Sleep

Sofia
Last two nights
8:30pm - 6:30am
= happy parents!

The voice of Luke

The Voice of Luke is what I've been reading lately in the morning. It is an amazing retelling of the book of Luke. They have also retold Matthew, Mark, John and Acts. They've written out the scripture like a book with commentary built into the story. So as your reading the scripture there are little asides or added background put right into the story. It also does cool stuff like having dialog being broken down like a play. In Luke 4 when Jesus is being tempted by the Devil it looks like this:
Devil: I'll give you all these kingdoms if...
Jesus: You will not test the one true God...
You should really check it out...I wouldn't steer you wrong!

Back to work

Well after three weeks of travel, travel, travel, crying, pooping, sleeping, travel, and staying at home for a week and a couple days it is back to work for me. Sofia has been great the last couple days but tonight was really difficult. She only took one nap today as opposed to her normal three so when we put her down around dinner time she was in her crib screaming. Meanwhile Zeke was refusing to eat two bites of chicken and threw the fit of the century. Just in case you weren't sure...two screaming kids is more annoying than one screaming kid. Something I knew before this adoption but it becomes a lot more real when it's happening. Right now there it total peace in the house. The only sound I can hear is the click of the keyboard under my fingers and I am slowly regaining shalom.
In August I have two big concerts with Anthem, I'm planning on going to a couple days of high school camp (if the kids are on schedule by then), I'm putting together teachers for the new young married class, going to a Willow Creek leadership conference, doing an event with the young married group, an event with the college group, my life group starts up again, and I'm marrying Scott and Christina. Nothing like easing yourself back into the groove. And I almost forgot...Our rental house on Palm hits the market on the first and we are desperately trying to sell it. 3 bed, 2 bath, 1900 sq. feet for $349,900. If you know anyone interested let me know! If we don't sell it this month then we will probably end up renting it out again. So needless to say, my life is pretty stress free right now.

Garage sale tomorrow

We'll be settin' up shop at Steve and Karen's on San Diego st., right across from the Plaza tomorrow (Saturday)...follow the signs. If you would like to drop anything off please come by early because we'll be done by noon. We aren't those crazy all day garage sale people (like my brother!) Just come and hang out and sift through the process of my family down scaling our lives.

Front page, Press Enterprise, Saturday August 11th

What the heck!!??! The guy from the press was here for an hour and a half. I felt like I was inviting him into the best life there is in Jesus. What a cool opportunity to share with him the love that God has showed me and the way we get to show that to others...especially those without a voice and the overlooked in society. At the end we started talking about Anthem and it sounds like he might want to do an interview with me in a month or two to talk about Anthem....crazy! I'll let you know when to look for it.

We're gonna be in the paper

So this guy from the Press Enterprise is coming over tomorrow to interview our family about adoption. This is the email that he sent to me:

I am writing a story about efforts by some evangelical leaders to get more Christians to adopt children or take in foster kids. I would like to talk with you about the adoption, and how that fits into your desire as a Christian to follow Christ’s teachings. Would it be possible to interview you and your wife in person when you get back from Kazakhstan, and to take photographs of you and your new child?

How cool is that! We get to preach to the Press Enterprise. I'm not sure what I'm going to say yet but you can pray that it goes well. Hopefully our story can encourage other people towards adopting.

This post is for my friends

You know who you are...You and your wife are advocates for the kingdom of God in ways that blow my mind. Even though I have a few years on you both I feel like I have been the student in much of our relationship. Your integrity and commitment to relationships is evident to everyone that really knows you. I know this week is probably one of the hardest of your life to this point, but keep your head up, it only gets harder :) Know that you have friends that will stand in front of arrows for you and we will be with you through this. Take all the time in the world to mourn and know that great life will spring out of this loss. The future is exciting and I look forward to dreaming it up with both of you. Justice doesn't always come in this lifetime but remember that by quietly suffering, Jesus started a revolution that we are still trying to advance today. Alyssa and I are your friends and we love you!

The Edwardsons

These are our friends Nate, Erica, Ava, Adia, and Asher Edwardson. They stopped by on there way back to Redding yesterday. It was so good to see them and hang out for a while. Why is it that you have some friends that you see twice a year that you feel as close to as a lot of your other friends. We start talking and it seems like we were just hanging out last week. It's crazy that we have all these kids now. It seems like yesterday that we were all single and hanging out in Redding. Nate and Erica pastor a church in Redding called the Stirring. Go check it out and listen to some podcasts.

