February 2012
3 posts
4 tags
The Target Spot = The Circle of Life
(another Whitney-centric post from my archives, dated 12-31-2004. My prayerful condolences to all those grieving her tragic death.)
We returned to Target today. Not the same one where we had our brush with Bobby & Whitney, but a Super Target just up the road a few miles. I’m not certain, but I think the difference between a regular Target and a Super Target is that a Super Target offers...
3 tags
Saving All My Love For Christmas Bargains
(this is from the archives, originally dated 12-22-2004, from our star-crossing encounter with Whitney Houston & Bobby Brown in the most unlikely of places.)
Yesterday, we did the Christmas shopping marathon. Stops at Media Play, followed by the Mall, followed by a high-class lunch at Burger King, where they let me have it my way, followed by Target.
Lil’ Bit (Kelsi) ran out of steam...
Anonymous asked: Hey. I liked your 2012 post on January 1. That was encouraging for me this morning! Love ya bro!
January 2012
5 posts
The book
(note: I originally wrote this in 1993, shortly after I became a follower of Jesus. The fun discovery is that it dates the event of my salvation, which I had not remembered that I had ever recorded!)
Many times I picked up the book, read a paragraph or two and set it down without a second thought. I found the literature to be interesting, but cumbersome with its details and difficult language....
2 tags
Write more better in 2012
from my archives:
40 PROBLEM WORDS AND PHRASES
And also - This is often redundant.
And/or - Outside of the legal world, most of the time this construction is used, it is neither necessary nor logical. Try using one word or the other.
As to whether - The single word whether will suffice.
Basically, essentially, totally - These words seldom add anything useful to a sentence. Try the sentence...
5 tags
Remember Chris
Here’s the manuscript for the message I shared at the memorial of my dear friend, Chris LeFevre. Please be sure to read the postscript at the end.
***
As with many of you, I am proud to say that Chris was my friend. I met Chris when, in the 4th grade, my family moved, which caused me to switch schools from East Elementary to Sunset Elementary. Somehow, I linked up with Troy & Chris....
3 tags
surreptitious
I really like the word surreptitious, despite its negative meaning. It’s one of those neat words that just rolls off the tongue, and it sounds exactly like what it means. You’re almost compelled to say it in a whisper. On the linguistic fast-food menu, the word is a veritable Big Mac, with two all-beef plosive patties amidst the soft whole grain sesame-seed triple fricative buns, not...
5 tags
2012
The calendar turned. I went to sleep in 2011, and woke up at 2012.
My thoughts:
Maybe the fireworks everywhere mean something a little more than in most years.
I’ve never seen so much of a sense that 2011 was a bad year.
2011 was a good year for me, my family. Unemployment ended. New door to serve opened. Much prayer was answered. My faith is deeper, wider, stronger because of...
December 2011
5 posts
5 tags
Back When I Knew Everything: Ethics & Media 3
This one revisits the infamous story of American juvenile delinquent gets caned. And yet another OJ SImpson trial shout out.
July 5, 1994 Reaction Paper #3
The entire country took notice when the teenager Michael Fay was sentenced to six swats with a bamboo cane for vandalizing automobiles in Singapore. The U.S. government stepped in, imploring the Singapore government to not cane the...
5 tags
Back When I Knew Everything: Ethics & Media 2
New Discovery: These first papers were a series of “reactions” to the events of the OJ Simpson trial for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson & Ronald Goldman, for the Ethics in Journalism class I was taking.
New Concern: Did I actually believe OJ was innocent? Certainly not…
***
Reaction Paper #2
With all that seems to be going on surrounding the O.J. Simpson case,...
4 tags
Back When I Knew Everything: Ethics & Media
The many posts to follow are papers I wrote while I was in college and seminary. I’m posting them here primarily as a means of digital archiving. Please forgive any immature expression of thought. I was pretty impressed with myself back in the day. Many years later, recognizing that it’s taking me 20 minutes to cut & paste these old documents…well, let’s just say...
5 tags
Last Christmas
What a difference a year makes.
Last Christmas, we were eight months into unemployment, living on my retirement savings. We were on a restricted budget to stretch our resources as long as possible. In many ways, it could have been a season marked by how poor we suddenly found ourselves, full of disappointment with the awareness of what we didn’t have.
It turned out to be one of the most...
