Today, however, was not one of those times. Today was clear as a bell.

I took just returned from taking the car in for a quick oil change.  Plenty to do today, so I wanted to get in and out quick.  However, as I walked in, there was an older lady in front of me who was distraught over learning that a major part on her car had gone bad and that the car was going to be virtually undriveable unless she got it fixed.  This wasn’t just a problem of convenience for her, though it was that.  Apparently, she shares this car w/ her daughter who relies on it to get to work.  More than convenience, it seemed that replacing this part was going to be a huge financial hurdle.  As the store manager walked back out to the shop so that she could call her husband on the store phone, I heard her describe how they would need to post-date a check and check with their landlord about either being late or needing to fall short on their monthly payment. In short, this unexpected repair was a major challenge on a couple different fronts and she was obviously beside herself with frustration and worry.

Enter prompting.

As I sat in the tiny waiting area and pretended not to listen, I felt like God was prompting me to make a major contribution toward this lady’s repair costs.  I can say with relative certainty that this was God, because believe me, I am at no loss for the many different things that we could be doing with our finances  Then the internal dialogue kicked in.  You can probably imagine it.  Is this really God’s voice?  How much should I contribute?  How would I even explain myself?  Should that money go somewhere else?  Does it need to be accompanied by some sort of explanation?  You get the point.  In the end, however, I decided it was God’s voice, settled on an amount, and once the lady had decided to leave the car there and accept a ride home from one of the shop workers, I simply asked the store manager to apply a portion of her repair cost to my bill.  He was stunned, but happy to do so.

20 minutes later as I retuned home, still wondering if I had heard and responded faithfully, I received an email from my wife Amy.  She was forwarding another email that she had just received (no kidding – at pretty much exactly the same time I was settling up at the auto shop!) from our new childcare giver, Jean.  Here is Jean’s email…

Hello Amy,

Hope you are well today, and that Aubrianna is doing well.

Will you consider yesterday and next Mondays child care as a gift from me as part of my stewardship?

This means that I do not want to be paid for either days.

I am happy to be partnering with you for The Kingdom.

Have a blessed day, Jean

Jean’s gift to us was nearly an exact match to the contribution I felt like God had prompted me to make to the lady in need at the auto shop!

Wish I could say that listening and responding to God’s little promptings was always that clear cut, but the truth is that that’s not the case.  It’s a cool story for sure, but at the heart of it is something more profund – the realization of what we just might be missing out on if we fail to attempt to pay attention to what God might be saying at all.

No related posts.

Ever been called an idiot?

Ever made a verbal promise?

Ever double-dog-dared someone to do something?

Yes?  Then you get what I mean.  Words are powerful tools.  I would even go so far as to say that words contribute to the shaping of our realities.  Just ask any teenager whose parent has told them on a consistent basis for years that they’re worthless.

This is why I have abandoned the language of “going to church.”  This language reinforces a false reality.  A reality in which church is understood to be a place or an event rather than a Kingdom community or family of disciples.  I would submit that the idea of “going to church” is a chief hallmark of cultural Christianity, the sort of thing that, while having a ring of sincerity to it, actually reshapes our imaginations and our reality in ways counter to the biblical narrative and the purposes of God.  So, a few weeks ago, as Amy and I prepared to take our daughter to a gathering of our church community, she and I had one of our first father-daughter chats.

I began to speak the kind of words to my daughter that I want her to grow up hearing – words that I want to shape her into the sort of person capable envisioning and receiving the story into which she has been born and invited – words that I hope will instill in her the sort of sorrowful/sick feeling that her father gets when he hears people relegate the Church to something we merely “go to.”

I said to her,

Daughter, you are a part of our family and our family is part of a very special group of people.  This group of people has a long, long history, filled with incredible stories that you will get to hear as you get older.  But here’s what you need to know.  God loves this world – everyone and everything in it.  He loves it more than we can even possibly imagine.  He loves it so much that he actually gave himself up for it – can you believe that?!  He did.  But lots of things are wrong.  Not everything is quite the way that it is supposed to be.  But don’t worry, God is at work.  He will see to it that in the end, all things will be made right again.  And guess what, God has invited us to join him on this mission.  He wants us to be a part of it with him as his people.  With God’s help we try to live out God’s dream for the world.  And because God’s own son, Jesus, did this better than anyone else ever did, we always try to follow his example.  That means that in many ways, the way we live is very different from the ways that other people live.  In fact, and this is difficult for me to say to you because I love you so much, it means that the more you live your life for God, the more likely it is that some people will not like you, maybe even hurt you like they did Jesus.  Even still…

Like Jesus, we talk to God and listen as he speaks to us rather than living life on our own terms.