We're having a few issues

Zeke's doing great but he's having a few issues with sharing all this attention with Sofia. Every time we run into people and they start giving Sofia all the attention Zeke yells at them..."I TURNED FOUR!!!" which doesn't make any sense. Zeke turned four in April. He's just gotta have something that's exciting about him too. It will wear out soon I'm sure.

Still 13 hours ahead

Sofia doesn't know she's left Kyrgyzstan. She's up every night at midnight, 3am, 6am. Last night I walked around with her from 3-7am...good times! They are 13 hours ahead of us over there. Jet lag is killing us this time back. Usually we push ourselves the first night to stay up and everything is fine but getting up 3 times a night when you're fighting jet lag stinks. Enough complaining...I'm off to see what happens tonight.
By the way...being a daddy of two is awesome...you should try it.
Thanks Micah and Elizabeth for bringin' by food...it was mucho deliciouso!

Beware of the environmentalist

Here's Sofia's first cloth diaper. We are really trying to make changes in our lifestyle to help the environment. If cloth diapers were good enough for me as a kid then I'm sure they're good enough for my kid. I'm just waiting for the first time I drive that safety pin into Sofia's hip! I am almost done reading Serve God, Save the Planet by Matthew Sleeth and it is really good. Everyone should read it. I'm slowing turning into a tree hugging environmentalist so you get to see the process from the beginning. By the way...thanks to all the people that walked, carpooled and rode their bikes to work for us while we were gone. On flights now you can buy your emission offsets but something felt like getting people involved would be much cooler. Sofia is not going to the Grove tomorrow...something tells me that might be a little overwhelming for the second day back. We'll try to bring her next week. I'll bring pictures on my ipod.

Random pics from first day back

Pic 1-2: Brother and sister...together at last
Pic 3: Sofia's first nap in her crib
We ALL took a nap today from 2-4pm and getting up felt like someone poured cement on me while I was sleeping. I'm feelin' better now. It's 9:07pm and we are trying to hold out till 10 or 11pm to get back on schedule. Thanks Ian for the power cable. That's why I'm able to put up the pics.

WE MADE IT.....BARELY!!!!

Sorry, no pictures or video. I packed my laptop power supply and adapter for my camera in my main bag that didn't make it home along with our other bags. That's just the beginning of the story of our trek home. Buckle your seat belts...
We get to the airport at 7am (two hours early) and they move us the front of the line only to tell us that we might not make the flight because we didn't purchase our lap sitting ticket for Sofia with the ticket agent. Our agent said it was easier and cheaper to just purchase the ticket at the airport...that was not the case. The took the next hour and a half giving us ulcers as we waited to see if they could make it happen. They finished minutes before we were supposed to board, our stomachs were in knots. The plane wasn't ready and we ended up waiting for 45 minutes.
First flight was to some weird place in Russia and it only took 2.5 hours. We had an open seat next to us and Sofia was able to sleep. We stayed on the same plane with the same open seat for our flight to London. We had to wait for an hour to refuel and we were on our way. Sofia did pretty good. Eat, scream, sleep, repeat!
As we were flying into London they informed us that they had huge thunderstorms that morning and they had actually shut down the airport for a time so we had to circle for an hour before landing because of the traffic. Once on the ground we stayed in the same place for an hour because of the traffic. Our connecting flight to LAX was at 4pm and when we got off the plane it was 4pm. We landed in terminal 4 and our flight was out of terminal 1 (the furthest terminal away). Add to this that our gate was the as far away as you could get as well. Alyssa had Sofia in a sling...I consolidated our two carry-0ns into my backpack (now weighing 634 lbs. because you can't have 2 carry-0ns in London) and our enormous diaper bag. We ran the whole way to get there and the flight had been delayed till 5pm...praise Jesus. We boarded the plane smelling like 2 homeless people...completely exhausted! We proceeded to sit on the plane for an hour because there were 20 people still looking for the plane in the terminal. Sofia was screaming and Alyssa was on the verge of breakdown. We had to have her buckled in so we couldn't get up and walk...it was awful. We finally take off and they give us the awesome bassinet in front of us that Sofia sleeps in on and off for 7 hours...amazing! The rest of the flight goes fine and we finally end up at LAX. We go to baggage claim and no bags...classic! We head to the exit and meet Zeke with Alyssa's parents. (I have video that will be up when I get my cable back) I go to fill out the forms and there are 40 people in front of me with one person working the desk. We were supposed to land at 7pm...we landed at 8:30pm...we got out of the terminal by 11pm. It was one of the craziest days ever but it's finally done. We got home...Sofia slept from 1am to 4:30am...woke up...took a bottle...went back to bed till 6am...Alyssa and I couldn't sleep...and now our life of 4 begins. Stop by and say hi! We are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo glad to be home.

