Friday, November 30, 2007

Manly Coffe Update

I just ordered and consumed something called a "cocochino". I loved it. I wish it was called something different. Something manly like "the rhino" or "swampmud".

aka The Living Christmas Tree

Last night we were blessed to be invited by some friends to go with them to see The Virginia Christmas Spectacular. Until recent years, this production was known as "The Living Christmas Tree" and its put forth by Thomas Road Baptist Church.

To sum it up: It was in Virginia. The theme was Christmas. And it was spectacular.

We took Jasilyn with us and she sat straight up with her mouth wide open and her eyes bright. Her favorite part was the dancing Raggedy Ann dolls. She fell asleep last night talking about all of the singing and dancing and pretty lights.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Manly Coffee

I think coffee is manly. Some ladies would disagree I'm sure, but I'm not talking about lattes and mochas. I'm talking about straight up coffee and strong espresso not daintied down with caramel and whipped cream.
I like Americanos. I can feel my beard grow as I drink Americanos.
Last night I strayed and I feel the need to confess. I ordered a decaf. To make things worse it was a decaf breakfast blend, which is a mild blend to begin with. To take it further down the praline path, the barista served my decaf breakfast blend in what appeared to be a teacup.
I could list all of the reasons that I ordered decaf but even as my mind processes those reasons I feel my beard shrinking.
My friend Joe ordered a caramel macchiato and I started to feel manlier in comparison until the barista brought Joe's concoction over in a gigantic hunter green mug that resembled a soup bowl.
My teacup. His soup bowl.
I felt like I was going hunting with a pink shotgun.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Thanksgiving

I had a great Thanksgiving and I hope that everyone else did as well. We traveled to my parents' home in Dillwyn and enjoyed a great meal together. There were only nine of us there, but we had a great time and enjoyed good fellowship as a family.

We ended the day back at my house, setting up the tree and watching The Santa Clause with Tim Allen. We've seen it six billion times but it is a great movie to watch while decorating the tree. As I watched my children I realized just how different they are. Jasilyn likes to turn every situation into the pivotal scene of a musical. She is the star of aformentioned musical of course. She hands out ornaments and floats around singing about each one. Noah is more low key. He picks an ornament out. Hangs it. Picks another ornament out. Hangs it. Jacob is at the age where he pulls the ornaments off faster than we can put them on, which fits well with Noah's hanging rhythm. They basically cancel out the work of the other.

Misty and I decorate the tree with different styles as well. I try to pick out my favorite ornaments and put them in places of honor. Example: Superman goes right in the center and the Norman Rockwell Santa goes right below him. Misty approaches the whole thing in a similar fashion to Jasilyn except the musical is more of a three act play and Misty is of course the star of each act. The boys and I are the audience. Jasilyn has her own musical on her own stage.

The night ended with the tree decorated and beautiful and Jasilyn asked each of us what we were thankful for. It was a great day.

Running On Empty

I spent the last few days wrapping up my preparation for a new series I will be leading at my church on Wednesday nights and I'm excited about it.

Here is the ad I posted in our church bulletin, The Leaflet:

CrossOver Young Adult Ministry Presents An Original Discussion Series:
"Running On Empty: A Look At America's Empty Generation"
Empty Bank Accounts. Empty Homes. Empty Minds. Empty Hearts.
Low On Time. Low On Energy. Low on Love. Low on Trust. Low on Hope.
Join Us As We Take A Candid Look At The Way Too Many Young Adults
Live Our Lives With No Room For Error, No Room For Creativity, No Room For God.
Our Main Resources Will Be: God's Word and "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper.
Join us in Room 106 at 7:00pm Beginning Wednesday, November 28th.


Please pray for us as we go through this series and please pray for me as I try to lead the group in a way that pleases Jesus.

Some concepts that will be recurring themes in this series will be dying to ourselves daily and picking up our cross daily and living on daily bread.

