Scott Fillmer » holiday

Looking Back and Forward So Happy New Year 2012

Scott Fillmer — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 18:03:43 +0000

It’s that time of year, again. Time for the mark of another year gone, and a new one on it’s way. I have been trying to work my way through Michael Hyatt’s “Life Plan” but am still in the “reading” stage. I have most of my thoughts in place, just haven’t made them into a collective organized format yet.

I use to never make so-called “new year’s resolutions”, and for the most part, I don’t. They are so cliche, and are usually not reasonably obtainable, so I just didn’t make them. I do however set goals, and make continuous strides after them, or adjust them as plans change. That is basically what Hyatt’s Life Plan is about.

Looking back, 2011 was a tough year, but I did do, or continue towards, several things that were on my long term list. I took 67,000 images (that doesn’t include deleted images) in 2011, and trying to look back and pick a “favorite” out of 67,000 shots is impossible. I couldn’t even pick a favorite of mine, so that’s me, sitting in Entebbe Airport, waiting for our KLM flight from Uganda to Amsterdam. My two trips this year to Uganda were marks that altered my direction and focus, and in a strange turn towards the end of the year, helped solidify my reasons for continuing to pursue my seminary work.

Looking at what possibly lies ahead for 2012 is hard. There are certainly highs, and lows, on the way, but I will make the greatest attempt this year to give any worry about those things that make up life’s trials to the Lord once and for all. I hope I will complete the requirements to earn my first graduate degree in seminary, and develop in those areas I have identified for 2012. Most of all, to strive to use the time I’m giving to the very best of my ability. Not doing the things that don’t need to be done, and focusing on those that do.

When looking at the New Year, these two verses stood out to me earlier this morning, and I love how they mold together into a cohesive unit. Matthew 5.6 and 5.48 which says: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Happy New Year everyone, and War Eagle from the Georgia Dome tonight where we will most likely still be when the new year comes to our part of the world.

Posts Related to This Topic:

Come Join The Cornerstone Church Food Drop 2012

Scott Fillmer — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 22:35:18 +0000

This year at our church to celebrate Christmas, instead of doing fancy decorations and traditional garland we have been planning for quite a while now to do a “food drop” for the Auburn area. So if you were to walk around the church right now you will see boxes everywhere. A Christmas tree made out of boxes, presents made out of gigantic boxes, and the filled and returned boxes we started to give out this past Sunday. The way we have tried to communicate this on our own website is that we are never more like Jesus then when we serve others. And throughout the month of December, Cornerstone members and attenders (or anyone who wants to be a part giving back to our community) will be given the opportunity to serve others using a simple box. We are asking everyone to:

Pick up a box and packing list from the Cornerstone lobby.
Pack the box full of food for families in Lee County.
Return the filled box to the church by January 1, 2012.
Saturday, January 7, gather at Cornerstone and pack the SUV’s, minivans and pickup trucks with these boxes and head out to specific communities to pass out these boxes to families in our area. (We will work with the Food Bank of East Alabama to target the communities in the greatest need.)

This is an opportunity to make a tangible difference in someone’s life by offering basic necessities that many of us take for granted. We can make the New Year great for our community with our simple gift of a box of food, and we are trying to have over 1,000 boxes filled by January 1st. For more information you can also visit the Cornerstone Food Drop 2012 info page, or visit Lee’s blog post as well.

If you are reading this and saying to yourself, I don’t go to Cornerstone so that’s nice and all but who cares… well, you don’t have to, but you can still participate. If you are in the Auburn-Opelika area, just come by the church lobby and pick up a packing list and a box and return it before January 1st.

Either way, whether you participate or not, I hope you can make it a priority this Christmas to go beyond the normal gift giving and remember others who are not as fortunate. I love that about Cornerstone, and I love seeing the church be the church. We need to think, learn, study, and understand God’s word, but we also need to go… and do. How can we say we believe what the scriptures say unless we actually do what it says. I hate the commercialization that always goes along with this time of year, but I love this. Hope you will help make it a success as well.

