From Christmas with Love...

Firstly, for those of you who don't know, in later September Molly and I found out that we’re going to have a baby! Since I can’t see any of your faces I can only assume that you are jumping up and down with joy for us. Even if your not I chose to believe that you are.

Molly’s due date is May 31st but I guess she thinks she is going to be late so the baby will probably be born early June. At this point we don’t know the gender of the baby but we are pretty excited either way. I for one, am torn between hoping for a boy or a girl, for me I am excited about both. However, Molly really wants a little boy first, in order to fill the “older brother” role for any future children.

Right now Molly is in her 16th week so we should get to learn the gender in early January, at least we’re going to have Molly’s doctor tells us the gender because I have never been able to make anything out on those ultrasounds.

Now while I am excited about having a child and I do look forward to future Christmas' with the little guy or gal, I have been feeling a bit subdued lately. With the onset of Christmas I have been reflecting on how our world views and treats Christmas. The message of Jesus seems to be increasingly drowned out in the noise of shopping malls and ipods and the images of Santa and Reindeer become offensive to people because of their overt religious symbolism. (Question: When did Santa and his Reindeer become religious symbols of Christmas and of Jesus?)

As I look around the world and I see "Christian" nations where people live their whole lives not connecting Christmas with Jesus. Did you know that only 6% of the population of Great Britain attends church regularly? And only about 40% regularly attend church in the U.S. but even here people are forgetting. It broke my heart when I read the statistic about Great Britain, to think of all those people who see Christianity as a tradition as a label and not something you live out.

I wonder, what kind of world is my child being born into? When I look at "Christian" nations I see something that scares me, its not hate, fear, or even encroachment of other religions, what scares me is that faith in Jesus has become irrelevant. Its not that people hate Jesus or Christianity its that people are indifferent towards Jesus. People don't even know what Jesus is about in order to hate him or love him, rather he has been replaced with Santa.

Wow, this is kind of depressing huh? Well I just wanted to share something I have been reflecting on. I hope you all have a great Christmas! May the Lord Jesus bless you and keep you!

Its true...

For those of you who I was telling about the movie Fanboys, I found it. I think I found the first movie to see next year.

Two Schools and a Myspace page walked into a Bar...

Well I know that it has been awhile since I blogged but for awhile now I haven't felt like there was much to blog about. So you all have my deepest apologies for not filling you in sooner on the life and times of Micah and Molly! Well now that I have the apology out of the way I can continue with the update. Well for all of you who don't know Molly and I did end up buying a house (see last blog entry for more information) we ended up moving in at the beginning of April and so we now have a few mortgage payments under our belts only 356ish more to go. We really love the house and are excited to be here, we still feel sometimes that its all just a dream and we are going to have to move back into our old house that was about 1/3 the size of our new house. Not only are thankful that we don't have to move I am sure that Tre' and Kelly and thankful too cause I don't think they would want us to move in with them since they are the current residence of our old house.

Since we moved to Vancouver my commute to work had become very stressful since I took me anywhere from 45 minute to 1.5 hours to get to work depending on traffic. So after much thought I decided to look for a job closer to home. I applied for a few jobs at one of the school districts here in Vancouver at first I didn't hear anything but finally one of the High Schools I applied at called me in for an interview. They seemed to like me cause I had just gotten home from the interview when the Vice Principal called me to see if I could come in for a second interview the next day. Well the short of it is I was offered the job doing basically the same kinda thing I was doing this last year working with High Schoolers that have behavior problems only this year I will be working at a regular High School rather then a treatment center. Quiting my old job was one of the hardest things I have had to do, I really did enjoy my old job but in the end Molly and I both felt that the job in Vancouver would be better opportunity with longterm goal in mind.

Now as if working at a school wasn't enough I have decided to go back to school for my MAT (Master of Arts in Teaching). I am going to do a part-time program at Concordia University in Portland, the whole program will take 22 months to complete but once I am done I will have my teaching license and will be able to be a teacher rather then just an assistant. I just had the orientation at the school last night and I came away pretty excited about the whole thing, I met some of the people who will be in my cohort (basically the people who I will have all my classes with for the next 22 months). All in all I am looking forward to the program but part of me is already ready to be done. Is that a bad sign?

