Oops

I am soooooo glad that this has never happened to Pastor Troy. 

Here's the gist of it:

KKOKOMO, Ind. - A pastor brought out a dirt bike during a church service to demonstrate the concept of unity. Now he's demonstrating the concept of healing.

Jeff Harlow, the senior pastor at Crossroads Community Church, broke his wrist when he lost control of the motorcycle at the start of Sunday's second service, driving off a 5-foot platform and into the vacant first row of seats. He underwent surgery on the wrist Monday.

"Jeff has already laughed a lot, so he's OK. I think his pride was bruised," said his wife, Becky.

Indeed. I'm really glad he's okay and that no one got hurt. Still, the part of me that will garner angry emails for saying the following can't help thinking about the kinds of things that could happen as Pastors continue to get more creative with stage props. Maybe we can start calling them Stunt Pastors. It will be a new kind of extreme sport :-p

My sister, the wife

So my sister and Dustin are officially married, off on their honeymoon...what a wild thought; I remember our Middle School days when I used to embarrass her by obnoxiously pointing at boys she thought was cute ("oh, which one, sis? THAT one? Ow! Why'd you hit me??").
My, how time flies. Like Stephanie even said today, we've been engaged for four months already and it feels like I proposed yesterday. I strongly suspect that once we're both graduated in May and the actual nuts and bolts of the wedding planning begins that things will only accelerate even more.

Hmm...1 o'clock already. I guess I should get on with things so I can get some sleep before Easter Week officially kicks off for me tomorrow.

So anyway, back to Milena's wedding. In hindsight, I am struck firstly by how much everyone seemed to enjoy the event, despite the occasional lapses in certain areas I was sure would cause certain members of my family to completely flip out. As far as those go, Steph and I spent a good deal of time on the drive back to her house critiquing the things that needed to be critique and making notes of what we liked and what we would avoid (such as photographers who show up an hour and half late and forget to photograph half of the family, for starters), and what would could improve on. However, minor critiques aside, and independent of what anyone else might think or say, it has to be noted that my sister and Dustin had the time of their lives, and I know they'll be remembering the day fondly for the rest of their lives.

Despite all the headaches that cropped up in the days leading up to and even during Milena's nuptials (being a groomsman and the audio director and the video guy all at the same time is grueling work), I've still got to admit that I love weddings.
The symbolism and the sacredness of the ceremony, all the different layers and meaning behind everything done and said, fill me with a wonder that I can meditate on for hours and not get tired of. I love the fact that a span of time can be so packed with significance, so well leveraged and weighty. It's such a neat counter to the myriad influences in the culture around me that so often pull me towards the superficial.
Rob Bell once did a speaking tour which had for its title "Everything is Spiritual." I never got to hear the talk, but that tagline has been burning holes in my lobes for months since I first heard it. It's a phrase that brings more and more delight to me the more I think about it, and I think the reason it does is because I believe that everything is. Let me point to the opposite of that to illustrate what I mean.
Sometimes, when we don't want to think too deeply about why we did some action, we use the phrase "for the hell of it" to provide a reason for it. Think about this for a minute. What are we really saying? If that's true, if the reality is that there's really no reason or higher purpose behind what we were doing, then what we did was a complete waste of time, and we don't get time back once we've spent it.
I'm not arguing against youthful spontaneity or a simplicity that brings joy; the benefits of those things are obvious, but what do I think is a little sad is when I allow myself to think that the time I spend has no real significance, and in doing so, I miss the chance to enjoy a moment I'm never going to get back. The fact is (and I've said this before), I'm becoming the man I'm going to be for the rest of my life. On my wedding day, nothing is essentially going to change about me. For the most part, I will be the result of the choices I've made up that point. Scary thought, isn't it?

