Stephanie

I could also title this post, Why My Wife is Awesome!

Here is a post she put up over at that other really cool blog I write for, The Elevate Blog. 

I love it whenever she writes or teaches, because she has a way of communicating to the women in our college ministry that leaves a lasting impression each time she takes the lead. I couldn't ask for a better partner in ministry, or a better friend.

Check this out!

As Mauricio and I are sitting down watching CNN's Anderson Coopers's 360 show have discussions about the bailout being rejected and covering Sarah Palin's campaign (discussing it heavily) especially as the vice presidential debates gets closer this Thursday...

One of the commentators mentioned that part of the preparation for the debates is to have a mock-debate where they ask her questions and see how she will answer. They will take measures to ensure she is knowledgeable so she is able to answer "authentically" as opposed to being a puppet and having an advisor speak through her... Hmmmmm..... Now, please don't mistake this post with promoting one political party or candidate over another... it's definitely not about that!

But honestly, that comment is still echoing in my mind.... "she needs to answer authentically" Why? I found the comment very interesting especially considering the discussion tonight in Elevate. Why is authenticity so important during this presidential campaign? Do you trust the platform you're planning to vote on? Do you feel they're authentic enough that they've won your authentic vote? Think about it.... if you don't trust a candidate and feel they're genuine, then you probably won't buy into what they "so-called" represent. Its kind of similar to our relationship with Christ!

...want to read more? Then hop on over to the Elevate blog!

Duude!

My wife plays Rock Band.....that is so hot!

A month and two days later....

Alrighty, I've had a good solid month to try to adjust to the nearly indescribably (for me, anyway) profound life change that happened on May 23, and so now it's time to get back into blog world and start writing about it.

Before I dive into that, though, here are a couple of relevant links I'd like to plug for you:

-All of the wedding pictures are now up at our webpage, so feel free to head on over there, comment, add to them, or download them. The URL is www.tinocosanchez.com.

-While this isn't strictly wedding-related, Steph and I do work with Elevate, the college ministry at Flamingo Road Church, and they happen to have a blog. Check it out!

Alrighty. So the big question is, "how was it?," the definition of "it" varying depending on whether I was talking to guys or girls (it's kind of funny how that works like that, isn't it?). For now, I'm going to define "it" as the entire experience (and I'll probably have to dedicate an entire post to just stories from the trip, because there were a ton of stories).

There were two things that I was aware of right from the start. One: life can and does operate on two separate levels, and Two: We choose what level it operates on.

Our ceremony was amazing, it really was, but as I'm thinking back now, I realize that for some people, it was just a ceremony. A slightly more important day on the calendar, but still a day.

We didn't approach it that way, mainly because we understood on what level we wanted to experience this day. We firmly believe that God was there, and that on this side of the trip, we are one, and as such, now relate together to God in a way that we didn't before we were married and had the honeymoon. But the way some people ask about it (a small minority, btw), one would get the impression that it was all about the honeymoon.

You see? Two levels.

It's a little trickier to see on "normal" days (as it there were such a thing), but the dynamic is there nonetheless.

And so, Jacob wakes up one morning and calls the place Bethel, because God was there and he didn't see it until just now.

And so, Moses turns aside to a bush that he may have walked past a thousand times, because now he notices that there is something profound going on.

Is it just a day, or is it something deeper?

Or is everything an accident?

This is how I think the rot settles into a marriage; everything turns provincial, and it stops being profound. 

And so, I'm trying to train myself to see life the way God sees it, to understand that the moments I live in have a purpose attached, and that the notion that any aspect of my life is somehow disconnected from what God is doing in this world is a selfish myth.

What level do you operate on?

Colombia!

Hey gang,

I'm sitting here in my cousin's bedroom, getting ready to knock out; I'm not officially married yet (48 hours!) so I guess it's okay for me to blog.

This will probably be the last thing I post for a while (if you see a something up here next week, it's probably a bad sign), but I had a lot on my mind, and thought it would be cool to look back on the kinds of thoughts that were going through my head in the days before Steph and I got married.

Simply put, this is turning out to be one of the best weeks of my life. Everywhere I look I see my family united and celebrating in a way I haven't seen in ages. I think the coolest thing about it is the realization of how blessed Steph and I truly are. Two years ago when we determined the direction our courtship was going to go in, I don't think either one of us had the slightest idea that the kind of moments we're experiencing this week could even happen. 

It's like God took what, at times, seemed like a tedious amount of obedience and went to work blessing it in masse. 

