Nerd Score

I think I might be more nerdy than this test, but it only tests for math/science/computer type of nerdiness. It didn't ask if I read sci-fi/fantasy novels or if I blog every day. The 39 means that I am nerdier than 39% of all people.

What are you?

ht to marko. what does ht stand for? Huge thanks? I know it's how you give credit to someone for where you found something, but what is ht really mean?

Car

So I'm gonna keep my car and not get a new one. I will keep driving my 1999 4Runner, but I will make sure it's in good condition and I will get a new stereo put in so that I actually like my car. We own it outright and it's a Toyota so even though it has 112,000 miles it should be great. Then we will get Bea a nicer car in September when her lease runs out. We will never lease again. It was good for a season where we wanted a newer more reliable car, but couldn't afford the down payment. But now with no monthly on my car and some savings we can get Bea a new Nissan Pathfinder or Honda Pilot or something like that. We'll see.

I'm excited to look for a new stereo!!

Soccer Game

Grace is playing AYSO Soccer for 4-year-olds and I'm coaching her team. I seriously love it. The kids are so cute and it's fun to watch them go crazy all over the field. Last night we had an intense game with a team of kind of brutish little girls. They were knocking our girls all over the place, but our Pink Ladybugs were tough. We don't keep score or have goalies!! It's just pure fun. Here are some pics from last nights game.
Below is Grace chasing down the ball with her proud coach in the background.

This is Grace going down from the tough girls on the Purple Mermaids.

Coaching your kid is fun. All the girls have a lot to say.

Their favorite part is the tunnel they run through at the end of the game.

The Delivery Story

Baby Ella turned one week old last night at 6:48pm during Grace's soccer game. I said I would tell the story of the delivery. Here it is...with some pictures.

We left the house at around 6:15am to go to South Coast Medical Center in Laguna Beach where Bea was going to be induced. First of all, it's weird having an induction because you know that you are going to go and have a baby. It's a crazy sense of anticipation - very nerve wracking. Here is a picture of Bea's belly on the morning we left the house. Yes, there is a seven pound baby, two liters of extra water and a few pound placenta inside that belly. I have a picture of the placenta but Bea won't let me show it.

Then we checked in at the hospital and filled out paperwork and got checked into our room and they started the Petocin drip (that's the drug that starts inducing labor) at about 8:15am. My parents took Grace to breakfast at Ruby's. Then Bea's mom came and hung out with us. We were in a smaller room to start but then they checked us into our main room at around 11:00am. This room was beautiful and big and had an amazing ocean view. That's kind of their schtick at South Coast - "Have your baby with an ocean view!" They even give shirts to the baby that say that. Here is a picture of the view.

The rooms are LDRP rooms which means you do everything in them. L - Labor. D - Delivery. R - Recovery. P - Postpartum. Here is a picture of Bea waiting in the Labor phase. She got the epidural at around 1:00pm. It was pretty scary for her, but those things are amazing. She is such an amazing woman. So brave and so strong. At this point Bea was only at 3 centimeters and we thought we were in for a long road.

Then at 4:30pm the nurse examined Bea and she was at 5cm. Then I enjoyed a delicious Ruby's Beach Burger with bacon and Bea was very jealous because she couldn't eat. Then at about 6:25pm, Dr. Tran (our OB), came in to examine Bea. We thought this would just be another check and we would have to wait a few more hours. We sent the family out to let Bea get examined in private. So then Dr. Tran says that she is at 7cm, but that her cervix is very flexible and soft. The next words out of Dr. Tran's mouth are, "Let's try giving a push on the next contraction." WHAT???? SERIOUSLY??? Then Baby Ella was born at 6:48pm so you know that this process was very very very fast. Here's the first picture I took of Ella all covered in the gross white stuff.

Here is our new family with Dr. Tran.

