My After Election Hangover

I feel hungover. I can’t believe what happened last night – I keep wondering if it really did happen. A lot of people on my facebook status updates are angry – more are angry than happy. But overall, I am glad for what happened last night. I am excited for the future of America. I feel that for once my vote counted. But I still feel hungover.

I voted for Obama because I am a democrat at heart. I always tell this story about when my mom taught me about voting when I was a kid: “Remember when you vote”, she told me, “to mark everyone with a ‘D’ next to their name”. Now obviously I don’t vote this way, and all kidding aside, the reason I feel hungover is because I feel as if I did something awful last night. I feel as if people look down on me because of my choice. As if I am less of a Christian because of my vote and my political stance as a democrat?

A lot of my friends are angry and sad, and then they threaten to leave the country, and then they say that they are putting it in God’s hands. I wonder why we as Christians say things like, “we have to put it in God’s hands” when the situation is bad in our opinion, but if it turned out the way we planned, then it suddenly “God is good”. This is where the seperation of Church and State was a good thing.

Maybe then, we shouldn’t vote as christians, but instead as Americans. When religion creeps in then all hell breaks loose. Maybe the mistakes we make are when we mistake our faith with our morals. Hmmm. this is complicated to explain. Maybe what we think are Christian values that we vote on are really things that we do simply because we have believed that all along. Maybe they are things that we believe because we were told they are good or bad.

Either way, we witnessed history. I feel more proud of America than I ever have been in teh past. I am one of the millions who have witnessed what has happened, and truely believes more than ever that anything is possible.

Is it me…

or did McCain come off a little snarky last night? That’s right, I said snarky. To tell you the truth, it was a bit of a turn off. Now I know that Obama had his times of side comments, but I felt that McCain was really overdoing it.

just another reason I’m not going to vote for “that one over there”, and by “that one…” I mean McCain.

Here is a positive though: For a drinking game, someone can watch the debate and drink everytime McCain says “My friends…” or mentions Ronald Reagan, or when Obama says “rather I say out loud…”.

Regarding Community

The idea of community is wierd. What is community really? Is it the place that you live in? Or is it the company that you keep around you? We have a strange community emerging within the last five years or so with MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and even as you read this blog entry we are engaging in some sort of faux community.

We have our home community in which we live in a neighborhood. This is our direct community. Sometimes we try to block out this community by building fences around our homes, to which only those who are invited may enter. This home community is quite tricky, because none of us truly want to invite others into our lives usually. Sometimes I find myself inside of my home with the blinds drawn and the lights off so that nobody thinks I am home. We seclude ourselves so that we never have to speak to others, but really we are missing out on the community that we crave.

We also have our work community (neighborhood) in which we go and punch the clock. Sometimes we get so caught up in how much our job sucks that we forget the impact that we might have on people. Sometimes when working at the church, I feel like a jukebox playing the songs that people like or dislike. I feel like I am there to play the hits, but then something changes. I see somebody standing and truly worshipping. Those are the moments that my work community is at its best: when I’ve led somebody to a place of happiness, or they are touched by Jesus. The same thing happens when I work at starbucks. Sometimes I see people who are regulars coming in as I am leaving and they say things like, “you can’t leave, who will make my drink for me?” Though they may not be complimenting me, I feel that I am touching their lives in some way. Though I leave somedays hating people more than one man should, I know that Jesus loves them even more than I hate them.

I think this is the purpose of community. True community is the effect that you have on other people’s lives. Whether you are living around them, serving them at your job, or even seeing them on the same bus everyday, true community is formed when they notice you aren’t there anymore. When people start to miss you, then you know that you have formed community.

Something That’s Been Bouncing Around My Head Lately…

Fly me past the moon

Beyond the stars and galaxies

Is this where Your glory is hiding?

 

Take me to the center of the earth

I’ll turn over every rock, and as the dust settles

I hope to find You standing there.

 

I sing songs to and with others about You

These are good songs about what You’ve done and are continuing to do!

Sometimes, though, these songs feel like plastic flowers that I bought at Goodwill: dusty and fake.

 

My insides are dry and my bones cry out

It’s torturous to sing these songs when I don’t always feel this way

Though I profess love to you, my humanity begs to differ.

