Strange Appetite

On Fear Factor you've all seen people eat disgusting things of which I could never bear to put in my mouth. Just couldn't do it. Why do people do it? Because at the end of each show there's a fat check for 50,000 dollars with the winners name on it. That I can understand in some ways. 50g's could really help you out. But what happens when someone you knows eats something disgusting just because they feel like it?

I say all of this because I remember a specific time when myself and a few guys from LCC were camping. I really don't remember where or the circumstances or very much about that night. What I do remember is that as we we sitting around the campfire one of us which I will leave unnamed until he chooses to reveal himself caught a frog. Next, he killed the frog and finally stuck him on a stick and began to cook him. I thought he was just being a little demented but little did I know that he was hungry. After the frog was medium-well this individual took out his knife and cut off the frogs' legs and started chewing on them and sucking the meat off of them. Was there 50,000 dollars involved? Absolutely not. Were we in the middle of nowhere for days with no food on the verge of starving? Nope. We had only been there for a few hours and had plenty of food. Why would this human choose to cook a frog and eat it's legs? I will leave that up to you to decide.

May Book Reviews

The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

The one word that comes to mind to describe this book is dark. A very dark view of God, and a dark view of humanity. A synonym to this could be: Catholic. Most of these concepts of man and God come from Catholicism. This novel is in the line of Edith Wharton which should at least tell you this book describes a man with a tragic flaw: Pity.

“The word ‘pity’ is used as loosely as the word ‘love’: the terrible promiscuous passion which so few experience.”

Let me give you a few more quotes.

“People talk about the courage of condemned men walking to the place of execution: sometimes it needs as much courage to walk with any kind of bearing towards another person’s habitual misery.”

“Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim. It is, one is told, the unforgivable sin, but it is a sin the corrupt or evil man never practices. He always has hope. He never reaches the freezing-point of knowing absolute failure. Only the man of good will carries always in his heart this capacity for damnation”

“any yet he could believe in no God who was not human enough to love what he had created.”

“What an absurd thing it was to expect happiness in a world so full of misery. Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either extreme egotism, evil- or else an absolute ignorance.”

I really enjoyed this book and it’s discussion of the nature of God and man and look forward to reading “The Power and the Glory”. I’m sure it is probably just as dark but yet very revealing into many Catholics view of God. This may sound stereotypical but it’s a stereotype for a reason. Check this one out!














Gall by Pete Gall

I already talked about this in a previous post. If you would like to hear more about this book click here. But I really enjoyed Pete’s thoughts and I have enjoyed getting to know Pete a little more through our email conversations. Thanks also Pete for the critique of my sample chapter for my book! I appreciate the help. Check out his blog here.














Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

I would have to say that this was the read I enjoyed most this month. I flew through it and it fascinated me the entire time. The story (which is non-fiction) focuses on the Lafferty murders in Utah. They were men who caught a revelation from God that they were supposed to kill their brother’s wife and child and carried it out calling it the “removal revelation”. It is a scary and intriguing book about religious fanatics gone completely bonkers. The book isn’t as much Mormon bashing as it is fundamentalist Mormon bashing which is a completely different ballgame. The FLDS has had quite the scandalous history. I think some people read this book and think that all Mormon’s are crazy. I am certainly not one of those people. I don’t think that all Mormon’s are wacko’s just like I don’t think all Christians are sane. I think more than anything this was a realization that you can’t just go around saying “God told me to do this”. That statement gets very dangerous especially when you place unrestrained authority on the ones making those statements. History has certainly proven that. Anyway, if you love Mormon history or early American history you will enjoy this. Thanks Doug for recommending this book to me. I think this summer in August Kelli are I are going to be going through Utah on our way to the Northwest but more to come on that. I can't wait to visit Provo! Doug have you been around those parts??? Where should we go?














The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Finally broke down and read it! I wanted to read the book to see mostly what all the fuss was about. As a book it was entertaining and Kelli and I both flew through it in a few days. Very choppy, fast moving book. It’s not the greatest piece of literature in our history but it was a fun read and a good change of pace from the classics. It’s nice to read some current fiction once in a while.

