Marc’s Musings

For a couple years, I read Early To Rise’s emails everyday. Something happened and I stopped receiving them. But, on a whim, I just checked out the site and saw this message on getting enough sleep. (It starts about halfway down the page.)

One quote from the article is:
Most people need seven to eight hours of sleep to perform optimally. If you sleep less than that, scientists tell us, you are more likely to succumb to illness and die young.

There’s also a helpful list of tips from the National Sleep Foundation.

One of my major goals this year is to get 6-8 hours of sleep each night. I’ve gone from getting 4-5 to usually getting 6 hours.

It’s been interesting to decide to have to give up things to get that sleep. A good prioritization exercise (and reminder that I’m still not that important–things will go on without me).

Feel free to use the comments to answer this question: how many hours of sleep do you typically get each night?

Emily is so cool. Check out the way we’re going to celebrate Sofie’s first birthday!

I have NO idea what I was thinking.

Back in January, Ken Walsh, CEO of the Alfond Youth Center, called me up and asked if I wanted to join an exclusive club of Polar Bear Dippers. I really enjoy Ken so I said I’d love to. I did ask for details but he didn’t give many promising I’d get them later.

I missed the first meeting and the phone calls with two other AYC staff didn’t give me much more information. Somehow I missed that this was a fund raiser and I was supposed to collect money.

So this morning, I get out there and it’s freezing. Literally. To add to the fun, it’s snowing!

The AYC folks had made a pool outside with mounds of snow and filled it from a local fire hydrant. Bbbbrrrrr.

Right now, Ken is really at the top of my list because he let me go right after the National Guard did. (Here’s a picture of them.) Unfortunately, they did nothing to warm the water up.

So then it was my turn. Flattered, Ken interviews me for the cable channel. I’m shivering by this point.

I’m wearing a night shirt because I’d been told there was a costume contest. I’d looked for my graduation robe so I could go in as a clergyman but it must not have made the move. So the night shirt was next on the list.

I tried going in as though I were sleep walking. Here’s the splash.

It’s gratifying that people are laughing. I certainly wasn’t.

I have never been so cold.

I remember reading in The Perfect Storm about being “oriented times zero.” I wasn’t at zero but I was stinkin’ close.

Those who know me, know I’m rarely at a loss for words. I was speechless from the point of that splash. I really wanted to be funny but I couldn’t think.

I wanted to say something but I couldn’t even scream “It’s COLD!” Nothing came out of my mouth.

Not even a croak or a whimper.

My entire body mutinied, rebelling against anything that kept me outside.

I did try to hug Cale but even that was done in a state of incredible numbness.

Thank God the warm pool was open. It was 90 degrees in the room and probably close to that in the pool. It felt incredibly good even though it hurt.

The funny thing is that despite the fog and faux hug for Caleb, I beat the National Guard unit to the pool!

Emily and the kids were great. They thought I did such a great job, they treated me to a Leprechaun Latte at Starbucks.

It’s now 10 hours since the dip. My body is beginning to forgive me. But it still relapses each time I turn on the cold water to wash my hands.

When I told them about wanting to wear a black robe, they joked about putting a plank in the water so I could walk out on it. That would be a riot!

It’s hard to read Jason Clark’s blog without getting inspired or challenged. Or both.

His I saw Jesus last night post totally inspired me. Especially this quote about the 10 people they baptized:

In our context, none of these people talked about praying a prayer to
accept christ (if they had that wouldn’t have been a bad thing), but of how they
oriented their lives over time, and through interaction with Jesus and our
church. Baptism was for many of them the beginning of a declaration that they
were christians, and followers with us all of Jesus into his mission.

This is something we’re seeing more and more. And it’s something Jesus seemed really comfortable with. He didn’t call Zaccheus to repentance, He instead extended grace. Z’s response to that over-the-top grace was repentance and restoration. Same with the woman caught in adultery. No call to repentance.

I was telling our Alpha group last night that His grace makes me uncomfortable. But it’s a discomfort I want to keep pressing in to.

To read more about recapturing a pre-20th century model of evangelism, be sure to check out George Hunter’s The Celtic Way of Evangelism.

At VCW, our corporate Lenten discipline is going to be creating a couple spritual formation groups by walking through the Renovare Spiritual Formation Group Workbook

Emily and I have done these groups multiple times over the years. I love the grace, growth, and simplicity of this format. And I’m thrilled that folks in VCW will be getting “infected” with this too!

The groups explore six streams of Christianity that the authors have identified. If VCW grows to have all six streams evidenced in our corporate life, I’ll be a happy camper. *grin*

Jason Clark has good things to say about Renovare too. (I’m actually cathching up on Jason’s blog…23 postings since I last checked. Oy!)

Here are the Six Streams. (Thanks for the image Jason.)