Now on a final note, I wanted everyone who might care to know that after much avoidance and bashing of Myspace I have finally given into the social pressure of our time and created a myspace page you can now find me at http://www.myspace.com/micahtown While I don't think I will be doing much blogging there it is a good spot to send me messages and such. I joined myspace simply so that I would be able to see friends pages and maybe get re-connected with old friends. Now for all the big updates and deep thoughts of mine keep coming back here to my blog!

Well thats all for now...

When a little Change isn't Enough!

Some Changes in life come very fast and you don't even realize they are coming. For Molly and me this is how are lives have been for the last month or so. After Christmas we were enjoying how our lives were going, nothing big was going on, everything was status quo. However, that was not going to last; while we had been at my parents house over Christmas my father asked Molly to work for him. Now he has done this before but each time he did he wanted us to move to Reno but this time he told he that she could work from home. So once we were home we prayed about it and were a little overwhelmed because we knew that this was a big change. So Molly finally decided that this would be a good opportunity and so she agreed to take the job.

Now if that had been all to the story I would have stopped typing and you could have continued upon your way but this isn't all so keep reading. After she took the job we realized two things; our current house is not really bug enough for her to have a proper office area to work, and that with this new job we could probably afford a house. So we decided to start looking into buying a home, we decided that while we love living in Oregon we would get more house for the money (and save money with no income tax) if we moved to Vancouver. So not only did we deicide to move but to move to a different state! So we met with a mortgage guy and got a Realtor and last Sunday we found a house we really like in our price range. It was heads and shoulder above any other house we had seen and it was really nice. So we decided to make an offer on it and after a little negotiating the offer was accepted and we had the home inspection yesterday! Now we just wait on the money and we could be moving into our new house by the middle of March. Oh did I mention that we have been doing all this while Molly has been gone during the week, for the last 3 weeks she has been flying to Reno for training at her new job. So she flys down on Sunday and comes back on Friday. It has just been crazy!

Here are some pictures of the house; now keep in mind that the current owners are still living there so all their stuff will be gone but you can at least get some ideas:

Change

Well it has been sometime since I have updated my blog and now I risk the possibility that no one will read this because you all assume that I have given up on blogging. Well for the record I updated for so long because of two things; being lazy and not really knowing what to say. However, my life has changed since my last blog entry and some of you only get "Micah Updates" via this blog so I felt that today was a good day to update.

Things that have happened since my last Blog....

• In August I went on a 6 day back-packing trip with my Parents, we started in Mammoth, CA and back-packed into Yosemite National Park. The trip was amazing, we experienced incredible contrast in the environments along the trail everything from desolate high alpine wilderness, snow to lush green Valleys with waist high grass. I saw some of these awe inspiring views in this trip. Physically the trip was probably the most physically and mentally demanding things I have done, even over the mission trips I have been on.
  

• Since I graduated in May I have been on a hunt for a new job and for most of the summer I was hoping to find a teaching job at a Christian High School. There were a few that I thought I might get but by the end of the summer I had not found a job, and with the on set of the school year it didn't seem that I was going to find a teaching job this year. I was frustrated about not finding something. My current job was only part-time and there was no way to increase the hours so I started looking for a job I could do on the days I was off. It was then that Bethany told me about a job opening she heard about at where she works. Clackamas ESD (Education Service District) provides teachers, assistants and Subs for classrooms of Handicap and Behavioral Children (k-12+) and they had an opening for a Behavioral Classroom Assistant at a place that is part psych hospital and part school. I So I applied for the job but after the interview I got a call saying that they were going to offer someone else the job but they wanted to know if I would want to Sub and I said "Yes!". Subing worked great I could sub on the days I didn't already work but the subbing job didn't last long because after about 3 weeks of subbing another assistant position opened up at sameplace the previous job was at and I was offered the job! So I now work full-time with mostly High School aged kids and so far it has been very satisfying work. It's been hard to really asses what constitutes a "good day" when I have kid who yell and curse at me, or wont work on their work all day but I have been encouraged by the development of relationship with the kids and my own improvements in the class. All in all this job has been and will be the most challenging job I have had. This is a non-Christian enviroment and since it is a public school I have to even more carful about what I can and can not say and so I have to rely more on my actions to impact the kids and staff. Dispite the challenging environment I am excited to have the opportunity to learn and hopefully impact these kids and the staff.

