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My five year old son got a splinter in his hand while playing in the backyard.

“We have to get that out,” I told him. “It might hurt a little, but then it will be all over and it will make you better. If we don’t take it out, it will never heal.”

Perfectly reasonable, right? Yet the five year old mind didn’t quite understand. There was screaming and crying. Oh, how there was screaming.

I got so frustrated as I was working with all my might to hold his hand still and take out the splinter. I could see the end of it right there and all I had to do was grab it with the tweasers, pull it out, and it would be over. But no matter how hard I tried to convince him, he continued to fight it.

1. When we get hurt, it often takes an even more painful experience to remove the source of the hurt so that we can heal.
2. Our minds sometimes can’t comprehend the idea that we have to go through that hurt in order to get better.
3. I’m thankful that our Heavenly Father has perfect patience with us as we fight, struggle, cry and scream against His loving efforts to heal us.

Yesterday, I almost sang the national anthem at a minor league baseball game. But I didn’t.

The game was scheduled for 7:05pm and I was to arrive at 6:30. When I got there, signs were posted announcing that the game would start at 8:30pm. My contact told me to come back at 8.

At 8pm, I returned and I was told I could take my seat and they would get me when the time was near. My family and I took our seats, but noticed how strange it was that there were no players on the field, in the bullpins or in the dugouts.

At 8:25pm, I went back to check in with those in charge. They looked a little concerned and said at that time they didn’t know when the game was going to start, or if it would be played at all. Since my five year old son was with me, and it was already well past his bedtime, I knew it was time to go.

So I left.

In case you’re curious, the game was delayed because the visiting team’s aircraft had mechanical problems and never got off the ground. Our local team sent a charter plane to get them and they landed at 7:15pm. At 8:30, when I checked in with the folks in charge, the players were on site but they didn’t have their uniforms or their equipment.

This morning, it appears that they did play the game last night, but I have no idea when it started.

I think the title says it all. I know it’s a bold and absolute statement, but I’ll stand behind it. At least until I eat somewhere I like better.

Cheever’s just nails it for me. The new American cuisine is a fantastic combination of tradition and innovation. Everything I’ve ever eaten there was unbelievably good. And the things I’ve seen other people eat there looked really good too.

The location is perfect, especially since its just a few blocks from my house. The vintage old building has been nicely upgraded, but it still holds on to its creaks and crevices to keep that unpolished edge.

The atmosphere is sophisticated, but lively. Local artwork adorns the walls. The service is impeccable. The prices are substantial, but fair. I could just go on and on. But the bottom line is simple:

Cheever’s Cafe is the best restaurant in Oklahoma City.

Try it. Love it. Comment about it.

And you might also want to try the Iron Starr Urban BBQ, another fantastic restaurant from the same group. Plus, a new treat is on its way as they plan to open the Red Prime Steakhouse in a fantastic location downtown. Way to go, guys.

While in Los Angeles I got eat at Beacon, an experience which definitely warrants a post here on the blog. I found Beacon just by chance. It is across the street from the Jazz Bakery where I was to hear Matt Wilson perform later in the evening. The Jazz Bakery folks recommended Beacon and another restaurant nearby. I am glad we chose Beacon.

Beacon serves Asian food with a creative twist. Their two executive chefs have been written up in some publications and I found out that LA Magazine rated Beacon as one of the top 25 restaurants in LA. It certainly deserves it as far as I’m concerned.

First of all, we got to sit outside on their lovely patio in the cool LA evening weather, under space heaters. Just about the perfect environment. Then came the food. I was there with my sister and we decided to split everything so we could make a two course meal into four courses.

We started with the chef’s soup of the day. An amazing combination of carrots and ginger and probably a lot of other stuff all pureed down into an amazing experience. Then there was the sauteed mushroom salad, also fantastic. Then, there was pad thai. I got the pad thai because I pretty much always get it any time I’m anywhere that serves it. It’s one of my favorite dishes and I just have to see what it’s like. It was great. Maybe not the best I’ve ever had, but definitely unique and right up there on my list.