Like Jesus, when people do mean and bad things, we offer forgiveness rather than hold grudges or try to get even.

Like Jesus, when people are hurt or in need, we offer to help rather than let them suffer or assume that it’s their own fault.

Like Jesus, we go out of our way to be friends with people who don’t like or make fun of rather than ignore them or do the same.

Like Jesus, we give our money and things to people who need them even if they can’t pay us back rather than keeping everything for ourselves.

Like Jesus, we will lay our lives down for our enemies rather than try to injure or destroy them.

And that’s just the beginning!  These are just some of the ways that we get to enjoy God’s dream for the world.

Now listen, there’s a special name for people who live this way together, they are called “Church.”  They are the people who have been called out of the ways of the way the world is, in order to live out God’s dream for the way the world should be and will be someday.  Some people think that Church is some thing that you go to, like going to a movie or a restaurant, only religious.  But that’s not what it is, not at all!  I know you won’t really understand all this quite yet, but the Church is a group of people who embody a whole new world!  Nothing you ever do will be more important than being part of this people and adventure.  Now, let’s go meet some of the people we’re on this mission with.

The first of many more conversations I hope to have with my precious daughter along these lines.

Related posts:

1. The Missiological Future of Theological Education – Training Kingdom Citizens
2. The Place of Salvation in the Missional (Church) Conversation
3. The Missiological Future of Theological Education – Introduction

I received a letter in the mail that said on account of the three claims that I have reported in the last three years, they were no longer willing to insure me.  I looked over the letter and thought about each accident.  As I did, I couldn’t help but feel depersonalized and taken advantage of and I began to reflect on how prone we often are to do this very same thing to others.  Here’s what I mean…

Accident #1, The Fence

The first accident happened while I lived in Memphis.  I was driving down a busy 2 lane road and a car, probably 4-5 cars in front of me, slammed on their brakes and turned left w/o signaling, cutting off traffic that was coming the other way.  The cars in front of me all braked rapidly as did I, but as I looked in my rear-view mirror, a car was barreling down so I decided to spin the wheel to the right where there was noting but grass and a fence in order to get out of the way.  Good thing I did, because the car absolutely would have slammed into me.  The result was a good bit of damage to the right front end of my car and a few broken slats in a fence.

Accident #2, Moving

The 2nd accident came just over a year later and happened while we were moving into our new apartment.  We had rented a U-Haul truck to move all our stuff, so I was driving that.  At one point I had to back the huge truck down a narrow alley and out onto a street.  Once I actually made it to the street I had a friend guiding me as I couldn’t really see behind me or keep an eye on traffic.  I could not possibly have been moving any slower, but as I was backing up to his direction, I heard a crunch.  The rear bumper of the truck had done some damage to the bumper of a parked car.

Accident #3, The Deer

The third accident took place, again, almost exactly a year later.  Amy and I were driving home to Ohio on the Turnpike.  We were in the right lane of a two lane portion of the Turnpike heading east.  All of a sudden, a woman in an SUV pulled up to our left and began honking her horn and waving her hands.  Obviously this took our attention off of the road for a moment and on to her.  As soon as we glanced back, we saw a couple deer on the side of the road very near our lane.  Since this lady was directly beside us, there was no room for us to move over to the left and with another car directly behind us, slamming on our brakes didn’t seem like the best idea either.  For some reason, one of the deer began running beside us and then jumped in front so that we gave it a good butt bounce.  Off the deer went, but we lost a headlight and had some minor paint damage to the bumper.

In the event that you trust my recounting of these accidents, I hope you’ll agree that it would be hard to make a case for my being a bad or negligent driver.  Instead, upon closer examination, it becomes apparent that my ill state (the one who had to file a claim) actually came about by external factors (bad driver in accident 1, bad navigator in accident 2, and dumb deer in accident 3).

