2 Lines from Glory

I was listening to more sermons and playing more Tetris tonight. I actually got upset with myself playing Tetris.

You see, there is only one goal I have in Tetris that I have yet to accomplish. I have beaten the game (getting to the speed where it is impossible to move a piece all the way to the edges) by starting on every level through 18. On the original Nintendo, the highest level you can start on is 19, which is the fastest the game gets until level 29. There is actually no speed change between 19 and 28, and then 29 is impossible.

Tonight, I got two lines short. TWO LINES. I died, after starting on level 19, with 228 lines. Two more and I would have accomplished my final Tetris goal.

It won't be long.

Becoming Someone Worth Watching

It has been helpful for me throughout my life, to simply watch and observe the actions of others. Whether it is getting a hold on what parenting should look like, how to play sports, how to treat a woman, or even how to tie my shoes, watching others has been important in helping me to develop.

The same has held true at a higher level when it comes to understanding and living out my spirituality. If I neglect to mention Christ's example, I'll feel guilty, so lets get that out of the way here. His example is the paramount example which I aim to follow.

On a more practical note, being able to closely observe the life of my mentor Paul Hurckman has provided immeasurable benefit to my growth. Recent conversations with him have challenged me to be this in other's lives.

As I evaluate spirituality, especially as practiced in America, the individualness of it scares me. So many people have made spirituality something that takes place in their heads, or in their lives behind closed doors, but not something that is public, something all can see and learn from. I've been trying to understand how I might fit into that puzzle somewhere.

I don't want to come off pretending that I live a perfect spiritual life, or even that following me will get someone anywhere, but I don't want people to continue to believe that spirituality should be a private, separate from the rest of life, matter.

So, I'm striving to become someone worth watching. I don't know what that will look like, but I know that even understanding someone might be watching will give me motivation to improve on certain areas.

So I'll start tonight.

I Love God! That doesn't mean I always do a good job of putting Him first. It doesn't mean I have everything figured out. Fortunately, God is constantly at work with me.

Currently, God is helping me to see what things are worth being motivated about, what things I need to start being motivated about, and what things I can start to do less of. He is constantly challenging my laziness. I'm finding myself guilty some nights when I lay in bed and think of the few things worthwhile I did with my day. I continue to battle in my mind what it means to set proper boundaries and have "Sabbath" times while also understanding that there are things I've been called to help accomplish through God's power.

That's a start for now. Feel free to watch how God deals with my life in these areas. Feel free to question (not judge) me on how I'm spending my time. It will likely help me for you to do so.

Misguided Childhood

There are lots of ways to steer a child wrong. Whether it is the misguided direction from a parent, or the neglect, or simply the child finding their own trouble with their friends, it doesn't take much before an entire childhood has been misguided.

I fell victim to such a thing. I wasn't misguided by my parents, or my brother, or for the most part, not even my friends. I was sometimes misguided by my own mind, but that isn't the point. Their was a much more troublesome influence on my life.

Television. Not television in the, I needed to watch less of it kind of sense, but I was misguided by television by being warped into handing my life over to the direction of possibly the most heinous Hollywood figure to ever exist.

The bandage on my knee and shirt on my back go to prove, nobody should trust their kids with the Hasselhoff. Not even through the popular influence of Knight Rider. Don't let the smile fool you, this time of life obviously warped me for the worse.

Your Turn To Do Research

Why does every new reality show have a British judge or host?

Please, someone tell me. It annoys me.

That is all.

Late Night Discussions

I've been on break from classes for a week now. After the time that Jenny has gone to bed, I've been playing Tetris while I listen to sermons on my computer. I've listened to roughly 30 sermons so far this week.

One of the series I have been listening to is a church that is having many guest speakers (from within their congregation) speak about passages from the Bible that have greatly impacted their lives. The church's hope is that it will cause the rest of the congregation to allow the Bible to become more than just a book, and realize the significance that its truths can have in their lives.

I began thinking last night, if I had to preach a message on the verses that have meant the most to my life, what would they be? It doesn't take long for me to pick the verse.