Well these have been the big events in my life in the last few months. If you want to see more pictures of my trip just email me and I'll send them to you or we can hang out and I'll show them to you and explain them to you. Also there has been some interest in me leading a short backpacking trip this coming summer if you intrested let me know. I hope this Thanksgiving finds you all surrounded with the many blessings of God and I just want to say how thankfull I am for each and everyone of you! You belss me in more ways than you can know, thank you!

Here are some more pics of my trip->

Horizons

So I know it has been awhile since I have last bloged and well...sorry...but now here ya go...a new blog from me just for you! Don't you feel all warm and fuzzy? You do? Wow you should take a shower then...lol!

Any way so yesterday Molly, Dusty, Bethany and I went on a short road trip for the evening. We started our evening wanting to hang out together but not sure what to do...until I had an idea why not go for a drive? (Normally there are two reasons why I don't suggest doing these short road trips: 1) I drive all day for work so I don't usually want to drive more, and 2) gas prices make it hard to want to drive if their is no reason) So we all loaded up into Molly's and my Blazer and drove to Mollala and then to Silverton, we took the back roads so that we could enjoy the country side. Once we got to Silverton we found a nice town park with swings and a play ground, it had a river flowing through it so we spit off the bridge. It was a beautiful evening out in the country and my favorite part was the smell in the air. On those back country roads in the evening its smells like cool earth. You can smell the earth out there. I mentioned that to everyone in the car and Dusty said its was just clean air I was smelling. Which is true but the whole evening reminded me of living on my parents ranch or when my family would visit my grandparents ranch. The smell and feeling of good clean earth is something I miss.

Anyway it was a lot of fun doing something random like that and I am now of the opinion that we all should do more random things like that from now on. Well thats all for now. Later!

Oh almost forgot...check this out...its called "Chad Vader" (I think he is suppose to be Darth Vader's brother)

Chad Vader

An Evolution of Dance

So today I was checking out YouTube.com and I came across some pretty cool videos but the one I want to share was by fare the coolest one I saw!

So without any futher adieu

Evolution of Dance

So what did you think? Pretty funny huh? Now Tre' how many of these dances will you admit to knowing?!? I know you got the Vanilla Ice stuff down...come on admit it. Any one willing to admit knowing any of these dances?

Fun Post

You scored as Jack Bauer. You would sacrifice one to save a lot more, even though by the end of the day, you are a wreck. You try to keep work and your personal life separate, but its impossible. You are very skilled in the art of killing and you are dedicated to your country. You are a hero. Jack Bauer 65% Kim Bauer 65% Michelle Dessler 65% Chloe O'Brien 60% David Palmer 60% Tony Almieda 35% Sherry Palmer 30% Which 24 Charcater Are You? created with QuizFarm.com

Sacrifice

These are a few of my thoughts as I think about Jesus' sacrifice today, Good Friday. Today is the day that we remember the sacrifice of Jesus. We remember today the nails in His hands and feet. We remember the crown of thorns, the whipping, the mocking of the guards and crowd. Today we remember the price that had to be paid for our rebellion against God. And I find myself both thankful and sad...Because where would I be with out the Cross? What hope would I have without the Cross? I am not foolish or arrogant enough to think that I could make myself good under my own strength and so I am truly thankful for the gift that Jesus has given me. Without his sacrifice I would be without Hope, without peace, and without relationship with my Lord. It is by His sacrifice that I gain all these things and yet it is hard to feel like I am worthy enough to gain reconciliation. The amazing thing is though, I am not worthy of an of the mercy shown me, I am not worthy of the gift that is offered...At least I am not worthy because of anything I have done, rather God sees me as His child and it is by this gift that He can cleans my life and restore me to relationship with Him. I do not deserve the gift that God offers but it is through His mercy and grace that He gives it. All He asks is that I repent, that is turn away, from my old life...The life I lived seeking the things that were to make me happy, a life that was only devoted to myself. Today of all days seems like a Good day to remember the life that we had and to remember the sacrifice of Jesus so that we may live.

It has been many years since I came to Jesus and He made me clean and as I sit here on Good Friday I think of the journey of my life, the trails and paths that I have walked during my life and I think of the choices I have made and I am thankful. Even though I have not always lived a life that has reflected Jesus, I am thankful that in spite of my own faults God has been with me bringing me through those hard times. I am thankful that I have a patient God who loves me and is working to form me more into the image of His Son, so that my life would be one that reflects the love of God into the world around me.