My point in all this isn’t exactly to defend myself, but to point out how easy it is to depersonalize and take advantage of people when we aren’t willing to step into the details of peoples lives and circumstances.

We do this all the time.  We depersonalize people and take advantage of them in making judgments and estimations based on appearances w/o being willing to step into the minutia of their lives, their circumstances and stories.   Doing so is not only a source of great injustice, but it short circuits the fundamental work of the gospel.

Like insurance companies such as State Farm, it is so very tempting to just objectify people for our own purposes.  For insurance companies, getting personal and refusing to take advantage of a flawed system would adversely effect their bottom line, so they depersonalize and take advantage of people.  For us, getting personal and refusing to take advantage of the temptation to generalize and stereotype takes time, effort, and a willingness to have our most fundamental assumptions about the world called into question, so we follow suit.

In the midst of a culture which inclines us to function with the utmost concern for efficiency and our own best interests, I believe that Jesus calls us to the inefficiency of incarnational living and the freedom of a life lived for the sake of others.  Insurance companies may take the bait, but I hope I/we don’t.

No related posts.

In each instance people who have virtually nothing in common are thrust into one another’s lives creating the opportunity for, to borrow a phrase from my friend Geoff, “generative tension.”

This happened in my life recently.

To the list of ‘socially awkward misfit meets valedictorian,’ ‘lawyer meets convict,’ and ‘poor black adult meets rich white kid,’ I can now add, Dan Allender meets Eminem.

A few days ago I began listening to a series of talks offered by Dan Allender, a Christian counselor, author, speaker, and the President of Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle, WA.

In one of his talks, he offered this little nugget,

Evangelism is essentially sharing our stories long enough to discover a common ache and a common hope.

Now, as my friend Annie pointed out in a conversation about this sentiment, it doesn’t capture the full scope of what might qualify as evangelism (and I don’t think that was Dan’s intention anyway).  However, I do think it pushes us to a place of realization that, inasmuch as Jesus was God’s way of entering into the story of humanity’s deep aches and fulfilling its greatest hopes, we are called to do the same for others.

Somewhere in the course of listening to these talks, I came across a new music video by Eminem featuring Rihanna entitled, “Love the Way You Lie.” (ht: Jonathan Brink)

I’ll embed it below, but let me offer 2 things first, a disclaimer and a reflection.

Disclaimer: The video contains language and imagery that some might find objectionable.  If you can’t get past that, please do us both a favor and skip it.  I’ll say this though, the language and imagery is far from gratuitous.  I think it is used appropriately and poignantly to convey the weight of the issue.

Reflection:  The song and video tell the story of a couple who quite transparently have deep aches and deep hopes.  The tragic irony of the situation is that they are trying to come to terms with both through a violent and endless cycle of love and hate, truth and lies.

I think the reason that I like this quote from Allender so much is that it asks us to be come alongside people as guides as opposed to stand at a distance and offer directions.  There is this great tendency we have to get so focused on telling people that they need to arrive at a particular destination that we completely neglect the more important matter of identifying the “You are here” spot at which they stand.  Directions, after all, are of little use unless you know where you’re starting from.

The last observation I’ll make as a result of the generative tension between Allender’s quote and Eminem’s video is that without the right direction, we create our own personal hells – something that is visually captured at the end of this clip.  As people of ache and hope, when we try to alleviate our aches and fulfill our hopes in ways that God never intended, we suffer.  All the more reason for those of us who have been met by God at the point of our ache and who place our hope in God’s salvific work in the world through Christ to listen to the stories of others as we share ours and allow God to do that same work all over again.

Related posts:

1. The Door of Hope
2. “Going to Church” Is Not A Reality I Want For My Daughter

The connection I want to make is well articulated in the quote,

Strangers and enemies are merely people whose stories we haven’t heard yet.

We saw this at play in LOST inasmuch as our assumptions and assessments about the nature of the main characters were subverted over the course of getting to know their history and background.  Let’s face it, it’s just way harder to be so critical of Sawyer once you learn that someone was responsible for conning his mother out of money resulting in his father killing her and then himself right in front of him.

