Half-Way Done

Josh and Julie's wedding was this weekend in Bloomington which went well. I'm glad Josh made it to the wedding after going to sleep the night before at 6:30am with his mind racing. Tough getting him to roll out of bed, but he is indeed married and now chilling on the beach in Cancun. Great catching up with the guys this weekend too. Got a chance to see some family this morning too.

Today starts the second part of the trip where I will be hanging with Nick (and Nick's son Elijah), Brad, Shawn, and Jake (hope I'm not missing anyone). Also going to the Cubs game on Tuesday night which is fantastic.

Unfortunately I woke up a little ill today which I fully blame on Kelli (I'm going to put her in a bubble when I get home). I do miss her though. It's been about 9 days, and I've got 5 more to go. I think we're going to make a new rule after this that the longest we can be away from each other is 3-5 days tops. 14 is way too long once you're married! The first two or three days you kind of go through a period of withdrawal and then start to feel a spirit of independence so it will be interesting what it's like to be back home. "Leave me alone, I want to watch tv and can do whatever I want!" Haha, just kidding.

Done.

The semester is complete...

Hebrew is finished...

Leaving for Chicago tomorrow....

Playing Tiger Woods Golf 2004, grilling some steaks, and drinking some homebrew tonight in celebration....

Although I didn't end as well I wanted to, all in all, life is good!

Seminary, why are you beating me up?

I had a final exam tonight for a Bible class that covers the Prophets and the Gospels and I've got to say that being in the class in general I've had a bad attitude and had a hard time focusing. In Bible College we had five semesters of gospels and a few on the prophets so I can't say that sitting through another survey course was all that intriguing of a concept for me. It's not that I don't have more to learn, but just that I don't want to learn the same things over and over hence the problem between Bible College grads going to Seminary. There's some overlap and that's not all that fun.

So in any case, I have missed quite a few class sessions, a few for good reasons, a few others for not so good reasons. Plus today as I was trying to study I just couldn't get myself to really focus on the material. I'm having a hard time seeing the point of memorizing a bunch of data that I'm just going to forget by next week. Plus, I don't think the Bible is really about memorizing facts, but it's about transformation. So, the test didn't go real well tonight to say the least. I answered one essay question (worth 1/8 of the grade) completely wrong because I misread the question (dumb). And another question worth about 1/10 of my grade I didn't have any idea as to the answer because I don't have the narrative structure of the book of John memorized (who does?) It was a frustrating experience in two respects. 1. I don't like the way we are tested on the Bible (not sure I have a better idea). But 2. I have really lost my desire to work hard in Seminary this last half of the semester. I have gotten lazy, I have done the smallest amount to get by and it's shown. I've been getting almost exclusively A's in the first 50 hours of the program but this semester I've just lost interest in getting good grades. I'm thankful that I've got a couple weeks before summer term starts to regroup for more classes. I think this last year will be much tougher than the first two. Mostly because there are other things in my life more important than academia (my wife and my church - especially since I'll be preaching a majority of the time at the new Evergreen campus). My passion has shifted to pastoring and preaching and it makes school hard to take at times. Which is unfortunate because I love reading and studying and school in general but it's hard to split my mind and my heart both ways. Somethings got to give and right now, it's school.

I think on tonight's exam I probably scored about a 70-75% which will probably give me a C in the class. Kind of disappointing but I don't deserve anything more than that for the time I put into this class, no doubt about it. But I hope to gain a little focus back for this last year. I don't want to be lazy and I want to put effort into my studies even when I know they aren't the most important thing in the world. Now sounds like a good time to watch some Seinfeld.

The Onion for President

Plight Of Missing Hikers Will Make Great Movie

They just rarely miss. So great.

Egreen

A good Sunday at Evergreen this morning. We're in a series on 1 Corinthians and I preached chapter 2 today. It's incredibly rich with depth, and I hope I did it a little bit of justice.

Good Sunday though, Devin played a song he wrote called "When Words Won't Do" which is very well written and is one of my favorite songs of worship.

We then had a core group meeting for the Hawthorne gathering launch tonight that will take place on May 18th! Only four Sundays away! Just trying to get ahead on sermon writing! Yikes! It's been a long day and I'm going to bed.

Coffee out my nose

I'm sitting here studying for a test that I have on Monday night and no joke, I took a big drink of coffee and instantly got the urge to sneeze, I didn't even have time to swallow. Have you ever sneezed with coffee in your mouth? This is the first time that I have sprayed coffee out of my nose and I can't say that I enjoyed the experience. Yuck. I don't know why I'm telling the 3 people that read my blog this. All I can say is that Kelli is gone and I'm bored.

Devin's Bday dinner

I didn't want to have to tell this horrifying story, nor embarrass my friend, but the more it churned over and over in my mind I decided that the truth was more important than both of those things so here goes.

Two nights ago Devin and Larissa came over to have dinner and to celebrate Devin's 27th birthday. Because we now live within walking distance from the Belmont Station which is home to over 1,000 beers, I told Devin that we could walk there and I would buy him a six pack of anything he wanted. Now, let me make sure you understand that there are 1,000 different beers ranging from exotic IPA's to incredible ESB's to sweet Browns and delicate Porters.

