This week Randy spurred us on to think about email. The title of his entry is Friends Don’t Let Friends Email Drunk. His thoughts came after Google announced a new feature on their Gmail called Mail Goggles. The idea of the new Gmail add-on is to make sure you don’t send a stupid email in the middle of the night. Especially because that’s when most people send email they later regret. So, the fine folks at Google came up with a way to make sure you’re “sober” before mailing in the middle of the night. Kind of a cute idea, but it’s probably more cutesy than functional.

Anyway, from there Randy asked us at the Watercooler what our best email story is. Whenever anyone asks me that question, one story always comes to mind very quickly…

Let me tell you about an incredible man named Jim Pegg.

I met Jim at the first church I was assigned to in Warkworth, Ontario, Canada. We were fresh out of Seminary and we found ourselves in a nice little farming community. The fun part about this appointment revolved around the fact that we were also only about an hour away from our parents. After being away from our parents while in school for five years, it was nice to be back home. Shortly after our arrival to the church, Jim Pegg moved to Warkworth. We quickly became good friends, and he became my Pastoral Assistant at the church.

Jim was an older man. As a matter of fact, he was a World War II vet. He taught me many things, and he always told me I taught him many things too. While I could go on and on about Jim, this post around the Watercooler is about email, so I will stick to that topic.

Jim was in his mid-70′s I believe. By this time we’d moved down to New York State, but we kept in touch. Actually, Jim had discovered the Internet and email. I always looked forward to checking my email every morning because there was always something from Jim. He would share about his day, or some new discovery he made while reading the Bible. Whatever the contents of his email, I always enjoyed reading them. Jim had heart problems on and off again and as a result was scheduled for surgery. It was standard type by-pass surgery. Nothing to worry about and no big deal. Of course while some of us did worry about Jim, he was quick to put our minds at ease and say “No problem. It’s just standard and all will be fine.”

The day before his surgery arrived and as usual, Jim was at his computer looking things up on the Internet, and sending email. Of course I sent him an email the day before wishing him all the best on his scheduled surgery. His reply came back saying all was well.

He then signed off that day writing;

I’m preparing to head to the hospital later today. Dorothy will drive me up. All will go well, I will send you an email when I arrive back home.

Until then, ‘I commit my spirit into His hands.’ Jim

The following day, the day of the surgery, I received a phone call about mid-morning from Dorothy. Something had gone terribly wrong. Complications arose, Jim went into a coma. The following day not only was Jim’s spirit in His hands, but his soul was too.

These thoughts always bring a tear to my eye. As I said above, I learned many things from Jim. But if anything, I think the most important lesson I learned from Jim is how to truly be a Sojourner in this thing we call life. He lived a calm, balanced and peaceful life, knowing no matter what, he could always find true rest, peace and comfort, in His hands.

A Fellow Sojourner,
Dr. Rus

Over on Randy’s Cultural Watercooler discussion for today he asked the question – What book or author has had the greatest influence on you?

First off Randy, that’s really a tough question for a preacher! There are so many and so little time or space to tell you of them all! But, before I tell you who my favorites are, yes, I have managed to whittle the list down to two, your question reminds me of a similar question once asked of a class at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky.

I don’t remember which class it was, but I do remember the professor. In a class studying Wesleyan Theology, Dr. Steve Harper once asked the question – If you were in the midst of being exiled to an island in the middle of nowhere, what one book would you take? Of course in a class of second and third year Seminary students working on their Divinity degrees, those who wanted to appear really spiritual said — the Bible! But, that was too easy. Dr. Harper’s question truly did start me thinking about what author, and what book, could truly continually feed my soul and spirit if I found myself on an island in the middle of nowhere.

Would I take John Wesley books? Or would I take something totally different?

There are so many choices, but in the end, I did narrow my choices down to two when it comes to authors who’ve influenced me the most.

1. Thomas Merton
2. Ken Gire

While in Seminary Dr. Jerry Mercer offered a class on the life and writings of Thomas Merton. I remember asking him about the class, and I must once again thank him for offering the class during my last semester so I could fit it into my schedule. Thomas Merton was an amazing man. If you’d like to read what many consider his life story, check out The Seven Story Mountain. But, the Merton book that most influence me is entitled New Seeds of Contemplation. This book opened up a whole new way of looking at life and contemplating how we interact with life.

