I got another book to review for the blog.  This time it’s Gary Chapman’s new one called “Love As a Way of Life.”

Gary Chapman is the guy who wrote the books on the five love languages.  My wife got all caught up in that for a while.  Honestly, I’m not sold on the love languages, and since this new book sort of builds on the love language books, I’m not so crazy about it.  It might be good for you to read; he’s certainly got some good points, but this just isn’t my thing.

Chapman goes through the seven secrets to love:

• Kindness
• Patience
• Forgiveness
• Courtesy
• Humility
• Generosity
• Honesty

Then he gives some practical application for using those secrets in marriage, parenting, and at work.  He had some good points, and some of it made me stop and think about things.  It’d actually make a pretty decent sermon series.

Overall, I guess it was an ok book.  It wasn’t theologically wrong or anything like that, but it didn’t do a whole lot for me.  I’ll pass it on to my wife and see what she thinks about it.

Terry Francona is the manager of the Boston Red Sox, and so I officially hate him.  I pull for the Yankees; he calls Fenway home.  Hating him is just a part of life.  Last night, however, I was extremely impressed with Terry Francona.

Managing for the American League team in Yankee Stadium for the All Star Game last night, Francona showed some real class.  When it was time for Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter to come out of the lineup, Francona pulled them out while they were on the field.  The significance here is that in doing this, Francona gave the Yankees fans in attendance the opportunity to cheer for the home team players as they left the field.  He could have easily replaced them between innings, but he didn’t.

Then when the time came to choose relievers, and Francona had to decide if the Yankees’ closer Mariano Rivera would pitch the 9th inning or if some obnoxious idiot would close it, Francona took the high road and gave the ball to Rivera.  (It went extra innings, and Rivera didn’t get the decision, but you can’t fault Francona for that.)

Francona deserves a nice round of applause next time he’s in Yankee Stadium.  Protocol dictates that he won’t get it, so that’ll never happen.  Still, he deserves it.

I’m feeling nostalgic today.  This weekend is the first Alumni Weekend for my high school, and I’m really looking forward to seeing some old friends.  They sent out an email reminder about the weekend last night, and I looked through the names in the list.  I remember most of them, and it’ll be fun catching up a little bit.

I got an email from a girl in my graduating class tonight.  She wanted to know who else in our class of 15 or so would be there.  Of course, I have no idea.  She and I were really close friends in high school, and I haven’t seen her in a few years.  She’s got kids now.  I’ve got kids now.  Man, this growing up stuff is scary.

I remember when I was a kid, we’d go meet somebody my dad knew when he was growing up, and I’d have to smile and act well behaved while Dad and the long lost friend caught up with each other.  This weekend, I’ll be putting my kids through that misery.

They’ll probably not care that Mr. Crosby and I had loogie spitting contests when I was in high school, or that Mr. Robinett was my basketball coach, that Casey and I were in class together from grades 1-12, or that Marty and I were inseparable 13 years ago. I’m ok with that.  My hope is that they see the value of good, solid friendships that are easily rekindled after years of silence. Those good friends we have are too hard to come by.

The trivial bits about these people I’ll see this weekend are just the surface of the relationship that exists below.  Mr. Crosby was the teacher that you could really relate to.  Mr. Robinett was always encouraging me and challenging me to do my best.  Casey is one of the oldest friends I have.  And Marty is that one guy that I could always talk to about anything.

We’ll all be together again this weekend, and it should be a lot of fun.  We’ll have fun laughing and talking and remembering our younger years.  And if there are any loogie spitting contests, I’m quite confident that I’ll be able to defend my championship with honor.

My brother-in-law sent me an iTunes credit for my birthday, and I was able to pick up some new music. One of the new additions to my iPod is Laura Story’s “Great God Who Saves” album.

I’ve known Laura’s music since around 2000 when she was with the band Silers Bald.  It was Silers Bald that originally toured with Andrew Peterson’s “Behold the Lamb of God” Christmas tour.  And if I’m remembering correctly, she wrote (or helped write) “Labor of Love” (which may be the most beautiful song ever written).