"But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved." (Hebrews 10:39)

Easily the verse that has meant the most in my life. Unfortunately, I don't know what message I would preach on this verse. It so quickly became a theme verse in my life because of other things and times that it signified, that I don't think I've ever actually studied the context of the verse, nor its original meaning to its original audience.

I haven't ever done the good hermeneutical or exegetical work on this verse, yet it remains the most influential in my life. I don't necessarily feel good about this. Someday, it will have to change. That change will either force me to understand this verse better, or force me to pick a new theme verse. Only time will tell.

P.S. Even though I blogged about it, I'm not a big fan of people having "theme" or "life" verses.

Google Gadgets

I've always been impressed with the Google company. I've enjoyed most of the gadgets they have created that I have tried, so I wasn't upset in any way when they purchased Blogger (the company that runs the ".blogspot" domain).

If you use a Google account, you even get some special treats, regardless of if you have your own blog or not. From now on, if you leave a comment on mine, or someone else's blogspot blog, and you log in using your Google account as your username, it will allow you to have e-mail follow up to the posts you comment in. You simply have to check the box.

Go Google go. Keep improving fun things.

What Hurts Today?

The legs have been in good shape for a while now. They have almost forgot altogether the stress put on them from the marathon.

Unfortunately, the rest of my body isn't feeling as good.

It seems that on the way to my new goal (bench press 225) that it would have looked awfully silly to work out my chest and not the rest of my upper body, not to mention how ineffective it might be.

So this week, was the major first leg. The first two workouts for each muscle group will leave the most noticeable lasting soreness and in the last three days, chest, back, shoulders, arms and abs have all had that first workout.

I don't even like washing my hair right now as it uses most of those muscles.

Maybe I just won't shower tomorrow. Baths are from God.

Vessel of the Holy Spirit

I got to talk to one of my mentors today. These are occasions I cherish as the two most influential mentors in my life don't live in MN anymore, and the third most important has far too important of things on his plate to have a consistent meeting time with me (my assumption).

It was a good two hour meeting. The weather was even nice enough that we spent the first hour and a half at a park. Upon closing that conversation time and moving back towards a building he said something that will stick with me.

"Nate, I don't mean this to be the capstone to a conversation, or that we have to be done talking about serious things, but I want you to know, in case you haven't heard it in a while, 'I'm proud of you.' I don't know how often you get to hear it, or if you care, but you need to at least know, there is someone in Texas that cares about you."

It was weird really. I didn't even know he was in town until I ran into him by chance (literally I saw him walking while I was driving) yesterday, and he is only in town for two days. We happened to be able to meet today.

Instantly when he said "I'm proud of you" I informed him that he had just spoken his most important words of the day.

When Pappy died earlier this year, the one thing I knew I would miss most is hearing that someone was proud of me. It isn't that I don't know that others are proud of me, it was just that Pappy would say it every time he talked to me. I always heard it. It is often easier to remember the things you hear, even when you know there are countless others proud of you.

I hadn't heard anyone tell me that since Pappy died. I'll admit it. I cried a little today. It meant a lot to me. As I told Paul this, he immediately said, "then you know it couldn't have been me, it must have been the Holy Spirit. What are the chances you'd run into me yesterday and that of all the things I'd chose to say today, I'd say the exact one thing you needed to hear."

He was hard to argue with. Paul usually is. It was a wonderful afternoon for me.

An Endorsement Matter

Oprah has gotten Americans to do many different things. From what books to read, diets to try, bras to buy, countries to donate to, clothes to wear, or cars to buy. She is now entertaining the idea of publicly campaigning for her favorite Presidential Candidate.

UsaToday had an article on its site today which states that Oprah will be campaigning for Obama this presidential season.

The outcome of her endorsement is yet to be understood, as in politics, celebrity endorsements have not been of much value in the past. However, Oprah has a proven track record of moving the public to agree with her. She also reaches 49 million or so people a week.

I'll be interested to see what kinds of tactics she employs to convince others of her opinion. I'll have to do that through the news though, as I don't frequently catch her show.

Trivial or Worthwhile

Amongst the things I'm often excited to tell Jenny I learned in Seminary are many trivial Bible facts, or scholarly opinions, that will be of little use to me when I pastor. This lead Jenny to ask me "Do you find yourself learning lots of trivial facts that won't help you in the future, or do you learn more worthwhile things?"

