hey you, over here!

For all of my fans out there, I'm now doing some stuff over at robjohnson.tumblr.com. Come join me.

Hey you, over here!!

I'm now trying out the tumblr thing. I think it might result in me posting more often. I'm trying to discover what types of blogging fit me best. Right now I think I'll start a more serious entrepreneurship blog soon and let the tumblr blog be more personal. Follow me on tumblr at:

http://robjohnson.tumblr.com/

and of course, if you're in to twitter (and you should be; it's the TNBT), you can follow me at http://twitter.com/gracefullyfree.

oh wow...pranking has never been done like this

If you've got 30 mins, watch the whole series. If you've only got 5 mins watch this. If you don't have any time and are about to miss your flight to new york, watch this:

a tribute to my grandfather, Bill Mescher

Some have already written a tribute to my grandfather who died on Easter Sunday, 2007. I offer mine here:

My grandfather has been known by many different titles. He’s been Senator Mescher, Chairman Mescher, and President Mescher. He’s been a staff sergeant in the army, an electrical engineer for Commonwealth Edison, a deacon at this church, an art gallery owner, an electrician, a prison guard, and a poor farmer. He always took pride in finding the chance to look at someone with a sly smile and say “I’ve been fired from more jobs than you’ve ever held.”

For me though, he’s held a much higher title: “Granddaddy”. And as my sister Kit, Walker, and I will tell you, there could be no better grandfather. As a young boy, spending time with Granddaddy was one of my most loved things to do. I was always incessantly curious, and Granddaddy knew everything. There wasn’t a bird I could find that he couldn’t identify. There wasn’t a math problem I could dream up that he couldn’t teach me to solve – all in my head. He would listen to my questions about electricity, politics, and business and guide and answer me with more authority and wisdom than I could ever recognize at the time.

No matter what we were interested in at any given moment as kids, Granddaddy would always take our curiosity and run with it. There was the time that Kit and I came to visit with Mama Meow and Granddaddy after school and I had just learned to shoot a rubber band from my fingers. Of course, I ran around their house shooting everything in sight – especially that cat that never would leave Granddaddy’s treasured birds alone. Granddaddy couldn’t just let me run around his house shooting rubber bands from my fingers – he immediately took me out to his shop and we built wooden rubber band guns complete with triggers and rubber band holders. Needless to say, Kit had quite a few rubber bands flying her way that day. It was then that I knew I had the coolest Granddaddy ever.

I learned a lot sitting in Granddaddy’s lap as a boy. It was a place of adventure and discovery. Kit, Walker, and I all drove a car many years before it was legal for us while sitting in Granddaddy’s lap as he pushed the pedals that we couldn’t reach. Mom sure wasn’t crazy about this, but we loved it.

One of my special memories with Granddaddy was when as a boy, Mama Meow and Granddaddy took me on a long road trip across half the country to visit his relatives in Illinois. Some of you probably didn’t know that he was from Illinois – he always laughed that if the people in Berkeley County ever found out he were a Yankee, he’d never be reelected again. At the time of this trip, I had just learned to make a loud whistling noise by blowing into my cupped hands. I thought I was making beautiful music, and so I whistled everywhere – including the entire car ride to Illinois. Most of us (myself included) could not have put up with that racket for such a long time. But Granddaddy was different – very little in this world ever really rattled him. So instead of making me stop like any sane person would, Granddaddy instead talked to nearly every person we met on that trip and asked if they knew any special whistles they could teach me to add to my repertoire. I came home from that trip as proud as a boy could be because I knew how to whistle better than any of my friends at school.

Many people have said that Granddaddy was a straight shooter. He certainly never hesitated to tell you what he thought, often to my grandmother’s never-ending embarrassment. But one thing I’ll miss a lot about Granddaddy was his incredibly quick wit. We were once at a fast food restaurant in Illinois and as I was ordering, the clerk immediately noticed my southern accent. She started telling us about how much she liked the south – the weather was warmer and the people were friendlier. “But,” she said, (and forgive me for taking the liberty of slightly sanitizing her language) “there are two things I can’t stand about the South: Southern Baptists and those darn southern politicians.” I’m Southern Baptist and was of course slightly offended. But before I could protest, Granddaddy put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Well I’m glad I’m no Southern Baptist.”

Back when Granddaddy decided to try to become one of those southern politicians, he had a few opponents – but I don’t think he expected to find one as close to him as he did. Granddaddy recruited Kit and me to campaign with him and bought us engraved pins to wear that read “I’m Rob Johnson and I support my grandfather Bill Mescher for State Senate District 37.” Granddaddy was shocked when Kit refused wear hers. He asked why and Kit’s response was “If you get elected to the Senate, I won’t get to see my Granddaddy as much anymore.” Granddaddy eventually earned Kit’s support and became one of those scorned southern politicians.

I now realize that one of the most powerful messages Granddaddy ever communicated to me was “I believe in you and you can do it.” Once Granddaddy and I were working in the yard clearing out a cluster of thorns and vines. I was small, the thorns were very thick, and I quickly got stuck in a spider web of prickly vines and yelled for him to help me out. He looked at me, laughed, and said, “Cut your own self out – you’re holding a pair of clippers!” I think many of you can see something familiar in this story and can tell about how my Grandfather helped and empowered you. He often loved to help and encourage the average, normal guy because he saw himself there.

