You’ve got to give the people what they want, rockstar

Blogger's built in stuff has gotten a lot cooler in the last 4 years.

I expect feedback and suggestions on the design.

I said yep, what a concept, I could use a little fuel myself and we could all use a little change

Smash Mouth, anyone?

I'm considering a design change to the blog. Any layout suggestions? I built this design in '07, and I think it's time for something new.

If we are the body, why aren't His arms reaching?

Ok, here's the deal. I have a birthday coming up (February 4th) and I am requesting the biggest birthday present of all time.

I want you to build a well in Africa for people without drinking water.

Sounds pretty impossible, huh? Well, how 'bout this, then? Go to this website and give twenty dollars. Twenty dollars. Surely I'm worth twenty dollars to you. You spent more than that for dinner the other night.

Twenty dollars.

Check it out, though. $20 can give one person clean drinking water for 20 years. Did you catch that? Your dead president will change the life of one person.

There are nearly a billion people on planet earth without clean drinking water. That's 1 in 8 people globally. These people are dying from diseases that we don't really have to worry about. These diseases breed in their water.

So please, give me the greatest birthday gift ever, and let's change the world for good.

I've been searching for a loophole, wondering how I can live both Your way and mine

If you ever want a really depressing night, read old blog posts while listening to an album written by a friend you haven't seen in years. Nostalgic sentiments do strange things to the soul.


This evening, I want to take a look at, in my opinion, one of the most difficult passages of Scripture in the New Testament. Most of this is self-explanatory, but I do want to make note of two things in this chapter:

"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you."
- I have seen and worked for so many "ministers" who make it a point to exalt themselves. Their main focus is getting ahead, getting to the top, being top dog. The harsh reality is, after those men are gone, no one will remember them. No one will remember the witty things they said or the great donations they made publicly to charity. Give it several years, and their names will be all but meaningless. The name of Jesus, on the other hand, has the power of eternity. Moral of the story? You're worthless in the face of eternity without Jesus, so take a reality check and come to the point where you can lay down your pride for the sake of the Kingdom. Once you've reached that point, God can use you in ways you never thought possible.

"Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?"

- At first glance, this passage seems to fly in the face of Paul's admonitions to abolish sin within the body. How can you do that without judging them? Reverend Ron Daniel says this:
"...the Greek scholar Spiros Zohiates sheds some light on this mystery. He writes that the word for "one another" actually "refers to the person and not to the actions of that person." In other words, it is not wrong to say, "He said this and it was a lie." It is not wrong to say, "She did this and it was immoral." But it is wrong to say, "He's a liar through and through." Or, "She is the epitome of carnality." You see, when we do that, we are going beyond judging the actions, and we've begun to judge the person. God alone is able to judge the person, we cannot. We can know what actions and words are sinful, but we cannot know the heart of a man."*
*©2006 Ron Daniel - Any distribution not for profit is permitted


James 4 (English Standard Version)

Warning Against Worldliness

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

Boasting About Tomorrow

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— 14yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." 16As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

So goodnight, blue eyes, I'm here by your side, This is how we work our knuckles to the bone

Kudos to anyone who recognizes that lyric.

I need an album to fall in love with. Not just a "hey this is a good album", but a "hey, this album is completing my life right now" kind of record. Haven't found anything like that in a while.

Speaking of, the first album I can remember being like that for me was Jimmy Eat World's "Bleed American" in 2001. 10 years later, I'm finally going to go see them in concert. I just printed my ticket, and I am stoked.

I am still in desperate need of gainful employment. I don't really care too much what it is, my only stipulations are a somewhat consistent schedule and being payed real money (as opposed to gum, or goats.)

Found a new album from an old favorite band that I didn't even know were still around. The Wedding's new EP is surprisingly good.

Gold teeth and a curse for this town were all in my mouth

Kind of on a Shins kick lately.

I've spent the last several days fixing stuff at the church and around the house. Haven't really done much else, except...

... I played a show. A real show. Yeah, the kind with people.

I actually just played backup for another guy, but still. It's a huge step for me.

I also went bowling, that didn't go as well.

And we become silhouettes when our bodies finally go

The Postal Service seriously never gets old.

I have spent all afternoon tracking computer problems. In fact, as I'm typing this (on the Chromebook) I have two other machines in front of me, one I'm tuning up and one I'm using to build a back-end for a VPN client. Geeky? I think yes.

It seems that, no matter how much volunteer work I take on or how much I get involved with, I can't seem to shake this feeling of worthlessness. Not in the sense of "my life has no worth", but rather, "my time is spent doing worthless things". I realize in many cases this isn't true, but sometimes it really gets to me. I read for almost 2 hours this morning because I couldn't find a valid reason to get up and moving.

