Gridlock…a spiritual lesson?

I have been in southern California for a couple days and have had the pleasure of experiencing the famed LA traffic.  I had an interesting thought while sitting in traffic this week that relates gridlock to my walk with Jesus.

I thought, while sitting in the middle lane of a 3 lane hwy, my walk with Jesus is a lot like gridlock.  I want to follow His will, but I see the other lanes of traffic moving past me on either side.  Then in a sweet turn of events the outside lanes slow and my lane speeds by.  Inevitable is the fact that minutes [if not seconds] later my lane slows to a crawl and once again the other cars are speeding by while I sulk about not being in one of the moving lanes.

I think this was Jesus trying to show me that contentment is the best way to fight those doubts of “am I in the right lane”.  If I am able to trust Jesus has the perfect plan for my life I don’t have to play the rat race.  There are many things that come my way that try to draw my attention away from the perfect will of Jesus, but only lead to more frustration.

My charge to you [and me] is to seek contentment in Jesus.  His will is not always clearly visable, but when we focus on Jesus He will give us that peace that we seek.

College Fair Travels: Food Edition

I have been in the Santa Clarita area for quite some time in the last 2 weeks.  I have not really eating at many local hot spots.  However, that changed this week.  I met with a family early this week and they recommended La Cocina.  The chips/salsa were pretty good [I still prefer Sal's] but the tacos were pretty darn good.  I would have to say the Al Pastor were some of the best I have had anywhere.

For lunch today I used Yelp to help direct my destination.  I found the Urbane Cafe.  It was a nice little joint that was packed when I got there at 1:30pm for lunch.  They offer sandwhiches and salads that are all freshly made.  The unique thing is that all the sandwiches are made on freshly brick oven baked flat bread; my wife would really like this place because the flat bread was delicious.  I ordered the Fiesta Chicken sandwich that is topped with pepperjack, chipotle mayo and a black bean & corn salsa.  Another cool thing is that all the sandwiches come with a side salad topped with a great balsamic vinegarete, feta and mangerine oranges.  This was a nice change from the traditional fries or chips.  The meal was very fresh and healthy tasting which was just what I was looking for.  I would highly recommend stopping in if you are passing through Santa Clarita during lunch or dinner.

Sermon Thoughts

River Valley Church has been walking very slowly through the book of John.  This last week Pastor Gordon taught from John 15:12-17.  The main topic was love and the fact that we are commanded to love.  On the drive home my wife and I talked at length about what this love looks like in our lives.

 ”This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. ¹⁷These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

We came to the conclusion that it is easy to show love in the good times, but we things are going south how do we respond?  What are situations in your life that are challenging the way you love?  Are there conversations you are avoiding?  Does this show the love that Jesus is describing in John 15?

Airport Security

Saw this comic on xkcd.com today and it made me laugh

Oh My

The reality is really sinking in that in a mere 15 days I will be a husband.  Not only will I be a husband, but I will have a wife.  This is a crazy thought that after 27 years of being single, God has brought along the perfect woman for me.  I can’t wait to start this journey with Amy!

We met with Dave Obwald this week to talk about the details of the ceremony and got to talk about the verse we wanted.  We chose a passage from Philippians 2.

¹If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ²then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. ⁴Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
⁶Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
⁷but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
⁸And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

We both want our wedding to be one that shows the beauty of God’s glory, mercy and grace.  I think this passage in Philippians does this wonderfully and also sets a great foundation for a marriage to build on; even though it is not the traditional 1 Corinthians 13 wedding passage

My “Kids”

So with Amy moving out of her apartment last weekend, I inherited the animals at the house.  This has definitely been a big jump in responsibility, but they are fun to have around.  Well they are all fun except for Reilly, the cat.  She is an inside cat turned outside because we can’t have animals inside the house we are renting.

She has made her new home under the house [we have a raised sub-floor] and doesn’t really like to come out for anything.  I have crawled into the sub-floor access point twice to try and get her out.  She came once and then the second time I was able to coax her out of one of the vents.  All in all she is kind of annoying, but I share this all to share this picture.  I took her for a walk around the backyard so she can get familiar.

Ellie and Harrison are quite the pair.  Yesterday they ran through the

sprinklers and rolled in the dirt.  Harrison then thought he should be allow inside.

We bought them a little kiddie pool for them to cool off in.

Needless to say, they love it.

Days

In T – 25 days I will be marrying the love of my life.  I am really excited and looking forward to spending the rest of my life with her.  I also look forward not having to leave her every night.  I have a feeling this whole married thing will save me a considerable amount of gas money

And guess what?? SHE bought tickets to go see the Grizzlies game tonight.  I think she is pretty rad

Best Wedding Gift

Many of you know I am getting married in a mere 29 days!!  The anticipation is just growing and growing.  Through the planning process something really stuck out that I wanted to share.  It comes from an experience/gift my family received nearly 10 years ago.  On October 1, 2000 my dad had a liver transplant.  This was an amazing blessing from the Lord, but it meant there was a death on the other end of that.  My dad’s donor, David, was a husband, son, mountain climber and Shakespeare enthusiast [to name a few], from Oregon.