Her questioned spawned about an hour long discussion of many of the worthwhile things I have already learned this semester, in one class. It was a great reminder that I'm properly preparing for my future.

It also pinpointed (to me) that some of my classes are a waste of my time. Oh well. They are required and i'll make it through. Fortunately, most of my classes are helping me to be a better person now, and preparing me to be a more effective pastor in the future.

Unimpressed

I got to spend a chunk of the evening watching Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel tonight as we babysat 6 kids. I have to say, I'm unimpressed.

I wasn't exactly excited about the topics that even the shows on these stations present to children. It isn't that I think kids need to be sheltered, but shows targeting kids shouldn't be teaching the values they are teaching. This has nothing to do with my religious beliefs and has everything to do with what even the news would say is a problem.

You can only read so much about students having sex more frequently, drug use starting at younger ages, and the violence in today's school and wonder why they portray these things the way they do on kids shows.

I get why they do it in adult shows. Those things sell. I just don't know why Disney or Nickelodeon has bought into it.

Thanks a lot MTV (I blame them for all of life's problems, it's convenient and fun).

Another Expedition

Tomorrow night, Jenny and I are doing the "babysitting for 6 kids" thing again. We doubt that I'll have to do any life threatening maneuvers to keep them entertained like I had to the last time.

Here is to hoping I don't need to climb any two story decks in the rain in a game of surprise the kids.

On a more exciting note, I don't have classes for the next two weeks. Though I do have a bunch of assignments to finish, and books to read, I at least get to sleep in every day. :)

Jenny may not enjoy that, but I sure will.

Elite Comparisons

Do you ever find yourself in a stage of life where you are comparing something you want to something you don't know if you need? I tend to find this is most frequent when people are buying cars.

When I was shopping for my first new car, I had test driven a couple of mini-suvs with a smaller engine than what I ended up with. I can still remember my mom telling me not to bother test driving the more expensive ones if I was happy with the slightly cheaper one, because it would be too hard to turn back. She was right. Moms have a tendency to do that.

Now, it is Bible software. I've been hoping to find a manageable Bible software to meet my Seminary and future Pastoring needs. I have been trying to find one that isn't the most expensive. That tends to mean I need a free one. There isn't a lot of middle ground with Bible software.

Unfortunately, all of them I have experimented with fall well short of the standard I feel I need, and even further from the best Bible Software out there. I continue to compare with the elite, knowing that I can't pay for the elite. I wonder if any of the others would have sufficed for me had I not ever seen the best one.

This is slightly different than cars, at least, in the fact that I tried the best Bible Software first.

Bloggers Block

Much like writer's block, I can't think of anything to write about tonight, so i'll ask Jenny for a topic or word and freewrite from there. Here goes.

She picked the word "sweater." Here comes my unedited thoughts.

Just a couple of days ago, Jenny realized that laundry should not become one of my habitual jobs. I was doing loads of whites and the second load was smaller than it could be so I grabbed an armful of light clothes to put in with it. When we went down to put those clothes in the dryer, we found out that I had put a "dry clean only" sweater in and it had gotten ruined in the wash.

I destroyed that sweater. My favorite song by the band Weezer is about destroying a sweater. To do so, you just need to pull this thread as I walk away. Weezer was the first band that I paid for concert tickets to go see. I saw them in my early high school years playing at first avenue downtown.

Whenever I picture the first avenue concert complex I can't remember Weezer and instead remember the band who opened for them and the weird video animation they had going on the screen behind them. It was like an old Japanese horror film.

I never understood why Class Sweaters got changed to lettermans jackets. I probably would have liked a sweater better, and never got a jacket, instead choosing to get a class ring. I haven't worn my class ring since high school. Do students even buy class rings anymore?

I feel like i've typed enough now, so i'm finishing this unedited, free-flowing thought of a blog. Sorry for the randomness that ends with no actual point.

Strict Policy

There aren't a lot of strict policies I live by. However, the few I live by are very important to me. Important enough that I respect those who follow them unaware as they may be.

