I'm copying this from my mySpace blog.
mewithoutYou. It's a band. I've been hearing about them for awhile. Emily saw them at Cornerstone, Ricky Turner talked about them, lots of people talkin', and then I finally heard them and saw some live videos. Holy crap. Check these guys out, now, because they shot straight to the top of bands I'm interested in. They are a Christian band but they're not like anyone else. I'm so pumped right now. Plus I'm having an awesome time at the Camerer's house half-way between Utica and home in Michigan. Oh, Dragonforce is pretty amazing too. (Don't knock it till you try it.) (Great approach to life isn't it?)
mewithoutYou
Hey Elizabeth, check out my new girlfriend
Hahaha. I'm referring to my new guitar. Beautiful isn't she? Goodbye life, hello guitar. It is a Stratocaster with 3 single-coil pickups. And I like it. The amp is nice too - it is a vacuum tube powered amp. You probably want to know how much it costs...
yeah... I'll bet you do....
XYZ
Big News
Hey there friends and family. I have big news. (Thus the clever title.) I am going to go home to Michigan as planned, and then return to New York. Crazy isn't it? Why the change? Maybe it's the landscape. Maybe it's the incredible friends. Maybe it's Joel pointing a shotgun at my head and telling me he would shoot me if I didn't promise to stay. (Just kidding.) Honestly, between Iowa and New York, it was a tough choice. I agonized over the decision for awhile, first leaning one way and then the other. They are both wonderful. New York is not permanent; I still really want to hang out with my sister in Iowa when the time is right.
I'm not staying because life in New York is all daisies and daffodils. Honestly, it's tough. For a long time, everything has been simple enough. Fulfill the responsibilities, complete educational requirements, work. Things aren't so black and white anymore. Especially when my role in this world hasn't been clearly established yet; apparently I have some kind of ministry, but I don't know if it has a name. (Maybe, Christ-Follower?)
You'll notice that I wrote News, PLURAL. Otherwise, the title would have been, "Big New." But I'm not going to tell you the other announcement. I don't have the photo that will explain it. This is the one you thought you'd be reading tonight Emily. Don't worry I'll get it tomorrow.
Since I have zero coherency tonight, I might as well say that my time with the youth group tonight was great. Me and five kids praying for awhile. Talking, joking, not much else. Speaking of prayer, I have no idea where I will be staying or what I will be eating or what I will buy food with when I return to New York. Minor details, but if you're the praying sort, it's something to keep in mind. Shalom
I'm embarassed.
That little blurb about Cheetah Girls and all that... Let's just keep it a secret shall we? I mean, so what if I like to sing, "Amigas, Cheetahs, Friends for Life!"... Er...
Cheetah Girls 2
I usually am rather critical of my dad's enjoyment of really cheesy movies. I admit, I am a movie snob. But today I'm going to have to shut up. Today only I have watched Hannah Montana, Cheetah Girls 2, and am currently indulging in one of the funniest Family Guy episodes I have ever seen. I know what you are all thinking, "My how decadent." Gee willickers. Ahhh.... Ewww... Stewie is beating up the dog. But I mean the dog had it coming. He wouldn't give Stewie his money. Hmmm.....
A Long Obedience In The Same Direction
Yesterday and today, I sorta have had this recurring thought concerning life: "Geez this is hard." And hey maybe I'm being dramatic, but whenever I deal with tough questions, it sort of feels like I'm being worked in a crucible. My questions always relate to the gospel.
But we keep moving. Following Christ isn't about emotional whims. I don't mean that sometimes I feel as if it God isn't real. I just mean that sometimes I feel tired, or bummed, or lonely, or upset by all the troubles around me. Last night I was talking to my Mom, and she asked me if I was upset, and I got defensive saying, "Of course I'm upset! The whole world is upset, and I'm not in a bubble, so the fact that I'm surrounded by hurting troubled people [and am in fact one of them] definitely upsets me!"
I guess what I was saying is that, faith isn't like a bubble that shields you from pain. It is more like taking someone's hand and letting him lead you places you would never have gone on your own, away from stability and comfort and down into the rocky, treacherous valley. I am touched by the hurt around me. I don't buy this "higher ground" stuff. "I want to live above the world, Though Satan’s darts at me are hurled." ??? That is a line from the hymn by Johnson Oatman. You may have heard it in church. But Jesus didn't tell us to come up to him; he came down to us. And it seems to me we're all about following in his footsteps. While we live, we live in the world; we can live "above the world" when we're good and dead, how is that for a compromise Mr. Oatman?
Right now, believing and following Christ means learning what it means to be in it for the long-haul. I have begun reading Eugene Peterson's "A Long Obedience In The Same Direction: Discipleship In An Instant Society" with Joel Upham, and thought I might quote from the first chapter. I'll probably be putting a lot of quotes from this book up here as it is really excellent.
"[One aspect of the world's effects that is] harmful to Christians is the assumption that anything worthwhile can be acquired at once. We assume that if something can be done at all, it can be done quickly and efficiently. Our attention spans have been conditioned by thirty-second commercials. Our sense of reality has been flattened by thirty-page abridgements.
