YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT

So, we're off to Maui for about a week. I'm looking forward to some time on the beach, sitting there doing nothing. I need some more nothing in my life I think, and I'm hoping to get to do as much of nothing there as I can take.

I'm taking a book, a swimsuit, one pair of sandals, my credit card and my toothbrush. What else do I need?

MASTERS OF DIVINITY

Besides sounding like I am trying to be He-man ("Masters of the Universe), my masters degree program is long. Very long. I have to take 144 quarter units! That is 36 classes. I have now completed 74 of those units...whew. This is going to take forever.

For comparison--

• my undergrad was 180 quarter units (45 classes) (I'm basicaly redoing my undergrad!)
• If I had continued on to do a Masters in Spanish language and culture, it would have been 48 units, that is 12 classes.
  

If I had just done the spanish masters, with the number of classes I've taken already I would have completed it once and I would be over halfway done with my second masters.

SERMON POSTED

If you want to hear my sermon from Sunday, it has been posted on First Cov's website. Click on "Recent Messages" and you'll find mine there ("Are All Religions the Same?").

BIG TIME

Well, I made it to the big time--I preached this last Sunday at both of our services at Oakland First Covenant. My topic: "Are all religions the same?" I decided to not go with the short answer, "no," and to go ahead and flesh that out a bit more :)

Here's a picture that Karyn took during the second service (by the way--it is VERY WEIRD to preach the same thing twice in a row. It feels like you could easily jump over something because you think you said it already).















Here's a picture from after the service. Karyn said that she could only get fuzzy pics, so we staged a couple. Most of them were rather staid, but this one has some good "fire and brimstone" character to it :). I'll have to incorporate this move into a sermon sometime.

INTERESTING ASSIGNMENT

Well, tonight I'm just sitting at home, working on homework. For now it's mostly reading and then I've got to write a bit. I have been falling behind some this quarter...time to get to work, especially because I'm going to be missing a class session for Hawaii in a couple of weeks...

I have one bit of homework that I can't do at home at all--in my pastoral counseling class (which I have enjoyed!) we have to each visit some kind of 12-step program session and write about our experience. The teacher of this class has been very heavily leaning on the experiential (understandably). He has dedicated a big part of the class time to covering case studies which we each bring to class then discuss together--how it could have gone better, how we would respond in the future, etc.

I'm looking forward to the 12-step group. I do feel a little awkward about it though--like I'm coming into something intimate in a way, but I know that it will be interesting, insightful, even challenging. I'm open to it being a place where I get ministered to... we'll see what happens!

VISITING ROSS & AMANDA

Karyn and I had a great time over at my brother & sister-in-law's place this last week. We finally found a time on everyone's schedule for it to work out.

It was wonderfully life-giving to hang out, talk over dinner, then watch a video. We watched "Everything is Spiritual" -- I loved it and was thinking about it the whole way home as K & I talked.

How great it was to spend time with fam!

TAX REBATE

I have very much enjoyed Sarah's discussion about how she and her husband are struggling to figure out what to do with their tax rebate money. Check it out here.

A COUPLE OF PHOTOS FROM THE WEEKEND

Where did the warm weather go? Anyway, while it was warm we enjoyed a nice meal out on the porch with friends. Carl, Matt, & Danielle joined Adam & Jenn and the two of us for some tri-tip. Yeah, good.









Getting a little baby time--Kurt and AnaManteca (my nickname for her, though there's a little less manteca in those cheeks than before)










It was so wonderful to have Adam & Jenn over for the weekend. We got to talk, visit new parks, and enjoy the company of people whom we will have has friends for a long time to come.

GOOD FAMILY RELATIONS BY CONTRACT

Today we're meeting with K's parents and a lawyer--no, no problems between us. Actually, that's why we want to meet with the lawyer. Our deepest desire is to be their kids and not to somehow fall into just being business partners or worse, to have problems between us because of going in on a house together.

So, in the interest of being completely clear with the hopes that it will avoid any future problems we are going to have some papers drawn up today. This is my first time to do something like this, so I don't know what to expect, but I'm glad that we are making this investment. I guess that we can see it like paying a little bit for insurance.

No piece of paper can avoid problems. I still think that prayer is a very important part of this and we pray regularly for our relationship with our parents. On my in-laws side we just happen to be drawing up a contract to help avoid small things like houses get in the way of big things like family.

I think that after this post my mom is going to write to ask for a contract that I visit her a certain number of times a week!

FRIENDS

Our friends Adam and Jenn are here for the weekend with their two kids. Fun!

One funny thing that Will, their son (2) has said, "Is the phone ringing?" (obviously a ploy to get to play with the phone.) Me: "no, I don't hear it--it must to be ringing." Will, "I think that it's ringing a little."

