Started out feeling just plain with out hope. I guess it was the culmination of alot of things, but really it comes out of my love and hope for the Church to take her rightful place in the world instead of piddling away Her time and energies on things that neither help Her, nor the rest of the world around her.
I've been thinking and studying "spiritual gifts" as they relate to the church. My first introduction to the concept of spiritual gifts came from a guy named Dave Snow. He gave us these little questionnaires to fill out and from that we were to figure out our spiritual gifts. I still didn't have much of a concept of what they were talking about and accordingly I'm not sure that the test had any relevance to what my spiritual gifts actually were (I took the test again after a couple of years though and got what I consider a fair but rather general explanation of my spiritual gifts.
Spiritual gifts are given by God, to the Church, to bless the world.
Blessings and cursings are a biblical concept. In Genesis Abe is given the promise of God that his proceeding generations would be a blessing unto all nations. Israel was meant to carry Gods promises and blessings unto the whole world, a task which they had little success in. The Christian converts were also meant to carry that same message of blessing and hope. But like the nation of Israel we also fall short of the Goal of blessing the whole world- we often fall short of even blessing those people around us whom we care about the most.
I see this and wonder, "God, what can be done? What hope can there be when the Church doesn't even get that theres hope to be found?"
Maybe this is redundancy from my last post, but we have engaged a sort of Christianity that misinterprets the application of repentance. We even have the meaning down, but a self centered application leaves too much unsaid, undone and un-changed.
I learned in Student Venture the etymology and the process of repentance. First of all, "repent" as it is translated from Greek is a military marching term equivalent to our "about face." it goes like this. Step one, stop what you are doing. Step two, turn 180 degrees. Step three, strike out in the opposite direction. Too often I applied that process specifically and narrowly to certain parts of my life, leaving those which I though were Okay or Well Enough alone. I fought to end lust and a struggle with masturbation and pornography. I fought to end my quickness to anger. I fought to end procrastination and laziness. I go to God expecting a surgeon and he stands there as a mortician. I'd like him to cut out the bad, keep the good, and stich me back up with out leaving too much of a scar. He'd like to see me die to my self and become a new creation.
Too often I sit around planing the course, ringing my hands together while looking at the obstacles, judging the people who don't see it my way, threatening to leave them behind when I set out, figuring that all along they were wrong in their plans, their thoughts and their actions. And when nothing changes, I begin to dream of moving to far off places where "things will be different" and where the Church is healthy, and I will feel fuller while giving less.
And in all my commotion I find it hard to start- there is a plan- there is a place in the history of the Church in which we all fit, a place in the body of Christ into which we are all a part. Its time to start showing people where they fit, who Christ has created us to be, setting us apart before all time giving us our hearts and desires, so that once we have died to our selves, he could come in and show us those same dreams and hopes we once had for our lives were now to be fulfilled in His way and in His time.
I am setting out into a new season of doing. I pray that what I have learned in the last year as my wife and set out to regain some of what we had lost in our Christian faith, and returned to the basics of our calling as Christians to the world: blessing one another, sharing our meals, our home and our lives openly and without guile, seeking to teach what we know, and learn what we don't. But now I'm feeling this need that more need to engage in this both harder and simpler way. I have a month and a bit before my wife and I's one year is up. When I left working with the Well, I thought it might only be for a month or two. But when my now wife but then girlfriend got engaged we decide to take a year off from leading things to build a healthy platform of success beneath us. I feel like we have come along way in that and will continue to work on it, but we are both sensing the need to move forward in being the people who Christ called us to be.
I'm not sure what that looks like exactly yet. I'm looking forward to November when my wife and I will be heading up to Oregon to see the Bravenecs. From the sound of it, their church has tried to embrace the idea of being in community with one another and I am looking forward to talking about it with Willy.
I'm also reading three books right now that are moving and sculpting all these things about which I have been thinking about, the first is about John Westley's Class Meetings in which the author discusses practical application of biblical theology and applies it to small group meetings. The second is The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis, which is a fictional account of the correspondence between two demons about a christian they are tempting. It is making me realize that I commit more sins than I could have guessed, and called them virtues. And the third book is called The Importance of Being Foolish by Brenning Manning. Many people talk about choosing the "good" over choosing the "best. Manning's book calls those people out, saying the "good" is really the wrong, and to repent and reclaim the heart of God for the poor, the widowed and the disenfranchised. It is the first book in a long time that has ignited a sort of fire in my belly.