I now look back on Granddaddy’s life and realize it was a true gift – a gift to South Carolina, our family, and to me. It was always clear that Granddaddy loved us – whether it was the visits to our elementary school class with his box of gadgets, or whether it was taking us out to fly his stunt kites, or whether it was the smile he had when he talked about us at all those formal dinners we went to with him, we knew that Granddaddy treasured and loved us. For me, the most beautiful part of this all is that I am a step-grandson and deserved none of it. Because of Granddaddy, our family has a physical sense of what God means when he says he loves us as a father.

My grandfather was a great man of a strong generation. Our state will miss one of its finest Statesmen. Berkeley County will miss one of its most dedicated servants. Walker, Kit, and I will miss our most beloved granddaddy.

our god reigns, forever his kingdom reigns

This morning we sang these lines from a delirious? song:

40 million babies lost to Gods great orphanage,
It’s a modern day genocide and a modern day disgrace
If this is a human right then why aren’t we free?
The only freedom we have is in a man nailed to a tree.

100 million faces, staring at the sky,
Wondering if this HIV will ever pass us by.
The devil stole the rain and hope trickles down the plug,
But still my Chinese take away could pay for someone’s drugs.

Our God reigns, Our God reigns,
Forever your kingdom reigns.

This is quite possibly the rawest and most powerful expression of the reality of the world we live in. We live in a place of where governments like Sudan can commit genocide against their citizens. We live in a place where children in Nicaragua are raped and molested before they learn to read. We live in a place where men are shot on the streets of anderson and left for dead. We live in a place where healthy lives are instantly condemned with words like cancer, stroke, and heart attack. We live in a place where 25 year-old marriages self-destruct, imploding on hope, love, and family alike.

We live in a place where it hardly feels like God reigns. And if he does, it sure is easy to miss it amongst the darkness of our lives.

And yet, we claim the truth that with Jesus, God's Kingdom does reign. This kingdom is different though -- bigger, deeper, and more powerful than this crap we live. It seems that in the times we most feel the brokenness of this world are the times we most recognize and feel the beauty of the promise of kingdom of God. A kingdom of truth, holiness, peace, love, and power.

Perhaps this feeling is captured best in the cliche of "light is brighter surrounded by darkness." Peace offered in Christ feels more alive in a world scarred by war. Love offered from a Godly father is more bold in a family torn by abandonment. Freedom in christ is more life-giving in world bound by brokenness and sin. In short, God's Kingdom is made more real, more necesary, and more desired in our suffering.

So this is my bold, desperate yell from the bottom of my lungs out to the depths of the heavens:

OUR GOD REIGNS,
FOREVER YOUR KINGDOM REIGNS!!

It is a yell muffled by suffering, boldened by reality, and amplified by hope.

visions of a christ-filled church

Wow, just read this incredible post on dan kimball's blog. What a bold, powerful idea -- ask your church to answer the question: I dream of a church _____? Who knows what you'll get -- trivial comments, critical comments, comments that completely miss it, and comments that are just beautiful. Dan Kimball posted some of the latter; beautiful and inspiring type comments. Here's a sample:

I Dream of a church...

... that is more about helping others than about us
... that listens to the Holy Spirit and is bigger than man's efforts
... is a soft place to fall; that is a daily part of my life; that doesn't feel like a wall; that is the heartbeat of Christ
... that gets lost in worshiping Jesus and lingers in His presence

PLEASE READ THIS POST!! It has got to be a snapshot of how I envision the Church of our future. When I read stuff like that my mind swirls with thoughts of "yeah, that's how it should be" and "wow, I want to be a part of that!" And then I feel the soft tugging rising in me "well, are you just going to read and talk about it, or are you going to get out there and see it done?" Calling? Optimism? Natural Desire of a redeemed heart? I don't know.

I am so blessed to be a part of a community that looks a lot like the one envisioned by dan kimball's church. We're not entirely there, but our heart is captured by that vision and we're pursuing it together. We call ourselves dcf and we'd love to have you pursue it with us if you ever find yourself in Clemson.

and so it begins

So I've had this blog for quite some time now. Remember back then when google bought blogger.com? (Ok so you won't remember that unless you're a google evangelist like me). Yeah, that's when I signed up. And this is my first post. Over a year later. Man, I sure am the cutting edge, early-adopter type.

What will this be about? Well I'm just going to use this blog as a place to put some thoughts down in writing. I find that writing through thoughts helps me to realize how much of what I'm thinking about is just crap and what is worth remembering. On any given day, I'm probably thinking about some pretty big things like what a life of faith looks like, what a Christ-infused church looks like, and what my future wife looks like. I also really like cutting-edge technology and it's impact on our society and government policy. So forgive when I throw out words like AJAX, web 2.0, net-neutrality and the like.

I'm just a college student with an hopeful eye towards a God-redeemed future. Enjoy my thoughts.