On Saturday night Tamara and I went to the Art Music Justice tour event in Bluffton, SC (Hilton Head). It was incredible and something we both needed. In the strain of wedding planning (losing 3 photographers in 3 days), stuff at my church, Tamara not having a place to call her own and just life, our passion for Jesus and others was beginning to ebb. The tour featured Sara Groves, Brandon Heath (I didn’t realize he was popular since I don’t listen to much Christian radio), Derek Webb, Sandra mcCracken and Charlie Peacock (love that guy) as musicians telling stories. The real even though were the stories. Stories of Godly justice and freedom. Stories of people being delivered from addictions.
One of the reasons Tamara and I were attracted to each other was that we both discovered in teh other a passion for God’s good in this world.
I thought that one of best parts was a progression of images set Sara Groves’ song “Pray” in which the images had prayer needs written as part of the image. I loved that the importance of prayer in joining into God’s work was as emphasized as giving money or otherwise supporting good work such as International Justice Mission or Food for the Hungry.
Posted on October 20th, 2008 by
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I am with her family right now in Niagara Falls on the Canadian side. We went down to Queen Victoria Park/Gardens. Her Nana told me about the bridge in the park that apparently “all Canadian girls” want to be kissed at because the garden is so beautiful. Tamara isn’t Canadian but the Niagara area holds a special place in her heart because she grew up camping and visiting family here most summers.
We went for a early morning stroll (7 ish) to Tim Hortons (a Canadian coffee shop similar to Dunkin Donuts) and then to the park, ostensibly for me to try out taking pictures with a camera I acquired from a roommate. I arranged for her sister to trail us with a camera so there are some awesome and amazing picture on the ‘book (Facebook). I read her a couple of poems from one of our favorite poets (this is something I’ve done a few times before) and then a poem I wrote nearly 10 years ago titled “To My Future Wife” and she matches what I dreamed of and prayed for then. After this, I pretended to be taking a self-pic of us using my own camera and tripod. I had the ring in my camera bag and slipped it into my pocket distracting her by pointing and saying “hey, look at that.” I pressed the shutter release, she was in position facing me and instead of sitting next to her for the picture, I kneeled down and asked her to marry me. She was surprised but not completely shocked. She had been suspicious the whole trip but I’m a pretty nice guy anyways so nothing was too out of the ordinary.
The ring was one that I picked out (and she loves it) based on some we had looked at earlier last week, and the center stone in it was from my paternal grandmother’s ring.
So that’s my story. Pics are here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2103003&l=72406&id=2610404
Posted on June 5th, 2008 by
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I graduated this time last week. I think most of you knew this. Not that it matters for anything but I had a 3.55/4 GPA. Mom and Dad and Tamara attended the diploma ceremony. I managed to make it across the stage without tripping or doing anything stupid so I consider it a success. I had hoped to be active this summer with reading and writing before I move to Savannah in a month but it hasn’t gone so well. A couple of weeks ago and and this past week I have been dealing with a case of tonsilitis. When I haven’t been sick I’ve been catching up on things I forgot to do while sick and or driving to various places. I am excited though because tomorrow I have a transition workshop in Dublin which in most ways is my first official function since I was recommended by the Board of Ordained Ministry. I will be commissioned in Columbus on June 9th and move a week later to Savannah where the adventure of my life will continue.
Posted on May 20th, 2008 by
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Because you could be using Opera or Flock.
I have been a fan of Mozilla Firefox for a few years now. I made the switch to it just as version 1.0 was coming out. I have loved it. It had tabs before IE did and the integrated search box on the navigation bar was a far better solution than Yahoo or Google (or any of those malwary) toolbars. It ran much faster than Internet Explorer (at least then it did) and the add-ons were much more useful and easier to add than IE’s “extension” or helper apps.
However, lately, Firefox 2 began rendering web pages incredibly slow. At first I thought that it was my connection at my house but then I noticed it even on other networks. I realized it happened especially as I had more than 1 tab open. I wasn’t keen to go back to using IE because it just didn’t have the features I wanted with RSS and such.
I had tried Opera a year or so back but it seemed to slow my computer down but now with upgraded RAM that is no longer a problem. I discovered that Opera 9 is super-fast, the pages load really quickly. What’s more is that I can do a full page zoom, not just the text but photos and graphics as well so the page doesn’t look funny. This is especially useful for my widescreen. They also have a feature called Speed Dial which shows you specified webpages when you open a new tab and the ability to assign a number. For instance, when I want to log in to my blog I just press “Ctrl + 1.” Finally I like the way that RSS is integrated into it.
Today, I downloaded Flock. It is described as a social browser. I doubt that I’ll use it as my exclusive browser but it showing some usefulness particularly for blogging and quickly scanning newsfeeds. It also has a sidebar for social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter so that you do not have to logged in to the website to get updates, if you care that much. It has some sort of functionality with flickr and other photo-sharing sites so that you can easily upload photos. I plan to play around with that some tonight or tomorrow.