Also this week I struggled with what I felt was a broken relationship and committed a sin of gossip (and un unkind words) and trying to bring people to my side. Luckily enough this friend of mine called me out and said go deal with it, so I went and dealt with it. That's as far as it went, but my hopelessness was causing me to lash out in frustration instead of dealing with things in an appropriate manor. If you think this is weird that I put this confession of sin on here, then I would agree with you, however I also think that one of John Wesley's small group questions is amazing and will encourage growth as I seek both to answer it honestly and seek honest answers from others so that we might confront sin instead of entertaining it and keeping it secret: "What sin has befallen you this week?"
So with an exhortation I leave you- Be a blessing to those around you. Bring blessings and not curses where ever you go. It takes energy to be a blessing. I bless you with the strength that God so richly provides to take blessings with you as you go on your journeys.
October 23, 2007
October 3, 2007
Page 1
I've got this idea from a strange book that I once read. In the book a higher echelon demon was sending letters to a lower demon who was trying to convert and circumvent a young christian who had his normal virtues and vices. While this book has a rather spurious plot line the basic point of the story was about all the things that we fail to recognize as sin or detrimental to our christian faith. One point that Jack Lewis makes in his book is in relation to church life. Keep in mind that these are demons talking, so the language takes a little thinking about.
“One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess is a spectral which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately that is quite invisible to these humans.”
The very words burn in my heart and head. And I think, Great? Terrible? Spread through time and space? And I, much like that younger demon's subject have trouble seeing the Church thus and instead focus on the shortcomings of the people who make up the Church, misguided and blinded by the actions of others.
I have been thinking as of late about the narrative continuum that is the story of the Church “spread out through time and space”. It started with the revelation of God to those whom he would call His people. These stories were recorded in the Old testament, stories of God’s interaction with man. These stories teach us about the character and nature whose name was recorded as four letters. These letters with the addition of some vowels have given us God’s name as Jehovah or Yahweh. God spoke with the prophets giving them a way to live so that the people might join into life with Him. In and of them selves they were unable to stay the course that the prophets spoke of, though they also spoke of a future hope for the people that one day they would be free.
Then one day a man appeared who claimed he was God, that he had come to fulfill the hope that had been spoken for. “The The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” He was killed as a heretic, but was soon proven to be who he said he was when he was seen walking around after his very public death. Soon after a change was seen in his followers, allowing them to perform miracles and, as the prophets of the old testament prophesied, to join in life with God. Over the next two thousand years, these followers continued to seek God, learning more about Him and how to be in life with him.
Which leads us to today. We often seek God, but we insist on asking questions like what should I do about my job? Should I marry this girl or that guy? How can I get out of debt? Why is there evil in the world? Should I be a Calvinist? What church should I go to? While these are all good questions, I think a better one, a question that is more in line with the heart of God is this, what is to be our role in the history of the Church?
But to speak of the history of the church one must assume a role much more grand than that of an average American christian. Much in the same way that Christ turned fishermen and tax collectors into missionaries and Evangelists. Somehow we have taken the term Christian and associated it with “good people” who pay their taxes (give to Cesar what is Cesar’s) don’t speed (obey the laws of the land) don’t cheat on their wives (don’t commit adultery) don’t cuss (let no unwholesome word come from your mouth) don’t drink or smoke (your body is a temple). But God calls us to do good not just be good. For those same people who follow all these supposed rules of the church, walk by homeless people on the street, drive by those broken down on the road, we lock our doors to keep out the hungry, and we close our hospitals to those who are dieing. Friends, the heart of God is for widows and orphans, the poor, the blind, the sick. His heart is for healing our lands. There's this story in Mathew 25 that quite frankly doesn’t fit into any theology I was ever taught in church and scares the bejebers out of me
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? 40 And the King will answer them, Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. 41 Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me. 44 Then they also will answer, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you? 45 Then he will answer them, saying, Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
I have been told all my life that the salvation of God is offered freely and all I have to do is accept it, that there's nothing that I can do to earn my salvation. The problem with that statement is that it is incomplete and stems from a misunderstanding of what salvation actually is. We tend to think of ourselves as free moral entities who have the right to self determination. But some times I don’t feel very free. Oh yes I have some sort of limited movement in my life like a dog on a leash or an electron circling its atom. I have a limited range but ultimately I am tied to a path that was not set by my own actions. Salvation is what God promised was to come, the ability to leave that set path, and to become more like God, joining into His sort of life. Salvation then as I understand it is about trading one kind of life, for another. But rarely do we find this sort of salvation being proclaimed from the pulpit. Because engaging in this different sort of life is going to put us at odds with the world and those that love it.