Ken Gire is an author I discovered while working on my Doctorate from the Wagner Leadership Institute in Colorado Springs. I took a writing class from Ken in which he encouraged us to come into contact not only with what we wanted to write, but how the topic actually effects us. Once we tap into such a concept, our writing truly transforms with simple words on a page. I keep in contact with Ken from time to time via email and I’m always moved by his compassion and genuine interest in what’s going on my life.

As for books of Ken’s that have influenced me? Again, there are many. I’m currently reading The North Face of God. But, many of his previous books have also touched me as well. Books such as The Divine Embrace and Reflections on the Movies come to mind. But, his most influential book, is the first book I ever read of Ken’s entitled Windows of the Soul.

By the way, you can find all of Ken’s books at his main website Reflective Living Ministries.

As I said, there are many authors and many books that have influenced me along the way. But, of all the books and all the authors I’ve read, Ken Gire and Thomas Merton rank at the top of the list for those that have truly influenced and impacted my life in a significant way.

A Fellow Sojourner,
Dr. Rus

PS – If you’re wondering, in the Thomas Merton category I’m currently reading Echoing Silence. If you’re a writer, this is a great read!

How many emails are sitting in your in-box? Ouch! The computer was supposed to make life easier for us. The wonderful world of email is suppose to speed up the communication process. But, does it really accomplish the intended end purpose? I’ve been an on-line type person for a long, long time. As a matter of fact, I remember the days of the BBS! (That’s short for Bulletin Board Service.) Those were wonderful days. One computer dialing into another computer. Only one person could connect at a time. Sometimes using a 1200 baud modem. Or, if you wanted a lightening fast connection speed, you spent a extra few bucks for the faster 2400 baud modem! In those days we were excited to make all the right connections while sending an email so we could get a response back in two days!

As the BBS systems started to fade, some smart operators connected in with other services who had a “window” to the Internet. Of course many times you had to find a way to tap into a school Internet system. That was the only way to do it. But, some techy type school people did find permission and access to such a “window.” Once the BBS found the “window” email could travel in just one day!

Ahhh, those were the days. Of course back then, we didn’t have to worry about email stacking up in the in-box. There just wasn’t that much email. Such is not the case today. So, when Randy asked what our in-box looks like in today’s Watercooler Wednesday chat, I had to ask myself — Which in-box? Which email address? Which email program?! A long time ago I figured out if I ever planned to survive the email world, I needed various addresses to keep things straight. That way different people have different email addresses depending on the level of family or friendship relationship I have with the individual. Then of course there’s my work related addresses to. So, what does my in-box look like….

Radio Station In-Box — 25
Gmail Account — 5
Yahoo Account — 5
MSN Account — 5
Home In-box — 80
Blackberry — 10

That makes a total of 130! I better get to work replying to some messages here. Maybe we can go back to the days of snail-mail. Or, better yet, maybe I should start subscribing to the advice I like to give everyone else — Touch any piece of paper, or in this case email, only once.

Oh wait, I forgot to look at my Spam-In-Box. There’s another 100 email messages sitting there needing some kind of attention. You will be happy to know that in my super-duper-top-secret-personal-private-email-address-in-box, there are no messages needing attention. If you have that address, you always get first priority responses.

A Fellow Sojourner,
Dr. Rus

P.S. – I did find an email in my home in-box that does need attention. On a sad note, while I was typing this blog entry I received a phone call from my mother telling me that a former parishoner of ours from a church we were Pastors of in Ontario, Canada was killed in a motorcycle accident this morning. Very sad, he was only 54 years old. I have an email from his brother that I will definately respond to in a few minutes here.

John, you had many ups and downs and curves and corners in this journey we call life. May you rest in peace now that your journey has passed from this place we call earth, to the heavenly realm.

So many to choose from, so little space. Over on the the Cultural Watercooler Randy Elrod asked us to discuss our pet peeve expressions today. I spent one year teaching English to college kids, and lets just say I came across a number of pet peeve expressions in those days. But, as for the peeves which rise to the top, I can think of two making that list.

