What Was I Thinking?

A few weeks ago we moved and now the closest coffeehouse near my home is Caribou Coffee. I know…call me trader. I pray that the Starbuck god not strike me with bitter coffee upon my next visit.

I’m not sure what I was thinking today when I decided to stray from my home office to write my “talk” for this weekend. I’m back in the saddle this weekend – the first time since my dad died two and a half weeks ago.

I’m using my time on Sunday to invite our church community into the journey that I have personally been on these past few weeks. It’s tough. I’m putting myself in a pretty vulnerable place by doing this, but for some reason it feels right. But it sucks. It’s so hard. It’s emotionally tolling and it stirs emotions that I never knew existed within me.

So Caribou Coffee isn’t the best place to write from these depths. Good place to write about faith or love or marriage or parenting - not necessarily a great place to reach down on the inside of one’s heart and write things that have literally shaped the lenses of life in which we live.

So I’m home now. No one is here. It’s quiet. Good place to be.

At the same time, I just found out that my wife’s grandfather is in the hospital with pneumonia – fighting some pretty serious complications.

What a month… Come November, come….

Emerging Church Article

Andy Crouch recently wrote an article about the emerging church in CT. Some good quotes and thoughts by Brian McLaren and Rob Bell.

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Weird

When you're bored or have a few minutes, check out this photo gallery from a Florida TV station - some of the most unusual pictures I have ever seen.

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Blogging

My blogging activity has been sucky lately.

My days are flying by and my energy level isn't the greatest right now. I keep thinking I'm going to feel a surge of creativity and come up with something innovative to write - but it's not happening. So sorry for the lame blog. Go read some of my links.

As soon as I catch my breath, I'll blog more. Thanks for your patience...

Change

"Deep change requires more than the identification of the problem and a call for action. It requires looking beyond the scope of the problem and finding the actual source of the trouble. The real problem is frequently located where we would least expect to find it, inside ourselves. Deep change requires an evaluation of the ideologies behind the organizational culture."

Robert Quinn

Joy Yee's Noodles

One of my favorite Chinatown spots has opened up a location not far from my home. Yeah! Heading there for lunch today...

I'm here...

It's time for an update (and a recent picture of Julia)...

Tuesday morning had breakfast with Erwin McManus. Ok, well there were about 25 or 30 of us there, but it was cool getting to know him better and hearing this thoughts. Erwin McManus is a pastor in LA who has some excellent things to say.

Today (Wednesday) was Amanda's birthday. We had a lasagna party @ our home w/ some family and friends. Felt weird not having dad there. Real weird... He would have loved the garlic bread too.

Trying to figure out how to get back in the flow of life. It's hard to believe that it's been a week since my dad died. I'm not real familiar with the grieving process, but I am amazed at the roller coaster of emotions right now.

Lots of meetings and decisions on the road ahead. Keep me in your prayers. Pray for my mom too... I can't even begin to imagine how tough this must be for her.

I'll be in touch - more later...

PS - Glad the Red Sox won tonight.

Monday

Well it's Monday and it is amazing to me how one quick event can change the focus and attention of an entire family, church community, city-wide community and beyond.

I'm not sure how much blogging is going to be happening here right now. If I do blog, it will probably be related to what we've all been going through lately. I have a lot of stories to share, which might benefit you (the reader) and will certainly help me cope with our loss. There's not much interest right now in blogging about business, leadership or church stuff. I'm guessing that will return at some point, but in the meantime, thank you for taking this journey with me. I can feel your support, prayers and friendships.

Late Friday Night

Saturday 1:45AM

I'm sitting in front of my computer trying to come up with just the right words to share at my father's funeral tomorrow. I'm physically and mentally exhausted, so trying to find the right words is presenting itself quite a challenge to me right now.

Today was an incredible day. For about 7 or 8 hours, a good couple thousand people stood in a line to pay their last respects to my dad, Larry Hodge.

I am utterly amazed and blown away by how many lives he has impacted in his lifetime. I could write for the next three hours straight and not even begin to scratch the surface of what I felt, heard and experienced tonight.