Then Bea has to get stitched up and cleaned up before we can let the family come in. They were shocked when I said that they baby was born. They thought it was just another routine examination as well. Crazy. Then we spent the crazy two nights in the hospital with some great friends and family bringing tasty meals to us from Ruby's, Coyote Grill, and a yummy New York pizza place. We were so happy to come home. With Grace we were scared to come home. This time I couldn't wait.

Here is a darn cute baby at our home.

A Memo to Melissa Brosch

Melissa loves Kelly Clarkson. I just read some stuff about Kelly Clarkson that bugs me. Melissa, Melissa, Melissa, this pop singer isn't all you think she is. Here are a few things:
1. She admits that all of her songs are basically personally untrue. She has never been in love and has never experienced the break-up struggles that she has been singing about lately.
2. She says, "I shouldn't be a mother at all, because I'd be horrible. I'm not willing to be that selfless. I'm not keen on marriage."
3. She also says that making a relationship work requires too much effort.

I thought I liked Kelly Clarkson, but it turns out that she is just a fake, self-centered sloth. Melissa, stop encouraging the young people of our church to admire this kind of person.

Falling Asleep While Praying

I loved this quote from a Dominican Catholic priest about falling asleep in prayer - something we all do and probably feel guilty about.

"The Lord doesn't mind," Goedert said. "If you're holding a newborn baby in your arms and it falls asleep, are you going to love it any less?"
Rev. Robert Goedert, a Dominican priest in Chicago

I think that's a beautiful thought? Agree? Disagree?

A Crazy Day

To start this off, when Grace was born four years ago I took two weeks off from work and we didn't leave the house for two weeks. We were so overwhelmed it was unbelievable.

With Ella I am still taking about two weeks off, but because she was born a bit early I had a couple things I had to do this weekend and we have a four year old. So it's definitely not the same.
1. On Thursday, the day we came home from the hospital, I coached Grace's first soccer game.
2. On Saturday I left for an hour to go to go to a wedding rehearsal.

Then the crazy day came on Sunday.
1. I preached in Elevation. OK this is a huge deal for me because usually I completely obsess about preaching in there. I usually prep for hours and try to have it finished by Wednesday so I can practice it out loud and then make refinements that day. Then I practice it once on Thursday, Friday, and again early Sunday morning. That wasn't going to happen this week so I studied ahead of time, wrote the whole talk on Monday morning, and turned in all my PowerPoint and Bulletin information by Monday afternoon. Then I didn't think about the talk until Friday. I looked at it on Friday and sent a couple PowerPoint edits in to Nicole and Trevor (they make everything look good). Then I practiced it once on Saturday and about half of it on Sunday morning. Then I preached the sermon while having "newborn exhaustion" from lack of sleep and it was OK. I don't think it was great. I was a bit slow in my mind. There was a cool live art piece being made on stage too. It was awesome, but it's always weird when everyone is looking at the art and not at you. The service ended up being really great even if I wasn't great. That's my prayer every week. It goes like this, "Lord, if I suck today may it bring you glory and if I'm awesome today may it bring you glory." I seriously pray that every time I preach.
2. I went home and crashed for a couple hours.
3. I performed the wedding ceremony for Brock Buoniconti and Deanna Herring. It went really well. I thought there was a good blend of humor, fun, and a sense of sacredness to it. So I got home from that at about 8:00pm and hung out with Bea and Ella while Gracie was sleeping.

So it was definitely a different sort of first few days after Ella was born compared to Gracie. But now I am really off for the rest of this whole week. 7 days of no responsibilities and just being together as a family. I love it.

Ella is born!

WOW!! We got home yesterday from the hospital and everything is great. We are exhausted, but feeling pretty good. The baby and Bea are super healthy and well.
Born June 19th 2007 at 6:48pm. 7.0 pounds and 20 inches long.
I will post more about the experience later. Here are a few pics.

Last Post for a Few Days

Alright, we go to the hospital tomorrow morning to have the baby. Tons of news to come after.

