So, I added some code to my blog a long time ago that allowed me to post only the summaries of posts and then the reader could click on a link and read more if they wanted too. Well, I haven't been keeping up to date with my own blog and realized that something has gone wrong and no matter what I do, the "Read More" link shows up on posts whether there is more to read or not. So don't be confused.
I'll have a look at the problem soon but in the meantime . . .
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Read More
He's got me pegged
I'm reading The Genesee Diary: Report from a Trappist Monastery by Henri Nouwen. It's his diary of his seven months spent at the monastery. I'm blown away at how much I parallel his thinking, feeling and experiences. Here are some statements he makes and questions he asks (we'll the ones I resonate with, anyway):
"What was turning my vocation to be a witness to God's love into a tiring job?" p. 13.
"Maybe I was slowly becoming a prisoner of people's expectations instead of a man liberated by divine promises." p. 13.
"While complaining about too many demands, I felt uneasy when none were made." p. 14.
"Is there still a point where my life is anchored and from which I can reach out with hope and courage and confidence?" p. 14.
"Why do I always want to read about the spiritual life and not really live it?" p. 27.
"I think that most of my fatigue is related not to the type of work I do but to the fragile tensions I put into it." p. 37.
"The more my mind broods, the farther away from God and neighbor I move." p. 47.
". . . right under the threshold of my "bravery," there is a tremendous insecurity and self-doubt that is easily triggered and laid bare by a small event." p. 52.
So, I've kinda been living within a shadow in the last couple of months. Through conversations and even Nouwen's book, I have been encourage to find the shadow's edge and step into the light. I'm working on it . . .
Clapping and #2
Mackenzie was clapping his hands over his head this morning at breakfast. No big deal, right? Well, Angela says: "good job on clapping over your head, Mackenzie! Shows it's time that we start going to the potty now!" (yeah, despite a previous posts we haven't been working too hard on this skill with Mackenzie).
Turns out that "they" say when a child can clap their hands over their heads, they are ready to be potty trained. I am only left to wonder how a connection can be made between clapping skills and potty skills.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Recap
I'm thinking that if I recap the last month or so, I'll find more freedom to blog more consistently and more often. I think that if I cover the basics of my life's happenings in the last while, I won't be haunted by the "shoulda's" (I shoulda blogged about this, and I shoulda blogged about that.) Without further adieu:
June 26 - Today is my birthday. 29 I am.
June 25 - Finished reading A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. A must read.
June 24 - I took Mackenzie for a bike ride on the Trans Canada Trail near here. He slept through most of it.
June 21 - Mackenzie and I attempted a night out in the VW van. We didn't make it
June 18 - I arrived home from my week long trip to California. My friend Terry and I took a load of very expensive horses to Las Angeles. 5500 km in 3 days. It was fun, exhausting, and I missed my family7.
June 12 - I left for Calgary. Unloaded Wednesday. Picked up the horses early on Thursday, and then straight through to LA.
June 11 - Lukas' close encounter with our coffee table. Lots of blood. Good photo opportunities.
June 10 - Mackenzie turned 3 years old.
June 5 - Lukas turned 1 year old. Angela and I celebrated by going to see Pirates 3 (give me a break, Lukas was sleeping when we left for the theatre)
June 4 - Angela's parents headed home after a good visit.
June 3 - Actionfest service in the park. I led a sweet band. We led worship for some 300 people in Memorial Park in Summerland. The morning was good. The weeks leading up to it - not so good.
June 2 - Local Parade. The first time Mackenzie enjoyed a parade. The only thing that scared him was the giant dog.
June 1 - Epic bike ride up and down Giants Head Mountain. (Epic for me)
May 31 - Angela's dad arrived. I am not totally sure this was the day but it was close. He came later because he had to finish seeding.
May 30 - Finished The Life And Times Of The Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson. A funny, light-hearted read.
May 29 - Arrived home after taking a pile of Jr. High kids to YC Alberta in Edmonton.