1) I Know
Ugh! Give me a break! The phrase I know probably ranks as the number one phrase with teens these days. Especially if you’re trying to talk with them about something they need to know. The entire time an adult is speaking, the teen seems to insert the phrase I know wherever there my be an opening. When I find myself face to face with a teen who insists on saying this, especially if we’ve talked about an issue before, I usually say – “No you don’t know. If you knew, we wouldn’t be having this conversation again.”

2) What Not
I’m not sure where this phrase came from, but it’s one my wife likes to use. Of course since she uses it, now my kids have picked up on it too. The expression usually shows up in the middle of a description of some event or object. Suddenly in the middle of the description, the phrase what not appears. It sounds something like this — “So we were walking through the mall looking for the store where we could find exactly what we needed – and what not – Along the way we bumped into a friend. So we stood and chatted some – and what not – before we decided to grab some lunch before coming home.”

Ugh! I usually stop my wife, or now my kids, and ask – What’s a what not?

The English language, of all the languages in the world, is the most difficult to learn. Many times what we call our pet peeve expressions do nothing more than confuse the issue at hand. While in Seminary a writing professor insisted that we never use the word stuff when writing or speaking. He would always ask – What stuff? Let’s be clear what we’re describing and find the proper word for the description. This journey we call life is complicated enough. The least we can do is not muddy the waters or confuse the journey with extra language baggage.

A Fellow Sojourner,
Dr. Rus

So, the subject for today from the Cultural Watercooler is My Life List. One of the first things I thought of was the Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman movie, The Bucket List. It’s a fun movie about two old men, one a millionaire, one not, who discover they’re both dying of cancer. They decide to write up a list of things they’d like to do before they kick the bucket. It’s humorous, it’s fun, and there are also a few lessons along the way too. It’s a pretty good movie. With that in mind, and with the idea of a life list in mind, here I am writing not a whole list, but just about one thing on my life list. (Randy, thanks so much for not asking us to write up a huge list!)

I use to say one of the items on my life list was to own a Mustang. As long as I can remember, I’ve always liked Mustangs. I almost bought one when we were newly married, but it just wasn’t the smart thing to do. From then on, my wife and I always talked about getting a Mustang for my 45th birthday. Well, that happened last year! We were actually shopping for a car to replace my wife’s aging car. When we couldn’t find anything she really liked, she said, “Well honey, we always said you could get your Mustang when you turned 45. Let’s go look for one.” We found one — a 1998 Mustang GT — I named her Stella.

So, if I’m listing life list ideas, I guess one of the items on the list; Own a Mustang, is crossed off.

Next on the list; Restore a Mustang.

Now I have to admit I’m not much of a mechanic. Okay, I’ll be honest, I’m not any kind of a mechanic, but I’ve always thought it would be cool to restore an old Mustang. I guess in order to work on this life list entry I would also have to find a friend to help me along the way. Restoring a Mustang would also help me appreciate the care the Creator takes in restoring broken lives, or even finding new life in one that’s lived a hard life along the way.

In other words, no matter how old you are, with the right touch and the right tools, restoration is always possible.

A Fellow Sojourner,
Dr. Rus

I guess I’ve always loved Italian food. Since pizza is one of my favorite food groups, any restaurant with the word pizza in it ranks right up there as my favorite restaurant. There’s Pizza Hut and then there’s the little known Pizza Shack. We found The Shack right around the corner from Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, New York. As a matter of fact, as a married couple with a one year old child, the Shack was the first place we found food when we arrived on campus. What a day, or should I say night, that was.

After being called into ministry I left radio and headed for Roberts Wesleyan College with my wife and our first born son. After a long day of travel, where the border guard didn’t want to let our furniture cross into the United States with us, our car that broke down, and just about everything else one might imagine happened, we found ourselves sitting on the floor of our little two bedroom apartment. It seems everyone of importance forgot we were moving in as Resident Advisors of Gamma building. It was way past dark, the moving truck was unloaded, our friends were heading back for Canada, and we found ourselves wondering what in the world had we just done. Alone with a crying baby hours away from home, in what was supposed to be our new home.

