Sunsets in Tahoe

Well I am in Tahoe. On my second day and we got some cloud cover to get some very very nice sunset pictures. The first is facing South East and the second one is facing West. The sun is just behind in the mountains in the picture below. I probably should have gotten the picture in the middle to watch the change in colors, but these two were the more interesting shots.







Either way, I am officially on vacation. I have decided to read the Harry Potter series, and I'm about 80% through the second one. More pictures to come as we cause some more trouble.

The Theology of Harry Potter

Yes … I went and saw midnight showing of Order of the Phoenix opening night. I’m not sure how I am presently awake, but I’m trying to make progress.

To prepare myself for the new film I watched the fourth one again and something struck me as very interesting. At the end of the fourth movie Harry and Dumbledore are talking and Dumbledore says the following that struck me as interesting, “You will have to choose between what is right, and what is easy.” This quote played tricks on me this morning…

I went to bed at 3am post movie. I had class at 8am. I forgot to set my alarm. My internal alarm woke me up at 6:45, at which point I rolled over to see that it was indeed 6:45, and then rolled back over to consider five more minutes of comfort from my pillow. At this point I rolled back over and found that it was now 7:30. At this point my brain proposed the idea of just skipping class, I rolled halfway over and had Dumbledore’s quote run through my head. At this point I complained audibly to no one in particular, rolled out of bed and was in class by 8am (with shower and caffeine).

Right vs Easy is in a very interesting contrast to Right vs Wrong. While I think that I have though in the terms of a ‘gray’ area for quite some time now, it was interesting to put it in this context and have a succinct quote that sums up those ideas.

As to the movie: I will simply quote Ron Weasley

“Wicked!”

Comedy by Becca

This is intended to be funny, and I didn't have any direct part in writing them, I did give basic suggestions that my friend Becca then wrote down, for maybe 2 of them. Other than that the below have no input from my finger strokes other than basic editing.

Top 10 reasons Alan is a better catch than your current options...

10. He notices details. Your favorite color, who your friends are, what you like to drink.

9. He says he will let his g/f decide what to do with his hair.

8. He will play sweet love songs on the guitar outside your window in the evening that will make you melt.

7. He likes Spuderitos, He will even pay.

6. He's in Grad school ladies, that means he is in the top 10% of highly educated people in the United States. You know what they say about a guy with a big brain....
(Big feet... in the theological sense)

5. He is secretly a member of the Geek Squad and can fix your computer problems... for free. Or at most for the price of a Spuderito.

4. From frisbee to football, you can see him take control of the field. Sweat is a natural pheromone by the way...

3. He has all his mom's recipes! You can expect a homemade meal. Cookies, salmon, fajitas... that's at least 3 nights or wining and dining (4 if you throw in a spuderito one night).

2. He has a good sense of humor. Like during finals week he wears his Monty Pithon shirt that says "I'm not quite dead yet."

1. And the number one reason Alan is a better catch than your other options is...
have you looked at your other options?

Respectfully Submitted by Becca

Thoughts that Haunt me …

It is now Sunday night … this has been going since about Friday mid-day

It started with an emotional snap. Those who are within my closer group of friends and know my immediate life get two guesses but should only need one. I’m not going to discuss that here, as it seems very minor in the grand scheme of things. What followed was about 20 hrs of work over a stretch of 36 hr stretch.

Mimeistry is a performing arts group that uses dance, mime, and comedy for the sole purpose of delivering the Gospel message. Their campus overlaps with William Carey International University. They have summer intensive learning classes near the end of July and their performing troupe was doing their fund raising on Fuller Campus through the Brehm Center. Friday was about 10 hrs of Tech/Dress rehearsal followed by 2 shows on Saturday. Aside from being really good at what they do, some of those images are still haunting me, as well as the music. To put it in perspective: I have learned to play one of the songs. Twenty hours … little tired.

Third ingredient: Systematic Theology of Ecclesiology, which is just a fancy way of saying what makes a church, church? I am Presbyterian by creed which means that I’m supposed to believe that the church is one thing (and from what I understand I do think that way, or I wouldn’t have gone to church this morning) and while there is room for some of my other understandings of what makes up an ecclesiology. Most of these are centered on my like for a sort of charismatic worship energy, something where I can ‘feel’ the presence of God.

And now for the fun part … season with short sleep, and restless sleep (I literally just came out from Ratatouille, sorry for all the cooking references) Snap leads into work, which shows me a glimpse of some who have embraced a ministry call, leading to a looking at my own call, and maybe trying to figure out how to take all the new information I have and combine it with the old. Mix in little sleep and a mind that has been trying to work on all of this at the same time.