Similarly, in Wicked, we are given a story behind the relationship between the “good” witch and the “bad” witch from the Wizard of Oz.  We learn that the “good” witch was actually a fairly empty-headed, spoiled brat who always got her way and was extremely judgmental.  At the same time, we learn that the “bad” witch was a product of years of scorn and ridicule from her father and peers.  Not only did she blame herself for her mother’s death, but she was extremely mindful and caring toward her invalid sister.

Let’s be honest, life is easier when we pretend that we can engage it in black and white.  Truth be told, our need to control life in this way is probably directly related to our own fears and inadequacies.

It is when we lack contentment in who we are in Christ, that we default to judging others so that we can feel better about who we are.

… I am more valuable than him because I work hard and he’s a lazy bum.

… I am nicer than her because I saw how rude she was to the bank teller.

… We are a more devoted family than them because they are constantly missing church services.

Little do we know that…

… he was born addicted to crack and never had the sort of love and support it takes to help someone to recover from that sort of disability.

… she just found out that her 2 year old son was diagnosed with Lukemia and their family is uninsured.

… as a family, they are trying to spend time with their neighbors who think Jesus is a joke.

Stories change everything.

Identifying with others by entering into their stories is risky because we almost always discover that we have more in common with the people that we would just assume distance ourselves from as strangers and enemies that we’d like to admit.

So here’s the challenge before you you and I today (and for the rest of our lives!) – to risk entering into the pain and uncertainly of the stories of the people we consider strangers and enemies that we might identify with them as Christ entered into the story of humanity and identified with it – such is the nature and meaning of incarnational ministry and witness.

I will never be able to watch The Wizard of Oz with as much innocence as I once did. And regardless of what you and I thought about the conclusion of LOST as a television series, there is something profound about this notion of our salvation being bound up with our willingness to truly know and be known by others, especially those we are most unlike us.

Stories change everything.

Related posts:

1. San Francisco, Strangers, and Stories: Part 1
2. The Power, Promise, and Potential of Stories
3. Cultural Gravity (Part 1)

The wedding was held at the Guglielmo Winery in Morgan Hill and was one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever attended.

Thursday and Saturday we stayed in Gilroy, just south of Morgan Hill and apparently the “Garlic Capital of the World.”  Sounded pretty ridiculous to me until we drove into Gilroy and all we could smell was garlic – seriously!

After the mandatory trip to In-N-Out…

We of course felt compelled to visit the Garlic Shoppe.

Amy was even brave enough to taste the Chocolate-Garlic Ice ream.

We spent Sunday with our friend Jeanelle seeing some of the sights around the city of San Francisco including Hyde St. Pier, Ghiradelli Square, Chinatown, Golden Gate Park and the adjacent beach.  We also took the perfunctory trip across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Sunday evening, Amy and I went to see Wicked at the Orpheum in the Union Square district of downtown.

~~ Lots more pictures here and videos here

Now, Amy is a musical buff, she’s seen em all (multiple times in many cases!) but this was my first time seeing Wicked and I loved it.  It was probably one of the highlights of the trip for me.  Why? Because Wicked bore a striking resemblance to one of my favorite TV series’ of all time, LOST. Let me offer a quote I heard recently as a prelude to my explanation of that observation.

“Strangers and enemies are merely people whose stories we haven’t heard yet.”

More on that in my next post.

Related posts:

1. San Francisco, Strangers, and Stories: Part 2
2. Cultural Gravity (Part 1)
3. Know A Good Wedding Song?

A good bit of what is being said in response to the topic (much by patently reformed folks) has to do with “cultural appropriateness.”  Some seem to be suggesting that the seeker-sensitive/mega-church model of the church was a culturally appropriate model within Christendom and in a modern framework.  By implication, this would then be the preferred model of church for areas which still fit this description.  There is also an addition to the discussion pertaining to models for preaching and gathering.  Again, the argument seems to be that we need to allow the culture to determine the right model.  I submit that this the wrong approach to this discussion.  It may appear to be an incarnational approach, but it is anything but.

