Hallelujah Chorus

Take a minute to watch the attached video (for the technologically challenged just click on the title). Make sure to listen to the words.

I think it's a perfect example of the unity of music and life. The song is about (in part) Christ coming to earth and entering our life with us. And these folks live it out by bringing the story to a shopping mall during Christmas.

Merry Christmas

I just had a thought. I have a double-major in Political Science and Philosophy, yet I get all my news from The Daily Show and the Colbert Report.

Is this sick and wrong or just a sign of the times?

Organization

I was watching a customer fiddling with her money the other day and had a flashback to my childhood. I remember being at a toy store buying something. Dad was with me and I think this was probably one of the first times I had bought something with my own money - probably when Mom and Dad were initially trying to teach us good spending habits.

When I was putting away the change Dad told me that he likes to organize his bills by denomination - 20's behind 10's, 10's behind 5's, etc. He seemed to think that this was important, that it would save time in the long run. I remember thinking at the time,

I don't have time for that! Where are your priorities - there are Lego's to play with!

Well, I don't know how it happened, but years later I'm that guy holding up the line at Safeway putting my money away.

Thanks Dad. Now if I would just have the same attitude towards the rest of my life I could walk to my bed without stubbing my toes and tripping on stuff.

Truck smell

So most of you know I'm driving a new vehicle. Marv Rhodes, a close friend of the family, passed away and it used to be his. It was sad to see Marv go, but he's in a better place. I am pretty excited about the truck, however. It's been cool to be driving a vehicle that belonged to someone I knew - kind of a remembrance.

Anyway, though, the reason I'm writing this is because of a strange smell that I just noticed. I was driving it the other day and suddenly thought

"wow, it even smells like a truck".

A while later, when I wasn't in the truck I had another thought.

"wait a second, how does a truck smell any different than a car?"

What the heck was I identifying as that 'truck smell'? Do trucks really smell different from cars? How so?

So the next time I got in I paid more attention to exactly what I was smelling. I finally realized that what I was smelling was just Marv's old dog. Brandy or Oreo, I don't know which, had left their mark (so to speak) on the truck. And Gus, the dog my dad had while I was growing up, had left his mark on my subconscious feelings of what a truck should smell like.

Thanks guys, what would the world be like without dogs?

Edited on March 14th.

Poem - "The Pregnant Pause"

Read the "AAAAHHH!!!" post (below) before you read this. It's a poem that was shared during the sermon today. The link above is I think where it comes from.

we are tempted to think
that this is out of character for you

a momentary fragility
[showing your tender side]

that once the christmas carols are finished
and the decorations are put away,
you’ll get back to power and might.

but in your completeness -
this one chance we get to see flesh and bone
put onto the theory -
this is you:
fragile,
impossibly vulnerable
and at the mercy of human response.

so, god,
are you holding your breath too
in this pregnant moment;
waiting to see if we will answer
yes
to the fragile question
of divine love,
if – because – this is all
you can do.

AHHHH!!!

As you may have discerned from the title of this post I've been pretty stressed out lately. I won't go into the details about my work except to say that I'm being expected to work a LOT more hours than I have in the past. This is in addition to some obligations I've taken on with my church and the normal problems of the Christmas Season. I think we all know what it feels like to get up in the morning and know that there isn't enough time in the day and then have that knowledge confirmed when you go to bed at night.

But I had an insight at church today that I want to share. I'll quickly sum up Jake Hendrix's sermon a bit later, but the insight that I believe God had for me was this:

There's still time to worship God.

I keep forgetting that the most important thing is not how much I get done - It's Who I'm doing it for. By worship, by the way, I don't mean just singing. I mean an attitude towards the world and its creator that allows God's Character to indwell my life. Even in the midst of 60 hour work weeks it's still possible to have this attitude. When I'm working late at work I can listen to sermons on my MP3 player. When I'm frustrated and can't get it all done I can offer up a quick prayer. It's possible to have the proper attitude of a creature before the Creator wherever I am.

The reason this is possible is because of Christ, which gets me to the message I heard today. And just in case this sounds like just another sermon please know that I was brought to tears today thinking about this. The message was on the incarnation - the doctrinal belief that God became Man in the form of Jesus. God becoming one of us so that we can become one with him. God became vulnerable to us, came as a little baby, so that he could be with us. Emmanuel, which means The God who is with us has come into the world (Matthew 1:23) And he'll be with us always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).

One quick picture from the message and I'll be done. Think about the deepest, darkest, time in your life. How comforting is it to hear platitudes of "It'll all be all right"? Contrast that with the comfort of someone just Being with you throughout it. I don't know that it will "all be all right" with my job and other responsibilities. But I do know that I'm already all right with God - that he is with me throughout.

Merry Christmas

Pomegranates - I just don't get it.

How are you supposed to eat these things?
they were 2 for 1 a Safeway, so I bought two. I don't even know how to eat one.
On a side note - the buttons on my laptop for "C" "T" "H" and "V" stopped working. Anyone know how to fix that? IT was geTTing To be unworkable unTil I realized THaT THey work wHen I CapiTalize THem. Isn'T THaT funny? WHo would'Ve THougHT CapiTalizaTion Could solVe anyTHing? (No, Caps loCk doesn'T work).