“One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess is a spectral which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately that is quite invisible to these humans.”
The very words burn in my heart and head. And I think, Great? Terrible? Spread through time and space? And I, much like that younger demon's subject have trouble seeing the Church thus and instead focus on the shortcomings of the people who make up the Church, misguided and blinded by the actions of others.
I have been thinking as of late about the narrative continuum that is the story of the Church “spread out through time and space”. It started with the revelation of God to those whom he would call His people. These stories were recorded in the Old testament, stories of God’s interaction with man. These stories teach us about the character and nature whose name was recorded as four letters. These letters with the addition of some vowels have given us God’s name as Jehovah or Yahweh. God spoke with the prophets giving them a way to live so that the people might join into life with Him. In and of them selves they were unable to stay the course that the prophets spoke of, though they also spoke of a future hope for the people that one day they would be free.
Then one day a man appeared who claimed he was God, that he had come to fulfill the hope that had been spoken for. “The The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” He was killed as a heretic, but was soon proven to be who he said he was when he was seen walking around after his very public death. Soon after a change was seen in his followers, allowing them to perform miracles and, as the prophets of the old testament prophesied, to join in life with God. Over the next two thousand years, these followers continued to seek God, learning more about Him and how to be in life with him.
Which leads us to today. We often seek God, but we insist on asking questions like what should I do about my job? Should I marry this girl or that guy? How can I get out of debt? Why is there evil in the world? Should I be a Calvinist? What church should I go to? While these are all good questions, I think a better one, a question that is more in line with the heart of God is this, what is to be our role in the history of the Church?
But to speak of the history of the church one must assume a role much more grand than that of an average American christian. Much in the same way that Christ turned fishermen and tax collectors into missionaries and Evangelists. Somehow we have taken the term Christian and associated it with “good people” who pay their taxes (give to Cesar what is Cesar’s) don’t speed (obey the laws of the land) don’t cheat on their wives (don’t commit adultery) don’t cuss (let no unwholesome word come from your mouth) don’t drink or smoke (your body is a temple). But God calls us to do good not just be good. For those same people who follow all these supposed rules of the church, walk by homeless people on the street, drive by those broken down on the road, we lock our doors to keep out the hungry, and we close our hospitals to those who are dieing. Friends, the heart of God is for widows and orphans, the poor, the blind, the sick. His heart is for healing our lands. There's this story in Mathew 25 that quite frankly doesn’t fit into any theology I was ever taught in church and scares the bejebers out of me
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? 40 And the King will answer them, Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. 41 Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me. 44 Then they also will answer, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you? 45 Then he will answer them, saying, Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
I have been told all my life that the salvation of God is offered freely and all I have to do is accept it, that there's nothing that I can do to earn my salvation. The problem with that statement is that it is incomplete and stems from a misunderstanding of what salvation actually is. We tend to think of ourselves as free moral entities who have the right to self determination. But some times I don’t feel very free. Oh yes I have some sort of limited movement in my life like a dog on a leash or an electron circling its atom. I have a limited range but ultimately I am tied to a path that was not set by my own actions. Salvation is what God promised was to come, the ability to leave that set path, and to become more like God, joining into His sort of life. Salvation then as I understand it is about trading one kind of life, for another. But rarely do we find this sort of salvation being proclaimed from the pulpit. Because engaging in this different sort of life is going to put us at odds with the world and those that love it.
