Life Update Blogging

I had today off work (Sunday) and we hung out at Bea's parents. It was nice and relaxing, but I didn't like not going to church. I like the fact that I like going to church. I'm excited to listen to the podcast of Jeff teaching today. My control freak side really hopes everything went OK too.

I work in the office tomorrow and then leave for Hume Lake on Tuesday morning to spend a few days up there with our High School students. It's kind of crazy and nerve-wracking because I'm speaking in both services this Sunday and I'm going to be out of the office pretty much all week. I'm also going to do something different where I preach really short and basically tell them, "Duh, you know what it means to be merciful! Go be it! Go do it!" A little risky, but there will be some structure and content to it as well. It will be interesting to see how it plays out in the different services.

Bea and I are trying to adopt and I hate waiting. Waiting for the agency to call us and say that we are on "the list." We were supposed to be on "the list" six weeks ago.

Bea got a job teaching at Orange Lutheran High School next year. She is excited about doing what she loves and doing it for the first time with High School kids - teaching English. She will also make some serious cash for us so it's SWEEET!! The school worked it out so that she gets to be "full-time" but get off every day at 12:30. Grace will be in preschool until 12noon every day so it should work out pretty easily. I will be dropping Grace off every day at school at 8am and then picking her up a few days a week which should be really fun.

We are also selling our house. We want to cash in and pay off a lot of debt, put some money away for future stuff, and then invest a big chunk for another downpayment in about 6 months to a year. We will rent for that time. We hope it sells high and soon. We won't do it unless it sells for close to the number we are asking. You can look it up at www.homeseekers.com if you want. 318 N. Pine St, Orange, CA 92866

That's a big update and all I have for now.

Meekness

So I preached on meekness yesterday in both the main services at church. Afterwards, I went up to the guy preaching next week and I said, "I just gave the most insane sermon. It was the best thing anyone has ever heard. Good luck following that up buddy!"

I was just kidding around, but what was funny was that I really was trying to do an awesome job so that people would learn, but also on some more hidden level because I want to look good doing what I do best. Teaching on a stage in front of lots of people is a head trip.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. How opposite is that to what my human nature thinks? Jesus is cool.

Lost passion for blogging

I'm sorry I haven't been posting. It's been hard to get back into posting on the blog. I think my passion went away for it in the hiatus. I want to try. I need to try. I have no desire to set up my links or anything like that again for some reason though.

Life is super busy right now. Interviewing people, building project committee meetings, preaching a ton, youth ministry summer, selling our house, Bea's sister getting married, Bea's brother and his wife having a baby, dieting, and oh yeah, trying to hang out with my family.

Anyways, this is not a promise, but after Victor berated me I will try to blog more.

Victor (Tostada) and Jasen (jda) need to meet. You guys would like each other. You do the same job.

Back and normal

I'm back from my two trips. Of course I didn't take a camera. I also received the approval to turn in my thesis for binding and final signatures. I will do that today so that's a huge relief off my back.

The drive to Puerto Vallarta was of course long and tiring, but it was interesting to see everything between here and there. You go from the sandy desert of Tucson, Arizona to the lush, tropics of Pacific mainland Mexico near Puerto Vallarta. We drove through a hundred miles of Mango tree groves and a hundred miles of corn fields. Old men riding two-wheeled carts behind donkeys crossing bridges and vaqueros herding cows or horses were an inspiring sight to see. The time with my parents was good too. They are safe and settled and their place is beautiful.

Hume was Hume. Beautiful, relaxing, and fun with our team.

Off to Mex

Ok so I leave this morning to drive for 30 hours with my parents to Puerto Vallarta. Should be interesting. Be back on Saturday night, then leave Monday morning again for Hume Lake for the Youthworkers Retreat.

Spin and Smoking

We saw the movie, Thank You For Smoking, tonight and it was very thought provoking while being pretty funny. Spin is such an interesting and captivating thing. I found myself loving the character who was spinning and smiling and eloquently fontificating on the benefits of smoking and why smoking isn't bad for you and all of these things. What really got me was in the car when Bea said, "It's movies like this that make me think the whole world is spin." Everyone is trying to spin for their product or their government or their religion. And that's when I got a little bit sick. Religion and spin. All religions do it. Christianity does it. We do it at my church. Nobody is being bad, but I think we just need to learn to tell the truth. The whole truth. We believe in the truth of it, not the spin version. Don't we? Their is a deep and sometimes painful cost to following Christ. Their is peace and contentment, but we are pretty much betting the farm on this whole thing right. It better not be spin. Why do we feel the constant need to make church pretty and attractive and not make the cross too offensive. It's really offensive. There are some things that God says about sinners (all of us) and those that don't believe that are gnarly. The Bible is rated R and even NC17 a lot of the time. How should we spin that? How do you spin David with a necklace of foreskins after he massacred his enemies? How do you spin that we do believe a lot of things by faith? How do you spin the sweet and bitter pill of grace and that we really don't earn any forgiveness by ourselves? Because you know you wish you could. We don't spin. We speak truth. We are truthtellers. The truth as we read it and know it in our bones. The truth of love and justice and beauty and pain and unfairness and forgiveness and sin and sin some more and mean people and friendship and betrayal. It's all there. Just tell it like you see it. That's better than a fake smile and some easy religion.

Thesis

I'm going insane with my thesis that was due two weeks ago. I'm frustrated because I did all this primary research and now I'm analyzing and sorting the data into these lame frequency tables that are so FREAKING BORING to do. I'm learning a lot about Excel and how to make tables. Pretty cool stuff. Sarcasm sarcasm sarcasm. My paper is on transitions between age-stage ministries and the quantitative research is basically going to "prove" that it's hard to transition kids from JH to HS to College. Then all the qualitative research will give ways to help them feel more comfortable, provide program, relationships, etc. Then I think of a bunch of witty ideas to make transitioning easier. So anyway, it sucks. I'm also presenting all of the research and my "witty ideas" at the CMTA (formerly GLASS) conference on May 6 so I gotta get it done soon. I'm also supposed to graduate May 28. I hope I can. eeeek.

Anyways, I'm also going to be driving to Puerto Vallarta on Tuesday with my parents. That's really far.

I'm reading Simply Christian by N.T. Wright right now. So far so good. More to come.

I'm coming back

I've had enough of my silence. It's time to return to the blogosphere. Prepare to be blown away. I love Jesus so much and have a lot of passion for Him, but I also struggle with a pit in my gut at times. I'm human and loved by the most powerful being that has ever existed. That's the most intense thing ever. I was feeling kind of down lately spiritually, but we read I Corinthians 15 today - the whole thing, not just the first several verses - and it fired me up. So I'm back.

Private Journaling

I will be journaling in private from now on. Email me if you know me and don't understand.