Christmas!!!

I thought I would post a
couple of pics from Christmas Eve. One is Erica, and our little chickens that we had for dinner. It looks like she already ate one of the legs. We have a habit of taking pictures of food. I guess we'll remember them that way. On the right is the Americana Christmas picture, which may be our Christmas card picture
for next year...you never know.

Christmas Eve was an exhilerating day as my first year in ministry revved up for all of the glory of Jesus' birth. After five services, two sermons and Christmas at home between two of the evening services, I was exhausted, but had not experienced such an amazing Christmas like it.





On Christmas Day, we headed over to the great state of Wisconsin to share the day with Erica's family. It was a great opportunity to snap a family picture with all four generations, ages 93 to 7 months old!

I love/hate the internet/technology!

I am becoming increasingly convinced that technology has both a saintly and satanic side to it. It seems that every device or website that I discover and fall in love with (i.e. cell phone, wireless Internet, MySpace, Blogger, NY Times, YouTube, etc..) it will eventually turn on me. I was once naively convinced that technology was supposed to make our lives easier, more streamlined. I am no longer convinced. I think instead, perhaps technological devices have been created in order to unnecessarily raise our blood pressure, so that the pharmaceutical companies make more money and the ad agencies that produce all those crazy commercials get more famous (although I don't know how famous the actors for the Erectile Dysfunction commercials are going to get). It all may just be a conspiracy. Or, maybe not...

Immediately preceding this writing I spent the last hour and a half trying to convert this very blog over to the new "Google Blogger". Yes, I fear there has been another cyberspace corporate merge. I love Google, but I am waiting for them to get rights to implant little microchips in babies as the exit the womb. (I hope they will give me credit for that idea when the deal goes down.) Alright (did you know that "alright" is not a word?), back to technology. Three weeks ago I saw that I could change my blog over to a new and improved version of Blogger and so I did. I'm a sucker for new and improved things. When I did my blog didn't show up, and I got a message that they were unable to convert my blog over at this time, but I should check back later. Three weeks later, nothing. So, I go on with the old version, pissed really that I can't get in on this new and improved thing, with all the great special features. It looks like I should be able to convert over at some other time, Google wants all of their bloggers on the new system asap. I think instead, I will be a hold out. Maybe in 20 years, I will be the only one on the original Blogger system, just to prove my point. I could never hold a grudge against a person I knew for that long, but I imagine I could against a machine. Who knows.

On the bright side of technology, I finally entered the world of MySpace in the last couple of weeks. It is one incredible world! I really shouldn't be so amazed by it. But I can't help but be because when I created my account less than three weeks ago there were over 131,000,000 signed up. In that short time, there are now a whopping (drum role please...) 142,000,000 people on this crazy structure! You can find almost anyone under the age of 40 in there. I think it is great!

No matter your technological persuasions, just don't be naive to the fact that it is the best and worst resource we have. Cheers!

The Way We Speak Affects Our Relationships

What difference do words make anyway?!
I have been thinking a lot about language lately. You see, I just got out of seminary and I realize that I have been tooled with a particular language that is really only relavent in seminary. What conception do most people have when they hear terms like apocalyptic, liturgical, perichoresis, grace, forgiveness, the peace of Christ, eschatology, or even theology? My observation is that not too many people have a real strong concept of these terms at all, nor should the terms matter so much at all. What matters is what they mean. After living in the People of Hope ethos for the past three months, I am starting to see the light on the power of language; not the kind of language that includes multiple $100 words, but the type of language that strikes at the core of a community's being and therefore transforms community into a new way of being. I am not saying that I have found the keys that unlocks this treasure box of meaning, but I am starting to see the treasure that lies inside. My point is, people listen to others who speak in a way that communicates that the speaker cares that the people understand what that one is saying; not just that the speaker looks smart.

I think I have spent the better part of the last decade trying to speak so that people think that I am smart. Unfortunately, and admittedly, I don't sense that I cared as much if people understood me as much as I cared that they respected my intelligence. What arrogance!

As I continue to be shaped by this amazing community of people here in Rochester, I am finding that although I was a bit leary of it at first, there is no more powerful language than a language of love to shape how people interact with one another. After studying the Bible, and thinking about Jesus for quite some time in school, you would think that I would be a quicker learner....guess not. This langauge can be learned in formal educational institutions, but it may be more likely found and experienced in communities who see their mission as love for one another and those they encounter because they have experienced Christ's love first hand.