Thanks to Cody Cain for the link to the photo above… and he’s right… it was time that I updated my blog. Right now I am stealing some bandwidth from Honey Grove ISD as I sit in the high skool parking lot with a Texas-thunderstorm raging around this rental car.

Here’s a quick run-down on our last couple of days since my last blog…

.: Manda, Rylz, and I hopped on a plane last Tuesday, headed for OKC. We got stuck in Las Vegas for somewhere around 5 hours due to some insane winds around the airport. So we missed our flight to OKC with the delays and the backup. Unfortunately, our luggage did not unload with us in Las Vegas… and was sent on to our original destination. Southwest Airlines was extremely accomodating as they worked hard to get us as close to The City as possible… KANSAS CITY. We could have stayed overnight in Kansas City, or we could rent a car and drive the rest of the way (about a 6 hour drive). Amanda and I chose option two… and hit the road to grab our luggage at Will Rogers Airport in OKC. We arrived safely (and exhausted) at around 6 am on Thursday morning.

.: The Nickles Wedding (stop number one on the “Weaver Best Man Tour”) was beautiful. The rehearsal, bachelor hang-out, wedding, and reception all went very well. I still feel very honored to be A-Nick’s Best Man… and to be allowed to be A-Nick’s Best Man by Serena (hahaha).

.: We attended Boyd Baptist Church on Sunday morning. It was great to see my former students, former fellow church members, former staff members, and to meet BBSM’s new Student Pastor/Children’s Pastor. It is a great relief to know that the students that I spent so much time shepherding from 2003-2006 are now firmly in the care of a very confident, capable, and caring man. I am thankful that the Lord answered the prayers that Amanda and I have been praying since last November (when we KNEW that we were being CALLED to the Eastern Shore) for Boyd Baptist Church and Boyd Baptist Student Ministry. (side-note: it’s pretty crazy that we were at Saddleback in Cali two Sundays ago, at Boyd in Tejas last Sunday, and that next Sunday we’ll be back home in Maryland with our gracious and patient Allen Memorial family… TALK ABOUT CHURCH HOPPING!!!)

.: The Whitehead Wedding (stop number two on the “Weaver Best Man Tour”… except for the fact that I was not the best man… I was the preacher-man) was also beautiful. This wedding has been generations in the making. The Lord has been at work in this for many, many years. Windy and Johnny’s marriage is a living testimony to the Lord’s movement in the lives of teenagers (and parents… and Student Pastors) who pray fervently. I’m still not quite sure that the gravity of this culmination of events that the Lord has orchestrated has become a finite reality in my mind. I am still honored to have been allowed to play the minor supporting role that was given me.

.: I traveled to the Ballpark in Arlington on Monday with Dad (Pops to Rylz) and Derick (Uncle T to Rylz) for our annual fantasy football draft. It was awesome to spend that time chilling, laughing, eating, drafting, and conversating with my closest friends. This fantasy football league is a mosaic collection of men who know me well enough to ruthlessly hold me accountable… and relentlessly dissect my motives. Spending time in a room with them… for whatever excuse… is always especially meaningful.

.: We have been spending as much of our in-between-time with family… and have been loving every moment of that. It has been so great to spend such quality time with both of our families… and to see Ryland remembering, re-adapting, and re-learning these precious relationships that are so important.

.: There are four days until our next flight is scheduled to bring us back to Baltimore. NEXT STOP… OKC for the Hendrix Wedding….

PRESS ON!!!

-Weav

Many years ago, I became fascinated with tattoos… and vowed to find a reason for some ink on my body. Somewhere along the way… “the reason” materialized and has steadily remained in my heart. I have been patiently awaiting the right timing… and the provision of a tattoo artist that I could trust.

When we arrived on the Left Coast… Stephen La Garde (one of Amanda’s cousins) and I were talking about life… and his tattoos. By the end of our conversation, Stephen had placed several calls and scheduled me an appointment with a tattoo artist at Resurrection Tattoo in Pasadena. Amanda was then forced to kick her artistic abilities into anxiety-mode as she captured the design that encompassed “the reason”.