Try either or both of these out, you may find, like me, that different is good.
Tags: flockopera browser technology software
Posted on April 25th, 2008 by
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…the boy who cried wolf?
Earlier this month I had a sore throat and as it was starting to go away I decided to visit the doctor anyhow. “Just a viral infection complicated by the pollen. It just has to run it’s course.” she said.
So, this time last week when I started to feel a pain in my throat I thought “Just a slight viral infection. Rest, drink fluids, Let it run it’s course.”
But it got worse.
Even more pain, can barely swallow, swelling now too!
Something in the back of my mouth or throat felt very, very swollen. Yet, I can still breathe fine. It just felt like I was choking, kinda makes it hard to sleep. Oh yeah, it really hurt to swallow so I stopped eating. So, 3 things for life….
breathing, check…
sleeping, no check,
eating, no check.
I call mom.
Go to the doctor right away. Could be tonsilitis
Mom, I’m busy. I can take care of my self. It just has to run its course, that’s what they told me last time. I call the Student Health on-call physician, “Take more ibprofun” Hmmm… 3 Ibprofun really helps.
Monday-Stop Ibprofun, still hurts. Make appt for Tuesday at the last minute.
Tuesday- Doctor looks in mouth…..”Ohhhhh” I bet it really hurts on the right side. This really concerns me. It looks like a swollen tonsil…..a bacterial infection..You see, your tonsils “crumble” as you age, sometimes as this occurs………
Mom, you’re right. Sorry.
Postscript: I am much better now thanks to a gram of anti-biotic shot into my hindquarters and some pills.
Posted on April 24th, 2008 by
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…and I can announce it. I will be moving to Wilmington Island, GA in June to serve as an associate pastor at the UMC on the island. Wilmington is off the coast of the northern part of Savanah and is something of a gateway to Tybee. Wilmington itself seems mostly to be a bedroom community. I visited there in March to get to know the pastor and we had a fruitful time. I’m really looking forward to moving down there. I’ve enjoyed the past three years in Atlanta but I think I’m ready to move on. After spending several hours in traffic visiting Tamara over the last couple months I’m ready for a smaller town but one with lots of big city charm, like Savannah. So, here’s to low country boils!
Another culinary feat I can attempt to master, at least to my liking.
Their (our!) website: http://www.islandmethodist.com
Posted on April 19th, 2008 by
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I haven’t blogged nearly at all in the last couple of months but there is a great reason for that. She’s in India right now though so I have a little more disposable time. Most of you reading this have probably already heard about her, but her name is Tamara. We met thanks to Dr. Neil Clark Warren and his 29 dimensions of compatiability. I understand that Eharmony doesn’t work for everyone but I guess it is perfect for boring people like me.
I don’t know how to describe her briefly but it goes something like this: Incredibly sweet, a great listener and question asker, very intelligent (she never complains about my big words), loves poetry (like me), enjoys art (like me), likes to cook (like me), prays for me, tall, redhead (rawr!), has a great laugh, deep eyes and tons of other stuff that I cannot really describe but makes it real easy for us to be with each other. She’s originally from Indiana and went to college and grad school in Missouri. She just moved to Georgia in June 2007. When you ask her why she moved she just says “God.” I like to think that God moved her here for me, but my theology doesn’t allow that sort of thinking. Sometimes being in seminary ruins things. Did I mention she also likes Sixpence None the Richer (or at least she did in high school, again, like me).
Our first date lasted nearly 4 hours and I only broke it off because I didn’t want to get stuck in traffic. I have since spent more than a couple hours in traffic just to see her on an evening after class. She has a little poodle named Snickers who seems to have really taken to me and who is quite the athlete.
This is us on the way back from a road trip:
Posted on April 9th, 2008 by
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…to the South Georgia annual Conference to be a Commissioned as a Probationary member. What this means is that I am 2/3rds of the way to being a full Elder in my annual Conference. It is is a somewhat complex set up that we have in the UMC but essentially, I get to be a pastor. I’m really looking forward to it and may post some reflections after I’ve finished the midterm I’m supposed to be working on right now.
Posted on March 5th, 2008 by
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Today, as part of an intensive January course I am taking, we visited Atlanta’s William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum.. A few things have become clear to me, I believe. As a Christian, I cannot play down the role of Christian theology and history in events of systemic persecution of Jews throughout history and, notably, the Holocaust. Second, the fact and horror of the Holocaust should challenge me (us if you are one) as Christians to consider the various persecutions worldwide of groups on the basis of race and other status.