But the first three courses were nothing compared to the grand finale, the hanger steak. This dish was highly recommended by the waiter and he was right on. An amazingly tender steak marinated and served in a sauce that I can’t even begin to describe other than to just say “wow,” and topped off with a lovely tab of wasabi relish. Unbelievable.

As you can tell, I am 100% in favor of Beacon. The service, the food and the environment are all well worth the trip. So, if you’re ever in LA and in the mood for a great dinner and some jazz, it just doesn’t get much better than Beacon and the Jazz Bakery.

There’s an enormous amount of dialog in the church world about worship style. Most of that dialog deals with trying to choose the one worship style that is best for a particular church or a particular service. Most likely, whether your church or service is highly modern or highly classic, you have a particular style that is consistent for that service from week to week.

I don’t hear a lot of dialog about the idea of diversity within a particular service from week to week. Why is that?

Well, that’s a rhetorical question because I can think of a lot of reasons why. I mean, it’s pretty tough to change things up every week. You have to have the right musicians, the right rehearsal schedule, and all of the other resources you need to create your experience.

So, I’m not proposing that worship services should be edgy one week and cathedral the next. But here are a few thing I have found to be effective in pushing the diversity envelope.

1. Rotating leaders. From the primary worship leader to the supporting musicians, I think it’s tremendous to rotate your worship leadership from week to week. The church where I help out does this and I love it. Not only is it great for the leaders who get rest and therefore have a better chance of avoiding burnout and staying fresh, I think it’s also great for the congregation because they don’t get attached to a personality. That way if “the one” is not there on a particular week, it doesn’t seem like a substitute, it’s just the way it is. Why not?
2. Changing instrumentation. Why not vary up the instrumentation from week to week. The same musician lineup will produce about the same sound. Why not make small changes from week to week and even try something way out of the box and uncomfortable every once and a while.
3. Using different songs. Probably the simplest form of diversification is just picking different songs. If you follow #1 and use different worship leaders, this will most likely happen automatically as each leader has a bent in a different direction. It’s tough to balance the use of different songs with the congregation’s need for consistency, but it’s a balancing act that I think is well worth the effort.

I just finished leading a worship service yesterday where I played piano and led the singing. The only other musicians were an acoustic double bass, aux percussion and two other vocalists. That’s it. The sound was dramatically different from what I’m used to and it was difficult for me. It stretched me and made me a bit uncomfortable.

I’ve been thinking about it a lot, trying to determine if that’s a bad thing, and I don’t think it is. I believe that God works on us when we are outside of our comfort zones in so many ways. I don’t see why worship would be any different. I pray that yesterday’s service was as much a stretch for our congregation as it was for me, and that God can somehow use this element of diversity for his glory.

Most of the time, I judge the success of worship services by how good I feel about them. I just wonder if that is the right standard to be using. If it’s not, then no matter how I feel, I can never know the true impact of a service, so I shouldn’t worry about it. I should just do the best I can, humbly, to worship God and edify a community of believers.

Craig Groeschel of Life Church fame clearly summarizes one of the most significant lessons I have learned over the past couple of years in his “Developing Leaders: Part 5” post on the LifeChurch.tv Swerve blog.

I don’t really have anything to add to it, just read it. The concept he describes is very simple, yet I have found it to be a very hard thing to reckon with. I believe it applies to church work, family, or pretty much any area of life. It’s an area I know I will spend the rest of my life struggling to improve.

I’m just going to say it. I love Chipotle. I think it might just be the perfect chain restaurant. Generally, I don’t like chain restaurants as much as I like local places, but when it comes to chains, I don’t think it gets any better than Chipotle.

We don’t have a Chipotle in Oklahoma City right now. I’ve been watching their development site and searching on the web over the past year and it seems they do have plans to build one here sometime, but there’s no indication of where or when. So, at least for now, my Chipotle experiences are fairly limited.

You know you love a place when one of the things you look most forward to on any trip out of town is the chance to eat there. In fact, this weekend, I just drove to Longview, TX and back. I stopped at Chipotle in Dallas for dinner on the way down. I stopped at Chipotle in Dallas for lunch the next day on the way back. Yeah, I like it alot.

If they do build one in OKC sometime and I can go whenever I want, will it still be as special? There is something about the fact that I can look forward to the next opportunity to eat there with great anticipation, but I think I’d be alright to give that up.

