Jeff Noble's Blog, page 35

Video: Virginia Tech welcome time-lapse

I snatched this from the Hokie Sports webcam site where they post a time-lapse video of the Virginia Tech campus taken from Lane Stadium every day. This is the beginning of the Valentine’s Day/President’s Day 2016 winter storm. By the way, this is 4/5 years in which we’ve gotten a significant snow on these two days!

Snow starts at about :34 seconds in – about 6:00 p.m.

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How do I feel?

Our church recently hosted a marriage retreat at Hotel Floyd. It was a lot of fun. Quick review: Hotel Floyd is a fantastic, unknown venue for conferences and a perfect getaway destination for southwest Virginians.

Now… how do I feel? Normally, I would say “good.” Or “fine.” I’ve got a range of responses. Negative emotions are usually “frustrated” or “tired.” I found myself chuckling as we watched the first session’s video that featured Andy Stanley, pastor of Northpoint Church. He began to elaborate on the range of male emotional awareness and our ability to communicate that with our spouses. He said a dude’s responses range from “frustrated” to “angry” and pointed out that most guys simply aren’t in touch with how they feel. So it’s hard for us to communicate with our spouses – who very often know how they feel and more often than a guy wants to know are actually good discerners of how their husband feels as well.

In the video, Andy helpfully (and humorously) offered suggested negative emotions for a guy to get in touch with. (If you’re in a good mood and experiencing positive emotions, your spouse will rarely ask you how you feel.) Here was the list I wrote down (and even added some of my own): anger, left out, embarrassed, unappreciated, ugly, unloveable, like a failure, jealous, old, stupid, lonely, abandoned, scared, out of control, betrayed, picked on, disrespected, insecure. I found this Darth Vader graphic on the net and changed it up a bit for my own use..

Andy’s points were

Think of what you’re feeling before you speak. Name it. Say it out loud. If you can’t identify what emotion you’re feeling, and it remains a secret (even to you), your emotion may rule you. Emotions are powerful. But if you name it, it begins to lose its power over your mood and perspective. If you say it out loud to your spouse, it loses its power AND you lose your excuse.
Tell your spouse. He said that you are simply expressing your feelings. It’s not a criticism of your spouse. It’s information. In a healthy relationship, the proper response from your spouse should be “I’m so glad you told me.” Then you can both listen to the other as you unpack what led you to feel what you do in a noncombative, healthy way.

Carolyn and I thoroughly enjoyed the retreat with the other couples. I felt good interested and open to change.

Here’s the video. I encourage you to watch it with your spouse. If you’d like to watch the other two sessions, you can find them here.

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Video: Northstar’s 2015 Highlight video

Each year at our State of the Church Sunday, we show a highlight video from the previous year’s ministry moments. I’ve not had to do one for a long time. Our former worship leader was proficient and very creative with video. While I enjoy video editing (probably too much), I was deeply thankful to have the opportunity to put this year’s video together. It gave me time to reflect, smile, and be amazed at all God did.

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Snow and the Jonas brothers

The winter of 2015-2016 has been abnormally warm. It’s been incredibly disappointing for this snow lover.

In fact, I may be a little snow-obsessed. I don’t know what it is, but if the weatherman says “snow,” I become giddier than a school girl who bumps into Taylor Swift at Payless Shoes.

You can’t imagine how enraptured I became when the possibility of snow this week transitioned into it being a named winter storm. Jonas.

However, with every segment that the Weather Channel aired, my giddiness transitioned to incredulity. Newscasters – I’m looking at you, Jim Cantore – began treating Jonas with more deference than Jesus. Jonas’ first coming was going to change the planet apparently.

Blacksburg Schools were canceled on Thursday – a beautiful, sunny day – I guess, to prepare for Jonas’ arrival?

The craze to grab bread and milk exceeded the run on Beanie Babies and Tickle Me Elmo dolls of years past.

Check out this time-lapse video one New Jersey store made of their bread aisle:

This CNN article Why milk, bread and toilet paper when it snows? suggests that for New Englanders, “”It was the monumental blizzard in 1978 that trapped many in homes for weeks that gets at least some credit for the current tradition.”

Then Mary Morris created this epic parody of Adele’s music video Hello calling it Snow:

Well, it started snowing, and we rejoiced at the Noble house. We expected 18-24″ by all conservative accounts. By the time it had stopped mid-day Saturday, we had a little over 12″. Not a bust, of course, but not necessarily the #snowpocalypse2016 we thought we were getting.