One of these policies is my "No forwarding" policy. There are too many email forwards traveling the internet today. If you send me one, I am likely not to read it. Fortunately for me, I have waded through the consistent emailers in my circle to find whose forwards are worth my time.

My father's forwards are often worth my time. He seems to understand what will be enjoyable to me and to not forward anything stinking of a scam, a guilty sob story, a chain forward, or any potentially harmful digital material. I wish more people either followed my policy or were graced with my father's discernment.

I was lucky enough today to get one of those amusing forwards from him. It was entitled, "Why Mom Said Not to Run in the House." I was happy to see that this particular forward didn't require any more reading. It simply had two pictures:

This was the first picture and I didn't know what to think.

The second picture brought a little more clarity to the subject.

Making It Official

I have a tendency to only find motivation for some of the things I make official to the public.

I knew I would run a marathon once I posted I would on my blog.

Now starts my next physical goal.

I plan to bench press 225 pounds. For those of you who know me well, working out my upper body has been a very limited activity throughout my life as soccer put my focus solely on my lower body's development. I'll likely have to gain some weight to accomplish this goal as my current body mass won't allow me to lift that kind of weight.

I am not currently setting and end goal on this project. We'll have to see how slowly the progress comes.

I Survived

Some people thought surviving a Marathon with any kind of mobility might be the best accomplishment of October.

It was not.

Today, Jenny and I survived teaching our 1st First grade Sunday school lesson.

I was surprised by some things, while others were exactly how I expected them to be.

I'm looking forward to watching the kid's progress as they are at an age where their growth will be easy to see as improvements are often drastic at that age.

Congratulations

Jason's wedding is over. Congratulations to the both of them.

I'm too exhausted to offer anything else right now. I simply couldn't do justice to my excitement about their marriage with this little brain power.

Proof

I'm too tired to type much, so instead, here is proof I crossed the finish line of the marathon.

Now I never have to do it again.

How Much Meat?

I decided during class this afternoon that I don't think people will eat meat in heaven.

I believe that God's original plan would not have included the eating of animals, then, allowed the eating of animals, but ultimately will be restored to its original intentions.

Luckily, I feel no guilt about eating meat right now.

In fact, tomorrow night is my brother's rehearsal dinner before his wedding and I know I'll be ordering a steak.

Just curious though, anyone else not think we will eat meat (or any other thing you're willing to argue biblically) in heaven?

USAToday Article

Study: Youth see Christians as judgmental, anti-gay

By Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service

Majorities of young people in America describe modern-day Christianity as judgmental, hypocritical and anti-gay. What's more, many Christians don't even want to call themselves "Christian" because of the baggage that accompanies the label.

A new book based on research by the California-based research firm The Barna Group found that church attitudes about people in general and gays in particular are driving a negative image of the Christian faith among people ages 16-29.

"The Christian community's ability to take the high road and help to deal with some of the challenges that this (anti-gay) perception represents may be the ... defining response of the Christian church in the next decade," said David Kinnaman, Barna Group president and author of the book, UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity.
"The anti-homosexual perception has now become sort of the Geiger counter of Christians' ability to love and work with people."

The findings were based on surveys of a sample of 867 young people. From that total, researchers reported responses from 440 non-Christians and 305 active churchgoers.

The vast majority of non-Christians — 91% — said Christianity had an anti-gay image, followed by 87% who said it was judgmental and 85% who said it was hypocritical.

Such views were held by smaller percentages of the active churchgoers, but the faith still did not fare well: 80% agreed with the anti-gay label, 52% said Christianity is judgmental, and 47% declared it hypocritical.

Kinnaman said one of the biggest surprises for researchers was the extent to which respondents — one in four non-Christians — said that modern-day Christianity was no longer like Jesus.

"It started to become more clear to us that what they're experiencing related to Christianity is some of the very things that Jesus warned religious people about," he said. "Which is, avoiding removing the log from your own eye before trying to take the speck out of someone else's."
Kinnaman said some Christians — including those in the entertainment industry — preferred to call themselves "followers of Jesus" or "apprentices of Christ" because the word "Christian" could limit their ability to relate to people. Even Kinnaman, 33, described himself as "a committed Christ follower," though he has called himself a Christian in the past.