I tend to be pretty theologically and Biblically moderate in the broad stream of American Christianity. I’ve had trouble with the thought of re-wording liturgies which change male pronouns for God to something “neutral” or feminine. I’m against a view of Jesus that sees him simply as a “mild and meek” social activist (and I would contend, most “social Gospel Christians” see him not in this way). I believe Jesus was more than just a good teacher and I’m pretty sure that at some point anyone who wants to spend eternity with God will have to confess Jesus Christ as their Savior. And yet, as I read through the Gospels and some other New Testament writings I’m surprised to see what seems a clear, anti-Jewish bias. You may be cool with this, I’m not. I understand the necessity of Christian identity formation emerging from Judaism. I even rather uncritically accept the Gospels as historical accounts and so agree that, yes, there was perhaps strong Jewish opposition to Christ’s message. However, the history of the Church’s interpretation of this has been atrocious and not just in the past, but in the present. I recoiled the other night on hearing a sermon by a the chief reformissionary in which he completely ignored the fact that his subject Jacob was a Jew and rather cast him as sort of a dying Greatest-Generation refomed Christian. Reading the Hebrew scriptures through the lens of Christian revelation is done in the New Testament, no doubt, yet should this preclude reading them also with a legitimate concern for the context in which they were written. Must we necessarily associate the “Jews” during the Roman Era with those of our current era?
I also acknowledge that much of the impetus for the extermination of Jews and others was based in bad science and particularly science based on evolutionary theory. It is a strange brew, the confluence of historic Christian theology and science which (for many Christians) seems completely atheistic, that created the ripe conditions for the murder of 6 million Jews who each had names. A survivor, a victor, Tosia Schneider told us her story today
Although it is debated as to the extent to which American leaders knew about the Holocaust, there should have been no question as to Hitler’s designs for the Jewish people when he began his campaign of terror. Yet Christians, for the most part, remained silent. There was a significant part of the Holocaust portion of the museum dedicated to those who helped in fight against the Holocaust, and, allowing for the fact that it is a Jewish museum, I was shamed by the lack of a Christian response. I wonder if part of the reason that (at least in liberal Protestant circles) we so divinize Dietrich Bohnhoeffer and other members of the Confessing Church movement is that we know we lack the fortitude to undertake such dangerous work as they. Indeed, I believe that we have shown we lack the fortitude. Furthermore, the evangelical/charismatic side of my Christian identity is neither spared shame. We expend tons of money and resources on missionary work, both charitable and evangelistic, and yet have not figured out that by intervening in the “political” affairs of oppressed and/or warring people that we are truly living the Gospel.
Let’s face it: Talk and concerts are cheap. I am looking at a flyer for a rally by the Georgia Darfur Coalition. Honestly, I don’t know what good rallies do. It seems that our society is overrun with words (just look at this blog post) but I want to know how I can take action. Good, Christian, action. I encourage you all to do the same
A final memoir of my own. As a child I would grow bored of my parents and grandparents (and often adult cousins) conversations. At this moment, I would bound up my grandparents stairs to the guest bedroom (really, the grandchild bedroom) and find a trunk sitting in a corner by a closet. It was old and certainly didn’t look to hold toys. But I found something better inside one day: artifacts from my grandfather’s Army service. Amidst the German eating utensils, an iron cross ripped from a German uni, love letters I was forbidden (at age 12) to read, and an old service members Bible, I found pictures of a concentration camp. I was twelve and yet had never heard of them so these pictures were quite odd. A year or so later, after learning about it, I returned to the pictures and what I saw horrified me: emaciated bodies piled on a truck, a soldier pointing to one of the ovens and pictures of the “cabins” where Jewish slaves were kept. After seeing these pictures, this place my grandfather saw, how do I respond. How do we respond because as a classmate said today: “The same evil from the triangle slave trade, the same evil in the Holocaust, the same evil in racism and the Jim Crow laws and lynchings is the same evil we see today all over the world.” Are we scared of this evil. If we die, if we lose money, is not the prospect of Heaven a glorious thing?
Posted on January 12th, 2008 by
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This comes from Dag Hammarskjold in Markings. The second stanza is actually included as a prayer in the United Methodist Hymnal:
July 19, 1961
Have mercy
Upon us.
Have mercy
Upon our efforts,
That we
Before Thee,
In love and in faith,
Righteousness and humility,
May follow Thee,
With self-denial, steadfastness and courage,
And meet Thee
In the silence.
Give us
A pure heart
That we may see thee
A humble heart
That we may hear Thee,
A heart of love
That we may serve Thee,
A heart of faith
That we may live Thee,
Thou
Whom I do not know
But Whose I am.
Thou
Whom I do not comprehend
But who has dedicated me
To my fate.
Thou–
I really, really like this poem. Especially the sense of mystery at the end. I’m not one to question W.H. Auden (who translated the work from Swedish) but I have trouble with the implicit theology of the words “dedicated” and “fate.” These indicate a sort of determinism that do not reflect the freedom that we have in God to make good or bad choices. Rather, I think that “called” may serve in place of “dedicated” and “work” may serve for “fate.”
Posted on November 14th, 2007 by
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