This afternoon Amanda and I journeyed 50 miles to Pasadena, California for the first of my tattoos. This specific tattoo represents my relationship, vision, and hope for my son. There are several images that are worked into the design of this “crest”. Here is a picto-journal of my tattoo… with some captions…

.: The stencil was placed and the first line was inked…

.: With the outline etched, the shading commenced…

.: The finished product… 

.: Resurrection Tattoo artist, Drew Drumm…

.: Ryland inspects “his” tattoo…

PRESS ON!!!

-Weav

I am currently sitting at a privately-owned JAVA CO. in La Mirada, SoCal that provides free wifi access with the purchase of an item from their extensive menu of artery-clogging-tasty-treats. Twice I have strategically positioned myself in the JAVA CO. parking lot… and shamelessly stolen their bandwidth for my email-checking, bulletin-creating, RSS-feed-perusing, and fantasy-football-reading. But tonite I decided to sit down in thier comfortable chairs, soak up some of their Mozart, and drink their “Boba Milk Tea” (I’ll save that for another blog… after I get Amanda to try this stuff…) while I steal their internet. Needless to say (or maybe not-so-needless… ahh who cares… it’s late…) soooo… needless or not-so-needless to say (dang… I think I’m going to remove that phrase from my communicative-artillery)… if you are ever in La Mirada… I highly recommend the JAVA CO.

On to the updating…

We arrived safely on Wednesday. It was a relatively uneventful trip… excluding the painfully-5-hour flight from BWI that pushed Chico to his limits of “stillness”, “quietness”, and “non-warrior-screaming-ness”. We landed in Phoenix and then again in Ontario (CA), and then Nancy (Nanna to our Chico) picked us up from the airport.

Grandma Dee’s house has been our residence this week. It is almighty strange to not see her in her house… cooking, hugging, cleaning, smiling, chatting, smoking. There have been several moments that I have imagined seeing her or hearing her… even yesterday at the reception following her funeral.

The family seems to be doing well. They are communicating very openly… and speaking very candidly with one another. That has been my prayer since we heard about Dee’s passing. Times like these can put strain on any family… and any siblings who lose their mother. Amanda and Michael are doing well.

There are many other stories to share… but I need some sleep. Expect more blogging over the next couple of days… as I have now earned the right to steal bandwidth from the JAVA CO. A few of the WeaverBlogs in your future will include: The Weaver-trip to Hollywood… The Weaver-return-trip to Saddleback… The Weaver-trip to the Left Coast beach… and The journey to OK/TX for three weddings…

Until then…

PRESS ON!!!

-Weav

My Grandma, Emma Delilah Roff, died last night (5/11/07). I am of course grieved by her absence here on earth, but I have the extreme joy and comfort of knowing that my Grandma knew Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Savior. She is with Abba now.

Grandma was a woman who fought hard. She was full of conviction. She was not a woman who hid behind masks. She spoke the truth frankly. She was known to let a curse word slip, and she smoked like a freight train. She was a sinner to the core. But my Grandma loved her Jesus. She struggled with the life she was given, but she loved Him none the less.

Grandma was the single mother of four children, of whom my mother, Nancy is the oldest. She was Grandma to 16 of us, and great-grandmother to 10. She was the owner and CEO of Roff Enterprises, a general contracting construction company.

I have tons of wonderful childhood memories of Grandma… and Grandma’s house. Here are a few:

She always spoiled us with fun shopping trips. 

She would let us swim in her pool at night, and when we were done she would greet us at the back door with a warm towel straight out of the dryer.

I remember her dressing up as Santa Clause and coming to our house… I was so afriad of “Santa” that I wouldn’t go near him. So “Santa” left our house. My Mom told me that it was my Grandma just as she was about to drive away. I ran out of the house and caught her… we ended up having a really fun day.

When Michael (my brother) and I would spend the night at her house she would always wake me up by playing with my hair, and then she would sit on the side of the bed and tell me that she loved me and we’d chat about something for a while. Then she would let me wear her robe to breakfast.

She made me dress up clothes with “twirly” skirts.