September 29, 2007
.struggles.
Its funny, my hours got cut back this week, and I'm not even feeling worried about it. In fact I often forget about it till I get a call or an email from someone who has just heard or has some new lead. I dont really see this as a bad thing. I see it as God, after giving me ample time on my own, kicking my own butt, which sometimes I am desperatly in need of.
I sat with God on friday and just wrote down bullet points of what i was thinking and feeling.
I love the Church, the people in the Church, and Im discoraged by the state of the Bride.
So I'll be fleshing out some of these ideas and thoughts of my 6 pages of bullet points over the next couple of weeks (since as Alison pointed out, I now have more time to do these things.)
Talk to all yall soon.
Adam
I sat with God on friday and just wrote down bullet points of what i was thinking and feeling.
I love the Church, the people in the Church, and Im discoraged by the state of the Bride.
So I'll be fleshing out some of these ideas and thoughts of my 6 pages of bullet points over the next couple of weeks (since as Alison pointed out, I now have more time to do these things.)
Talk to all yall soon.
Adam
The Church and the Third Place
One of the wonderings about the third place.
"Should the church become peoples Third Place?
That is, does the church need to be the safe place that people go.
Some say yes, its a place of fellowship and community
Others say no, its not the place that needs to be inviting, its the people (who
really are the church)"
The Church and the Third Place.
Our church used to be a “mobil” church, that is, we rented a space to have Sunday morning services and every week we drove our little truck full of goodies to our improvized santuary, unloaded and set up the sound equipment, had service then packed it up again after we were finished. I used to help set up the sound most Sunday mornings which means we got there at around 7 am for a 9:30 service. It was great. People bonded over their “suffering” each week to turn a school audtorium into a place to come meet God. Having a mobil church is probably the closest thing to being part of the persecuted church that you can get in Amercia. I don’t say that to trivialize the sufferings of the persecuted church but rather just to say that mutual suffering, real or percieved, creates a bond that is hard to make otherwise. People band together over suffering.
So in all this moving about the church started renting a place off of 4 Corners in Elsinore. It wasn’t big, 30’ by 80’, nor very nice, it had concrete floors with old flooring glue on it and leaked when it rained. However it did have location going for it. Not only was it located within walking distance of mine and several other of the leaders, it was located with in walking distance of a lot of the students homes. There was a lot to do as far as building and painting the youth room and eventually it became a place where your could almost always find someone “hanging out” either having a small bible study, working on a message, reading a book, or even playing “butts up” (a rather painful game played with a tennis ball, requireing more dexterity and speed than I could muster.) The point is, that for many of the youth and the leaders, our youth building became our Third Place (see the previous blog).
And then our church moved to a building that we had built and we had a larger room with carpet, a sound board and some hansil and grettle sort of storage closets. At first we were like, woo were so excited, but then as the newness factor wore off we started to realize that we had, for what ever reason, lost a lot of that feeling. People didn’t just stop by anymore and hang out. We had schedules and things to do and stuff to acomplish.
Was it just the change of place, or was it the change of pace?
I mean its true, we lost a place that was solely our own. Which means we couldn’t just use it for whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. We now had to check a schedule and use the places that werent being used. But I don’t think the feeling of a third place is baised as much on location as it is baised on what you feel in a location. And feelings are a mixture of relationships and memories and current events.
As Christians, we often go to church, but have a hard time inviting people into our church. I think a portion of that is a level of uncomfortableness with church, due to our memories, current events in our lives and the relationships with those arround us.
We have lost our focus on the message of Grace.
We have lost our focus on hospitalyity which is a demonstration of grace.
We think the church ought to be doing it for us. The church should be providing a place of grace and hospitality right? Except we forget that we are to be the church. Where is your hospitality? Where is mine? I have forgoten that grace is the central message and hospitality is the one of the outward manifestations of grace. But what is grace? What do we mean by hospitality? More to come…
"Should the church become peoples Third Place?
That is, does the church need to be the safe place that people go.
Some say yes, its a place of fellowship and community
Others say no, its not the place that needs to be inviting, its the people (who
really are the church)"
The Church and the Third Place.