And now, in less than two days, I get to walk into a marriage more sure than I've ever been that this was the way it was always meant to be, that it was always going to be her. Moments like today as we rode in a carriage together through the old city in Cartagena are reminders that obedience is so worth it, that we didn't keep ourselves pure in vain.

I'm reminded that all of the bone-headed habits and self-centered ways of thinking that I'm having to break myself of daily are worth it because the effort puts me in a place where the kind of marriage dreams are made of isn't just a pipe dream, but rather becomes a distinct possibility.

I was talking to Matt at our table this evening (he's the officiating Pastor, by the way. I haven't done any fact checking on this, but all the same I'm pretty sure he's the first Arkansan to ever preside over a wedding in Colombia) about the whole thing, and we both realized how grateful we are to work at a church under a leader who teaches us to never quit in the pursuit of our full potential, and nights like tonight confirm that yes, it's worth it.

I realize that I'm writing this now to the young guy or girl who's wondering if pursing a relationship the way God asks us to in his word is worth it.

Please trust me when I say that it is.

This week is proof of it.

Thought Avalanche

I am sitting in my room trying to wrap my brain around the events that have transpired over the last week, but it's not really working.

Let me try again.

Did I really see almost 50 people experience a college ministry Monday night that not even a year ago was made up of 12 people in my backyard?

And Thursday? The night where Steph and I got to go have dinner with Matt & Jenn and talk over what our wedding ceremony is going to be like? That was fun in all kinds of ways, because it's no longer just me or just her, but it's starting to become an us. 

And then of course Friday night just blew my mind right out of the water....if you weren't there,  just know that it was a ceremony (service? Send-off? Roast? I still don't know quite what to call it. Any ideas, Brian?) that I will remember fondly for the rest of my life. The long and the short of it is, that I know some world class people.

Which is why I'm okay with writing a post that on the front end may look like a laundry list of how much better my week was than yours.

Collaboration. Around FRC, it's the notion that who you do life with matters. The quality of the people you spend your time around (or who allow you to spend your time around them on less endearing days) affects the quality of your life.

And thus, this week.

I get to lead a college ministry along with a crew of passionate and sharp people who practically run the thing like they were getting paid to do it, and so together we get to experience more relational success than we've ever had and the launch of a multi-campus college ministry.

The day Steph and I get married is going to be that much more special because the guy who's officiating it has been my friend for years.

And then Friday night was pretty much a culmination of all the things I love about the people I get to do life with. Steph and I are launching into married life knowing that we are surrounded by the best community of people we could ever have asked for...

So, yeah, this post can pretty much be summarized like this: the right people can make all the difference in a life.

only fifteen more days...

work, run, wedding, sleep, work, run, wedding, sleep, work, run, wedding, sleep.....

Holy cow!

It's May 1!!!! 

You know what that means??

I'm getting married in 22 days!

I feel like this cat right now:

My life right now

A sample itinerary in inner monologue form for all you folks wondering where all my posts went:

~ 5:30 am ... Wake up. 

Freak out because you have less than a month until your wedding. 

Calm down.

Work on wedding stuff until time to leave for work (the quiet time goes somewhere in here usually).

~ 8:30 am ... Make phone calls while driving.

Church stuff until lunch

~ 12:30 ... Insert wedding stuff and possible meal here (with phone calls thrown in for good measure).

~ 2 PM ... Return to church and edit/schedule/shoot/produce/design/yank out hair until dinner time.

~ 8 PM ... Find food while working on/thinking about wedding stuff.

~ 9 PM ... Go see Stephanie and remember why I'm doing all this.

~ 11 PM ... Go home and work some more on wedding stuff or random posts so people know you're alive. Try to carve out time for silence and stillness so you don't go crazy.

~ 2 AM ... Sleep.

Throw in meetings, location shoots, planning/teaching college ministry, seeing my fiancé, and the occasional bathroom break, and it's a wonder that I'm still able to function sometimes...however, considering the fact that I get to marry Stephanie when all's said and done, I'd say that it's worth it.

 

29 days, people. 29 days.

AHEM

I will be married in 34 days. 

That is all.

(insert barely-contained glee)

If you feel left out of the loop, I'm sorry

If you're in any way involved or planning on attending either of Stephanie and I's wedding ceremonies, you should pop on over to our website and check the blog over there for regular updates...you might miss some important travel info without meaning to. 

And besides, it's a pretty sick website for a guy who's never designed one before (Thankyou, iWeb!). 

Chechanie

Last night I was in the middle of one of those great 2:00 AM phone conversations with Stephanie when a really neat realization struck me.

I have the ability to to make Stephanie the happiest fiancé in the world.

Now, that's a neat privilege.