3 tags
Making love, Part 5: love is God's ultimate weapon
Link to the previous parts in the series
The previous entries discuss the shortcomings of trying to rush love, and offer a discussion of how real, selfless love takes times. 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 shows how God reveals himself through true expressions of love.
Love never Fails (v. 8)
What a succinct and perfect message. Love never ends. Scripture declares that God is love, and here it tells us that...
November 2011
1 post
2 tags
Making love, Part 4: what love does
Recap:
Intro - making love
Part 1 - love gives life meaning
Part 2 - love takes time
Part 3 - what happens when you hurry love
Continuing my unintended trend of interweaving this conversation with music videos, here’s a classic “on-topic” song, by the greatness that is Johnny Lee - Looking for Love:
I actually thought it was Mickey Gilley who sang it, but I think he just...
October 2011
11 posts
3 tags
Making love, Part 3: you can't hurry love
Admit it, you read that title with Phil Collins singing in your brain, didn’t you?
If you didn’t, you do now.
Then again, maybe you’re a fan of the Supremes rendition.
But I digress.
For review, read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Your love must be expressed (in action, not words) by verbs that are expressions of time.
If it is not, it’s fair to question if your love is really love...
5 tags
Making love, Part 2: love takes time
It’s easy to define distance in terms of time. You can ask, “How far to the airport?” and the answer could very well be “20 minutes.” You can’t turn that around though…If you ask, “What time can I pick you up for our date?” and the answer will never be, “About 10 miles.” It just doesn’t work that way.
Similarly, people try to define...
1 tag
suzyscloset asked: I loved your post about making love. But I have to give you another point of view. It's not always a choice we're making bringing up chioldren without their fathers. I was in a relationship for the third year and he suggested that we'd have a baby. I kinew I loved him and wanted to be with him for the rest of my life. But as it happens, when I actually got pregnant, he chickened out...
4 tags
Making love, Part 1: love gives life meaning
Humanity has had a “love problem” from nearly the beginning of time. It didn’t start out that way, but sometime after their original creation, the first people bought in to a lie and distrusted the love of God. That distrust led to separation, and that separation led to an endless, endemic plight that accounts for every lie since the first, every murder since the first, every...
3 tags
Making love (introduction)
”I may not be a smart man, Jenny, but I know what love is.”
-Forrest Gump
We all might know what love is, but none of us knows on our own how to really make love.
You might be saying, “Speak for yourself, McAnally.” I’m not talking about that kind of “making love.” After all, this is pastor’s blog, not a screenplay based on a Nicolas Sparks...
4 tags
It's 12 O'Clock Somewhere
In writing, do not use 12 p.m. or 12 a.m. or 12 noon or 12 midnight.
Use noon or midnight to refer to these times.
And, when you use the appreviation p.m. or a.m., always use the periods: p.m.; a.m.
Thus, it is not:
11am - 12pm
but rather:
11 a.m. - Noon
Now go, and write better.
2 tags
Ode to the Dollar Store
In a down-turned economy when money is tight Shopping for needs can be an intimidating plight But there exists an oasis of value and savings The Dollar Store satisfies all your price-busting cravings
40-Watt lightbulbs with 20-hour lifespans Oversized, Easy-Burn, NotTeflon© fry pans One-Size fits All tees, if by “all” you mean “none” Burn Block Lotion SPF 50* (*not to be...
3 tags
From the Department of Redundancy Department
These terms are redundant. And they’re also repetitively unnecessary:
adequate enough (adequate)
filled to capacity (filled)
all throughout (throughout)
green in color (green)
another additional (another)
join together (join)
assembled together (assembled)
large in size (large)
attached hereto (attached)
maximum possible (maximum)
brief in duration (brief)
mix together...
3 tags
Purses
(from my archives)
I recently accompanied my wife purse shopping. I had no idea there was so much for me to learn. A sampling:
straw purses are for summer.
canvas purses are for summer.
its too late to buy for summer.
little purses aren’t practical.
big purses are practical.
practical purses look frumpy.
if a designer ever successfully reconciles the practical/frumpy conundrum, a...
4 tags
Making sense of the trinity
A few years ago, I was invited to write a sample for a book idea. The idea (as presented to me) was to address some of the challenging issues of the Christian faith, using the creative premise that the book was a transcript of an moderator’s interview with God (or other biblical personalities). Ultimately, the novelty wasn’t effective and the idea never moved forward. I think there was...