We must have been in the store for 30 minutes, you could feel the tension in the air as Devin was trying to decide upon a beer in this glorious atmosphere of ale. This is where things go south.

What was his choice amongst all of this? That's a great question.

Well, I guess I should just tell you and get this over with.

Click here for the answer.

That's right. It was a beer with four things wrong with it:

1. It is brewed by Coors. (come on, we live in the NW, you can't drink Coors out here)
2. It has a twist off cap which is never a good sign.
3. It is a fruited beer, it has orange peel and honey in it.
4. It is a wheat beer which he doesn't even like.

Now, how could a person choose so wrongly? That's the question and this may always be a mystery to everyone involved in Devin's life. The point is, I have three left if anyone wants to come over and drink that garbage.

Summer is near

Well, let me rephrase that. Summer semester is almost here, the weather right now has nothing to do with summer. I'm almost resigned to the fact that it is going to snow throughout the summer. In any case, I only have ONE MORE Hebrew class left. Two hours on Tuesday and I'll be finished with Hebrew class forever! That is exciting. I just have one final on Monday, a class Tuesday and it's officially summertime.

Kelli is leaving on Saturday kind of unexpectedly to visit her parents who happen to be in Florida right now. They called today and bought her a plane ticket down there for next week which is timely because she's been missing the warm weather and cozy beaches of Florida. I think she's probably a little excited.

I myself and leaving on Wednesday to be in my high school friend (well, he's still my friend) Josh Carr's wedding for the weekend and I will feel no remorse for acting like I'm back in high school. Then I'm going to go up to Chicago and hang with a few friends from college (Brad and Nick) the rest of the week (and hopefully catch a Cubbies game). I'll be gone for ten days so it will be a nice trip. Then it's back to Portland to start the Hawthorne Gathering. Starting May 18th, I'll be preaching almost every week which I've been preparing to do for the last 10 years!

Total time Kelli and I will be away from each other will be 14 days! So far the most we've been apart has been about 5 days. This will be tough. It may sound strange, but once you're married, being away from each other sucks big time. I feel like I'm missing my arm or something.

But I do have some good books to keep me company. This summer I've got a stellar reading list for myself (very few of these are for school!), although I do have a class with John Sailhamer and Walt Kaiser this summer (I'm bragging, although I'm not sure Gentry is sold on Walt, maybe I'm wrong).

In any case, on tap to read this summer and currently in my possession are the following:

Surprised by Hope - N.T. Wright
The Reason for God - Tim Keller
Reformed and Always Reforming - Roger Olson
Jesus the Jewish Theologian - Brad Young
Not the Way It's Supposed to Be - Cornelius Plantinga
Orthodoxy - G.K. Chesterton
The Idiot - Doestoevsky

A couple new good books, a few classic theology books, and one classic. I'm sure I'll read quite a bit more, but these are the interesting ones!

What's on your reading list this summer?

George Bush and the Pope

Apparently after the Pope's speech yesterday our President George Bush told him that it was "awesome". Hmm. Now, I can't honestly tell what I would say for sure to the Pope if I had the chance but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have said, "dude, that was awesome."

That's our President ladies and gentlemen. Have I said how excited I am for November?

Contextualization vs. Relevance

Today, Doug Pagitt is in town and I'm about to go to a discussion about his new book with a few pastors and theologians from Western Seminary which should be interesting. While I have some large concerns about a few ideas in the book, there are also some things I very much agree with. One of those that I looked over again today was this:

"When I talk about contextualization, I’m not talking about using pop culture connections to make faith more fashionable for the masses. I’m not talking about telling the same story with updated language. I'm talking about doing what John did — developing an intimate understanding of both our context and the story itself so that we can live faithfully in our day."

Amen to that! Many churches act as if they are doing something contextual to our culture because they do a series called "American Idols" or "Grace Anatomy" (which could be one of the more ridiculous series' titles I've heard for some time.) These sermon series that try to take contemporary pop-culture crap and make it into something spiritual is far from being contextual, but it does smack of desperation to be relevant. I always wonder when I see these inane sermon series ideas, "does Jesus suck that bad?" Seriously, must we come up with shallow gimmicks to get people in our doors? I'm glad that's not the truth! But I hope the church in America comes alive to the realization that contextualization is a much deeper concept than taking what culture has to offer and making it spiritual.

Sorry about the rant, something struck a nerve there :)

Best Pub in Portland

This shall be a controversial post seeing that Portland is the brewpub capital of the universe, but this is my humble (or not so humble opinion) after tasting the delights of the city of Portland for the last year and a half.

The best brew pub in Portland is the Laurelwood Pub for these reasons:

1. Every beer they have is exceptional and stands out from the crowd. Their seasonals are especially fantastic (Kelli and I tried the Espresso Stout last night and loved it). Seriously though, try the sampler and tell me there are not three or four beers you would have a hard time deciding between when ordering a pint. You can't.

2. The service is excellent. The employees treat you well and are personable (unlike many bars in town who's servers (I believe) are trained to treat you like crap or are just generally mopey) and they really make an effort to seat you in good time. You can tell that the service matters to Laurelwood. I've never had a bad experience there.

