Are you obsessive compulsive?

 I've often wondered while sifting through the plethora of issues I have enamoring my life, if Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is one that I could add to the list? It really is a remarkable prognosis! Think about it, OCD causes some of the most peculiar behavior. I remember as a child sitting in my classroom during school being at my wits end because the teacher didn't erase all the chalk off of the blackboard. Somehow, that little forgotten chalk marking that rested in the lower right corner of the board seemed to unnerve me. It wasn't just unnerving, but it caused me to lose all ability to pay attention to what was going on at the head of the class. It was like that little chalk marking was screaming at me or something, saying "HELLO OUT THERE, LOOK AT ME ON THE BOARD!" AHHHHH!!! It drove me nuts. I figured after a while that maybe it was just a childhood problem that I had to deal with, but would eventually grow out of; not so much folks. To this very day, the entire board needs to be erased. In fact, I have a dry erase board in my office that I can thoroughly erase any time I like. 

 Which brings me to my question. Do I have OCD? Is that one small problem of mine even enough to constitute or justify a diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder? Unfortunately, I have more symptoms that just the chalk issue. I find my self straightening up anything thats in a stack. I don't mind for anything to be in a pile, it just has to be in a straight pile. For example, if a stack of papers in stacked at the corner of a desk or at a 90 degree angle, the stack MUST line up with that 90 degree angle. Is that OCD?

Well, just in case its not, let me tell you what is. I had a friend who worked in a psychiatric facility and he knew this man who seemed absolutely normal until you got him in a room with tiles. He had to count every single tile before he could go anywhere else. If you tried to move him, he went crazy. Well, I guess if he was already crazy he couldn't really go crazy. Allow me to rephrase. His craziness surfaced. I've also heard of a man who couldn't use the bathroom directly into the toilet. Rather, he had to go tinkle-town into a cup or jar and then pure it out into toilet. Is that OCD? I've heard of people who had a certain amount of times they had to lock the door before they could leave it alone. Is that OCD? Now, here's where you come in. Please write and submit to me any symptoms you might have that could possibly be characteristic of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I would be interested in hearing them.  Do you have OCD?

D-Now 08 Video

I figured this would be good for those of you who weren't able to come or may not know what went on during Disciple Now. Enjoy!

Alan

Backpacking Adventure

Ahhhh, there's nothing better than sitting around an open flame in the middle of the mountains with some of your best friends in the world. The temperature was a cool 55-60 degrees and the only sounds you hear are cracklings of the fire and the hypnotic flow of a trout stream just 30 yards away. This was the ambience that benchmarked the opening night of this past weekends backpacking trip with me and five of my good buddies. We hiked into the mountains at around 833 ft above sea level at "little bottoms" trail only to climb to the ridge in about 2 miles up to 1051 ft above sea level. That pretty much means that we hiked straight up for a while. I'm not complaining, because what kind of a trip would it be if it wasn't at least a little tough? However, comparatively speaking, this trip was nothing compared to some trails i've hiked in the past.  We hiked on through to camp site 17. This was our home away from home for the weekend. I will admit that backpacking through the Smoky Mountains is a bit of an adrenaline rush for me due to the large black bear population. Did you know that there are 2 black bear for every square mile in the Smokys? Yeah, that is a lot of bear. So, I have to be honest and admit that the thought of a bear encounter is constantly on my mind while hiking. In addition to the unnerving potential of being mauled by a bear, I have had a bear encounter before. It was minimal, but still a little shaking. To top it all off, the camp site we were staying at was under watch and was just opened back up because they had had high bear activity. Anyway, we arrived at camp 17 and spent a wonderful night talking, laughing and listening to Jacob Harris rant on and on about his new motorcycle that awaited him in Chattanooga, TN. Truthfully, we couldn't of asked for a better night. Well, then morning came and so did the rain. We left our camp site to do a little day hiking. For those of you who are backpacking illiterate, allow me to explain the terminology.  There is a drastic difference in day hiking and hiking through. Day hiking pretty much means that we have set up a base camp (stationary camp) and have left it and walked freely (without packs) through the woods to check out the sites. Through hiking means that you get up in the morning and pack everything up and hike all day to another camp site.

 Before we set out on our journey to Abrams Falls, we assembled together for prayer. We spent time asking God to protect us from bear and keep away the rain. Well, we were 1 for 2. No one got eaten by a bear, but the rain began to fall shortly after our prayer. The bible says that the prayers of a righteous man avails much. I guess none of us were righteous enough to keep away the bears and the rain, but keeping the bears away is just fine with me. Thank you Lord. Anyway, we hiked through the rain to Abrams Falls (thats the image you see on this blog), took some pictures and then began our hike back to base camp. The rain continued and what would usually turn into a pretty miserable time ended up being a wonderful experience. We had hot enough coals from the previous night so starting a fire in the middle of rain was no problem at all. We literally threw sticks on there and there was fire. We sat, talked, laughed and enjoyed each others company as the scattered showers past through the mountains. Thankfully, it never rained that hard so we all stayed dry the entire time. Eventually night time came and it was time to turn in. We slept well and got up at the crack of dawn, packed up our stuff and hit the trail. We hiked out and headed to crackle barrel which is food I believe they will serve in heaven. All in all, it was a great trip. I just felt selfish to have so much fun and not tell you about it. Anyway, take are and God bless.

