Demands on a "Pastor"

People are comfortable asking you some of the strangest things when you are a "pastor."

Today, I was having coffee with someone and they began asking me if some of the things they thought might be true about some misconceptions of prayer were accurate.

The conversation progressed and they actually said, "If you were to be used by God and the Holy Spirit as His voice to clearly tell me something about prayer right now, what would it be?"

These are the kinds of interesting conversations you get to have with people at coffee shops when you are a young adults pastor.

This meeting was not set up to be about prayer, or counseling, or really, anything more than social, but ended with this line of questioning.

Fun times, I truly love my job.

Endings are Important

At the recommendation of Mrs. B. I read "Peace Like a River" by Leif Enger over the last few days.

If this book had been 299 pages, I would have given it a very high rating, thinking the only thing that need be adjusted in it is the age of one of the characters.

The story is well written and the characters well described and built, except that one isn't believable based solely on their age. Had the 9 year old been 17, the book would be excellent...at least for 299 pages.

The book happens to be 311 pages though, and the last 12 were easily my least favorite. The ending seemed abrupt and to not fit with the general pace and progression of the story. Unfortunate for the masterpiece that could have been.

I still enjoyed the story, and liked the book overall, but it could have been so much better if the ending were as well crafted as the rest of the story.

Don't know when I'll read my next novel, as I've got a bunch of books for work still lined up, but it was a nice break.

The Silly Flu

With how many people I know and have been around that ended up getting or had the flu, I'm surprised that I haven't come down with it this year.

I've always had pretty fortunate luck with my immune system, but maybe that just balances out the physical injuries i've piled up over the days in place of the internal ones.

Here is to hoping that I make it through the rest of the flu season without it.

1 Week

Jenny and I just finished the dvds for season 7 of "24." Though i've watched all of them without commercials, when you add in the special features and the season I watched most of for a second time, I believe I have spent a week of my life watching 24.

I have had seasons take a couple of months to finish, all the way down to a marathon session of watching an entire season back to back in 1 day.

It has been a fruitless week of my life, but most of the time enjoyable.

Now on to reading the novel recommended first "Peace Like a River" which I am about a third of the way through.

1 Down

Only the most important fantasy football game is over. It was a victory.

The other 2 are still being contested, one that I should win, and one that will be too close to call right now.

Here is to hoping I can go 3-0 with my teams this week.

Now, back to watching the U2 concert being streamed live on youtube.

Head Above Water

I just couldn't get my head above water today at work.

I was on pace for a great day, until I did the practice run of my message for the evening at 2:00 and didn't like it. It wasn't that I thought it was a useless message, or that I hadn't prepared enough, just that when I practiced through it, I felt there was probably something more useful I could say than parts of that message.

So I put myself in a funk for the rest of the day, only had about half an hour or so of time to tweak the message before giving it (lots of meetings right before the service) and didn't have time to run through it again after making major tweaks.

Overall, I taught/spoke/preached for 35 minutes tonight. About 7-10 of those minutes were from the originally prepared sermon.

That being said, it went better than I thought it might.

Yay for the Holy Spirit.

Nephew 3

Jenny got the phone call at 2:30 this morning that her presence was requested to house sit until grandma showed up to take Luke, so Kristi and Tony could start heading to the hospital.

Then, early in the 7:00 hour, our 3rd Nephew was born.

Jesse Daniel Hooper born this morning. He's a cute one, but only likes to open one eye at a time.

Looking forward to learning his personality and watching him grow.

Congratulations Tony and Kristi.

A Good Novel

I want to read a Novel.

Someone should recommend a good one to me.

I won't offer any classifications, but assume I have typical male taste and am not interested in something like a Jane Austin favorite. Nothing against her books, just not the place my mind wants to retreat to for pleasure.

Something action/drama/suspense is fine. Something with life lessons is fine as well.

Please recommend.

Don't Know If I Like This

The heat has been on a bunch of days in October.

The heat isn't supposed to be on in October.

Somebody give me fall.

Mushy Mind

After awaking this morning a little before 7:00 to get ready and head to the church, then preach two services followed by leading a small group leaders training, my mind became mush.

At least I feel that those things all went well.

I'm thankful that I got to just come home and spend the rest of the day on the couch. I had no ability to do much else and people hitting each other around an odd shaped ball and Jack Bauer saving the world again are both things that help you relax if your mind is mushy.

Google Wave

If you read this and have some sort of ability to send me a google wave invitation, I'd be happy with that.

