truth wears pants.

After a long hiatus, I have decided a post is in good order. Plus I can do it on the go with my new app (always a plus). I decided I should not post about too much stuff that I get worked up about. Back when I used to work at the church I was constantly posting what I assumed were scathing and poignant blogs about the state of the church, assuming (I guess) that the whole work would read my post and the church would be radically transformed into what I saw as its best possible self.

No so much.

So I will post about something else (I hope).

For today, I just wanted to say how awesome my daughter Avaliese is. She slept all night and awoke at 10:30 this morning, giving dad the chance to chill and get pumped for a day of school preparation and returning library books and taking out loans to pay library fines...oops.

So, for the zero people reading this, goodbye for another year or two.

It has been a ridiculously long time since I posted anything, and so I felt an update would perhaps be in order. In the very rare case that someone may be reading this here is what has happened since my last post.
1. I quit my job. In light of the incredible difficulties I was having and the general feeling that God was moving me in a new direction coupled with the strains of Graduate school, I quit. O happy day.
2. Christina and I have been going over the countless options as to where to go next. We have considered everything from the East Coast (Virginia Beach to be precise) to Chicago (on a long shot). So we are in limbo and just living at the moment.
3. We are looking for a church. At once I am anxious to get into a community of like minded people, but wary so we get into a place that will be easier than our previous church. I would like to be able to continue to lead worship, but am more interested in finding a good, God-centered, earth-changing group. I know some people have been through this long and often frustrating search. If any of you have some pointers, I would be obliged to hear them.
4. My Steelers did not make the playoffs. I am sad still.

I am sure there is more, but those are the big things.

I oftentimes only like to write when I have something personally profound to write about, or incredibly witty to say. The problem is that when I go back and read these posts it turns out that I pretty much suck and am "behind the curve" to say the least. So I will just write what I have born witness to in the past few days/weeks.

1. Hard times happen...no one is spared.
I have had a few people I know go through some tough stuff recently and it really makes no sense at all. These same people, some of whom have been pillars of faith in my life have had a struggle with God in these events. Solid faith can still be shaken. Our worlds can independently be turned upside down at any moment and I the only thing that I can say about it is that it sucks. It may seem typical or contrived, but God remains the same through it all. It is hard to realize during the bad, but God loves everyone. It would be quite cruel for Him to allow bad things to happen to non-Christians and good things to happen to the Ubber-faithful. Perhaps He is allowing these things to happen so that His children can have the experience, wisdom and love necessary to reach out to the needing world who, in their lack of faith, would find no hope in such similar situations. Bad things suck. There is no getting around it, but it is life.

2. Change is scary, exciting and necessary. One thing that I must say is that when you have geared yourself up to change, planned the transition and have finally broken that apathetic cycle that oftentimes countermands the necessary change, it can take forever. I am on the edge of pretty dramatic changes and am getting really restless. It has gone from, "Okay, in a few months this will happen." to "Any day now the news will come and all will be well." to every moment that passes seems to be a little more of a let down. Nonetheless it is an exciting time and one that I hope will lead to a freedom that I have not felt in a while. Exciting.

3. Americans need to get it together. I was thinking about this push that some political analyst tv guy has out right now for people to be as patriotic as they were on September 12, 2001. What is wrong with Americans. Can we really not get behind our country and stay there unless something bad happens. Lazy.

4. Christians need to dial down the patriotism and focus on the universal family of God. I have more on that but don't want to get into it. Just think about it.

5. This is where we get a little more heavy in topics....Football season rocks. A few years back I had a dicussion with my brother about my excitement over football season increasing as I got older. We both have a similar experience. Whether it is the only way to vicariously live out adventure, or simply just a good time, I am seemingly doubly excited yet again this year. Also, the Steelers are going to rock it this year so I am stoked.

6. It seems my office gets worse every day I go to sit in it. On top of it being a tiny little space with no outside windows, it seems my lights like to phase bright to dim ever so slightly. It makes me feel tired and dizzy all at once. I feel like I am in a trippy mid-seventies sci-fi movie in whcih the special effects are limited to harsh lighting and strobe-like effects. To top office the office love experience, there is no air conditioning vent. Rgardless of how cool it is outside, a human being in a tiny space will make the temperature rise incredibly. I would open my door, but the lobby is right outside and there is a constant stream of people distracting me there. To make that situation worse, the couch in the lobby is right outside the door and people sit there and stare at me when the door is open...epic fail on all accounts.

That is all. Like I said not too much substance, but there it is.

Later.