Josh Simpson - HERO!

Look at this from the Chicago Tribune.
Teen's heroism told after lake drowning
By Lisa Black and Ruth Fuller, Chicago Tribune
Published June 9, 2007

Bryan Eatmon can't believe how fast it happened: One minute, eight teens were goofing around in Lake Michigan,cooling off on a steamy day. The next, they were gasping for air,dragged underwater by a fierce undercurrent.
The waves at the Waukegan Beach on Thursday battered Eatmon like fists throwing punches, hard and relentless.
His friend Joshua Lamar Simpson, 19, tugged on Eatmon's arm, drawing him closer to shore and giving Eatmon time to regain footing and catch his breath. I was giving up," said Eatmon, 19. "I saw him -- he was right in front of me. He told me I was going to be all right.

Our Josh Simpson is a hero too. He is the best Jr High Pastor I have ever met. You might not hear him speak at a YS Conference or at a huge rally, but he ministers to Jr High students in a way that connects with students in a powerful way. I love you Josh Simpson!! Read his blog here.

Check him out here ladies! He is single!!

First Soccer Practice Today

THE PINK LADYBUGS

We had the first soccer practice for Grace's team. I used a Cinderella doll to teach them proper form with their feet for an instep kick. That's what the pictures are of that Erin K took. It was a fun and wild time. We'll see how they do when we kick the ball off at the game. Hopefully, they will all go in the right direction. They were excited to get their pink uniforms and they named their team the pink ladybugs.

We are going to miss the first game because it's on Tuesday when the baby is coming. I'm disappointed to miss the first game. Hopefully everything is OK.

Tuesday at 7am

We are supposed to show up at South Coast Medical Center in Laguna Beach at 7:00am on Tuesday to have a baby. They scheduled Bea to be induced on Tuesday, June 19th.

We're having a baby!!!

A Weird Week

I was home sick on Monday and Tuesday and didn't work a full day on Wednesday. Even yesterday I was still kind of out of it. I felt fine in the morning, but then my body started shutting down.

We had our Elevation Service Brainstorm Meeting yesterday and we planned a lot of things. Our fall series will be called DAVID: Pursuing the Heart of God. Not real edgy, but it communicates clearly. Our summer series is on the Holy Spirit and is a mini-series that we are calling Lost in Translation. We will have mini Lost in Translation series' between our longer series' and these will all be teachings on theological concepts that we tend to have misconceptions about for all sorts of reasons.

So after the meeting I was getting super tired and sick feeling again. I was supposed to teach in College Group, but they let me out of it. So I prepared a couple readings and worship responses for them based on the passage of Scripture I was supposed to teach. I hope it was OK.

Today, we go to the OB/GYN for Bea and they are supposed to do something to speed along the chances of her going into labor. Last Friday she was 2 centimeters dilated (sp?) and 70% effaced. We will see if there is any progress today at 10:45am. Bea and Grace have been sick too. So please pray for a healthy house for this new baby to come into.

Sick again

I was home sick today and I'm getting tired of it and a bit nervous about being behind. I missed two days to prep for speaking in College Group on Thursday night and in Elevation in 10 days and for a wedding I'm doing on June 24.

I also missed:
Ryan Campbell's Rite of Passage night
Chapel that was all about Student Ministry Summer
Pastor/Director Meeting
Elevation Team Meeting
Lunch with John Norton (my elder)
Volunteering at ASF
Coffee with Cory Hovivian

I'm still not feeling good, but I might have to go to work tomorrow or else I'm screwed.

Home Sick

This is a short gross video of me being home sick again today.

I wore a robe today

I performed the baptisms in church today which is an amazing honor. I love sharing in these life moments with people. It also means that I wore a robe. It's pretty much the only time you will ever be required to wear a robe at Calvary Church. I liked wearing the robe. I actually think I would rather wear robes than wear a suit. A suit is so stiff. I'm not sure if I would rather wear a robe than jeans and a button-down shirt. Sometimes I have the desire to have a "uniform" as a minister so that people could come and talk to me if they have a need or concern.