GLOBAL FOOD

I was in the grocery store the other day buying canned mushrooms and I noticed on the label something I've never seen before: "Product of..."

There were cans of mushrooms right next to each other, sometimes from the same company from as diverse places as China, India, UAE (they grow mushrooms in the desert?), and of course the US.

It turns out it's not just your child's toy that is made abroad.

It piqued my interest and I looked at the asparagus: Peru, China, Greece, U.S.A. I knew that my bananas came from Central America, but how can it actually be profitable to import asparagus thousands of miles from Greece, rather than getting them from right around the corner? I live in CA after all...

And this isn't even touching the subject of the most insane imported food of all: water. Water from France, water from Fiji. Why? And what are we doing to the world by consuming this? If you're wondering that, see Ask Pablo where Pablo did an interesting calculation on the "true cost" of importing water from Fiji.

TODAY WAS A GOOD DAY

Wednesdays I work from home and depending on how much work I've done for the church that week I either log in some hours there or if it's been hectic I catch up on homework and spend some time with Karyn.

Today was the latter. After a morning walk around the block we went to our new favorite hangout, Zocalo's Coffeehouse, for its cool feel and free internet access. They also have a children's play area in back, so it's a place we can commit to for the long run :)

We worked and read there for a while before she had to go to campus. I mowed the lawn then cruised by the church real fast and put myself together for a meeting between two men from the church who needed to work out some differences. I am learning about the blessing of conflict--it helps people to grow and understand each other better, as well as to exercise compassion and forgiveness and to beat down one's pride.

I was reminded that when Jesus says, "Wherever 2 or 3 are gathered in my name, there I am with them," from Matthew 18 is said right in the middle of a discourse about forgiveness and Peter's question about how many times to forgive someone. Those people gathered in his name do so by overcoming conflict--in many ways the ultimate way to meet in his name, the man from heaven who brought peace to the world.

I met up with K again and we walked along Lake Merritt for a bit before returning home to a nice meal and a quiet evening. Today was a good day.

STUFF

Our lives have a lot of stuff in them. The Story of Stuff website tells about how our consumer lifestyle shapes the world.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

WAITING PARENTS

Our paperwork was accepted at the adoption office, our profile has been received and has been put in the book for expectant mothers to see... As of today we are officially "waiting parents"!

We have toyed with the phrase, "We are expecting." It's a little misleading, but true. We ARE expecting a child now. It's just a matter of time until that little one comes into our life, our home, our arms. The hardest difference with this vs. "the other way to have a baby" is that this way one never knows how long the wait will be.

We have to practice patience.

REDUCE PLASTIC WASTE, SAVE MONEY

If you pledge to begin to use reusable containers instead of buying bottled water, this site will give you a $5 off coupon on a Brita water filter.

SITTING AND LISTENING

You know, I thought that school in childhood was designed to teach one about basic facts and reasoning--a way to prepare you for the wider world. Nope. School is about sitting and listening even when you don't want to.

I thought that was bad, but boy I have to sit and listen a lot more now. Monday is particularly bad. We have a meeting at work in the morning (2 hours of sitting and listening), then after a day on email (sitting) I drive (sitting) to my evening class (7-10pm sitting and listening).

I can't tell if I'm getting better at it or not. Well, I mean, is it helping in other areas? I can go through a 3 hour class now with less complaining, but I might be more impatient with my wife. Hmm. Not a good trade.

Imperial History of the Middle East

Thanks to LN for the connection to the Maps of war website. There's some pretty interesting stuff there. Among the interactive maps that caught my eye were:

War deaths in Iraq by location (click the box on top right to show place names)

and

The Imperial History of the Middle East

CLARIFYING OUR PRAYERS FOR THE MIDDLE EAST

Christianity today has published an informative article that will help us to clarify our thoughts and focus our prayers for the Middle East. Article: Hardship for Evangelicals in Jordan

The author graciously offers ideas to "avoid unnecessary hardship" on the part of believers in the Middle East. Many of these things that will help to avoid hardship for them involve changes in the way that average Americans think and relate to the M-E.

A NINJA PAYS HALF MY RENT

Thanks to Sarah K. for this one. Wouldn't it be so very cool to have a ninja as your roommate? So long as he doesn't use his skills just to scare you.

CAN YOU HEAR THIS?

Kids around the country have been downloading the "Mosquito ringtone", the cool new ringtone that most young people can hear, but is inaudible to most adults because the sound is emitted at 17mh, above the average adult's range of hearing.

The noise was intended to be broadcast in places where shopkeepers wanted to deter young people from congregating without causing discomfort for adults--voila! a high-pitched noise.