My friend Sam reminded me of a quote by Lesslie Newbigin recently,

…if we begin with culture we are never taken back to gospel, if we begin with gospel, we ourselves are transformed and enter into culture to put flesh on the gospel.

This is the way we need to understand what it means to be incarnational – gospeling a culture, not culturizing the gospel.

The primary question church leaders need to always be asking is not, “What is the culturally appropriate way to be the church?” but “What is the most formational way to be the church?” The first question lends itself to our ingrained consumeristic tendencies and begets attractional churches; the second invites us to consider a different goal altogether and serves to cultivate missional communities.

We ought to always do what we do as the church specifically because it helps people to become more like Jesus. Willowcreek was probably the best example ever of a church that did everything right in terms of cultural appropriateness only to announce to the world how horribly they had failed to actually help people become disciples (my thoughts on their REVEAL study here and Fitch’s here).

I hope this makes sense.  It is not my intention to question the motives and hearts of my well-intentioned brothers and sisters, but I beleive this to be a pivotal conversation for the future of the Church in the West and when the questions we seem to be asking have more to do with cultural pragmatics than faithful formation, I get nervous.

Let me end with a quick story.  I recently attended a church planting conference where a supposedly “missional” church planter told those in attendance,

…the south is home to some of the greatest preachers in the world.  If you are not a great preacher or teacher, you have no business trying to plant a church in the south.

I can’t even dream up a better illustration of what it means to so completely miss the point of everything missional is about.  For this guy, it’s the culture, not the gospel that determines what you do, how you do it, and who exactly it is that does it.  I just don’t think this is the best way forward for us.

Related posts:

1. Missional vs. Attractional Equipping
2. Toward a Missional Vision of Theological Education: Character Formation
3. The MOVE: The Journey from Attractional to Missional

The following parable will be included in my forthcoming book The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales (March 2009). A compilation of 33 parables and commentaries. This parable is called, ‘No conviction’,

In a world where following Christ is decreed to be a subversive and illegal activity you have been accused of being a believer, arrested and dragged before a court.

You have been under clandestine surveillance for some time now and so the prosecution has been able to build up quite a case against you. They begin the trial by offering the judge dozens of photographs which show you attending church meetings, speaking at religious events, and participating in various prayer and worship services. After this they present a selection of items that have been confiscated from your home: religious books that you own, worship CDs and other Christian artefacts. Then they step up the pace by displaying many of the poems, pieces of prose, and journal entries that you had lovingly written concerning your faith. Finally, in closing, the prosecution offers your Bible to the judge. This is a well-worn book with scribbles, notes, drawings, and underlings throughout, evidence, if it were needed, that you had read and re-read this sacred text many times.

Throughout the case you have been sitting silently in fear and trembling. You know deep in your heart that with the large body of evidence that has been amassed by the prosecution you face the possibility of a long imprisonment or even execution. At various times throughout the proceedings you have lost all confidence and have been on the verge of standing up and denying Christ. But while this thought has plagued your mind throughout the trial, you resist the temptation and remain focused.

Once the prosecution has finished presenting their case the judge proceeds to ask if you have anything to add, but you remain silent and resolute, terrified that if you open your mouth, even for a moment, you might deny the charges made against you. Like Christ, you remain silent before your accusers. In response you are led outside to wait as the judge ponders your case.

The hours pass slowly as you sit under guard in the foyer waiting to be summoned back. Eventually a young man in uniform appears and leads you into the courtroom so that you may hear the verdict and receive word of your punishment. Once seated in the dock the judge, a harsh and unyielding man, enters the room, stands before you, looks deep into your eyes and begins to speak,

“Of the charges that have been brought forward I find the accused not guilty.”

“Not guilty?” your heart freezes. Then, in a split second, the fear and terror that had moments before threatened to strip your resolve are swallowed up by confusion and rage.

Despite the surroundings, you stand defiantly before the judge and demand that he give an account concerning why you are innocent of the charges in light of the evidence.

“What evidence?” he replies in shock.

“What about the poems and prose that I wrote?” you reply.

“They simply show that you think of yourself as a poet, nothing more.”

“But what about the services I spoke at, the times I wept in church and the long, sleepless nights of prayer?”