If you live in the Lynchburg area we'd love to have you join us.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Thanksgiving Memories: The Early Years

Some of my favorite Thanksgiving memories:

Eating at the kids' table. I didn't appreciate it then, but when you're eatin' at the kids' table, life is easy. No problems, no stress, no bills, no worries at the kids' table. [age: until I hit my teens]

Sitting at aforementioned kids' table and calculating the chances of getting any turkey after my dad, mom, Leslie, David, Sissy and Jonathan got their chunk of bird. It was at that moment that stuffing became my favorite Thanksgiving fare. My younger sister Becky was even further down the Queen food chain so she had to learn to love and appreciate pickled beets. [age: 8]

Waking up to the sounds of Thanksgiving. Pans rattling. My mom and sister talking. Christmas music coming from the record player (Bing). The phone ringing as relatives called. My brothers and dad loading guns for hunting. One sound was gloriously absent. I never heard my dad couging uncontrollably as he had for just about every morning I remembered up until that time. He had stopped smoking that year. He did it on his own without complaining and he never smoked again. I am convinced that I am still able to visit him tomorrow because of the decision he made that year. [age: 9]

Using construction paper to make Indian headbands and pilgrim hats at school. I can still remember the sweet feeling of staples digging into my scalp. [age: 10]

Coming home from school on Wednesday evening, knowing I was a free man for four glorious days of food, family and falling asleep watching football games. [age: 11-17]

Driving to Virginia Beach with my family to eat Thanksgiving at Uncle Buddy's house. Meeting family I'd heard about but rarely seen. [age: 18]

Lining up my Thanksgiving schedule in such a way that I can eat at least three turkey meals with family and friends. Ending the day watching movies at Dave's house. [age: 19-20]

Arriving home from college on Wednesday night. Eating Papa John's Pizza and watching Home Alone. Years later, when times were bad, I would pop in Home Alone and eat Papa John's and draw from memories of better times. [age: 21]

Drinking coffee on Tuesday night with Eric and playing Hearts at The Drowsy Poet before he left for Thanksgiving break. The place was desolate. [age:22]

Driving home with Jason A. on Wednesday morning. Hearing a popping and rattling and shattering sound under his hood. Rolling to a stop on the side of I-64. Inspecting the ground and discovering a piece of oil covered iron with Japanese writing on it. Walking with Jason to a gas station leaving his crippled and dying Nissan Pulsar behind us while we talked about the virtues of checking your oil. [age: 23]

Waste Not...

I'm currently reading John Piper's "Don't Waste Your Life". I was driven to my knees in prayerful repentance last night while reading this book and I'm only on page 21.

Friday, November 16, 2007

The Homecoming

Last night we continued our new Thursday night holiday movie tradition by watching "The Homecoming". What an excellent family movie. The television series "The Waltons" was launched from this movie and it is based on the life of Earl Hamner, who called the Central Virginia area home. As a side note, if you watch the television series you will hear numerous references to Lynchburg, Charlottesville, Farmville, Afton and lots of other local towns and cities.
If you're looking for good old fashioned drama with heart and soul, "The Homecoming" will not disappoint you. The writing is fantastic, the acting is very good and the spirit of the season permeates the movie like the smell of baking pies in a small home.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Thursday Night At The Movies

Last week, Misty and I began a new tradition. Starting with last Thursday night, we are going to sit down and watch a Christmas or Thanksgiving movie right up until the Thursday before Christmas. We started this trend by watching "Deck The Halls", which we chose because it was one of the few Christmas movies in the world that we had not seen before.
We were entertained by "Deck The Halls" but we were not blown away by it. Danny Devito is always funny and Matthew Broderick reminds me of growing up in the 80's, so those two facts alone made it worth the time we traded from our lives to view the movie. It was a great depiction of all that is bad about the Holiday Season and it dipped slightly into some of what is good about it. Family. Friends. Food.
No mention of Jesus of course... Does it strike anyone else as absurd that we would have a birthday party but never mention the person whose birth is being celebrated?
Tonight I think we are going to watch "The Homecoming". This is the 1970's classic that launched the series, "The Waltons".

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

No Whining From Jim Reid

The Liberty University football team beat VMI 73 to 34 last Saturday. My friend Eric was there and he left happy. Eric sent me an e-mail with the post-game comments from VMI head coach Jim Reid. Notice how he doesn't make a bunch of excuses or shift blame or whine. He takes the loss like a man and he keeps his chin up.

