13 Last Meals

If it came to the place where I knew that I only had a few days to live, and I only had 13 meals left to eat, here would be what I would order. I'm going to count down on this one from my 13th meal to my final meal.

13. Vegetarian Quesadilla from Taqueria El Castillo. -->

12. Pepperoni Pizza from Zachary's Pizza.

11. Fajitas

10. Lasagna

9. Chili Dogs and tater tots.

8. Kalbi and Bulgogi--no rice, just meat

7. Ribs, w/ potato salad and baked beans

6. My Special Chili

5. Hawaiian BBQ from L&L's.

4. Chicken Fried Steak Sandwich from The Chuck House, w/ tater tots

3. Spaghetti

2. Vegetarian Quesadilla from Taqueria El Castilla

1. Macaroni and Cheese w/ Chicken Strips.

Sunday Morning Impact

I'm going to try to do this in a different way. Some things are better than others, so to be more accurate about how I feel a Sunday or Wed. goes, I'm going to borrow from another junior high pastor's blog on how he rates his Sunday mornings.

Game: Good
Music: Good
Message: Good but long

Our game was a trick game. I asked for 3 volunteers, and they all went out into the hallway. I told all the other kids that the game was to see who could eat the most powdered donuts without licking their lips. If they saw somebody lick their lips, then they had to yell and call that person out. The website I got the game off of said that 8 is the most they ever had.
So the kids came back in and started eating the donuts without knowing that they couldn't lick their lips. Kenny ate 2 before he licked his lips. Austin ate 9, and Christian ate 10, but we called him the winner because he never licked his lips. It's excruciating watching people eat donuts. It takes so long.

The music was led by Gideon, and he always does a great job. I gave it a "good" because I was just in a weird mood yesterday and was worried that Bryon was speaking and he wasn't there yet. I started going through my head to see if I could get something together to stall for a little while. Bryon showed up during the last song, and I got to concentrate more on worship.

Bryon spoke about love; loving God and loving your neighbor. He talked about we all have the capacity for loving people, even the people who we don't get along with because God is love, and if God is in us, then we have love in us. He spoke for about 55 minutes, but this is a small gist of what he said. I thought it was good and he used a lot of audience participation, so the kids seemed to stay with him. He ended with reading some letters that a bunch of the kids sent to him when he was in Afghanistan. He talked about how loved he felt by reading the short little notes that the kids wrote. I think that was the best part, seeing the kids get excited when he read their letter, because they knew how important it was to Bryon, and that they had made him feel loved.

Overall, it was a good Sunday morning.

What Faith?

5The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"

6He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.

7"Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'? 8Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? 9Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.' " Luke 17:5-9 (The Message)

This morning I was reading this passage. I've probably read this passage several times, but this morning something stood out to me that I had never caught before (which is the awesome thing about this Bible. Every time you read it, God can show you something different).

The disciples were asking for their faith to be increased. Jesus didn't tell them how to have more faith. He didn't give them any special instructions or "to-do" lists that would increase your faith. Jesus didn't give a 10 steps to having more faith sermon, where every point started with the letter "B." He told them a story, that to me doesn't have anything to do with faith. It has to do with doing what God says.

I think too often I get caught up on how to have more faith, like the disciples. I look for a plan in the Bible. I look for a secret that I and every other person who has ever studied the Bible had missed. And If I find it then I will be able to move mountains and bushes and do all kinds of cool stuff. (I would use it to move slower moving cars in front of me) I would use it to heal my headaches. I would use it to heal my son (who is sick right now. He's been puking like crazy the last couple of days. In fact we got a big purple splot right on our white carpet).

Maybe I shouldn't worry about having the faith that can raise the dead or shoot demons out of people. Maybe God gives me enough faith to get me through the things that I need to do for him. I've never thought of me in the way of this story, as God's servant. I need to serve God before I even serve myself. I know this, but I've never thought of it in this sense before. I still want to try to figure this out. Faith is such an interesting thing, and I continue want to grow with mine, but maybe I need to look at it from a different perspective.

Looking for God: An Unexpected Journey through Tattoos, tofu & pronouns

I just finished this book by Nancy Ortberg. I had never heard of her. I was never recommended this book. I was just wandering around in the religion section at Barnes & Nobles (or Borders...whatever). This book caught my eye because of the cover. Then I read the quote under the title and it said "tattoos." This is why I really bought this book and read it. I wanted to see what kind of stories she had about tattoos and tofu that could help me look for God.