So here's why I love weddings: everything matters in a wedding. There's symbolism everywhere, if you're willing to look for it. The unity candle (or sand). The placement of the officiant in relation to the bride and groom. The wedding ring. These things point to something deeper, and I enjoy it because it's a reminder to me that the time I spend matters beyond this moment.
It's the reason Steph and I couldn't keep our eyes off each other as we stood across the aisle during the ceremony, knowing what it meant for Dustin and my sister and knowing what it will mean for us one day. Everything is spiritual. It's a phrase that reminds me that there is beauty in the mundane, and I'm glad for it, because I tend to forget that it's not all there for the hell of it. ;)

This moment

I'm the kind of person who tends to get really annoyed inside whenever I hear the words, "just wait until you're older, then you're going to _____," especially if the blank in question involves some kind of negative downturn my character or a feeling about some issue is supposed to take in x number of years.
I sense a lot of this in discussions I've had about marriage, as well as in my own personal observations of where certain couples I've met are in their relationships. I do have to be honest and add the caveat that the latter probably results more from my tendency to over-analyze everything rather than any overt displays on their part.
Still, I sometimes look at the lives of people around me and I think to myself, is this what they envisioned and hoped for themselves when they pictured this stage of their life from my shoes?
Sometimes I think they would answer a yes, or even a maybe, but a lot of times, I think the answer would be no, and this makes me a little sad.

Aaron and I had a pretty long discussion about marriage and sex tonight, and I found myself at one point lamenting at the impression I get that for a lot of guys who are married, sex becomes something that divides rather than unifies. I get the sense that we as a culture have boiled the whole thing down to pretty much just a physical release that we barter and perform for and in the process lose the wonder and the phenomenal mystery that comes with the idea of two people becoming one. The wonder and mystery part is something that I'm glad is very scriptural, because I feel it deep in my core that what Stephanie and I are building together and working towards is a holy thing. Having a deep conviction is a whole lot more fun when it's built on something solid.
As I look around, though, it's a bit saddening to see how cheapened and jaded this idea has become. I'm no researcher, and I could be 100% wrong about the state of marital unity in that area in our culture, but regardless of what the numbers were, the important thing for me was the conviction I feel from my core about this area of our relationship, and that is this: I do not under any circumstances want to lose the wonder and the preciousness and the sheer mystery of what oneness means both now as a single engaged person and what it will mean as a married person.
Now, before I start getting weird comments, no, Steph and I are not experimenting in this area, nor do we intend to. For my part, I'm still getting used to the idea that we can even talk about sex now (see, I even hesitated to write that last sentence), and it'll probably be a long while before I stop getting all nervous and fidgety when the topic comes up.

Anyway, all that to say this: I don't want to wake up next to Stephanie fifteen or twenty years down the road and realize that somewhere along the line I allowed myself to lose the wonder of what it means to be on the journey with another person. Aaron put it right tonight when he said "it's easy to start well. Anyone can do that. Not many can finish well."

Right now, in this moment, I know the kind of relationship I will have with my wife when I'm 84 and she's 82 (on November 8th, 2066), and I want to make the kind of decisions now that will allow that to be possible.

It's cool to be able to dream big dreams and know that they're really possible. I'll have a whole other post later about how this ties into ministry, because these thoughts have been flowing in that direction, too, but for now, I just want it to be in writing that I intend to love my wife, both now and forever, in the best way possible, in the way of Christ and in his power.

Mauricio in a three-piece suit

During my travels my travels today I came across a neat little article on NPR that has had me thinking all day. Earlier this week thinkchristian.net put out a link to the Top 5 Consumer Trends for 2007, which was both pretty neat and a little alarming, as it looks like American society is going to continue moving towards the shallow and superficial...sad, but not altogether surprising.

As I was saying, though, I was listening to the NPR report in my car and thinking about that consumer report, and it suddenly occurred to me that I actually have a decent grasp of the business world. It probably sounds dumb, but I just generally don't think of myself as having any kind of a bent towards the world of commerce, and that's mainly because I associate that with Cubicle World, and the thought of spending all day in a cubicle gives me the hives; however, it's also true that most of my time now is spent at a desk in front of a screen editing video, and I don't usually whine about that (unless it's Friday and I've been editing the same video for three days straight and am ready to poke myself in the eye or something, but that probably says more about me than about my job, anyway. My job is flippin' awesome). The thing is, I think that I could grasp it. I look over Stephanie's shoulder sometimes as she's studying, and I'm sometimes shocked that it's not as scary as I used to think it should be. I got to thinking that maybe my almost subconscious misgivings about entrepreneurship had less to do with lack of ability and more to do with a faulty paradigm I might have wandered into.