This reminded me of my desire to post on clothing in church.

This link discusses what pastors should wear in the 1500s in Scotland. Plaid was bad.

Here is a quote from an article on Presbyterian dress in 1897.

Now, a word or two as to objections that are sometimes raised when plainness of dress is advocated. Some say, "Oh, if the heart is right, one’s dress does not make much difference. We should be engaged chiefly in examining our hearts." To this it may be replied that it is invariable a sure proof the heart is wrong in important respects when vain attire is indulged in, and also that in the large majority of cases it is a real sign that the heart is not right at all. No one can consistently claim credit for anxiety as to the state of his or her heart who is not equally anxious to cleanse and reform outward behaviour according to the directions of the Word of God.

This quote is funny because in my view in advocates dressing less fancy and more simply to church or to honor God. The suit or dress is more "adornment" than jeans and a button-down shirt. It also shows the side wanting to dress more fancy using the argument about focusing on the heart that I tend to use as well.

There's some people that think women should cover their heads in worship according to 1 Corinthians 11. I'm not totally sure of the contextual stuff, but it seems to have more biblical basis than a suit.

This crazy guy thinks that wearing paisley means that you are allowing demons into your life. Check the site and see how ridiculous his logic is.

People take clothing way too seriously. We'll talk more.

Video from Bea's Birthday

This video is from Bea's Birthday back on May 30th. It's just the family chatting on the couch about not much of anything. A glimpse of the wacky life of the Wakeling clan.

Canada Shouldn't Mess With Bono

This article is the reason Canada is having so many problems as a nation. The country of my ancestry has saddened me and possibly angered me. Don't mess with Bono, especially right after Ottowa loses the Stanley Cup.

Thanks to Victor for the article.

Worship Confessional #1

This is me on video talking about Jr High Worship yesterday for the last Wednesday Nite of the school year. Grace makes an appearance too!

This Doesn't Make Sense

Here's something I don't understand.

1. The Unites States through Lockheed Martin is selling 100 fighter jets to Turkey. This quote is from LA Times article about it - "The Turkish air force already has 215 F-16 fighter planes and plans to buy 100 of Lockheed Martin's new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as well, in a deal estimated at $10.7 billion over the next 15 years."

2. I just read in The Week that two U.S. F-16 figher jets recently crossed into Turkish airspace while flying over Iraq. The Turks did not like this and their Prime Minister said, "We warned them not to repeat this. If this happens again, if this takes a different dimension, what we will do is obvious." He didn't say what "obvious" meant, but it is clearly a threat.

WHY WOULD WE SELL FIGHTER JETS TO A COUNTRY MAKING THREATS AGAINST US????????????

DUCKS WIN THE CUP!!

THE DUCKS ARE THE STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!!! I remember the very first game against the Yankees. I almost can't believe it. It's so amazing and awesome. The game tonight was great. I watched the whole thing on DVR when I got home from Jr High Group tonight. I'm so happy for Teemu Selanne and the other Ducks. I wish my dad never gave up the season tickets that we had for the first five or six years. I love this team and I have been loyal since they started the team here in Anaheim. These Ducks truly are mighty!!

Only in America

There is a section in my favorite magazine, The Week, called Only in America with weird stories of people having strange demands. Check this one out.

"A woman fired by a New York law firm is suing for $33 million because she wasn't given a desk near the window. Caryl Dontfraid says she needed the window desk because she suffers from seasonal affective disorder, whose victims get depressed from a lack of sunlight during winter months, but was dismissed within hours of making the request. David Hill, Dontfraid's supervisor at Binder & Binder counters that he offered Dontfraid a desk only 3 feet from a window, but she turned it down. 'She just refused to take her workstation,' said Hill, 'What was I going to do?"