Hungry, tired, and surrounded by boxes we decided to look for something to eat. We didn’t even know our way around campus, let alone off campus. Since school was not in session yet, the campus seemed more like a ghost town than a college town. But, we headed out to find some food. Driving around a couple blocks we spotted a place called The Pizza Shack. It was a little place, but we figured, “pizza, what can they do to pizza that would make it bad.” We turned into the driveway, got out of the car, and walked into a little greasy spoon like restaurant.

It was only take out and since it was summer, it was unbearably hot inside. The counter was well worn, the fans were running, and little notes were posted all over the walls, and counter. We ordered our pizza, which arrived a short time later, and we headed for our apartment. By the time we got home the grease looked like it was already seeping through the bottom of the box. “What had we just done?” questions starting running through our minds again. But, we were hungry. Only God knew where the plates and other utensils were securely packed away in boxes, so we didn’t wait to find anything like that. We were hungry. We dug in, and it was great!

Yes, I do mean that. It was, and probably continues to be to this day, the best pizza we’ve ever had. Lots of cheese, just the right amount of pepperoni, thick crust, and yes, grease. Nothing like it! The sad thing is, we drove by there a few months ago and discovered The Shack is closed. What a bummer, now generations of college students at Roberts Wesleyan College will never experience what is probably the best pizza around.

This post is taking part in Randy’s Water Cooler Wednesday!

 Be sure to check it out!

A Fellow Sojourner,
Dr. Rus

You’re right, there are a truckload of apps out there and sometimes trying to make your way through the sea of apps can become very confusing. But, some do indeed rise to the top. I’m in the midst of revamping all of my blogs, moving them from Blogger to my own server where I’m now using WordPress. The reason for the move mainly centered around the fact that Blogger has no backup! In the words of Homer – “Ahhhhh!” What happens if Blogger goes down. I lose all my postings!

During the revamping and retooling stages, I’ve been finding some really cool apps. The first one is an ap for apps! It’s called MyBlogLog and if you want to see my favorite apps, just look at the “My Services” panel in the “About Me” section of this blog. Aside from the many other features with MyBlogLog it gives you a cool widget app to display all your other service apps.

My second favorite app I’ve discovered is SpringWidgets. Like the name implies, this site is a collection of widgets. But, you can customize the widgets to better suit whatever page you’re putting the widget on. Many people, including you Randy, are flying a new Twitter widget. I agree, the current widget from Twitter is nothing more than a bulky looking RSS feed. The new Twitter widget many people are using looks cool, but I got an even cooler one from SpringWidgets! Once again, if you want to see my Twitter widget, just scroll down this page and you’ll find it on the right panel. Also, while you’re looking for my Twitter widget, you’ll see another cool SpringWidget with a Daily Bible Verse in it.

So there you have it Randy, and the rest of the fine folks at the Wednesday Water Cooler. A couple of my favorite apps, which actually provide you with a look at some of my other favorite Internet apps too.

This post is taking part in Water Cooler Wednesday!

Happy widget hunting!

Dr. Rus

Scanning my bookshelves makes it hard to pick out just one favorite book. I move from the classics such as Christ & Culture to the monastic of Thomas Merton. Then there’s the holiness of John Wesley and others in the Wesleyan Tradition. Of course I can’t forget the more modern testimony books by people such as Ken Mansfield who worked closely with The Beatles or Grace is Enough by Willie Aames of Eight is Enough fame. I’m also working on Timothy Keller’s new book The Reason for God. After interviewing Dr. Tim on my talk show about his book, I’m even more fascinating by it, and also highly recommend it

However, to boil my library down to one favorite book, I’d have to go with my favorite writer, Ken Gire. Anything by Ken is well worth the read. He’s passionate and has an incredible way of connecting his life, with the life of the reader, as we in turn connect with God. As for all the Ken Gire books I have, my favorite is Windows of the Soul.

This post is participating in Watercooler Wednesday!

In the meantime, feel free to check out the cooler today. It’s a living discussion about favorite books.

Jump to the Watercooler Wednesday blog here!

A Fellow Sojourner,
Dr. Rus