I awoke early today, as I often do.  About 4:30am.  I had hoped to sleep longer since this is a tough stretch of travel for me.  I spoke at the National Youth Workers Convention this weekend — after 10 years of giving seminars at this event, I was given the opportunity to speak in front of all 2,000 registrants at the Sunday evening general session.  Doug, Mark, and I attempted a reprise of the Church Basement Roadshow, and, um, well, it didn’t really work.  In fact, it was pretty much a trainwreck.  Without the context of the whole show, the irony was completely lost on the crowd.  Bottom line: we bombed.

The other half of my general session, in which I told my story of faith and theology, went better, I think.  I also gave a couple seminars and got to hang out with friends.  It was, all in all, a great time with little sleep.  I’m home a couple days — long enough to vote and to spend a day buying furniture at IKEA — then I’m off to Greenwich, CT, to speak at Trinity Church, which will include time with two of my favorite persons: Ian Cron and Pete Rollins.

But, of course, today’s election takes precendence.  Yesterday, in a last ditch effort to sway a voter or two, I went on Way of the Master Radio, described by someone on my Facebook page as an even more sarcastic, Christian Rush Limbaugh.  We spoke about abortion, and I was asked to defend how a pro-life Christian (which I am not, at least by the usual definition) can vote for Obama.  I found both Todd, the host, and Scott, my opponent, to be gracious — at least while I was on the air.  The last 15-minute segment got cut, which is too bad, but you can listen to the podcast starting about halfway in here.

Photo Credit: Adam Berry/Bloomberg News

So, now today begins.  I am convinced that the day will end with a landslide win by Obama.  The real question, it seems to me, is whether the Democrats will reach 60 in the Senate.  I won’t be helping on that account, since I’ll be voting for Independence Party candidate, Dean Barkley.