10 Briefs

1. My first day at OC AIDS Services Foundation was good. I talked for a while with the head of volunteers and helped dispell some of his presuppositions about pastors. I helped make an email list for the AIDS Walk on May 12.
2. Matt Doan, High School Pastor at Calvary Church, started a blog. It's called OrangeCountyPastor which shows Matt's love for combining three words together (The High School group is called EveryDayLife) and his nerdiness. It's a cool blog other than the lame quotes on top and the RSS feeds on the bottom.
3. I am valuing the concepts of Sabbath and sabbatical more and more. Especially after conversations with staff members struggling with burnout. We need to "feed our forgotten souls" as Paul Borthwick says.
4. I'm going to see the movie "300" tonight. I'm a combination of excited and apprehensive. I've heard it's gnarly.
5. I'm going to buy a new surfboard. Mine is about 10 years old. When I realized that I wanted to turn myself into a dorky high school freshman and make fun of myself.
6. We have a Kenya meeting this Saturday. I'm looking forward to this trip but it's a bit all consuming.
7. Trader Joe's banana bread is excellent for breakfast - especially with Kona coffee.
8. Be careful what you say in staff meetings. It can backfire on you.
9. I recently got Logos Bible Software and I suck at it so I wanted to go to a training seminar and I saw this. WOW!! I need to go to this. It's for ministry.
10. GO UCLA BRUINS TONIGHT!!

Sabbath

We have been discussing sabbath in our VantagePoint3 group and my desire is to have my Friday mornings be a true point of sabbath for me. I have struggled with filling my Friday mornings with tasks like last-minute sermon prep, running errands, or watching tv. So today I was thinking of maybe going surfing alone during my sabbath or doing something else restful, but then I started thinking I needed to get my oil changed and get my car washed so I could sell it and my blushing bride asked me to go to the grocery store. Keeping a sabbath is a battle (and a fitting place for a war metaphor) that is tough to fight in our culture, but it's more than just culture, it's me. I like doing stuff. I need to stop for a bit.

P.S. I got 14 of 16 games right on the first day of the tourney.
P.P.S. It felt so good after telling my professor I was withdrawing from the Phd program. I'm so happy. I feel lighter. Maybe I should do a weigh-in.

GO BRUINS!!

Coach Ben Howland and the UCLA Bruins face off against Howland's alma mater, Weber State, today in their opening game of the NCAA Tournament. I have picked UCLA to win the whole thing in both brackets I filled out. One was a bit of a joke where I have an all Pac 10 Final Four - UCLA, Stanford, Washington State and Oregon. My real finals have UCLA beating North Carolina in the championships!

Go Coach Howland!!