Wow, that is seriously crazy. Why does every weird preference or problem with people have to have a formal name and disorder? Seasonal Affective Disorder? I don't like it when it's too hot out. Is that this disorder?

Contradictions

I have seen a couple people commenting on things like this and it got me thinking. It's part of my being an "acrobat."

Why am I this virtual pacifist when it comes to war but I love, I mean love in a way that stirs my heart, movies like Saving Private Ryan, 300, The Matrix, and Lord of the Rings. I think that the HBO Miniseries called Band of Brothers is the single best piece of film-making on the face of the earth. That's just a story of the European front of WWII. I read all of Steve Ambrose's books on WWII. I'm unsure if my love for those movies is my sinful nature or if my views on war are just inconsistent. Just because I like something doesn't mean it's not sinful. We long for lots of sinful things. Maybe war is just a sinful thing that I resonate with, but my true heart's conviction is that it is wrong.

What do you think? Do you have any similar contradictions? I must be an acrobat to talk like this and act like that.

Fun Night

Tonight I had a couple awesome and unique things happen.

1. I went to the AYSO Soccer Coach meeting and got my roster and the uniforms for my team. Grace and her best friend Cate are on the same team along with four other girls. This is U-5 (four year olds) soccer and should be interesting. I'm looking forward to making these girls run and work until they puke. Win at all costs!! This is what I will look like. Josh put a giant picture of this on my MySpace.

2. THE DUCKS WIN!! I got to watch the third period after the coach meeting. It was so stressful and amazing. One more win and the Ducks win the Stanley Cup. It's hard to believe after being at their very first game back at the Pond all those years (and bad teams) ago. Jiggy saved the day.

Thanks to the OC Register for their amazing photos. Best photographers ever!

Clothing in Church

I need to get back to blogging. This silly MySpace competition with Victor was eating up all my "internet time." But now that I have soundly defeated him I can get back to blogging and I can use MySpace for its intended purpose - connecting with friends, not competing for friends.

So I'm going to begin a new little study on another issue in the church that I think people get really worked up about - the clothing we wear to church. Now, I will say that as a pastor/teacher I understand how Paul says to be "all things to all men" and that a speaker must understand and dress according to what will help him connect most with his/her audience. I get that. I want to look at the issue more from a theological/historical context and see why in the world people think that it is important to dress a certain way when they go to church. Respect, comfort, culture, etc.

My view is that one should wear clothing to church that is comfortable for worship so that they can give their all to God spiritually, emotionally, and even physically. I want to be able to raise my hands, get on my knees, and even lay on my face. This is difficult to do in a three-piece suit as I feel like I can't even move my neck from side to side in one of those things. I personally like to wear a collared shirt because this helps me feel a little "dressed up" while still feeling comfortable. That is just my preference.

This quote was interesting for someone with my perspective on the issue.

That it is shallow to judge by appearances is a well-known saying. That it is shallow to dismiss appearances is a lesser-known truth.
- Poet Yahia Lababidi, quoted in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel and taken from The Week.

So I believe that I will show that clothing does not matter to God. I could be proved wrong though. But I also understand that to dismiss clothing altogether is just as shallow.

I hope to look next at the history of clothing in church and then what Scripture says on the subject and finally whether or not it should matter what the current cultural context of a specific church is for what clothing is worn.

New Bloggers

At Calvary Church the blog phenomenon is catching like wildfire. There are three more that I have to report about.
1. Laura Copeland (College Intern) at laurainsocal.blogspot.com
2. Luke Simpson (JH Small Group Leader, cool guy, and Josh's bro) at pimpsonproductions.blogspot.com
3. Ryan Castillo (interviewing for JH Worship Leader job) at ryancastillo.blogspot.com

Check them out.

P.S. The MySpace score is 119-119. It is now tied and considering that I had 65 yesterday, I am dominating. Plus, I have 59 pending friend requests I have put out there. It's only a matter of time.