Our church used to be a “mobil” church, that is, we rented a space to have Sunday morning services and every week we drove our little truck full of goodies to our improvized santuary, unloaded and set up the sound equipment, had service then packed it up again after we were finished. I used to help set up the sound most Sunday mornings which means we got there at around 7 am for a 9:30 service. It was great. People bonded over their “suffering” each week to turn a school audtorium into a place to come meet God. Having a mobil church is probably the closest thing to being part of the persecuted church that you can get in Amercia. I don’t say that to trivialize the sufferings of the persecuted church but rather just to say that mutual suffering, real or percieved, creates a bond that is hard to make otherwise. People band together over suffering.
So in all this moving about the church started renting a place off of 4 Corners in Elsinore. It wasn’t big, 30’ by 80’, nor very nice, it had concrete floors with old flooring glue on it and leaked when it rained. However it did have location going for it. Not only was it located within walking distance of mine and several other of the leaders, it was located with in walking distance of a lot of the students homes. There was a lot to do as far as building and painting the youth room and eventually it became a place where your could almost always find someone “hanging out” either having a small bible study, working on a message, reading a book, or even playing “butts up” (a rather painful game played with a tennis ball, requireing more dexterity and speed than I could muster.) The point is, that for many of the youth and the leaders, our youth building became our Third Place (see the previous blog).
And then our church moved to a building that we had built and we had a larger room with carpet, a sound board and some hansil and grettle sort of storage closets. At first we were like, woo were so excited, but then as the newness factor wore off we started to realize that we had, for what ever reason, lost a lot of that feeling. People didn’t just stop by anymore and hang out. We had schedules and things to do and stuff to acomplish.
Was it just the change of place, or was it the change of pace?
I mean its true, we lost a place that was solely our own. Which means we couldn’t just use it for whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. We now had to check a schedule and use the places that werent being used. But I don’t think the feeling of a third place is baised as much on location as it is baised on what you feel in a location. And feelings are a mixture of relationships and memories and current events.
As Christians, we often go to church, but have a hard time inviting people into our church. I think a portion of that is a level of uncomfortableness with church, due to our memories, current events in our lives and the relationships with those arround us.
We have lost our focus on the message of Grace.
We have lost our focus on hospitalyity which is a demonstration of grace.
We think the church ought to be doing it for us. The church should be providing a place of grace and hospitality right? Except we forget that we are to be the church. Where is your hospitality? Where is mine? I have forgoten that grace is the central message and hospitality is the one of the outward manifestations of grace. But what is grace? What do we mean by hospitality? More to come…
August 28, 2007
Mumbo Jumbo and The Third Place
Ive got all these things that I want to write about right now and they all seemed to be stuck together and tangled like the cables behind my computer. Perhaps if i pull at the easiest one, the others will begin their long journey from thought to screen.
The first and easiest something i have been thinking about has to do with a little know place where Christians have traded in their crack pipes for something slightly less nefarious. My wife worked here for a while wearing a sorta Christmas elf looking green apron and serving their meth substitute in venti cups with pithy statements on them. Yes your neighbor hood Starbucks. Don't get me wrong, i like and drink coffee, but I have so many issues about drinking a big mack, fries and a coke blended into a frappichino (I'm not even kidding, go check out the nutritional facts)
But I wasn't really thinking about that. I was thinking about a conversation I had with my wife about smoothies and dating. We signed up for this date night at church. You read a book separately, answer some questions, then go on a date and discuss what you thought, or your questions or what ever. Its fairly good and guided, and each week there is a specific topic of discussion ranging from communication, involvement, parenting, growing old, sex, household chores, and spiritual connection. But seeing how it started at 7 o'clock on a Saturday, we didn't usually have time to go after the meeting on our date so we would go before. We cruised over to this little shopping center near the church to coffee from the Bucks. But I decided i wanted a Smoothie instead. But since the smoothie place has no chairs in it, i wondered if we could sit in Starbucks and drink it and talk. So i asked Sarah if it was okay, seeing as how she worked there and all. She said yes. Are you sure?
Yeah the want to be your Third Place.
