Hurray!!!

It is that time of year again. Fall is around the corner. Blueberry Festival is here. Football is getting ready to start and basketball will soon follow. I am more excited this year than I have been in years past. I don't know why. I feel almost giddy because I know that Thanksgiving is coming up and Christmas and so many things between now and then that I am really looking forward to. I really hope that our youth group gets 50 people so that they can shave my head...I think it would be cool. I can feel the cool air coming. I love wearing fleeces and I love not sweating all the time! Boy oh boy....I can't wait for Fall! Bring on the cold...






This is what I could look like come September!

Marriage life...

I love being married. There is just something about knowing you are going to have someone backing you up and someone to tell you they love you everyday that is such a God thing. Sarah and I have increasingly become aware of the fact that we are a lot alike. We are both stubborn. Most young couples have fights and I have heard that the first year is the hardest yada yada yada...I have been pleasantly surprised at just how little we really have "actual" fights. The number one thing we argue over? It is what we are going to have for dinner. Food. At least it isn't over something petty! :)

Still, there are some things that still bug me. So I am going to list them here:

1. I get that "you did it again" look every time I see Sarah after we have woke up because I unswervingly will steal the covers...no matter what! I don't do this maliciously. I am just a wild sleeper.

2. I HATE Lifetime/Hallmark/ Oxygen / any other stupid after school special movie that Sarah is so drawn to every flippin' time she has the remote! I am not kidding. I go to get a drink of water...bam...she is watching a movie about some woman who is in some plight that is just emotional enough to hook my wife in. Annoying to say the least.

3. I have yet to realize that whenever I say something to my wife, I always have a tone. Now, if I have a good tone or semi-good tone I am good. But, if she asks me something and I have the wrong tone for a second...we are going to be talking about whatever it was she asked me for the next 10 minutes. Somebody should have mentioned this one to me.

4. Finally, my competitive nature. I hate to lose. Simply, losing is not an option. This is something that I have been aware for some time now. I try to win at everything. BUT, if there were a time when I would say, lose something on purpose and she found out that I let her win? Watch out!

Now that I've said all of that let me say this:

1. I don't like making my wife cold. It does me no good, because what does she do to warm up? Yep, put her now freezing toes on my warm leg.

2. I bet she hate sports just as equally as I hate those awful movies.

3. Every word we say has some tone to it. So I guess I am learning that words just are not words, it is how you say them.

4. I don't like making my wife lose. So this one is still up in the air. I hate losing, I don't want her to lose...dilemma of dilemmas.

SMYG.

Missing the point...

I was reading the book, "Adventures in missing the point" and I came across the chapter on culture. It was an interesting chapter for a young man now, that grew up being isolated from much of the culture (save my uncle taping the Price is Right and Wheel of Fortune). I was not exposed at all to much of anything that wasn't "Christian". I was born in 1981 and other than the occasional country music that my mom (I think secretly) would listen to, the first music that I really heard was Bryan Adams and Bon Jovi (thanks Kerry). We were allowed to watch some sports...not all that much and some cartoons, on Saturday mornings. I played Little League baseball, went to the Boys Club some days, but other than that...I didn't come into contact with anyone or anything that wasn't "Christian". I fear that, as the author puts it in the book, that has made me too much of an isolationist. I understand what my parents were trying to do, protect me and keep me from "worldly" things. I can still remember my grandma giving a lesson on the flannel graph with all these things you shouldn't do, like go to the bowling alley or to the movie theatre. "Sinful", she would say. The devil is just trying to lead you down a path you don't want to go to. I can almost hear her say this one line that, unbelievably I have said since becoming a pastor..."Sin will take you farther than you'll ever want to go". While that is true...I feel that I have become close-minded on some things and that is one thing I swore I would never do.

Christians should be in the world. Does that mean that they shouldn't stay away from places that might cause them to slip? Of course not. But as the author puts it, Christians can go to these places and still be on a mission. A Christian is to go into the world and show God's love to those who don't know Him. How are we to do that if we are being bigots standing outside those
places with tracts and judgemental glances and all? Is that true love? I don't think so. Am I saying that we should go wherever or see anything we want to? Heavens NO! As the other author of the book states,

"To act as though there is some profound truth waiting to be uncovered in
cheap and tawdry stuff is hardly Christian."

Most of the entertainment out there is garbage...useless things that are just fluff. Still, that doesn't mean that we should remove ourselves so far from the world that we become no longer relavent to their needs and hurts. If we go too far the other way, we are in danger of falling into things that equally as bad as what we are trying to get away from. If we go too far either to protect ourselves from "worldly" things or we become so into world that no one can tell us apart, we are breaking a command either way. My prayer is that God would help me stay in the middle. A middle that is full of love, grace, understanding but also discernment, passion and convictions. I believe there is such a place, it is called being a Christian. Now we just have to work on living that out.

SMYG.

Fall Kick-off 06

Last year I challenged our teens to get a certain number of teens to the fall kick off. They failed. I told them I would dye my hair if they were successful. They failed. This year, I think that our youth group is much healthier than it was a year ago. So I lowered the challenge to get 50 teens here on September 17th. 50...that is about double of where we run. So if everyone brings one friend, they will have their number. IF...and that is a big IF...they get 50 I am going to have my head shaved into a mohawk...yes, a mohawk...my wife and I thought this up about a month ago and I thought we were just joking until she announced it to the group one night and now there is no backing down.

50 or Bust!

September 17th...we will see. We will see.

Pulse Fest fun and the night before

Last Saturday, Sarah and I went with the SPEDS and Roger and Brandy Blair and their youth group to Pulse Fest in South Bend. It was a blast. The night before, they all came up. The girls came to the house and stayed while the guys stayed at the Oasis. We played ball and some wiffle ball and nobody wanted to sleep. So...I only got 1 hour of sleep. I think the day would have been better if I would have had more sleep. Nonetheless...it was still awesome. Here are some pics. The lines to get into the port-a-poo's were really long. Good thing I only had to use them once.


The spooning speaks for itself. I think the order was Terry, Jon, Matt and then a guy named Andrew (not me).

Fun times...fun times.

Pic update

I got three of these pics ...My brother/sister" , Aaron and myself, Sarah and the angry man, my mom singing kareoke and Nate Beals and myself at Family Camp 06.

Fantasy Football

Hey...I have set up a league and I need a few more people to fill it out. So if you are interested leave a comment with your email address and I will send you an invite that you just click on. This is a head to head league and the draft is automatic. Just let me know ASAP so we can get the league set up before the season starts.

The latest test...

Last Tuesday, we took the youth group to Six Flags Great America. You have to go through traffic because there is always construction in/around/by Chicago. We were going good. Then we seen a sign that said major delays ahead. I was driving one van and another sponsor was driving the other and he decided to take the alternate route while I stayed on the road we were supposed to be on. We get about 30-40 minutes from Six Flags and we get the call. The other van had broken down and they were somewhere in Chicago's north side. We took the kids we had to the park and drove roughly another 45 minutes to find the rest of the group. They were in Chicago! On top of all that, it was 101 degrees. Fun times.

However, I struggled with my feelings. I felt very, very, very frustrated and most of all just down right grumpy. It is cool to see how God gives us a test every once in a while to see how we are doing. Sometimes we pass, and on some days, sometimes we fail. Still, those times show us that we need to just slow down and always try (at least) to reflect him at all times...even when you want to pull your hair out and just fall down on the ground and throw a fit!

God is good. He kept us all safe and we ended up having a pretty decent day.
SMYG.