Posts Related to This Topic:

Happy Thanksgiving 2011 from the Farm

Scott Fillmer — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 19:48:18 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving 2011 from down over here on the farm. I love the fall in the south, it is a beautiful 70*F sunny day outside (although it is supposed to be something like 24*F in a few days), and Thanksgiving pretty much always kicks off Iron Bowl weekend. If you are perhaps one of the few unfamiliar with the Iron Bowl, check out the film by ESPN called Roll Tide War Eagle. Can’t begin to list how many things I am thankful for at this point, but for one, we have Deborah at home and feeling relatively well, that trumps most other things on my list right now.

I am extremely thankful for my family, and being able to eat dinner over at my parents house today will be awesome. I took the photo of my mom and dad above this morning, but the normal traditional work is the first shot. Every year on Thanksgiving week we (generally that means my dad) mow the entire pasture for the winter.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and War Eagle!

Posts Related to This Topic:

Labor Day Monday Photo With a Bike Uganda Style

Scott Fillmer — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:43:23 +0000

This Labor Day was a glorious day. It rained almost all day today due to Tropical Storm Lee pounding up from the Gulf Coast. For those of us fortunate enough to be able to take at least part of the day off today it was wonderful. For a few shorts minutes this morning I was able to sit on my patio and watch the rain and do nothing. It was great, but a time of solitude took me back to thinking about those in Uganda, many who labor very hard every single day. Matthew says “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (11:28), and we came across many who needed a little rest over there, as we all do everywhere. Margin is such an important thing in life. So important in fact that God put it 4th on his important list of things for us to do.

The photo above was so typical of the people we saw in Uganda. Super nice, hard working people, many moving goods from one place to another, by foot. I had never seen so many crazy things being moved around on a bike and moped; like a full sofa, a coffin, a refrigerator, and all kinds of agricultural goods. At some point I’ll do a post with just photos of things we saw people carrying on bikes, for now, this guy is my honorable labor day photo. Something like 50-75 pounds of trees being pushed up a hill in the mud, pretty incredible.

Posts Related to This Topic:

Photos of the 4th of July Fireworks in Auburn

Scott Fillmer — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:19:04 +0000

Yes, I know I’m a little late with the fireworks pics but oh well. The fireworks in Auburn were good as always, the only thing that just kills me every year is they don’t go high enough in the sky to get up over the power lines, and I have tried different locations every year. You can see from the grande finale shot above that Alabama Power just had to be front and center, otherwise, I love the shot. Each year they do this outdoor festival thing, which is more akin to thousands of people sitting around in the park waiting for the fireworks, but it is a great opportunity to shoot. It’s always a good show but hours of waiting and fighting the traffic afterwards for 10 minutes of fireworks has me thinking we might try a new show next year. Boston Pops would be cool.

Posts Related to This Topic:

A Much Needed Lazy Day 4th of July This Year

Scott Fillmer — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 20:44:44 +0000

Today was a much needed day to do nothing but sit at home and read and enjoy a day off, so Ebby and I sat out on the patio and read and did much of nothing. Funny, this is pretty much what she does on a daily basis, to her there was no difference today than there was yesterday except maybe more time with me and less time with Deborah. Looking forward to the fireworks in Auburn tonight. If you are in Auburn and haven’t been yet it’s always a good show (see some shots from a previous year). Don’t think I am going to have the energy to post the fireworks photos from tonight after we get home but they will be up in the next few days. Enjoy tonight and get out and see some fireworks celebration in your area if you can.

Posts Related to This Topic:

Starting the 4th of July Holiday Weekend :: Friday Feet

Scott Fillmer — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 01:46:42 +0000

This 4th of July holiday weekend seems to have snuck up on me. I didn’t realize it was the holiday weekend until about mid-week, days just seem to be flying by at such a fast pace, can’t believe we are already basically mid-summer. I tried out some test shots on Deb tonight, something she is always thrilled about. I picked up this used lens (10-12 years old by the serial number) for my Uganda trip. I decided last year that I was going to forgo the big expensive, heavy, pro, zoom lenses and opt for shooting with prime lenses (a fixed focal length lens). They are cheap, fast, and extremely sharp, when you shoot them well.