Today we remember the Cross and the sacrifice of Jesus, we remember that Jesus' death on the Cross was for each and everyone of us. And so as we remember the sacrifice of Christ today and the resurrection of Sunday let us make our prayer to be more like Jesus. Let us remember the life of Christ and remember that we are meant to be like Him not like the world. To belong to Christ means to follow Him and live a life that reflect Jesus. I leave you with the words to a song by Todd Agnew called "My Jesus":

Which Jesus do you follow?
Which Jesus do you serve?
If Ephesians says to imitate Christ,
Why do you look so much like the world?

Chorus:
Cause my Jesus bled and died
He spent His time with thieves and liars
He loved the poor and accosted the arrogant
So which one do you want to be?

Blessed are the poor in spirit, do we pray to be blessed with the
Wealth of this land
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness
Do we ache for another taste of this world of shifting sand

Chorus:

And who is this that you follow
This picture of the American dream
If Jesus was here would you walk right by on the other side
Or fall down and worship at His holy feet

Pretty blue eyes, curly brown hair and a clear complexion
Is how you see Him as He dies for Your sins
But the Word says He was battered and scarred
Or did you miss that part
Sometimes I doubt we'’d recognize Him

Chorus:

Cause my Jesus would never be accepted in my church
The blood and dirt on His feet might stain the carpet
But He reached for the hurting and despises the proud
I think He'’d prefer Beal St. To the stained glass crowd
But I know that He can hear me if I cry out loud

I want to be like my Jesus
Can I be like You
I want to be like my Jesus

He is Risen!

And Now for Something a Little Different

I posted this mostly because everyone needs to see a picture of me shoveling snow in a Cowboy hat (well thats what I was shoveling snow before Molly took the picture). This was taken around New Years at my parents house in Reno. Now don't miss my longer blog entry just below here!

Where We Are

So tonight I have been spending a little time crusing around Myspace looking for profiles of people I went to High school with. It has been weird...most of the people that claim to have gratuated the same year as me I don't remember or recognize. So people seem familiar and when I look at their sites I get a glimps into how they are living their lives, I get to see whats important to them and their friends. I see people that I knew and I look at their sites and I wonder could I have loved them more. Is there something that I could have done to impact their lives... Did they see Christ in me when they knew me?

I think of one guy, that I remember from High school at the time wondering if he was gay and I remember thinking he was a nice guy but I also remember that not many people were nice to him. And I wonder did my life impact him for good...was I just another person that mocked him or at the very least was apathetic towards him. I wonder was my life as bright a light as it should have been or could have been? Was my nature preventing the love of Christ from being shown? As I looked at these blogs I wondered.

There were also the blogs of people who were Christians in High school, one of whom was the girl I went to Jr. and Sr. prom with (weird) and when I look at their blogs alot of them talk about partying and drinking and use curse words in their blogs and it makes me go "Hhmm". Was being a Christian really just something to be in High School? Was it just another club to be apart of? Like the Key Club, 4H, or the Chess Club? I wonder and I pray that isn't that case.

Then there was the blog of one of my closest friends in High School, a guy that I spent many a day hanging out with him, playing video games, watching movies, working on our cars. This is a guy that at the time knew I was a Christian and knew what I believed. He didn't aceppt it for himself but I didn't reject him and he didn't reject me. He wouldn't ask me to do things that he knew I wouldn't be comfortable with and he knew when I didn't think something was cool. However in the end he joined the Navy and I prayed that he would remember those things that I told him and that he would remember that Christ would offer more that any combo of car, girls, and video games ever could. When I saw his blog not much had seemed to change for him...money, cars and the Navy are all that come out on his blog.

Even before I went looking for these blogs I wondered if any of the people I knew in High School think about me? I think about them...well some of them. I think about the people who have come and gone in my life and I wonder if my life was a blessing to them. I wonder if they know I still pray for them and think about them and I pray that even now God would draw them to him.

"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. ^Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

^ Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens,^ Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. ^ Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."

Hebrews 4:18 NIV



Our Own Understanding

Well here it is my first Blog of 06' and I would just like to start off saying that I appreciated those who expressed interest in when my next Blog entree would be. It has now been over a month since my last Blog and I really can't say much has happened. School started back up and that is pretty much the change in my life since my last Blog. Now over the past month there has been a plethora of Blogs for me to read, many have been entertaining and some have been thought provoking and I must say that much of my procrastinating in writing a new blog entree has been in part because I have been mulling over the thought provoking entrees. So I'll come right out and say it that this entree will fall into the thought provoking category.

