The Heath Mullikin Project

This Blog was originally slated to appear on Tuesday, January 22.

So, the past two days have been very draining. The kids have all been sick. Sunday night Drake only slept about 3 hours, but it wasn’t all at the same time. Last night, neither Drake nor Charis could sleep so Karen and I are walking around like zombies. We’re basically running on sitcom sleep. 30 minutes at a time. Some of its good and some of it is not so good. So, I thought today I would put out the call for prayer for our family while at the same time filling you in on our status. Here we go:

1. Pray for the physical health of our family. Since we moved to Delaware, there has been constant illness. I think it’s the house we’re living in, not like the Amytiville Horror, just old, dusty, cold, and moldy. That leads me to…
2. We will be moving into an apartment across from the church at the first of February. The rent is much cheaper(answer to prayer), it’s off the main road but secluded in the woods(answer to prayer), within walking distance of a park(ATP), and I could walk to work when it get warmer. Much warmer. It is a lot smaller than where we are now, but the landlords go to our church and are great people. With that said, pray for our current landlord, Roy, who is not a believer. We have several disputes with him right now. I have to make sure I deal with him with integrity while not letting him run all over us. While I feel that I wouldn’t want to rent from someone who is not a believer again I don’t want him to think that he wouldn’t rent to a Christian again. It has been oppressive at times, at least that’s how it’s felt so it’s a delicate situation because I have tried to build a relationship with him. For us, we saw the house as an opportunity to impact Roy’s life. We want it to be a positive rather than a negative.
3. Pray for this weekend. Karen and I will be going to the district Pastor-Wives retreat and the girls will be staying with one family while Drake is with another. This will be the longest we’ve been away from Drake so pray for calm, rest, relaxation, and strength. The good news now is that I’m not taking my computer and I’m not using my Blackberry anymore. That means less distractions and more quality time!
4. Since arriving in August, Karen has been looking and applying for various jobs(30-40 total). So far, every door has closed. Things have been tight. Really tight. I have to remind myself that where God calls he provides. It’s frustrating because we haven’t been lazy about stuff. We have been trying to find extra income and are making budget cuts(hey Washington, there’s a great idea!). We want to be in the center of God’s target so he doesn’t have to look for us when he moves.
   

Thanks for your prayers and support.

Tomorrow…Top Gun and some other stuff

Sad to hear of the passing of Heath Ledger, an actor many of my friends and I had a new found interest in because of his portrayal of the Joker in the upcoming The Dark Knight. Sometimes we get caught in the circumstances of celebrity tragedies and forget the human element. We’ve seen them on film and in pictures so much that we forget that they breathe and bleed just like us. Thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

I know this blog can be a bit depressing at times. That’s not the goal. That’s just where I’m at sometimes. I think, no I know, that I’m doing a lot better than I sound on here sometimes. I had prepared a post for today(which is on the lap top at the office) which is some specific prayer requests that our family has right now. Many of you have written encouraging notes(heck, it’s encouraging to know I’m not just talking to myself, no more than usual anyway) which are greatly appreciated. So, have a great day, night, wherever you may be and know that when God gives you the mojo can’t nobody take it from you. Peace

