Monthly Archives: September 2009

Wastebin-Inspired Wrath

Since the day after we were married, Hayley had been asking me for a nicer trash can. She really, really, really wanted an aluminum trash can to replace our wimpy, unattractive little plastic one. I had no clue how expensive these things were, so once I discovered this reality, I had to turn her down – a task that no one should desire. She can be quite persistent.

This request continued for about four years until a couple of months ago when we were at the Bane of Our Bank Account and, what do you know, they had a very nice-looking aluminum trash can on sale! Being the benevolent husband, I instantly placed it into our shopping cart. Hayley’s joy was palpable.

We got the trash can home and, again, what do you know, it fit PERFECTLY where we wanted it go. Hayley’s joy filled our kitchen.

A couple days passed and, as we are wont to do, we filled up the trash. I prepared to remove the bag and I encountered some difficulty. After a struggle, which included a ripped bag and an injured foot, the bag was removed. I just assumed that we had perhaps installed the bag improperly.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and I hear Hayley exclaiming in frustration from the kitchen. I knew that I had fought against this trash can for weeks and it appeared that Hayley had hit her breaking point, too. 

Up to this point, Hayley had been keeping her frustration with the can a secret. She didn’t want me to know that she hated the can as much as I did since she felt responsible for our owning it. Knowing that our hatred was shared, I immediately went to Lowe’s and purchased a new, nice, relatively expensive trashcan.

And now, rather than our frustration, our joy is mutual.

There’s really no point or lesson to this post.

Other than, of course, the obvious: Give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.

Happy Tuesday.

Three views of worship

worshipOne of the questions I’ve been asking internally (and externally) lately is “What is the point of worship?”

For most of life, I’ve been taught that worship isn’t about me – it’s about God. About my recognition of who God is and who I am in relation to that. Whether or not I enjoyed or got anything out of worship was irrelevant. It was all about what I gave to God that mattered.

This has never really made sense to me. I’ve never really understood why an all-powerful God would require his subjects to worship Him. Is He insecure? Greedy? Arrogant? None of those attributes seem to mesh with the picture of God in the Bible. I do think that He desires our worship, but I’m not entirely sure why. Feel free to chime in with a comment if you have any insight.

After a great conversation I had Friday night, I began to think about worship again. And while I’m sure that the initial conclusions I’ve arrived at aren’t earth-shattering, they were helpful for me. And so I share them with you.

I’ve come up with three “purposes” (for lack of a better word) for worship. I don’t think that these are exclusive, but rather they exist together in harmony, each equal to the others in importance. As I said, I’ve just started developing these, so be gentle in your critiques, please.

Worship as Praise
Despite my lack of clarity or understanding, I still think that worship is designed to glorify God. Even if it’s as basic as our  recognizing that God is God and we are not, giving praise to God is important.

Worship as Communication
Sometimes, we are incapable of expressing exactly how we feel or think about something. As a kid, I remember listening to a country song called “Life’s a Dance” and feeling the deep, meaningful truth of that song. I could never have expressed that on my own, but the lyrics and melody did it for me. In the same way, many worship songs communicate our feeling of love, gratitude and relief for what God has done for us.

Unfortunately, many worship songs and gatherings only communicate celebration – not sadness, anger or confusion. This is one of the challenges of community worship – it’s difficult, if not impossible, to capture the feeling and emotions of the entire group. Wouldn’t it be awesome if a gathering allowed its participants to express how they were feeling – even if it wasn’t happy? Or, if the gathering encouraged its participants to share in the feelings of others, even if those feelings weren’t happy? (I’ve got more to say about this in another post.)

Worship as Encouragement
Finally, I think that worship is designed to build up and encourage the community of people who are worshipping. Colossians talks about this in chapter three:

Verse 16: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

I think it’s incredibly encouraging when people are gathered together, authentically sharing in worship as praise and communication. When I went to Catalyst, the worship was by far my favorite part. Being in a room with 10,000 similarly minded folks, worshiping one God, was amazing. It reignited my passion for not only worship, but for the God we were praising.

So that’s it. Three facets of worship. What do you think? What have I left out? What have I got wrong? I’m eager to hear.

Pups, Hypnosis and Butter

This was also posted at the Greteman Group blog. Check it out here.

Last night, the GG team headed up to Hutchinson, Kansas, home of the Kansas State Fair.

We started by meeting up with in-the-trenches colleagues Jen and Angelina at the publicity office. We then set off in search of food – perhaps the most important of our fair activities. Of course, we had to partake in the renowned Pronto Pup, a favorite of many fairgoers. My peers have hyped the wheat- and rice-breaded hotdog (this breading sets it apart from its boring cousin, the corndog) to an unbelievable degree; it lived up to their lauding.

While eating, we headed over to the equestrian arts show. We were a little late and didn’t have the best view, but we were able to see some unbelievable stunts from the Cavallo family’s fifth-generation of riders. These athletes balanced on one leg, stood on shoulders and even did back flips while the horse galloped around the ring. Catch their show – it’s amazing.

