The polls are open till 7 PM today, so stop reading my blog and get out there and vote! (And then you can come back and read it all you want :)
-sent from my iPhone (driving down Flamingo Road on my way to the polls)*
*Calm down, I was at a red light.
I've gotten several requests to post this, so here is last week's giving video, in all it's satiristic glory. Enjoy!
Multiply this by n, and let n be equal to every other week when we forget to close the bathroom door upstairs, and the result is that our local dry cleaner knows us by name.
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!
...and here is the end result of all the work from last week.
Apple Motion rocks...
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. :)
We've been learning stuff this week!
Phil has been training me in the art of motionography, and so far it has been pretty sweet!
That being said, here's a preview of where we're headed with this weekend's giving video. It's way in the skeletal stages, but trust me, it'll look sick when we're done...sigh...I love my profession...
Okay, the pictures first, then the props.
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
Here's a video my beloved showed me this afternoon.
Just thought I'd share the fun:
When my phone is ringing, the first thing I usually say is:
"Oh hey, my butt is vibrating," which, I must earnestly point out, is no longer a dorky thing only I would say because apparently my home-dog Stacie uses it, too. Valida-shuuuuun!
Weirdest thing I've done today:
painting my new cabinet on wheels from IKEA in the backyard in my PJs at midnight.*
When I haven't posted anything in nearly a month, it's usually because:
I am trying to avoid writing things like the preceding...
*You would know how weird this is if you knew what I wear to sleep in. If you really want to know, just ask Stephanie!**
**I'm totally kidding.
I have a few thoughts as I look at this picture:
1) We should start a calendar or something, because we are some dead sexy video men.
2) Phil (center) needs more sleep...
[by the way, Phil just got hired, and he is pretty much the perfect third musketeer for this band of misfits we call the video team. You can check out his website here.]
3) It's 1 AM and we're still working on Christmas videos...we must reeeeeaaalllly love our jobs. Or maybe our office just looks that good. You decide.
...how we can put hours-sometimes days!- of work and sweat trying to produce 3 minute cinematic masterpieces each weekend, and yet it's the stupid domino-swallowing stunt video that us took an hour and a half to produce that I decide to post on my blog. Enjoy!
Okay, here's something to fill in the void between the real posts:
I finally decided to check my Facebook account after a long hiatus, and this is what greeted me:
...and this is only a part of the list after I went through and hit the ignore option for several invitations to groups and events, most of which whose appeal I barely understood ("'___' wants to invite you to rate how alike you are! Click Here!" How tempting.).
I barely have time to blog, let alone take time to explore the possibilities lurking behind a hotness request (which, I'm sorry to admit, was pretty much the only one I was even remotely interested in checking out. I can be really shallow sometimes.)
In conclusion, I really have no other point here than to marvel at the amount of time a person could potentially waste on Facebook.
So here's your PSA for the evening:
You only get today once, and you'll probably be dead in less than 60 years, so why not do something lasting with it?* (Isn't that a happy thought?)
*The hint: In other words, accepting that werewolf invitation may not be the best use of your time.
The cord is cut!
After months of procrastination, I have finally broken myself of my almost crack-like addiction to myspace.
It wasn't even like I was logged in all that much; it was just that my myspace page was one more website with my personal information that I needed to check and keep updated, and trust me, all that time adds up. Tonight I decided that enough was enough.
So there.
Considering all of the many areas in which I need to experience some personal growth, it's nice to feel some satisfaction about something even as small as this.
Watch out, facebook. You're next.
Here is another edition of before and after pictures of last Wednesday's shoots and the weekend results. Enjoy!
The Before (sans volunteers and Troy...we forgot to take pictures as we were filming):
Until next time, here's a picture of my now-techno-savvy baby checking
the Boston scores on her new iPhone.
Peace!
Let it be said that my small group flippin' rocks.
I thought I would just jot down some thoughts and let the pictures tell the rest.
Every week about 12 of us get together and share meals, jokes, stories and the like before we split into two co-ed groups to do the deep discussions.
We started with chips and soda, but then things started escalating when the girls got competitive and started cooking things. Not to be outdone by a stereotype, the men called in reinforcements with chicken parm and homemade cookies. You asked for it, ladies.
We usually end up going longer than the prescribed hour that you'd expect a small group to.
If there's an iPhone around, we all huddle around a screen and laugh at YouTube videos.
Sometimes the discussions go well into the night.
Nearly every week someone says something that is so funny, our sides ache for a good half hour after the event.
Matt is a very focused guy when it's his turn at Taboo.