On a brighter note, I have recently taken a liking to peach flavored teas.

We are the outsiders!

Love some NeedToBreathe.

Ok, so tonight at the UR was pretty crazy. We didn't have a band, but we had almost 40 kids come through tonight. The place was jumping, and it was awesome.

Every night at the UR, we have someone get up and give like a ten minute devotion. Well tonight, Nancy called on one of the volunteers, who wasn't really prepared to do any speaking. So he tells me that he's just going to let the spirit guide him. 15 minutes later he gets on stage and starts reading out of Matthew 19! (For context, see last blog post.) Coincidence? I think not.

In other news: Winter Jam is tomorrow, and I'm stoked.

Why do I tire of counting sheep, 'Cause I'm far too tired to fall asleep

Yet another round of insomnia. Yay.

I've decided that I am very sick of pop culture. All of the trends and fads, where you have to look a certain way, talk a certain way, act a certain way and like certain types of things or else people won't like you. Or worse, if you are so shallow, the wrong "types" of people may like you instead. The uncool. The socially worthless.

In his book "Searching for God Knows What", Donald Miller presents what he calls the "Lifeboat Theory." Essentially, he says, we act as if we are all in a lifeboat that is too small, waiting to be rescued, and this constant comparing of ourselves is to give ourselves some form of superficial worth so that, when it comes time, we won't be chosen to be thrown out.

This idea makes a lot of sense to me. Why else would we instinctively rate people based on their looks/clothes/car/wealth etc? Equality is rarely regarded as truth, and human beings throughout history have formed hierarchies of class based on certain meaningless criteria.

Miller also presents a theory that if an alien were to come to earth from some far off planet, he might see human beings like this:

"Humans, as a species, are constantly, and in every way comparing themselves to one another, which, given the brief nature of their existence, seems an oddity and, for that matter, a waste. Nevertheless, this is the driving influence behind every human's social development, their emotional health and sense of joy, and, sadly, their greatest tragedies..."

Miller continues with this theory in reference to Jesus, as well:

"It would be very interesting if Jesus, who said He was the Son of God, understood life on earth the same way the alien did. Think about it for a second. If Jesus were coming from a place where all emotional needs were met by God, His social economy would be as shocking and different as the social economy in the Garden or on whatever planet the alien came from. His values would be different and His personality would be different..."

He concludes this theory with "... He had no regard for the lifeboat politics you and I live within everyday. He believed a great deal of absurd ideas, such as we should turn the other cheek if somebody hits us, we should give somebody our coat even if they just ask for our shirt, we should be willing to give up all our money and follow Him, we should try our hardest to make peace, we should treat poor people the same as we treat the rich... He believed we should take every opportunity to fail in the lifeboat game, not for the sake of failing, but because there wasn't anything to win in the first place..."

I will readily admit that, in the context of the lifeboat theory, I constantly strive to be the guy nobody would ever throw out. Humility has never been my strong suit. I always have to be the best at everything I do. I surround myself with those that I believe will enhance my social status, and I have, unfortunately, been known to shun those who might impede it.

Let's see what Jesus had to say about social status... (Matt. 19:23-30, ESV)

And Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?" But Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Then Peter said in reply, "See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?" Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

So this is the new year/ Well I don't feel any different

Ahh, Death Cab...

So I've just gotta say that being unemployed sucks. Even aside from the money issues, I have never felt more useless in my life. I've got an application in at a nearby factory, so fingers crossed.

Actually, being unemployed kind of came in handy today. I got quite a bit done at Blaise that really needed to be done. I was sitting in a cramped office with three screens in front of me and techno playing in my headphones, trying to track down a network error. Definitely felt like home ;) (Michael Brazell, I know you know what I'm talking about.)

Sunday is winter jam. I'm pretty stoked about it. This is the first time in 3 years I haven't worked it, so I'm really looking forward to just going and enjoying it, as weird as it may feel...

What ain't we got? We ain't got dames!

Listening to an old Rat Pack album. Oh to have lived in the crooner era...

I had a conversation with a rather uninformed conservative yesterday, and it just reiterated for me the desperate state that the church is in. It seems as though tradition is much more important than scripture in many cases, and it's really starting to grate on my nerves. When will we, as the body, learn that our own ideals and man made laws will never prevail on the spiritual plane? It didn't work for the Pharisees, it didn't work for Catholicism, and will not work for American Protestantism. Period.

On another note: I really miss my city.