"sunken treasure"

I'm speaking this weekend at Riverview on God's Will. And I've been thinking a lot about how people want to know God's will, they want a sign, or an impression that tells this to do this or that etc... It seems that we are looking for supernatural guidance, when so much supernatural guidance has already been given (see "the Good Book"). We want to touch heaven, we want a miricle right now before our eyes. But that got me to thinking that maybe our world is all backwards. I mean, if you think about it, the miracle has happened. That God created the world and that things work (realizing the FALL). Maybe this is the magic. Maybe when God does do something supernatural, that is going back to the normative state, pre-creation. The miracle stops? for a second while God intervenes. I'm not sure where my thoughts are on this exactly right now. I'm still thinking about it a lot.

Here are some thoughts from the book Orthadoxy, by G.K. Chesterton.

“A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. IT may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore. Heaven may encore the bird who laid an egg...”

"Less Than You Think"

Well I just want to post real quick before I work on this week's message. Last night we got some visitors from New Song in Columbus, the Harger girls. It was really good to have them around. They are an awesome family. Our small group came over also, we are reading Blue Like Jazz. We got into an interesting discussion about Sin Nature vs. Adam's sin being a snowball effect. I love it that we don't always agree on things. It makes for really good conversations and leads to a reexamination of belief.

Jaden slept six hours straight last night, which was extraordinary. I fed him at nine and then talked to him and he smiled and laughed at me for about half an hour. It's pretty cool.

"That's Not The Way It's Done"

I got the ichin' to create some music last night. But I didn't have any finished songs, so I just wrote a song while recording. I laid down the acoustic track, and then I spat out some vocals/lyrics (i found God in the nick of time, he was about to knock me down...) and then some experimental electric guitars and finally some white noise.

I find that the new stuff that I'm writing might be less accessible to a broad audience, but there wasn't much of an audience to begin with and I really like the experimentation.

It takes 24 hours to be "approved" on Soundclick.com. But tomorrow you should check it out and tell me what you think. Just click on "My Music" to the left. Remember, I wrote it while recording. One take, so don't expect too much.

As Handy As I'll Ever Be

So this is my attempt to appease the insurance man. Three steps is a long way down.

Good News, Bad News

Good News is...I just bought the most eagarly awaited, weird album of the year

The bad news is that (read comments in previous posts) there will be no Lollapalooza which really sucks.

Oh and more bad news...I'm sick with a cold.

and one more good thing...I just got my new Wilco shirt.

Philosopher's Stone

So I'm listening to a mix of Van Morrison stuff and his song Madame Joy is one of the most soulful songs I've ever heard. It's weird because most people have never heard of it, it wasn't even released on a studio album, just an album of songs that never made it. The album is called The Philosopher's Stone. And it's my second most favorite Van album (I have 15 of his) next to Astral Weeks.

Lallapallooza

Suz and I just bought tix along with Cisco and his girl Jen. Here's the line up.
String Cheese Incident
Flaming Lips
Wilco
Gomez
Polyphonic Spree
TV for Radio

here's a link

if you want to come.

2 Stabbings, 4 drunks, 6 Police, and a Sick Baby

That's what our night was like last night.

Jaden was still sick and couldn't keep his food down on top of a cough and runnning a fever. So we called up the doc and he told us to take him to the ER.

The Emergency Room is a sick place. In the room that they put us in there were blood stains all over one of the seats and it looked like a room that I attempted to clean. We got there at 10pm and they finally sent us home at 5am. Crazy night.

There were stabbings, attacks, police inquiries, gross coughing and weezing, drunk talk, among other things. All the staff were very nice to us though. I think they were relieved to have a patient who wasn't a victim of armed violence. He's a baby so he gets some points that way also. Anyway, his fever went down and he started drinking and feeling better. But there is something in his blood called CRP which I think stands for CRAP (thanks Noel) and we had to bring him in to the doctor's this morning to have that checked out and we will have to take him in next week just so they can keep an eye on him.

