overproportioNATE

My job on my birthday, should I choose to accept it, is to make it a good day for you. Yes.You.  I'm still at the age where a birthday is a good thing. I still feel like I'm 22, and every year I can gain from 22 is a good thing, as I am certain that no one wants a 22 year old pastor, or counselor (speaking of full-time personal counselors, not camp counselors). But I am getting older, and I like to believe that I am going through more than I ever have, having to be strict and upfront more than I ever have. I find more joy in making others happy than I ever imagined I would when I was younger. I'm sure that is the nice-sounding utterance of many, but for me, at least in my heart, I know its true. I want to thank a few people, and acknowledge a few things today, because it is my birthday, and I get to do what I want. I thank God. Because He is worth following, and is all the adventure and reward I need. He is enough. I thank my wife. I'm so glad just to know her...

And I will die alone and be left there. Well I guess I'll just go home, Oh God knows where. because death is just so full and man so small. Well I'm scared of what's behind and what's before. And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears. And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears. Get over your hill and see what you find there, With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair. -After the Storm, Mumford & Sons I love when a writer can put something down on paper that has an old tune to it. Human and raw. I appreciate it when a writer doesn't have to know everything about what he writes about. Music, like life, like church, should make us uncomfortable. Whenever we settle in, and are decided, we rest on our haunches, and are not really living any more. There is a time for soothing music, and this song most definitely has a soothing element, it ends well. But most of their songs don't. And I feel that is because mos...

I want to push myself to be more of an encourager. There are only a few people in life that encourage me too much, and I still like those people. I love seeing that change in a person, who has never known encouragement, who has never had someone on their side. Someone who now feels like "one of the guys", and is content. I love it because they become an encourager as well. It is inevitable. Whenever someone is filled up, complete, its like they can't help it. Its a new creature, and something that the church lacks more and more. But I feel like there is an underswell, I feel like there is a generation that most definitely wants to connect, that wants to have a place. We are a generation that will work, we will work hard. I think it will take encouragement, and it will take someone listening. I have never felt like my generation knows more than older generations, and I have never felt like it was my place to say that we have better ideas, or they are all wrong. But w...

"Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done      and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;      nothing was gained under the sun." I have a hard time pinning down what I want in life. And on my best days, I'm not even sure if that question is worth asking. Because on my best days, I guess I slip a little further away from myself. I would love to do so many things in life, travel, stay close to family and friends, always be up on all my technology, and dine at wonderful places. All of those things are good and fine. But, and I don't know if its the martyr in me, I don't know if much of any of it is worth much. But like I talked about yesterday, maybe the important thing is to simply be willing to leave some of those things behind, or all of it. To be able to go and not look back.

Yo todavia espero un milagro, Yo todavia te espero a ti. ( I still hope for a miracle , I hope you're still you.) I am so lonely, they say you were lonely too. Dear God be my savior, I wait for you. -Hurricanes, FIF Just a few lines today about a mournful song from Five Iron. Not common are their mournful songs. I like that even in their mournful writing, they still acknowledge that God knows them. That God still identifies with them. I think that is a very important perspective to keep. I can have a bad day. I can feel alone. I can feel overworked, and tired. I can feel needy. And all of those things are good, even necessary. Just remember, somewhere in that sorrow, that even in my loneliness, I am not ultimately alone. "I still hopeful a miracle, I hope you're still you." That's one way it can translated, there are others, but this one in particular strikes me. We have an awful lot of hopes in life, but maybe one of the more profound ones is...

"All my dreams are slowly dying. I can count my years in scars. The only One that's never left me, has carried me so very far. I've heard it said that He wastes nothing, so beautiful to behold, the Author of my hope is writing, the greatest story ever told." -From The Greatest Story Ever Told, FIF Reese always said that after Every New Day, this was his favorite song to sing. Haven't gotten to hear it live yet. He wastes Nothing. Thats a pretty profound statement, a bold one. That He would waste nothing at all. I think that there are a lot of things that we can point to in our life, cirumstances that happened, or didn't happen, that shaped us into who we are. Beneficial things, even negative, even terrible things, that were in the end, good for us. But that He might use everything, that nothing at all would go to waste... My mediocre days? The forgettable ones. The early forming days in my life that I don't remember. The images from days of war, ...

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.     In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”     They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.     When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”     Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.     Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”   “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus d...