Adoption day 9 (PRAISE JESUS...WE'RE COMIN' HOME!!!)

We got the Visa today without a hitch!!! Thanks to everyone that has been praying for us. Sofia is doing amazing. We found out that she wasn't fussy, she was just starving. We feed her a full bottle every 3 hours now and she cries every time they're done. We went to the doctor and she only weighs 11 lbs (I know kids that are born at that weight). She's 25 inches long (that's pretty normal). Once we started pounding the formula down she has been doing great and napping great (as you can see). We leave for the airport tomorrow at 6am and we'll get to LAX at 7pm (about 20 hours). Can't wait to see my bed. Please pray for our travels. I won't be able to post again until we're home. I made up for it with 4 posts today. WE'RE COMIN' HOME WITH OUR LITTLE GIRL. She became an American today...poor thing! Thank you so much for reading my blog and praying. Thanks to Carlos for showing me how to capture an adoption with a little camera and a little html. If you're new to my blog because of the adoption...stick around to hear the ridiculous things that run through my head on a regular basis!

The bears made it Nightlight!!!!

The people were very excited. The bag with the bears came in 6 days late but we got it there on our last day. I gotta say...I'm sad the bears didn't make our first flight but I much rather go without bears than my deodorant!

How's the air in Riverside today???

I think it's about the same here.
Kazakhstan is beautiful...no Borat jokes!
That last picture is with Zoriya. She was our coordinator here in Kazakhstan.

Just for Zeke

If you know my son this will make sense!

Adoption day 9 (OH MY WORD!!!!!)

If you are not a patient and flexable person...please never attempt adopting internationally. We have been streched like crazy but it has been an awesome adventure. I wouldn't trade any of the experience because if it was boring there wouldn't be any cool stories to share when we get home. No pics today...I'm at an internet cafe so the story will have to do.
So here was our yesterday...
We were supposed to check out of our hotel at noon and leave for Kazahstan at 2pm. We got a call that we were delayed till 5pm so we took all our stuff and left it at the hotel of the Hungs (the other adopting couple) because their hotel would let us hang out in their lobby. Get another call around 5pm that says the border is closed till 10pm!!!! So now we are hanging out in the hotel lobby with two kids (6 and 8 months) and four parents...heaven on earth. Please keep in mind that we are 13 hours ahead of California so I'm feeling delirious at this point. We get to the border...get out...walk through customs...hand the stern man my passport and he up and downs me for 10 minutes. He doesn't think I look like my picture. He makes me put my chin up so he can get a good look at me. After 15 minutes of torture he lets me through. I guess there are some draw backs to losing weight. We get back in the van that is 438 degrees and drive for 3 more hours till we get to our hotel. Now it's 2am and we get to the front desk. They don't have our reservation. Sofia's crying...Alyssa's crying...I'm looking for something sharp to take my life with. The hotel has another hotel attached to it that has a room. We go over there...no a/c...the room is 439 degrees...no crib...the bed has box springs but no mattress...we say PERFECT, we'll take it!!! Sleep for 5 hours and get up to run around like crazy at the health clinic and embassy today. All our paperwork went through so we are really praying that we get signed off tomorrow at 3pm so we can still go home on Friday. Good times! Keep praying...God has been helping us with all the details through this process. I feel like we are on a warped version of the Amazing Race. I wouldn't trade it for the world. Sofia did great today...she is a trooper. Can't wait for you to see her. How was your Wednesday, ours was pretty boring?

Adoption day 8 (driving)

Sofia slept till 7am again today...she's a stud! She's been a little crabby today and we have a 4 hour drive to Kazakhstan in front of us. Pray for us if you remember. Sofia and my stomach seem to have settled which is awesome. I put together like an 8 minute video that youtube wouldn't let me upload so you might have to wait till I get home to see that one. This morning I was instant messaging with Ian and Josh. We tried to do a video chat but it wouldn't let us. How cool is technology. Anyways...I don't know what our internet situation will be for the next couple days but I'll try to get something up soon. We miss you all and can't wait to be home.