Huh? Whats that supposed to mean. She went on to tell me that it is Starbucks corporate policy to allow anyone and everyone to come in, use their place, their electricity, their bathrooms, to eat and drink food from other restaurants, to have meetings and conduct business, and to stay for as long as you want, with out spending a dime because they would like to become your Third Place. See almost every one has a First Place. A place you call home where you go to sleep, where you eat. Its your house, your home, your abode and domicile. Your second place is your work. Where you sit and make money and get stuff done. But your third place... that's what Starbucks wants to be, the place you go to hang out, meet friends, chill. Perhaps the owners watched a little too much cheers in their life. Starbucks prides itself in its regulars, they even have a whole series of commercials where the drink looses its fancy Italian name and is called by the person ordering it (its not a triple venti latte with Cinnamon and soy milk, its simply an Eddie) So the next couple of posts on this blog will be about my thoughts on the "Third Place"
The first and easiest something i have been thinking about has to do with a little know place where Christians have traded in their crack pipes for something slightly less nefarious. My wife worked here for a while wearing a sorta Christmas elf looking green apron and serving their meth substitute in venti cups with pithy statements on them. Yes your neighbor hood Starbucks. Don't get me wrong, i like and drink coffee, but I have so many issues about drinking a big mack, fries and a coke blended into a frappichino (I'm not even kidding, go check out the nutritional facts)
But I wasn't really thinking about that. I was thinking about a conversation I had with my wife about smoothies and dating. We signed up for this date night at church. You read a book separately, answer some questions, then go on a date and discuss what you thought, or your questions or what ever. Its fairly good and guided, and each week there is a specific topic of discussion ranging from communication, involvement, parenting, growing old, sex, household chores, and spiritual connection. But seeing how it started at 7 o'clock on a Saturday, we didn't usually have time to go after the meeting on our date so we would go before. We cruised over to this little shopping center near the church to coffee from the Bucks. But I decided i wanted a Smoothie instead. But since the smoothie place has no chairs in it, i wondered if we could sit in Starbucks and drink it and talk. So i asked Sarah if it was okay, seeing as how she worked there and all. She said yes. Are you sure?
Yeah the want to be your Third Place.
Huh? Whats that supposed to mean. She went on to tell me that it is Starbucks corporate policy to allow anyone and everyone to come in, use their place, their electricity, their bathrooms, to eat and drink food from other restaurants, to have meetings and conduct business, and to stay for as long as you want, with out spending a dime because they would like to become your Third Place. See almost every one has a First Place. A place you call home where you go to sleep, where you eat. Its your house, your home, your abode and domicile. Your second place is your work. Where you sit and make money and get stuff done. But your third place... that's what Starbucks wants to be, the place you go to hang out, meet friends, chill. Perhaps the owners watched a little too much cheers in their life. Starbucks prides itself in its regulars, they even have a whole series of commercials where the drink looses its fancy Italian name and is called by the person ordering it (its not a triple venti latte with Cinnamon and soy milk, its simply an Eddie) So the next couple of posts on this blog will be about my thoughts on the "Third Place"
June 27, 2007
Anniversaries
Today is my one-year anniversary of dating my wife. Its also her birthday which apparently in the eyes of some other guys I know, was a smart move since I only need to remember one date instead of two. I don’t see that as a bonus yet, but maybe when Im old and senile it will be nice.
I always thought that there would be things that I could learn being married that I couldn’t as a single man. And you know what? I probably was right. I was driving in the car with my wife to church on Sunday (yawn…It was way to early to be up, but we had to be their for choir) She looks over and sleepily says “You’re a good husband.” See, we had just had a big night out for her birthday, I had gotten up and made breakfast, brewed her some tea for church and ironed her outfit for church. But just two nights before we’d gotten into it over what now seems stupid but at the time seemed like a big deal. Had she simply just forgotten all that? I think I would rather say “I’m learning to be a good husband”
I never had thought of myself as selfish, nor has anyone ever called me that, not even my wife in the most heated of arguments. (Yes in two months we’ve had heated arguments. Hey give us a break we’re still learning how to communicate with each other) But the reality is, that I have seen more selfishness that I didn’t even know was there. My this, my way to do that, my needs, my time, my house. Ultimately its my space: the nitch that I had carved out in my life that I thought of as mine. It is no longer mine, its ours. Our life our future. God help me to rid myself of selfishish ambition and run the race well.