After reading through the book and some of its critics it has become clear that the time Brown was studying history he must have been on crack or some other hallucinogen because history clearly contradicts about 80% of the book. For instance, Constantine’s deathbed conversion (he spend his final years going nuts building churches, why would he do that if he wasn’t a believer?) The Priory of Sion beginning in 1099 and Da Vinci being a part of it (unfortunately in 1956 it was started by a man who under oath testified that he started it and wrote all of the documents claiming Mary Magdalene’s relationship with Jesus.). Oops! And then there's the other gospels which Brown claims number about 80. Unfortunately there are not even half of that number. Also Brown says that the Council of Nicea decided which books to put in the Bible (once again, that council had nothing to do with the books that were in the Bible). Also he claimed that they picked the books that would show Jesus’ divinity and left out the ones that showed his humanity. Unfortunately the “other gospels” show just the opposite. The gospels we have are the most human based side of Jesus that can be portrayed. If you read the Gospel of Thomas, Philip, Mary Magdalene you get quite a different picture of Jesus. A side of Jesus that is more than divine and supernatural, in fact quite crazy! My favorite is when a little boy touches Jesus so he strikes the boy down dead and tells the crowd to never touch him. I love that story. That certainly sounds reasonable compared to the rest of history.

So in any case, the book was less than a threat theologically and more just ignorant of history. I’m certainly not offended as a theologian, I would be pissed if I were a historian though! If you are interested you should read some history by people who are theologically neutral and you will understand how misguided Brown has been in his studies. Fun read though, didn’t mean to go nuts there. I have nothing against Brown and am not picketing anything, he's just a little unstudied in the history department.














The Genesee Diary by Henri Nouwen

I started this quite a while ago and finally finished it off. I have always been fascinated by the idea of the monastery and the sacred life. I love reading about their lives and work. If I weren’t already married, I might join a monastery myself. Nouwen was also quite influenced by Merton and Kierkegaard so I love seeing how those ideas play out in his life.














Telling the Truth; The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale by Frederick Buechner

Buechner being Buechner. Fabulous. No need to say anything else.


I read a few other books this month that aren’t worth mentioning. One was for the publisher I work for. It was quite a beauty! It’s funny because after reading the book I still had no idea what the title meant. Is that bad? Actually the theology was a little shaky to say the least. My favorite was, “you should stop trying to attract more people to your church and try to start attracting more of God.” What in the world does that mean? Does that mean God is only in certain places at certain times and if we are holy enough maybe God will join us on a Sunday morning? Wow. Go ahead spell it out with me: H-E-R-E-T-I-C-A-L. Now say it aloud!

I had quite a bit of time to read this month which was nice. I’m trying to read as much as I can before I start Seminary in the fall! My reading list will change substantially or most likely cease to exist! Darn.

The next month I will be reading The Brothers Karamazov, by far the longest book I have ever read. Weighing in at around 900 large pages with small print. I’m scared but this is probably one of the most talked about books in history and from what I understand is the full gospel shared in human form! I always just keep going back to, "If Oprah can read it, so can I!" I have no idea what it means but in my mind it helps me. I just reread that statement and I'm almost sure that someone is going to accuse me of being a racist but I can promise I don't say that because she is black, i say it because she's a woman. Ok, just joking again, calm down! A threat on my life is imminent.

Fire Dusty Baker

Cubs are horrible and I'm having a hard time finding someone to blame. Everyone is playing pretty poorly. I think the thing that bothers me about Dusty Baker however is that as many games as they lose and however bad they play he just doesn't seem to give a crap. He always seems bored and completely unconcerned with anything that is going on during his postgame interviews. Not to mention his history of ruining young pitchers. I also hate to say this but I think it might be time to get rid of Kerry Wood. He's taking up 12 million dollars and is injured every year. He's the Chad Pennington of baseball. Maybe we can get a few offensive players seeing that we have none as long as Derek Lee is injured. They suck bad. Very, very bad. Yesterday's loss to the Braves was pathetic.

Does it get any cooler than this?

Da Vinci Hedge Frappucino Needle Cash

I never really talked about what I thought of the Da Vinci Code. I guess in summary I can say that the book was much better and much more entertaining. I just don't think this was a good "turn into a movie" book. Tom Hanks performance was flat and didn't fit the part. The movie was slow moving and boring most of the time. A real disappointment from my end.

Things didn't start out well as the trailer for World Trade Center began. I don't care who disagrees with me on this so save your fingers from typing, this movie is TOTALLY unecessary and ridiculous. I'm angered by seeing this garbage and I can only imagine how angry my friends in Lower Manhattan are who had 3,000 people burn up in their backyard as one of my friends said. It absolutely disgusts me to see this exploitation of a tragedy. Flight 90 whatever it was is one thing, but this is crossing the line. So right away I was in a bad mood and wanted to punch Oliver's face in.

The best part of the night came later when Kelli and I did something that we haven't done for years. We snuck into a second movie! What a rush!

This movie was very very very good as compared to the Da Vinci Suck.




















