Back from the ski retreat:

It was a good time. We only had one green slope open from the mid-drop pff point, but the mountain is aparently a hidden gem as there weren't many people there. The rumor is that it stays light like that, so I may just keep going back there a few more times, but later in the year. I skied for two and nine-tenths days with a breif stop in the world of snow boarding.

Snowboarding is the hardest thing in the entire world. I hurt so badly from my ten minutes of snowboarding that I am genuinely concerned that I have broken part of if not all of my butt. I have breif flashes of pain that make me wonder if a hunk of my tailbone isn't floating around down there.

Either way, aside from the gruesome torture that snowboarding was, I had a great time and I think everyone who went had a great time.

Don't snowboard if you're a good skier and over 25. And here is the rest of it.

Santa's Blog:

I remember being little and hearing people on the news talk about Santa sightings. This reminds me of being little again. It's kind of the natural next step. Blogger featured it and I would have put it up sooner if I was paying attention.Santa's Blog.

And here is the rest of it.

The Luxury of A Professional Photographer Friend

What's great about having friends with marketable skills, when you yourself have none, is that you can ask them to do things for you. I did that to get my engagement pictures taken. They are exceptional, if any of you are in need of photography, expect professionalism and appreciate a fun attitude, then I recommend B.D. Andrews.

He got pictures that made a chubby, pale guy like me look like he might have a genuine shot at the girl in the pictures with him. Take the leap to see one of my favorites, I really think it captures the moment and the emotion from that morning.

Take the leap.

I'm glad I made her that happy.
I'm glad I have a picture.

A Godly Fiance: Proverbs 31

I'm going to be starting a series of posts on Proverbs 31, contrasting the Godly woman of those verses with my own fiance. My main hope in this is to earn massive brownie points and endear myself with her forever.

I of course am kidding, although, if I do score massive brownie points and endear myself to her forever, then so be it! Really, I hope to honor God by expressing my profound appreciation and joy that comes from the relationship He has blessed me with. The graciousness and abundance of blessing that has come from this relationship (soon Holy Union!) should preach of God's goodness, this is my humble attempt at getting that sermon out.

10An excellent wife who can find?
She is far more precious than jewels.
11The heart of her husband trusts in her,
and he will have no lack of gain.
12She does him good, and not harm,
all the days of her life.

Jennie is a rarity and I am lucky to have her in my life. I'm am even luckier that I'm blessed to soon have her as my wife. To hopefully keep you coming back I'm going to keep from rambling too much about why she is a special rarity. Scripture puts things to a fine point when it says a Godly wife(Fiance in this case) is more precious that jewels. There are few things that genuinely are priceless, for me, Jennie is most certainly one.

Why is she so priceless? Why would I never trade her for anything in the world? To a deeper point why will I attempt to never show disrespect to our relationship with my actions? Because, I can trust her. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a flair for the dramatic and with that comes a penchant for embellishment. The short hand is that, "I lie." I will talk about things that I know nothing about and tell stories about things I never did. Thankfully with the grace of God I've gotten some control over that.

The point is that I appreciate someone who is honest, completely honest. I love that I can trust Jennie's words and actions to be true to God first and myself. She's honest and thoughtful with her words, I do have no end to my gain because of her deep sense of honesty and the way that she lifts me up and is an example to a stinky lying sinner like myself.

I mentioned the thoughtfulness of Jennie's words, when we began dating we had a brutal honesty rule in place. It literally meant BRUTAL honesty. She and I would say exactly what was on our mind. It seemed like the best way to do things. We learned pretty quickly that you can be honest and polite without loosing any of the punch.

So, the brutal honesty became gracious honesty and Jennie fell into it quickly and naturally. Her brutal honesty was usually tinged with a bit of love and kindness anyways. I can trust my heart with her. I can trust my relationship with her. I can trust my feelings, hopes, dreams, and marriage with her.

I pray that when she looks back at her life with me she'll be able to say I did her no harm. That will be a good feeling. Really, I hope she is able to say that at the end of everyday. I love her, she's precious.

