Unsatisfied By Average

The Musings of a Stubborn Believer

Author: Seán (page 13 of 31)

Cambodia

March 16, 2012 / / 8 Comments

The blog still sits silent. And what day is this?

Blame it half on sketchy internet, (usually down when I’m ready to roll) and half on photos and stories coming so fast I can scarce get my pictures dumped before the next thing calls. 
I’m resorting to something new. I’ll just journal here real time, and post in as-I-can time. I conceive that will be better than nothing in the end…
March 15
Sometime ask me about the meal extracted directly from the jungle, prepared by hands that loved…
And dirty feet. And taming jungle with Acts 2 in my ears… And a wild (5 hour) taxi ride across the country. Ask me sometime…
March 16, 14:39
Mango and Sticky Rice in the works. (yes!!)
Have a deeper sense of the glory of being climbed as Hs own…
Got it while sitting barefoot and cross legged, listening while the inhabitants of the third Pnong hut in a row insist to Cara that I must be one of them. Or at very least, my grandfather must be Pnong…
Well, no. But I couldn’t love them more if I were.

A Heart for This Word

March 8, 2012 / / 18 Comments

I’ve never had so much fun memorizing.

At dawn’s first light, over sink full of dishes, all breathless on the treadmill…
We’re hooked.
Oh, we’re feeling our limitations too… but there’s no turning back.

But really, it’s not five verses a day we’re hooked on. Or three.
It’s the constant preoccupation with the Word.
Truth be told, we’re all over the place. Some are straining their limits to the breaking point, and are still a bit behind. Likely some of you are too. I’ve just got one word for you:

Whatever you do, don’t stop.

In this quest, there is only one reason for regret:
Losing a golden opportunity to grow.

In the end the most blessed will be the ones who could barely manage 2 verses a day at the start, but who stuck with it anyway. Why, I personally know a girl whose mind became so thirsty for the Word (through relentless memorization) that she could finally nail down a chapter a day.

Try God.

If this were really about counting verses like dollars in the bank, we should never have started.
We need more than minds full of the Word.
Let this be a heart project.

Then we’re all winners.

P.s. I’ve promised the audio of the book of Acts to whoever needed it– Now easier than ever. Right click this link and click “download linked file” or “save link as.” You get the whole thing. 🙂

I Can’t!

March 5, 2012 / / 21 Comments

To the contrary,
yes you can.
I know you can.

Did you expect to get this without trying really hard? (this, for those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about.)
We don’t come by anything valuable without effort.

But we’ve learned a thing or two that makes it a bit easier… You probably have too, and I’d love to hear about it. (We’re here to help each other, right?) So here are a few things that help me tremendously. (translation, habits without which it becomes impossible for me to memorize more than a phrase or two.)

1. Don’t panic.
If you’re working on verse 5 or 6, you’re fine! The schedule is a guide. And some people will find it more effective to memorize tortoise style, rather than hare style (no, not hair.) with a bunch of review. 

2. Engage multiple senses
Hear, see, speak out loud. Hear, see, speak out loud. Speak, hear, read. Hear your own speaking, while reading. Hear someone else reading, while speaking. The more different ways, the more neuropathways. The more pathways, the better.

3. Engage multiple systems
Think, speak, move! Muscle memory is sometimes easier to come by than abstract memory. I attach hand motions to abstract concepts to make them concrete. Then the gesture can actually remind you of the word… So, for words like “former…before…after…many days hence” I picture time as moving from left to right, and gesture accordingly. Other words like “seen…speaking,” “spoken…beheld…looked,” “taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.” are even easier. Invent your own sign language. 🙂 Just move your hands.
Lists, same thing. Jerusalem is always on my left, Judea next, (all Judea– gesture the “all” too) Samaria off to the right a bit, and the uttermost part of the earth is… far flung. 🙂
Oh, and one more thing: Don’t sit down. Seriously.

3. I repeat: Listen.
Can’t stress this enough. The Bible we listen to is free. So free, in fact, if any of you have not already procured it, I will email the first 3 chapters to you right this minute. Seriously. [then the next three, then the next three] Please(!!!) drop me an email… [seannebblett[at]gmail.com]
Even if you’re not an auditory learner, I promise you everything you hear (and everything you will ever hear) is stored in your brain forever. If you’ve listened to a chapter 20 times before it’s time to memorize it, you’ll find most of it recognizable. (Translation, start listening to Acts 2 a couple times a day. by the time you get there you’ll be glad you did.)

