Had lunch w/ Mischievous B this afternoon. I just finished finals, she had slept in till 11:15.
We digressed to the following:
B: There is no such thing as the perfect boyfriend. Well Jesus would be the perfect boyfriend if he wasn't all transparent (tries to hug the air)
A: Jesus would be the best boyfriend if he wasn't interested in everyone else.
Point to A.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Friday, May 16, 2008
Jaw Dropping
Click here. Yes it is deep deep science, bear with it and listen to the final few words.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Here and back … wait nope still here
Some random tidbits of mental depositing
Random Interweb Fact: xkcd. It will go over some people’s heads but there is enough in there that can be understood for basic humor. Knowledge of physics not needed for every comic.
Random Weird Fact: The night before I preached my sermon for class (so 5 days ago) I had a dream that I remembered. Since then I have fallen asleep with the simple prayer of “God help me remember my dreams” in addition to the rest of my conversation with God before I fall asleep. Result: 5 nights of dreams that I remember having. I just threw my dream journal back upstairs, time to take some notes.
Random Awesome Fact: Ironman. Go see it if you haven’t. Like go over to your movie showtime browser of choice and do it now. Not like tomorrow … Now! Yes it is that good. (And stay after the Credits)
Random Presby Fact: I am a candidate in the Presbyterian Church. For those who are not familiar with the Presbyterian process of ordination … that means that I am almost done, and the hard stuff is what is next.
Random School Fact: 4 more months of classes and 3 months of internship … that is it … WOW … (hasn’t fully sunk in yet).
Random Awareness Fact: Always try, and always say your piece. And then be willing to listen.
Random Monkey Fact: Kernie might be staying over for a week. SWEET! (Pocket hide your car)
Random Sermon Fact: Children’s sermons are always cooler if your sitting on a pink plastic stool only a foot high.
Random Music Fact: Trace Bundy is still brilliant. (Youtube)
Random Bonfire Fact: My guitar smells like burnt wood although it was nowhere near the flames.
That should do it. Oh wait ... Disneyland
Random Interweb Fact: xkcd. It will go over some people’s heads but there is enough in there that can be understood for basic humor. Knowledge of physics not needed for every comic.
Random Weird Fact: The night before I preached my sermon for class (so 5 days ago) I had a dream that I remembered. Since then I have fallen asleep with the simple prayer of “God help me remember my dreams” in addition to the rest of my conversation with God before I fall asleep. Result: 5 nights of dreams that I remember having. I just threw my dream journal back upstairs, time to take some notes.
Random Awesome Fact: Ironman. Go see it if you haven’t. Like go over to your movie showtime browser of choice and do it now. Not like tomorrow … Now! Yes it is that good. (And stay after the Credits)
Random Presby Fact: I am a candidate in the Presbyterian Church. For those who are not familiar with the Presbyterian process of ordination … that means that I am almost done, and the hard stuff is what is next.
Random School Fact: 4 more months of classes and 3 months of internship … that is it … WOW … (hasn’t fully sunk in yet).
Random Awareness Fact: Always try, and always say your piece. And then be willing to listen.
Random Monkey Fact: Kernie might be staying over for a week. SWEET! (Pocket hide your car)
Random Sermon Fact: Children’s sermons are always cooler if your sitting on a pink plastic stool only a foot high.
Random Music Fact: Trace Bundy is still brilliant. (Youtube)
Random Bonfire Fact: My guitar smells like burnt wood although it was nowhere near the flames.
That should do it. Oh wait ... Disneyland
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Fuzzy Logic
I’m finding that life, in general, is fuzzy for me. Not like cute cuddly fuzzy but more like your not sure if the fuzzy has retractable claws and is waiting to maul on you. Not exactly my favorite place to be, but I’m there none-the-less.