May 28 - Met up with an old friend from High School, James Reed. We spent the day at West Edmonton Mall and James came up to meet me. Good times
May 27 - Angela turned 30. I wasn't at home to celebrate :-(
May 24 - Left for YC Alberta. Turned out to be the best time I've had at a conference with youth. Nothing super spiritually significant but good none the less. The bands were really good this year. I enjoyed David Crowder, United, Lincoln Brewster, Leeland, Delirious?, and after missing the first quarter of the Toby Mac show (I fell asleep), I was rather entertained (surprise surprise).
May 22 & 23 - A couple of funerals for church family members.
May 21 - Good friends, Anthony & Amanda, came for a visit. Very refreshing. Good catching up.
May 20 - Angela's mom arrived for a good visit.
May 19 - A day of quadding/4x4ing. Soo much fun. We didn't kill ourselves.
May 18 - Finished The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz. The story of how a bunch of guys escaped a prison camp in Yakutsk and walked to British India. Intense.
May 17 - Recycling day. We like recycling day.
May 16 - Arrived home from a quick trucking trip to Calgary.
May 14 - Last post on my blog before this one.
Monday, May 14, 2007
It's gone
The span between this post and my last post is definitive proof that the novelty of the internet has finally warn off...
My first introduction to the internet was in the high school computer lab. All I used it for back then was to find guitar tabs of the songs I was into. I think all web stuff was mostly text based back then.
In my first year of college, my parents got a computer and hooked up to the net via dial-up. I don't really know why they wanted internet because they didn't really know much about it or have a need so it may have been my influence.
Angela and I were married in 1998 and we didn't have a computer so we would head down the street to my parents house if we ever needed anything. I think it was shortly after we were married that we signed up for our first address - a hotmail address that we still have to this day.
We finally purchased our first computer in 2000. We needed one for the work we were doing and for school. I hooked up to the net via dial-up and I became a new person. I was a data hog, downloading any and everything I could get my hands on. I became addicted to online gaming spending many sleepless nights trying to pick off people I didn't even know with the M-21 sniper rifle (can anyone guess which game?)
During this time, my friends that lived in other towns started connecting via broadband. I shortly became jealous but there was nothing I could do because broadband wasn't offered in our town.
We didn't hit the jackpot of available bandwidth until we moved to Summerland 5 years ago. I believe the first phone call after we arrived was to Shaw to get them to come out and hook me up. I couldn't wait any longer.
I've gone through all sorts of phases of internet usage from downloading movies, to gaming, to surfing for all sorts of stuff I didn't really need to look for, to instant messaging and on and on. I guess the latest two things I have really been into are were blogging and more recently Facebook. I really don't have a desire to keep up on either anymore. I mean, it's nice to reconnect with old friends and see what everyone is up to but I don't really want to put forth an effort. And, I don't have a lot of time to blog but I think that if I really wanted to blog, I'd find the time.
So where does that leave my blog? I dunno. I like having it here and I do like writing every once and a while and I like getting feedback but for right now, all I can say is don't expect too much. Feel free to check back from time to time and see what's going on but you may find grand lapses in time between posts. I may get a second (or third or fourth) wind so you never know, there might just be a pleasant surprise awaiting at your next return.
And where does that leave my relationship with the internet? It's now a tool. I need it for stuff. I need it to keep in touch with people. I need it to watch TV. I need it to check the forecast. I need it to find fixes when something screws up. I need it to buy things. I do check my emails from time to time but the novelty of that has warn off too. I can leave my laptop at home without giving it a second thought whereas a few years ago, every second thought was: "I wonder if I have any email since I checked it 30 seconds ago."
I don't know how to end this post. I'm trying too hard to be clever. So, until the next post, have a pleasant day/night or whatever it is for you.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Brilliance
Mackenzie: "Daddy, we go camping in the VW Van?"
Daddy: "That is a great idea but the VW Van is broken."
Mackenzie: "Oh, VW van need a new engine?"
Daddy: "Yes, the VW Van needs a new engine."
Mackenzie: "Um, how bout we take Honda car engine out and put Honda car engine in VW Van, Daddy?"
