The year ahead

I am sitting here at my desk today and my mind keeps drifting to the year ahead. Do you ever find yourself dreaming...drifting...pondering? I've been here in Alabama for over 3 years now and I can't help but feel like I'm in a great need for some change in my life. I don't know what that means and no I'm not planning on leaving my church.

God has given me a personality and mind that dreams and likes to plan ahead but I don't feel very capable of doing that right now in my life. I feel like there's a big nasty ugly hairball clogging the pipe that is progress as of late and I don't know how to remove it.

Who am I becoming? Do I like where I'm at (physically, emotionally, socially, metaphorically)? What are my plans for the future? Where does God fit into all of this? Where should the focus of our student ministry be for the next year (yes, I know... Jesus - but what specifically)?

Talking to my Youth Pastor today (thanks Jeff, you really do need a blog) I came to the very scary realization that I'm actually approaching age 30 (I'm 27 now) and I still feel like a have a world of growing up to do before then. 5 years ago I would not have thought I would be where I'm at today in life. Somehow, I thought I'd be further along. It's hard to explain I guess.

Just some things I'm wondering... hoping for... dreaming for.

A Savior on Capitol Hill?

I watched part of the Youtube Republican debate last night on CNN and I can't help but think of this song by Derek Webb.

I’m so tired of these mortal men
with their hands on their wallets
and their hearts full of sin
scared of their enemies, scared of their friends
and always running for re-election
so come to DC if it be thy will
because we’ve never had a savior on Capitol Hill

you can always trust the devil or a politician
to be the devil or a politician
but beyond that friends you’d best beware
‘cause at the Pentagon bar
they’re an inseparable pair
and as long as the lobbyists are paying their bills
we’ll never have a savior on Capitol Hill

[Bridge]
all of our problems gonna disappear
when we can whisper right in that President’s ear
he could walk right across the reflection pool
in his combat boots and ten thousand dollar suit

you can render unto Caesar everything that’s his
you can trust in his power to come to your defense
it’s the way of the world, the way of the gun
it’s the trading of an evil for a lesser one
so don’t hold your breath or your vote until
you think you’ve finally found a savior up on Capitol Hill

My Wii is sick :(

The holidays are upon us! *shudder*

Christmas time is a double-edged sword but there are some redeeming moments. One bonus is that you can always find great deals and when it comes to entertainment releases, there are tons of options to choose from. I've been very excited to start playing the new Mario Galaxy game for the Wii. The game options for the Wii have started slow but have recently picked up with games like Metriod Prime 3 and (a new fave) Zack and Wiki (the only kids that would be playing this game might be Albert Einstein as a child).

To my dismay, I've recently discovered some little black flickering lines appearing in my more graphics intensive games which means I must relinquish my entertainment system... sad day. The good news is that Nintendo has rockin' customer service and they are going to repair or replace my Wii to fix the problem. The bad news is... I'm getting Mario Galaxy in the mail this week and will be sending my Wii away via UPS this week. Sad day!

Oh well, at least I still have Netflix :)

Thanksgiving

So it's been a while... 15 days since my last post. Yeah yeah, so I've been a bad blogger. I really don't have a good reason for not blogging, just haven't felt like it.

Well that is a about to change. Today I promise... ah bullocks. I'll try to do a better job of keeping things up to date. I'm finally reading somewhat regularly again so perhaps I'll have more fuel for the blog fodder.

This week is Thanksgiving - one of my favorite holidays. It's a little sad to be away from family, but I'll be spending the holiday at one of my student's homes with his family. I'm just thankful for having somewhere to go (and free food :)

Speaking of thankful - what are you all thankful for this Thanksgiving? I was thinking recently that when it comes to being thankful to God, the best thing we can do is to show our thankfulness with how we live out our lives. We can say we are thankful, or we can show it.

Here's a list of things I'm currently thankful for:

• God's provision for my food, health, and finances
• Great friends that check in on me from across the country
• Talents and abilities God has given me (some musical talent, aptitude with computers, intelligence [debatable])
• All the cool little electronic devices that keep me entertained/distracted
• A loving family
• A car that runs
• Crazy fall weather that confuses me and getting caught in 70 degree weather playing football in pants and long sleeves
• God's patience - that he's not as legalistic as I can be
  
• An awesome group of teens to minister to
• Great mentors who are willing to bop me over the head when I need it

So what are you thankful for this season? Go ahead and lead a short list in the comments section.

Mute Math Concert

I haven't been very good about keeping up my blog recently and for that I am sorry. It's been hard motivating myself for the last few weeks and so I have only posted blog "fluff" in the meantime. Hopefully that dark cloud of unproductiveness is beginning to pass and I'll try my best to post some meaningful/engaging posts a few times a week. We will see.

Last night I went to see Eisley and Mutemath in concert at a venue in downtown Birmingham. Everyone I've talked to has told me that Mutemath's live concert is spectacular so when I learned Friday that they were performing (I went to a Derick Webb concert) I gobbled up a ticket before I left Workplay (the venue). Well to my heart's delight, the concert was amazing! I love both Eisley and Mutemath so it was certainly a feast for my senses. Here's a bad quality video I took at the concert. I wish the audio came out better, but it is a cell phone ;)



Here's a picture of Mutemath's bass player on a stringed bass:

Nooma 018: "Name"