kylegilbert

Today has been a day of breaking things.  To start things off, I broke my new bike this morning.  I was trying to haul both my kids in their bike trailer up a steep hill, and I bent a bunch of teeth on first gear.

Then this afternoon, I came a little too close to the back porch steps with my riding mower, and I tore them apart.

A few minutes later, just before I finished mowing, the belt broke on my mower.

And here’s a photo of the repaired steps, just in case my land lord happens to be reading this. 

If you’re on Facebook, and you haven’t yet picked out your custom url/username, now is the time to do it. I just got mine, and below are the screen shots.

I was hoping to get a url for the Faith Promise FB Group and new Faith Promise FB Page as well, but you have to have 1,000 members, and we’re still a bit short of that. Fortunately, they’ll open that up in a couple of weeks, so I’ll grab that then.

Spurred on by a Craig’s List listing for a mountain bike and kid trailer, my daughter and I made a trip out to Cosby, TN, today.  She got to ride in the front seat for the first time, and we got an outstanding deal on the purchase ($100 total – Thanks, Kathy, for telling us about this!).

In addition to traveling on the newly-opened I-40, the trip into the mountains was gorgeous.  Hard to capture on a iPhone camera while driving, but here’s a snapshot of our trip.

By the way, the bike and trailer work great, and I’m whipped!

It’s true.  My shoes stink, but not in the way you might think.

I bought some black dress shoes about a year ago.  I didn’t pay very much for them, but I thought they looked cool.  I supposed that the gasoline-like* smell from the soles would eventually wear off, and Keri made me keep them in the garage at night for a couple of weeks when I first bought them.  Well, they still stink.

Good thing I hardly ever have to wear the things – only for weddings and funerals, but that also means I’ll probably have them for a long time too.

* It’s not exactly the smell of gasoline, but that’s the easiest way to describe it.  The most accurate way I can describe it is to say that they smell like the inside of the discount tool store, Harbor Freight.

For several years now, I’ve really regretted that I’ve never taken computer classes since I was a Junior in High School.* I really don’t care about getting another degree – I just want to learn how to write programs. HTML & CSS are great, but for me, to really understand the science behind programming Java, PHP, C++, or ColdFusion would be truly fascinating.

So a couple of weeks ago, I went back to school. OK, not really. If you haven’t seen this already, a bunch of courses are offered free online at Academic Earth, so I’ve started watching the lectures for Stanford’s Introduction to Computer Science online, and I love it.

* Most people think my degrees involved technology, but that’s not the case. My undergrad and Master’s degrees were both related to pastoral ministry, not computers.

This past weekend, some of Keri’s family came to visit us in Knoxville (Dave, Nancy, Erin, & Mattie), and we had a great time hanging out together.  That is, until they drove off to start their trip home.  My three-year-old daughter was heart broken.  I’ve never seen her look so sad.

Now, I want my kids to learn to cope with disappointments in life without my intervention, but still, I wanted to do something that would be fun.  I suggested that we create a tunnel in the living room floor from some big boxes in the garage.  The diversion did the trick, and both kids were thrilled with our construction project.

They had a great time playing inside the thing, but my favorite part was the graffiti decorations that my daughter added over the next couple of days.  I’ve included a few close ups here so you can see a few of her illustrations.

Maybe it’s just because I’m her dad, but I think she’s brilliant.  We may start writing and illustrating books from our home, just for fun.

Two Thursdays ago I was brutally attacked by my gallbladder after eating a couple of pieces of pizza.  I didn’t realize that I had gall stones, but the combo did a number on me.

I’ve honestly never had to deal with such pain before, and by 11 pm, I was begging Josh Whitehead to run me to the ER.  He was kind enough to take me – and it wasn’t until 20 minutes after I got the morphine (around 3 am, I think) that I finally felt OK again.

This Tuesday, I had laparoscopic surgery, and my gallbladder is no longer with me.

Today, I’m feeling great, other than four sets of stitches, a yellow-bruised belly, and some soreness.

Our culture today has rejected the “plastic” feel that characterized certain elements of the past few decades. Instead of being content with artificial, the culture now upholds and seeks out the values of transparency and authenticity. This shift is beneficial for the work of Christ. They make a rich soil for the communication and application of the gospel. They give people a safe place to come clean with their sins, fears, and insecurities to find accountability and encouragement from others.

The bad thing is, many people are selling out for a cheap imitation of transparency and authenticity. Rather than creating fertile ground, we’re tempted to hide our insecurity under a top soil of sarcasm. It can be fun and lighthearted when used sparingly (I love to smile and laugh), but it can be a cheap cover up too. Rather than encouraging and building one another up in love, we can spend our time trying to keep people laughing.

Given time, sarcasm will erode our communication and leave us with interactions that are even more plastic than in generations past.

This is a great opportunity for the church to shine brightly in our world today. Rather than a new kind of fake, may we demonstrate transparency with humility and encouragement.

There are several people in my life that I consider to be my heroes for various reasons, but ever since college the first person who always comes to mind when I hear the word “hero” is my Grandmomma, Dorothy Willingham.

Today, my dad called to let me know that she passed away – stepping out of this world an into the next.

This was a complete shock to me (she did have a major stroke almost a year ago, but since then she’s been working hard to regain mobility and speech). In fact, when I talked to her on the phone yesterday, she was having a great day – telling me that she was going to try to walk down the aisle in my brother’s wedding in June. Despite the shock, I’ve still had a tremendous sense of peace (with sadness), as Keri and I have talked about her today.

She was an amazing woman. Here are a few of the reasons Dorothy Willingham is my hero:

• She was a devout follower of Jesus Christ. The real deal. You could see it in her life.
• She was unswervingly loyal. From the fun times that we had with her growing up, to teaching in the public school system for half a century, to the kind service she extended to those she knew who were going through health problems – she was always willing to help care for the people around her.
• She never gave up. Even through the discouragement of her own health setbacks, she kept pushing forward.
• Unlike a lot of people I’ve met who get crankier with age, she was always fun to be around, and she was always laughing and making me laugh. She loved to be the center of attention, and she was willing to say and do ridiculous things to get people to smile.

Thank God for people like Dorothy Willingham who are faithful to the end and who show us how to live. Until we are reunited, we will miss her tremendously.

This is a photo I took of my son at a birthday party this past weekend.  I sure do love this little monkey!