Daddy: "Hmmm, I never thought of that idea."
For the next church meeting
Angela sent me this good one from Henri Nouwen:
The Virtue of Flexibility
Trees look strong compared with the wild reeds in the field. But when the storm comes the trees are uprooted, whereas the wild reeds, while moved back and forth by the wind, remain rooted and are standing up again when the storm has calmed down.
Flexibility is a great virtue. When we cling to our own positions and are not willing to let our hearts be moved back and forth a little by the ideas or actions of others, we may easily be broken. Being like wild reeds does not mean being wishy-washy. It means moving a little with the winds of the time while remaining solidly anchored in the ground. A humorless, intense, opinionated rigidity about current issues might cause these issues to break our spirits and make us bitter people. Let's be flexible while being deeply rooted.
Daily Meditations
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Technology
A lot has been happening in our lives in the broad area of home technology and appliances.
Two weeks ago, our washing machine decided to deposit oil spots on our clothes. Since our dryer was a fire hazard (the switch broke to the door so you could open it without it turning off AND the dryer quit shutting off on its own!) so we bit the bullet and bought a new washer and dryer. Not a cheap venture and thankfully, a few people felt our need and pitched in to help cover the cost! Thanks sooo much! And now, washing clothes is a riot! We didn't realize that clothes only took 20min to dry! It was taking us an hour and a half.
Then, I soft-modded my Xbox two days ago. Woooot! I have evolutionX and Xbox Media Centre running on it now. For those that don't really know what this means, now I can watch DVDs, watch video files that are on my home computer (over the network), listen to music stored on my home computer, play video games from the past like any Nintendo or Super Nintendo game, and much more! All this stuff was not possible before the mod. I am still tweaking and having much fun with it. We still gotta get together and do some gaming, Doug. Do you still have that Lego Star Wars game? I'd like to borrow it. And what was Charmaine's favorite game?
I bought a used mountain bike yesterday. I am excited to ride! I want to get in better shape, using the car less and just having fun in the hills. We want to get the hitch for our stroller to make it into a trailer but we'll have to wait until Lukas is a little bigger. Shouldn't be long. Then we'll hit the trails as a family - that's if my prairie legs don't give out on me. I'd take a picture but that is the other thing . . .
Our Canon A75 has finally taken its last picture. Yup, it served us well but it has breathed it's last. We took more than 10, 000 picture with it over the years. So what to do now? We spent our money on the washer/dryer and now the bike. I guess I should get back to work - now for more reasons than 1 . . .
Books
So I read a couple of books in the past few weeks. Nothing really heavy or spiritual. Kinda liking reading fiction and, I don't know what you would call it, uh, real life stories/biographies/first hand accounts. I am speaking of Krakauer's books. Can you literary people (who are familiar with Krakauer) tell me what you would call them?
Anyway, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer reminded me that I'd love to climb Everest but that I never will. It's a great read for you adventure lovers. Be warned - not exactly a happy ending,
Hornet Flight by Ken Follett was allright. It is set in Denmark during World War I. It involves spying and old airplanes which is kinda cool. Some of the book was cheesy so I don't know if I'll read anything else by Follett.
Because I really liked Into Thin Air, I thought I'd read another of Krakauer's books: Into The Wild. It was good. It's about a wandering young man who decides to spend some time in the Alaska Wilderness - alone. He died out there and Krakauer retraces his steps with this book. He tries to find out what kind a person would head out into the wilderness to live alone. The idea is romantic but like Krakauer's other book, I am reminded that I will not be heading into the wilderness alone, for a length of time, any time soon.
Those Photos
I don't know why blogger messes up the photos when it resizes them. Sorry about the bad images. You'll have to click on them to see the full size image.
I don't have the time at the moment to learn how to fix it so anybody got some ideas?
The Boyz
Just wanted to show some pics of our last trip to the park.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Speaking of doing the right thing
It's interesting because as I am still thinking about the ipod situation, I read John Piper's post this morning:
By John Piper March 28, 2007
Since my father died on March 6, I have been looking through his papers. I found a small sheet with the following fifteen counsels, titled “Things I Have Learned.” They have again confirmed the obvious: I owe my father more than I can ever remember. The comment after each one is mine.