Adoption day 7 (exploseria)

I've got some problems goin' on down south today. Sofia's had a couple blow outs as well. We were out today for lunch at someones house and this is the squatty potty that felt my wrath. If you've ever seen how unflexable I am you can imagine my dilema. We leave for Almaty Kazakhstan tomorrow to get visas and all that good stuff. Please continue to pray. Suale tells us that everything is on a very tight schedule and she is hoping there wont be any delays!

Thanks for spreadin' the love

I think adoption is amazing and I think everyone should get involved with it in one shape or another. The bible is pretty clear that we should have an ear for the oppressed and overlooked. Some of you have obviously been passing this blog around to people so they can be a part of it. I've got about 20 more people a day coming through revrock. I say keep spreadin' the love! If this blog can spark interest in one more person considering this amazing journey then it is serving its purpose. Go to Nightlight Christian Adoptions and check out their information. They have been great through this process. Leave a comment and share your thoughts and questions. Pass around other adoption blogs and sites that you know of.

Random pics from today

If I had a picture of her spitting up, crying, jamming her hand into her mouth, drinking her bottle and being held it would give you a good idea of every second with her up to this point! Look at that second picture...she is the cutest thing on the planet! I also think she weighs less than some newborns. I need to get her home to start feeding her double doubles from In and Out! The diapers and clothes we brought were way too big.

Adoption day 6 (lunch in the mountains)

Last night Sofia slept from 10pm to 7am (she's awesome!) We went to the mountains today for lunch. Bishkek is a beautiful place, the pictures don't really do it justice. There were horses, sheep, cows, chickens and donkeys on the ride up. We had lunch at a place called 12 chimneys. Each little table had it's own chimney attached to it. (see pic) That family with us is the Hungs. They live in Arizona and are adopting a little girl from the same orphanage named Audrey.
Well...we decided to pick the week that Sofia was teething to bring her home. (Although, I think that's what every parent says when they can't figure out why their kid is going nuts.) Her gums are white and super hard and shes jamming anything and everything (sometimes both hands) into her mouth and crying for a majority of the day. Pray that they will cut through and be less painful. Today has been a good day...we just can't make it go fast enough. We want to be home badly! We miss you all...thanks for sharing this experience with us.

How did God know....

...to give Sofia the Lance forehead? I'm always amazed by the little things that God does to remind you how cool he is.

Quick video for Zeke

We heard he was missing us so bear with the mommy and daddy stuff. It's hard to be away from the little man for so long. If you see him give him a big hug from us. If you're near something soft you should give him a body slam or a suplex. We've been doing those for hours before I left. It's never to early to learn the fundamentals of wrestling.

Adoption day 5 (random video up to this point)

I'll make the video pretty when I get home.
Sofia slept from 10pm to 6am again today. She's doing great! Thanks for all the prayers.

Adoption day 4 (Theology of the slow nipple)

First things first.
We put Sofia down last night at 10pm...she woke up at 6am! I was amazed...slept through the night without a peep. (notice I said peep and not poop. She woke up with and orange soupy explosion in her diaper that is hard to describe with the language God has given us!) We also gave her a bath. She was a trooper.
Side note: Mike Berk...we saw Bolot and he is doing great. (He was rockin' these pink sweats with matching booties.) Looks like he's gettin' a bunch of teeth in. We went to take a picture of him and Sofia together but the care taker didn't want us to do it. I was really bummed. If we get back to the orphanage I will sneak a quick shot in...promise! He's doing great.
Today we went to the Consulate and everything went good. We got the birth certificate but we still need prayer to make sure everything goes threw by Monday. We still plan on leaving for Almaty on Tuesday.
Today has been a real chill day. Sofia's been kind of fussy but I think I would be to if people that sounded ridiculous took me away from all my friends and started clicking this shiny thing in my face all day that makes these crazy flashes.

So now to the theology of the slow nipple:
6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm, 10pm. That's the bottle schedule. We are using the slow nipple on her bottle so each feeding is taking about 20 minutes. This is time that I spend holding my little girl, looking into her eyes, not saying a word. Each time has been a special 20 minutes of slowly giving my baby life through the sustenance of baby formula and thanking God for this amazing adventure he's led my family into. I'm starting to wish all of my relationships had slow nipple experiences. How much better would life be if we would take significant time at intervals throughout the day with our kids, spouses and friends to slowly pour life into each other. It wouldn't involve a lot of words, just a deep understanding of love and commitment. Of course there would be periodic breaks for pats on the back and spitting back a little of that life onto the other person. (it's always good to have a little give and take. Hopefully it smells better then what Sofia is spitting up on me!) Sofia is teaching me so much already and I haven't even known her for a week.
Slow life giving relationships...isn't that part of what God created us for.
More nipple theology coming soon.