In addition to reporting on the negative statistics, Kinnaman used the book to also give advice — from himself and more than two dozen Christian leaders — on new approaches.

"Our goal wasn't simply to say here's all the problems, but to hopefully point a way forward," Kinnaman said.

"When Jesus pursued people, he was much more critical of pride and much more critical of spiritual arrogance than he was of people who were sinful. And today's Christians, if you spend enough time looking at their attitudes and actions, really are not like Jesus when it comes to that."

Megachurch pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., used the book to say he hopes the church will become "known more by what it is for than what it is against.

"For some time now, the hands and feet of the body of Christ have been amputated, and we've been pretty much reduced to a big mouth," Warren wrote. "We talk more than we do. It's time to reattach the limbs and let the church be the church in the 21st century."

Andy Stanley, senior pastor of North Point Ministries in Atlanta, suggested that churches should not focus solely on converting people, as has been the emphasis for generations.

"If we were able to rewrite the script for the reputation of Christianity, I think we would put the emphasis on developing relationships with non-believers, serving them, loving them, and making them feel accepted," he wrote.

"Only then would we earn the right to share the gospel."

The research reported in UnChristian reflected larger Barna Group studies with about 1,000 respondents as well as the specific study of young people. The sample of 440 non-Christians had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points and the sample of 305 active churchgoers had a margin of error of plus or minus 6 percentage points.

--Nate-- If any of you actually read the whole article, I'd love your responses before I give mine.

The American Idol Church

A lot of the churches that are vibrant, growing, and changing the world today are doing so because they follow the method of American Idol. Churches that are stagnant, plateaud, and doing little Kingdom work could do well to pay attention to the American Idol world we live in.

American Idol is a vastly popular television show amongst generations today. It is so because of two main principles: 1) You don't know what is going to happen. and 2) You can be a part of it.

Our churches need this. We need churches that have a vision for the future, a vision that will do great things, a vision that creates change, a vision that inspires, a vision that is so big it requires God. A vision big enough, that grasping at it demands you not actually know what is going to happen. Outside of this vision though, it has to be something that all people of the church can, and want to participate in.

If you can accomplish those two things, you are well on your way to a church that will grow, be active and change lives in a positive way. If you are lacking either of these things, your effectiveness is likely limited.

I hope to be the kind of person who doesn't always know how things are going to turn out. The kind of person who leaves room for God to move and work, but also the kind of person who is actively participating in the work that God is doing.

Sentiment to Soreness (Guest blogger edition #2)

I'm exhausted. Seven viewing sites and 26.2 miles later, I'm exhausted! In the afternoon that followed, I took a nap while Nate watched football. Today I went to work barely functional. The dazed look in my eyes only proved to coworkers I was not ready to face the tasks ahead of me. It was in those slow moving, difficult-to-focus moments I began to understand how much Nate completing the marathon and accomplishing his goal really meant to me. I hadn't realized emotionally invested I was.

Well, today his legs are sore, and my brain is sore. But I didn't run, I watched. So tonight I not only applaud my man, I also make sure the blogging gets completed because he couldn't get to the computer - even though it is a laptop.

Way to go Nate!

I'm Very Sore

At the expo yesterday, where we had to go, they had a panel of people to talk to first time marathon runners. Jenny and I went.

One of the things they said was that for every second you run faster than the pace you are intending, it will add up to minutes by the end of the marathon.

I started the day with a pace group, a runner who runs only to help other people keep a steady pace. Our first split was at three miles and she immediately apologized. She had a watch malfunction and ran us 1:53 seconds per mile faster than we were supposed to be running.
Those definitely caught up with me.

Fortunately, heat, muscle cramps and pacing withstanding, I finished. I've got the shirt and medal (along with witnesses) to prove it.

Life goal accomplished.

What's Wrong With Me?

Tomorrow will begin with lots of things that aren't normally part of my day, and I don't know how they ever became a good idea in my head.

Starting off, I have to wake up early. Real early. Like, I'm supposed to be in downtown Minneapolis at 7:00 early.