Things I have Learned
by Bill Piper
1. The right road always leads to the right place; therefore, get on the right road and go as far as you can on it.
with comments by John Piper2. There is only one thing to do about anything; that is the right thing. Do right.My father was totally persuaded that wrong means do not lead to right ends. Or, more positively, he was persuaded that living in the right way—that is, doing the right things—are means that inevitably lead to where God wants us to be. This is why he told me, when I asked about God’s leading in my life, “Son, keep the room clean where you are, and in God’s time, the door to the next room will open.”
This is what one might say to a person perplexed by a difficult situation whose outcome is unknown. The person might say, “I just don’t know what to do about this.” It is not useless to be told: Do the right thing. That may not tell you exactly which good thing to do, but it does clear the air and rule out a few dozen bad ideas.
There is more, of course, but this was fitting for me today.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
How do you know if you have done the right thing?
I won an ipod nano at Tim Hortons. Well, not really but kinda.
This past week, we had a video technician install our new video projector and video system at the church. He is a really nice guy and did a great job.
On Friday morning, he showed up with his breakfast: a coffee and a muffin from Tim Hortons.
He finished his work Friday afternoon and headed back to the coast - job well done.
On Saturday night, I was working late in the sound/video room playing with the projector and setting stuff up for Sunday. On my way home, I noticed his discarded Tim Hortons cup in a box of garbage that he had left from Friday. It seemed to me that the rim had not been rolled up yet. My curiosity got the better of me and I checked it out. The first word I saw was "ipod"! My heart raced. My suspicions were confirmed once I fully unraveled the rim: I was holding a winning Tim Horton's cup and the prize was an ipod nano!
I did know that the cup wasn't mine. I knew it was Terry's (video tech). And my immediate thought was that I should tell him and offer to send it to him.
I had Angela read the rim at home and proceeded to burst her bubble when I said it was not mine.
Now, Sunday morning rolls around and I'm telling people this story. The overwhelming response was: "finder's keeper's, loosers wheepers." Everyone except my parents and my senior pastor said that I should claim it as mine. Terry would never know. So, untill I talked to people about it, I didn't feel like I was suffering from a moral dilema.
After weighing the decision, I decided to still tell Terry about the cup. And this morning I did. I asked him what he wanted me to do with it. He wants me to mail it to him!
Honestly, when I recieved that reply via email, I was crestfallen and I still am. I let myself believe that he was a nice person who would probably let me keep it since he allready had an ipod and since he did throw the cup in the garbage. I thought he may operate by the "finder's keeper's" rule but I guess not.
So, I was a winner for a while. Now I am not.
And I don't really know if I have done the right thing.
One of the pat answeres I heard was "well, you will be rewarded in other ways." Not what I want to hear and I would argue that it is not necessarily true.
But I need something better to raise my spirits. What do you think? Did I do the right thing?
Thursday, March 15, 2007
My friend has a Beemer
Yeah, that's right. One of my friends owns a BMW. I just found out today. (I am using the word friend here a little loosely - the 'friend' in question recently moved to our area, started attending our church, comes to our home group, and we are getting to know each other.) Until tonight, I have only seen my friend and his wife in their Suburban - a beautiful new 'suburban' Suburban.
I knew they had some cash, having just sold their house in downtown Vancouver but I didn't think they had that much.
So, Angela and I leave to go home after our care group meeting and parked behind me is this beautiful, black shiny BMW. I didn't take a closer look at it because I didn't want to make it obvious that I was gawking but it was definitely worth a bit of coin (and yes it was theirs and I was not mistaken - we were on an acreage and I know what everyone else drives).
I do admit that a severe jealousy has come over me. And that is one reason for this post. I really quite ashamed that I even care that much about what someone drives. I am ashamed that I want a car such as theirs. I am ashamed that I have judged them based on their vehicle choice.
