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!

Despite the Name, there was None

Andrea and I went to the beach this weekend. For all those who stayed in Portland and weathered the 90+ degree temperatures, good for you. We were weathering temperatures in the 60's, so I must admit that we weren't nearly as toughened up by the end of the weekend. ;)

We camped on Sunday night at Cape Disappointment, the foggiest place on earth (107 days on average per year). We both tried out brand-new air mattresses. I must say, it may not be quite as hard core as the old therm-a-rest, but I slept a lot better, and besides, we were car camping. How hard core can that be? We even made espresso the next morning (the traditional way)!

Monday, we went up to Long Beach for the start of the International Kite Festival. Unfortunately, there was no wind, so there were no kites in the air for the entire time we were there, including mine. So we didn't stay long, cause I had to be home by the early evening, and we were planning on stopping in Woodland to see my grandparents. We did stop at the local coffee roasters and picked up a fantastic bag of coffee before leaving town.

The lack of wind was a little 'disappointing' (get it?), but it's not the destination, it's the journey. So I decided to turn this trip into a journey. We were on our way to I-5 via Highway 4 when I saw a sign for the Grays River Covered Bridge. Hmmm... (it must be stated now, that my genes kicked in at this point. My dad is not a point A to point B type of person) So as soon as I saw the sign marking the road to the bridge, I announced to Andrea that we were going to go check it out. So we did.

It was really neat! We actually had to drive over the bridge in order to get these pictures!

This is the bridge of course.















We found a nice person to take our picture.
















Remembering that I need to get more scenery shots, I turned and saw this. There are some beautiful areas to see on this part of the Columbia River.














And finally, a shot looking back through the bridge as we left. I suggest you click on it and see the full picture. Andrea took this one, and it really is a great shot.












So then we went on to Woodland and talked to both pairs of grandparents. I don't get up there often enough...



So, the next day was the opening round of what we call 'rental season' in my business. I spent over twelve hours at a local school renting out instruments to new band students. It was a good day. I wasn't nearly as tired as I expected to be at the end of such a day. In fact, I was ready for more! Is that sick or what? The pressure of rental season is mounting though, and I'm starting to get a little frustrated with myself for some lack of progress at work. If you could pray for that if you get the chance, that'd be great.

Friday, I'll be taking the Intrepid up to Woodland to try and sell it up there. Things seem to sell from my grandparents house on River Road, so I'm optimistic that I can finely have this car sold, and only have one car to worry about. Please say a quick prayer for that too.

Observation Peak

This blog entry starts with a simple test. Can you count to four?

Let's see...

One...


















Two...


















Three...

















Four...















Good job class!! If you haven't figured it out, these are the peaks you can see from Observation Peak (Mt. St. Helens, Mt Rainier, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Hood). If it hadn't been so hazy, you would have also seen Mt. Jefferson, and even the Three Sisters! This was a great hike. It's pretty steep, but it's well worth the effort.

I went with Andrea and her friend Kim, and of course, Kirby the Energizer Dog. Here are pictures of us...

Andrea and I in front of Mt. St. Helens. This was the first trip for my new hat.

















Here I am precariously balanced on this rock. Below me on the other side is a few hundred feet of nothing.





















Kim and Andrea in front of Mt. St. Helens.














I'm now caught up on my blog entries. Hopefully the next one will be fresh, and not a few weeks old! Ew...

Seattle 9 Boston 8

So I get a call from Andrea on a Saturday. We were planning on going up to Tacoma to see my parents the next day, so she decides to get online to see if there's a Mariners game that day. As it turns out, there was! And she calls me the day before to see if I'd like to go and if she should buy some tickets. Uh, YAH!!!

So off we went for a marathon run up to the Greater Puget Sound Region. We drove to Tacoma, and parked at the bus station and took a bus to the stadium. We watched a fantastic game! It ended with a home run by the Mariners to win the game in the 9th inning. If you happened to see the highlights of the game, you actually would have seen us, because the ball landed in the bullpen right in front of where we were seated. It couldn't have gotten more exciting. The whole stadium just erupted. I love going to see games there. I've yet to find a bad seat.


Here are Andrea and I at the ball park:

























I was on the edge of my seat in the 9th inning, so I wasn't paying attention to my camera. Fortunately, Andrea had the wherewithal to grab the camera and snap a couple of pictures. This one is right before Richie Sexson hit the game-winning home run.














And this one is of the celebration afterward.















So after the game, we went back to Tacoma. I took Andrea on a brief tour of my home town. We drove down Ruston Way, and then drove up to Point Defiance Park, and drove around Five Mile Drive. There are some great view points along this road. Here is Andrea and I in front of the Tacoma Narrows.













Here's a picture with the old Narrows Bridge in the distance with the new one being built right next to it.

Ramona Falls

I went to Gary's to change my oil a couple of weeks ago, and Andrea met me there when I was done. We wanted to go hiking with her friend Suzanna. Gary suggested Ramona falls up the Sandy River. We found it quite easily. I would highly suggest this hike. It's a good loop hike. Go to the right when you get to the junction in the trail, and just follow it to the falls, and head across the creek, and back down the hill. YOu hike up the Sandy River, and see great views of Mt. Hood. Then you hike down along this nice little creek. Here are some pictures:


Andrea and Suzanna in front of Mt. Hood on the Sandy River.



















Andrea and I, same place. On a side note, this is the last picture you will see with me in the green hat. It fell victom to some spilled motor oil so it had to be thrown away. It served me well all over the world. Now, I have a new hat that will hopefully be just as trusty, if not more so (I forgot I wore the hat on this hike, so I moved the note from the previous post to this one ;).




















And this is Ramona Falls. I forgot the name of the creek, but it cascades down these rocks. It's tucked in amongst the trees, but it's also pretty big and spread out. A very unique site that photographs cannot do justice to.



















































Next time, you'll have photos from Safeco Field in Seattle!