 

Another round of snow shoveling was required. While I shoveled, Carolyn went cross country skiing with our friend Jamie. They had rented skis from Back Country Ski & Sport on Thursday in preparation. After shoveling, I picked them up – they had not made it across the country, just barely across town. We grabbed more friends and went to watch the annual Virginia Tech Corps vs Students snowball fight:

For some other great videos of this amazing tradition:

Tech Corps Vs. Civilian Snowball Fight
Cadet vs. Civilian Snowball Fight

Here’s a few pics:

It began snowing again while we were out on the Virginia Tech Drillfield watching the snowball fight, and I began wondering if Jonas had brothers… Was this snowstorm done yet?

The only real downer is that we ended up canceling our church services for Sunday. We love our church family and are incredibly grateful for them. The upside is that it’s become a tradition – since we usually have to cancel a few services each year due to snow – to produce a video devotional. A few years ago, I preached it from my living room… in my slanket. So this year, the Slanket Sermon is back. I keep trying to talk Carolyn into buying me a brown one – so that I will look even more monk-ish.

One more video, you say? Ok, here’s the ride across Blacksburg during Jonas. And no, I didn’t film it. Props to Jamie.

How did you spend your snow day?

Related:

Video: Snow day again…
Picture: Snowpocalypse 2015
Snow Fall
Snowpocalypse Reports
A La Carte: Health Update, December Nights kickoff, Saving Change and The First Snow
Video: Monticello Weather Channel 

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(Untitled) [Flickr]

journeyguy posted a photo:

Star Wars a cappella tribute medley song

Thanks to Aaron for emailing me this. It was released a few years back, but it’s just too good not to highlight again.

Also, if you haven’t seen the video I posted here that Jimmy Fallon, The Roots and the Star Wars: The Force Awakens cast put together… well, watch it:

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Review: Christ at the Coffee Shop

You just never know about a book. My mom bought this book and sent it to me, mainly because of the title. She hadn’t read it. She idn’t know anything about it. It sat in our book bin beside the TV for over a year. When we went to Smith Mountain Lake recently over the Christmas holiday, I grabbed it on a whim, thinking I’d skim the first chapter.

After the first two paragraphs, I was hooked. Christ at the Coffee Shop is an incredibly delightful book full of short stories that illustrate how God’s presence shows up in the simplest of places, the most ordinary circumstances and the some of the most typical experiences of life. And yet… as author Nathan Ingram ingeniously points out in story after story, God’s presence enlightens our lives and changes our hearts, time and time again.

I laughed my way through some chapters and actually got teary-eyed at a few others. One chapter even became some of the content for a sermon I preached recently called Pleasers of God.

I joked in the sermon about how you just never know about self-published books (being an author who went that route myself). I don’t know Nathan, but I’m sure if he happens to read this entry, he’ll be pleasantly surprised that his 2005 publication is still encouraging people deeply.

It’s an easy read, a compelling read, and even a delightful read. It will be sure to encourage you. I read 2-3 chapters at a sitting, but if you committed to just read a chapter a day, you’ll be uplifted and encouraged. Make sure to pass your copy on to a friend when you’re done. It shouldn’t sit on a shelf. It belongs… in your hands… at a coffee shop.

 

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The first post of the year: blogging

So much pressure. This is my first post of 2016. It must be.. epic. I am imagining this post being shared across the inter webs, going viral within its first two hours. So what in the world do I write about that will produce such frenzied sharing? How can I write a post in which a grandmother in Wyoming posts it to her granddaughter’s Facebook page, saying, “You have to read this, honey. It cured my dyspepsia.” (To which the granddaughter would reply, “But I thought you liked Pepsi?”)

I’ve been blogging since 2005. I started over at Typepad (and my old blog is still there – crazy!). I switched to a self-hosted WordPress blog and imported my Typepad one and never looked back. 1,859 posts later, and here I am, composing the first blog post of 2016. No big deal, right? [See all 2015 blog stats here]

Sometimes a blog entry comes easy. Other times, the writing process is more of a discipline. There are days that I ask myself, “Why even blog at all?” The answer is somewhere in between the I’m-A-Writer-And-Writers-Write and I-Am-Avoiding-Something-And-Blogging-Is-A-Good-Excuse continuum.

I wrote an entry that became a series of posts back in 2007 called Why blog? One of the things I pointed out then was simply the joy of creating something. I love to write, and if my writing can evoke a response from someone that is helpful, encouraging, uplifting, humorous or the like, then I feel like it’s “successful.”

