Gilbert Thurston

Random Thoughts About Life, Ministry and Whatever Else Happens to be on my Mind

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Archives for March 2008

Other Weekend Thoughts

March 31, 2008 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

  • The more I think about it the more I was disappointed with yesterday’s Experience…again nothing terribly bad, just a lot of average stuff.
  • The rest of the weekend though was great!
  • Lisa’s brother, J, and his wife, Faith, were in town from NC.
  • They joined us Friday night over at the church for another awesome Coffeehouse.
  • I hate coffee, so Lisa asked the owner of Heavenly Grounds, the coffee house who caters our events, if she could make up some sort of chocolate drink just for me.
  • As I watched her make it, I realized that basically it was just a very rich glass of chocolate milk, with ice cubes in it and whipped cream on it.
  • Susan named it “The Gilbert”, gave it a special reduced price and it was quite the hit…I drank 2.
  • After getting everything cleaned up and put away, J & Faith followed us home to the new house.  On the way there, I noticed a cop following us.  After following us for a few miles he flipped his lights on. 
  • My first thought was, “Hmmm, I wonder why J is getting pulled over?”  But then after the cop passed him, I thought, “Hmmm, wonder why I’m getting pulled over?”
  • I pull over, the cops pulls over, then J, pulls in behind him.  Which of course causes the cop to have to call for back-up and so by the time it was all said and done, a total of 4 cops were on the scene.
  • Turns out one of the brake lights on Lisa’s car has a short in it and was going in and out. 
  • He didn’t give us a ticket though, so that was good.
  • Saturday I had 2 very productive meetings and then we got together with some friends of our who J also knew for dinner at Red Robin…can’t beat that!
  • Then we came back to the house and Bill and I shot pool.  We discovered a new game in the book called, Pool Golf.  I shot a 96…42 of those strokes came on 1 hole.  It got to be so ridiculous that all I could do was laugh.  Very challenging game though…I can’t wait to try it again.
  • Sunday morning we “made” J, stand outside Circuit City to buy us a Wii.  Normally Lisa and I wouldn’t be able to do this and since Sunday’s are the day they get them in, we thought we’d just be out of luck for awhile…but J came through and stood there for 2 hours on our behalf…thanks J!
  • After the Experience we treated J & Faith to TGI Friday’s…uhh I think he deserved it…and we were joined by Lisa’s sister, her husband and our 2 nephews, along with Andy and Gayle.  A good time was had by all.
  • Andy and I set-up the Wii, Gayle listened to music and Lisa napped the rest of the afternoon away.
  • Last night was CAYA and afterwards we all went to Applebee’s.  Gotta love the quesadilla burger!
  • Yes, if it sounds like I eat out a lot you’d be correct.
  • Yes, I did come home and play Wii.
  • Yes, my arm does hurt.
  • Hey on a serious note, keep Brian Miller’s (lead guitar player on the team) sister down in GA in your prayers.  She was involved in a really serious car accident on Friday night.  She has multiple serious injuries and will be laid up for quite a while.
  • Filed Under: Uncategorized

    Inside Today’s Experience

    March 30, 2008 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

  • What an awesome weekend!
  • I’ll catch you up on some of the other happenings tomorrow…trust me it was a full weekend.
  • Gotta say that even though nothing terrible went wrong today, it just didn’t feel like we were clicking on all cylinders.
  • Oh well, despite all that many people are excited about this series and expressed how much they’re looking forward to hearing more.
  • We had a new sound tech today that Andy was training and he did a great job.  Way to go Chris!
  • Since our board is digital and also wireless, Andy was able to monitor how Chris was doing and make changes if necessary via his Tablet PC. 
  • Sort of like the student driver cars that also have a brake pedal on the passenger side.
  • Now really a lot to report it was just a pretty typical Sunday morning getting ready other than the fact that I woke up at 5:30am instead of my normal 7:00.
  • I was joking afterwards that if I’m going to have to bring out my own stool and table, maybe I deserve a pay raise.  I thought it was weird that I didn’t see an usher backstage right before I went out…and then when I was praying I looked behind me to see if one was coming and then I thought “Oh well I’ll have 30 seconds during the intro video, I’ll just do it myself.”
  • I know who it was that forgot and the last time he made a mistake he beat himself up about it.  I know he reads the blog and so without naming who it was let me say, “______, sleep well, no biggie!”
  • Seriously all week long I was praying about not falling off the stage during the part where I was standing right on the edge.  I’ve never been so thankful to be done a part of the message in my life.
  • Ralph Pisle asked me after the Experience if I was still the same size I was in the 5th grade track story.   Funny guy that Ralph…funny guy!  🙂
  • At lunch Andy and Gayle both had funny things to share…Andy thought I was saying margarine instead of margin…he asked if next week is about Parkay.  Gayle said, hey why is it that all the stuff you mentioned (dance, soccer, etc.) are things my kids are involved in?  My simple response…we don’t have kids…where do you think I get my kid stories from? 
  • This may not make sense to you, but Earl and I park in the spots that are as far from the building as possible.  Last week he parked in the spot I’ve been in every week since we moved to the new building.  Today I was back in my spot and all felt right in the universe.
  • Got CAYA tonight and then we’re going out as a group to eat…should be fun…check back tomorrow for the rest of the weekend highlights and um-not-so highlights.
  • Filed Under: Uncategorized

    Take It TO the Limit Series

    March 28, 2008 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

    It’s amazing how God works. All week long I’ve been hearing from people how stressed out they are and how they never have any free time. I’ve been responding each time the same way…”Hey I know of a pretty good sermon series that’s starting this week that you may be interested in.” And yes smart alecks you can save your comments, I mean at United.