3. Their food is fantastic. Everything we have had their has been great. Last night, we went for 50 cent wing night on account of Kelli's birthday and I was skeptical that their wings would be good, but I think their the best wings I've had in town so far. Have you tried the Spinach Artichoke Dip? Let's not forget their two happy hours every day.

4. The bar is welcoming. There is no pretense here folks. They have beautiful buildings (Sandy and NW) with some baseball on tv and a warm environment.

There are many other great pubs in town. Widmer brews great beer but seem to be slowly going the way of Sam Adams, but they do have a great tour and good seasonals available only at their pub. The New Old Lompoc has a nice small set up with some great stuff (most notably the C-Note and their seasonals). And the Lucky Lab pub wins the prize for variety and originality. Seriously, these guys have something new to try every week!

Most Overrated Pub goes to McMenamins who honestly has the most mediocre beer in the city and greasy, overpriced food. For once, the Willamette Week has gotten it exactly right with this pub chain in their "things we have about the city we love" segment. I can only think of one beer that has ever grabbed my attention which is the Nut Brown that they have about four months out of the year. The Hammerhead is ok, other than that, their red tastes like dish water, their IPA is middle of the road, their stout is bland. They don't really have any beers that make them stand out. The atmosphere they create in their pubs is very creative and I love what they've done with the schools, etc, but I honestly think they do way too much to do anything really well.

This is all obviously just my opinion, what is your favorite pub???

One of the many reasons I love sports

Click here.

Beer prices around the globe

Ever wondered what a beer would cost in Latvia? If you have, make sure you check out www.pintprice.com.

Thanks to Drew once again for an interesting find.

Injured performer is ok

Looks like they updated the story today. Good to hear that she's going to be alright. That makes me feel better about staying and enjoying the rest of the show!

Cirque Du Soleil performer injured

Last night Kelli and I went to Cirque Du Soleil's Corteo here in Portland for her birthday and it was an awesome show, but unfortunately in the chandelier act one of the performers fell 20 feet on her back and hit her head pretty hard and didn't really move until the act was over. It was a brutal fall and the sound of her hitting the stage was unnerving. No one really knew what was going on but it didn't take long to realize that it wasn't part of the act. Paramedics rushed out and got her situated on a backboard and took her to the hospital. I'm not sure how you continue the show when something like that happens but they did, and they pulled it together.

In any case, if anyone out there knows of whether she is ok or not, it would be great to know. I'm surprised they didn't make some kind of announcement or something or post it on their website. Someone called the Oregonian and they posted it, but didn't really know anything. Anyone got any news?

I like coffee but...

coffee harvested from cat dung doesn't really appeal to me. I almost think this is one of those jokes that people play on certain rich fools who think that if it is expensive it's got to be the best. It must be exotic because it's 100 bucks right? I think it's hilarious that you can get rich people to drink coffee that was pooped out by cats. Weird.

I just...

...finished parsing my last verb and translating my last sentence for Hebrew...EVER!

I'M THE KING OF THE WORLD!

Muxtape

Thanks Drew for sending me the link for this today!

Here is my mixtape. Give it a listen and make your own.

Memphis Meltdown

I'm not sure I've seen a meltdown like last night since Chris Webber called a non-existent time-out. Wow! Just hit a free throw guys! That was painful to watch.

The countdown has begun

כָלַה - finished or accomplished

That is what I will be with Hebrew after just five more classes! Finished!

I'm not quite as ecstatic as I thought I would be in the midst of first semester because it has gotten much easier this second semester, no doubt about it. But I can't say I'm going to miss vocab quizzes and translation tests, nor will I ever think again about filling out verbal paradigm charts.

Praise Yahweh!

Beer Brewing Update

As you can see, the Pale Ale that Elvyss and I brewed several weeks back turned out very good. Great flavor, high hoppiness (more of an IPA quality) and a little too much carbonation (shouldn't have used a whole cup of bottling sugar). But this is a fantastic recipe and a relatively easy one. This is a beer I may brew again a little later on in the summer.

I think Devin is right when he said that this came out better than the Nut Brown. The Nut Brown had too much alcohol because of the brown sugar and it is a bit more of a strong ale than a nice sipping one.

We have a Red Ale that we have just bottled and am looking forward to seeing how that turned out in a week or so. Saturday, Ryan Moreland and I are going to brew a double IPA complete with oak chips in the secondary to give it a slight wood flavor. Hope that turns out!

Gosh, I can't get over how fun it is to have a hobby. I think that means my other hobby needs to be exercise!

Portland Beavers

Opening night for the Portland Beavers.

Will I be there? Absolutely!

Have I heard of one person on the team? Not a chance.

But, the important thing is, it's baseball, it's the start of the minor league season, and it's going to be beautiful weather.

Homeless Runners Club

Now THIS is an interesting story.

"Why am I running past these guys?" recalls Mahlum, 27. "I'm moving my life forward every day -- and these guys are standing in the same spot."

Sounds like....Jesus.

Family Guy

This is one of the many reasons why i love Family Guy.