Over the past 11 years of blogging, it’s been awesome to see others start blogging. I try to follow everyone I know personally who blogs by using Feedly. I think everytime a blog is started an angel gets its wings. However, over the years, most of those who’ve started have also quit. That plopping sound you sometimes hear outside are angels falling when blogs die.

I’ve tried to be helpful as well, passing on the meager blogging tips I’ve gleaned. My post for beginning bloggers back in 2006 still has some good tips for those beginning today.

With the advent of Twitter in 2006 and the following social media explosion, digital content proliferated at an unbelievable rate. For many purist bloggers, social media sucked the life and creativity out of the internet. Suddenly, thoughtful blog posts were replaced by what Suzie was thinking about the socks of the girl next to her at Starbucks. And America became dumber for it.

Facebook commenting replaced blog commenting, and soon everyone had unfriended someone as a result of opinions they couldn’t stomach. We all learned that it’s just not worth getting into a comment war. Or did we?

Meanwhile, blogging experienced a revival, as another generation took up the digital opportunity of creative expression. It was a surreal day when my son began to blog (he was eight when I started). Blogging – when done well – can be a helpful influence. When done poorly or maliciously, it’s destructive. It can be a strategic influencer for people of faith (here’s an entry to help the Christian blogger). For some, it’s not quite so strategic. Their digital footprint is simply a way to share recipes, sports opinions or even UFO speculations.

I truly believe writing is a beautiful discipline. It’s therapeutic. My love for writing resulted in a self-published book in 2012 called Super Center Savior. I hope to begin another book this year, but it’s blogging that I still love.

If you blog, I’d love to hear about it! Leave your blog address in the comments. I promise I’ll at least visit once. And make sure to leave a link worthy of grandmothers in Wyoming.

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People watching and pleasing God

I’m sitting here people-watching at Starbucks this morning. I want these people to know Jesus and His unfathomable love. I wonder how many actually DO know Him – and just need a friendly nudge. Perhaps they just need instruction/discipleship.

Those thoughts make me excited about this small series I’m preaching at Northstar. So many people feel like they just can’t please God. They need a reminder that God is FOR you.”

“If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8.31)

I’d appreciate prayers as I develop the sermons. And for these people in line at Starbucks … and for the people in your line of sight right now. We all need to know it’s easier to please God than we think.

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The Top Ten Posts of 2015

I’ve actually written less blog entries this year than any other year. I attribute that to an insane schedule and heavy demands on my time at church this year. I promise I’ll do better in 2016.

I’d love to hear in the comments what your favorite post on the blog from 2015 was. It may not be represented here. To review the year, just click on the Archives link at left (or here). Leave your vote in the comments.

Here’s my top 10 posts of 2015:

10. When will football catch up with Kevin Kelley? (September 5)

He’s been featured in so many sports articles and newscasts now. He’s known as “The Coach Who Never Punts.” Kevin Kelley is the football coach of my alma mater, Pulaski Academy, in Little Rock, Arkansas. Ironically, they are the Bruins (same colors and mascot name as Blacksburg).

9. Merry Christmas from Starbucks… or not? (November 9)

I had no idea Christians could get so stupid. Well, I did, but I just hated to see the latest “outrage.” Starbucks released their new holiday cups recently, and they’re all… (wait for it) … red. Solid red. There’s not a snowflake or even a “Happy Holiday” on them. So apparently, people are blowing up the internet with how Starbucks hates Christians or something…

8. Congratulations, son (May 22)

I was 29. Carolyn was 26. We had been married for almost five years when March 18, 1997 landed us in Baptist Medical Center of Little Rock. This was the first time in our marriage that we were happy to be in the hospital. In fact, it was prior visits to and encounters with doctors and chemotherapy and radiation that had led us to believe we wouldn’t be in the hospital on that March for the reason we were. Carolyn was pregnant. Very pregnant…

7. Denied (January 17)

Denial. When it’s a river in Egypt, it conjures up placid boat roads and dusty history. When it’s in reference to an appeal for a PET scan to Anthem, it’s not cool. We got the word yesterday (Friday) that Anthem had officially denied our oncologist’s appeal of their initial denial of a PET scan for Carolyn…

6. The “Supreme” Court, indeed: thoughts on the same-sex marriage decision (June 26)

Image: Mark Fischer/Flickr

It was a text message from one of our young adults in our church that alerted me to the results of the ruling:

“Hey I know this is so random but I’m sitting here watching the news about the Supreme Court decision for same sex marriage and I’m struggling. I have no idea what to think or how to handle it… I’m sad because it’s just another example of the world turning from the Lord, but so many of my peers’ eyes are on my reaction as a Christian. How do I still love but not agree? I don’t know what to say