It's now been maybe 20 minutes since this all came to light to me and I am amused at the context in which this falls: our group just started a little series on Marriage by Andy Stanley and tonight he talked about the transition that happens in marriage when our desires become our expectations. Like when a couple is engaged and they have dreams of what their life will be together - their desires. And then, sometime into their marriage, those desires may become expectations. "So dear, doing the laundry is your job cause that is what the wife does" or "when are we going to put a down payment on a house because you sir promised you would provide for our family." And Andy was saying that when we live with expectations and don't put them back in the "desire" category, the marriage relationship erodes. As I was listening, I was thinking about my relationship with Angela, sure, but I was also thinking about my discontent with my "faith." I realized tonight that I expect quite a bit from God. I realize that I have been saying to God: "OK, so I am serving you. I am in ministry. You owe me one, God. You owe me blessings. You owe me a decent salary. You owe me a reliable car. You owe me more than this." Well, I haven't really said all that stuff outright but that is basically how a have become to feel about my relationship with God. And that is probably why I have become bitter with God. I am angry that he hasn't followed through on his end of the bargain.
Andy Stanley says that one way you can find out what your unknown expectations are taking not of what you don't thank your spouse for. For example: Angela does all our laundry. We haven't really talked about who's job it is. She just does it. And she seems to not mind. The problem lies in the fact that I rarely, if ever, thank her for it. I only seem to mention something about it when I am low on socks or something. And according to Andy, this is because I expect her to do the laundry. And he's right. One day I may have desired for my wife to do our laundry but somewhere along the way, it changed to an expectation. This is not good. If I could get it back to a desire, I would have gratitude that Angela is doing our laundry and in tern might be more likely to do the laundry out of love for me. She would be doing it to fulfill my desire, not live up to expectations. If she is always trying to live up to expectations, then she may get tired of it, get bitter, angry and she could perhaps quit it all together but one thing is sure: it would become an issue of contention. And not realize that it is my expectation that started it in the first place, I wouldn't understand what the problem was. You get what I'm saying?
And I do the same thing with God. I have desires, but I've somehow, for some reason, turned them into expectations. The Bible talks a lot about God wanting to give us our desires but says very little about living up to our expectations.
And after we watched the talk about this, of course Andy says we are going to learn how to move expectations back to desires in the coming weeks. We all wanted to find out how right away. Oh well, it gave us lots to think about as couples.
But this was the context of my thoughts surrounding my friend and his Beemer. And my thoughts about why God hasn't blessed me like I expected him too. And my thoughts about why my desires never seem to be fulfilled. And ultimately, my lack of faith in the whole area of trusting God for providing for me. God is teaching me a few things. It just seems funny to me that He uses a friend and his BMW, a care group that is going through a marriage study, and my wife's commitment to laundry, to teach me about my relationship with Him. My relationship with God lately has been a journey towards gratitude, contentment, and more so - joy. The events of the last 30 minutes have propelled me further along in that journey and I am a more grateful person than I was 30 minutes ago. If anything, I am thankful that there is hope for me to recapture the joy that God promises - to be content and grateful for all that God has provided.
How much R&R is too much?
My intern and I had breakfast supplied by Tim Hortnons.
Then we went golfing.
And then went fishing.
And hiking.
I am wondering if that was too much - especially on church time.
But then I think no and here's why:
We set out initially to only play golf, but since we went early in the morning, I was running late and had to go get a Sausage thing from Tim LLING_ERROR_1">Hortons, and as a consolation for being late, I brought David a bacon one.
On the first hole, we cleard the pond from the tee. As we walked around the pond that we soon realized was covered with a thin layer of ice, we saw that my ball came to rest on top of the ice of a tiny pond which contained a few hundred dead fish. Being the pro that I am, I dicided to chip the ball where it lay (and because I wanted a story to tell). As soon as my 9 iron hit the ice, it was obvious to us that most, if not all of these fish were indeed quite alive! David, having a heart for the living, decided he would rescue these fish and place them in the bigger, life sustaining pond. It seemed to us that these fish were going to die if left too much longer in the puddle. And would you know it, and I am not kidding, there were fish nets right there for us to do the task, or rather David. using his club to chop holes in the ice, he proceeded to catch one of these things and free it. Just as David was moving this suffocating fish to the big pond, it fell out of the net and landed on the ice with a dull thud. So much for saving it's life. He did get it into the water and the fish eventually swam to freedom. Who goes fishing on a golf course? We do.