"It is not difficult in such a world to get a person interested in the message of the gospel; it is terrifically difficult to sustain the interest... There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness."
It's hard, I know that, but I guess going the distance means patience and probably toil. Monotony even. But even though the nature of this world means I will experience all that, I kind of have this feeling that there are going to be some adventures, some moments of wonder and joy right in this middle of this crazy life. (Now I should say something cool.) Bring it on.
A Wii Bit of Anticipation
I'm looking forward to a couple games for the Nintendo Wii. I think they are both launch titles. The first is the new Zelda. A couple entries ago I mentioned that I used to dream about Zelda: The Ocarina of Time before falling asleep. I was obsessed. Well, that was three Zelda games ago (not including a bunch for the gameboy). They're making a sequel to Ocarina of Time (at least stylistically), and it's starting to look like it has potential. I can't wait to bite my teeth into it. (Hopefully I won't have to buy a wii - I'll just have to find friends who will buy it.)
As for the new Rayman game, "Rayman: Raving Rabbits", what can I say? It has rabid, raving rabbits with space saucers and dance offs and shooting each other with plunger-guns. Who could possibly resist?
For those of you buried under a rock (or simply too caught up in the world of adult responsibilities), the Nintendo Wii uses a different way to control games. Instead of a normal controller, imagine that your TV Remote was a 3D wand that could detect all your movements, and that you had to use it to control games. Sounds fun. Maybe it will be (if it isn't too hard or for that matter too easy.)
xyz.
Drift-Off
Drift-off dreams can be really annoying. I can't call them strange, because most dreams are strange. But drift-off dreams are strangest because they are closest to reality.
Yesterday I went canoing for several hours. After that, I watched (and occassionally played) Resident Evil 4 for several hours. I was too tired to do anything productive. I went to bed early (10), and started falling asleep. Then the drift-dreams began. It happens like this: you lie there with your eyes mostly closed. Sometimes they are open and look around a little, but half the time you don't even know they are open. Your thoughts become incoherent and end up in odd combinations. Suddenly my thoughts about tomorrows lessons disappear, and I'm canoing down a river. Suddenly a car revs its engine outside the window, and my mind returns to reality. I just thought I was canoing. How weird is that? One second I'm lying in bed, the next my mind tells me I'm in a canoe.
It gets better. You know what's coming. Zombie hunting on a canoe. That's right, canoeing down the Moose River, paddle in one hand, shotgun in the other, blowing the heads off of less-than-courteous zombie fiends. (They had it coming.) And occassionally an idea from a book will insert itself onto the drift-dream. Die, die, evil zombie hey I should talk about heaven in Sunday School tomorrow!
Other interesting drift-dreams: skateboarding, feeding frozen burger patties into the burger king broiler, grinding brick walls, playing soccer, playing Zelda: Ocarina of Time. If something really intense (or monotonous) happened during the day, chances are that I will see it again as I drift to sleep.
Lessons from Dave
I'm still reading through Eugene Peterson's "Working The Angles," a book about prayer, study, and spiritual direction. I'm on the third angle of spiritual direction, and was thinking back to Dave Frick's influence on my life. What does it take to have a significant spiritual role in someone's life?
Looking at Dave, I think I have an answer. Dave was not a highly educated guy. But that did not prevent him from ministering to me (among many). Neither did he have great resources. He was just a trucker. But here is the thing about Dave: he was spiritually minded.
Okay that sounds really obvious. "Wow, what a brilliant bloke this guy is." But there is something about Dave's approach to life that seemed to make up for a lot of flaws (although I personally couldn't think of any). Something about his mindset allowed him to really dwell on his hope, and God's rewards, and the reality of spiritual warfare. Christ's sacrifice was not just a password to get into the church club; it was the central truth of his life. That's why it transformed him from an insignificant trucker to someone whom God used to spiritually direct other Christians.
It may be that everyone has a different set of obstacles to developing a spiritual mindset. I would like to think that people like me have some more difficulty than most in developing this mindset - I can't say that for sure. But it is easy enough to say I need to be spiritually minded, or Spirit-minded, and not actually take the steps of talking to God, asking for his help, dwelling on universe-shaking truths, rejoicing, hunting for the meat of scripture. It is much easier to just think about things. Stepping into the spiritual walk is hard, physically demanding even.
I think Dave did every one of those things. Aside from those things, what is my Bible college education worth next to his lifetime of Spirit-filled walking? I believe I'm right to admire Dave's example. Maybe the fact is, Dave just believed all that stuff was true, and decided it was worth working at it. It really isn't complicated, it's just work.
Blast. I hate work. See, I'm already at a major disadvantage!
Dave once told me that when the Millenial Kingdom rolled on in, he wanted to have a chance to be a preacher and teach the Bible at a large church (or whatever the heck it will be called). I've got this feeling that when the time comes to assign tasks during the Millenium, a lot of men who were more qualified in this life will be passed over and guys like Dave will get first picks. Of course by now, Dave is far more qualified than any man on earth. For more on that, check Matthew 25:14-20.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)