Most of it is a … well I don’t want to say wrestling match … but more of a discussion and talking out with God surrounding a variety of issues. The one that seems to be surfacing more often than not is ‘what happens in 5 months?’ That is starting to settle down and take shape but it is only a 3 month thing so the question is morphing into ‘what happens at the start of 2009. Those of you who I have mentioned this too have some idea about what I’ll be doing but for everyone else … I have an internship at Highlands Adventure church in Paso Robles that is almost finalized. For a little background this is a church that is about 2 years old, still classified as a church plan and has over 500 members. This year they had 1500 for Easter and 750 on low/cannonball Sunday (Sunday after Easter). Something up there is being done right and I’m very interested to see what is going on.
The other has been God nurturing me through an emotional and spiritual dry period. I have been pulling out my songs in minor keys, songs of feeling down, songs of trials and turning to God. They aren’t always the most enjoyable to sing, but they always seem to resonate with my mood. For some reason they always come in pairs though. A song that I’m going to sing for the public on Monday (Apr 28) that matches my mood almost verbatim, has been paired by a song that I would like to do as a corporate worship song. Both songs are a little out of my range but I think I can get the ‘mood’ song. The other I would probably drop for worship, but is one of those songs that catches the soul and draws one into worship. We will see … it doesn’t sound good if I’m the only one playing guitar either …
For all of this school seems to always be looming over my head. It is harder with most of my classes starting to shift towards the technical and nitty-gritty and is just hard to sit through. While I’m finding a new appreciation (and definition) for theology, it is still sometimes difficult to wrap my head around ideas.
Through all of this there is light at the end of the tunnel, although it is a little sad. My friend Sophie has taken a call (got a pastoral job) in Texas. There is hope, and while I will be sad to lose a friend in presence, I am exceedingly excited for her.
Came up for a quick breath and now back to school, back when I come back up for some more air.
Most of it is a … well I don’t want to say wrestling match … but more of a discussion and talking out with God surrounding a variety of issues. The one that seems to be surfacing more often than not is ‘what happens in 5 months?’ That is starting to settle down and take shape but it is only a 3 month thing so the question is morphing into ‘what happens at the start of 2009. Those of you who I have mentioned this too have some idea about what I’ll be doing but for everyone else … I have an internship at Highlands Adventure church in Paso Robles that is almost finalized. For a little background this is a church that is about 2 years old, still classified as a church plan and has over 500 members. This year they had 1500 for Easter and 750 on low/cannonball Sunday (Sunday after Easter). Something up there is being done right and I’m very interested to see what is going on.
The other has been God nurturing me through an emotional and spiritual dry period. I have been pulling out my songs in minor keys, songs of feeling down, songs of trials and turning to God. They aren’t always the most enjoyable to sing, but they always seem to resonate with my mood. For some reason they always come in pairs though. A song that I’m going to sing for the public on Monday (Apr 28) that matches my mood almost verbatim, has been paired by a song that I would like to do as a corporate worship song. Both songs are a little out of my range but I think I can get the ‘mood’ song. The other I would probably drop for worship, but is one of those songs that catches the soul and draws one into worship. We will see … it doesn’t sound good if I’m the only one playing guitar either …
For all of this school seems to always be looming over my head. It is harder with most of my classes starting to shift towards the technical and nitty-gritty and is just hard to sit through. While I’m finding a new appreciation (and definition) for theology, it is still sometimes difficult to wrap my head around ideas.
Through all of this there is light at the end of the tunnel, although it is a little sad. My friend Sophie has taken a call (got a pastoral job) in Texas. There is hope, and while I will be sad to lose a friend in presence, I am exceedingly excited for her.
Came up for a quick breath and now back to school, back when I come back up for some more air.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
I Wanna get off the Ride Now
It is the first week of classes and I’m already spent; Physically, Mentally, Emotionally. Classes are, at best, what seem like mundane distractions. It isn’t so much that I don’t like them, but I “don’t have the emotional bandwidth” to deal with them (thanks Starla). About 25% of my iTunes library is off limits for one reason or another, and I repeat the axiom laid out by Jeff Bjork: ‘Enough: Enough is what God gives you.’