It's a good book. Even though there are probably only 2 sentences that have anything to do with tattoos, the book did have a lot about looking for God. It was about finding God in the ordinary, everyday experiences and encounters that we have. Whether it's helping somebody, playing with kids, or eating dinner with friends, we can find God. It doesn't necessarily be a quiet time or a worship service. I liked this idea a lot.

Her book is very feminine. I think ladies would like it a lot, and could relate to her humor and stories a little better than I did. I still liked the book, I just think that women would relate better to this book. Many of the things that she talked about were things that I have also thought about and come to grips with, but there were some things that I am definitely going to use and put into practice. This is a book that you should check out. It's a very short read (it took me 2 days...on and off). So, go read it and let me know what you think.

Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines

I just finished this book, and I know I say this a lot, but it was great. I couldn't put it down. I love stories. I love hearing about how certain events impact somebdy's life. This was a book about a guy who became heavily involved in drugs. He took everything, from weed to crystal meth (his drug of choice) to heroin. It talks about the crazy thinking that went on while he was on drugs, and how his thinking could totally change when he was sober. The book goes through a relapse, a recovery, another relapse, and then another recovery.
I think I really liked the book because it took place a lot in San Francisco. One of the places he use to deal drugs was 2 blocks from my church and across the street from my favorite taqueria (that I talked about in a post a couple of days ago). The Safeway he hung out was where I did my grocery shopping. The other places that he talked about I knew well. I had several kids in my youth group who lived in the Tenderloin, where he spent a lot of time looking for drugs.
When he hit rock bottom, he moved to LA where his 12 Steps sponsor lived. He lived in a sober living facility, and he got clean for a while. He got a job, he was going great with his life, but an ex-girlfriend called, and he ended up getting caught up with her celebrity friends. Before too long he had relapsed again, doing crack, meth, and cocaine...among other "prescribed" drugs. He finally hit rock bottom again and went to a facility in Arizona that helped him, and the book ends there, with him trying to release and come to grips with demons that have been in his life from his childhood.
He talks a lot about God and prayer, even though he doesn't believe in God. From me, a believer, I see God very much in his book. Every time he cried out to God, God delivered him and helped him out. When he started relying on himself, and not looking for God, he went back into his old habits. I saw that throughout the book, even though I don't think this was the author's intention.
Anyways, it was a very good book. It took me about 3 days to read it, but it was so interesting that it could have taken one if I would have had the time. I like the part with him in San Francisco the best. Maybe it was because I knew the places. Maybe it was because the characters all seemed more interesting (especially this kid named Gack). Hopefully it's not because I love to read about people suffering. I didn't like the characters in LA as much, except for his sponsor, Spencer. Maybe I felt they were all superficial about living amongst celebrities and stuff like that.
But I would recommend the book to people who like memoirs and people who like reading about recovery and drug abuse. Suzy loves the stuff, and she's the one who bought the book and read it first before recommending it to me. It's got some bad language and gets pretty graphic, so be aware of that before beginning to read it.

Dreams

I have very vivid dreams. Most every night I have dreams and I can remember them in them morning. Sometimes I'll be walking around and something will catch my eye and remind me of a dream that I had forgotten about. (Even last night I had a very vivid dream that I thought was real when I woke up for a minute)
The two best dreams that I can remember were very special. One of them, I was in a Roadrunner and Coyote cartoon. The roadrunner was chasing me through the desert. Everything was a cartoon. This was the best dream I ever had. The second best dream I ever had was one that everybody was singing everything, like a musical. Nobody could talk. If anybody wanted to communicate they had to sing. I don't remember how any of the songs go, but I can still remember people in my dream who were singing, mostly friends from college.
The worst dream I ever had was one where I was just standing in a line that wasn't moving. I was in a building, standing in the back of a line that didn't move. I never got closer to the front. I hate lines. This is my nightmare. If I dream about monsters or ghosts, I love them, but if I dream about standing in line, I get all tense. Luckily, this dream is not reoccurring.
I don't know what I think about dreams. Some say that you can tell the future. Some say that they will tell you how you really are in your subconscious. Some say that God talks to them and shows them things through dreams. I have a friend who is a missionary in a very Muslim country. She says that the way most of the people she works with convert is when they have a dream from God. She prays for the people there for God to speak to them through dreams. I know a guy who was heavily involved with the Church of Satan, and one night he had a dream that changed him from a Satan worshiper to a Christian. Dreams are powerful.
Anyways, this post is about nothing except that I've been thinking about the dream that I had last night. I don't know if I should try to get meaning out if, or maybe it was because I ate too later, or what.
What are the best and worst dreams that you can remember. Are they funny? Are they sad? Did you believe they were real when you woke up the next morning. Let me know, because I find this stuff fascinating.