Here in the booming metropolis of Canton, Ohio we have very few things going for us as a city. Among those select few pluses is our movie theaters. We have a massive multiplex that was built not long after a smaller theater, owned by the same company was built. To put this in perspective the smaller theater has ten screens, which is hardly minuscule. The smaller of the two theaters is now the greatest dollar theater I have ever been in. One of the main features of said dollar theater is the "do-it-yourself popcorn butter dispenser." Now two things just happened. 1. You just double checked to make sure that you read that correctly, and rest assured you did. 2. Your heart leapt for joy at the sheer greatness of such a device. Ladies and gentlemen I am here to tell you that this is not the correct human reaction. This invention is the devil in disguise, albeit a delicious, greasy buttery disguise. I have yet to use this contraption with success. The old adage "too much of a good thing" would not be an inappropriate slogan for this contraption. The first time I used it, I put so much butter on my popcorn that it turned the bottom of the bag into the consistancy of wet toilet paper, I got butter all over my jeans and ruined them, I gained 14 lbs. and got a stomach ache. You would think that an experience thus, would prevent such mishaps in the future, but the power of the Lard compels you. The second time I used it proved only slightly better and I have yet to use the do-it-yourself butter dispenser without disastrous results. And so I am here to warn you all of the coming doom if you encounter a do-it-yourself butter dispenser. It will ruin you.

In other news I am accepted to and going to begin graduate school. Hopefully within two years I will have a Masters of Arts in Biblical Interpretation....woohoo.

And since it has been so long since my last post, I must comment on how melt-your-face awesome Pittsburgh is for being the home of not only the Super Bowl Champion Steelers, but also the Stanley Cup Champion Penguins.

And lastly, I am not always enthusiastic for fall, but I do believe that this years fall time cannot come soon enough for the great music releases that will be taking place over the months of September and October. I am stoked. Some of my favorite artists seem to be on release schedules that gorge some years in great music and leave others in a wasteland of mediocrity.

The End.

I went to a child abuse seminar yesterday thinking, perhaps even hoping, that they would teach us how to spot and report suspected abuse. It was, however, just a risk management seminar teach us how to not abuse children and the legal steps we need to take to make sure that The Salvation Army is not liable for our volunteers and staff that we bring into the building. Now, to be sure this information is necessary. However, when the risk management fellow equated each possible abused child in our program to a sum of money I had had it. The quote went something like, "If you have a known pedophile in your building, each child abuse case can be seen as $2 Million. If you have 30 kids you could see the cost." Wow. A whole $60 Million and nothing about the possible ruined lives of the kids. To soften it a little, there was mention of the kids safety throughout, but there was always a sense of legal covering of the proverbial ass.

To change gears I was also quite interested to hear the "panel" be so very adamant saying that pedophilia is an incurable disease. Luckily a few pastors raised the question, what about the supernatural ability of God's saving grace and the sanctification work of His Spirit. The response was a simple, "It has been scientifically proven that there is no cure for pedophilia." I have forgotten to mention that this panel consists of a Christian Salvation Army Member who advises the Eastern Territory and is employed as such, a Christian Lawyer whom I have a bit more respect for than the others, and an Ordained Salvation Army pastor. The first thing that popped into my head when he said this was that there is a double standard. These same people would argue up and down that scientific proof means nothing when it comes to the creation of the world. "Evolution cannot have happened because God created the world in 7 days." Why is the church so eager to follow the proof of science in modern cases, and not in ancient ones? Why can't Christians ever seem to find the middle ground. Why can't we understand that God has ordered the world, and it is governed by laws, but that those laws do not pertain to himself, or us, when we have the Holy Spirit working in and through us? It is this lack of consistency that, I believe, has turned the public opinion of Christianity sour. I have not had time to fully think through my argument, but there it is. I hope that I will be able to learn enough in my lifetime that I will at least be able to limit these double standard occurrences in my beliefs. Who knows.

And speaking of learning, I am now a graduate. Yay me...yay me. Although I have to admit it seems like I have more to do now than I did a month ago. Before I was graduated there was a barrier between me and grad school. Now no such thing exists and so I have a lot of work to do.

Also, I stand upon the precipus of an historic occasion. This is an occasion that most people will never get to experience in their lifetimes. I may get a personal trifecta of major sports championships. I know it is that amazing. Cleveland has been waiting for more than my lifetime for just one, and I may get my three teams each one in 2009. This probably won't ever happen again and so I must step back and awe at the possibilities. The Steelers have their championship, enough to make this among the best sports years of my life. But as the Cavaliers have a good hope of winning it all and the Pittsburgh Penguins have a good hope of at least getting to the Stanley Cup Finals and then an equal chance to win it, I am on cloud nine. Even if they don't win it all, I may never see this kind of success among my teams (the only three I follow) in my lifetime and if they win it all, it may just mean the end of the world.