Taboo is probably the funniest game that I have ever played.
The girls are sore winners.
Many of us come from completely opposite backgrounds, but somehow it all fits together. I'm going to put the blame solely on God for that one.
If you're not in a small group, what the heck are you waiting for?
Happy Monday, guys.
I thought it'd be neat to give you a peek into the production process here at FRC.
This is what we started with last week:
The inventory?
Two folding tables, a white table cloth, a light kit, two cameras, a preview monitor, an SM-81 condenser mic to capture the sound of falling dominos, and a ton of plastic dominos. Add two video guys, a few volunteers, and lots of patience.
Two days later, this is what we ended with:
-m
Sorry for the lack of posting, guys. I've been sick for the past two days. What started as a minor headache on Saturday turned into a full-out hack-fest late Monday night. I've since traded in the cough for a fever and soreness in my eyes.
I suppose the good news is that this forces me to actually sit still , which I normally have a great deal of trouble doing; if it weren't for the achey-dizziness that accompanies walking, I'd probably be at work sharing my germs with poor Ian and Brian.
Anyway, just wanted to let you know what's up. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled program hopefully by tomorrow.
This is what the sky looked like when I got out of the 5 PM service this evening:
Man, South Florida rocks.
I picked up The Album Leaf's 2004 release In a Safe Place from the iTunes store after discovering that track six was the soundtrack for Rob Bell's NOOMA video Lump (which, I think is Kyle Johnson and I's favorite video of the series so far).
I have since discovered a love for ambient alternative chill music that I never knew I had (thank you Rob Bell!). This is music for reading, or driving home when you've got stuff on your mind, or if your Garden State soundtrack is missing and you need more music to chill to.
Anyway, there's my shameless commercial plug for the day. Go buy yourself some NOOMA videos and that Album leaf CD and call me in the morning.
Sleepiness...I've been running hard today.
Here's what I was working on:
Pretty cool huh? Fast forward to a few hours later, where I'm sitting in the passenger seat with Steph's hand in mine, watching the highway lights race across the dashboard. I had a good chunk of quiet time during the 45-minute drive back from Steph's aunt's house in Homestead to remind myself of two things:
1) I have much less margin for error when it comes to my decisions than I did a few years ago; bad financial decisions then meant I just had to eat Peanut Butter and Jelly for a week or nab some side gigs for extra cash. No big deal.
Now, I'm saving for a wedding and a place to live now. Mistakes can hurt a lot worse now.
2) 12 daylight hours is not a whole lot of time. If I try to get all the good things done, I will certainly miss out on the best. It happens far too often for my liking, if I can be perfectly honest.
Tomorrow's goal? To make it count.
As I was going through our tape archives today, I came across the following DVD that I archived back in July.
It took me a minute to figure out what in the world I meant when I labeled the 7PM as "The Perfect Service."
After it hit me, I came to a sad realization.
I am a dork.
Hey gang,
I thought I would wake up early and join the A.M. devo at Troy's Blog, and to tell the truth, I was mainly going to capture some footage for the recap video this weekend (just being naked here, as we say), and of course, I got drawn in.
We're talking about insecurity this weekend, a topic near and dear to my heart.
Truth be told, the topic of what I think I can and can't do in Christ (as if my opinion was the foremost opinion in this area), and the wrestling match that ensues in my heart, is a recurring theme in my life. For some reason, my particular background and temperament has me wired in such a way that my tendency is to believe the lie that my worth comes from what I do.
Needless to say, I'm really looking forward to this weekend.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us...
-Marianne Williamson
This is me and two of our volunteers from our Sawgrass campus on Sunday after tear down...if I look almost comatose, that's because I am.
I had the sweet privilege of leading worship at our amazing Sawgrass campus on Sunday. If was a blast, but I had to get there super-early. After this (and staying up all night Saturday night to edit the HD feed) I went home and crashed for about 6 hours, which, by the way, was the second best thing to happen to me all day (mad props to the Reverend Gramling for the inspiration!)
This is why you haven't heard from me since Friday night.
We are now back to our regularly scheduled semi-consistent posts.
I just finished the latest weekend video. It's a promo spot for next week's topic, insecurity.
I don't think it'll hurt if I honestly tell you that this one was a pain in the rear to kick out, mainly because of the headache that came from trying to find interviewees who would be both willing and authentic about a topic almost no one wants to talk about on camera.
This is ministry, though, where lack of resources is the mother of innovation, so after some major revisions to the original plan, and by the grace of God, we've got a video, and I am happy. Tired, but happy.