 

The problem, I have found, is me.

I know that You exist

We have met on many occasions!

 

In fact, we are quite close You and I

So close that I have promised to die for You

…but I’m still living.

 

But it isn’t the living that You have told me about.

I still go back to drink from water that doesn’t satisfy

I still return and consume the things that don’t fill.

 

My darkness takes me and shreds me apart

I’ve seen the light that will save me

But this loneliness feels so good sometimes!

 

But then when I fall, I find it harder to pick myself back up.

If I find victory, the party is just me and nobody else.

This isn’t fun.

 

Not that Your love needs to be fun!

By no means!

Another trap I’ve fallen into.

 

Bring healing to me! Bring Your love!

I need cleansing! I need to know that You are going to rescue me!

I feel Your touch. I see Your light. I am running to You.

I Read Something Beautiful Today.

I love reading through the Old Testament of the bible. Some of the most beautiful imagery comes out of there. Today I was beginning to read through Isaiah and found this passage:

“He will settle disputes among great nations. They will hammer thier swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives. Nations will never again go to war, never prepare for battle again.” (Isaiah 2:4 GNB)

This imagery of weapons being used to retill the earth and help restore it back to something beautiful. My friends Matt Martinson and Shauna Mann – links to their blogs are on the side - used (what I think was) this verse for a compassion project or advent at their church and showed people plowing fields with AK-47’s. That image has never left my head.

When I read this verse I see this: this is what God does in our lives as we use our bodies for what we think is good, but when we truly trust in God he reshapes us and turns us into something better and far more useful than we ever intended.

just a thought.

Updates, Updates, Updates

The sun is out, and that is why I haven’t been blogging in a while. Up here in the Pacific Northwest, when the sun is out you need to take advantage of it. If you don’t, you have no right to complain about the rain.

This Fourth of July found me working at the Bucks and then hanging with friends. It was quite a war zone, as I am sure it was in your town. Fireworks going off everywhere, and I had to work at 4:30 the next morning. Needless to say, there was no beer drinking this year.

THis year was also the first time in a long time I didn’t return to Blaine, WA for the Annual Fourth of July Celebration. I actually quite enjoy the Fourth of July in a small town. They have a parade where most people in town know somebody in the parade. There is usually a dog parade, a real estate agent in a Drop Top Chevy Camaro from the 90’s, AAU and middle school sports teams celebrating their victorious season, and the High School band marching through. This year found a band called the Clumsy Lovers playing. This was a big step for Blaine to bring in a national touring act to entertain before the fireworks.

I’ve been working quite a bit. Between RCC, Starbucks, Guitar Lessons, and trying to hang out with people, I have not been inside too often. I’ve grown quite a bit as a barista actually. I can sling drinks pretty quickly these days.

Cynthia’s belly is getting bigger. She is quite adorable. She’s outgrown all of her clothes and now is beginning to wear maternity clothes! It’s a bit crazy and funny at the same time. We have our second appointment this week, but we wont find out the sex until next month.

I went to a songwriters forum this past week with other worship leaders from around Bellingham. It was quite nice. I am building a relationship with Sean Hall. Sean is a enormously talented singer/songwriter who used to play in a band called Day Dreamer here in bellingham. I enjoy his ideas and songs. If you go to my music Myspace link on the side, Day Dreamer are one of my “top friends”.

I’ve also begun to write and record again. Hopefully, I will have some new songs posted for you to listen to soon. Not so much worship songs, but more so on the “artistic” side. I guess from the worship angle of things, they would be seen as artistic rather than accesible.

Lastly, I am a bit upset that the Sonics went to Oklahoma City. Not that they were stellar, but I am a traditionalist. Change scares me, even if it is better for somebody. Who wins in this situation? I couldn’t really tell you…

That’s all I’ve got for you as far as updates lately. I promise that I will be more consistant, I just needed a little break with the world going crazy around me!

What have you been up to? Let me know!

Discussion on Homosexuality and the Church

Every tuesday at 3:00 I meet with Baron and Cameron for a time of accountability, pastoral mentoring, hospital/home visits, and/or various theological discussion. It was a very interesting time this week as we began discussing the idea of homosexuality and what it looks like – what actually determines a person to be homosexual? Here is a subject that the three of us determined, as pastors/leaders, we are going to have to delve a little deeper into. Usually when describing homosexuality, one begins to think about dude on dude or lady on lady sex acts. But is this what determines them homosexual? Really, is the sin of homosexuality the sex act itself?