"In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil." (Job 1:1, NIV) Even God himself praised the integrity of Job; "Then the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."' (Job 1:8, NIV) Now basically what happened was that Satan challenged God on Job's integrity and uprightness so God allowed Satan to put Job to the test and after losing almost all his family and possessions and being covered in sores Job still refused to curse God. Now from chapter 3 thru 37 there is a dialogue between Job and three of his friends and as you read what Job's friends say to him there seems to be wisdom in what they say. Except by the end of the book God makes it clear that what they were saying wasn't wisdom but foolishness. "After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has."' (Job 42:7, NIV) Now you may be wondering why I just summarized the story of Job for you. Well I wanted to make a point, as we read the interaction and dialogue between Job and his friends it seems that what Job's friends have to say is wisdom, good Godly wisdom. Except God makes it clear that what they thought was good Godly advice was really foolishness.

Now sometimes I fear we fall prey to the same problems. We think that our insight and thoughts are wise and honest, but I wonder how often we are simply expressing our own understanding. Our wisdom seems to reflect an attempt to reconcile what God says in the Bible with how we see the world. Are we blending the two together? Sometimes. Should we be? I argue no. The Bible makes it clear that we are called to love this world, that we are to be Christ’s representatives in this world and that through us and the Holy Spirit, Christ is calling all people to repentance and reconciliation with Him. We know from the scriptures that our first calling is; “Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deut. 10:12, NIV) or more directly, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deut. 6:5, NIV) Jesus even re-emphasizes this in Matthew 22:34-40 but in it he adds something that many people seem to miss; “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-40, NIV) What Jesus said here not only parallels Deuteronomy 6:5 but also another passage in Deuteronomy; “He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” (Deut. 10:18-19, NIV) and “If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.” (Deut. 15:7-8, NIV) both of these passages reflect Jesus’ second commandment, to love others as ourselves. The question becomes: what does loving others as ourselves mean? Does it “love others” to give to the poor? To help a friend move? To pray for those who are sick? To give food to the hungry? Compassion to the broken hearted? Acceptance of someone’s sin?? This last one is a little tricky huh? Are we truly loving people when we allow them to see us down play someone’s sin? Any sin? When we say, “Well this isn’t really a big deal, we accept you just the way you are.” Are we doing people any favors by letting them think that simply being a nice or good person is all that matters because we are worried that telling someone that their actions are sinful might hurt their feelings or turn them away from God? If people don’t recognize sin how can there ever be reconciliation between them and a Holy and Just God? I believe that sin has created a barrier between man and God and rendered man hostile towards God (Isa. 59:1-2; Col. 1:22-22; James 4:4). Through the death of Christ the wrath of God was removed (Rom. 5:10), thus having removed the barrier of sin God moved to reconcile man to Himself (2 Cor. 5:18, 19). However, without recognition and repentance of that sin how will people ever become reconciled to God? I believe that because God is holy and righteous He cannot overlook sin, so through the death of Christ (1 John 2:2, 4:10), all the righteous demands of God towards humanity have been satisfied (Heb 2:17). However, it is important to realize that people must chose to come to Christ. Christ's death was for all of humanity (2 Cor. 5:14-15; I Tim. 2:6, 4:10; 2 Pet. 3:9) even though not all of humanity will be saved, His death was for the whole world (John 1:29, 3:16-19, 4:42; 1 John 4:14) but it is effective only for those who repent and believe in the gospel.

We are not God and therefore we are not to be Judges of this world (thankfully) and because we are not God we do not know everything He knows and we are not perfect. However, we have the scriptures which He revealed for us so that we might know truth. I believe that all Scripture (the Bible), is God breathed (2 Tim. 3:16) originating not from the will of men but communicated by God through the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21). The scriptures are our insight in to the TRUTH of God and we can place trust in them because it is God’s word. In that we may have a firm and true foundation for our faith. So it is in Love for God that we believe and follow His word, it is because of our Love for God that we show love to Him and others. It is because of our love for God that we do not shy away from the truth of sin and its reality in this world.