Actually, I'm tired, happy, and very very grateful to my roomate, Aaron, for being willing to take both the crew and soon the rest of Flamingo into a very painful period in his life. It's rare in my experience to find someone who's gifted enough to tell their story in a compelling way with that level of honesty in such short notice.
I'm still wondering what I'm doing here...
Well hey, everyone's back. Here we go...
Quite the day today.
We had ourselves a kickin' beach baptism, the details of which can be found here and here. I'm sure there will be some sort of recap to follow, although I may have to take some aspirin while I'm editing; we had some very active waves, so there's probably going to be quite a bit of movement (Hooray for the smooth cam filter!).
About halfway through then event I whacked myself in the head with my camera when a big wave caught me unawares, which the rest of the team thought was just hilarious (Ha! Mo gave himself a concussion! Brilliant!). Don't worry, though, he camera's fine. If Evan managed to tape it by accident, I'll post it so you too can laugh at my misfortune.
While I'm on the subject, I'd definitely like to give a shout out to the wild n' kooky crew that make up the FRC video team. We're more volunteers than paid people now, (which means we actually have to be nice to them sometimes- ha, just kidding Stacie and Evan) which is really encouraging considering that a mere six months ago there was Brian and myself (with our friends Ian and Carolina occasionally helping us out). Now there are enough of us so we can actually play a pickup game of basketball if we wanted to and school the worship pastors on the court (watch out, Pastor Ricky!)
Anywho, all that to say that I was very proud to be a part of the team I'm in today; life's just more fun when the right people are in it, and I'm working alongside the best! (even when they laugh and call me a whiner when I almost knock myself unconscious at the beach.)
Okay, who else can I give a shout out to while I'm here? Oh, yes....
Arturo De La Mora is a genius!
A genius with an antennae hat that reminds me of something....
....what could it be....
....ah, yes....
. Hooray!
Wussup yall...we it's about 11:15pm and we are hanging out at denny's.
As you can see I am sporting my home made iPhone I made at the
restaraunt. Hopefully one day I can afford a real one. Well my salad
just got here so I gotta go...PEACE!!!
-Rob
This is a picture of my roommate and I in the bathroom we share.
Notice the demolished toothbrush I am holding in my hands. I was
brushing my teeth after finishing lunch today and it snapped in two.
That is the power of a strong, manly thumb right there.
I just thought I would share.
-Mauricio
Sent from my iPhone
Check out this YouTube video...what a great illustration a profound truth.
This gave me goosebumps when I saw it (Hat tip: Chad Swanzy)
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!
Matthew 6:22-23
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.
Man, it was a good night...
If you weren't logged on to mynakedpastor.com for the launch party tonight, know that it was definitely a night to remember.
I was mainly behind the scenes, filming and generally holding things that needed to be held and standing where I needed to be stood, but I had several observations after participating in the event:
1) I don't think I have ever traveled as much under one roof in two hours than I did then.
(From the Launch Pad, to the Naked Bar, to the Karaoke (Naked Idol) Station, back to the Bar, to the Launch Pad, to the Bar-no, wait, the Karaoke Station! Quick! Etc...)
2) The Jazz Trinity is going to be a huge musical sensation if they continue to practice the way it sounds like they do. They put college age musicians I know to shame (and sorry about the roughness of the audio. Guess you'll have ot ask me to listen to the recording I made while I was there to experience the awesomeness :)
3) Troy is going to need lots of prayer, for both him and his family. I've logged on a few times, and it's cool, but I've also happened to be around several conversations that included enough detail to make me uncomfortable to be talking about it. Sure, he's pretty much asked for it by going through with this, and that may be the difficult part of this whole deal that comes with the territory, but I don't think that means that we shouldn't be praying for his family, for his life. He's put himself out there because he believes in the something beautiful and huge, namely, that God can use the small and often broken details of a family's life to both reflect back to us our own brokenness as well as to glorify and draw people to himself, and Troy (unlike many) is willing to live like that's true. Pray that more of us would have that kind of courage.
Man, I love Sunday afternoons.
It's that tranquil little oasis of time in between the morning services and the evening services. The two to three hour period doesn't give me enough time to start any in-depth projects or do anything that requires me to drive more than a few miles from church, and Stephanie often works on the weekends, so I'm usually left with time to spend either napping or reading, or, in this case, blogging while listening to the soundtrack from Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong.