And even though we only played 9 holes, we had quite the hike. We took in the beautiful surroundings. Ah, it was great. A cool sunny morning. How much better can it get?
And we had the course all to our selves. No pressures.
And we did this all on work time.
And I think I am using "and" too much to start sentences.
But all this to say, you can never have too much R&R.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
I received a sweet compliment the other day that ranks close to the top of my list of best compliments ever received! And I was given by my local garbage man no less!
(put on Jack Johnson's "The 3 R's" before you read on - an appropriate soundtrack for this post)
It just so happens that the owner's of Summerland Sanitation Service go to our church and attend our care group. All of their employees go to to our church and attend our care group. No, we don't have a big care group - they only have one employee and there are only two owners so we are talking three guys and their wives.
Anyway, they started a recycling pickup service about a month ago. This has excited me more in the last few months than anything has! Really. I've always wanted to live in a town that has a recycling pickup service. And since the service has begun, I have bought blue recycling bags, sorted my plastics from the paper and tin, and bundled up my cardboard in a neat pile. When they come around, every other Thursday, I have it neatly piled by the road - just like they asked. Now we are down to one and a half bags of garbage per week. If we start composting in the summer, like I hope to, we could be down to half a bag of garbage. If there was a diaper pickup service, then, we'd have almost no garbage.
Oh, back to the compliment. . . So we were talking about the new pickup service when I asked it I was doing it right. The pickup dude laughed and said "man, you have the neatest most organized recycle pile in town!" And he was serious.
So now I can go to sleep knowing that nobody recycles better than me!
Young Love
So I am supposed to be working on a talk that I am giving my Jr. High youth tonight. In the spirit of procrastination, I thought I'd rather blog about the process rather than carry it out. Tonight's topic and theme is dating . . .
I really just want to tell them they are too young but somehow I need to stretch that into a 15 minute talk. That is the hard part. I guess I could repeat "you are too young to date" over and over for 15 minutes. I could talk about the statistics, maybe. Like 51% of teen marriages end in divorce before the age of 24 (National Center for Health Statistics). But statistics usually only discourage people. So those ideas are probably no good.
Ah well. I'll come up with something. I just wonder if I'll believe the same things and feel the same way about Jr. Highs and relationship issues when my boys are in Jr. High.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
SAC Happiness
SAC stands for Summerland Alliance Church and Happiness stands for happiness.
There are a lot of cool things happening within our church family these days.
I haven't mentioned anything about it here yet but I have an intern working for me. He started in January and is around until the end of April. He's a guy that was in my youth group when we first started serving here. He is in his third year at Briercrest Bible College. And he is a close personal friend.
This internship is a really great thing. He's not sure what kind of ministry heading he's going to take but he sure has options. He is great with kids and young people so it's awesome to have help with our youth ministry. He's developing into a good worship leader and it has been my pleasure to have him play and sing with me and a pleasure for me to play, sing and worship under his leadership. He's passionate about drama and is getting our church family passionate about it too. And he's great with seniors. I believe he was going to learn to knit this afternoon as a matter of fact.
Anyhow, he preached in our service today. His first sermon ever in front of a church congregation. He did really well. I never grew up hearing the phrase "good word" but I heard it many time today: "David, that was a good word!" "David, thanks for that good word." Anyway. I was proud of him. He sure made me think and that kinda ticks me off cause I know I have some changes to make in my life. This is, however, how I know the Spirit used David to speak to me.
And speaking of our service and "first ever's", I conducted my first baby dedication today. I have to admit it was fun. I did put quite a bit of effort into preparation, practically rewriting the pastor's handbook, but that was a pleasure cause the son I dedicated was the son of friends. Very special.