Over the Hedge was awesome! It was smart, it was funny, and the characters were great. Steve Carell's character was hilarious. This movie was a very funny commentary on suburban life. I highly recommend seeing it.












In other summer news, I found a drink I think I like better than a Frappucino as hard as it is to say that. The Frap and I have had an amazing relationship over the last four years and I am thankful for all the work I was able to get done by drinking one of these little guys. But I had a coffee drink today that was incredible! It was from The Coffee Beaneryand it is called a Caramel Crunch. Ok, so it is a copy of the Frappucino but it tasted wonderful, plus the girl made it very well. One of the problems with the frappucino is that sometimes they put too much ice in it before they blend and then you spend the whole time crunching on ice instead of drinking it like a liquid. If there is a Coffee Beanery around you I highly recommend picking up one of these jewels!




















In more news, Kelli and I will be going to Seattle once again in August because I am doing a wedding for a friend of one of Kelli's relatives, all expenses paid. The rehearsal dinner is in the restaurant at the top of the Space Needle! Plus he works for Samuel Adams and he said there will be and endless supply of Sam Adams Summer Ale there! Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Praise Him all creatures here below. Kind of got carried away there.

In even more news, Kelli got a temp job that will start next Wednesday. She has to be there by 8 and it's a little further away but it's hard to complain when your main salary has been out of work for two weeks and you have no way to pay bills! Thank God for that too! It has been unbelievable how God is providing right now. We have sold some books on Amazon, my friend Kelsey has gotten me two new jobs for Thomas Nelson Publishers, my friend Jon got me that acting thing at Channel 8, a few people have sent money! Thank you by the way for doing that! Our friends are awesome! I wish we could all live in one city. Anyway, just wanted to share the good news.

GALL Day #3

”So what are we supposed to do with our lives, then?”
“I don’t know, maybe it’s enough to live as though life were for real, not just a metaphor or a trial run in which we are only killing time before the headliner of Heaven comes on stage. Imagine all of the evangelicals deciding that life was worth actually embracing, not just cramming into Jell-O moulds so they’d come out shaped like every other Promise Keeper with a ten percent tithe and a minivan to pull into their vinyl-clad house every night, while most of the world shivers in the dark, muttering confused curses of betrayal about Americans and the God they sold to the whole village. Imagine if being a Christian were about life, and not about mastering the formula for Christian living. And why, by the way, is there a difference between living and Christian living?” Pg. 209

My Channel 8 Debut!

Da Vinci

Going to see the Code today at 2:35! I'm excited. The reviews were definitely not in it's favor but critics are obviously looking for something different than I am. I just want to see an exciting movie that puts into picture what I read in the book. I'm going in with low expectations as far as the critical elements of the movie (which I rarely care about anyway) and going in with high expectations for it to entertain the crap out of me for 2 1/2 hours. I'll let you know how it is.

I Want To Be Left Behind!

This is the most embarrassing thing I've ever seen. Ever.

Thanks Junkyard!

GALL Day #2

“I think the real question Christians need to ask is whether they’re called to be salespeople or witnesses. A salesperson knows the features and benefits matrix, and can show you the chart where the “Heaven” column is checked in Christianity but not Judaism, or where “Eternal Individual Existence” shows up for Baptists but not Buddhists. A salesperson enters every interaction looking by definition, to sell something. They stand for something outside of themselves, some product they want other people to want. But the problem is that the salesperson selling Christianity can’t ever sell the faith on the chart alone. Like the car salesperson, Christian salespeople rely on the new car smell, or on how a new convert will look driving Jesus (complete with a little silver fish on his butt). The sale only comes when the salesperson can answer one question more than the consumer is willing to ask, or when the consumer gives in to a desire to buy for some reason beyond pure empiricism.

The other option is to be a witness. Witnesses don’t have to explain what they’ve experienced, at least not beyond the best of their understanding. They only have to be able to talk about what they have experienced. Where a salesperson represents something beyond the salesperson, a witness will speak of something beyond the witness, but represents only the witness. The Bible is full of talk about witnesses. Seminaries are full of salespeople in training.” Pg. 48-49

the business model........

A good new Out of Ur blog post....

"In the interview Andy Stanley says:

One of the criticisms I get is “Your church is so corporate…” And I say, “OK, you’re right. Now why is that a bad model?” A principle is a principle, and God created all the principles.

Honestly, are we really to believe that the mere existence of a principle is the same as God advocating our employment of it? The flawed logic here reminds me of Greg Fokker’s assertion that “you can milk just about anything with nipples,” and Robert De Niro’s rebuttal, “I have nipples, Greg, could you milk me?”