Thank you for all of your prayers, emails and calls. Keep me in your prayers as I strive to pen my feelings and memories of my dad.

To bed I go...

What a Ride....

Friday, 1:40AM

What a ride... I'm exhausted and heading to bed. Today (Friday) is the visitation for my father. I'm not too sure what to expect, but I am going to wear some very comfortable shoes.

Today was a better day. Still feeling a bit numb and shocked. The support has been pouring in from all over the world (LITERALLY), the nation, state and city. The stories that I'm reading from people and the phone calls - it's amazing and a great source of comfort and strength.

Here is a great newspaper article about my dad - even made the front page...

Link to visitation and funeral service details.

Goodnight.

Update

Thursday 2:25am

Wow. I don't even think I can describe what the last day and a half has been like for me. I am pretty certain that I've experienced every emotion known to mankind. I'm numb, stunned and very, very sad. At any moment now we all expect to wake up from this nightmare.

Today I was at our office and I was walking down the hall and saw the light on in my dad's office. I walked to his office and stuck my head in to say hi. And of course, he wasn't there. And won't be ever again.

On the other side of all of this, there is peace. And there are friends. And somehow we will all push through this time and things will look brighter and better. Someday.

More Info...

Visitation & Celebration Memorial Information Here

My Life is Haulted

My dad (Larry Hodge) passed away today. I'm speechless...

Best Presidential Logo?

For all of us who are interested...

John Moore at Brand Autopsy links to a couple of critiquing articles of the Bush & Kerry campaign logos.

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I agree on the design winner - what about you?

I'm Getting Old...

I don't know if it's because we have a new baby or what, but Elise, our 4 year old has changed overnight. She seems taller, smarter with even more attitude than before, and just older looking overall. Yikes! I'm afraid I'm going to wake up tomorrow with her asking me for the keys to my car.

I feel sick.

Caption?

I think this deserves a good caption.

Go ahead...

Are you controlled by email?

Do you control your email or does it control you?

If you're anything like me, you work several hours a day in front of your computer with Outlook or some other email client constantly running and notifying you of new email messages when they arrive.

Then the madness begins - trying to keep up and respond to every email that enters your inbox. Michael Hyatt says it well when he compares it to "a tennis match from hell, some feel obligated to hit every ball back across the net as soon as it lands in their court."

In Saturday's post, Hyatt offered some great thoughts on how to keep from becoming a slave to email and as a result, losing your edge of productivity.

Link

AH hAH hAAH! New U2 Single!!

New U2. Downloaded the single from iTunes tonight.

Oh man, oh man. I like it. I like it. It takes me back to the period of time that I really began digging U2 (sometime around mid-late 80's). Very rock.

Vertigo has some nice guitar work - and The Edge throws in that U2 guitar work that immediately let's everyone know who they are listening to. The background vocals are totally retro U2.

If you have iTunes, download it now. Only .99 cents. Well worth it. The entire album should be here end of November.

More thoughts from McLaren

With the new baby and recent move, my habit of reading has unfortunately become less of a habit. I'm still working through Brian McLaren's new book, A Generous Orthodoxy.

One of the chapters is entitled, "Why I Am Mystical/Poetic" and the general idea in this chapter is that we (the modern church) have somewhat reduced the beauty of the gospel because of the way we approach and think of scripture.

Instead of using poetic and mystical language to proclaim our good news, we tend to approach it flatly sounding more like a written "memo". In this chapter, McLaren quotes Walter Brueggemann:

The gospel is...a truth widely held, but a truth greatly reduced. It is a truth that has been flattened, trivialized, and rendered inane. Partly, the gospel is simply an old habit among us, neither valued nor questioned. But more than that, our technical way of thinking reduces mystery to problem, transforms assurance into certitude, revises quality into quantity, and takes the categories of biblical faith and represents them in manageable shapes...There is then no danger, no energy, no possibility, no opening for newness!...That means the gospel may have been twisted, pressed, tailored, and gerrymandered until it is comfortable with technological reason that leaves us unbothered, and with ideology that leaves us with uncriticised absolutes.

McLaren suggests that what we...