I’m not going to go into the full details but I am more broken now than I think I have ever been in my entire life. Questions that have no answers keep me up at night or wake me up every 2 hrs; either that or answers that only provide more questions.
On the good side of things I have never felt more like a prophet than I do now, the irony being that the prophecy would affect me directly. About 2 months ago I got up in front of chapel to reflect about community in front of the Presbyterian community. What was about a 5 min off the top of my head reflection is summed up along the lines of …
Never have I been so thankful for the friendships that I have here at Seminary. Some that have never experienced strife, others that were forged through conflict, and some that just fell into my lap out of nowhere. While I want to get off the ride, my friends have chosen to get on the ride with me and help me through the hard times.
Thank you.
I’m not going to go into the full details but I am more broken now than I think I have ever been in my entire life. Questions that have no answers keep me up at night or wake me up every 2 hrs; either that or answers that only provide more questions.
On the good side of things I have never felt more like a prophet than I do now, the irony being that the prophecy would affect me directly. About 2 months ago I got up in front of chapel to reflect about community in front of the Presbyterian community. What was about a 5 min off the top of my head reflection is summed up along the lines of …
This community is a group of people, we are not a structure of chapel or the structure of church, but rather we are a church of broken, stupid, foolish, sinful people (of which I think I lead some of the charge); but in that we have Christ and are commanded to be Christ-like to others. Seminary will chew you up and spit you out faster and more efficiently than the working world. It is only in the friendships and relationships that are developed here that you can survive. It is only in these relationships that you will learn how to be a pastor.
Never have I been so thankful for the friendships that I have here at Seminary. Some that have never experienced strife, others that were forged through conflict, and some that just fell into my lap out of nowhere. While I want to get off the ride, my friends have chosen to get on the ride with me and help me through the hard times.
Thank you.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Lenten Reflections
So I gave up listening to music when I have control of the sound system for Lent. What that basically means, is no leisure music around the house, in the car, when studying in the library, etc etc. Not quite as drastic as one of my former plans to try giving up playing guitar for Lent one year … that would have been bad.
What this results in is lots and lots of time to sit silently and think. Which can be both a good and bad thing. For the first week I just tried to entertain myself by putzing around on the internet watching movies on youtube, or playing small flash games online; neither of which is all that productive.
The tricky part has been the car drives. Even with music car drives have always been a time to just sit and muse about life, insanity, and solving the world’s problems. With about two weeks left, and finals looming on the horizon God has directed my attention to the darker parts of life. Not only in some of the class material we are discussing, but also in how real life has been manifesting itself. I have found myself dealing with very troubling life issues to which I have wanted to step away from, and it probably would have been the easier. In turn God guided me to preach a sermon on the topic of endurance and perseverance. I found it funny too.
For all these crazy things that have been going on it has been directed to getting to Good Friday. I have found that there are deep seeded understandings of Good Friday, and that while everyone likes it most of the time it seems to be a very personal experience. As planning has taken place some very beautiful gems have come out of the woodwork that have been put out on the alter of encountering the darkness that surrounds the day of the cross. Not so much that the day of the cross is dark to us, but rather that we often take part in Maundy Thursday and the Last Supper, and then skip right over to Easter without so much as a second glance at the importance of Good Friday. No disrespect intended, but we kinda have to kill Christ in order for him to raise himself back up. Can’t raise the living to life.
So in these moments of quiet and reflecting on God during the times of silence I have found more comfort with the darkness in my life. Granted I try to visit the darkness in my life. This is not to say that I go out and purposefully try to do bad things, but I take time to reflect on my actions and asking if they are in line with God’s Kingdom. These are also times where I normally visit the worst case of a scenario, normally to go that far, get it out of my system and then come back to the land of the insane.
It will be weird to go back to the noise of music come Easter, but at the same time I think I will find myself reflecting in times of silence more often. Although I apparently have about 5 CD’s that I need to catch up on.
What this results in is lots and lots of time to sit silently and think. Which can be both a good and bad thing. For the first week I just tried to entertain myself by putzing around on the internet watching movies on youtube, or playing small flash games online; neither of which is all that productive.