I call for a re-vote!

The top quotes list of '07 is a travesty. How could this not be the quote of the year. . .nay. . .the decade?

"I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and Iraq and everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for us."
~Lauren Upton - Ms. South Carolina

What would your top quotes of 2007 be?

Oh, well, take the jump to see the rest of the list.


**Compiled from the Reuters article.**

1. "Don't Tase Me, Bro." -- Andrew Meyer's failed attempt at not getting tased during his eviction and eventual tasing at a speech by Sen. John Kerry.

2. My #1. . .see above. -- Take that Yale Book of Quotations!

3. "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country." -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's October comment at Columbia University in New York.

4. "That's some nappy-headed *** there." -- Shock jock Don Imus comments about the Rutgers University women's basketball team.

5. "I don't recall." -- Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' repeated response to questioning at a congressional hearing about the firing of U.S. attorneys.

6. "There's only three things he (Republican presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani) mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11." -- Sen. Joseph Biden, speaking at a Democratic presidential debate.

7. "I'm not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody (Vice President Dick Cheney) who has a 9 percent approval rating." -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat.

8. "(I have) a wide stance when going to the bathroom." -- Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig's explanation of why his foot touched that of an undercover policeman in a men's room.

9. "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man." -- Biden describing rival Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

10. "I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history." -- Former President Jimmy Carter in an interview in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper.

Bobby Petrino will not be getting an Absolutely Spoo Christmas card:

I hope UGA routes Arkansas for as long as Petrino is there. I'm not going to make character judgments as this ended up not being good for anyone. All that matters is that UGA dismantles Petrino's pigs.

The story of a "Cut and Runner". ;) And here is the rest of it.

Thoughts from the Mob:

**Sorry if you tried to read this and it seemed a bit screwy. Something got messed up in the formatting. I think I fixed it. 12/09**


I've been trying to get my thoughts hammered out on the topic of youth ministry, not my personal youth, the practicum side of it. I certainly wouldn't say that I have it fully hammered yet, but I'm starting to shape them. I'm somewhere between "white hot blob of molten pain" and "shapeless moderately hammered metal item". So this post will clearly not be a thesis on youth ministry and it won't be a deep look at the form and function of contemporary youth ministry.

What I've got here is a look at some scripture that I've been rolling around in my head for a while. It seems to touch on the basic human issues that make modern youth ministry so difficult, even in seemingly perfect situations.



John 12: 12-18 says,

The next day, when the large crowd that had come to the festival heard that
Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took palm branches and went
out to meet Him. They kept shouting: " Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the
name of the Lord --the King of Israel!" Jesus found a young donkey
and sat on it, just as it is written: Fear no more, daughter of
Zion; look! your King is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. His
disciples did not understand these things at first. However, when Jesus was
glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about Him and
that they had done these things to Him.

Meanwhile the crowd, which had been with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify. This is also why the crowd met Him, because they heard He had done this sign.

Can you hear the passion in the crowds voice? This is a large crowd of people singing praises to someone that they fervently wanted to believe was the King of Israel. The last part is so telling. Maybe they wanted Jesus to be Messiah, but they wanted it because of His miracles. They had heard about a guy who raises the dead, who wouldn't want to jump on His bandwagon?

I think that this is a large part of youth ministry. Teens coming for something other than Christ. Maybe some of that early crowd did desire to know the Messiah, but odds are good the majority wanted to see the miracles and be a part of them. In the same breath, maybe some teens are coming for Christ, but I think most are there for the miracles. What's the modern equivalent? Emotional response would be my first guess.

So, what happens when the miracles stop and Christ stands there telling you He is the Messiah? What happens when you have to just trust Him?

I think that shows up in John 19.

14Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, "Behold your King!" 15They cried out, "Away with him, away with him, crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." 16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.

Matthew 27 makes things crystal clear.

15 Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. 16And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. 17So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?"

20Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. 21The governor again said to them, "Which of the two do you want me to release for you?" And they said, "Barabbas." 22Pilate said to them, "Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" They all said, "Let him be crucified!" 23And he said, "Why, what evil has he done?" But they shouted all the more, "Let him be crucified!"

24So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves." 25And all the people answered, "His blood be on us and on our children!" 26Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.

If you know the story of Christ you know this is how it goes, but contrast that with the way that he entered. The people flocked to Him and sang praises while laying down palm branches to line his way. He was treated like a triumphant King returning. How in the world do things dissolve to this point? How does the joyous crowd turn into an enraged riot?

The above scripture points out the natural progression of the seeker, youth or otherwise. First people come to Christ for selfish and personal gain, i.e. Miracles. Then when they grow weary of the true Gospel, they turn. There was never salvation involved.

What's that mean in youth ministry? It means that every church will see teens come in and not be saved. They'll come in looking for something other than Christ and will stick it out until the Gospel offends them.

The real crux here is what are we doing in between receiving the "Miracle seeker" and them leaving. If it's not sharing the Gospel, if your ministry isn't focused on the Cross and Christ's atoning work on it, then they won't get offended and we'll never find out they aren't saved.

I guess I have just come to learn that smoke and mirrors/games and programs, just don't cut it. Sure they bring kids in. I want to bring kids in. But, we'll be perpetuating the problem we see in scripture. I don't know if there is a deep answer to a problem that I missed. I just don't want to feed that mob.

An Ounce of Prevention:

My friend, Tommy sent me some pictures. I am so glad that Tommy has as highly developed a sense of humor as he has, because he can spot comedy on the fly. One day while he was at the mall he saw this.




Take the leap to see the punchline.





How great is that? Clearly, the issue of child baggery, had been a problem. Thank you Tommy.

Heroes Season Finale: Unqualified Rantings

Most everyone know that I'm getting married. What most of you may not know is that getting married costs money. As is such, my fiance and I have taken to a regular Monday date night. We watch Heroes. She even got me the first season box set for my birthday. She doesn't dive into nerdiness, but she doesn't shy away from it either. I'm pretty sure she's perfect.

We'll, I've had some time to process everything and have decided that "Chapter 2" was not as bad as it seemed by some. Take the jump for my opinion and spoilers, if you haven't watched the finale.



I really hate that they've killed Micah's family. I certainly hope that they didn't let Ali Larter go over money. She really did bring, in my opinion, a great dynamic to the cast. I'm especially upset that she never got to fully enjoy being a beast.

That being said, I don't think Nathan will die. I don't think Peter's blood can save him either. I just think he'll get better. Matt Parkman took like 5 shots to the chest and survived. Don't get me started on the miracle blood either, it's so Deus Ex Machina. Maya is good, but has no point, if they are going to, essentially swap her out for Niki she had better become important.

Here comes my personal speculation.

With the scrapping of the virus plot, I think they will try to get back to what they did right last season, putting Claire in danger. I believe that Sylar's version of the virus was just mildly mutated from Niki's and requires a regular transfusion of Claire's miracle blood or he has to steal here joojoo.

I think it's going to let Sylar be like a junky. I'm probably wrong.

Either way, HRG shot Nathan, bank on it. Adam will get out. Kaitlyn is never coming back to the show.

My last thing is this. For calling Chapter 2 "Generations" and promising to flesh out the last generation. . .they sure didn't do that. I am sure i heard that we would see their powers. We saw Bob goldify a spoon, and maybe we saw Mama Petrelli control someones actions. I'm a bit underwhelmed.

Either way, Chapter 2 was a great story that was riddled with slow plot and a lack of immediate purpose. Hopefully, "Villians" will push the pace. I really would like more of the back story and powers of the super parents.

Matt Parkman goes bad in Chapter 3. Maya becomes a worldwide threat. The Haitian steps up and becomes the big deal he should be.

Can't wait for Chapter 3. . .let's pick up the pace, writers.

Just fooling about posting less video:

I have no idea what is going on in this video. I am fairly certain that the gospel is not being preached.