I hope this will be brief because I’ve had a few late nights in a row and Sunday comes early around here.
1. I was thinking about global warming today. Can things like Carbon Dioxide and cow farts really change the climate? Didn’t God know this when He was creating everything? If we all started driving Hybrids tomorrow, could we honestly know how that would affect things 20 years down the road? Isn’t it interesting that on both sides of the argument, people are making a ton of money? I will confess that my family is responsible for a lot of trash. Most of mine lately is Mountain Dew bottles and Big Mac boxes.
2. John McCain is 71 years old. Hillary Clinton is in her 60’s. These are my options? These are my representatives? I’m not anti-old. I’m anti-old president.
3. I had a kinda out of body experience today. I was looking at some camp pictures(Thanks Deb) when I thought to my self,”Who is this guy? He looks like he’s having a lot of fun.” It took me a minute to reconnect with my memories because for a moment it was like I was remembering things from an outside point of view. A few times I thought, did I really do that? Am I capable of these things? What did I say around that camp fire? What words were in the rhyme around the ping pong tables? Do I really cry that much? There’s this thing I call “camp mode.” It’s when the Mountain Dew, ice cream sandwiches, adrenaline, ADD, and the Holy Spirit kick in and anything is possible. Now, you don’t have to be at camp to get into camp mode. I had it for about 10 minutes in the IZone in Orlando. It’s scary cause I don’t know if I know that guy anymore. I used to think I could turn it on at a moment’s notice in the right circumstance(and with a little “encouragement” from Wes), but today I don’t know if I could’ve reached down deep to find it. So, I’m washing dishes thinking, “what if that’s all behind me and I never get to give another camp fire speech again?” What if, at 32, I’ve done everything great in ministry that I’m going to do? What if I never lose my voice on the first night of camp again because I have nothing good to say? It’s weird because I’ve already had the privilege to do most of the things I ever dreamed of doing in ministry…DYP, camp director, camp speaker, convention team, leading mission trips. Maybe I didn’t ask God for enough. Maybe I got satisfied and I didn’t know it. So, here’s where I am. It’s time for Act 2(not to be confused with Acts 2 the old SWU drama team). Now, this is scary. Not roller coaster scary, but everything on the line scary. Stakes are high scary. Rocky 3 speech on the beach scary. Just typing this has got me thinking…there’s gotta be some ice cream sandwiches somewhere in this HiZouse. Stay tuned….

When you start reading a book called “Sex God” you can’t be completely sure of what you’re going to find. I find Rob Bell’s work and message to be fascinating, always challenging me, and I can see his influence on my preaching and writing. So, this book wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. It was a whole lot more. It blew me away. So, go buy it. Read it and let it sink in. However, plugging Rob Bell is not the purpose of this post. I want to give God a plug. You see, today I was working on various things in the office: Children’s church schedule, youth message schedules, etc. I knew I was almost finished with the book so when my ADD kicked in I picked it up. Now, the past few days had been difficult for us. Won’t go into details, but I feel like I’m on the end of a diving board and not sure where the pool is. So, I finish the book and get to the Epilogue(by the way, does anyone really know how to pronounce that word?) and God brings me to tears. Bell tells the story of a wedding he conducted in a park. A simple ceremony where at the end he gave the bride and groom each a cluster of helium balloons on strings. They were instructed to go into a clearing in the park and release these balloons which represented their pasts and mistakes. It was to symbolize a new start for them. What a moment to envision. He goes on to say

A few years later their marriage imploded. She moved an hour away. He relocated to another part of the country. They divorced.

I finish with this story because life is messy. Gut wrenching. Risky. Things don’t always turn out well. Sometimes they don’t turn out at all. Sometimes everything falls apart and we wonder if there’s any point to any of it. We’re tempted to shut ourselves off, fortify the walls around our hearts, and forge ahead, promising ourselves that we will never open ourselves up like that again.

But I have to believe that we can recover from anything. I have to believe that God can put anything-anyone-back together. I have to believe that the God Jesus invites us to trust is as good as he says he is.

Loving.

Forgiving.

Merciful.

Full of grace.

And I have to believe that God does not run out of balloons.

I needed to hear that. I have spent a lot of time analyzing the past and trying to figure out what mistakes I made, if they could’ve been avoided, and how to recover and fix them. Mistakes in finances, relationships, parenting, work, etc. It’s like the old saying, ” I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.” It’s still hard to let go. To not beat myself up. To envision a brighter day ahead. To get my mojo back. Sometimes we can’t grasp God because we won’t let go of the past. So, I don’t know about you, but as for me…pass the balloons. It’s a new day.