Young people, in a beautiful turn, have made it into a ringtone that they can use so that they can hear the sound but the teacher cannot...

I NEED AN ANALOG LIFE

I was on campus at Cal Berkeley yesterday meeting with students. After our meeting we were walking through Sproul Plaza on the way out where we found a stage set up. "Oh, Counting Crows is going to be playing here at 5:45," one of them said.

He planned to stay for the concert and I stuck around for a bit to wait until Karyn came to go out to dinner together (at Smart Alec's...which was good btw).

As we stood there I spotted a sign off the side that said something about "digital to analog" and it got me thinking...

I want out of the rat race of the digital life. I don't want back to the stone ages or anything--what I need is something between. Some modern conveniences without all the hassle. What I need is an analog life.

This last week I read an article on the urgent vs. the important where the writer expressed some of the same concerns. The first concern is that I am no longer the consumer of electronics, but the one consumed. After a day of working on my computer at work I feel like my humanity has been sucked out of me (insert Dark Crystal reference).

While I can't actually jump out of the digital age (actually, I really like the podcasts I listen to!), I feel better when I pull back on the throttle a bit. For example, it would be easy for me to simply work the whole day in front of my computer. But I have found that taking breaks of 10-20 minutes to work with pen and paper not only makes me feel more sane, but helps me to get more done in the end. I actually brainstorm better with ink.

But there are other times when I have to turn off too. I need to simply talk with friends more and mindlessly search the internet less (it's the new "veg in front of the TV").

These were some of the things I was thinking about today before heading off to class. Yeah, I know it looked bad for me to write...on my computer...at 6:45am...about needing to get away from my computer. That sounds pretty stupid now. But it seemed so "urgent"...

3 Principles of Christian Leadership

Three important principles of Christian leadership, by Stuart Briscoe:

1. A Christian leader leads people into God's will for their lives.
2. A Christian leader treats people like they are made in the image of God.
3. A Christian leader displays an increasing amount of Godliness in their life.


Thanks to BrianinDubai for this post.

Psalm 1

Psalm 1 says that we are happy (or blessed) if we go a different way. We aren't to follow the advice of the wicked, or walk in the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers, it says.

Previously I thought of these as similar people or lifestyles exemplified by the same crowd. But it seems to me that these kinds of things could come from many different directions. "The path of sinners" is not just one group or another--it is the flow of history that denies God and his power and refuses his ongoing work in our lives. That means that this "path" is trod upon by Wall Street tycoons, Sunday school goers, and dictators alike (no offense to those on Wall Street).

The "scoffer" comment seems to cut both ways as well. Rather than being someone on the sidelines I need to join in and see what God is doing in my midst. Rather than poo-pooing I should look for grace and expect Christ to change lives and situations.

Surely I would be happy (and blessed) if I did so.

The different way is the person who delights in God and what he is saying to us. OK--this is corny, but I tend to think about meditating on the Bible with the word dour--like I'll turn into a Bible-thumper. But that has never been my personal experience.

I remember the first time that I read the Bible for myself. I started with Psalm 23, because I'd heard of it (it's the one that is read at many funerals). What I discovered were words with power. This poem echoed in my mind, gave me strength, courage, and even a sense of destiny because God knows me. I realized that if there is this kind of power and transformation (life?) in the Bible, then I will want to meditate on other parts of it too. All the time.

But their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Air Raid Sirens

I thought that when we left France that we would leave behind the monthly air raid sirens (see post from 2004). But much to my surprise, here in the East Bay the air raid siren is alive and well--and at the exact time that they did it in Paris--noon on the first Wednesday of the month. I knew that there was something that felt oddly familiar about living here.

40 years ago today, "A shot rings out in the Memphis sky"

"What if Martin Luther King Jr. had lived?" asks the reporter in this article marking the 40th anniversary of his assassination.

Baguette, by car

Yeah, it was a bit different than in Paris--here we bought our baguette at Arizmendi, a great bakery and pizza shop. The bread is good--crunchy on the outside and soft inside. Yum. What was different about the experience was getting in my car afterwards...so sad that we can't just walk there...

April Fools part 2

You want to see some people with too much time on their hands? Check out some friends who released their book today called "Flirt to Convert". It is made to look just like an InterVarsity Press book.

April fools

Ok, so today at work two of my co-workers went out for coffee and ice cream (yeah, the boss was out) and I asked for just a plain coffee with cream.

I knew something was up the way that they watched me sip it...

It turns out they took a Starbucks cup and filled it with a little bit of the burnt remains from the company coffeepot mixed with a lot of powdered creamer.

The funny part was that I could only figure out that it was "a bit off"...but not identify it... and kept sipping until they couldn't take it anymore and bust up laughing.

Happy April Fools!