3 tags
Won't you be my Neighbor?
Today, my pastor began a new teaching series called “grace and your neighbor,” asking the question, “who is your neighbor?”
The message was built on the passage known as the parable of the good Samaritan, found in Luke 10:25-37.
Here’s what I left with, as a take-away:
Our human nature leads us to behave like the lawyer, asking, “who is my neighbor?” We...
September 2011
1 post
4 tags
Smackdown
AWANA starts this week, and we are down to our youngest child’s final couple of years in the program.
That’s my clumsy seque of introducing a fun memory:
(originally written 2/28/2007)
On Monday night, we participated in our church’s Upward Award celebration. And we did something a little different than what we normally do. We welcomed the Christian Wrestling Federation, and...
August 2011
15 posts
A gravitational perturbation on Uranus
While that may look like a punchline to a joke, it’s not. It’s the phenomena the compelled astronomers to begin looking for another planet beyond the unfortunately named Uranus. Whereas Uranus was the first planet to be discovered with a telescope, Neptune was the first to be discovered by mathematical prediction.
Uranus was discovered in 1781. Forty years later, an astronomer noted...
4 tags
The first funeral
Rodin’s “The Thinker” is perhaps his most famous sculpted work of art, but the one that has captured my attention is his work, The First Funeral (pictured here).
This is a sculpture of Adam, carrying his son Abel, to his grave, while Eve watches. Abel was murdered by his brother Cain. Abel’s parents, brokenhearted at their loss, return their son to the earth from where...
2 tags
Music to my ears
I’m not musical.
I can’t find an “a note” by ear if you warned me it was coming and then told me it had just passed. I’d have to take your word for it.
I cannot sing that same note with any consistency, even if it were repeatedly chimed to give me countless opportunities to get on pitch.
But you know what I love about music….that the “A note” will...
2 tags
Avoiding wooden nickels
Fortune Magazine shares the best advice ever given to leaders of finance, entertainment, technology, and military.
There are many good and some not-so-good nuggets of counsel in the collection. Here’s a couple gems:
“Always assume positive intent.” - Indra Nooyi (Pepsico CEO) This is biblical, by the way.
“In order to do something well, you have to keep practicing and...
2 tags
Never deal in absolutes
and other selected bits of negatively-presented pseudo-wisdom…
Never use the modifier “That’s the least you could do.” You will inevitably be proven to have overestimated the other person.
Never put the bread crumbs canister next to the Crystal Light Peach Tea Canister. The two look surprisingly similar and if you mess that up even one time, you won’t be allowed to...
2 tags
People I know: Matt Carson
A fellow NAMBian, we were often confused for the other because we both worked in Mission Education, although our jobs had nothing in common. Thus, “Myron McCarsonally” was born. Matt can rank every Chicken Tender product in the Atlanta region.
3 tags
Morning tip
Have you ever in the fog of the pre-caffienated morning mistakenly dispensed and applied Cinnamon Rush Toothpaste instead of your regular hair gel?
Yeah, me neither this morning.
On an unrelated note, do you know what really wakes you up in the morning if your coffee isn’t ready?
A second shower, just a few minutes after your first shower.
3 tags
People I know: Melissa Williams
Melvin is a Georgia peach and a fellow NAMB veteran. She was my counterpart in the children’s division and edited their resources. She is incredibly gifted, faithful, diligent, and hardworking. I am blessed to call this prayer warrior my friend.
3 tags
Take Cover!
We moved to Texas in 2005. I was literally on the job for one week when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita slammed into the Gulf of Mexico and brought historic damage to the gulf cities in several states. We up in Dallas did our best to welcome the wave (no pun intended) of evacuees who had been displaced by the storms.
A few times over the years that followed, we’d get a weather alert that a...
2 tags
People I know: Nancy McAnally
Aunt Nancy has always been kind, loving, forgiving, and fun. She joined every hunting trip, camping excursion and grand outdoor adventure and challenged us to keep pace. I’m pleased to be her errand boy for as long as she wants.
2 tags
People I know: Michelle Hicks
My brother’s high school girlfriend treated me like a little brother…or how I imagined a big sister should treat me. She became great friends with my parents. Today, she’s a fitness guru.
3 tags
An open letter to the neighborhood barking dog
(originally written August 9, 2008, from our home in Texas. August in Scottsdale is so hot that the dogs just email each other).
