MicroExplosion is back...from vacation!

If you've been wondering where MicroExplosion has been for the last week or so I've been on vacation. Thanks for your concern...both of you. It's always great to get away with the family for a while. I was able to see my mom, brother, and his wife and daughters at Lake Keowee in South Carolina. When they left my wife, daughter, and I stayed behind at Backwater Landing and had a great time. Thanks to the Williams family for letting us stay in their excellent lake house for a few days.

One thing I hate about being away from home for several days is that I feel like I miss the local newsworthy events. I don't know if this was an especially newsworthy week, but there were three things that caught my attention. I've put them into three categories below: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good (from bad): While we were away the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition bus pulled into our town and started building a new house for a family whose home was destroyed during the tornado we had back in April. The bigger tragedy was that the mother of two small boys was paralyzed when she saved the lives of her sons during the destruction of the home. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition has been a favorite show for quite a while and I'm glad to see them do this for our local hero.

The Bad (with good): A teenager named Nathan Johnson was killed in a car wreck on Friday (story here). I know his father personally and his older brother is an intern at my church, Long Hollow Baptist. I may be a little strange in situations like this because my first question is never “Why God” but “How God?” I wonder how God is going to use this event for His glory rather than why it happened. A death like this is a tragic occurrence to which I can only trust God's sovereignty. I found out yesterday that 25 people received salvation at the funeral...another occurrence to which I can only trust God's sovereignty...and perhaps the beginning of how God will use this young man's life and death for His glory.

The Ugly (getting uglier): Last Sunday the pastor of Bellevue Community Church, David Foster, was officially let go. The news reports say he was asked to leave the church property by a Nashville police officer and that there has been a lot going on behind the scenes between he and the church elders for quite a while. This story wouldn't have been a big deal to me beyond a general interest in churches except for the fact that I know several former BCC church employees. Seems like this has been a long time coming from what I've heard from people who would know. Any time a pastor leaves a church there's the potential for it to get ugly. In this case you have two sides saying the exact opposite...which means it's definitely going to get ugly. I suspect it's only going to get uglier with the combination of local news interest, damaged ego, and a man accustomed to a platform and attention. Here's the latest headline from this story.