Along with all of that, I also remembered how Don Miller writes in To Own a Dragon that he will try to audit classes at universities just to stay sharp, because the brain is a muscle and needs to be exercised. In kind of the same vein, reaching our God potential is part of the reason we do ministry at FRC (helping other people reach theirs is the other side of that).

All those lines of thought coalesced into one weird thought (for me) tonight as I was sitting in Kyle's dorm after my Phi Mu Alpha meeting.

"Maybe I'll go back to school after I graduate"

Yeah, I know. I'm the guy who hates sitting in classrooms. And it's true that most of my college education felt like a waste of time (especially that last two-and-a-half years), and yes, I did give one of my professors that look when he suggested that graduate school was something that would fit me, but I dunno...after tonight the thought seems a whole lot less distasteful than it did before (and Stephanie liked the idea, so if it gets future-wife approval, I guess it can't be all that bad). In any case, I've got plenty of time to pray and mull it over.

Who knows? Maybe I'll get that master's degree after all...

Just when you thought you'd seen everything

The talking Jesus doll. I can't believe someone actually put together funds to produce this thing. And not just one of them, either; there are at least 4,000 of these dolls in existence. I am not making this up. Here is the article.
There are times when Christian sub-culture just mystifies me. Of all the things we could be spending money on (the blood:water mission, World Vision, International Justice Mission, etc.), we instead spend it on half-baked junk that only Christians will buy and that ensure that everyone else thinks we're a bunch of wackos.
As a side note, I also think it's kind of funny that the marines wouldn't take the dolls. To tell the truth, their reasoning makes sense to me in a way, but it all seems a bit too PC for me. If the toys are being given for free as part of a charity that obviously doesn't promote one religion over another, then I don't see how a talking Jesus doll could've caused them trouble.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to when the Mohammed doll comes out.

Saturday Slice

You know, it amazes me how much living can be packed into a day. I feel like it's been a week since I last posted.
Thursday night was pretty sweet. Thanks to my Aunt, who seems to know just about everyone over at the Hard Rock Casino down the street, I scored some really great seats at the Gilberto Santa Rosa and El Gran Combo concert. Amazingly enough, the only person I was able to go with me was Ricky Garcia (who shares space with me in the stage left projector room over at FRC - also known as The Bat Cave to insiders), so we got dressed up nice, pinky swore each other that we wouldn't pick up too many girls (just kidding), and went to the show.


As we walked to our seats to find our section, I started wondering if maybe my Aunt knew someone in the Mafia, as the seats were right up front near the stage in the level just above the floor (I could have probably thrown my shoe and pegged Gilberto in the side of the head. That's how close we were). Anyway, I think security got the raw end of the deal that night. The room was packed with a ton of Puerto Ricans. The band did the typical latin thing and did a country roll call, which Hispanics just love (We're a very nationalistic people, you know). By round of applause, I would say that I was one of pretty small group of Colombians in the arena, although we beat out the Nicaraguans and the Panamanians (take that!). Of course, the Puerto Ricans were out in full force, complete with flags. Anyway, the bad part about all that for security was that they spent a big chunk of their time trying to get people to stop dancing in the aisles and in general causing fire hazards all over the place, to which I was laughing at because, honestly, how are you going to keep a crowd of people who came out to see a dance band from dancing. I mean, once El Gran Combo started playing Brujeria, it was all over.
So yeah, it was a fun show overall. I think the neatest thing, though, was the range of ages I saw as I looked around the room. I don't know many bands that are still playing that can pack out an arena with songs they have been playing for over thiry years. I watched people my age singing and dancing to this music that people from their parents' generation just down the row were dancing to, too.
Ricky and I were talking about it afterwards, and we realized what a special thing that is. In an age where our culture is obsessed with the newest thing, it's nice to see something traditional that crosses generational boundaries that way. This is one of the things I love the most about my heritage.
¡Que siguen los latinos!