She would let me go through her jewelry box and pick out jewelry to wear to church. She almost always let me keep it.

She made the best fried chicken ever!

She grew the most beautiful fragrant roses. She would always let me cut one to take to my Mom.

She would let me clean the office and pay me a ridiculous amount for it. Even if I didn’t really clean it.

There are so many more memories… but I need to rest

Please pray for my Mom, Nancy. She is the oldest child and is the executor of Grandma’s will.

Grandma’s funeral will probably be Thursday, May 17th. Ryan, Ryland, and will be flying to California to be with my family this coming Wednesday.

Thank you for your prayers!!!

This my hearts cry:

You give and take away… my heart will choose to say “Lord, blessed be your name.”

Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? Job 2:10
  

“Who is God/Jesus/Holy Spirit to you?”

How many times have I heard a well wishing music minister or pastor ask this question from the pulpit? And how many times have I heard the obvious answer “Savior”, or the hearty mention of “Best Friend”, or the endearing cry “Comforter”. Well I am sure it is more than the number of hairs on my head… well maybe not quite that many, but it’s a lot. I’ve sat in many-a service and stubbornly refused to take part in this exercise. My refusal is not out of pure rebellion. No, I refuse because I cannot stomach contrived knowledge of the Holy.

Don’t get me wrong, I adore discovering His many descriptions. I yearn for new revelations of His character… which I (in my finite human state) tend to categorize, label, and name in an attempt to capture some sort of picture of the Truth of who He is. When I take the time to honestly seek and sit in humble silence I get to experience moments filled with God-given pictures, words, emotions, and inexplicable stirrings that lead to ”yada Yaweh” (to perceive and see, find out and discern God intimately). It is in these encounters that I catch glimpses of His magnificence. It is then that I get to inhale the sweet perfume of the Rose (”What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet…” From Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, 1594).

God relates to me most often through music and in musical terms. God is elusive like music… He can’t be contained, but He can be known through experience. God consumes me like a rich melody. He draws me to Himself through music. I find great joy in the fact that He relates to me through this passion He has placed in my soul. A musical term I often use to to refer to God is Composer. I have trusted and loved God as The Composer of life for a long time. However, in my most recent closet times I had one of those light bulb moments.

I realized that God was no simple composer. He is the Great Orchestrator. God as Orchestrator is my most recent obsession. I am working to apply this truth to the battlefield that is my mind. My greatest battle… trusting the Orchestrator even when I don’t like the way the music sounds, know where it’s going, or think I can play all the right notes.

The explanation… A composer is someone who writes music, any music. An orchestrator writes music for an entire orchestra (about 30 different instruments and 50-100 instrumentalists). An orchestrator must see the big picture… thinking of what the violin will do and how that will meld with what the sax is doing, and where the drums will come in and what tempo they will set for rest of the instruments. Orchestration is a complex art form.

While our lives can be compared to a piece of music, we are not alone in our song. We are a part of The Great Symphony. God’s Symphony for the world He created, for His Purpose, His Fame, and His Enjoyment. We have not heard all the other parts, but our section is important to the entire Symphony. Each flat note… each missed beat… each break we take… affects the rest of the Symphony… and the other instrumentalists. God’s Symphony will be played out to perfection. He has orchestrated every part gracefully. He allows us, the instrumentalists, to choose the line of music we will play, but only the music written by the Great Orchestrator is completely right for us. His Symphony is the only one worthy of being played, heard, and experienced. We, the instrumentalists, can choose to be a part of the orchestra, or we can go solo. We can play our own little song, but it will be sad, weak, empty, and useless. It is crucial that we fix our eyes on the orchestration set before us. We cannot be distracted by the petty little tunes played by those not focused on the Source of Truth and Life.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (*The Orchestrator of our faith), who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. -Hebrews 12:2 (the inserted comment is my own)

Who is He to you?
Do you have an honest answer?
Is your view skewed by the irritating groans of the misguided, unfocused, and selfish?
Are you your own distraction from being able yada Yaweh?