We are tired. I'm out.

Place

Do you ever wish that you could live ten lives, all in different places? I'm not up for moving every year (even though that's been the case the last couple of years) but if I had unlimited time and circumstances, there are a few places that I wouldn't mind trying out.

In one life I would be a local shopkeeper in some ancient European town. It would be a family business that I inherited from my family and one that I would pass on to my children when I died. Business would never be great. I wouldn't even think about franchising. But it would be enough to get by on. It would be a town near the sea where I would meet my friends every morning at some little known restaurant. We'd sit on barstools and talk about the comercialization of the fishing industry over bitter coffee and toast. I would take walks with my family out to the country. The hills would glisten and greet us in the late afternoon as our kids would run on ahead and their rolling shadows would whisper goodnight on the way home. Our lives would be simple. There would be less plastic and more stone and cherry wood, more earth and less electricity. We would have a garden that we would eat from. We'd have warm bread and beef stew often, and trips to the candy store would be less common and more special. We wouldn't travel much, just content to find all there is to know about our immediate surroundings.

101.3

101.3=Jaden's body temp. right now. Yeah, he was up all night screaming and coughing. No sleep for us. But we did take him to the doc today and got him some medicine.

Before we had a kid everyone told us "your life is going to change" like it was some huge mystery or something. It's not, I'll tell you right now how your life changes. You don't sleep very much and you have a little kid that you love so much for no reason at all and you spend all of your time pushing buttons trying to figure out why he's crying. Pretty simple.

Why not 3rd base?

I posted on my Xanga site about why we named our kid Jaden Catcher, but I thought I'd reexplain it since I've been getting questions about it.

First of all, yes I played baseball.
Second, no we didn't name him "Catcher" because he has strong knees and a knack for calling signals.

Cather is from J.D. Salinger's book "Catcher in the Rye." You probably had to read it in high School. Holden Caufield, the protaganist of the book, explains to his sister what he wants to be when he grows up.

"You know that song 'if a body catch a body coming through the rye'.? I'd like-"

"It's 'if a body meet a body coming throught they rye'!" old Phoebe said. "It's a poem by Robert Burns."

"I know it's a poem by Robert Burns."

She was right though. It is 'if a body meet a body coming through the rye." I didn't know it then, though.

"I thought it was 'if a body catch a body,'" I said. "Anyway, I keep pictureing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around--nobody big, i mean--except me. And I"m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff--I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewheere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd like to be."

That passage just get's me going because I feel like that is kinda our job as Christ followers. I know so many people who sacrifice for others and I want my life to be like that and i know that Suz and I want our son to be like that. We are to be concerned about what really matters...People! I think Holden is right so many times in the book where he calls out the "phonieness" of striving for happiness in material things.

So that's why.

Great minds Think Alike

Thanks to Travis for sending this cartoon to me. For anyone who has taken the time to listen to my rant about cows milk, this is almost verbatim.

He still young, he doesn't know...

West Nile Virus Update

Well I slept well last night and still no symptoms, so I'm kinda worried.


Noel made this for me:

West Nile Virus

Ok, now don't freak out here, but I'm reasonably confident that I have contracted West Nile Virus.

So I went Mountain Biking with Noel this afternoon and we found out that it was us against God's green earth. Man vs. Nature. Battle of the species. Specifically I almost ran over a snake. Noel almost ran over a rabbit and then a baby deer, fawn I think you'd call it. Then we stopped and just stared at the deer with was about ten feet away. Fun.

But, I think the world world was mad at us so it sent a flury of Mesquitos (from the Latin Musca meaning "little fly"-in case you don't know, they like to suck human blood and infect us with various diseases) to attack us and we lost the battle. I've already had Chicken Pox, so I know that these ichy, red bumps are just poison injected by our new enemy the "little fly."

How do I know that I'm infected? I guess I don't for sure. But I do have some of the symtoms that I found on a credible website.

