I’ve always found myself keeping the term “Pastor” at an arms legnth away. Really, I’ve never wanted to take that title on because of what happens once it is attached to you. For starters, you have to marry and bury, which is no big deal, but between those points is where it gets messy. I see a pastor as a councelor without the liscense. Advice for the curious/hurt/needy. A pastor needs to be the voice of reason and held to a standard high above everybody else. It seems that pastor makes a superhuman. Yikes. Thus why I avoid the title.
For me, I prefer Creative Arts Director or Music Guy or him. But Pastor??? Too much to chew.
But alas, I have found this that I am excited to read:
From what I’ve seen and read, Peterson shares his memoirs and memories as he walked into and through this role of Pastor. Will it make me change my mind about adding Pastor to my name. Probably not. Will it make me think differently about the idea of Pastor? Having read Peterson’s books in the past, most definitely.
Today I was thinking about Triathlon. Seriously, it takes up a lot of my brain space. I’ve only been training for a month and a half, but I think about it a lot. Some of the the things I think about include my workout, my diet, prep for my workout, stretching, when I can get a work out in, how excited I am that I can run three miles in a row, why cant I run three miles any faster, when is it going to warm up so I can run/bike/swim outside, when I’m swimming what is the easiest way to do it, what are my arms supposed to look like, I need to get new padded shorts for bike riding because my butt be hurtin’, maybe that will make my butt look big, that’s probably not a bad thing…
really the list goes on and on.
My name is Ron. I am addicted to Triathlon Training. I keeps it real.
Yesterday I led the church through a worship service and we discussed dreaming about how we can impact our immediate neighbors.
Afterwards, I went to Haggen and a guy speeding through the parking lot had to slam his brakes so he didn’t hit me in the crosswalk.
My Confession: I almost flipped him off. After leaving the service talking about loving God and Neighbor, I was half a second away from giving this guy his half of a peace sign. Whoopsie.
My question: Why do we smile and wave when we almost kill people with our vehicles? I’ve almost hit a person who came out of nowhere before, and I did the exact same thing this guy did. Smile and wave. Does this make it better?
September was the last time I posted. Recently I’ve been inspired to blog again by my friend Audrey. She is a consistant blogger about all things Audrey. I laugh a lot at times when I read her entries. Anyway, i don’t know what to start with, so let’s start with what I’m into these days…
I am doing a triathlon. BOOM! In your face with the bomb! Yes, I’ve in my fourth week of training. I started before the new year, because I figured I would keep putting it off. Now that that’s out of the way, let me explain. I am NOT doing an Ironman. That’s crazy. I am training for an Olympic and two sprints this summer. “Why?”, you may ask? Because I am ridiculous.
I am growing my hair out. I am not into this. In fact, I wish I could cut it. My aunt was diagnosed with Cancer and has been going through Chemo this past year with the more intensive stuff these last three months, so in support I have been growing my hair out for Locks of Love. It’s pretty gnarly. She finds out on Valentines Day if it worked. Please pray for Auntie T if you can.
I love the Kindle! I got a Kindle from my Father in Law for Christmas. I didn’t know what to think or expect, but I love it. Honestly, I haven’t really cracked a book besides The Bible and The Power and The Glory by Graham Greene since I graduated. Right now I am reading a book on Triathlons (Duh!), Ethics by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Bible in a Year (NLT), and a book of letters and speeches from King Kamehameha V. Lots of stuff for blogging in all of these books.
STORAGE WARS!!! If you aren’t watching this, you should check it out. It is about people who buy Storage Units and sell the treasures inside. Sometimes you are a winner, and sometimes you are not. The show is on A&E, I believe. I love it.
There is a band that I love called Three Houses Down. Not Three Doors Down. I made the same mistake. These guys are a Tongan/Australian band who do reggae music, but it has more of an old school feel. What I mean is that they sing about ideas such as religion/politics/social justice and order. Here is a song that they do called, “Oh, It’s Good”. Check em out, and buy the album. the whole thing is good:
Also, I dig David Crowder’s “Church Music” CD. I don’t buy a lot of worship music, but David Crowder is a no brainer. All of his CD’s are good.
Other than these things, really, I’ve been caught up in life – parenting, working, hanging out. Also, even with my big thing against facebook, I do still peruse facebook to see what’s up in people’s life. I’ll admit it!!! But, my updates come from my Twitter account on my phone. Also, when I get a bunch of replies to my post on facebook, I feel like I have to reply or I am just a jerk. I guess those are my blogging colors coming out.
I yell at kids who have no regard for other people. I hate people who don’t “follow the rules”. I laugh when I think about the good old days. I’ve been out of high school for 15 years. I have a mortgage payment, 2 cars, and a kid…and we talk about upgrading to a bigger house. I get mad on the Fourth of July when people throw their garbage from their fireworks in my dumpster. I wake up at 6:30 a.m. with ease. I take naps. I watch the news. My hair is turning gray. I don’t like a lot of the new music that comes out these days. I have a 401k (now a 200.5k). Two Words: crows feet. I refer to people as “My _____” (i.e. my lawyer, my real estate agent, my whatever-it-is-that-I-pay-them-to-do). I hurt myself and don’t recover as quickly as I used to. If I stay up past midnight, I’m usually a wreck the next day. If I drink more than two glasses of wine, I feel sick. I drink wine. I miss all of the bad things I used to do, but I don’t do it because my body probably can’t handle it.