(So who cares if most of it feels like it was taken directly from Dvorak and Stravinsky? Speaking of which, if you know any serious classically trained musicians who know their stuff, you can have a very cool and possibly very spirited conversation about why most pop and cinema music sounds the way that it does and who ripped off what style and/or chord progression from where...as Solomon used to say, there is nothing new under the sun.
Just a little extra info I thought I'd throw in, free of charge)
Soooo...I am so excited to talk to my fiancé today. I really am.
The day before yesterday I started reading the book Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs, and it has turned on some major light bulbs for me, especially in the area of my approach toward her in general. Anyway, I'm eager to test out all the neat stuff I'm learning, which may or may not go over well (although I think it will), but in any case, I'm pumped now, and that's the important part.
Anywho, I'm going to res a little and double-check my equipment for tonight. In case you hadn't gotten a chance to click on that odd-looking banner with the goldfish to your right, tonight is the mynakedpastor.com launch party, and it is going to be HUGE.
Log on and see.
For now, here's the promo spot we showed this weekend:
I just want to give a quick shout out to my beloved for getting promoted today!
After months of insinuations and much prayer and hoping, she got the news that her career is moving up to the next level!
Hooray for my beautiful assistant manager in training! You've earned it!
Hooray for having a functional relationship!
Today was pre-marital counseling session number one for my beloved and I, and it went really well!
I mean, I was pretty positive from the start that it was going to be a good time, but validation is always nice, and that's how it went. I think my favorite part was Steph and I telling our story together again. It feels like it's been a while since the last time we got to share it together; that rush of emotional recall that comes with each telling reminds me of how special what we have really is. I was reminded of all of the fantastic coincidences (we call them divine appointments) that brought us together in a way neither of us could ever have planned, and it was a clarion reminder that we really are meant for each other.
We've talked before about our occasional doubts and the fears that tagged along when we made our decision to get married, and for someone who lives in his head as much as I do, who is as prone to dwelling and over-analysis as I am, those can be hard to dislodge at times.
Which is why I love nights like these, that remind me of the important things.
PS: While we're on the subject of relationships and important things, anyone in a serious relationship could definitely benefit from articles like this one.
Hey gang,
sorry for the recent posting deficiency. I think this has probably been the busiest week all summer, as far as videos go.
I'm pretty exhausted, but I wanted to let you all know that I was alive before I went and collapsed in a heap on my bead.
In the meantime, though, I'll leave you with a picture my mom and I took of Stephanie's dog, Muñeca. I'm taking care of her while Steph's away on vacation, so I'm taking advantage of the time to teach the dog some valuable skills, like typing. Here's the pic:
So far, the only thing I've been able to get her to type is the word arf over and over again, but I'm confident that soon Muñeca will be ready to start her own blog.
I was going to write this rousing intellectual tour-de-force about how amazingly grateful and blessed I am that I have a future father-in-law who is nothing like this guy:
I may still write it and post it later, because there are a whole lot of great things I could write about the way my suegros make my trips to their home something to look forward to, but I got distracted by this photo and have since decided to post it instead, just because it shows another reason why Steph and I get along so well with each other:
The best part is, I didn't even know she was making that face behind me at the time...surely a woman after my own heart.
At long last, we have ourselves a wedding date!
It's a good feeling; Steph and I had been trying to pin this thing down since we got engaged last December, and now we all finally know for sure: Friday, May 23, 2008
So...that means I've got 10 months, four days, and 7 hours (give or take a few minutes) until I get married. Woohoo!
As for the location...I'll just leave you the picture as a hint :)
I think it's safe to say that I'm not much of a clothes shopper. If you ever see me playing guitar or sax on the weekend, you may or may not notice that I tend to rotate through the same five outfits; occasionally, I'll mix things up and wear a new shirt, but if you see that, it probably means that my dad outgrew something and gifted it to me.
Some people are into clothes. Not me. I'm more of a food and rent kind of guy (with the occasional Apple product thrown in just for kicks).
All that gives you some background insight into my favorite pair of jeans. The ones with the fake bleach stains that made them look so trendy and used when I paid too much for them (while somewhere in the back of my mind I quietly asked myself why I didn't just buy a new pair of pantaloons that actually looked new...). Anyway, I was putting them on sometime ago, and I was in a bit of a rush, and in my zeal to put my pants on, my big toe tore a hole clear through the left-hand thigh. Now, a quarter inch of untanned leg (which hadn't seen the light of day since middle school, when I wore shorts above the knee) was exposed for all the world to see. Horrors!
