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.