Jesus said, “The rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.” That is a principle of leadership, and a very popular one. But Jesus then emphatically declares, “Not so with you!” Simply because a model exists or is popular does not make it accessible to the church. Jesus calls us to lead his church in a manner that reflects his own servant method and the counter-culture reality of his kingdom. In other words, Jesus believes that truly Christian leadership is revealed in both its function and its form. The two cannot be divorced."

Check out the rest of the article HERE.

I'm an Actor

...well sort of. Today I worked with Channel 8 News in Tampa most of the day acting for their piece about having energy for work. Basically I played this businessman with shots getting ready, leaving my fake house and waving good-bye to my fake wife and kid. Getting ticked off in traffic, running errands all over town and then finally going to work exhausted and falling asleep in a boardroom meeting and being woke up by the news anchor Irene. It was fun to do. Thanks to my friend Jon Irvine for hooking me up with it. It was funny because Colin, the camera dude said he also works for an organization that always needs actors to do reenactments of crimes and stuff and said that if he got anywork he would call me because alot of the other actors were terrible. I've always wanted to do one of those reenactments. Maybe i'll get to play a terrorist or something. I guess that's not funny anymore. Anyway, it was fun to see the news station and get a glimpse of how everything works. Hope to get to do it again, i need the money!

So anyway, if you live in Tampa, watch Channel 8 News all weekend and there will be teases of the story which will be on Monday night. Don't forget to watch! Should be funny to see how bad I did.

GALL Day #1

“We’re completely blind to the fact that the people to whom we do ministry are little more than blank slates upon which we seek to write our own legacies. It’s the way power has always hidden itself in the guise of love. What’s worse is that we’re trying to sell our own twisted take on God to these guys, too.” Pg. 211

This is one of the quotes that I was talking about when I said there were some things that struck me upside the head and made me think. I wonder how true this is of me and my "ministry". I wonder to what extent this was in the back of my mind as I've been serving God in the last four years. It's certainly something to think about.

Gall

About two weeks ago I received a package from Amazon which I was a little surprised at since I had not ordered anything of late due to absolutely no money. But I opened it up and it was this book, Gall; Five Years of Unfettered Christian Exploration Somewhere Between Youth Group and the Rest of Life. Apparently it was sent to me by the author Pete Gall who had seen it on my wishlist. That has never happened before so I was very pleased!

I read it over the past few weeks and can't tell you how much I appreciate Pete's honesty as he tells his story as he attempts "tremendous things for the Lord" as he says. This book is not for those who have nothing better to do in the church than police it for innappropriate language and such. I assure you that there is plenty of that! There are things in this book that I would never say aloud but have certainly thought more than once. I wish I were as honest and transparent as Pete is in this book. I wouldn't want him to say it any other way. There are parts of this book that are very powerful and has awakened me to the call of Jesus to be alive and active in this world and not hide behind classroom doors and think that is where discipleship takes place.

So as thanks to Pete for sending this book and because it was quality, for the next three days I am going to have a few thoughts from Gall that smacked me upside the head and made me see things I hadn't really seen before. You should check this out.

Poseidon

Last night my mother was in town and wanted to see Poseidon while she was here. Kelli and I didn't really know anything about the movie and didn't have very high expectations from what we had heard about it. It was a pleasant surprise however. If I had to describe the film in a word it would be intense. I enjoyed the non-stop action of the movie and never really got bored.

There were a few scenes that were very disturbing and will stay with you. They show that people will do ANYTHING to preserve their own lives regardless of the consequences for other people. Very very disturbing. But it also shows there are some people amongst us who are willing to give their lives up for other people. What is the difference between these kinds of people? Why is one human a selfless hero while another can be completely selfish and do whatever is possible to save themselves? Strange.

As a person who has always had a fear of drowning and has never really liked water all that much after failing beginners swim lessons twice this film pretty much secured the fact that I will NEVER take a cruise. The scenes where they were underwater for long periods of time made me want to vomit. I would have died in 15 seconds. If you are also not a fan of water this movie will freak you out. I'm glad I saw it however, despite the disturbing things in the movie it was entertaining nonetheless.

Personal Update

As many of you know Kelli got laid-off from her job last Friday. In many ways this was an answer to prayer, an odd one, but an answer nonetheless. She was not happy at her job as many of you know and this was an easy way out. Unfortunately Kelli is making the majority of the salary since I work part time for a church, part time for a campus ministry in which I raise a small (very small) bit of support, and write cover copies for Thomas Nelson Publishers which has been great about getting me work (Thanks Kelsey). So obviously I am not making the kind of money that will pay our bills and therefore in two weeks we will pretty much be out of money and unable to pay our bills. In fact I would be surprised if any of you made less than I do. I make about ¼ of what I did in New York and basically haven’t pursued anything else because it gave me time to work on this book that I’m about 28,000 words into.