The second makes the first even worse. I'm going to eat breakfast. I rarely eat breakfast. Tomorrow, however, it actually will be the most important meal of my day, solely because of reason three.

At 8:00 in the morning, I'm going to begin running a marathon. If all goes well, sometime within the next 6 hours I will be 26.2 miles away from where I began, with nothing accomplished except a lot of sweating. I'll get a medal, a t-shirt, and the joy of knowing that I'll never have to run a marathon again. If after 6 hours, I haven't completed the required distance, I just might have to put myself through it again.

Here is to hoping I can't walk Monday morning because I finished, not that I can't walk because I'm hurt and didn't finish.

Kids, Brush Your Teeth

Last night was Jason's bachelor party. We struggled for a long time with deciding on the kind of outfit we would make him wear. Our own levels and lines of what would be appropriate came into quesiton. We had found some outfits that would easily be the funniest and most humiliating, but were across even our lines for what we would be able to take him out in public wearing. So the debate began, most humiliating outfit, or outfit we could humiliate him in the most.

We decided the second.

Here are some quotes from the night...

"sir, you will remind me to brush my teeth three times a day so I never have to see you again."

"Look kids, the tooth fairy."

That's right, our adult male tooth fairy was present with us last night as we ate dinner. As we waited for the rest of our party at the restaurant, one man, leaving to smoke a cigarrette caught view of Jason. He didn't then go smoke. Instead, he walked back into the dining area of the restaurant and grabbed kids from random tables so as to bring them to get pictures with the tooth fairy.

Here are some visuals from our night.

The nightmare began here:

And continued at his old workplace.

Here was our friend (Don) who found lots of kids for us.

And some of his kid.

And for those still waiting for more, here is the transformation process.

Serving Out of Boredom

I simply couldn't listen to 10 more minutes of discussion on something I have so little concern about in class this morning. As a result, I decide to create a worksheet for myself to make the time spent doing the homework for said class much more efficient.

I then spent one of the breaks from class printing out copies of that worksheet for all of my classmates so that they could be more efficient as well. They were all gracious for my act after I had completed it which made my stature in the class increase greatly.

Sometimes boredom is the best motivator for serving others.

Monopoly Time

McDonald's monopoly started again yesterday. I have had to show restraint to not go across the street and start playing in the last two days.

Fortunately, Thursday's I have two classes and McDonald's is the only feasible place to eat nearby (i'm biased) so i'll probably win the million tomorrow.

Good news is, if i do win that million, Jenny promised she'd eat a Big Mac Meal in celebration (she doesn't eat McDonald's, EVER!).

Why 26.2 Miles for a Marathon?

The modern Athens Marathon commemorates the run of the soldier Pheidippides from a battlefield at the site of the town of Marathon, Greece, to Athens in 490 B.C.

Legend has it that Pheidippides delivered the momentous message "Niki!" ("victory"), then collapsed and died.

The Athens Marathon is recognized as the original marathon course and it's the same course used in the 2004 Olympics held in Athens.

The first modern Olympic games were held in 1896 in Greece.

The legend of Pheidippides was honored by a 24.85 mile (40,000 meters) run from Marathon Bridge to Olympic stadium in Athens.

Athens Stadium, the finish line for the Athens Marathon stands on the site of a stadium used in classical times.

Spiridon Louis, a Greek postal worker, won the first modern Marathon with a time of 2 hours, 58 minutes, 50 seconds, an average pace of 7:11 minutes per mile.

At the 1908 Olympic Games in London, the marathon distance was changed to 26.2 miles to cover the ground from Windsor Castle to White City Stadium, with the 2.2 miles added on so the race could finish in front of royal family's viewing box. This added two miles to the course, and is the origin of the Marathon tradition of shouting "God save the Queen!" (or other words relating to the Queen) as mile post 24 is passed.

Jenny's Apology

You might remember a couple of days ago that "we" volunteered for something, that being, teaching our small group the first section of Hebrews.

Jenny ended up with a headache tonight, so a lot of the planning was more productive from my active brain, than her "brain on the fritz."

So, if you have any questions about the purpose, author, recipients, use of the Old Testament Scriptures, or first chapter of Hebrews, now would be as good of time as any to ask them.