I’m pretty much emotionally, mentally, and physically done. It is about 10pm and I doubt my mind will let me get more than 5 hrs tonight (I can hope for more). Yet it is the following words that haunt me:

(Chorus)
There are tears from the saints
For the lost and unsaved
We’re crying for them come back home
We’re crying for them come back home
And all your children will stretch out their hands
And pick up the crippled man
Father, we will lead them home
Father, we will lead them home

(Bridge)
Sinner, reach out your hands!
Children in Christ you stand!
Sinner, reach out your hands!
Children in Christ you stand!

- Tears of the Saints by Leeland
(Yahoo login needed for the video, but the audio is on their myspace page as well)

I am brought back to the passage that haunts Chap Clark (Mark 10:13-16) in his ministry. So much of his natural being is emulated within those verses and much of his ministry philosophy resonates with me on levels that I am only beginning to understand. God and I are very far from done with this conversation, and I’m not sure that the goal of this weekend was to just be ‘having a conversation.’ There are times that I want to stop and regroup, and God lets me be for a bit, but the conversation always continues at a latter point.

I have so many mental images from the Mimeistry show, so many questions in talking with God, countless requests for rest and sleep. The images haunt, the questions nag, and sleep is restless. At this point I had expected the weekend to be long, and that God was going to do some work on my heart, I didn’t realize that he was going to fiddle around with some other things while he was in there. I know they are being fixed for the better, but for now the work is not done, so it still hurts. Or in my case haunts my every hour.

My week off... so far

How hot it is it?

So hot that soda cans explode while sitting on the counter.

This must be why I got a mop for cleaning … it got its second work out tonight.

-------------------------

So I just finished working the Allelon conference put on by the Depree center. What that basically means is that I go to go to a nifty pastor’s conference for free. It was rather interesting listening to the chaos that was going on in the background. Each person who was at the conference had brought his or her own case study about a frustrating ministry experience. Then in groups they discussed them looking at options and then how to proceed. Now I came in during the middle of the conference so the basic teaching had already been done, but I was able to keep up enough to pull out some very interesting things.

The theme of the second day seemed to be frustration. I think what most of the pastors wanted was answers to how to now proceed, the problem came about when the panel of speakers basically said ‘there are no answers.’ It was interesting watching a series of questions centered around wanting an answer that will fix the problem when the speakers were only giving a method of moving the church from internal to mission/community minded.

By the end of the third/last day many of the people were comfortable dwelling in the tension of not having the answers to the question, but rather a mindset that there is a need to listen to the church congregation, not only by the pastors but by other members of the church leadership.

As I was sitting down with one of the pastors during dinner on the final day we had a discussion on the differences between generations and dealing with listening to every person. The whole conference has been building on a feeling that the church is about to make a change; how, what, and when it will happen is still an interesting question.

Summer ... at last!

There is a week of bliss, known as the week between quarters. During this time there is no class work, no papers, no tests, only moments to enjoy life and catch up on all the junk that has piled up over the last three weeks. It is now Friday and while I will be spending the later portion of the evening among friends, I am currently enjoying the blissful ability to do on of my favorite pastimes: as little as possible.

Tomorrow I will probably clean my apartment and make some minor revisions in the morning that need to be done, followed by a joyous party of chaos at the graduation party of two dear friends. But more importantly I should be getting to do some free time reading, which will be … odd. I’m not sure if I want to read some more theology as I have about 5 books that I have been wanting to read, or allow myself to have some fun (which is probably what will happen).

Normally around this time I begin to reflect on seminary, and seeing as I am officially at the mid-point of my seminary experience I’m sure some of that will come this week, but there are many other things that need to take place to allow for ‘clear’ thinking. But for my posterity and preview of things to come here is a short rundown

Finished Greek, and all my history classes; then took Pentateuch, Youth and Evangelism, and Grief, Loss, Death, and Dying as my side classes. Somewhere in there is the forgettable Foundations for Ministry class.

More to come as life carries on…

Truth (Tell no lies)

Preface:
1) This is my first song I have ever written, so ... it is what it is ...
2) This is what I can piece together of the day my mom found out she had cancer

Truth (Tell no lies)

It’s Dad’s Birthday today
Home from school I see my mother first
She freezes as she tells me
Dad’s birthday is now six months away

Walking in the door
I can see that something’s wrong
And the Script that’s rehearsed fades as

I see into her eyes,
They tell me all I need to know
That you are afraid
So tell, tell me no lies
So I am not alone
To make up all the ‘coulds’ and ‘ifs,’
If you go …

Dad is doing his best to be strong
But he is torn apart I don’t notice
He is crying on the inside
And I simply dismiss the pain in the room

Going back to my life
He follows me outside
With a breath he says everything

I see into his eyes,
They tell me all I need to know
That you are afraid
So tell, tell me no lies
So I am not alone
To make up all the ‘coulds’ and ‘ifs,’
If you go …

I count myself one of the lucky ones
He and she are still with me
I have not felt the pain of death
But somehow I know when …

I see into your eyes,
They tell me all I need to know
That you are afraid
So I, I you no lies,
That I don’t understand it all
But I will be here
If you call