Adoption day 3 (We get Sofia!!!)

We got the full experience today. Changing, feeding, sleeping, laughing, crying. It was awesome! She is so much more expressive then last time we were here. She's not a lot bigger but she can turn over and she kicks her feet like crazy...potential drummer or soccer player in the works! And she laughs all the time now.
We are trying to figure out how to be parents again of a 6 month old. Totally forgot what to do...maybe we should have brushed up on some books? We got the bottle thing down after a little trial and error. All the directions for the formula are in Russian! How dare them not to accommodate the Americans that refuse to learn other peoples languages :)
That second picture is with Jeanie and Saule...two of the workers that made our adoption possible.
Pray that they get birth certificate papers in! They've been out but they assure us that they'll be in tomorrow. We added an extra $100 because that's what you do down here when things aren't going the way you want them to. It's cool...it's all worth it...just please pray because if this gets held up they could keep us for two more days...Surprise mom and dad!
It's 8pm here now and we are trying to stay up till 10pm. So far, so good.
Sofia is doing great. Thanks again to everyone that supported us with prayer and finances. You are a huge part of this and I hope you feel a special connection to these pictures and stories. We love you.

Adoption day 2 (the air)

First flight LAX to London...10 hours...We get bumped to business class. This is a picture of my leg room. Have no idea why they bumped us but I didn't complain.
Ran Amazing Race style to our connecting flight because we got in late. They let us out first off the plane so we could make it...we made it!
Second flight from London to Tblisi...5 hours...Rockin' it coach style...our tv's didn't work...they felt bad...for some reason they thought we were on our honeymoon...brought us a bottle of champagne.
Sat on the plane in Tblisi so they could refuel for an hour.
Third flight from Tblisi to Bishkek...4 hours...They move us to first class because they felt bad about our tv's not working. These seats we're ridiculous. You could literally lay down. We were definitely out of our league, but it was awesome.
Got off the plane, got our visa, got through customs. Our bag with all the teddy bears from Nightlight didn't make it...sorry Nightlight! Went to find our driver...no one was holding a sign so we get ripped off by a cab guy that takes us to the hotel.
Get into bed at 5am and set the alarm for 8am because we are going to the orphanage at 9am!
We made it!!!!!!!!

Adoption day 1 (LAX)

Pic 1: Alyssa waiting
Pic 2: It's 3:24pm at LAX. We arrived safely at our hotel in Bishkek at 5am two days later!
Pic 3: Looked at myself and realized I was wearing gray shoes, gray socks, gray shorts and a gray shirt. I'm all about fashion.
Pic 4: I've been calling Alyssa Seinfeld because she's rockin' the black pants and white nike's. We are a walking fashion statement.
Pic 5: This little purse thing has $3,000 cash in 100 dollar bills. I wear it inside my shorts for protection. As we were going through security I took my belt off for the scanners. As we were walking away I felt something slide down my leg. I turn around and this thing is laying on the ground of LAX! That could of been bad. Now I have it duct taped to my leg. It's killer on the leg hair but it's worth it :)

In my backpack for Kyrgyzstan

MacBook (fully juiced)
Cannon SD600 (Two 1 gig cards ready to fill)
Ipod (just added 37 podcasts and the Leeland album)
The Story We Find Ourselves In (Brian McLaren)
The Last Word and the Word After That (Brian McLaren)
Serve God Save the Planet (J. Matthew Sleeth)
The Myth of a Christian Nation (Greg Boyd)
Jesus and Empire (Richard Horsley)
My Moleskin
My TNIV bible (don't tell Casey, I'll never be able to become a baptist)
Hot Tamales (supersize box)
This month's issue of Relevant magazine
Am I missing anything? I feel like I'm missin' something.

WE LEAVE TOMORROW!!!

