Service and a dough boy

Today, thousands of people ran 10 miles in Lynchburg. My wife and I did not. Our excuse? We had a service project to attend. (Notice I said that's the excuse. The reason is that I wouldn't run 10 miles even if you promised there were 100 free doughnuts at the end.)

But in all actuality, we did have some service to do. Our church organized numerous service projects throughout the state of Virginia as part of a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of our welfare program. Becky and I were asked to organize one project.

We organized a project to improve the appearance of Miller Park in Lynchburg and the Salvation Army homeless shelter and other facilities next to the park. This morning, we and about 25 other members of our church met to get the job done.

Some of the group stayed in Miller Park to pick up litter, and also gather large sticks and small tree branches that had fallen on the ground.

The rest of the group went to the Salvation Army facilities and tamed some severely overgrown gardens and flower beds. Two teenage girls went to the homeless shelter and made sandwiches that would then be served to the residents and other people in need.

The final result: The park and the homeless shelter and the Salvation Army's daycare facility look a lot nicer now. We all felt great to be working together for this good cause.

After Becky and I got home from the service project, we walked back to the Miller Park area to look at a house that is for sale. On the way there, we stopped at a yard sale and Becky found some great blouses and pants that she wanted. We asked the yardsalers to hold on to them for us so we could buy them on the way back.

When we returned to the yard sale, the owners were putting everything away. We paid $4 for the two blouses and three pairs of pants... And then the woman who was having the yard sale said, "Do you want this whole box of clothes? We'll give it to you for free, because we're just throwing them away."

They not only gave us the entire box of women's clothes, but they gave us an awesome book bag:

I knew I wanted the book bag the moment I saw the Pillsbury Dough Boy on it. But then we discovered the slippers, the hat, the pencil box (with a watch inside it) and a necktie. This was quite the find! I can't wait to start using the book bag for something --- I'm not sure how I'll use it, but I'll love it.

Facebook moved my cheese

I'm going to study Facebook's new features and see if there is a way to filter out any and every status update expressing fury about the latest Facebook changes. My news feed would be rather sparse.


Not that I like all the changes Facebook made. I liked the old layout that let you choose whether to view the most recent updates or the most popular updates. The new layout requires you to click "Update Status" just to access the box in which you can type your status, adding a step that should not be necessary. There are other improvements that can be made, and probably will be made in time.

But every time I read complaints about new Facebook layouts and features, I can't help but think about:

• people who don't have much food to eat or clean water to drink


• people who just live with the pain of migraine headaches and abscess teeth because they don't have access to medical care or even basic medicines


• people who have never had a refrigerator, or a microwave, or an air conditioner


• people who are suffering from incurable diseases.

Isn't it great that so many things are going well in our lives that we find it worthwhile to complain about new layouts on a website that isn't even essential to life?

Life is change. Sure, sometimes someone moves our cheese. Sometimes, Facebook moves our cheese. Those who shrug off the changes and go along with the day will accomplish more than those who constantly complain about Facebook.

And if Facebook's changes lived up to their potential and caused us, in droves, to spend less time with the social network, and more time with our families, with our neighbors, or in exercise, we all would end up happier people, too.

Nearer to Thee

Few hymns move my heart like "Nearer My God to Thee." I was about 18 the first time I heard it, and I was mesmerized by the beautiful melody and the sincere words. It seemed to express the prayer of my heart.

E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me

Still all my song shall be nearer my God to thee.

At that time, I was learning to play simplified songs on piano, plunking out tunes with my right hand and playing chords with my left. So I quickly learned how to play "Nearer My God to Thee," which quickly became one of my favorite songs to play on piano. (It's now one of my favorite hymns to play on guitar, too.) I have played it many times as my heart plead with Heavenly Father to help me feel nearer to him.

The hymn means more to me when considering the back story behind it. It is based on the experience of Jacob, later named Israel, who was traveling through the desert.

"And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep."

Though like the wonderer, the sun gone down,

darkness be over me, my rest a stone.

Yet in my dreams I'd be nearer my God to thee

"And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it."

There let the way appear, steps unto heav'n

All that thou sendest me in mercy giv'n

Angels to beckon me nearer my God to thee

"And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.

"And he called the name of that place Beth-el."

Then with my waking thought, bright with thy praise

out of my stony griefs, Beth-el I'll raise

So by my woes to be nearer my God to thee

The last verse of the song does not actually reference any part of Jacob's story, but it adds a beautiful, solemn thought of praise:

Or if on joyful wing, cleaving the sky,

sun, moon, and stars forgot, upward I fly

Still all my song shall be nearer my God to thee

Traveling through the desert with no shelter is (and was) a dangerous thing. In such a situation, it is a possibility that rather than wake to praise God, a person could find himself flying toward heaven, the victim of bandits, scorpions, or any number of dangers in the desert. But this drives home the point that the speaker of this song will long to be and seek to be nearer to God no matter what the situation—whether he is sleeping with stones for his pillows, whether he is seeing God and angels in a dream, or whether he dies.

Today I played this hymn on piano to accompany Tom Lloyd, a friend of mine who is leaving to serve a two-year mission for our church. In all, the rendition went really well. My choppy hands made a few mistakes on piano, and Tom choked up with emotion, but he belted the words powerfully and beautifully. Then, he spoke about the hymn and how it symbolizes a man going through trials.

"Every trial we go through brings us closer to the Lord," Tom said.

And I agree.

Still all my song shall be

Nearer my God to thee

Nearer my God to thee, Nearer to thee.