This is Nikon’s Nikkor 20mm f/2.8D classic prime that came out back in the late 1980′s (see photo below), which converts to about 30mm on my DX crop sensor. Not the best portrait focal length in the bag for a crop sensor but it worked pretty well. Not so sure about the focus, it seems like it might be off front or back a bit but it will do the job. I shot some black and white film with it too but of course I can’t see that yet. It hasn’t been easy getting use to using primes, but it has forced me to look at shooting more creatively. Somehow shooting those big fat pro zoom lenses years back made me lazy. Primes may take a bit more work but I love the end result.

Hope everyone is going to have a chance to relax and enjoy the 4th of July weekend. As hot as it was today we may not leave the air conditioned house until the fireworks go off on Monday. Have a great weekend.

Posts Related to This Topic:

The “I AM” Lenten Reader During This Season of Lent

Scott Fillmer — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 21:43:58 +0000

My last blog post, What is Ash Wednesday and the Season of Lent?, I wrote an explanation of what Ash Wednesday and the Lent season is all about, so this post I’m giving a more concrete action step of what some do to observe the season of Lent, but more specifically what our church is doing this year. We decided as a church to put together the Lenten Reader pictured above that includes a short daily reading and reflection or journal writing, which walks through the “I AM” statements in the Gospel of John.

I AM the Bread of Life.
I AM the Gate.
I AM the Light of the World.
I AM the Way, the Truth, & the Life.
I AM the Good Shepherd.
I AM the True Vine.
I AM.

Each day I am going to attempt (time willing) to post the text from each day’s reading, and the response as I contemplate the message. I am not going to post every single day but will be actively posting from this Lenten Reader as the season moves ahead. I will probably include the entire Lenten Reader PDF here for download shortly but for now you can read the introduction pages, page 1 and page 2, the text is also written below.

The I AM Lenten Reader Introduction

Each week is anchored in the “I AM” statement taught on Sunday, and every week there will be challenges for confession, repentance, and worship. Some days you will be led to a blog post and asked to read and reflect upon it. Other days you will be challenged to meditate on scripture or celebrate what God has done in your own life.

Throughout this reader, you will also be challenged to journal consistently. There will be questions on some days, and other days there won’t be. We intentionally left space for you to write your own thoughts and seek what God is teaching you on a personal spiritual level.

Lent is more than a season of self-denial; it is a wake up call from our day-to-day lives to the life we have in Christ. Lent breaks us from the every day pattern and refocuses us on Christ and His sacrifice. Our hope is that the reader will break you from your patterns and draw you into a journey with Christ. Dig deep into these scriptures. Be actively present in the practices of worship, confession, meditation, fasting, and journaling.

Seek to know Christ and the power of His sacrifice.

Posts Related to This Topic:

What is Ash Wednesday and the Season of Lent?

Scott Fillmer — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 21:50:42 +0000

Ash Wednesday 2011 is this coming Wednesday, March 9th, and as often is the case with specific days that we observe as Christians, people often ask why we observe these days over others. Ash Wednesday comes the day after Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), and is the first day of the season of Lent. Ash Wednesday in particular is observed by the Church body on the seventh Wednesday before Easter Sunday.