Last night on American Idol, Adam Lambert killed it with this song:
This is the only song that my dad knows on guitar. Seriously, I remember going to parties with my parents, he would play guitar, and this was the only song he played. My realization that I’ve come to? This is the only “good” memory that I have of my dad. I have some daddy issues (wasn’t good enough, neglected, came from a single parent home, etc.). Cynthia pointed this out to me when I told her the story of this song and my dad. She was talking about how it was sad that I don’t really have good memories of my dad.
I wrote about it before, but man, I am glad that I learned to love and trust God as my father…
Seriously? What is so important that you have to talk on the phone at full volume while you are in line and then whisper your order to me, only to return to your conversation while looking at me like you are annoyed because I am asking you to pay?
HTD (here’s the deal). If you are on the phone, step aside and finish your conversation so that the person/people behind you can order. Or better yet, hang up. It’s simple really. Otherwise, your cell phone conversation looks like a big middle finger in my face.
So here’s what I’m going to do as this continues: While you are having your conversation after you order, I am going to call your order to the barista (as required of me) only I will do it at a slightly louder volume than usual. I will also tell you how much you owe me, only again I will do this at a slightly louder (but still courteous) volume. Yes, I realize that this will annoy you, but really, isn’t this what you are doing to me and others?
So Mr/Mrs/Ms Cell Phone user, I ask this of you. Please hang up and order, or let others after you order first.
This was inspired by a lady I saw at Starbucks one day. I wanted to share this letter that I wrote with everybody to let you know what kind of friend I can be. I care too much about all my friends to let this happen to them, as I hope you do also. If you know the kind of person being described here, please pass this on to them. enjoy!
2/27/09
Dear Friend,
I won’t let you grow old with you believing that you are younger than you truly are. Talking and dressing like you are 40 going on 20. Eventually, it might become embarassing.
Low rise jeans with muffin tops or Abercrombie fashion on a JC Penny body. Faux hawks at 50 and puka shell chokers choking out the last bit of sense that you might have.
Front butts playing peekaboo out the bottom of camisols and beer guts in a wife beater are never sexy. Both seem to reveal denial and freshly inked tribal tattoos.
Fake tans and highlighted hair make for an interesting contrast. Not intersting like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, but more like Michael Jackson and Priscilla Presley.
So it comes to this: I promise as your friend to inform you rather than embarrass you if this happens to you. I would rather inform you than allow you to become red in the face. I would hope that you do the same for me. Let us grow old and move forward rather than trying to deny the inevitable. Growing old is a rite of passage and it is for you and me.
Am I the Grinch who stole Christmas carols? I had some people ask me to do Christmas carols during our worship at Roosevelt Community Church. As a staff member of a church that practices and obeserves the Advent season, this brought up a few Questions for me:
What is the true job of the ministers of the church?
Is the true reason to appease the congregation? Should we say “give them what they want”, or should we liken our job as ministers to teach what, how and why we believe as Christ followers? As a staff member of a church which follows the church calendar, only to find themselves in the middle of Advent, then I believe this is a great teaching moment. What if we taught the idea of patience in the midst of the season of antcipation. otherwise, to put it semi-crudely, we experience the climax without the foreplay. It’s just straight to the money shot and we don’t realize what had happened in between it all.
As an artist, what am I to do?
Do I simply go with the congregation, or do I challenge them to think? Is that not the purpose of the worship leader – to help people think, see, and experience Jesus in different ways? Maybe we need to push people outside of their comfort zones. Instead of singing the familiar tunes of “Angels We Have Heard on High”, we challenge people in experiencing the anticipation through the ideas of “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus”.
What tears me apart as an artist is I want to challenge people, but on the other hand I have to think about the feelings of the congregation. So what can I do? Do I feel like a sell out, or keep the integrity of the season? I opt for the later, myself. Which draws another question:
Why couldn’t there be more accesible ways of explaining the Advent season?
Really, in teh singing world, you are stuck with a handful of songs that describe teh Advent season…about three I believe – the two more recognizable being “Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel” and “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus”. After those two you need to be creative. I’ve written an Advent specific song that we share as a congregation, and have allowed artists to share in teh past through visual arts of painting. I wonder if, you who are reading this, you have any ideas? If so, please let me know.
I would say that I am the farthest from being grinchy. I start my Corporate Christmas ways on November 1st. I listen to music and tour around Target looking at the lights and decorations that have been made by children and prisoners from foreign countries (that’s a topic for a whole other post). I just want to teach my congregation just a little bit of restraint. I want to have one place where they can reflect and not be sucked into what they are hearing outside of the walls of our little church. Somewhere where they can learn a little more about their faith. Call me crazy, but that just might be what the church service was designed to be.
Do you watch the Biggest Loser? You should. It is inspirational and awesome. You will laugh and cry (from laughing) and be angry at Heba and Vicky. I just want to know why they are so mean! I feel like i am back in middle school. The show also makes you want work out as these people are trying to lose weight for life.
For six weeks, I was involved with Bob Anderson’s boot camp in Ferndale, WA to help me lose weight. It is a 10 week program, but I was able to hop in in the the middle of everything. I’ve been trying to lose weight before the baby gets here. Here is how it is going so far:
I weighed in on 9-27-08 at 227 pounds and could do 29 push ups and 28 sit ups.
Today I weighed in at 214 pounds and I did 45 push ups and 40 sit ups.
Improvement! I love it. I will do all of the measurements (chest, arms, legs and waist) and a final weigh in at the end of 10 weeks on Dec 6th.
