Home Sweet Home

I realized tonight that I haven't shown anybody a picture of where I live. So here are a few pictures taken recently and some taken last year after a dusting of snow.
















When Autumn leaves have fallen.














Ah, the old Intrepid. How I miss that car sometimes. not.














Picnic anyone? How about some iced tea?





















Here's the road in front of the house. This is a dirt road, and where I'm standing, in front of the house, is a half mile up it.



















I guess I should try and get some pictures during better weather next time, but the place just seems to have this quality about it that comes alive in the fall and winter months. I love it here. I'm truly blessed to have a great place to live, and great people to live with.

Running and Being Still

I hope Sara doesn't mind my using her blog title. Thanks Sara!
I did a few firsts these past few weeks. I started running with someone else for the first time: Andrea and I started a running routine called "The Couch-to-5K Running Plan". I don't really like running in and of itself, but it's nice to be running with someone else, and since I haven't been reffing games for a while, I need to get back in shape. I went to my first Winterhawks game at the coliseum (first time in the coliseum too. Now I just need to visit the Rose Garden). It was the Teddy Bear Game, so when the Hawks scored their first goal, the fans all through stuffed animals onto the ice. Which is another first for me. Then, I went to Portland's Old spaghetti Factory for the first time on Sunday. I bought my first pair of snowshoes this month, so I'm ready to go for my for hike in them. Those are a lot of firsts for one month, and I don't think I covered them all.

I stopped at church today to talk to the Redheads and pick up some CD's before going up to Woodland to see my Grandparents. Since the snow was going to be pretty bad, I decided to wait until the traffic across the river subsided before venturing out. That gave me a couple of hours to kill.

I decided to go into the prayer room to kill those couple of hours (I took care of one, before going into the worship center to watch a friend's basketball game).

One of the things that that time put on my heart tonight is to invite all who read this to spend one of the weekend services in the prayer room. You don't have to be on a schedule, it's open to all (When I first started going in, I went in during whichever service I felt like that particular week. I eventually made it a weekly habit that I'm sad to say I've neglected in recent months). Just drop in. Sometimes you'll be surprised at what God does in there. I can remember many times when a hurting person has walked in and interrupted our praying and asked for prayer. Those are the most potent times in that room when men gather around a person, kneel down and lay their hands upon them and pray in the Spirit. Writing this post is bringing back a flood of memories from those times and convicting me of neglecting my favorite ministry in the church. I would urge you to join in the blessings as well. You don't have to be on a team or signed up for a particular service. Just come on in. You're always welcome. :)

Sorry for preaching at you all. I felt that this was a soap box worth standing on in this setting, and I hope my feeling was correct.

My Turn for Cute Nephews (even though they're not mine)

There are so many friends posting pictures of their cute nieces and nephews, that I kind of felt left out (not really). Fortunately, Andrea has cute nephews that I can claim (not really). Andrea and I went to Horsetail falls with her sister-in-law Carol and her two boys Preston and Aiden (really). Here is Andrea's claim to the world's cutest nephews:




Here's Aiden hamming for the camera. Doesn't he look excited to be riding on my back? Don't tell Carol, but this was the first time I had a baby on my back. It was fun!






















Preston getting his camera time:
























Exploring the depths of Oneonta Gorge.

























Preston and Mommy

























Of course, there was also some gorgeous scenary. Here's Oneonta Falls.

























Horsetail Falls from up on the trail.


























This has been declared the cutest picture of Kirby to date. I have a hard time disagreeing. Is he not the world's cutest dog?


























Andrea, Carol, and Preston (Ainden's still on my back, so he's not in this picture. I think he was asleep at the time too).

More Interesting Stuff from the Bible

So I'm reading through the Gospel of John. It's 'coincidental' that the church is now going through it as well right now in our current sermon series. 'Coincidental,' in that I didn't set out to read this part of the Bible just because the church is too. I'm just reading through the New Testament right now, and this is where I find myself. I was reading in chapter 5 about Jesus' healing of the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda. Jesus confronts the man afterward and tells him, "Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."

I'd always skipped over that part as Jesus just admonishing him to stop sinning. It never hit me till now that Jesus also implied that something worse could happen to the man! So I asked myself this question: What could be worse than being paralyzed for thirty-eigth years? It makes me cringe just thinking about it.


Now, I'm bogged down in chapter 6. There seems to be a bunch of stuff for me to learn in this chapter, so it's taking me several days to get through it. Most of it centers around the people who came looking for Jesus after He fed the five thousand. The people went to a lot of extra effort to track Him down, but Jesus saw that they were only coming to Him for more food. That got me thinking, do I go after Jesus just to get more physical things? I may truly need them (the people's need for food was certainly justified), but is that the only reason I'm seeking Jesus? Jesus urges me, "Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life..." Hmm, food which endures to eternal life... That would imply something spiritual I would assume. So I need to spend my time working for the food that is going to endure for the rest of eternity.

The two questions I have to ask myself at this point are thus, "How can I spend my time and energy seeking food that endures to eternal life?" and, "Why to I spend so much more energy and everything else?" Hopefully I'll have some answers for you in the future.

