I saw that someone found me through a MSN search.  They had typed in "worlds craziest person" and got none other than yours truly.  (Actually, I am third in line.)  Go to MSN, do a search typing it in just like that. I am not ashamed.  I embrace it freely.

Any thoughts on who crazies #1 #2 & #4 would likely be?

**Update:  Looks like I am now #1.  Sweet.

Done.

This much anticipated day has finally come and gone.  My first sermon was given twice today.  Good to do, good to be done.  Totally feels as though I just finished finals.  Thanks for your encouragement and prayers.  For now, I am going to sleep.  (A few of you asked, so I'll post the sermon and some pictures tomorrow night.)

Austin Summer 2005: Week Five.

         

One of the craziest weeks of all.  I've been learning the true art of multi-tasking.  One hundred and ten things on my mind and one hundred and eleven things that needed to get done.

Professionally, its been a good, stretching week. Preparing for the sermon, trying to find rest, trying to do all the other things at work that needed to get done...a good challenge for me.  Personally (which is very related to the professional part of me), I've found some joy in the process and have been trying to remind myself of the gift that IS this summer.  I want to take advantage of it and keep learning all over the place.  I have been loving it.  (Calls from my niece keep me going, too.)  Praying through and preparing for the sermon makes me think this: I could do this for a long time, this preaching thing...it feels like a privilege to offer God's word to others.  (We'll see how I feel about that come Sunday.) Lots (I mean lots) of time in three of my favorite Austin coffee shops: Progress, Mozart's, Little City.  I was working, ok? 

So...I got my spring grades back from this place. All year, my friends and I would remind each other that "You are not your grades."  That was always helpful to me in that competitive place.  First semester, after getting my grades, boy was I GLAD that I was not my grades, as I struggled all semester, getting back into the swing of things academic.  Second semester, if I were my grades (and I am not), I'd be much happier about that identity.  It is hard to compare the two semesters, they were markedly different, and I am grateful for the pros and cons of each.  (P.S.  I still have one or two days a week in which I miss that place greatly.  I always miss the people.)

Alison Krauss is my new favorite.  When I've seen her on TV, she's always shy, a bit aloof.  In person, she is really quirky and hilarious and her voice is crystal clear.  She sung all of her greats, a few from O Brother Where Art Thou? and a few covers.  THE BEST PART: the encore.  She sung Down To The River To Pray acapella with three men singing the harmony behind her.  Gave us chills.  Then she sung another by one of the guys in the band.  Great setting: The Backyard, under the cool night sky, cold salted margaritas and good friends.  Truly, a great concert.  (Oh.  Remember Concert Party Girl? I think Concert Party Girl's mom was sitting next to us at Alison's concert.  CPG's mom distraced our attention from Alison a few times.   This older "tanned" Texas woman in a too-short-zebra/tiger-striped-skirt sitting next to us, was sippin' on her 'Rita, slappin' her thigh to the banjo's beat, hootin' and a-hollerin'.  Hope she and her man got home safely, too...in all honesty, she seemed like a fun, great lady, but I couldn't help but think about CPG from previous concerts.)

Generally, I try to cook well a few nights a week, and this week was no different. I had one of my new favorite dinners.  (Yes, I am blogging about food again.)  To start: roasted elephant garlic (roasted on basil leaves in olive oil) with roma tomatoes on crackers.  Then: the main course. Crab -stuffed stuffed salmon steak, lemon fresh green beans and baby carrots.  I was really pleased (and so was my stomach).  I must confess: the salmon was already stuffed at the grocery store.  BUT. That's a good meal, nonetheless.

These next few weeks will be crazy: a week of hard work in the office.  Then ten days in the San Juan mountains of Colorado, a few days back in Austin, then a week in Houston doing mission.  July will be crazy, but worldsareforming will be around nonetheless!

As always, thanks for stopping by, thanks for your comments, your encouragement, and for your prayers.

Its good to be alive.  You are loved.
Josh

(Please don't read this unless your name is Alison Krauss.)

Dear Alison Krauss,

Swoon.  That was perhaps the best concert I have ever been to in my LIFE.  Thanks, Alison Krauss.  If you ever want to hang out, I guess wouldn't be opposed to that.  Or if you wanted me to be one of your backup singers, I would consider that, too.  Ok, time to go.

Your pal,

Josh

Yawn: The Life Aquatic.

As part of my attempt to do absolutely nothing related to my upcoming sermon for 24 hours, I rented The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou last night.  Boiled down, here are my thoughts...

     :: Stacked cast.  :: Great music.  :: Stylistically inventive.  :: Otherwise, a yawner.