“Evidence that you are a good speaker and actor, nothing more.” replied the judge, “It is obvious that you deluded those around you, and perhaps at times you even deluded yourself, but this foolishness is not enough to convict you in a court of law.”

“But this is madness!” you shout. “It would seem that no evidence would convince you!”

“Not so,” replies the judge as if informing you of a great, long forgotten secret.

“The court is indifferent toward your Bible reading and church attendance; it has no concern for worship with words and a pen. Continue to develop your theology, and use it to paint pictures of love. We have no interest in such armchair artists who spend their time creating images of a better world. We exist only for those who would lay down that brush, and their life, in a Christ-like endeavor to create it. So, until you live as Christ and his followers, until you challenge this system and become a thorn in our side, until you die to yourself and offer your body to the flames, until then my friend, you are no enemy of ours.”

Related posts:

1. Toward A Missional Vision of Theological Education: Conviction Shaping

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This past Sunday I had my first opportunity to address the Living Hope community. I must have had a thousand different thoughts on what to share. Ultimately, I really wanted to share some of my story and highlight something that I found relevant for where we’re at as a community of faith.

What I decided on was the way in which God used grad school to change me from someone who placed their faith primarily in a system of belief, to someone who tried to practice faith as a way of life and to put my trust in God as one who could never be contained or exhausted by my ideas or beliefs.

We looked at the Exodus story and the way in which even after being rescued and redeemed by God, the people of Israel wanted to relate to God from a distance, wanted to avoid the fear and unknown of continuing to follow God, and opted to worship a idol created by their own hands rather than worship the living God by living in the way he had directed them.

These were all reactions I was tempted to embrace during some of the tumultuous times of grad school and more importantly, reactions which I often fear the average church in the United States facilitates.  To be a church which refuses to allow for a two-tiered model of discipleship (leaders and the rest of us), which constantly asks, “what’s the next fearful and risky adventure God is calling us into,” and is more concerned with passing on a way of life than a system of belief, doesn’t exactly lend itself to our individualistic, consumer-driven, instant-gratification-seeking, culture.  Yet, this exactly the sort of future I hope for our community.

Over and above merely having the opportunity to share my story and what was on my heart and mind, I also enjoyed being able to invite some friends to participate in the service along with me.  Liz led a responsive reading, and Mike and Zach led the congregation into the Exodus story, by reading Scripture.  I shared an excellent quote from Martin Luther King Jr. that my friend Eric reminded me of, and offered our community some questions to stew on as we concluded.

Anywho, it was a great time.  Thanks Living Hope for being awesome.

Related posts:

1. Life on the Vine
2. The MAGL Life
3. Doing and Sharing Life Together

Home to Ohio – Thursday, May 24

I am in Cleveland airport returning from a week home in Ohio. I was home to spend time with family, to be with my community of friends who were taking advantage of the long weekend to be together, and just to plain break the monotony and have a change of scenery. My travel schedule wasn’t the best as I left at 12:30 am last Thursday (LA time) and I’ll be arriving at 1 am tomorrow. However, on the way out here the flight was overbooked and though I volunteered to step off, I was instead assigned a seat in first class. I didn’t put up much of a fight. I got to spend my first day at home with my mom. We had a nice afternoon and dinner together and then she deposited me down in Canton as she was leaving the next morning to spend a few days with my grandma up at Pelee Island in Lake Erie. I went out with Babs and Jay for some wings and to watch a disappointing loss by the Cavs.

My Worship Gig – Friday, May 25

No sooner was I home than I got an offer from my friend Nicole to help with a Kindergarten graduation by playing guitar for a song the kids were gonna be singing and dancing to. I was thrilled to help. So, Nicole and her husband Johnny came over to Sarah, Jay, and Wendy’s where I was staying and taught me the song, “Ain’t Nobody.” It was a camp sort of song with a funky rhythm, which, I forgot 5 minutes after I mastered it. We rehearsed with the kids on Friday morning. After I left rehersal I stopped off to see Sean and Julie who had just gotten in town and visited with them for a bit as well as Ryan and Christina and the rest of the Savage clan. I was set for a nap by the time I got back, but made the mistake of asking Jay if he wanted to go for a run. I pretty much relaxed after that until the actual graduation that evening. After that, we just waited for Cris to get in town from D.C., and we watched a movie together.