Possible post drought depending on internet connection. We leave for LAX tomorrow at 1:30pm and we'll arrive in Bishkek at 3:30am 2 days later! Good times. Please pray for us. Please pray that Sofia would quickly bond with us and that she would be at peace in the midst of all this craziness! Pray for her little buddies and helpers that she is going to leave. They have been her family for 6 months. Thank you again to everyone that has supported us with prayer and financially. You are all a huge part of this story. Can't wait for you all to see her.
ps. there is still a chance that things aren't completely finalized with the name so I'm still fighting for Sofia Rima "the Edge" Lance. Talk to you all soon!

Week 4: Sabbath

Wedding weekend.
Sarah Perkins and Will on Friday night in a backyard...very nice...said a prayer for dinner because I'm a pastor and that's what I do.
Andrea Johnson and Steve Pendleton on Saturday morning...awesome...sang "She" by Elvis Costello (yes, the song at the end of Notting Hill) as she was walking down the aisle. Reception went forever (surprise).
Went home...nap from 3-5pm...amazing.
Woke up...my house was 152 degrees
Grabbed some Panera for the fam, ate outside.
Zeke got a bath.
Alyssa and I talked on the couch for a couple hours.
Watched an episode of Man vs. Wild (the one in Kenya where he squeezes the juice out of elephant dung to drink!)
Very relaxing Sabbath.
ps. Casey called me half way through the day and I realized that I forgot to turn my phone off. I felt the need to confess. It will never happen again! :)
pss. We leave on Tuesday!!!

Remember the grass rash

Four days till we leave!!!

We go to pick up Sofia in four days. Thank you so much to all of you blog friends that have chipped in to make this trip possible. We were blown away with the amount of support from our community. Our family helped out a ton for our first trip but its been all our friends that stepped up huge for this trip...we can't say thank you enough. We will be gone July 10-20. (Remember to walk and ride your bikes for us while we're gone). Keep your eyes on the blog...if there is internet I will put up pics and video.
Side note...Karen Dunlap is super stoked that Sofia has Elf ears. She thinks she might have a innate connection with Lord of the Rings. If you know Karen, that was funny!

How we spent the 4th

Grandpa's house all day! Downhill slip and slide! How cool is Zeke's hair?

Are you proud to be an American...

now everyone in unison (with harmonies from those of you that always do that even though you're not asked)...where at least I know I'm free!
Anyone else hear that song yesterday?
What's up with that song? Disturb anyone else?
Here's the words:
And I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free. (sucks for a ton of the world that isn't free but at least I know I'm free)
And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me. (They left out women and children, and I'm assuming he's not talking about our enemies that are men, women and children.)
And I’d gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land God bless the U.S.A. (Should God bless anyone else but the US?)
This is not Dan's anti-American rant, it's just a thought about the language we use as a country that could be seen as really offensive to the rest of the world.
Every time we've picked up the sword as a nation we've walked away from Jesus' mandate to love our enemies and pray for those that persecute us. I'm not saying that this world isn't complicated with complicated problems. I just think that we tend to puff ourselves up as a country when the cross is supposed to be the only thing we boast in.
As a Christian my allegiance is to God's kingdom which is always opposed to the kingdom of this world. It's not a better version of the kingdom of this world...it is totally opposite.
That doesn't mean that we can't be happy about the plot of land that God has placed us in but this whole love your neighbor thing (in our global economy) stretches way beyond Fontana! Just some thoughts...any other thoughts?

McLaren's ready to drop another bomb

You can pre-order now...click the picture. Here's a taste:
... "by postponing the essence of salvation to the afterlife, and by assuming God plans to destroy the earth, the conventional view leads us to assume that the world will get worse and worse, and that this deterioration is in fact God's will or plan. This assumption would tend to create a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. Not only that, but in some versions of the conventional view, the worse the world gets, the better we should feel since salvation - meaning post-mortem salvation after the world is destroyed - is approaching. In too many cases, the conventional view can lead people to celebrate humanity's "progress" in self-destruction rather than seeking to turn it around. To put it bluntly, in terms of humanity and this earth, the conventional view too easily creates - unintentionally, of course - a kind of religious death wish." (84)

Drop everything you're doing and...