Dear Yappie McBarky,
From time to time, we all get a little wound up. I understand that. It just seems that lately, you’ve been wound up…a lot. Daily, we hear your piercing calling card over and over and over and over again. I can only imagine your...
7 tags
14 months of rough waters (part 5 - conclusion)
Read parts 1,2,3,4
This season of my life began in April 2010 with the unexpected, painful news that I was being laid off from my church after five years of fruitful service where we had seen God grow the church numerically and spiritually. I was blindsided by the separation. I thought I was insulated from the possibility of termination because of the biblical mandates related to my...
2 tags
14 months of rough waters (part 4)
Read parts 1, 2, 3
It’s been a while since I’ve written those three previous parts of this revisiting of the past season of my life. The truth is, I pushed pause on the series because of two reasons:
I have entered into the next season that followed this season. The onset of a new season has required most of my time and nearly all my attention. And as important as it is for me (and...
7 tags
Five "C's" of Leadership
From Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, and one of only 12 female CEOs of a Fortune 500 Company: Competency. Stand out from the pack and be a lifelong learner. Remain ahead and abreast in your field.
Courage and Confidence. Speak out. Establish your knowledge base and be confident in it as a leader.
Communication. Over-invest in written and oral communication. Leaders constantly have to motivate...
July 2011
3 posts
2 tags
14 months of rough waters (part 3)
Read part 2, part 1
Though I was shocked and surprised by my sudden joblessness, I was even more so by the the emotional turmoil that followed because of it. After and amidst the anger and bargaining, came the recurring battles against depression. It was here where my needs were greatest, my pains deepest, my doubts most daunting, and my faith most fulfilled.
If anger is the roaring rapids in...
2 tags
14 months of rough waters (part 2)
(Read part 1) As our faith voyage continued, God moved me through the seasons of denial and anger into uncharted waters to follow.
Bargaining. As the process wore on, I spent considerable time with God. That’s a good thing. In the classic grief model, “bargaining” is a matter of begging and pleading for compromise to an unmerciful void of emptiness. For me, though, bargaining...
4 tags
14 months of rough waters (part 1)
In April 2010, I lost my job.
Not as in, “I don’t know where I put my job.” If that had been the case, I would have back-tracked and gone to the last place I had remembered putting my job, and then progressed until where I had found it. I occasionally do that with my eyeglasses, or my keys, and inevitably, I locate them and get back to business.
This wasn’t like that.
...
June 2011
5 posts
2 tags
People I know: Corey Hafey
Corey was the “all-around athlete” from Kelli’s class. He was the football team’s quarterback, a wrestler, and a pitcher on the baseball team. I remember there always seemed to be a lot of drama about Corey “making weight” during wrestling season. He’d appear gaunt, almost reaper-ish when wearing his hooded wrestling warm-up. But I seem to remember him...
2 tags
People I know: Dalian Salazar
Dalian was Kelli’s best guy friend. He was a great, gentle giant. He encouraged underclassmen on the football field and was an overachieving wrestler. Dalian died his senior year in a car accident. Kelli carried his flower at graduation.
2 tags
People I know: Jim Mooney
I met Jim Mooney the summer before seventh grade. He was staying with his cousins the Baxters. Jim immediately clicked in our little circle of friends. He introduced me to Prince & the Revolution (I still know all the Purple One’s grunts from When Doves Cry, I’m a little sheepish to admit) and chewing tobacco (a filthy habit that my dad broke me of in dramatic...
3 tags
People I know: Roy Romer
Roy Romer was a three-time governor of Colorado. My mother participated in Roy’s 1990 gubernatorial re-election campaign. On one of his Western Slope campaign swings, we dined together with him at the Craig Village Inn.
2 tags
People I know: Stacy Brammer
I met Stacy in college at the University of Denver. Stacy was on the pierced end of love’s arrow, from the time when I shot Cupid’s bow uniting her with my closest college friend Chris. I will forever bear the scars of the fateful night that they began their relationship.
May 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Picture day through the years
(I’ve posted these pictures on Facebook, here they are with the original, but edited, blog post, following an updated introduction)
My Picture Days hearken to a simpler time…a time when I was much blonder, much cuter, and much more inclined to believe that one day, I may just become The Six Million Dollar Man. I share these with you now to prove these claims, and so that you (like I)...