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If I had been liveblogging our weekend at the cabin this is what it would have looked like…

Friday Night

7:00pm - It’s just under a 3-hour drive from our home in Intercourse to Port Matilda, PA. The cabin we are going to is about 10 minutes from Happy Valley, the home of Penn State. This drive sucks for 5 reasons: 1-it’s raining, 2-it’s at night, 3-I don’t know where I’m going, 4-I’m trying to follow someone, and 5-The roads are curvier than the shoppers at Lane Bryant.

9:30pm - We arrive safely at the cabin and we’re all hanging out: Me & Erica, Than & Kandace, and Jon & Erin. The kids are tucked in bed. We’re trying to watch the presidential debate, but every time we get into it, we start having conversations that are infinitely more interesting than the debate itself. I feel like Obama is being too nice and McCain is winning. I am surprised to find out later that more people thought Obama “won” the debate.

Saturday

8:30am - I’m a big fan of drinking coffee outside on a crisp fall morning.

1:30pm - We decide to take a hike around the land that the cabin is on. We take advantage of a few photo ops along the way.

The Allains

The Deckers (Jon, Erin, Addison)

The DaCostas (Than, Kandace, Brady)

6:00pm - Jeff & Meredith arrive at the cabin. We set up a mannequin head and some pages ripped out of a Glamour Magazine as targets and shoot guns at them. It’s only the second time I’ve shot a gun, but I enjoyed it. (if you were wondering, I think it was a .22 9mm). I was careful not to be around any murder scenes for the rest of the day as I knew I had gunshot residue on my hands. (Thanks CSI!)

Than shooting the 9mm

10:00pm - We enjoy some crappy cigars and decide that the bullet holes we put in the mannequin’s head were not quite enough punishment. Unnamed assailant #1 lit the mannequin’s hair on fire. Unnamed assailant #2 sprayed various aerosol sprays onto said hair in hopes of encouraging the flames. Ever the journalist, I said nothing and took pictures. When our campfire is discovered by the concerned wives of the assailants, it is quickly extinguished. Despite some residual anger, the marriages can be saved. The mannequin head, however, is a lost cause.

Fiery Mannequin Heads are Fun

11:30pm - It’s guys versus girls in a rousing game of Catchphrase. In a moment of equal parts triumph and embarrassment, I correctly guess “Hermionne Granger” from clues like ‘Herman, and rhymes with danger’. Random Harry Potter trivia…that’s how I roll. The guys win 3 games to 2, but you probably already figured that because we are some brilliant men.

12:30am - Jeff wants us to go look for bears in the woods. Than has other, equally unappealing ideas. Jon is tired. So am I. We decide to crash.

Sunday

5:00am - I get up to pee. It is pouring outside. We are supposed to golf today. It is my birthday. Boo. Back to bed.

7:44am - I officially turn 32 years old at this very minute. I am asleep however, and celebrate the moment by having a dream that I am preaching at church, only I don’t have any notes and the service is getting chaotic. Dumbest. Dream. Ever.

8:30am - Erin makes me a ham and cheese omelet. This is better than any birthday cake, hands down. I get birthday wishes from my kids and a wonderfully sweet card from my wife. She’s the best.

12:30pm - The rain finally lets up. Parker goes to the pond with Jeff and Meredith and catches a fish. We play some Rummikub. Jon challenges Parker to a Wii boxing match and gets destroyed. Jon makes good on his pre-fight promise and bows to Parker, much to Parker’s delight.

Parker revels in his boxing win

2:30pm - The weather is so nice now, we decide to go golfing. It is my birthday after all. We stop at a mini-mart to buy gatorade. I have the following conversation with the 50-year old cashier:

Me: It’s my birthday.

Cashier: Oh! Happy Birthday!

Me: Thanks! I’m telling everyone.

Cashier: *stares blankly at me, wondering why a 32-year old is acting like an 8-year old*

5:00pm - We finish up 9 holes at the beautiful FreeStone Golf Course. I played lousy, but I did chip in for birdie on #4, so that rocked.

8:30pm - We pull into our driveway, exhausted and ready for bed. Always nice to get away for a couple days with friends. Thanks to Jon/Erin for having us and thanks to the Mannequin Head for being so willing to cooperate.

