My Worship Revolution

Several months ago I got a friendly letter in the mail.  it was the friendly city of Los Alamitos informing me that I had been caught on tape running a red light.  I saw the picture, and I was making a right turn. 
I said  out loud, "This is a picture of me turning right.  I can do that.  Who’s to say I didn’t stop first?"  Then my wonderful wife pointed out the part where it said you could watch your video online.  I checked it out.  Yeah…busted.

So, it was an expensive ticket, and now I have to spend all day tomorrow in traffic school.  I decided to go the comedy traffic school route, so I’ll be listening to some poor struggling comedian tell bad jokes for 8 hours (8:30am – 4:30pm – 45 minutes for lunch).  My good friend Keith got a ticket at the exact same intersection, so at least we get to go through it together, which will hopefully make it a bit more fun.

And the best part…I called the hotel that’s hosting it, and they offer free wifi.  So stop by tomorrow and maybe you can share in some of our misery with us!

Here’s the video we showed this past weekend when announcing baptisms.  It’s been making the rounds on the internet…I’ve seen it on several blogs recently.  Check it out:

So yeah, we’re having baptisms this next Sunday, and there’s still time to sign up for the baptism class on Saturday!!  C’mon, jump in!
 

   


OK, so I’ve had this blog for almost two years now and in that time I have not once had a post with any sort of political nature to it, but there’s a first time for everything.  I guess that’s because I am fairly opinionated and interested in politics, but it is such a hot button and truth be told, I don’t typically care enough to deal with that here.  I recognize that I can’t ever count on politics to really make a difference in peoples lives, because only Jesus can.  Also, keep in mind as you read that what I share here are simply my own thoughts on things…period.

But tonight I just felt like I had to post because honestly, I feel burdened.  My heart hurts over this situation.  If you don’t know anything about it, check out the link, or if you’d rather not deal with it just move on from this post and I’ll find a funny video for the next one or something.  Today these guys turned themselves over to authorities to serve sentences of 11 and 12 years.  Something seems unfair about that to me.  Do I know all the facts…I’m sure the answer is no.  Perhaps there was some negligence on their part beyond what I’m aware of.  But it just doesn’t seem right.  Two guys put their lives on the line everyday to protect our borders, regardless of how you feel about our border policies.  They try to make the best decision they can at a crucial moment.  The perpetrator?  A man entering our country with 750 pounds of marijuana.  That’s worth over one million dollars on our streets.  He gets spotted and runs from authorities.  He escapes after being shot in the arse on his way out.

Now that man, a known and continuing drug smuggler, is pardoned.  He is treated in a U.S. hospital.  He is now suing our government for millions of dollars.  And the two men who caught him?  Their wives will go to sleep without their husbands for the next 10+ years.  Their kids will experience the most critical years of their lives with fathers behind bars.  And we have an administration, one that I admit I’ve been very supportive of thus far, that could pardon these guys but has remained silent.

I admit, I don’t understand.  Maybe there’s a lot I don’t know.  I hope so.  Cause it makes me sad.  It is one of the very few times in my life I’ve ever sat here and felt like there’s really nothing I can do to make a difference.  I know that part will pass before I wake up tomorrow, but right now I feel slightly helpless and hopeless.  I’m disappointed in our systems and wonder if they will ever get any better.  I believe they won’t.  But I guess that even as I write this, it serves as a reminder that we live in such an imperfect world.  And it’s not my home.  I’ll do my best to trust in God.  To remember that he is sovereign.  Even when it doesn’t make sense.  But in the mean time, it makes me sad.  Alright…that’s enough of that I guess.  Now back to our regularly scheduled programs…

Check out this video of Stephen Colbert explaining the new AT&T name change of Cingular wireless and the amazing success of the U.S. anti-trust efforts:

(HT: CreativeProcrastination)

That’s right my friends, the long awaited return of Jack Bauer from the torturous land of China.  So yes, the greatest show ever to be shown on television has returned for another season.  I know this technically happened on Sunday, but several of us have church Sunday night.  So, we DVR’d Sundays 2 hours and tonight 11 of us (pictured above) gathered for a 4 hour season premier extravaganza at Rick‘s house.

This was a gathering for the 24 hardcore faithfuls and that’s it!  We barbecued, ate together, and then watched some good ole fashioned butt-kicking by my main man Mr. Bauer.  i think this is definitely what Paul had in mind when he said do not forsake the gathering of the saints.  This is true Christian fellowship.