Crossroads Part II

"'Deep' is not a place we visit in our search for God, it's what happens to us when we find him." --Calvin Miller

So I've just gotten into the book called 'Into the Depths of God' by Calvin Miller. It's apt that it comes right on the heels of Melissa asking the question, "What does it mean to live deeply?" It's a strong question. It's a convicting question. I know that I am living my life on the surface, or at least ankle deep. But have I ventured into the deep, unknown world that lies beyond?

Simply put, no.

I can sound quite deep when I'm writing, or discussing an issue with someone, but that's simply a gift for words and not much more. There isn't a whole lot of substance behind them. They may be true, and even helpfull, but they likely have not penetrated into my most inward being and become part of who I am.

Miller's words hit me gently, but squarely between the eyes. Listen to this, "Most of us dress our Christian faith in an ill-fitting discipleship that, like a cheap suit, leaves us uncomfortable most of our lives. Among our friends at church we struggle to keep our reputation for godliness bannered forth. We would like to appear to be like Jesus without the discipline of really being like him. Reading several dozen fill-in-the-blanks self-help manuals, we talk ourselves into a spiritual reputation we have never really earned."

I keep reading this over and over again, seeing just how much of my life this simple paragraph applies to. I spend so much time putting on a mask that I honestly don't even know I'm putting on. I don't deliberately go out and contrive some way of looking good to my friends. On the contrary, I want to be genuine with them. The trouble is, there's always something that stops me short of going that extra step. Diving a little deeper, as it were.

So I won't try and define living deeply here, because I'm pretty sure that I don't have the faintest clue as to what it means. But let me show you what I'm finding as I begin this journey toward living deeply:

"Deep is the dwelling place of God. Deep is the character of the ocean. Hold the metephore for a moment and savor its lessons... For deep is where the noisy, trashy surface of the ocean gets quiet and serene. No sound breaks the awsome silence of the ocean's heart. Most Christians, however, spend their lives being whipped tumultuously through the surface circumstances of their days. Their frothy lifestyles mark the surface nature of their lives. Yet those who plumb the deep things of God discover true peace for the first time."

This isn't just another lament on the busyness of our lives, though it does point to that as well. It's an invitation. I could agree wholeheartedly that my life is this tumult of meetings and work and rehearsals and whatever else, but I would never get to the real issue. God. Even the deepest person is going to encounter busyness in their life. How a person handles it, and where it leads them is determined by how deep they are with God.

But what's it look like to go deep with God? Try this, "We do not go deep to study God, we go deep to taste his reality. In such experience we cannot define God, for he is not definable. But we do, ultimately, define ourselves. In the depths we meet our smallness, our powerlessness, our need. On the positive side, we discover the folly of trying to find our satisfaction in surface relationships. We learn to our credit that God hides neither his greatness nor our self-understanding in three hurried minutes of Bible reading a day."

A few months ago, I found myself a crossroads in my spiritual walk. I've kind of paused there, trying to figure out which road is mine and often getting distracted by the surface tumult of my life. How do I follow Jesus without reservation? I may be closing in on the answer to that question. These are but brief excerpts from this book. I'm taking them one by one to see if I can't actually begin to live deeply. Live in touch with God on such a level as to be indescribable. Live in touch with people as to make a mark in their lives, and have them make a mark in mine.

Just imagine the possibilities...

A Little Less Wise

I got my wisdom teeth pulled yesterday. It went very well. The dentist made swift work of them. I was in and out in half an hour, and there was very little pain involved. My mouth is healing nicely, and I'm not feeling any discomfort from the proceedure other than some very dull soreness when I open my mouth wide.
I only had one side done yesterday, and this next Monday I will have the other side done. I'm praying that it goes just as smoothly.

Oh, yeah. I scheduled the last payment I will ever make on a credit card. EVER. So unofficialy, I'M DEBT FREEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!! It feels real good. The only debt I should carry from here on out is a house. There's a lot of money you can spend when you're not making credit card payments. I don't actually know what to do now that there is one less bill to pay. Hmmm...

That's just a quick update. I'll check in again in the near future. I'm going to respond to Melissa's blog about what it means to live deeply (and not deeply in debt!), so stay tuned!

Hello!! McFly!!

Is anybody in there?!

Yes, I'm still blogging. No I haven't gotten tired of it. I have however gotten tired period. September, in the instrument repair and rental business is the month when all...well...you name it, and it will probably break loose in September. I've been working six days a week (isn't that biblical?), and have already had several 11-plus-hour-days. Plus I'm working both in the repair shop, trying to keep our stock of instruments ready to rent, and in the front, renting out those very instruments. It's been quite a month at my new job. Though I'm very tired, and a little worse for wear, I couldn't be happier with where I am. I've accomplished a lot since I've been there. I've worked hard, and have seen that hard work pay off. It feels real good.

So I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. Next week, I will once again have Mondays off, and getting home a sane our of the day. Next Monday, I'm having some teeth pried out of my coconut, so I don't know if I'll be up to posting that day, but you never know. Please pray that that goes well, and hopefully you will see regular posts on this blog once again!