stevemarkle.com

I’m a Starbucks fanatic.  Love the coffee, environment, etc.  Can’t get enough!

Back in ‘02, I did a 4-week series by this title.  This week we begin a REWIND series…rewinding to the early days of LCC.  I’m bringing back some of the highlights from our favorite series.

I have some surprises in store during the message this Sunday…don’t miss it!

One of my heroes - Cal Ripken - was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this past Sunday.  I have it recorded on my DVR, but have too busy to watch it.  I will get to it this week.  But I’ve picked up a few quotes from his speech that are worth sharing:

 “…kids see it all, and it’s not just some of your actions that influence, it’s all of them.

“…as my major league career unfolded, I started playing a little more attention to my actions. I remember when Kenny Singleton showed me a tape of me throwing my helmet down after a strikeout and all he said was, “How does that look?”

I remember learning about a family who saved their money to come to Baltimore to see me play. I got thrown out in the first inning and their little boy cried the whole game. I remember how I reacted with anger when dad was fired after an oh and six start, and after each of those events and others, I vowed to act better the next time.“

“Yes, these were only little things, but as dad used to say, if you take care of all the little things, you’ll never have a big thing to worry about.“

Since I did some family posts on Sunday, I saved my normal Sunday evening comments for this morning.  The picture is from yesterday - Scott & Andrea and the kids.

• Yesterday was a tough day for several reasons.  It’s tough getting back from a week of vacation on Saturday afternoon and then jumping into preaching on Sunday morning.  I still feel like my head is in a fog…or I have sands and salt water in my ears.  I think I did fine, but I felt kind of out of it.  A friend of mine is taking a 5-week speaking break…wow…maybe one summer I will gather the courage to at least take 2 in a row
• Yesterday was Scott & Andrea’s last service with us.  He served as our Student Pastor from February 2003-yesterday…over 4 years.  The first 3 were part-time.  He did a great job and God has opened a door to a great opportunity for them at a growing church in the Columbus, Ohio area.  We are helping him pack the u-haul this evening.  Keep them in your prayers in this new opportunity.
• Service went great yesterday…the band was great - I sure missed having a time of corporate worship last week while on vacation.  The JOY series on Philippians wrapped up yesterday and I really enjoyed it.
• Great crowd yesterday.  Our July attendance average was up 17% over July ‘06.
• Looking forward to the Rewind series starting next Sunday.
• I’m taking our youth to camp next week…August 6-10.  I’m playing Youth Pastor for August as we pursue Scott’s replacement.  I’m looking forward to camp.  I’m praying hard right now for a female chaperone!   We need someone asap!
• It’s going be a VERY busy week!  Funny how work piles up when you go on vacation

You don’t see socks in a vending maching too often.  My wife needed socks when we went bowling…and I guess a bowling alley near a beach has to be ready for this sort of thing.  Pretty good socks for $1.50.  Good enough to win!

Yes…we’re back from the family vacation.  It was a great one at Sunset Beach, NC…just north of Myrtle Beach.  It was a great week, but of course it was great to be back at LCC today.  I had lots of stuff to blog about during the week, but I stayed disconnected to make sure it was a true vacation.  So here’s a few rambling thoughts from the week.