Anyone got to play with it yet?

Sleepy Season

I wonder if I get the urge to sleep more when it is cold out?

The last couple of days I have been ready to go to bed earlier than usual. It doesn't make me willing or able to get up any earlier, I just have wanted more sleep.

Do we go through more "sleepy" seasons?

I got 12 hours of sleep last night, but was ready for bed again before being awake for 12 hours since I've been awake.

Oh well, I'll grab it while the opportunity exists....

Goodnight.

Lows and Highs

Low Point of the day...

Realizing the garage door opener was broken and needed to be replaced.

High Point of the day...

Coming into the warm house and taking a hot shower after spending a chunk of the evening in the garage with cold hands replacing said garage door opener.

Too Much Material

So I was given a set of verses to preach from this Sunday. I was told when they were given to me that I need not use the entire set, but should find something within those verses to build my teaching from.

As I've begun doing so, I've probably gathered two hours worth of teaching material so far, and don't feel finished.

The hardest part is always cutting down the material, but I've never had so much I could say in one set of verses before.

The Hunt

I had been tasked with taking care of a wasp problem we had. We had seen some flying up part of our siding, and then killed 10 or so in our basement that would be found walking on the floor. Small ones, looking like they were recently hatched.

I knew the next trip to Home Depot would include some spray.

On Friday, dad and I were preparing to make a trip there, so we went to measure something that was in the basement to get a replacement part. In the process of doing that, we disturbed some wasps, killed 4 or 5 and say 7 more that were now flying around the basement. We closed doors to keep them contained and headed to buy some spray.

Upon arriving home, we began the hunt. We found about 13 or so where we thought they would be and sprayed them. Then we turned our attention to where we thought they would be coming from and sprayed there.

Thus began our hunt. Over the next hour or so, we developed a system of drawing them out and killing them. In that time, only 3 got aggressive and flew at us, but each of those was swatted out of mid air with a fly swatter to then be stepped on.

We tallied 118 kills until we were satisfied that there weren't many left.

Saturday, we destroyed the hive, rid ourselves of all carcasses, and caulked the hole they had flown in to begin with.

It was a good hunt. 118 deaths, no stings.

Long Workday Thursday...

Lots of hours at work today. Not much energy left.

Love doing things I find worth it and fulfilling with most of my time, but am spent after doing them for that long.

Need good sleep and relaxing weekend.

Hard Candy Medicine

When I get sore throats that aren't hurting bad, but annoying, I often don't get medicine. Instead, I just buy hard candy (usually CreamSavers) and allow eating them to coat my throat with sugary syrupy goodness which eliminates the pain.

Today, I went to get some, but Walgreens didn't have the CreamSavers I was looking for so I ended up with the Old Man Candy of Werthers Originals. Caramel goodness has been in my mouth most of the day.

Time at Work...

45 minutes of my time spent at work today was describing the different level of play in all the international soccer leagues.

Comparing the differences of Spanish, Italian, English, and German leagues, their level of play depth of leagues, and age of recruitment compared to the MLS in America.

It was an easy 45 minutes of work to remain entertained while be asked lots of questions from a parent who has a student embarking upon college soccer and is just being opened up to the vast global soccer world.

Glad I could offer him some help.

Sticky Smells

Can someone tell me why certain smells stick more pungently than others?

Like, why is it that when I put my hat on this morning, it still smelled like the campfire from 2 days ago?

Or why will the clothes I wore to a meeting this morning smell like coffee shop for a couple of days?

Why aren't all the smells picked up equally by our items and carried throughout?

Weekend Whirlwind

Camping in the cold and rain was far less uncomfortable than expected. I had mentally prepared for constant showers and blistering cold, so was fine with the spotty drizzle and only mildly chilly temperatures.

But I also got some cool news right before the trip. While loading up at the church on Friday, the Senior Pastor pulled me into the office to ask me if I wanted to preach both of the Sunday Morning services in two weeks (October 18th). I'm excited for that opportunity.

Then, fantasy football was really weird. I had two games it clearly looked like I should win, and one that would be close. The close one being the one I wanted to win the most. By the end of the night, we should clearly win the important one, I'll clearly lose one, and one close one will depend on how a defense performs in the Monday Night Game that seems pretty important in this area with all the Favre drama.

Colts are 4-0, that's the only team that matters.

Uh OH

It is 2:54 a.m.

Jenny and I are just now going to bed. She still has to work early, and then we are off to fun camping in the rain.

But we do enjoy having late night conversations about lots of fun things.