The symptoms read like the following :
"Many people infected with West Nile virus have no symptoms and do not get sick or have only mild symptoms. When infection does cause illness, symptoms will usually appear within two to 15 days. The extent and severity of symptoms vary widely from person to person."

I love you all if these end up being my last days.

Use Deet

Christ in Relationship

Here is a link to a sermon about Christ in relationship by Don Miller the author of Blue Like Jazz. It's pretty long. I'm about halfway through and the beginning of it is a bit slow, but if you appreciate Shakespeare, then you might like his main metaphor here.

my music

If anyone wants to check out some of my songs go HERE

. I have three songs on there right now and I'll have two more up by tomorrow. chicka chicka boom boom.

Church and Building

Our church is too big for our building. Our building that looks like a resort with our faux stone front with our comfy couches and neutral colored walls. We need some art in here for one thing.

Today we have a 4 hour meeting about our building. Everyone is cramped. There are only two offices in this building etc... But for some reason I find myself not caring too much about it today. I'm fine with whatever they decide. I mean, I would care if they turned it into the Lansing version of WillowCreek or some baptist church. In fact I've spent two years in college on a ministry team. In that span of time I spent time in about 200 baptist churches. I grew up in a church that met in a school for 15 years. I went to a mega-church in Akron for a couple years. And I've always found people there that have been "church" to me. The building has had so little to do with my faith that it's really hard to want to spend time thinking about this.

Of course, I know I'm just tired and cranky and selfish. Because to be kind to people we should be able to fit them into a building where they can worship together.

God's Will

So the weekend of July 4th I'm teaching on God's Will for you life. It's a topic that I've talked about once before, but it was just one teaching in a series on God's will (at Newsong). Dan Hanna has been inspirational to me in the pursuit of finding solid ground on this issue as has a book called "Decision Making and the Will of God" by Dr. Garry Friesen.

But the greatest wake up call was when three people claimed to know God's will and in one week each made him look like a liar. Here are the situations:
1. This one really great guy found himself in a bit of trouble with the law over a minor mistermeaner charge. The week before his court date he passed a church sign that read "God Will Take Care Of It For You." And he felt that this was inner leading of the Holy Spirit saying "you won't get punished with jail time for this." He then refused the help of an attorney and consequently spent ten days in the county jail.
2. A wife of a man in our church thought that God was speaking to her. Her husband was out of work and really wanted a job at a certain business. His wife told him not to apply to any other places because she knew that it was God's will that he work there. He didn't get the job and they were left discouraged and feeling abandoned.
3. A single mom, who was a new believer, decided that it was God's will that she start dating this guy who was not a Christ follower in order to "save him." We knew this was a bad decision and told her so. In the end he just ended up being a jerk. He isn't saved and she isn't dating him now.

I just think it's dangerous to think of God's will in this way, as a target that we are supposed to hit. I'm more inclined as I read through scripture that God has already given us his moral will (the Bible) and that is what we are supposed to follow. Beyond that we have freedom to choose. I think though it's easy to wave responsibility off, like a mad hornet, and want God to lead you in every "important" non-moral decision that we have to make.

The argument is that the Holy Spirit's whole job is to LEAD US INTO TRUTH. Which I agree with. It's just HOW the Holy Spirit leads. It seems that each time scripture talks about "being led by the spirit" or 'walking in the Sprit" etc... that it relates in some way to God's moral will, the bible, the law whatever... But doesn't seem to be pointing toward making big decisions about which wife you should marry. Of course there are a couple of exceptions to this like when God TOLD Hosea to marry Gomer. But it seems that when God speaks in this way he is really clear that it is Him that is speaking. You aren't blindfolded throwing darts at a moving tartget which happens to be God's will. Sometimes we mix up IMPRESSIONS with GOD SPEAKING. They are different. And you will know for sure when God speaks to you (if he ever does in that way).
OK, thoughts anyone? What do you think the leading of the Holy Spirit is? Bring it on.

Beer

ok, so you should really check out Noel's teaching on drinking. It's as good as a Newcastle.