    In any case, here’s a preview of what’s coming up so you can invite your friends in:

    • March 30th- “Less is More”- We’ll look at why always living at the limit emotionally, finanically, relationally, morally, etc. is a recipe for disaster.
    • April 6th- “Downtime”- Very practical steps in how to get your calendar under control.
    • April 13th- “The God Robbers”-  When we’re taking our money to the max, two people get robbed and neither one is happy about it.
    • April 20th- “”Achieving Financial Margin”- Practical steps on how to handle your money so you have more, not less.
    • April 27th- “A Time to Run”- Sexual temptation is one of the most powerful temptations we face and one of the most devastating if we fall.  This message will show how to create margin in your morality.
    • May 4th- “Margin from 9-5”- Creating margin in your job will make both you and your boss happier…find out how.

    Filed Under: Uncategorized

    Trip to the DMV

    March 27, 2008 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

    Well we finally did it…went to the DMV to get our official PA driver’s license. You know there are reasons people avoid the place like the plague…let me add a few more.

    It started out innocent enough…we stood in a line for about 15 minutes and then started the transfer process. It wasn’t all that bad, although there were two funny moments. The lady behind the desk when I gave her our address said, “Hmmm that’s a weird name, what’s a Diopside?” I said, “It’s a GEM”. She says, “So do you work out there?” I looked at her funny and she said, “I’m not from around here”…I just shook my head.

    Second we had to take an eye test by putting your forehead up against the machine which lit it up and you give the numbers you see. Lisa said, “wow that was weird” and then I sat down to take it. Nervous that I may not pass it, I was relieved when the woman said, read the letters on line 2. There they were in 2 sets of 3, and I quickly blurted out all 6 numbers and sat back thinking oh that wasn’t so bad. But then she said, “give me the last 3 numbers.” I said, “What?” She says, “yeah there are 9 numbers on line 2.” Imagine my surprise when I look back in and there are only 6 numbers. Now I’m stalling asking her questions as I frantically move my head and cross my eyes in every which direction trying to see 3 more numbers…ohhh what was that…if I crossed my eyes in just the right way, 3 more numbers appeared on the right side of the screen. I quickly said them, sat back and said to Lisa, “Wow that was weird!” The lady behind the counter said, “What do you mean?” I said, “Oh nothing.”

    Next we had to stand in line to get our pictures taken. There was 1 person in front of us that was already in process and so we were next in line. Unfortunately they were at a shift change and so we had to wait for the new employee to get set-up to work. Let’s just say she could stand to lose a few pounds and wasn’t exactly moving at warp speed. In fact I believe glaciers move faster. And that was just to get to her desk…next she had to arrange her food and drinks just right and then finally she was ready to log into the computer. Let’s just say the pace she moved at earlier was lightening quick as compared to her typing skills. Not only did she hunt and peck on the keyboard, but for every letter she also chose which finger to use. I’m not even kidding…it was one of the stranger things I’ve witnessed.

    Now the real drama began. She couldn’t figure out how to log into the system. 45 minutes later, after multiple phone calls she finally figured it out much to the joy and applause of the now very long line. Now in honor of LOST, let’s flash back to the stories that happened during those 45 minutes. We had a mother and her recently moved in daughter from NYC whom instead of sitting next to each other, sat on opposite sides of the waiting room, at various times laughing, talking, shouting and arguing with each other. And oh yeah, they liked to involve everyone else in their conversations, which at one point grew political and I thought there was going to be a riot. One old guy ended it by saying he had just sent something to Barak Obama that would be very damaging to Hillary Clinton.

    Of course with the wait growing longer and longer, people’s patience was growing thinner and thinner. Some continued to wait, others bailed out, but a random guy that worked at the DMV just about pushed me over the edge. He was well over 6 feet tall, had a deep voice and at one point decided he was going to play line patrol. Now mind you this was after about 40 minutes of standing in this second line. He’s basically trying to be helpful, but he’s not. The loud mother tells everyone that he’s her parole officer…I’m not sure if she was kidding or not. He’s then yelling at her about not harassing the customers. Next the old man tells him that he’s from the IRS and they’re in big trouble.

    Eventually the lady gets logged into the computer and calls Lisa forward. While that is going on, Rent-a-cop comes to me and informs me that I’m in the wrong line because he can’t see my “_________ form”. Honestly I had no idea what he was talking about but I informed him that I was in the right line because I was where I was told to be and that my wife was already being processed and I’m sure I’ll be fine. He again said that I was in the wrong line because I didn’t have the right paperwork. I wanted to punch the guy right in the throat…I say the throat because that’s all the higher I’d have been able to reach. Instead I ignored him. Finally I get called forward, get my photo done and we were out of there. Total time in the DMV office: 1 hour 37 minutes The fodder for a blog entry: Priceless!

    Filed Under: Uncategorized

    2 Great Quotes

    March 25, 2008 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

    I do a lot of reading and anytime I read something that really resonates with me I write it down in a notebook.  About once a month or so I then read through that notebook so these thoughts are always fresh in my head.  Anyway, that notebook is still packed away in one of the bajillion boxes in my office labeled books…but I read 2 things here recently that I want to make sure make it into the notebook, so I figured I’d share them with you and then when I find the notebook I can transfer them in.

    • Too many people pray like they know how to pray.  Not enough people pray like they know the One whom they are praying to.   Don’t think that one needs any explanation.
    • The sign of a really mature church is a lot of immature people.  Ok, let me explain that one.  Mark Beeson who said this was saying that if a church is really teaching people to obey the Great Commission, which a big part of that is evangelism, then the church should be full each week with people who either have yet to make a decision to follow Jesus or are just starting out in their Christian journey…thus a lot of immature (spiritually speaking) people.

    Filed Under: Uncategorized

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