As you can imagine, I thought that this was the beginning of the end for my favorite pair of denim loafers. I started preparing myself to budget a new demins purchase into my monthly, all because of my dumb big toe, when I was pointed to a product that would mean the salvation of my britches.
Enter the Bondex iron-on patch.
Now, not only are my jeans pre-treated with bleach stains (trendy), they now have holes in fashionable places (extra trendy) and spare me the embarrassment of explaining to curious onlookers why my arms and face are latino brown and my legs are the same color as my iPod headphones.
Mad props to Pastor Brian Fuller for recommending this wonderful product to me.
I had been waiting for the chance to use the google maps feature on the iPhone on an actual road trip, and yesterday my chance finally came! Steph and I had the address for the friends we were going to visit, a car to drive in, and, most importantly, a nifty iPhone, so we were ready to rock!
Unfortunately, Murphy's law being what it is, we still managed to get lost; apparently the map was zoomed in a little too far, which made us think that that big yellow line on the map before the road we were going to turn on was US-1 instead of University Drive....etc. etc. you know the drill. Trust me, this says way more about Steph and I than it does about the iPhone. Anyway, all that just goes to show you that no piece of technology, no matter how amazing, can replace the power of actually using your brain. My Mastercard commercial for the evening would go something like this:
Full tank of gas: $30
iPhone: $600
Paying attention so that you don't arrive almost 45 minutes late: priceless
So yeah, it's a good thing we had that whole chat earlier about financial restraint, because I threw it out the window Friday afternoon.
Somewhere between the repeated inquiries as to why I still hadn't bought the phone from my fiancé ("Look, after we're married, disposable income's going to be harder to come by, so you may as well go buy it now so I can play with it.") all the way to my mom ("Can I play with your phone? I know you've got one. You do have one, right?"), and the email I got from Brian Thursday night (...informing me of exactly which apple stores in a 20 mile radius still had iPhones in stock) the idea lodged itself in my head that maybe I was meant to have this phone. The signs were all there. It would be wrong to miss this opportunity, right?
Ha! Yeah right!
We all know that I just really wanted it and was in a place financially where I could make it happen without messing up any major priorities, so -surprise!- I have an iPhone!
And yes, I am wayyyy happy with my purchase.
And now Brian and I have matching phones.
Kinda creepy, huh?
Uh-oh, the wrestling match has begun...the iPhone comes out today, and I am trying to talk myself out of buying it, which should be easy because I don't need it (for anything other than making today ridiculously cool). I repeat, I do not need the iPhone. Not one little bit. Seriously. Ignore my eye twitching.
Up until today, I was doing great in the restraint department. However, there have been problems.
1) I got paid today.
There's enough money in the bank. I've been really good with my savings lately. Normally a great thing, unless you're trying to talk yourself out of a splurge purchase (of what just happens to be the sweetest gadget on the planet right now).
2) Brian, who is already camping out in front of the ATT & T store just offered me a spot in line via text message.
LOSER! I am trying to be responsible here and Brian, my pastor, my spiritual leader, (who I thought cared about my spiritual development) offers me the chance to do the thing I've been fighting to talk myself out of. Why, man? Why?
3) Stephanie said that if I wanted it, I should get it.
Why would she do that to me?? Doesn't she know that we're saving up for our wedding and that I am trying to exercise financial restraint?! Why would she facilitate my foolishness like that?
Huh.
Seriously, though, I know it's all my choice and whatever decision I make (and, by extension, any consequences) will be mine alone, but still...
...crud.
You see what this is? It's an apple topped with peanut butter and honey bunches of oats.
It only sounds gross because you haven't tried it yet. A few weeks ago these little beauties started showing up in the greenroom at church in between services, and I am now hooked.
Many thanks and shout outs to our volunteers, who make food that makes me happy!
Dear ______,
I want to write you to say thank you for what you said to me yesterday morning. You most likely had no idea of the impact your comments made, so I think it's fair to let you know that you helped change the course of my day yesterday.
Sometimes the gap between who I am and who I want to be gets bigger than I think I can handle, and the lack of forward motion on my part at times really tempts me to wonder if I'm really meant to be doing what I'm doing. I know that what we're going after as a church demands a certain level of excellence, and my internal response to a lot of what comes my way is often less than stellar, despite my best efforts.
That you were able to notice some measure of worth in my attitude tells me two things I really needed to hear:
1) I'm a little more than useless, and
2) God has to be at work, because no way on my own am I capable of the grace you accused me of showing. :)
So if God is with me (which he always is), then, like Troy says, I have no right to quit. Thanks for reminding me of that.
:)
Posts
All Comments