A Day of Reflection in Preparation for Holy Week

This begins a time of reflection for God’s people to prepare for Holy Week and occurs 46 days (40 days not counting Sundays) leading up to Easter. Ash Wednesday is a more somber reflection, which starts a season of soul-searching and repentance and both Ash Wednesday and Lent have a long history going back to the earliest church fathers. It is presented formally in the The Apostolic Constitutions, Book V, Section III here where it says:

the fast of Lent is to be observed by you as containing a memorial of our Lord’s mode of life and legislation. But let this solemnity be observed before the fast of the passover, beginning from the second day of the week, and ending at the day of the preparation. After which solemnities, breaking off your fast, begin the holy week of the passover

As explained here it’s name comes from the ancient practice of placing ashes on worshippers’ foreheads as a sign of humility before God, and is symbolic of mourning and sorrow at the death that sin brings into the world. It not only prefigures the mourning at the death of Jesus, but also places the worshipper in a position to realize the consequences of sin. Ash Wednesday is a day of reflection on what needs to change in our lives as we grow to be more Christ-like in mind, heart, and soul.

In the early church, ashes were not offered to everyone but were only used to mark the forehead of worshippers who had made a public confession of sin and sought to be restored to the fellowship of the community at the Easter celebration. However, over the years others began to show their humility and identification with the penitents by asking that they, too, be marked as sinners. Finally, the imposition of ashes was extended to the whole congregation in services similar to those that are now observed in many Christian churches on Ash Wednesday. Ashes became symbolic of that attitude of penitence reflected in the Lord’s prayer in Luke 11:4:

and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.

Personal Reflection on the Season of Lent

Different churches and believers observe Lent in different ways, but not all churches observe Lent today, especially if you come from a Southern Baptist Church (although see Some Baptist churches will celebrate Lent this year and also More Baptist churches looking to Lent for community, confession, cadence). Sometimes anything the Catholics do the Baptists don’t, and this generally revolves around rituals not specifically found in scripture (like Ash Wednesday or lighting candles, but that’s a whole different post).

Without getting too much into the denominational battle, I spent years in the SBC where my particular church never observed Lent, and I never really understood or gained an appreciation for a specific time of reflection to prepare for Holy Week until recently.

In an upcoming post I will go through what our particular church is doing to observe Lent this year, starting with Ash Wednesday, but this is not a “church” thing. If you are not part of a local church, you can observe a time of repentance and reflection right where you are, or here with me on my blog, as I walk through the next 40 days of Lent right here.

For a look at what we are doing at Cornerstone please read The “I AM” Lenten Reader During This Season of Lent.

Posts Related to This Topic:

What’s Saint Valentine’s Day Minus Commercialization?

Scott Fillmer — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 13:45:12 +0000

So it’s Valentine’s Day again, and while I would like to say I go all out on Valentine’s Day, I usually do not. Not only that, but I am also not a gift buyer for this day, and much of it specifically has to do with how commercialized every single possible holiday day has become. There is no man alive in this country that has an excuse for forgetting this holiday, or any holiday, at this point, we have been bombarded since New Year’s that this day was coming. I hate force buying something that isn’t really asked for in the first place, and is usually something over-manufactured for cheap pennies overseas (made in China).

So if you take away the commercialization of Valentine’s Day, where did the day come from and why do we celebrate it? As is now standard in our post-mondern society, we have taken a day once commemorating a specific day on the Christian calendar and turned it into cheap plastic toys for lack of a better phrase.

Started in A.D. 496 by Pope Gelasius I (and then later deleted from the Roman calendar of saints in 1969 by Pope Paul VI), it was originally placed on the calendar on February 14th to “celebrate” the martyrdom of Saint Valentine (or Valentinus in Latin) the Patron of Love, which was actually around 14 different martyrs, not one specific person or saint. The total number of martyred saints is not completely known, and the reasons for their deaths range as well. First written about in Nuremberg, Saint Valentine supposedly was caught marrying Christian couples who were being persecuted by under Emperor Claudius in Rome (which was a crime). He was then imprisoned, where he also gained almost 50 converts to Christianity before he was executed.

So there you have it. Nothing to do with a box of chocolates, stuffed animals from Walmart, or pajamas from TV mail order.

Some may call it cheap, but I will make a public “Happy Valentine’s Day” wish to the true love of my life, Deborah. I hope I can live out the remainder of our days together as the husband you expect me to be, always ready to show you the love you deserve. Even though I didn’t buy you a box of chocolates today, I still love you very much.