Oops

Hey there, kiddos...
I know, it's been ages since I've made a proper post...Easter will do that to you- correction, Easter while working in full-time ministry in the United States will do that to you.

Anywho, to sort of make up for it, I'm attaching a small diagram of various things I've been up to over the past few weeks (notice how all of it is church-related)

Actually, the truth is that there are way more cool things to write about than I really have the time or the energy for at the moment, so I'm going to be lame and reference Heredes' blog. He's got all of the facts and sums it up nicely. Suffice it to say that we're still trying to recover some of the sleep we missed over the last two weeks.

Given all that went down, though, I'd say it was worth it...here's one of the videos the team put together last week. It was filmed on Thursday morning at 8 am and finished Friday around 7:30 am, an occurrence which probably won't be happening anymore once I'm  married. 

Enjoy!

Graveyard Video-RationaLIES from Flamingo Road Church on Vimeo.

1+1=1

I think that one of the coolest things that Steph and I get to do together is work with the college ministry here at FRC. Her work schedule is a little tough right now so she can't go as often as she likes, but when she's around, it really adds value to what I do. At least it feels that way to me.
I can remember talking to her on the phone as we were discussing different observations we had about our group. The whole time I was wondering what it was that I managed to get right along the way that allowed me to be here now, sharing the joys of a mutual passion with someone that I'm going to spend the rest of my life with. This is one of my favorite examples of grace.

It's so different from what I expected it to be. Actually, that's not entirely accurate. I had no idea of what to expect.
I'd never been in a courtship before, never been in a relationship that had this much potential to glorify God in some serious ways, and I definitely had never been in a relationship with a woman who flat out told me that she was willing to submit to my leadership - which, if you're ignorant, sounds like a free pass, until you realize that the flip side of all that privilege is the responsibility to do the whole "love your wife as Christ loved the Church" deal ("With great power, comes great responsibility, Peter").

And it is a big deal. I told the guys in the small group this much, too. The day I figured out that growing up isn't something that just happens to you was one of the best things I ever learned, because it meant that I wasn't somehow excluded from manhood because I happen to be a knucklehead. It just meant that I had to learn a whole lot of discipline (I haven't watched cartoons in at least six months, for starters :)

It's a really big deal. I get to do something I love to do with someone I love to do it with, and we get to be a part of some seriously God-glorifying life change...I don't know that I've had many feelings like this one, this sense of rightness that is telling me that I'm on the right path, that yeah, it's a fight, but that by the grace of God I'm also a different person than I was a year ago. In this moment, it's tough for me to balance it well against all of the other really cool moments I get to experience on a weekly basis, so I don't think I'll be trying to make any comparisons right now.
For now, I'm just grateful that I've got Stephanie Sanchez, and that she's got me.

The Anniversary Post

Here's to the woman who makes my life sing. I love you, amor!

A Good Read

Every now and again, I find a good quote that I like to sit and marinate on for a bit, and occasionally - in my better moments - apply.

This week's quote is sponsored by the Christian Classics Ethereal Libray (notice the groovy link up there.)
Peep this:

Wherefore, if you see another sin openly or commit a serious crime, do not consider yourself better, for you do not know how long you can remain in good estate. All men are frail, but you must admit that none is more frail than yourself.

Some thoughts are able to find more traction in my head than others, and this is definitely one of them. Appropriately enough, the person who brings it to mind more often than anyone else is Stephanie.
If my fiancé has taught me anything, it's that I am way more selective in my personal application of Scripture (specifically in the area of good relationship practice) than I could have imagined before I met her.

For all you non-euphemism people out there, that basically means that I have lots and lots of room to grow. Maturity, Spiritual Leadership, Not sticking my foot in my mouth, you name it, and I probably need to work on it. Seriously, there's no cure for an overinflated estimate of yourself than spending large amounts of time with someone you're going to marry. It drove me nuts with frustration at first - I like getting things right the first time - but it's slowly starting to settle on me that learning how to love Stephanie is going to take at least the rest of my life.
This is a comforting (and slightly frustrating) thought.

The tricky part in all that, of course, is maintaining the understanding that I haven't arrived yet, and that I probably never will (not perfectly, anyway).
After all, the times I've landed myself in the worst messes were when I'd allowed myself to forget that. Which is why that quote is so helpful to me. I need reminders of my frailty, my tendency towards being Mr. Stupid rather than Mr. Right, not so that I'm beating myself down all day, but so that I'll be in the kind of frame of mind that will allow me to see and appreciate Stephanie for all that she is and even for what she isn't.
Knowing that I'm frail allows me to:

...approach her with gratitude, because I'm reminded that I'm hanging in here still by the grace of God and of Stephanie.

