New Arrival

This is me holding Braydon Alan Shanor, the newest (and most adorable) arrival to the extended family. He is the first child of my cousin Leah and her husband Shawn. As you can see, Braydon was busy taking a snooze in this picture. In addition to sleeping (and being amazingly cute), he is good at eating, crying, and making messes in his diaper (which both mother and father enjoy cleaning up after). I was kind of disappointed that his parents didn't give him the name Baby Soulscape. Since that didn't work, though, I guess I'll have to resort to convincing him to become a Pitt Panther fan when he grows up. LOL.

OK. Now I want one!!!

The God of the Here and Now

During this Easter season, I figured I would turn to The Message for help with this entry (even though I am not totally crazy over that translation). But the passage below speaks of new life in Christ. And that is delivered to all who are willing to accept it--through the blood of God's only son, Jesus. With so many people out there searching to find themselves (and looking for freedom in some way or another), this passage really struck a chord with me. I hope it speaks to your heart as well.

So, since we're out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we're free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it's your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you've let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you've started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom. I'm using this freedom language because it's easy to picture. You can readily recall, can't you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing--not caring about others, not caring about God--the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God's freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness? As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn't have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you're proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end. But now that you've found you don't have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God's gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.

Romans 6:15-23

Recent Happenings

Well, I made it down to the Shadow Lounge on March 14th to see Bill Mallonee. The place was located right in the ghetto of East Liberty. My friend Matthew Myer and I couldn't find it at first because curtains covered the windows and there was very little signage around. We ended up walking a few blocks to find it (and in the process of doing that I am positive I kept hearing footsteps of someone running towards me--lol) and got there early enough to catch the opener. Mallonee had some unique stories to tell. I'll have to e-mail him and ask him to finish the one about jamming for the Christian singles club that was busy playing Parcheesi. LOL. He does sing and write a bunch of love songs (i.e. - "Love Cocoon", the Songs of Solomon-inspired tune about his wife that got his album Slow Dark Train pulled from some Christian bookstore shelves). I am guessing Mallonee puts on different types of shows for the different audiences he plays for, though. There were alot of college students in attendance when I went. Regardless, I am not a fan of swear words. I guess that is a topic of debate today anyways. Is it ok as artistic expression? More of Bill Mallonee's Christian venues include: On April 1st, he plays at the Calvin College Festival of Faith and Art. He also opens for Ester Drang and Over the Rhine at the Cornerstone Music Festival on Saturday, July 2nd.
Well, that is the story on my Mallonee experience. I have to look into Marc Byrd's (author of the song "God of Wonders") new group Hammock.

P.S. - Oh yeah, I almost forgot: I am now officially a CPA. The paperwork finally went through!

About One Month From Freedom...

Well, it's lunch time here at the office and I figured I would just check in with how things are going. I was working on a couple of individual returns today--nothing too bad (an easy way to wind down the week).
What's on tap for next week? Next Monday I plan on dropping in at the Shadow Lounge in Pittsburgh. Never been there before. Never actually heard of it until now. Bill Mallonee--former Vigilantes of Love frontman turned soloist--is making his rounds up north for a show. I haven't seen him live yet, but I am betting his thought-provoking, introspective music will make for a relaxing evening (well, at least that is the plan!). Hopefully I can catch up with my college friend Matthew Myer in Pittsburgh, too. Tuesday is the corporate deadline so we will be filing extensions. Tuesday evening is a board meeting (which is always fun--lol). Wednesday is church. So, it looks as though my evenings are full for the beginning of next week. MPB is giving us Saturday, March 19th off so that they can get one last push out of us up through April 15th.
On a completely different note, I see that our church got an electronic drum set on Wednesday. Maybe Soulscape will be rocking it out this summer. Stay tuned for more info on that. LOL.
Oh, and how could I forget that this Sunday is Selection Sunday? Time for the Panthers to bust some brackets! We are Team Pittsburgh!