***24 Spoiler Alert***
Anyway, good times.  Here’s a not so candid re-enactment of our utter shock and bubbling over of emotions when Jack offed his and our good friend Curtis:

RIP Curtis.  As usual, it was for the greater good.  So even though my Chargers may have choked hard this weekend, I can at least be rest assured that Jack won’t let me down, and now my Monday nights can once again be filled with action, suspense, and terrorist whoopin.  Life is good again.  And i can watch it live now cause I’m done with school!

So this past Thursday, January 11th was Rachel’s 25th birthday.  I was trying to think of a fun place to go for the day and started to realize how limited my options are now with a baby.

Nonetheless, it was a great day to take off of work and just spend hangin together as a family.  We had breakfast together, went to Balboa Island, had some dinner, and caught a movie.  It really was just great to be together.  And we caught it all on tape, too.  Check it out here if you wanna:

I am so thankful for my wife.  Without her I’d pretty much be screwed.  She helps me be at least kinda organized.  She chills me out a bit.  She makes me look good.  She really holds our house and our family together.  Sometimes I wake up, look at her, and realize I am so lucky that she fell in love with me for some reason.  Your amazing honey!   Happy Birthday (again…a few days later)!!

Yup…my good friend Chris has joined the married club.  You know, the ask permission before you go out club.  We had an absolute blast at his wedding last week.  I won’t bother with pics…instead I’ll just send you here to see some.

The wedding was beautiful and it was lots of fun dancin with all our friends at the reception.  Until…the following song came on.  This is one of the few songs that you WILL NOT catch me on the dance floor for.  Check it out:

Haha!!  So I was trying to decide what I thought about the whole iPhone thing when I read this hilarious post by Anne Jackson.  Go read it.  It is well worth reading and so true (sorry friends who fall into the category she wrote about…which I guess kinda includes me now.)

So since it includes me now, I guess I might as well finish with my thoughts.  Yeah, it looks really cool and all, and I haven’t checked it out extensively, and I really am a recently converted Mac fan, but I have a few concerns:

• Touch screen – cool.  But I’ve seen how scratched up and jacked up some of the iPod touch screens have gotten.  Will that happen with this too?
• Also, a friend pointed out that it may seem really cool till the first time you hold it up to your dome only to pull it away to find it all greasy and oily.  Then you try to wipe it off and it just gets smudged and smeared.
• It’s only available with Cingular, no doubt the crappiest cell service on the planet.  Cingular definitely got the better deal in that partnership.
• And of course, for the amount I’d have to pay for the phone I could get like 2 iPods, a really nice snowboard with maybe enough left over for a day or two of lift passes, about 60 lunches with friends (30 if i want to be nice and buy), or half a tank of gas for my truck I haven’t sold yet (Just kidding – the mileage really isn’t that bad and you or your friend or your brother-in-law’s third cousin really want to buy my truck).

Or based on that last point, maybe deep down I’m just ridiculously jealous that I won’t be able to have one (of course I don’t want one if I have to go back to Cingular.)  Of course, if I ever get one I’ll just recant all of that, or just delete the post.  POOF – evidence gone.

…like crap.

So it’s finally 2007.  (Yeah…like 5 days ago, I know!)  I’m definitely ready for a new year.  A chance to start fresh I guess.  It seems like God is all about new beginnings and fresh starts.  I heard a great podcast today with Chris Tomlin talking about his album "See The Morning" and how God has something special about the morning throughout scripture…the dawn of a new day, the light piercing through the darkness.

Now I’ve never been a fan of New Years Resolutions.  They’re just ridiculous.  But this year, I did decide that it would be a good time to sit down with my wife and really assess where we’re at and put some new goals in place for the next year and beyond.  When we first got married we set some goals.  We did a sort of "playoff system" with our goals, picking a couple spiritual, physical, financial, educational, etc. and pitting them against each other till we had the top couple goals.  Our #1 goal as a couple was for me to get my Bachelors.  I completed my majors work last month and with a couple of random G.E.’s I’ll have the degree in May, so that one can finally be checked off.

So this time, I found this great message by Mark Driscoll on Reverse Engineering at a blog I’ve been following for a while.  He has some great stuff or really thinking through priorities, setting some goals, and working backwards from where you want to be at some point in the future.  I highly recommend for anyone to take the time to check it out.  I listened to it once on my own and once with Rachel, and I’m really looking forward to refocusing our lives in the next week or two.  Right off the bat there’s a few things that I know I personally need to refocus on and make a priority:

1. Date Nights
2. Sabbath
3. Alone time with Jesus

I can’t wait to see what sorts of other stuff comes up as we sit down and do this together.  I know God is doing something good in me right now.  How about you?  What does your 2007 look like?  Where do you need to refocus this year?