Another cool thing is that we axed our 4-year-old prelude. Yeah, we do anywhere from 7 to 10 songs in a service. I think that is more than average. I mean, doing a 3 or 4 song prelude has been cool but practicing 10 songs in a short amount of time is hard even for pro musicians. Now we do 6 songs which allows us to do more than just make sure we know how to play the songs. We can actually work towards a great tight sound and be creative within it. I'm enjoying music and leading worship a little more now.
I was at a PK (Promise Keepers) breakfast yesterday. I only went because a friend of mine was going to go. I didn't really want to go but I did. It was interesting. The major thrust of the discussion was on "the call of God" or rather "what the heck am I supposed to do with my life?" I weighed in on this one more so than usual. I am usually the youngest one at these things (that was until David, my intern, came along) and so I approach life, God, faith, church etc. rather differently than these men. I usually keep my mouth shut. Not so yesterday. Rather than get into what I said, I'll just say that I was quite alone in my views on the matter of calling and deciding what we should do for careers and stuff. I put myself out there. I was thinking for the rest of the day that I should have just kept my mouth shut but two of the men approached me later to share their appreciation for what I said. I made them think, so they said, and I tell ya, it was good to hear. Anyways, my challenge has always been to work up enough courage to speak my mind/heart and I'm starting to speak up more and more, with favorable results.
I've seen a lot of people struggling with marriages lately but some are taking a positive turn and you could never know how excited I am to see it.
Angela's Caterpillar Club is doing well and she has new moms showing up every Friday. We've seen some of them in church since. I have a feeling this thing is going to grow.
There was some drama with one of my sponsors and myself about my philosophy of doing youth ministry and this actually caused me a lot of stress. I hate strained relationships like this but we're working it out and I am quite happy that we can restore our tattered friendship. I think the incident will turn out to be merely a bump in the road of our friendship.
So I felt like writing this post to kinda count my blessings. And even though I haven't said it, the goodness I see in our church family these days (there is more than I just typed) really shows that we have found favor with God. I am thankful that He is using our church to reach our community. I am thankful that we are an "alive" church family and that we are passionate about striving for holiness, reaching our community for the sake of His kingdom and seeing His kingdom come in the whole world. Yeah, to God be the glory, now and forever.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Parking Etiquette
Is there some sort of official parking etiquette established that I don't know about?
We were leaving Costco today. Packing up our car with our two kids and the groceries took us a little time. I finally got in and in my excitement to open the packaging to a cordless phone set we just bought, I noticed another car signaling for my spot. I don't know how long they had been there but it was obvious from the persistent blinking of that evil orange light that they wanted my spot and wanted it now. And this is where I need some rules. Am I obligated to vacate the space as fast as possible or are they obligated to wait till I am good and ready to leave? This is not the first time this scenario has played out and admittedly, I have lingered longer than I have needed just to assert my control over that 5'x9' space.
But really, what should a guy do? I don't like the pressure of having to leave a parking place sooner than I am ready - and as odd as it sounds, I like to get ready to drive (loose items stowed, appropriate song on the ipod, climate controls set etc.).
Once, at the mall during the pre-Christmas shopping rush, I waited in the car with a sleeping child while Angela took the other one inside to shop. In the span of 45 minutes, 9 cars signaled for my spot. One stayed for over 4 minutes before they got the hint that I was not moving! Is a parking spot that valuable that people wait so long?
In our case today, we parked some distance from the store. We don't mind walking. In fact, we prefer to park some distance which is why I was surprised at the interruption. The parking lot seemed to fill out while we were in the store making our parking stall the closest, soon to be available stall. It never ceases to amaze me how persistent people are in their attempts to get a parking space as close to the store as they can.
Anyhow, I was curious to know if I was alone in this. For me it's a case of what is the right thing to do vs. what do I want to do.
Will I linger longer next time? Will I exit promptly? I don't know.
My boyz
Mackenzie and Lukas are growin up soo fast. Just thought I'd post two recent pictures of them for no other reason than to show em off.
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