Lindsay’s, Angle Ball, & Bonfire – Saturday, May 26

Saturday morning began with a visit to famed breakfast spot, Lindsay’s in Massillon. Lindsay’s is a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant that, between the clientèle and cheap breakfasts, is a must-do. Heather and Ryan made it in that morning and joined Jay, Wendy, Sarah, Cris, and I. We hung out for a long time just chatting, catching up, and laughing.

The mandatory game of Angleball was slightly delayed due to some revolutionary construction on Babs’ part, aided, of course, by his trusty sidekicks (Sean, Josh, and I).

We played Angleball in the rain which made it way more fun. Sean, in true Sean fashion, played barefoot and amused several with a punt which landed him flat on his back. Jason, who was able to play as well, appropriately wore his Under Armor, and toasted all of us all over the field.

We went home and cleaned up and then reconvened at Babs and Carrie’s house for dinner and a Bonfire. Babs and Carrie were extremely gracious as hosts and I was so happy that a whole slew of people showed up. Besides the hosts, I got to see Jay, Wendy, Sarah, Ryan, Heather, Sean, Julie, Jess, Trisha, Nate, Shawn, Sarah, Branden, John, Greg, Natalie, Josh, Rachel, Cris, and maybe a few others I am unfortunately forgetting right now. It was a really good evening together.

My Favorite Lunch & Then to Chargrin Falls – Sunday, May 27

I was able to visit my friend Dave who serves as a campus pastor in Hartville on Sunday morning. He was preaching and it made me nostalgic for the days when we served together.
Sunday was also Nate and Trisha’s 1-year anniversary. Thanks for the reminder Trish I visited with Dave and his wife Tami for a bit after the service and then I was off to my most favorite lunch that I have each time I am home, when I get to reconnect with the students who are still so dear to me. I was able to share a meal with Josh, Ryan, Adam, Nate, Olivia, Lauren, Marci, Alex, Shawn, Sarah, and Leanne at Chili’s. Of course I wasn’t able to spend as much as time with each of them as I would have liked, but it was great to get a glimpse into what’s going on in their worlds and to fill them in on what’s going on in mine.

On my way back to the house, I ran by and said hello to my friends Ryan and Sarita, Sarita’s sister Rachel who was home from college, Sarita’s folks, Nate and Trish, and Ryan and Sarita’s new-born, Kayla. They were hanging out at Cici’s for Ryan’s birthday.

Then, it was up to Chagrin to hang out at Heather’s for the day and to hit downtown for a Hot Air Balloon launch. Sarah and Ben Drenik as well as Amy Smith came in town for the afternoon and Jason, Sarah, Josh & Rachel, Jay & Wendy, and Cris were there as well. We tossed the football around the back yard, had a great lunch, spent some time at the launch and then had the chance to go to Josh’s parents’ house for a bonfire. It was really a sweet day just being with everyone.

Making the Rounds – Monday, May 28

Monday was designated “see-as-many-people-as-possible-day.” I met up with Sean & Julie and Ryan & Christina at the Savage’s house in the morning. Julie and I taught Sean and Ryan how to play euchre and had a good time as always. From there I went over to visit Nick and the rest of the Snavely clan for a while. It was good to catch up with them as well. I got to meet up with Gina after that at Panera – our usual meeting place and she filled me in on her life at college, plans for the summer, and nervousness about finding a job in the “real world” after she graduates next year. We walked down and said hi to Leanne who was working her first day at Old Navy, and then I had to take off. The Gougler’s had me over for an awesome dinner and I got to meet Liv’s new boyfriend Steve. They just have to be about one of my most favorite families in the world. We were only missing Krysta who is over serving in Africa. After dinner I got to meet up with probably my most favorite person in the world, (also a contemporary Jonah) Jordane. We walked a few laps around Jackson park talking about life, love, God, and everything inbetween. We parted and I closed out the day of visits with some time at a d-group meeting with some of my favorite guys. I got back to the house where Jay, Wendy, Cris, Sarah, and I played a little game called, “Tell Everyone Your Most Embarassing and Private Secrets.” If you have (or want) really good friends, I highly recommend this game! We started to watch Stranger Than Fiction, but one by one, we all faded away.