As a bonus, the mind is particularly adept at capturing conversations through the ear… And Acts is full of conversations. Have you noticed it’s easier to remember what the characters are actually saying that what is said about them?

4. Memorize out loud. (This is why it’s handy to have more than one person doing it in your house. :))

Ok. What have I missed?

p.s. If any of you are still having trouble with the calendar, revisit the original post and use the links I added specifically for Google Calendar.

Triumph on Day 1

March 4, 2012 / / 3 Comments

Did you catch what I caught?

Thirteen words into the book of Acts, and I’m already seized by the tenor of triumph. 
That one word, “began.” 
The whole (previous) Gospel full… 
Luke says it was just the beginning.
Just the start.
That’s really, really good news.

“Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour…” 2 Cor 2:14, 15a

It’s not too late to join us! 🙂 Check out the previous post for all the details. This is day 1.
Day 300, here we come!

Acts: The Revolution… Starts on Sunday.

March 2, 2012 / / 79 Comments

Winter blurs into spring; projects blur into each other. And blogs sometimes fall silent while we trace the trail assigned us. (Texas and Minnesota being the destinations in the last 7 days.)

But always there are those moments in between…when we remember what’s really important.
Seattle skyline as seen from the hotel that will be hosting GYC.
Into the midst of our overflowing life, Tasha brought back from the most recent trip an idea destined to radically change our summer… Exactly how it was born, I know not. But a friend (and fellow GYC ECOM member) from Canada had something to do with it, and now the 5 of us are getting geared up for a challenge. 🙂
In the simplest terms,
The book of Acts:
28 chapters
1,007 verses
24,308 words
in 300 days.
And not just because GYC 2012 is going to be all about the book of Acts.
Because we want to enter in to the life of Acts.
Since after all, the book is still being written.
So here’s the big question: 
You want to join us?
Yes, you.
Consider it an investment in your mind. An investment in your spiritual life…
Three verses a day isn’t really that many, but only the absolutely determined will actually pull it off. And it will take more than 10 minutes a day. But what if it changed your life forever?
You don’t think you can. 
I know you can. You should. And we’d love to cheer you on. (and hear you cheer for us!) 🙂
So here’s the plan: 
1: Subscribe to our memorization and review schedules with any calendar application (iCal, iPhone/pad/pod, Android, Google Calendar, Outlook, etc) using the subscription links below.
OR:
Download and import these two .ics files (calendar will be static however, and won’t update if we change or adjust anything) (click the link, and on the page right click file and select “download”)
2: Just a suggestion… Get yourself an audio bible so you can listen at least an hour a day… to the chapter you’re working on, plus ahead and behind.
3: Let us know you’re with us!
GYC, here we come. 🙂
p.s. If you can’t keep up the pace, or if you’re reading this post late and we’ve already started, no worries! Take it at your own pace, or jump in in the middle… So what if you only have half the book memorized by December! You’ll never be sorry. 
p.p.s. Hint #1:
You’ll notice the memorization assignments fluctuate between 2 verses and 5. Three verses a day is the average. The daily dose is split by logical thought breaks, not by number of verses. But no worries, until the second half of Acts, 30% of the days have no new memorization assignments at all. They are just for just review. So if you can’t seem to grasp 5 new verses in a day, do three. There are review days coming. Just check the schedule to make sure you’re roughly on track. 🙂
Hint #2:
If you’re jumping in in the middle, or you get way behind, skip a chapter and get back on schedule. (or ahead) Nobody said you couldn’t come back to something. Your morale will stay higher if you don’t feel like you’re always trying to catch up. 🙂
______________________________________________
Subscribe to our memorization schedule here: (iCal)
webcal://p08-calendarws.icloud.com/ca/subscribe/1/cS21hHbOrOSRPcrfC_vHp4S3zfxv2eraV8XHi_Y611coj2Kk-d1VkgfOuDCZFzE5HgkyjHBVp7wNB7fCfTP1ZbgAOpQkPQmRIol2o1zJvn4
And to the review schedule here: (iCal) (Yes, you will want both.)
webcal://p08-calendarws.icloud.com/ca/subscribe/1/m5O5AqFpbyrgRnIlMho_YblamjH87rWrjeij1jiE0NOsWjypR4DHbBUntICR19xWSBiqT4hCdE8_CK-FKCq7E_dDTDu-MmoNWGAyNKO9ATY
Or subscribe with Google Calendar:
Memorization: https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/8ko4ui9l5gjl6l825bencd20q0%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics
Review: https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/h0cet12jp99d2kufm7n97s615c%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

Or check out the Acts: Memorization tab on either thenebblettfamily.com or seannebblett.com

Go get yourself an audio bible from a place like this.
Or, listen to it streamed on demand, here.
Or, download an audiobible app for your iDevice here.
Or your Android. here.