Laura wrote the song “Indescribable” that you’ve probably heard if you’ve been to church or listened to Christian radio at any point in the last couple of years. “Great God Who Saves” features these two songs, and some others that (in my opinion) are even better written (”Immortal, Invisible” and “Grace”).

I’m not really a fan of worship music. That’s an understatement. I’m on the verge of being able to say I hate worship music. I’ve found that so much of the worship music that has become popular is full of shallow (or worse - incorrect) theology and cheap, predictable rhymes. Laura’s lyrics on this album aren’t cheap or shallow. In fact, like the rest of her music that I’ve heard, it’s actually quite deep and very well-written.

If you like really good songs that make you think, you’ll probably appreciate the writing on this album. Even if you’re like me and have a borderline hatred for the worship genre, you should at least give it a listen. Some of these songs are really good.

And if you’re a big fan of the “worship” style of music, you’ll probably like the sound of “Great God Who Saves,” but you may be shocked to find depth and truth that you’re not used to finding on your CCM radio stations.

(You guys like that? Bashing CCM radio and recommending a Christian artist at the same time! Only at moreron.com) 

I figured I’d toss out an update on the cycling thing.  I’m going to give the “300 miles in 30 days” a legitimate try.  I started my 30 days on 6/29, so between now and 7/28 I’ve got a lot of riding to do.

Here’s the log so far:

• 6/29 - 30 miles (Silver Comet Trail)
• 7/1 - 22 miles (commute to and from work)
• 7/5 - 5 miles (Silver Comet Trail with daughter)
• 7/6 - 31 miles (Silver Comet Trail)

That’s a grand total of 88 miles so far.  I’m planning to add 22 miles tomorrow (work commute) and probably another 10 (off road) on Thursday.  I won’t get a good 30-mile trip in this weekend because we’ll be out of town, so I’ll fall a little behind schedule because of that.  Still, I think I can make it happen.  Anybody else want to join Richard and me in our 30-day quests?

Today was a great holiday.  We got up and went with some friends to Baldino’s in Marietta for lunch.  It seemed appropriate to have the #25 “American Army” which is one of the top 2 sandwiches I’ve ever eaten.  (The other is #24, the “Italian Battalion”)

Then we made a trip through Harry’s.  It was my first time through Harry’s, and I was pretty impressed.  It’s one of those supermarkets for hippies and tree huggers, but I did enjoy it.  And we got some really good fresh produce.

Then this afternoon I mowed about 80% of the lawn, grilled some chicken, played games with the kids and just enjoyed the evening off from our regular routine.  Now the kids are in bed, the fireworks outside are lighting up the sky, and this fine Independence Day is winding down.

On a day like this, when we’re free to do so many things (and free from so many things), it’s hard not to remember the brave folks who died to make days like this possible.  One of those fine men was our 19 year old friend Joshua Dingler, who made the ultimate sacrifice while defending freedom in 2005.  May we never forget the price paid for the freedom that we enjoy.

I’m very excited about this new site launch:

Check it out - NoiseTrade.com

I got some birthday cash last week that went to buy road tires for my bike.  I thought it would be a weird thing to put slick tires on a mountain bike, but apparently it’s not as rare as I thought it was.

So on Sunday, I was itching to try them out.  I went out to the Silver Comet Trail and logged 30 miles.  I did it intentionally in a higher gear to give my legs more of a workout, and what a difference it made.  I was sore Sunday night and most of Monday.

Last night I cleaned my bike and adjusted the brakes a little in preparation for a Tuesday commute to work.  This is a big reason I wanted the road tires, so I was excited to see that today was going to be a bit cooler with a very slight chance of rain.

On the road tires, I made the 11-mile trip in 45 minutes.  (That’s 15 minutes better than I did it with the mountain tires.)  We’ll see how the trip home goes…I seem to remember more uphill on the way back.

I got 30 miles on Sunday, and I’ll get 22 today.  Maybe I’ll copy Richard and go for 300 miles in 30 days.  I’m not sure I could do it, but it’d be fun seeing how close I could get.