It’s a strange place to be. I’ve never been in a situation where I could not pay my bills before. I’ve been in tight spots but it’s always worked out somehow. Looking ahead however I have never known what it is like to not have any means of income and know the due dates for the bills are getting a little closer everyday. My parents knew this place and I guess everyone knows this place at some point in their life. It’s where all the “when we were just married we ate peanut butter on spaghetti for six months” stories come from. Well here comes our story!

I joked with Kelli earlier that we were going to have to move to Illinois to live with her parents while I worked with her brother on the railroad and she worked at Subway. Not the way I foresaw our future going.

But nonetheless we have a dream for the future and we are not letting it go. We can see God working in the background to bring these things together and maybe this is His way of getting us to hurry up a bit and not continue to wait around for everything to be perfect before we take a step of faith.

It’s hard to say what is going on or what is going to happen in the next few weeks. Things will definitely be tight financially and we have no idea how we will pay our bills at the beginning of the month or even pay rent but I am confident that God will provide for us like He has provided for us our entire lives even in times when I did not realize it. I guess this gives us the chance to recognize God’s work in our lives once more before we start making some even more important decisions about our future.

Please don't pity us. I hate pity! We've had it well for a while now and have been blessed by God in unbelievable ways. I'm certainly not complaining in any way, I just want to be able to pay bills and eat! So please pray for us!

Ben Harper - Both Sides of the Gun

"I believe in a better way." Me too! And I think Jesus does as well. I can't help listening to this album and thinking about the Kingdom of God. I got chills watching Ben perform "Better Way" on Carson Daly last week seeing his emotion as he cried out for humanity. I have been listening to the first CD of his double disc for the last four weeks almost everyday and it's beautiful. I've always loved Ben Harper's acoustic songs and this is some of the best he's recorded. I got to attend his cd release party when Diamonds on the Inside came out. As a guy who has seen a few hundred shows I have to say that this one ranked up in the top five easily. If you have a chance to see his live show, GO! And if you haven't listened to Both Sides of the Gun make sure you check it out. This is one of the best records I've heard this year.

Good April Reads

The Missing Gospels; Darrell L. Bock

Good timing for this book as gnostic inclined scholars such as Bart Erhman (author of Lost Scriptures and Misquoting Jesus) are getting more attention from the common man about the Gnostic gospels including the Gospel of Judas. This is a quality resource if you would like to get an overview of some of the more important Gnostic gospels, where they came from, and how they compare with the scriptures we have in our canon.

Whistling in the Dark; Frederick Buechner

Another dictionary style book but very entertaining and enlightening to read. Buechner just speaks my language. He's cynical but still optimistic. I like that. Very insightful and humorous.








Practitioners; Several Authors

I remember the first time I started reading this, i think I was in a bad mood because what I first thought was, "how pretentious can these people get?" But a few weeks later I was in a much more generous frame of mind and really enjoyed the thoughts of several pastors who are more than just making statements such as, "wouldn't it be cool if the church could be like this?" but they are actually putting into practice (hence the name of the book) what they are discussing in the book which is encouraging. Good thoughts and you could really get a sense of their passion and zeal for the church in this book.

Ender's Game; Orson Scott Card

This was recommended by a friend of mine Tristan. He said it was one of the greatest science fiction books ever so I figured I should probably read it. This is a whole series but this is a stand alone book written by a devout Mormon. Mormom theology is pretty well hidden in this book but if you look you will find it. That certainly doesn't take away from an excellent story which brings up some great questions about how we can be manipulated or conditioned into becoming someone that we might not want to be. I highly recommend this book as did Tristan.

New Seeds of Contemplation; Thomas Merton

Oh how rich this book is! There are pages, paragraphs, and sentences you need to read and reread to soak in the depth of what he is saying. Merton seems to understand man and his journey of faith more than anyone I've ever read. Like I have said before, Merton speaks straight to my soul. A former professor always said you need to find mentors in your life who are living but some who have also passed on that can mentor you from their writings. Thomas Merton is my mentor.

On Tap for May:
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Gospel According to America - David Dark
The Sacred Way - Tony Jones
To a God Unknown - John Steinbeck
The Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene

Dustin and Kelli

Create your own South Park characters here.

Here is what my friend Nick created. This is Nick and his wife Lisa.

And here is Keith Chandler, the pastor I work with at Journey. What do you think Journey guys? Is there a resemblance here?