When I was putting together my guest list I knew there were two very special invitations going out.  They were to Christine [David's widow] and Roxanne [David's mother].  At first I put them on the list because that was the right thing to do, but as I reviewed the list over and over again there was a much deeper reason they were on the list; they had become part of OUR family.  It was from the loss of their husband and son that will allow my father to celebrate my wedding with me.  No words can truly express the thankfulness I feel in the willingness of their family to donate David’s organs.  It is because of their decision that my Dad was given an extension on life and will be at my wedding.

I also write this to show that organ donation is a wonderful thing.  If you are a registered donor [have that pink dot on your license] I say thank you.  I also encourage you to have a conversation with your family so they are aware of your desire to have your organs donated.  If you have not made that decision to donate I encourage you to take another look at it.  I would love to talk more and share my experience with you if you have any questions.

You can go the the DMV website to sign up to be a donor.  http://www.dmv.ca.gov/about/donateLife/donateLife.htm

Got Wood

As the majority of you know, I am a baseball fan.  I think I was born with a baseball glove on my hand.  It is a game I love to play, but also to analyze the many different ‘unseen’ facets of the game.  Over the past few years there has been a growing cry against the use of aluminum bats in t-ball through the college level.  It has been in response to injuries [manly pitchers] who have been hit with a batted ball.  I am not polarized on either stance, but I do have some comments regarding the good side of aluminum bats.

First, aluminum bats offer a developmental advantage.  I think we would be doing a disservice to our young boys/girls by requiring them to use wood.  Reason for this is that they are very difficult to hit with.  Using wood at that early age and through high school could reduce the number of kids/teens playing baseball because it is just too hard.  Using aluminum allows a player to hit a ball off the end or on the hands and not break the bat.

Second, the technology developed in the last 10 years has been to reduce the ball exit speed ratio [BESR].  Contrary to popular belief, the price increase in aluminum bats is not to get a bat that will hit further.  Do I think that paying $400 for a new bat is a bit excessive, yes, however you are getting less “pop” out of bats made in the last year compared to 5 years ago.

Third, baseball is a dangerous sport.  The pitcher happens to be the closest player when the ball is hit and thus has less time to react.  This is the case when using aluminum or wood.  A report was done that measures that time a baseball takes to reach the mound at varying speeds.

In this study, it was referenced that the speed from a professional quality wood bat is 97mph and the highest performing aluminum bat allowed by the NCAA is 102mph.  That amounts to a .020″s difference in time.

Now, one of the main proponents for the ban of aluminum is that a player can hit the “sweet spot” more consistently.  This in turn means the average speed from aluminum would be greater than that of a wood bat and more balls in play.  Ultimately, if you participate in sports there is going to be a risk factor.  Moving to wood is not going to solve the problem, it might just reduce the number of occurrences.

Worship

As many of you know, I am involved in the engineering team

 at The Well SE.  I was on the schedule this Sunday and I got a nice reminder that I am not important in the worship experience.  It is true in my case that I am my worst critic and when things don’t work as planned it is very frustrating.

The morning was filled with troubleshooting and tracing wires to not much avail.  The band was not able to really get in a groove because we could not get the monitors set right.  I was trying to give Ryan [new engineering guy] more time on the board so he could get comfortable and nothing I told him to try worked.  I double/triple checked the setup and everything was right.

Well, long story short, the band/engineering team clunked our way through rehearsal and worship started.  The opening set of two songs was not worshipful for me at all.  I was still trying to figure out why the monitors weren’t loud when we had plenty of gain going to them and then we got the added bonus of mystery feedback.  Oh and I was trying not to miss the cues for slides at the same time.

Then we played the message taught by Brad through video and I could relax for those 30 minutes.  The message was challenging with the question of “have I grown spiritually this past year”?  I did not really want to answer that question honestly to myself and felt a strong conviction.  Then the band got up for the last set of three songs.  The first song was “The Stand” and the chorus just hit me in the depth of my heart.

So I’ll stand
With arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One who gave it all

So I’ll stand
My soul Lord to You surrendered
All I am is Yours

When the band sang the chorus it was like all the frustration of the morning just vanished.  I knew God was speaking right to me in that moment and telling me it’s OK if the sound doesn’t work.  It’s OK if the mix is not perfect.  It’s OK if the monitors aren’t loud enough for the band.

My take away from this morning was that God does not want my talents.  He just wants my sincere worship; regardless if it sounds good or not.