100th Post

Words that I like to Say

Here is a list of words that I like to say. I will probably be adding to this often.

1. Donkey
2. Walkie Talkie
3. Boom-a-rang
4. Deputy
5. Duty
6. Snuggle
7. Shank
8. Francisco (thanks to Elf)
9. Montague
10. Hula
11. Booty
12. Baboon
13. Mushy
14. Yellow
15. Honky
16. Stool
17. Protrude
18. Optical
19. Sinister
20. Velvet

Words I don't like to say

1. Loaf
2. Moist
3. Rampant
4. Jerky
5. Snake
6. Barb wire

13 Places I want to Visit

I love traveling and seeing new places. Here are my Top 13 places that I would love to visit.

1. Ireland--I think it would be fun to go to a pub and watch a soccer game. I hear they get pretty intense. I'll drink some water and sing songs with the drunk Irish people as we yell for whatever soccer team is playing. I'm sure they'll be invested in the outcome of the game way more than I will be.

2. Australia--A few years ago I had a guy come and stay with me from Perth. His mom had e-mailed me if I knew of any cheap places he could stay, and I said he could stay on my couch, and so he did. He was so cool and we hit it off quickly. I'd like to go and see Australia and visit him. And maybe we could catch a kangaroo.



3. Brazil--I just think South America would be cool to visit, and it'd be fun to see the Amazon. I like monkeys.






4. Italy--I want to see all the ancient Roman stuff. I want to eat good spaghetti.








5. England--I want to see if I can get those guards who can't move to move and recognize that I am there. I think I'll see if I can back as close to them with my butt without touching them...and see if that'll do it. If not, maybe I could fart real loud. I think even British people would think a fart is funny.


6. Amsterdam--Not to smoke pot or go to the Red light District, it just seems like a cool place to go. I also like windmills and wooden shoes.





7. Turkey--2 things. I have a friend, Mudd, who lives there and it would be fun to see him and his family that I have never met. Second, it's where a lot of early church history took place and it would be cool to see all of that.


8. Israel--Just to see where Jesus walked and talked would be cool.





9. Greece--I know some Greek, but Greece just seems like it would be beautiful.




10. Costa Rica--I have always heard that it was beautiful down there, and they have beautiful beaches.





11. Alaska--I want to do the Alaskan cruise. My parents did it last summer, and they said it was nice. I want to see a grizzly bear eat a fish.




12. Korea--It would be good to see Suzy's heritage a little bit. I will eat my weight in Kalbi.



13. San Francisco--I miss it there. I'm reading a book right now, Tweak, and it's set in San Francisco and a lot of the places it talks about I know, so it's making me miss it. I also have a lot of friends that I would like to visit and see. I have a hankering for a Vegetarian Quesadilla from Taqueria El Castillo on Church St. (If you look in the lower right hand corner, you will see a red neon light, right off of Market St. That's Safeway. My old church is about 2 blocks up Market, but there is a building blocking it from this view) It's beautiful isn't it.

unChristian

I just finished reading the book unChristian by David Kinnaman. It is about the perceptions that outsiders of the church have of Christians. Some of it was very interesting information. Some of it was things I already knew or suspected. Basically, people on the outside of the church, especially Generation X and the Mosaics have seen what Christians have to offer and have rejected it.
They see us as hypocritical. They see us as judgmental. They see us as antihomosexual. They see us as being sheltered. They see that what we have to say is worthless because they do not respect Christians.
Several Christian leaders gave little comments throughout the book on the different topics. Almost all fo them said that we ahve to stand by our beliefs, but the way that we communicated and connect with outsiders has got to change. It's God's responsibility to change hearts, it is our job to love people and serve people. To change the country's perceptions of Believers we need to start living in a way that is radically following the ways of God, by focusing on what God wants us to focus on and living like Jesus lived. We need to love people. We need to stand up for people who are being taken advantage of (sex slaves, people with HIV, the hungry, the illiterate). Only if we begin to do this, can we hope to change the perceptions of the unbelievers in our country.
The book had some great ideas. It was hard to read, because there aren't many illustrations. I think he repeated himself a lot. He could have made the chapters about half as long as they were and still got all the research and information in there. But, the information and the research was worth reading, and I would recommend this book to anybody who wants to change the perceptions of the world towards Christianity.