...go here and download Matt Krick's message from Mars Hill titled "God is green." They are starting a series that I'm really excited about. Matt takes you from Genesis to Revelation showing you the mandate we have as humans to lovingly care for the earth God has given us. You have to listen to it! When you're done with that go to Borders and find "Myth of a Christian Nation" by Greg Boyd and read chapter 7. If you have money...buy it...if you don't...put it back and buy it when you get some money. Or you can get it used here for cheaper. I'll give you just a taste:
Like Jesus, no part of Paul's kingdom ministry involved trying to tweak the morality of the culture at large. Like Jesus, his only concern was that kingdom people consistently live out the new life they have within the kingdom, for only when they do this will they offer the culture at large a beautiful, kingdom alternative to their present, sinful, self-centered, and ultimately, destructive way of living. (pg. 133)
I started my morning with that and searching through Numbers and Deuteronomy because I had a thought about the similarity in Moses and Jesus not being able to see the fruition of the dreams for their people. They both trusted others (Joshua, and the Holy Spirit + church) to pull off their dreams even though they knew the process would be flawed and we'd get a ton of it wrong. How crazy is that idea?
Who needs seminary? I got a Bible, a brain, some friends, a mentor, some books and my ipod. My version is much cheaper.

So I'm thinkin' about writing a book

Working title:
Born in the pew

Working chapter titles:
Born in the pew
The youth group years
The jock turns rock star
The beauty of the F word
The college (wonder) years
Coffee, Cohiba and Newcastle
The love roller coaster comes to a halt
The rock and roll life
The Porch is born...The Porch is dead
Infertility
Adoption
Building the empire
Church Culture
Dad/Employer = weird dynamics
Awaken to the kingdom

There are two more chapters but they will remain secret for the time being.
It's going to be the story of my journey towards something real.
Would anyone be interested in reading something like this?
It will probably be more like therapy for me than anything else.

Can somebody please invent...

something that I can put over the seat of my Vespa so it isn't 430 degrees when I go to sit down on it and get third degree burns on my bum? The prices you pay for 70 miles to the gallon!

When did I become that guy...

that sits in my house and constantly complains about how hot it is? I used to count the minutes till summer and spend every second outside soaking it all in. Now I sit in my house that I refuse to air condition and pray for fall. I'm getting old. I think Redding secretly turned me into a cool temperature guy and I've never recovered. There's also something about looking out to where you know the mountains are and thinking..."I wonder if they're still there?" I guess we'll just wait till October to settle the curiosity. Sorry for the Debbie Downer post...I just feel myself slowly becoming the old guy that wears black socks and big weird hats at the beach. What season are you waiting for? And yes...I realize that the word season in Riverside is a very loose term.

Responsibility and Dependence

The three words from Bill's sermon this weekend that are really sticking with me. Go listen to it here. (wait till later today or Tuesday so Ian can get it on line) All of life boils down to this. God gives us responsibilities in life but wants us to keep the balance of a healthy dependence on him in the process. I have a responsibility to provide shelter, food, and love for my soon to be two kids but I need to depend on God that he has a place for them in his story that is not my responsibility. Our tendency is to smother our responsibilities to the point that we don't need to be dependent on God. I can shelter my kids every move to the point that I think God is no longer needed but God's story will still unfold. Our dependence comes in knowing that his plans and ways our higher and better than ours. That's a difficult place to come to.
As I look to the future for me and my family there's a lot of uncertainty. Does that mean that I lay around and tell God to figure things out for me? No...I move forward in the responsibilities I have as a husband, father, son, brother, friend and minister in the kingdom. But I try not to hold so tightly to those responsibilities that I miss the simple life of dependence that God has for me. Eternal life...life to the full, here and now. I have a role in God's story but it's still God's story.
Anyway Bill...thanks. Sorry I never got back to you on suggestions for your sermon. You're probably better off...I think you nailed it. I think I'm applying the points you made and if I'm way off please send some correction. Anyone else have any thoughts?

Week 3: Sabbath

No phone...and no messages on Sunday!
No computer...no blogs
Got up...mowed the lawn. Would of done it on Friday but I forgot to turn the sprinklers off on Thursday night. Plus Alyssa was hinting that we were becoming "those" neighbors. Not exactly sure what that meant but I knew I had to mow the lawn on Saturday.
After that the day was great.
Went to the in laws to celebrate a nephew's b-day. Good grub...pool...and a nap by the pool.
Came home...took another nap. Got up...made dinner with Alyssa, went on a walk with Zeke, read my book, watched two episodes of Curb your enthusiasm. Great Sabbath.
Lawn, BBQ, pool, nap, dinner, walk, read, tv. Thanks for keeping me accountable to a sustainable life. I think about having to blog to all of you and it helps me make decisions when I want to accomplish on my Saturdays! Did you get a day this week to rest?