In case you’re wondering, here’s my order, every single time:

Three soft tacos.
One chicken.
One pork.
One shredded beef.
Grilled onions and peppers, corn salsa, cheese and lettuce on each.

And a side of chips and guacamole.

While in Los Angeles, I got to hear some live jazz at the Jazz Bakery. The bakery is a neat little venue. It’s a non-profit organization supporting live jazz and they appear to bring in some pretty great players. That was definitely true the night that I got to go.

I had not heard of Matt Wilson before, but after getting to know him a bit through a little research, he appears to be a pretty well known and accomplished player. What I can say from my personal experience is that he’s a fantastic drummer and his band, Arts and Crafts, consists of three additional musicians who are each fabulous as well. Altogether, hearing this group ranks pretty highly up there on my live jazz experiences. Granted, I don’t get to have a lot of live jazz listening experiences living in OKC, but I try to take advantage any time I’m in a major city. The trip to hear Matt Wilson was definitely worth it.

His group includes Matt Wilson, of course, on drums. He’s a versatile drummer with a great ability to explore unusual and unique sounds through his instrument. Plus, he has a great ability to play in a wide dynamic range. Actually, all of the musicians in his group excel at making dynamics an integral part of their musicianship.

Next is Terell Stafford on trumpet, a phenomenally versatile player with a beautiful tone and a whole lot of licks under his fingers. Gary Versace played acoustic piano, accordion, and a special treat for me, an actual Hammond organ. With all three instruments at his disposal, he brought a unique sound to each new tune. And with some obvious classical training and experience behind him, he offered interpretations I found to be extremely interesting and challenging. Finally, Dennis Irwin played bass. He also plays clarinet, evidently, as there was a clarinet laying next to him, but he never used it during the set I attended.

Together, Arts and Crafts creates a sound that is rooted in standards-driven acoustic jazz but when you hear them, you realize there is nothing ordinary or simple about anything they bring. They push the limits of their instruments, of dynamics, of form and of tone in ways that are challenging while still offering enough foundation to keep the ground under their feet.

I’m in an airport working my way back to Oklahoma City after a quick trip to Los Angeles spending time with my sister. Here’s a little summary of the trip highlights, though I may write more about specifics in future posts.

Got to eat at Chipotle. Got to eat at a local Thai place in Pasadena. Got to eat at the Hat, which is a local sandwich shop famous for their enormous pastrami dip sandwiches. And when I say enormous, I mean so big that two people can split one and it’s still too big. Got to eat at a neat little fish taco place. Got to eat at Beacon, an upscale asian restaurant in Culver City that will definitely warrant a future post. Got to eat at Sandwiches by Connol, which is a little local Pasadena sandwich shop that also has breakfast burritos. And, finally, got to eat at In-and-Out burger, a must for me on any trip to the west.

In addition to eating a lot, I also got to hear some jazz at the Jazz Bakery (future post forthcoming), and drive about taking a quick whirlwind tour of Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and Santa Monica including setting my feet in the Pacific Ocean.

All in all, a pretty full trip for just a few days. More detail on some of the high points to come.

Today was my best day of trading in my four month trading career. It was a welcome change from the four previous days, which were really trying my patience and emotional fortitude.

Today I closed out a trade for a 1000% gain. Those of you who have traded options know that is not really as big a deal as it sounds, but it’s still fun to say. There’s a lot more to it than just a big return on a single trade and this by no means makes me a great or accomplished trader, but I did learn an important lesson.

I learned that it is possible to hit the homerun, and when you do, it plays a very important role in the trading process. It compensates for a lot of small losses and gives you momentum.

This big trade adds to the additional satisfaction I felt today when my patience was rewarded and many of the trades which had been lagging made some moves in the right direction. Earlier in my long career, I would have exited most of those trades before they had a chance to prove themselves. Patience was rewarded today.

Alas, I am celebrating today’s successes for now, but will soon return to preparations for tomorrow. After all, each day is an unknown.

Oh, and one more thing. My 1000% gain was from an option on Chipotle. Even sweeter when my favorite limited service restaurant goes the extra mile to deliver a winning trade!