You Are Getting Very Sleepy
After that, we made our way to the much-touted hypnotist show. Naturally, I volunteered. Shy, I’m not. I’m not sure how best to describe what it’s like to be under. I was very relaxed, open to suggestions and didn’t really care about looking foolish. (Hmmm. Sounds like me every day.) Largely, I was aware of what I was doing, though apparently I proudly displayed my wedding ring when approached by a woman onstage and threw a couple of chairs when asked to “lose the chairs.” I don’t remember doing either. You can see some photos of me under the influence here.

Why Can’t I Grow Pumpkins Like This?
Before we left the fairgrounds, we stopped by the agricultural displays to view some very large produce, creative scarecrows and, of course, the famous butter sculpture. None of us are sure who first decided to carve butter, but we all agreed the result is amazing.

We really hope that you can make it out to this year’s fair. It looks like the weather’s going to cooperate beautifully.

You can check out some photos from our trek here.

Kansas State Fair Pre-Show Goes Digital

Every year, a few days before the fair officially kicks off, Kansas media are invited to the fairgrounds for a tour of the facilities, interviews with the organizers and opportunities to uncover some unique insights about quirky exhibitors or fanciful foods.

This year, we took the pre-show event online, making it easier for more people to attend, and opening it up to more than just the media, taking questions via Ustream and Twitter from anyone who was watching. Jen and I hosted the show, which was a ton of fun.

We talked with Denny Stoecklein, the fair’s general manager, about fair fashion, unique foods and not-to-miss events. We spoke with Greg Thompson, a Grand Drive committee member, who shared details about the youth-focused agriculture event. And Becky Rhodes from the Kansas Department of Commerce told us all about the Bluestem wine and beer garden, featuring Kansas-brewed beer and the people’s choice winetasting event.

But enough gabbing – check out the recorded version of the pre-show for yourself.

And, don’t miss KAKE’s coverage of the pre-show.

The fair starts today, so we’ll have another post this afternoon – make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed or check back!

My new venture

fast_foodI’m going to open a fast-food restaurant, which will, hopefully, be so amazing, that I’ll be able to franchise the model out, get covered in major fast-food publications and be invited to speak at fast-food-related conferences.

What really is going to push me over the top is my tagline: The fast food restaurant for people who don’t like fast food restaurants.

You see, we’re going to be different than all those other guys.

The first thing you’ll notice is that we won’t use the traditional molded-plastic seats. Nope, we’re going to use padded chairs that can be shuffled around and rearranged at will. Then, you’ll probably see that everybody is dressed however they feel comfortable – assuming, of course, that this means they’re wearing jeans and t-shirts. Finally, the first impression will wrap up with our promotional posters for upcoming food features. Rather than using traditional graphics to display our information, we’re going to purchase pre-designed posters and get a college intern to add our information to them.

Once you actually get ready to order, you’ll find that the overall process is identical to other fast food restaurants, but ours will feel much more relevant and edgy. Our cashiers will be casually dressed and carry iPhones. They’ll greet you with a high-five and enthusiastically ask if you’re ready to order up some food. As you peruse our menu, you’ll find that ultimately, our products are the same, but they’ve got far cooler names, like “The Crisp” (our fried chicken sandwich), “No-Mo-Moo” (our take on the Quarter Pounder) and “Swell*” (our version of the Happy Meal).

After placing your order, you might discover that we’re not perfect – no restaurant is – and we didn’t give you exactly what you ordered. We’re just trying our best and we’re honest about when we screw up.

The actual meal will probably be similar to other meals from other restaurants, but you won’t be bored and you will probably be more full.

Once your meal is complete, you’ll throw your stuff away and leave with the knowledge that you just experienced a fast-food revolution.

What do you think? Will my restaurant be successful?

*please note the double-meaning of the word “swell” – I was quite proud of that one.

I’m back?

Two months have passed since my last post.

My experiment to see the importance I played to the success or failure of the Internet has come to a close, and I must say the findings are disturbing at best.

After two months of nothingness from ToddBlog.net (the very blog you’re reading now), the Internet still functions as it always has. For two months, a corner of the interwebs that formerly contributed humor, relevance and thought-provoking posts was silent, and still Facebook, Google and CNN.com stand, as if nothing had changed.

I’m exaggerating, but it is amazing the crippling pressure that one can put on oneself to crank out posts in between actually cranking out posts. You get this idea in your head that all your previous posts are well-written, logical, enjoyable pieces that people actually want to read. You then keep yourself from writing anything because you don’t feel like you have anything to say.

I’m always telling people not to over-think what they’re about to write, or they’ll never actually click publish on a post. I’ve lost sight of that advice and I’ve allowed my blog to go without an update for too long.

I can’t pretend that I’m going to post daily, but I can do better than once every two months.

So stick around. I’ll be back shortly.