Tags: Cabin, Golf, State College

I love sports and I love stats. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that I also love playing fantasy sports. (I did, after all, write The Christian’s Guide To Fantasy Sports) I’ve been playing fantasy baseball, basketball, and football for years now. I’ve won a league or two since I started playing, but it was never a league I truly cared about (which is a nice way of saying there was no money on it).

But that all changed yesterday as I wrapped up the championship in our Rotisserie Baseball League, holding off Geof’s Alabama Slammers to secure the title for my “Prayers For Blowouts” team.

I tracked my team’s performance throughout the season, and looking back on it now, I can’t believe I finished in first. On June 3rd, 3 months into the season, I had 35 fantasy points and was in DEAD LAST place. But I stuck with my guys, made a few key pickups, and 2 months later I found myself in 2nd place. A couple weeks ago I moved up to first, and that’s where I ended up.

I know no one really cares about this. But if you can’t rejoice in your fake team winning a championship on your blog, where can you rejoice?

Tags: Fantasy Sports

I’ve mentioned Chip Macgregor’s blog on the site before. He’s a sought-after agent in the publishing world. Recently someone asked him: “What did you think about the quality of writing in The Shack? It’s become a phenomenon, selling more than a million copies, but I heard the author had to self-publish because it was ‘too Christian for the general market publishers, and too edgy for the Christian publishers.’ True?”

His response…

I don’t know why everyone rejected The Shack, but I can tell you that I’ve talked with a few editors who will openly admit they turned it down because they felt the writing wasn’t up to par. There’s been a rumor floating that CBA houses were scared off by the story (or the notion of God being in the form of an African-American woman), but I’ve yet to talk to the publisher who agrees with that scenario. The fact is, the author showed it around, couldn’t find a taker, so he self-published some copies. It started to grow via word of mouth, he printed some more, advertised on “The Ooze,” and eventually it took off. Recently the authors sold the package to Hachette.

We live in a world of spiritually hungry people, and The Shack speaks to that need. So while I found the story interesting, I thought much of the writing was weak. In fact, I might very well have rejected it had it come across my desk (and since I had a computer die, I admit that I don’t have a record of having done so, though I’ve talked with plenty of agents who claim to have rejected it). Of course, I take no pleasure in saying that. I’d have loved to have represented a million-seller. It proves, once again, that this is an art as much as a science. I’m not sure I agree with those in the industry who seem to think this proves that people have bad taste — the fact is, there are numerous writers who have done well with novels the literati look down on (J.K. Rowling and Jerry B Jenkins are two recent examples). Perhaps we sometimes want to impose rules onto novels unnecessarily. My guess is that the author of The Shack, Paul Young, hears the criticism of academics, then cries all the way to the bank.

I agree with Chip that the writing was a bit weak. I thought the same thing as I read through the book earlier this year. Interesting to hear that it might have been more of a factor as to why it was not originally published than the “too Christian for ABA, to edgy for CBA” reason.

That said, I still enjoyed the book a lot. It challenged a lot of the notions that I have of God, mostly in good ways. Is there some sketchy theology in there? Yeah, I think there is. (for a comprehensive breakdown of the theology of the book, check out Tim Challies review). But on the whole, I was glad I read it.

Have you read it? If so, join the conversation and share your thoughts on the book…

Tags: Chip MacGregor, The Shack, Tim Challies

My friends Jordan Green and John Pattison have interviewed Donald Miller for the Burnside Writers Collective Blog. They did a good job with the interview, and I thought Don did a good job with his answers. Whether you agree or disagree with Don’s decision to vote for (and campaign for) Barack, I think it’s worth a read. Here’s a highlight:

Barack is the only candidate willing to talk about his faith in Jesus. Other candidates are reluctant, but Obama is not. He is the only one who has consistently talked about the cross, about redemption, and about repentance. Many white evangelicals have a misconception about Barack…they believe that because he is a Democrat, he cannot be a Christian. But times have changed, culture has changed, and political parties change. So one of the reasons I support Barack is because he is my Christian brother, and other Christians are rejecting him.

Tags: Barack Obama, Donald Miller, Vote