I always thought that there would be things that I could learn being married that I couldn’t as a single man. And you know what? I probably was right. I was driving in the car with my wife to church on Sunday (yawn…It was way to early to be up, but we had to be their for choir) She looks over and sleepily says “You’re a good husband.” See, we had just had a big night out for her birthday, I had gotten up and made breakfast, brewed her some tea for church and ironed her outfit for church. But just two nights before we’d gotten into it over what now seems stupid but at the time seemed like a big deal. Had she simply just forgotten all that? I think I would rather say “I’m learning to be a good husband”
I never had thought of myself as selfish, nor has anyone ever called me that, not even my wife in the most heated of arguments. (Yes in two months we’ve had heated arguments. Hey give us a break we’re still learning how to communicate with each other) But the reality is, that I have seen more selfishness that I didn’t even know was there. My this, my way to do that, my needs, my time, my house. Ultimately its my space: the nitch that I had carved out in my life that I thought of as mine. It is no longer mine, its ours. Our life our future. God help me to rid myself of selfishish ambition and run the race well.
June 8, 2007
Spinning the world.
Or at least a small part of it.
Its amazing to me how much a bit of change a has the ability to energize.
...
Its amazing to me how much a bit of change a has the ability to energize.
...
June 7, 2007
Sailing
My boat seems adrift amid the sea of life.
I have untied from the dock, pushed out into water and let the wind and waves push me to and fro. The sounds and smells of the salty ocean bring to mind memories of pickles and fish as the waves lap gently against the side of the boat. Where to next. Without a map and preset course i have set out to find a new contry to belong to. Its seems frantic when the name of your destination is unknown however there is time to prepare for our land as ther is no land yet in sight. Which way to go? Any way seems okay since i have no idea how long the journey is in any direction, save the one I came from. Will i, like Chesterton, seek out new adventures only to discover landing in my own backyard, and even more supprising, find that there were new adventures to be had even there?
Run up the spiniacer, its time to start moving along Adam.
I have untied from the dock, pushed out into water and let the wind and waves push me to and fro. The sounds and smells of the salty ocean bring to mind memories of pickles and fish as the waves lap gently against the side of the boat. Where to next. Without a map and preset course i have set out to find a new contry to belong to. Its seems frantic when the name of your destination is unknown however there is time to prepare for our land as ther is no land yet in sight. Which way to go? Any way seems okay since i have no idea how long the journey is in any direction, save the one I came from. Will i, like Chesterton, seek out new adventures only to discover landing in my own backyard, and even more supprising, find that there were new adventures to be had even there?
Run up the spiniacer, its time to start moving along Adam.
April 28, 2007
Wedding Days
Man how much life changes in a year. A year ago I was faintly interested in this girl who I talked to over the internet because she was living in Russia at the time. We talked alot, and come to find out, it meant alot to her, the long nights on Ichat and the emails back and forth when our schedules didnt match well. It was about this time when we both started (unbeknownst to each other) thinking, "Hey this might work out here." She came back, we started dating, and bada bing, bada boom, here we are and now today the two of us have decied to make our connection a perminant one, at least for this life. So today I marry and join my life to my beautiful bride, and together we will explore the mysteries of God, how our relationship is to be like Christ's to the church, how two become one, and how we become stronger and better together.
More to come I'm sure...
More to come I'm sure...
April 28th...
Man how much life changes in a year. A year ago I was faintly interested in this girl who I talked to over the internet because she was living in Russia at the time. We talked alot, and come to find out, it meant alot to her, the long nights on Ichat and the emails back and forth when our schedules didnt match well. It was about this time when we both started (unbeknownst to each other) thinking, "Hey this might work out here." She came back, we started dating, and bada bing, bada boom, here we are and now today the two of us have decied to make our connection a perminant one, at least for this life. So today I marry and join my life to my beautiful bride, and together we will explore the mysteries of God, how our relationship is to be like Christ's to the church, how two become one, and how we become stronger and better together.
More to come I'm sure...
More to come I'm sure...
February 15, 2007
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