For the first time in my life, I have seen it snow three times in one Winter. Drake is pretty fascinated by it. There’s something about living in the North that changes your attitude about snow. I would have never dreamed of driving in this stuff in South Carolina, but here it’s just what you do. Anyway, I was thinking too much today and reflecting on how cold it has been so here we go…
1. Level 1-“Chilly”-this is when you walk outside and it’s a little bit cooler than you thought. You don’t go back in for a jacket, and you’re fine once you reach you’re destination. It’s just “chilly”, like a wife forced to watch pro wrestling.
2. Level 2-“Dang Cold”-this is when you really underestimate the temperature. You need a big coat although it may warm up enough to shed it by mid-afternoon. Cold enough to call a friend and tell them about it if you’re living in a different area than you’re used to.
3. Level 3-“Great Googly Moogly Cold”-inclement weather or not, you know it’s freezing outside. You bundle up and it still hits you in the face when you walk outside. It penetrates your scarf, your gloves, and your soul. Tries to take away your will to live. Car will not get warm enough all day. There is not a room at your home or office where you can be completely warm. You just try to make sure the kids are bundled up, covered up, and snuggled up.
4. Level 4-“Britney Spears Cold”-this occurs once it’s been Level 3 cold for more than 2 days. Makes you crazy. You just can’t get warm yet you want to shave your head cause you just don’t know what to do. You start dialing wrong numbers, gaining weight, and seeing things. You actually put on the thermal underwear you got for Christmas. Too cold for a comeback, too cold to sweat, too cold to finish your blo

1. Batman Begins-hands down because it captures the essence of who Batman is perfectly. My only problem with it is the Rachel character who is nowhere in the comic. Also, Ra’s Al Ghul is not involved in his training, but a man named Ducard is. They mixed material from several sources to make a great movie. Best decision they made was deciding that if they couldn’t use a stunt man then they wouldn’t use computer graphics to create it. It’s all real. Christian Bale is Bruce Wayne. Michael Caine is Alfred. Perfect casting all around.
2. Batman-I have two issues with this otherwise entertaining movie. 1. The Joker(Jack Napier) did not kill Bruce Wayne’s parents and 2. Batman doesn’t use guns and rockets like are on the Batmobile and Batwing.
3. Batman Forever-Tommy Lee Jones is completely wasted in this movie while Joel Schumaker gives us a glimpse of where he’s taking the franchise…back to the look and feel of the 60’s tv show. That’s not good, but this movie was enjoyable(I saw it three times in the first 24 hours it opened in England…not planned by the way). Loved Val Kilmer as Batman.
4. Batman Returns-Tim Burton went a little too dark on this one. Didn’t like Batman flaming a guy with the Batmobile’s engine, but my least favorite part is at the end when Bruce unmasks in front of Selina Kyle. I didn’t mind that he unmasked, that was cool, but he literally had to rip the mask off. Why would you make a costume that you can’t get in and out of ? If you’ve got Catwoman and Penguin, do you really need a third non-comic related villain in Max Shreck?
5. Batman and Robin-They are driving on statues. They created a completely unrealistic city environment. George Clooney looks bored. Bane is disgraced. Robin is a punk. Batgirl…come on and give me a break. This one was so unrealistic that it made the realism of Batman Begins stand out even more. Arnold’s bad puns, a horrible looking Batmobile, Jesse Ventura’s cameo, Commish Gordon is a moron, and all the psychedelic colors make this a really bad movie. Uma and Elle are the only bright spots.

Now, I know you all want to know my take on what I’ve seen of The Dark Knight. Well, you have to realize that they are not making kids movies. This is going to be a “dark” film. And I think it’s going to be awesome. The trailer was amazing and the first 7 minutes clip was even better. You have to remember that the Joker is a crazy messed up individual. He is not a clown, he is a killer. Now, about this Justice League movie I’ve been hearing about…I’m hoping the rumors that it’s getting pulled this week are true.

Batman movie rumors I’m glad were false…

Fred Savage as Robin.

Kurt Russell as Batman. Dude, he’s Wyatt Earp.

Robin Williams as the Riddler.

The Frank Miller Year One script that was nothing like the comic.

Did you notice the Superman/Batman poster in I Am Legend? That’s a reference to a movie that producer Darren Aronsky(?) was supposed to make before Chris Nolan(thankfully) came along. Besides, are any of you going to tell me that Christian Bale couldn’t whip Brandon Routh’s butt? Don’t even get me started again with Superman Returns. Although, it might not get a sequel at all.