Frogs

I've decided to let you all in on a little secret. I HATE FROGS!!! I realize in admitting this that I might being setting myself up for some undesirable prank or unfortunate mishap. However, I feel that its time to let the cat out of the bag. You should know that I thoroughly hate frogs. There is nothing remotely cute or appealing about these wretched creatures. Sure, you can go buy some stuffed green thing off of the shelf at the zoo that does in fact look cute, but lets be realistic; you know very well that that stuffed frog is no resemblance to the real deal. I must warn you, if you have a sincerely deep love and devotion to these waste of space amphibians, I strongly encourage you to stop reading now. Although I still hate frogs with more passion than a man with irritated irritable bowl syndrome looking for a commode, I am not near as ruthless towards them as I used to be. I used to stick m-80's (thats dynamite for children) in the mouths of frogs and watch them sky rocket into a million pieces just for kicks and giggles. I used to take a water hose and put the end of it in the frogs mouth just to watch it inflate like a balloon. One time, I put gasoline in a a large cup and was going to throw the frog in it and then light it on fire. However, good reasoning told me that the cup was to large; there was to much gasoline in it. So, I poured out half the gasoline into a smaller cup. Both cups were now sitting beside each other and both cups were half full. I threw the frog in one cup and dropped a lit match into it only to see the frog leap out of the cup with a flame attached its rear. The frog not only leaped out, but while on fire leaped into the other cup of gasoline which caused a small explosion. The frog leaped out of that cup and as it made it's get-away, the cup fell over onto a bunch of pine straw. Well, then there was fire. We managed to put the fire out after a while only to find a very charred, but living, frog. You would think that the frog would've earned the right to live. Come on folks, I hate frogs, why would I let him live to get his revenge on the one who burned him up? Well, we put the frog out of his misery with America's favorite past time; frog baseball.  

I know all of this seems really disturbing. I agree. I was not always this way. I think the turning point was when I used to play with frogs in the ditch at my grandmothers house. One day I picked up a frog and squeezed it a little to hard. The guts came out all over me and I have never been the same. I need you to know that I know that frogs are God's creatures. I haven't killed any frogs since I was a little boy, but I still hate them with the passion. If anyone knows anyone who can take me frog gigin, just let me know.

D-Now weekend

Hello everyone! Thanks for being patient with me since I stepped away from the blogging scene for a little while. Life has been a little crazy in church land these past couple of weeks. I'm afraid between Disciple-Now and reconstructing the youth youth this week, I exhausted my creativity which would have made for a boring blog. However, I'm back now with new ideas and energy for the task. Lets make a deal. I will do my best to have a couple of fresh blogs for you each week if you all will try and turn others on to this blog page. How does that sound? 

Let me make a few comments about Disciple-Now for those of you who could not make this past weekend. Maybe you're an adult reading this and you are interested in knowing what it was all about. Well, we met here at the CAC for registration on Friday afternoon and had somewhere around 60 or more students lined up and ready for the weekend. We fed them tons of hamburgers and fries and barely got all the mouths fed despite the fact that we spent a ridiculous amount on food for the weekend. After supper we went had worship with Jacob Harris (the speaker) and Kyle Kite (and band) leading in song. It was an amazing night to start the weekend. Students were up on there feet lifting their voices and hearts to God. Later that night they went to their host homes and had small group sessions. This is probably the most crucial part of Disciple Now because students are more likely to open up in smaller groups. The next morning we had breakfast and then it was out to minister through some good ole physical labor. This is primarily our attempt at wearing them out so they are more manageable. The students broke up into teams and went out and served by raking yards and cleaning our the Greer's shed. later, we had large inflatable events in and our of the CAC where the students had free reign for about 3 hours. IT WAS FUN!!! Once this was done we sent them back to get cleaned up for our third and final worship service. 

The students all filed in with expectant looks on their faces as they awaited the worship service to begin. The band played and exalted our King followed by a sermon that would make a wall repent of sin. Jacob Harris did a phenomenal job of giving accurate treatment to the word of God. He spoke from Matthew 7 and God honored it. The Lord showed up during the invitation. Well, He was already there, but made His presence known during the invitation. Now, I'm not a fan of emotional manipulation, in fact I hate it. However, there was nothing manipulative about this. They simply responded to God's word. Students were on their knees before a holy God. Many repented and others made decisions. It was a wonderful night and a great conclusion to our weekend. After that, they all went to the host homes for one last session and that Sunday morning we concluded.  Its funny, you spend so much time making something happen and when its over you wonder when it even began. Well, praise the Lord for a successful Disciple-Now. Hopefully word will spread and we will have even more next year. 

Alan