...focus on loving her PERIOD, rather than trying to "fix her" so she can love me better (which, by the way, doesn't work. Trust me.)

...realize that I need lots of and lots of prayer, because Mauricio is a bit of a dork and needs help.

...be ridiculously happy when I do get things right, because, now I know that it's proof of progress rather than a confirmation of how I think I have it all together.

Anyway, more on that later...the eyelids are getting heavy and I'm waking up in four-and-a-half hours to go get buff for my wedding.

Peace!

Reason Mauricio loves Stephanie #124

I woke up this morning and found the following text message:

Jan 10, 2008 2:46 AM
On my way home...I know ur asleep but just letting u know ur on my mind



...I think she likes me. :)

Arrrrrr!

So...we're here, about 140 days or so away from the big day (aren't you excited??), and it occurred to me that I haven't really talked about anything directly wedding-related in quite some time.

I've decided to share the theme of our wedding with you. Yes, you, dear reader.
the theme of the Sanchez-Tinoco wedding will be...PIRATES!


I have to admit, I was a little perplexed when Steph first informed me that this was what she wanted as our theme. The first image that popped into my head looked pretty close to the photo on the left over there, so reconciling that with the vision I had in my head of holy matrimony (which did not include George Bush with an eye patch) was a problem at first.

Fortunately for me, however, I'm learning to walk in the liberating truth that Mauricio is much happier when Stephanie is happy, which simplifies the decision-making process quite a bit in the wedding planning department.

...I'm sorry. I was momentarily distracted by that picture. I'm the one who put it there and I still think it's hilarious.

Arrrr!!!!

www.tinocosanchez.com

Guess who turns 23 today?

...I am surely one of the all time most blessed men of all time

It is ready!

Wedding Update!

I have finally finished designing and uploading the first draft of Steph and I's wedding website and I am excited and exhausted. I really should have gone to sleep about two hours ago, but I got excited when I saw the end was near (well, the end of this part of designing it, anyway)

So be sure to stop by, and, once I get the guestbook up and running, feel free to drop by and leave some comments. Stay tuned for more updates as we go. Woohoo!

For now, www.tinocosanchez.com is open for business!

Thoughts on becoming

“Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!"
Matthew 6:22-23

"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."
Matthew 12:33-37

I heard a quote once, and I can't remember where from. It goes like this:

"Right now you are becoming the person you are going to be for the rest of your life,"

or, put another way,

"Who I am is the result of the choices I have made."

I gave a talk on that in Elevate a few weeks ago and it tonight a conversation I had brought the thought to the fore in a big way. (Elevate is the name of the college ministry I help with at FRC. Sorry, no web page...yet, muahahaha)
Sometimes that's a really cool quote to keep in mind, especially when I'm on the verge of doing or saying something stupid (which, as my fiance can attest to, can happen quite frequently). It helps me to keep an awareness of this strong truth, that what I do and say matters, that my habits and routines form who I will be, and that the things I say and do now are either taking closer to the person God is forming in me, or farther away from it (Thanks toPastor Matt Miller for keeping that phrase in our collective sights each Tuesday night). A very cool quote indeed.


Tonight, though, it scared me.
Sometimes it's too easy to oversimplify and - especially - to judge when you're watching someone close to you make life-destroying decisions, but I believe that, handled rightly, can lend a certain amount of clarity about the kind of person you're dealing with.

The quote scares me, because I'm witnessing the end result of what happens when an individual makes the same kinds of choices over and over again, until the choices start to make them.
It's a wonderful principle when you've trained yourself in habits like discipline, selflessness, and concern for others.
It's horrifying when you witness the kind of Spiritual blindness that leads to the destruction of a marriage and suffering in the life of another, especially when it's justified by reasons like "he isn't romantic enough for me."
And he hasn't eaten for a week and barely sleeps and when he does it's because he's exhausted from crying.

The quote scares me, because this person has become who she is as a result of those choices. You can only justify darkness when you've been living in it so long that you've forgotten what light looks like.

The quote scares me, and those verses scare me, because this is my story.
Not the specific event, maybe not that bad (as far as surface-level things go, anyway), but the reality is that both her and I are broken, and all of us are capable of both great and terrible things. Not one of us is exempt from the need for the power of Christ to renew us on the inside.
I am just as capable of drifting far enough away so that up becomes down. All it takes is small steps away from the cross, short trips in the dark that become vacations from what I once knew to be right, so much wandering around in darkness that I forget what the light ever felt like.

Hearts can become calloused. Our choices matter.
And that's scary stuff.