I don't want to continue on a negative train. This blog, has become a place for me to whine about stuff, and I don't want that to be the case all the time. So I will make this part short. I had another "altercation" with my boss. He became rather aggressive and flat out disrespectful and inappropriate. I was upset for about five minutes and then it passed. This almost daily ritual of foolishness has made me decide that it doesn't really matter. So whether it be callouses that I have developed or the realization that I can't change his thinking, I have decided to let it go. I am even resolved to be ok with the idea that his soul purpose is to make me quit. Frankly it doesn't matter.

On to some good news. I am done with my Undergraduate degree. That is right. It happened with the whimper of a passed CLEP test and the strange feeling that I was done but yet was not. It makes me smile when I think about it, but I don't really feel it. I have felt done for a while. like the last three months of my senior year in high school. But alas I am finished, just in time to start Grad School. "Where?" might you ask...not sure. I don't want to move, but I do. So there...

In the trivial but important world of Professional Sports, I am riding high. My Steelers won the Super Bowl...the creme de la creme. The Cavs are looking like freaks and will at least make it to the Finals (no prediction about the outcome) and the Penguins are looking pretty good. There is a chance that I will have the personal trifecta this year...good times. (If you are wondering about Gaysball, I mean baseball, well frankly I am so happy when October rolls around and any team wins the title, I leap for joy no matter who wins because that means I don't have to watch anymore "top plays" on SportsCenter or hear about a pulled hamstring someone got while running in a straight line for 60ft.)

Movie Season. Every year, the first four months of the year trick me into believing that I don't like going to see movies. Then May rolls around with the glorious series of highly anticipated garaunteed blockbuster that will rejuvinate my love affair with the big screen. Every year seems to be more anticipatory than the last. Although I realize that there will not be a genre shattering tour de force like The Dark Knight this year there are a slough of movies that I know will go into my top of the list category. A little insight into my excitement and my list of most anticipated.

6. Wolverine
Of all the recent reboots or first time Superhero franchises, this ranks among my least favorite. Perhaps it is the myriad of characters that makes it hard for me to get behind. These films have been good, but not the greatest and so I look foreward to this to sort of break me into the movie season. Also, they chose easily the most compelling (and freakin dead sexy) character to focus this film on. I have heard that it is less spectacle more story...good in my book.

5. Star Trek
I was way too young to get into this franchise in its hayday. Quite frankly compared to Star Wars there is no reason to watch. The origin story is always the best and the new look and feel may give this film the good time factor needed to be cool.

4. G.I. Joe

I may be more exited to see this film than Transformers, but I cannot decide. This movie holds the unknown. As long as they toss in "...and Knowing is half the battle" I'll be a fan. This one could go either way...we'll see.

3. Transformers

The story was actually good in the first film...not great. What makes this such a good time is the sheer amazinglyawesomeness of the spectacle of the robots. And of course Optimus Prime could be renamed Optimus Primeavel, as in he speaks to the primeavel good and "I wanna kick the crap out of bad gys" in every human being. Plus the first was was pretty funny.

2. Harry Potter

This was hard to bump to second. It may end up being better than my number one, but we'll have to wait and see. I held off being a fan. The movies have goten better right alongside the books. This could be a freaking good movie with a lot of emotional twist like a delayed second act in this seven part saga. This sets the stage for movie seven which has the youngsters in a more perolous world like that Luke and the Rebels find themselves in Star Wars and Frodo in The Lord of the Rings...stuff freat stories are made of.

1. Angels and Demons

A book taylor made for me, this is far and away Brown's best work. All the greatness of a treasure hunt, all the beauty of Rome and Reniassance Art, all the intrigue of an ancient secret society with powerful connections, and all the histroy of the Catholic church and you have my favorite types of stories all wrapped up into my favorite book of all time. This has the potential to be among my favorite movies of all time worth a place of honor in my DVD collection and the respect that only a thousnad viewings can bestow. Hopefully my self induced hype will not prouce a let down. My prediction is that I will like it anyway...it is a good story with lots of stuff that I will enjoy regardless. Summer movies here I come.

Today I have the privilege to celebrate earth day by moving into a small interior office with no windows to outside and no ability get fresh air. Hooray for the Earth. Goodbye sweet creation. I hope some day soon we will be reunited.