Happiness For Blessing

I know it's been awhile since I've last posted, and I'm sor - you know what? I'm not apologizing. Since my last post on April 27, a lot has happened in our lives. Most importantly for myself, I interviewed for (3 times!), accepted, and started a new job. I'm now a bona fide youth minister. Hooray for using my degree! To be honest with you, a lot of what I was doing for a while was for my sanity. I needed to know that I did indeed still have a brain and was capable of using it for more than customer service and kitchen know-how. I don't have that problem anymore! Anyway, I say all that to tell you that things will be different around here. The Weekly Links feature, which I had just gotten the way I wanted it, is no more. It was very time-consuming, and I don't need those kind of pursuits to distract me.

Having said that, however, I would like to introduce to you a project that, yes, took me some time to put together. I have set out to determine the best comedy movie of the last decade. I don't remember anymore how this whole thing started, but I do remember how I decided to settle it. There's a new local radio show in Dallas called "The Ben & Skin Show." It's a sports show, but they actually spend at least half of their time shooting the bull, and it's their opinion that any open-ended debate is best settled using a 64-team bracket, NCAA tournament style. I happen to agree. I think you know where this is going.

Before I reveal the bracket to you, I think it's important that you know that a lot of hard work and serious thought went into this. To start, I formed a rather large committee that was eventually whittled down to four people because of the amount of work involved. Each person created their own Top 75 list, which was averaged to determine the seeding in the bracket. The only requirements for candidacy were that it was a full-length feature released from January 1, 2000 until now. The original ballot had almost 200 movies to choose from, and even though there were only 4 lists of 75 movies submitted, a total of 137 movies were listed. (Fun fact: The movie ranked #137 was "Dude, Where's My Car?") From there, the bracket was created. This is where you come in: Each round will be determined by popular vote, and anybody who wants to vote is welcome to do so. There are some weaknesses to the system: admittedly, the committee is a pretty homogeneous group. We're all middle-class white males who have a lot of the same tastes in movies (although the submitted ballots varied widely). So if your movie is left off, it's probably not you, it's us. You're more than welcome to go make your own bracket. But as far as I'm concerned, this will settle the question, "What is the best comedy movie of the 2000's?"

I tried to take an image of the bracket, but it's too big to fit on this page, so here's the link:

Best Comedy Movies of the 2000's

You'll notice that if you click on each movie's name, you will be taken to its IMDB page.

And here's how you vote:

Round 1 Ballot

Round 1 voting ends on Sunday, August 1 at 11:59 pm. Vote as often as you want, discuss it in the comments, and please tell other people. Happy voting!

Before today, it had been a long time since I waited on the table at church. We moved several months ago and have just now settled on a church to attend regularly. Before that, we actually changed churches and then moved from Abilene just 6 months later. It wasn't until Jodi's uncle pulled me aside as we entered service today and asked me to help that I realized this fact. I actually got nervous, despite having performed this function dozens of times in various places. I think part of it is that I have never really paid much attention to the logistics of communion here, so I was afraid of getting up at the wrong time or committing some other crazy faux pas.

Mostly, though, I believe it was because I was thrilled to be put in a position of service once again. I majored in ministry, and it's been a frustration of mine that I have not been able to use my degree vocationally since. In many ways I have been fighting for the right to serve, and to be given without asking the opportunity to do what many consider a minor service humbled me in a somewhat ironic and incredibly beautiful way.

When the time came, I stood in the back of the "auditorium" (it's really more of a soundstage), trays in hand, waiting for my signal to walk down the aisle. We were watching a video from the Pioneer Bible Translators (one of our families is headed to Africa), and I was struck by a scene that showed two people from very different cultures sharing in the Lord's Supper. It reminded me of what those in the theology business like to call "The Invisible Church." This concept is actually somewhat controversial in Churches of Christ (but what isn't?), and what it means for our discussion is that whenever we take part in Communion, we do it with all believers across time and space. In my mind, that is what makes the traditions that we have so important. I was reminded that whether or not I am able to make ministry a vocation, I will always be able to serve. Perhaps more importantly, I will always be a part of The Invisible Church. I have spent a lot of time recently questioning myself, and this simple incident was the calm in the storm that I needed.