We must remember that the “Love” that is seen in the scriptures is much deeper and more complex than emotional love. Emotional love is based upon how we feel or more accurately, emotional love is based on our self interests. This kind of love is based on the question: “How do I feel?” or “What makes me comfortable?” In this case love is given and taken away based upon the whim of feelings which aren’t always based on truth. The Love that is shown in the scriptures is based upon a much more firm foundation. It is founded upon the promises of God, there is no fear that God will up and decide that he doesn’t feel like loving His people anymore. We also see that the Love expressed in the scriptures is much broader then emotional love. This Love is founded upon promises that will never change and includes hope for all people. This Love is infinitely more fulfilling then emotional love but it is also much more demanding. If we are to be a part of God’s people and therefore Love Him, and we are also being Loved by Him, then we must realize that this deeper Love places more responsibility and demands on us. As His people we cannot expect to just sit back and receive unending Love from God for nothing. However, God’s Love did not come with strings attached, so if we are truly God’s people our Love for God and our service to Him comes from a deeper stronger love that is not founded on feelings. As a result when we are His, our hearts should be so filled with our Love from Him that our desire to serve Him does not come from a feeling of obligation but rather it is a by-product of His Love poured into us. In other words He pours so much Love into us that we should not be able to help but pour that Love back out to Him and others.

We must remember that what seems like wisdom is not always God’s wisdom and what seems like love is not always God’s love. We are His people and we are called to reflect His wisdom and love, not our own and not the worlds. It was God’s love that sent His one and only Son into the world to be the sin offering for us all. It was God’s wisdom that chose to pour out all of His Holy and Just wrath onto his Holy and Just Son rather than onto His creation (man). It is the Love and Wisdom of God that says that even though we are sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Let us seek out Godly wisdom and let us express God’s love to people. Let us show the world the Truth that is found in the scriptures, let us be people of the scriptures living life based on God’s understanding NOT our own.

P.S. GO Seahawks!

A Year in Reflection

So here we are, 2005 is about over and we are about to start a whole new year and to be honest I am kind of sad to see this year come to an end. For some of us it has been a year of large changes, for some it has been a year of new jobs, new homes, marriage, new pets, starting new schools, and moving to new states.
***********************End of Original Post************************

Well I should tell you that I had this long typed out post with many deep insights about this last year but since my computer decided that it didn't want these deep insights to be shared with the world that it would reload my web page and I had lost almost every thing that I had typed. The only part of the message I had saved is the part at the top of the page. So now that I am tired and I don't remember all that typed you now get a summary of what I typed.

• I said something along the lines of how I look forward to this new year and all the new things that it would bring.
• I talked about a lot the changes we have all experienced over this last year. I wont go into all I had typed before but you all know the changes you have experienced this last year so I don't need to go into them again.
• I encouraged us all to continue growing in our friendships and that we would spur each other on to continue growing in our relationship with God.
• I summed up this last last year with the themes of change and growth and I wanted to encourage us all to look forward to change because it brings about growth.
• I talked about some funny stories from our friendships... so feel free to laugh right now as if those stories were still here.
• Lastly I talked about giving thanks to God for the growth and changes He had brought into my life this last year and how thankful I am for the friendships I have with all of you.

Now that last thing I would like from all of you, my adoring fans, I would like to know what you look forward to this next year? Do you have any hopes for 2006? Or what are some of your favorite memories for 2005? What will you miss about this last year? Let us reminisce and reflect, so POST!

Happy New Years!

The View from my Living room

So I woke up this morning and looked out my window and this is what I see. Well okay, so this isn't really the view from my living room but when I saw this I thought it looked cool, so I needed to share it with you all! It also made me glad that Portland doesn't get ice like this bad. Imagine trying to scrap the ice off your car when it look like this pic that's some thick ice and most of us scrap the ice off our cars with a credit card...wow...that would take forever! I'd just go back inside and go to bed.
Seeing pictures like this always make me want to sit in a nice warm house with some hot chocolate, enjoying the warm glow of my computer monitor. Seriously though, winter is one of the coolest (no pun intended) times of the year. Being able to go for walks in the snow (or rain if your in Portland--which is not nearly as much fun), celebrating Christmas, drinking warm Egg Nog, hanging out with friends and family, 24hour Christmas music radio stations (although they can be a curse too) but the best thing about winter time...Snow days. Again the problem being Portland just doesn't get many snow days...*sigh*...oh well.
So what's your favorite thing about winter? And if you have some cool winter pictures, post them or give a link to find them. Well that's all for now, so Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Well it is now that time of year, people are putting up Christmas lights, buying Christmas trees, shopping for friends and family, drinking egg nog, wondering when it might stop raining (at least in Oregon we wonder that), and trying to get through finals. Now I know that for many of you this is no longer an issue, you are out enjoying all the things on the list above without the added weight of finals. Well to quote Napoleon Dynamite (and not Tre'); "Lucky!"