Under Any Circumstances

February 16, 2012 / / 13 Comments
“Isaiah 58 speaks of a ‘chosen fast’, of the service our God values…

‘To loose the bands of wickedness,’ undo ‘heavy burdens,’ ‘let the oppressed go free,’ break yokes, feed starving children, provide for the poor, dress the naked…

This morning as I was pondering here, it struck me that for the given, every act of service or obedience is an act of war.

and God has given us the privilege of going to war — of breaking yokes and letting the oppressed go free — right here. With music.

We would do well to remember.”

The hours fly by, and since those words were spoken, all 9 family songs have been tracked, and all but two of the rest. Voices lasted long enough to finish that which was necessary to proceed, and then mine rebelled completely, to remind me I’m just dust. So, we work our instrumental accompaniment while we drink gallons of water and let the voices rest for the final two… 🙂
And yet, even in this mercy we feel our need. Our violinists both awoke under the weather this morning. But Chantée resolutely declares she will record under any circumstances. Fuel for Glory, right?

We press on. 🙂 Coveting your prayers always…

Designs of Grace

February 13, 2012 / / 2 Comments

The day closes on hours of setup and sound checks. Tomorrow the real work begins… Mean time, miracles on the instruments are in full swing. The lost voices are mended, or mending. (how could they do otherwise, after prayers from 4 continents?)

I patter around the studio after the troop has gone upstairs, capturing these sights in the silence. The stack of preamps brings a smile to my face.

Grace Design.

Naturally. Couldn’t have put it better myself.

Off to War

February 11, 2012 / / 12 Comments

The four Nebbletts junior land in Albuquerque yesterday after the week of GYC business etc in Seattle and Canada. In company with us is our friend and engineer, and suitcases full of thousands of dollars in recording equipment.


And now, we seem to have a fight on our hands.

But the fight is where glory unfolds, and I want you to be in on the joy. 🙂

So pray that the voice that disappeared suddenly (and completely) in a coughing spell at midnight last night, and the other one that’s likewise suddenly considered “high risk” will be theaters for miracles.

We don’t do this for ourselves… In consequence, we always face war with darkness.

But grace will prevail. It always does. 🙂

Even if it Leaves a Scar

February 8, 2012 / / 14 Comments
“It is broken hearts that long for Home, 
and change the world.”

That’s why.
That’s why though I have thousands of beautiful photos of beautiful friends, my phone shows me this one every time I swipe to unlock it.

Image: ©New York Times

You reel. You should.

– – – – –

“That would make me sick every time I saw it.”
Words of a trusted friend, those.

“It does make me sick.”
That’s why it’s there.

. . .

“I don’t understand…
Why her and not me?
Why am I not a starving child in Africa?
Why was I born into my family here in the US?”

“I know… I don’t know. 
That’s why it breaks me.”

There are two kinds of people in the world:
Those who have been given the gift of suffering,*
And those gifted with the responsibility to do something about it.

I’m asking God to burn the needs of His children on my heart… 
Even if it leaves a scar. 
His hands are scarred, after all.

*Suffering: the gift of being able to 
uniquely identify with a heart-broken God.

Thoughts Made Visible

February 5, 2012 / / 4 Comments
“The more men learn of God, the greater will 
be their admiration of His character.”
–last page of The Great Controversy

Sitting cross-legged by the hearth in the dark, those words ring in my ears. I flip to the best-selling biography of the Man that was God.

And I read:

“His name shall be called Immanuel, … God with us.”*

God with us.
God. Given.
Ours.
Not just for then, but forever… “For God so loved the world that He gave…”
Not loaned. Gave.

Grapple with that for a moment.

I read on.
“By coming to dwell with us, Jesus was to reveal God both to men and angels. He was the Word of God– God’s thought made audible.”*

So this Man Who was God came to be the Song of God’s heart, that the world might hear God’s thoughts, and understand…
And He, in a human frame like mine.

I wonder…
Are not the men & women who are God’s, called to much the same thing, human frames notwithstanding?

What if we were to take His thoughts (made audible) and live them…

And become to the dying world,

God’s thoughts made visible.


–*first page of Desire of Ages



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