“It was a long afternoon. We could not move the ball with any consistency. We did move the ball in chunks of yardage and then all of a sudden we had a fumble, or an offside, or an interception. On defense, we just couldn’t seem to match their speed, especially to the outside. It was pretty much of a problem all day. In the second half we moved the ball on our first drive methodically down the field and then all of a sudden, we had that fumble, and it hurt us and we just seemed to lose a little bit of steam there. But we never did quit – we were playing right to the very end. We had a fumble return for a touchdown and that was exciting. It was almost like feast or famine on every snap. We either did something well on offense or we really got hammered. On defense, we either held them at the line of scrimmage or they moved for a huge gain. I felt bad for the players, and bad for us as a staff, and I feel bad for our alumni. But we just can’t get discouraged. We laid the plan out early and we are going to keep these guys red-shirted. I just got finished telling a reporter that in the first spring we had 26 scholarships in our program. This spring, if everyone stays and no one has left yet, we should have 45 in spring practice. Now we are at least beginning to look like a Division I-AA program numbers wise, and we just have to keep working, stay focused, and we can’t forget what happened to us today and we need it to motivate us to be better.”

No Perfect People Allowed

I'm currently reading "No Perfect People Allowed" by John Burke. John is a pastor in the great nation of Texas and his church is Gateway Community Church. This book is excellent because it has challenged me more than any book has in quite a while.

I try to read two to three ministry books a week and I've hit quite a few that are just too liberal and too wishy-washy for me. My fundamentalist upbringing triggers a gag reflex with some of this post-modern ministry stuff that I just can't overcome. I try and I try to keep an open mind and open heart but some of this stuff is ridiculous. The feminization of Jesus. The watering down of the sovereignty of God. The constant apologizing for what the church has done is doing and will do. I'd rather spend the evening snuggled up next to a sack of my son Jacob's dirty diapers than trudging through that kind of revamped, reheated, repackaged neo-liberalism.

I love the local church and I love exploring my role in the larger church body and I love exploring the church's role in the community. I've found some books that help me flesh out my thoughts on those subjects and I've found some that I wouldn't even use as a stabilizer under the short leg of my desk at work.

John Burke's book will find a prominent role on top of my desk and I plan on buying some extras to hand out to people.

Let me warn you. His "come as you are" philosophy might shock you. His way of handling sin in seekers and new believers might make you nervous. Good! If it makes you think and it makes you search the scriptures and ask the Holy Spirit for discernment and guidance then GREAT!!!! But stick with him and see what he has to say about the power of God to change people and redeem people.

In an attempt to avoid being labeled a fundamentalist evangelical right winger, I am tempted to bring some balance to this post by going into a rant about Bill Bright's "Witnessing Without Fear" but I won't because I live in Lynchburg VA, a city where that book is so revered that some of my friends won't even stack stuff on top of it....

Breakfast at Cracker Barrel

I had breakfast at Cracker Barrel this morning with my boss. The general store part of the restaurant was packed with Christmas stuff. Thinking back over the last five or six holiday seasons, I realized that just about each one has started with me walking through Cracker Barrel looking at the Christmas stuff and thinking, "the holidays are here..."

Monday, November 12, 2007

Fritos, Laughter And A Kick To The Head

My wife is awesome. I use the word "awesome" to describe a lot of stuff and a lot of people, but even if I didn't overuse the word, I would still use it to describe my wife. She is awesome.
I had to run home at noon today and Misty had lunch waiting for me. A ham and cheese sandwich and BBQ Fritos. What an awesome combination.
As I ate lunch my wife told me a story that made me laugh. Very few people can make me laugh but Misty consistently does so. My son Noah tried to outdo his mom by making me laugh more but unfortunately his vaudeville style act included a roundhouse spin kick that ended up knocking the sap out of his little brother Jacob. The laughter and the lunch ended as we consoled Jacob and disciplined Noah.
As I got back to work and sat down at my desk I couldn't help but think, "man, that was an awesome kick..."

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Questions

I'm tired of questions, so you won't have to deal with the Q and A style anymore. It was great during the 48 hours that it lasted....
This week has been a week of questions and I've grown weary of trying to answer questions that have no answer.
Example: One of my co-workers just lost her infant grand-daughter. She lived for four minutes. I like to be able to answer questions and there are no good answers for her grandmother. Or for her mother. Or for her dad who dug the grave himself....

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Who?

Follow Up Question: Who is Jason Queen?
A Quick Answer: I am a guy who lives in Lynchburg, VA with his wife and three small children.
A More Comprehensive Answer: I am a Christian. A husband. A father. A son. A brother. An employee. A pastor at my local church.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Why?

Obvious Question: Why am I starting a blog?
My Answer: Because bloggers are cool and I have had an unquenchable desire to be cool that probably finds its roots in the mid 70's when my parents allowed me to watch Happy Days. So if blogging can bring me coolness that even begins to mirror the coolness of the Fonz, than I will do it....
Another Less Revealing Answer: I need a creative outlet.