The tricky part has been the car drives. Even with music car drives have always been a time to just sit and muse about life, insanity, and solving the world’s problems. With about two weeks left, and finals looming on the horizon God has directed my attention to the darker parts of life. Not only in some of the class material we are discussing, but also in how real life has been manifesting itself. I have found myself dealing with very troubling life issues to which I have wanted to step away from, and it probably would have been the easier. In turn God guided me to preach a sermon on the topic of endurance and perseverance. I found it funny too.
For all these crazy things that have been going on it has been directed to getting to Good Friday. I have found that there are deep seeded understandings of Good Friday, and that while everyone likes it most of the time it seems to be a very personal experience. As planning has taken place some very beautiful gems have come out of the woodwork that have been put out on the alter of encountering the darkness that surrounds the day of the cross. Not so much that the day of the cross is dark to us, but rather that we often take part in Maundy Thursday and the Last Supper, and then skip right over to Easter without so much as a second glance at the importance of Good Friday. No disrespect intended, but we kinda have to kill Christ in order for him to raise himself back up. Can’t raise the living to life.
So in these moments of quiet and reflecting on God during the times of silence I have found more comfort with the darkness in my life. Granted I try to visit the darkness in my life. This is not to say that I go out and purposefully try to do bad things, but I take time to reflect on my actions and asking if they are in line with God’s Kingdom. These are also times where I normally visit the worst case of a scenario, normally to go that far, get it out of my system and then come back to the land of the insane.
It will be weird to go back to the noise of music come Easter, but at the same time I think I will find myself reflecting in times of silence more often. Although I apparently have about 5 CD’s that I need to catch up on.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Another Trip Around the Sun
Another year, another Super Bowl, and one more left at Fuller. It is quite a bit surreal at the moment. Not for the sake of being surreal but more that I have had some very pleasant and wonderful surprises come into formation in the past month that I’d like to share.
As for the B’day itself, I guess things started on Saturday with a visit down to the brother’s pad in Irvine and playing Guitar Hero on his ‘Christmas’ Wii as well as some fierce some battles of Mario vs Sonic Olympics by all members present. It was good to see some friends from home who came out to wish my brother a happy B’day and then watch the Super Bowl with him. I have pictures, but they all came out blurry, but that might be very appropriate for the evening. I, on the other hand, had to drive home and thus did not take part in the festivities.
My Birthday was slightly more entertaining and there are a set of photos from that outing, of which I did take part, nay, lead the festivities and had a wonderful time. I had many friends who were there to take care of me and make sure I didn’t make too much of a fool of myself. Mischievous B came out and played with me too, it was a good time.
Finally not 5 days later I got to preach my first sermon in front of a full congregation. I spend most of my teaching in smaller groups of high school kids, so this was a little different. I had a great group of folks come out and support me, which was a wonderful joy to have. We had an after party, which my brother came up to take part of along with my parents coming down to pay a visit.
As for the B’day itself, I guess things started on Saturday with a visit down to the brother’s pad in Irvine and playing Guitar Hero on his ‘Christmas’ Wii as well as some fierce some battles of Mario vs Sonic Olympics by all members present. It was good to see some friends from home who came out to wish my brother a happy B’day and then watch the Super Bowl with him. I have pictures, but they all came out blurry, but that might be very appropriate for the evening. I, on the other hand, had to drive home and thus did not take part in the festivities.
My Birthday was slightly more entertaining and there are a set of photos from that outing, of which I did take part, nay, lead the festivities and had a wonderful time. I had many friends who were there to take care of me and make sure I didn’t make too much of a fool of myself. Mischievous B came out and played with me too, it was a good time.
Finally not 5 days later I got to preach my first sermon in front of a full congregation. I spend most of my teaching in smaller groups of high school kids, so this was a little different. I had a great group of folks come out and support me, which was a wonderful joy to have. We had an after party, which my brother came up to take part of along with my parents coming down to pay a visit.
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