We have taken an alternative lifestyle and deemed them sinners simply because of sex practices. What we have done essentially is we have placed people on a sliding scale of sins in the far far reaches away from holiness. Why and how is this any different than my friend who had a baby out of wedlock? When he was having sex he was sinning, but now it seems that he has been redeemed by the goodness of life that came out of the sin. If he eventually gets married, this seems to seal the deal and now he is no longer sinning – totally redeemed.

I wonder then, how was he any different than the homosexual? If a homosexual is not having sex with anybody, then is he/she a homosexual? Is the term “homosexual” simply a sin in itself, and how then are we to react? We as pastors/ministers/followers of christ are going to have to go a little further than simply saying that it is in the Bible and therefore it is a sin. This is not a rallying cry against homosexuality, but instead it is a cry for us to begin to think and look a little closer at what we are for and against. People are asking for answers and as responsible followers of Christ, we need to be ready with them.

How I Learned to Celebrate Fathers Day

Growing up, I came from a single parent home where I was raised by my mom. My parents divorced when I was in the second grade, and we moved from beautiful Kaneohe, Oahu to Blaine Washington. My mom had graduated here before going off to live with my dad. I can’t remember really celebrating Fathers day. Usually I gave my grandpa a fathers day card, as he was my only father figure (and a great one at that), until only a few years ago when he passed away.

Fathers Day has always been such a foreign concept to me. I always put up a front and I would act as though it didn’t bother me, but when I would try to hang out with friends they were always hanging out with their own dads. I felt as though my Dad had left my family in a lurch by not paying child support, visting only on Christmas, and through the physical and mental abuse that he caused my mother, brother, and sister and I. Needless to say, Fathers Day was not a day of celebration to me.

It wasn’t unil I was in my early to mid 20’s that I found my true father: my Holy Father. I came to a realization of how a father could love. I forgave my biological father a long time ago for the pain that he caused our family emotionally, financially, and physically. I learned this love and ability from my perfect father I have in Jesus. Only he could have taken this pain away and shown me what love and freedom truly looks like.

I learned to celebrate Fathers Day as a day of recognizing the way a father looks at his child and smiles no matter what they have done. I learned that Jesus loves all of his children, even my dad. This was a hard concept to wrap my head around, and it still is. But today, Fathers Day has become a day of reconciliation for me in truly seeing how God sees us as his children, and how I don’t want to treat my kids and how I would want them to see me. Someday when I have kids, I hope that I remember this and instead of wanting a day to get away from them on Fathers Day, it will be a day to share love and laughter with them.

Happy Fathers Day to all my Dad-Friends out there! And to the single moms out there who play the role of Dad also, Thank You Thank You Thank You,  and please don’t give up hope.

Questioning the Questions of Faith

I’ve talked about them before, but Asbojesus is still one of my favorite sites. Their pictures speak into the questions that we’ve all have and more! Check em out. I’ve got them linked in my blogroll.

Open Letter to the High Schooler at Starbucks: You Stink.

Dear Highschooler,

As I sit here next to you in Starbucks, you cannot imagine how much I envy you and your life. So much time on your hands and so little to do with it. Really, you think that you are “hella-busy”, but you’re not. And though I could talk you through this part of your life, what I would like to talk about is public hygiene. Specifically your cologne.

You see my friend, cologne is not like water. You don’t literally splash it on. You don’t hold it an inch from your chest and squirt. Instead, cologne should be misted and walked through. Cologne is an intimate scent, not something for anybody within 5-10 feet of you to smell. Please High Schooler, I beg of you, quit making the air so pungent when you walk by. People would rather smell fresh air than your cologne.

One more thing before I leave you. Please understand that Axe body spray is in no way a good thing. In fact, I think it may make your skin break out more than it already has. If you are wearing Axe in an attempt to “grow up” then consider this: nobody over the age of 16 wears Axe because it smells like A$$. In fact, I think that is what they should have called it.

Hoping that our next meeting is more pleasant to my scent of smell,

The Brown Kid