Now in reality I really don't have that much to complain about (and I really am not complaining....just envious of all of you who are done with school), I am only taking three classes one of which doesn't have a final, one is take home and the other however, is a Patty class. So maybe I am dead, this happens to be my first and most likely, last Patty class. Now this post is not really about the stresses of being in school but rather it is a focus on the anticipation of being done with school. Assuming everything goes well this semester and next, I will final be done in May. Woot!

So what I want to know what are the best things about being done with school? I want your inspiration to help spur me on so that I will finish well. So tell me what are the things you like most about being done and out of school and for those of you not done, tell me what you are looking forward to. I am close to being done and I see the light at the end of the tunnel, I can see the finish line, its just I am notorious for tripping within feet of the finish line and landing on my face. So inspire me.

Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving tomorrow I have been thinking a lot on what Thanksgiving means and how we respond to it. I know that tomorrow most people will be with friends and family and at some point in the early afternoon or evening they will all gather around a table that is covered with food and will eat. Which is great, I look forward to a good Thanksgiving meal but is this all there is to Thanksgiving?

I think that we need to remember what it is we are thankful for. Many of us will be overwhelmed with the process of thanksgiving and so we forget the heart of it. It is a time to give thanks for the blessings in our lives. To remember those things, events, or people over the last year that have blessed us in ways that we don't deserve. I want to share a list some of the things I am thankful for, its not a complete list but it is a start.


I am thankful for...

• the ways in which God is providing for me and Molly this year and for the things that He has been teaching me this year. I am thankful that despite all my failings I am still His child and He has forgiven me.
• my marriage to Molly, she is such a huge encouragement to me, she is all ways encouraging me to become a better man of God.
• my friendships, Kyle, Dusty, Tre', Justin, Derek, and Cami (just to name a few). You all are such a great bunch of Brothers in the Lord and even though I don't get to see all of you (Tre' and Cami) as much as I would like you all are still huge blessings in my life. Thanks!
• my family who has been an encouragement to Molly and me all of our lives. Thank you for helping us and blessing us, as Molly and I continue to lay the foundation of our marriage. Thank you for the wisdom you share, we appreciate it even if we don't follow it. =)
  

Well that is all I can think of for the moment. Now what are you thankful for? I would encourage you to post a coment listing something you are thankful for.

"Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms." Psalm 95:2

The Problems with being a Perfectionist

Well I am a dork, after being lazy about updating my first blog for months, I sat down to do some blog entries the other day and I realized I had a problem. I had forgotten all the access information I used to set up the account. I couldn't remember my password, username, or even the email address I had used to set up the account and despite going through every conceivable password, username and email address I just could not figure it out. So I have given up on that blog. (*sigh*) So any who, I will now attempt to be more thoughtful and engaged with this new blog. I am going to write down my new info so I wont have a repeat problem.

On that note not to much is currently happening in my life. I am still I school and it feels like I should get tenure with all the time I have put in at Multnomah! I know Tre' would understand. However, I have been spending a lot of time thinking about what I am going to do once I finish at Multnomah. My fear is that once I get done with Multnomah I wont find a job that I want to do so I'll end up just settling with some job and never go on and do something that I want to do.

-So what do I want to do?
Well that Is a very good question, I am glad you asked and to be frank I am not entirely sure. Right now I have a lot of interest in being a high school teacher. I enjoy the interaction with high schoolers as well as the ability to have deeper more engaging classroom experiences. So the dilemma becomes do I go on and get my Masters in teaching, which will cost me a lot more money, or do I try and find a teaching job with just my B.S.

Well now you know a little bit of what goes on inside my head as I try think through everything. However, I do know that no matter what God is still there and He will lead me as He desires and I truly look forward to what He will use me for. Its just that I can be impatient.