Just heard on SportsCenter that ”The Donald” took another run at “The Cuban” today on Stephen A. Smith’s radio show on ESPNRadio.

This fued between these two money-moguls has been on-going since Cuban’s prime-time ABC show (the Benefactor) “tanked”… and evidently Trump thought that the show was a rip-off of his pet prime-time show (the Apprentice).

I love Mark Cuban’s passion for the Mavs. His leadership has been the driving force behind the transformation of my Mavericks from the Dick-Motta-Mavs… into the NBA Western Conference Champion Mavs. I also think that Cuban’s passion sometimes gets him into some otherwise unwarranted predicaments. Even with the Mavs’ emarrassing early exit from the playoffs (at the hands of an 8-seed)… I would not trade Cuban for any other owner in the NBA… and I am sure that most (if not all) of the Mavericks would voice the same thing if pressed (obviously this is an unfounded assumption though).

Cuban has taken a couple of runs at Trump on his own infamous blog (of which I am a proud RSS feed subscriber) over the past couple of years. He ripped Trump for his bankruptcy-business move back in 2004… and then commented on Trump’s fued with Rosie O’Donnell in 2006.

The interview is worth a listen… especially when Trump begins his rant on Cuban with the phrase… “Look, Mark’s a loser…”

Needless to say, I will be watching my Blog Maverick RSS Feed very closely in the next couple of days.

PRESS ON!!!

-Weav

One of the things I hate: reading the blogs of blog-owners who are constantly apologizing for not being consistent in their blog-posting.

I pray that this will not be something that occurs “constantly”… or even frequently with me… but here it is… the grand apology… the exercism of my guilt of absence…

I am not one who supports (or condones) excuse-making. So please read the following list as a “let’s get to know each other… again” kind-of-thing, and not as a list of excuses. The guilt of my absence has been purged (just like the inhabitant hostiles purged the Dharma Initiative on LOST last nite).

.: A Few Things That You’ve Missed…

  + On April 19th (the date of my last post) the Weavers officially joined the AMBC Cell in Snow Hill… and we gladly committed to lead worship with them each Thursday nite.
  + On April 21st I got suckered into playing a church-league softball tourney with AMBC.
  + On April 22nd one of my students (Cody Wilson) was killed in a car accident.
  + On April 24th AM/SM hosted Cody’s Memorial Service for students/friends/family.
  + On April 25th Ryland stood unassisted for eight seconds (until he was frustratingly distracted by his giddily clapping parents).
  + On April 26th I assisted in preaching Cody’s funeral.
  + On April 27th I learned how to play the Game of Risk (thanks to two of my Seniors).
  + On April 29th we had our highest total of students at our AM/SM Cell Ministry.
  + On May 1st the mother (Margo Barker) of one of my students (Jordan Watson) died.
  + On May 5th AMBC hosted the funeral service for Margo.

During this crazy two-week period… Amanda has been amazingly (and thankfully) busy with her two businesses. She has continued to coach four vocal students (with two students on a waiting list because she simply cannot add any more to her busy Thursdays)… and she has expanded her Premier Designs Jewelry business by around 70%. The Lord has been faithful… and we have been exhausted. We are reluctantly excited about our “vacation” (aka… “The Weaver Wedding Tour”) that is forthcoming. We have already begun preparing things and packing for the two-week departure from the Eastern Shore. Our emotions are mixed about the trip right now. We cannot wait to see family… and to have family see us… but we are also more attached to these Marylanders (and this weather) than we could have ever imagined (after only four months).

I still feel so very honored to be the best man in A-Nick’s and Adam’s weddings, and to be officiating Windy and Johnny’s wedding while we are in Oklahoma and Texas. A-Nick, Cuz, Windy… thank you again for allowing me to play such an undeserved role in each of your nuptuals. May the preparations for “The Weaver Wedding Tour” carry on…

(and the screen fades with the Kansas classic “Carry On My Wayward Son” rocking softly in the background… because you gotta love the opening verse of that song… “Carry on my wayward son… there’ll be peace when you are done… lay your weary head to rest… don’t you cry no more…”)

PRESS ON!!!

 -Weav