Blue Like Jazz

I'm reading this book called Blue Like Jazz and it's pretty sweet. I'd recomend it to anyone. Yesterday I read a conversation in it between the author and a friend that broke open my old and dusty perspective on repentence and forgiveness:

" ...I mean the idea that you want to confess. I think that God is wanting a relationship with you and that starts by confessing directly to Him. He is offering forgiveness."
"You are not making this easy, Don. I don't exactly believe I need a God to forgive me of anything."
"I know. But that is what I believe is happening. Perhaps you can see it as an act of social justice. The entire world is falling apart because nobody will admit they are wrong. But by asking God to forgive you, you are willing to own your own crap."

Forgiveness is an act of social justice. I like that a lot. He talks a lot (so far at least, I've not finished it yet) about how easy it is to protest stuff we don't like but fail to look inwardly at our own broken selves:

"I think every conscious person, every person who is awake to the functioning principles of our reality, has a moment where he stops blaming the problems of the world on a group, on humanity and authority, and starts to face himself. I hate this more than anything. This is the hardest principle within Christian spirituality for me to deal with. The problem is not out there; the problem is the needy beast of a thing that lives in my chest..."

http://www.donaldmillerwords.com/index.php

Here's to you kid portrait photographers of the world

I feel bad for those poor folks who have to take pictures of young kids for parents who come in with great aspirations of beautiful pictures of their perfect kids. We went in today and our daughter was off the wall. She was afraid, crying, and clingling to us. Then there was our 2 month old son who just laid there happy as ever. So to humor us she starts taking pictures of Silas hoping to intice Brek to hop on in. 10 minutes later the wife is sitting under the backdrop sheet trying to hold them. Brek looked at the lady a few times but by then Silas was sick of it and scowling and crying. The lady didn't even pretend to be patient. She sighed over and over and rolled her eyes constantly. I don't think it helped either that today was the last day to take pictures if you wanted to have them back before Christmas. Of course we're sitting there apologizing and telling her of course our kids are never usually like this.

Riiiiight. Not like every parent with their crazy kids not sitting still has tried to sell that one, too. So we looked at the few pictures she tried to take and there was no way for her to even pretend like some of them were good. It was hilarious. She was like, "Well.... maybe you could reschedule and come back another time." No attempt to even remotely sugar coat it at all.

So we took about a 15 minute break and tried again with another photographer. After another fiasco with the same stupid baby sounds and props to make them laugh, we got one decent picture. I hope that those people make some good money, because they sure didn't earn it today with our cupon for a $8.95 picture package.

They will know we are Christians by our video games

Here is a link to a radio bit about a new video game stemming from the Left Behind books. It's an interview that my uncle in England was a part of. He always has great perspectives.

Left Behind goes interactive

My leg or the boat?

I've started to help out with the youth group at our church recently. I'm excited to be back into the Wednesday night youth meeting setting. My assigned task is to be a small group leader for the 6th grade boys. They kept telling me that these boys are a handful and as a youth staff they're still trying to find the best way to work with them. But I'm up for the challenge and have gone for a few weeks now. The first night was game night and we just played dodgeball. It was 6th graders vs. the world and we owned the gym. Well, not really, but I did manage to take a crippling hit to the bid'ness. It hurt. This week we were talking about worry and what Jesus said in Matthew 6. I thought I was doing well, really getting these guys to think about stuff and stay on task a little bit. This one kid just out of the blue was like, "Hey I have a question!" "Right on, man," I say, "Let's hear it!" He says in all seriousness: "If you were stuck on a desert island, would you eat your leg or your boat first?"

Maybe I'm not challenging these guys enough. When I was in Loveland one of my guys was lamenting over the fact he couldn't find a job that provided good benefits. I was confused about why a 15 year old kid would need a job with benefits. So I sarcastically asked if he was looking for some good dental or a health plan... to which he responded, "No, I want a job where I can get free rentals or free food while I'm working."

Perhaps I'm losing the teenage perspective. You can't even eat a boat, unless it was made of cheese or something.

The New Me

In recent days my wife has commented over and over that a lot of what I say seems to be directly out of my dad's mouth. It happens frequently. Very frequently. It's all completely common sense stuff that if she would just listen to and we could put into practice, our lives would be greatly blessed. She seems to think it's funny.

I just never realized how truly GENIUS my dad is.