Many years ago – back when I was in college – I decided to start seeing a counselor.  I don’t remember how long I met with him, but I do know that it was an extremely helpful, formative time for me.  This counselor is Christian, and in the cognitive/cognitive-behavioral school of thought.  His spiritual orientation was highly cognitive, and I would say that his cognitive orientation was highly spiritual, if that makes sense. He was big – like really, really big – on getting me to own my identity as a chooser.  He used to say things like, “There are no have-to’s.”  “You don’t have to do anything.”  “You get to do things, you don’t have to.”  While I found that mode of thought highly annoying and highly inconvenient at times, I eventually came to acknowledge the truth in it.  I am a chooser – I make choices all day, [...]

I usually avoid doing these things, but I did give in to peer pressure this time around.  I’ve cross-posted this from my Facebook page. 25 Random Things About Me 1. My resume includes these jobs: pastor, barista, cook, parking attendant, music journalist, and puppeteer. 2. I have been to 44 states in the U.S.  I do not remember all of them.  I have been to either Vermont or New Hampshire, but not both . . . and I can’t remember which. 3. In college, I was accused by my conservative friends of being liberal, even though we all knew it wasn’t really true.  I am now actually liberal in many ways I was only accused of being. 4. If I could choose contestants in a celebrity death match, I would put Ben Affleck in a cage with Matthew McConaughey.  I would cheer for them to both lose.  I have liked [...]

Well, it’s been riculously long since I’ve written a real post about anything – in particular anything that’s going on in my world.  I do intend to get back on the blogging wagon, but I think it may take a little while to catch up.  This is because I want to be thoughtful about how I do this.  I’ve noticed that since Twitter came into my life, a lot of the short, quick take things I used to blog are now ending up there instead of here.  That’s fine, but there’s a hidden implication – when I do blog something, it tends to be several paragraphs in length, and a lot of blog readers just don’t have the patience for that.  So, I’m going to work on posting mainly short items, with an occasional longer treatment of something if I feel like drilling down. By way of categorizing things that [...]

Well, after several days of being back on the mainland, I figured that it might be time to try this thing called blogging again.  The time away was helpful in many ways, difficult in some ways, beautiful all over the place, and certainly unique as Thanksgivings go.  My dinner consisted of stuffed Mahimahi (that’s the way the restaurant spelled it) with a crushed macadamia nut crust, and asparagus.  Killer – dang, it’s almost a week later, and my mouth is still watering! The time away, while relaxing, was also a bit of a working vacation.  For the first time since I started writing my doctoral dissertation back in July, I hit the “print” button right before I left . . . 135 pages later, and I was ready to go away for some editing.  I still have at least one full chapter left to write, but I was able to [...]

I’m posting here only to say that I’ve returned after nearly a week away – quite an eventful week, too.  There are plenty of topics to cover, but it’d be best if I broke them down into distinct posts, so for the sake of organizing my thoughts, here are a few of the things I’ll be updating – our latest inter::mission happenings, a collegiate conference featuring Jim Henderson and Matt Casper, a denominational convention which likely spells change for me and my work, and a few miscellaneous tidbits here and there. Before I get to all that, the more important thing for me to note is that it’s my beautiful bride’s birthday today!  She is an incredibly smart, hard-working, multi-talented woman, and I love her madly.  She just keeps getting better and better all the time in many ways.  So, happy birthday Michelle.  Thanks for sharing your life with me.

In odd moments when I haven’t been just chaotically busy lately, I’ve been reflective about change.  If I could have seen the 2008 version of me ten years ago, I’m not sure I would believe my eyes.  Ten years ago I was in my late 20s, and settling into what I thought at the time was a pretty stable life period – married a couple years, finishing grad school, home owner, rising through the ranks of church leadership on my way toward being a professional Christian, etc.  Definitely doing my part to fulfill the supposed American dream.  I don’t have time to go into the countless shifts that have taken place since then. The thing about all this change that has me reflective, though, is the ways in which some significant relationships in my life have become strained.  Some are strained because of differences in theology/doctrine.  Some are strained because [...]

Yeah, so, Michelle is contemplating a new tattoo, but wanted to play with size and placement.  My way of “helping” was to bust out a cone of henna, and do a quick mock-up of something similar to what she wants to have done.  Here’s the result: I’m guessing my future as a henna artist – check that – ANY kind of artist is in serious question.  Those things in that circle are supposed to be horses . . . or eels, you know, whatever works for you.

I’m feeling really out of touch right about now.  With the start of the new school year at UW only a week away (which means move-in for inter::mission only two days away), I’ve been sprinting to get lots of last minute projects and details done.  Good meetings with students and staff, heaving furniture up The Purple Door’s tight and winding staircases, getting keys cut, and plotting out our fall series of teach-ins.  While all that’s going on, my parents flew in for a quick visit over the weekend.  It was the most time Michelle and I have had with them in a long, long time, so we enjoyed it.  Oh, and I’m still buried in my dissertation these days. All that has added up to me almost completely ignoring the fact that the world is moving along rapidly without me.  Other than seeing Twitter updates from people who lost power, [...]

Well, yesterday was my first day back after “vacationing” in the master bathroom of our home.  As I mentioned, I was doing an overhaul of the bathroom, prompted in part by the presence of dry rot in the subfloor – conveniently covered by carpet, and prompted in part by the absolute ugliness (both of which are pictured in my previous post). I still have a few small things to finish up – baseboards, towel rods, sealing grout – but it’s pretty much done.  Here’s what we did: gutted the whole room with the exception of the tub and shower tile, replaced rotted subfloor, installed new tile, toilet, vanity, sink top, faucet, light fixture, switches, and put two coats of paint on the walls and ceiling.  Not bad for a total amateur. Once again, the old version: And, the new version: The natural sunlight makes the walls look more yellow than [...]

The blog’s been dark for a few days here.  Just thought I’d let both of you that read it exactly why . . . First, I had a couple of days worth of annual staff meetings at the denomination.  Here in the Northwest, we’re in the middle of a major organizational restructuring.  There are parts of it that I really like, and well, some other parts that I’ll not whine about.  Won’t do any good. Second, I’m in the middle of changing this: into this: Things have already progressed since that last picture.  But it’s gonna be a few days.  I’ll try to update the blog as I’m able, but if there’s nothing new when you pay me a visit here, you can just use whatever time you had allotted for reading to pray for my back!