Winding Down – Tuesday, May 29

Tuesday was nowhere near as exhausting, but fairly packed and fun nonetheless. I met up with Dave in the morning at Starbucks and had a good chat and visit with him. I envy so much his character and desire to be used by God. I ran by the alumni office at Malone basically just for the heck of it and it was good to connect with Deb and keep her informed of where I am at and what I am looking to do. You just never know what connections God might make through who. Later in the afternoon I spent sometime with Jason and Suzi and their awesome kids Caris and JJ.

After that Babs and I went to check on some stuff at my house. My mom came down and I got to have dinner with her and Ken, my best friend from high school and his girlfriend Emily. After dinner my mom and I went to see Reign Over Me, which we both enjoyed (me for the 2nd time – great soundtrack) and then we got some ice cream with Ryan and Christina. I said good bye to my housemates for the week and headed back to Stow.

On My Way Back – Wednesday, May 30

Slept way in this morning. Today was the only day that I didn’t have to get up for anything. I helped my mom with some stuff around the house, we took lunch and visited with my grandma, and watched a movie together in the afternoon. I caught my plane back and now I am sitting in the Las Vegas airport wondering how that week went so dang fast. My buddy Sam will be picking me up at the airport and then it’s back to work tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone who made my trip home a sweet time. I miss you already.

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Families are referred to The Door of Hope from any number of sources.  If they are accepted, they spend 6 months living in the main house while they participate in financial seminars, parenting classes, counseling, and Bible studies.  After these six months are up they are invited to move into an apartment behind the main house where they have a bit more independence, they solidify themselves with employment, and they continue to participate in the life if this small community. 

It has been an absolute joy to get to know the families that live at the Door of Hope.  A few weeks ago, The Door of Hope held a wedding ceremony for four couples currently living there.  One couple had never been married and three others had never had the opportunity to do any sort of public and meaningful ceremony.  I was able to shoot video and take pictures while others from our community played with some of the children, got to know the residents and friends of families, and were available to help with whatever else came up.  It was one of the most beautiful and touching things I had ever been a part of. 

A number of us are committed to being at The Door of Hope each Tuesday evening to share a meal with the residents and to continue building relationships, but our hope is that those relationships and our connection to these families will run quite a bit deeper than Tuesdays.  We are hoping to become, in the truest sense of the word, friends with those who live at The Door of Hope and it’s a thrill to watch it beginning to become a reality.

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I bought a bike a few weeks ago so that I could ride more to work and around town in general – a great feature of living somewhere like Pasadena.  But, as I was returning from the gym on my newest buddy the other day, I, or more specifically, Huffy, was struck by a car and died.  I tumbled across the hood of the car and inexplicably landed on my feet and hands without a scratch on me.  It was fairly unbelievable and I was probably lucky that I was nice and loose after having just worked out.

The guy who hit me was deeply apologetic and a few days later, gave me enough money to replace the bike. 

So, while Huffy’s time was far too short, I am please to introduce you  to my even newer family member, “Schwinn!”

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I turned 28 on Friday, March 9.  Last year was great – having a great dinner at Chili’s with some good friends and then a party where people came prepared to have fun and tell stories, and this year was another great one.

I was totally shocked when everyone at work assembled without my knowing and then managed to fool me into joining them.  They set out a variety of my favorite foods – different kinds of french fries, mint chocolate chip and ice cream, and some huge cupcakes.  Someone came up with the clever idea to serve the french fries as if they were shrimp in a cocktail glass, only with ketchup.

After work, my roommate picked me up and took me to a spa where Maria had arranged for a full-body massage – ahhhhhh.  Then it was off to Buca Di Beppo’s where I joined a number of other friends for a great meal together.

Pasadena was hosting an art night where all the local art galleries, museums, and concert halls were offering free showings and performances.  We walked to Old Town and then took a shuttle to a few different locations where we got to sample some the great artistry Pasadena has to offer.

We topped the evening off by coming back to my apartment and watching The Illusionist, which was a great movie.

So, in style, we move another year into the late twenties and I am excited to see what sorts of challenges and opportunities this next year holds.

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