• I read Seth Godin’s book The Dip while on vacation.  It’s a great little book about knowing when to stick and when to quit.  It’s a business type of book, but it sure encouraged me in what I am doing at LCC.
• I wore athletic shorts to travel down and commented to Sherri how dangerous is would be to always wear clothes with elastic waistbands…my belts keep me from getting fat
• I rediscovered a love for paddleball on the beach.  Zac and I set a new record each day…ending up with 213 on Friday.  My dad and my uncle have a Markle family record of about 1,300…that’s 1,300 hits back and forth in a row without the ball hitting the ground…how insane is that?
• Playing in the waves with my family is one of my favorite things to do
• We consumed WAY TOO MUCH ice cream.  The Calabash Creamery makes about 20 different homemade flavors each day.  I refused to say no to this temptation.
• The Northern Virginia reality hit us yesterday.  Clear sailing on the roads until we hit Richmond.  YUK!  95 was not fun!
• My wife has back and neck issues, but I’m thankful she’s feeling a little better than last year when she could really get out in the ocean or play minigolf with us.  But she did whoop up on the family in putt-putt and in bowling!  She hasn’t bowled in a few years and scored a 142! 
• No bad sunburn.  I finally started listening to my wife a year ago.  I used mostly SPF 30.  I used to think my goal was to have a bronze chest by the time I got home…so I’d used SPF4 Oil.  Now I’ve matured to realizing…it’s just not worth it…and who am I trying to impress?  Ahh…it’s nice to avoid that pain.
• The weather was awesome!  The only tough weather moment was on Tuesday, when we had a flat tire and we had to change the tire out in that heat…we were just dripping with sweat…but it was a nice bonding time.
• Quote of the week came from my 6yo daughter.  She slid off her raft which I was holding while she was riding waves.  She quickly grabbed for me and I embraced her and we held tightly onto each other.  It was a nice father/daughter moment and I said you don’t have to worry, dad has you and I am big and strong.  She immediately said, No you’re not, you’re fat!  Of course, she didn’t mean it…she was just trying to get a good laugh…and she did…everybody enjoyed that (well almost everyone :-))

Please be quiet…my blog is sleeping…taking a much deserved rest. 

How is that for being cheesy?

Seriously, the family and I are heading out for the beach in the morning…so the blog is taking a hiatus.  Please come back and visit next week.

My wife and I are coffee snobs.  We admit it.  We grind our own beans.  Usually Starbucks.  We use real Half & Half.  It’s who we are…call us whatever you want!

But we ran out of beans a few days ago.  We keep a backup stash of Folgers in the cabinet.  Ugh!  We keep forgetting to pick up some beans.  So another morning of Folgers.  I didn’t even get my normal 2nd cup…it’s just a waste of time. 

I’ve been working all afternoon on administrative stuff:

• Advisory Team Meeting Agenda
• LCC Organization Chart update
• Master Worker list for all Children’s ministry
• Miscelleanous Business paperwork

I enjoy admin…so not a big deal.  But it’s encouraging actually to see not as many gaping holes for workers as I thought in my head.  Then when I listed all the people attending LCC who are prospective workers…I felt God saying to me…NO PROBLEM!

Here’s what I’m liking today:

• My ability to grill chicken…my wife complemented my increasing ability to grill the perfect chicken breast…but no cooking shows are in my near future
• Baseball - it’s my favorite sport…still
• My family - I’m so blessed
• Buying stuff online - Recent purchases include a new lawn mower blade, iTunes CD download, cargo mat for back of my truck, book on Amazon…so nice to see that package sitting on the porch rather than driving all over trying to find it.
• My church…LCC is the best!
• The fact our family vacation is only 3 days away
• The new Tim Hughes CD - “Holding Nothing Back”
• Vicadin prescribed by my dentist
• The book of Philippians

What I’m not liking:

• the price of a root canal
• losing an all-star district championship game to an extremely cocky team
• headache pain from an overly sensitive deep cavity which leads to difficulty in enjoying ice cream
• humidity
• bubble gum stuck in my tennis shoes
• summer TV - because of our all-star season I haven’t watch hardly anything in the last 30 days…wow - I haven’t missed much!  (America Doesn’t Have Talent!)
• restless nights of attempted sleep (brain won’t shut down!)
• summer is almost half-over
• the greenness of my grass compared to my neighbors

It was a well played championship game…we came up on the short end of a 4-2 game.  Our boys played well and made us proud.  We wish we were heading to the state tournament this weekend, but it wasn’t meant to be.  We had a great group of guys…a lot of great character on this team.   I don’t think anyone is smiling in this picture…