"...need a new kind of preaching, preaching that opens out the good news of the gospel with alternative modes of speech, that is dramatic, artistic, capable of inviting persons to join in another conversation, free of the reason of technique, unencumbered by ontologies that grow abstract, unembarrassed about concreteness because 'reduced speech leads to reduced lives...'"

Top 10 Things To Do...

How Much Caffeine?

Have you ever wondered how much caffeine your cup of Starbucks Coffee contains?

Interestingly enough, most people think that a "mocha" or a "latte" has more caffeine in it than regular coffee. Not true. A regular cup of Starbucks coffee has more than any of their fancy schmancy drinks.

From the site:

The average American adult consumes about 200 milligrams (mg) of caffeine a day, and the top ten percent consume an average of 400 mg, according to John J. Barone, who tracks caffeine consumption at The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta.

I'm sick. I really am. There are days that I consume 2 "Grande" size Starbuck coffees which contain over 500mg of caffeine each.

Check out the link.

Link

Tom Peters Blog!

Tom Peters has a blog now!

Link

What?!

I just can't even believe this.

(Link courtesy of BoingBoing)

Forget Venti...

Starbucks has added a new size to their lineup. Now, in addition to tall, grande and venti - they have the "SCOTT HODGE" size.

easyHotel

Stelios Haji-Ioannou is doing some pretty cool stuff over in Europe. At the age of 37, Stelios has created 16 companies - all a part of the easyGroup family.

easyHotel in London is quite a concept. For roughly $9 a night, you can stay in an easyHotel room in Kensington, near Hyde Park. This basic room includes only the necessities - a bed, a shower, a toilet, and a sink.

easyGroup spokesperson told Wired Magazine that the concept is on it's way to Paris and Amsterdam and one day soon - to the United States.

Back off HoJo.

2 Weeks

This is an interesting part of my evening. At least it has been for the past few nights. Julia is now 2 weeks old and I am beginning to remember what it was like the first time around. The first couple of weeks weren't bad - lots of sleeping, not too cranky, etc... Now, it's different.

Crap.

Amanda is feeling a bit exhausted these days (understandably so...), so I'm trying to work Julia through her evening "episodes" (except for the feeding parts of course).

So here's a quick post and a pic while she eats. Red Bull in hand (mine, that is...) and Miles Davis in the background. Oh yeah... if you're online, say hi. I'll be up UPDATE: 1:24am 3:02am - going to bed now.

Live Webcam of Mount St. Helens

Live webcam of Mount St. Helens updated every 5 minutes.

Eruption is imminent.

Link

Uptown NYC

Chicago blogger, Rachelle, has some seriously kickin' uptown views from the SoHo Grand Hotel in NYC.

What an incredible city...

Link

Tweak Your Genes

We've seen all kinds of makeovers. Here's the latest - Personality Makeovers. Cure procrastination, aggresiveness, timidity, neuroses and philandering by making a few alterations to your genes.

The October issue of Wired Magazine builds some pretty interesting scenarios. Kind of scary...

Link

Is God A Republican?

**I typically stay away from politics on my blog. And I will hold to that as far as my personal opinion of candidates are concerned. BUT - this is bothering me, so I wanted to get it off my chest and even perhaps generate more comments than normal. (Joke...)**

I received an email today with a list of Biblical scripture verses on it and above the scriptures was a note asking people to "pray these scriptures" over President Bush and the upcoming Presidential debates.

So does this mean that God is a Republican?

Don't get me wrong. I believe in praying for those in authority and in positions of leadership; but this prayer is based on the assumption that God is "for" Bush and "against" Kerry.

Something about this doesn't seem right to me - regardless of my own personal political beliefs.

This is one more example of how the church (referring to the "modern" church I guess...) assumes that we have God completely figured out - even politically. And somehow, it turns out that He looks a lot like a midwestern, middle class, Republican.

What if God is a Democrat? For one, "Depends" (the adult diapers) would increase in sales overnight thanks to the Evangelical community.

Maybe our prayer should be something like this, "God, since you have the power to put the right person in place to lead our nation, I ask you to personally lead ME as I vote and please help others to make the right decision too. Amen."

Psalm 75:6-7
For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.