Shalom

do you ever wake up thinking about your life and wonder why you're doing the things you're doing? do you ever ask your self why you care about things that you care about? and why is it that when pain and suffering enter our lives the things we care about shift to something(s) much more meaningful. why don't we just live that way all the time?
catherine of aragon said, "none get to god but through trouble". these are strong words. i don't think she meant only "go to god" when you're in trouble. but the truth of the matter is, we tend to have perspective when things aren't going our way. the way we planned.
catherine knew this far well. losing her husband months after she had been married and then remarrying and losing four children in the process. she knew a thing or two about loss. trouble. pain.
so this christmas season, remember that god came in the form of a human. who suffered the same way that we suffer. he knows what we feel. how we feel. remember that jesus came to be like us. remember that he came. remember what the cross means for our suffering world.

i'm currently reading some church history books and something dawned on me. life is short. i was reading about nero and how brutal he was to christians. nero made christians serve as objects of amusement; torn to death by dogs, crucifixions, set on fire to be used as light if the sun was hidden by clouds. years and years of this torture. abuse. it made me think about how short life is.
when we crack open a history book you can read a hundred years of history in one paragraph. one paragraph gives one hundred years of life justice. i don't know what it is about that thought, but it just blows me away. think of all the things that happen everyday. every year. that's only a fragment in a history book. i just hope my life is telling a good story. and i hope i never get eaten alive by dogs.

i'll be 26 soon. this weekend actually. quite weird, to be honest. i had a list of things that i wanted to have accomplished by this stage in my life , and honestly, i forgot most of them already. they were cool things though, like get a tattoo and sky dive. you know, "that" list.
i think i made that list because i wanted my life to feel like it counted. like i lived with risk and passion. but how much risk is taken when you follow a list?
i guess what i'm getting at is that my life has turned out pretty great without a list. i'm very content with life. do i want some things that i don't have? sure. do i worry and get anxious about things still? everyday. but somehow i'm reminded that god is my midst. he's surrounding me constantly. somehow that calms me. the creator of everything in my midst. this reality brings peace to me. so no need to freak out at 26. i'll save freaking out for hearing words like, "honey i'm pregnant" and "daddy meet my boyfriend".

so i've got some characters in this church i am currently working. oh how easy it is to forget how teenagers don't love sleep as much as adults. well that's probably not true. they just like to cause all their havoc at night. pulling fire alarms and turning cell phone rings that sound like a siren up as loud as possible. kids threatening to kill each other. kids actually trying to kill each other. youth ministry is crazy/hilarious/hard/beautiful. being out of youth ministry for just 6 months threw me off my game a little. pick your battles and try to get some sleep are things i had to re-learn on our retreat this weekend.

what does the word restoration mean to you? please do respond. i need some good answers. so here it is in a two part question:

1. what does restoration mean for you personally?
2. what does restoration mean for our world?

thanks,
peace

tomorrow is my last day working with sean. i know it was a short stint, but i am moving onto something that i am much more passionate about. but that's a totally different post. so anyway, sean has been testing me out this past week. he pushes my buttons to see what i will let him get away with.
well yesterday i was confronted with "flight or fight" kind of reaction. i know that sean only weighs maybe 100 pounds. and i also know that as his guardian at school i am supposed to protect him from other people (which i've done on a few occasions). but that kid sucker punched me in the back of the head yesterday. and it hurt.
i know that i am a peace maker. i know that. i know that finding peace in the midst of aggravation and frustration is not the easiest thing to do. and this was definitely the case here.
call me a horrible person, but i think anyone in that situation might have flipped their lid. i just shook it off and kept a positive attitude. but don't think for a second that i different scenario didn't play in my mind. because it did.

so if you know anything about my wife, her favorite holiday is halloween. she is obsessed. we seriously have tubs and tubs of halloween decorations. she can't get enough of it. so naturally we have been talking about costumes(i know it's not even october yet) and i think i have narrowed down the top five costumes that you'll see this year. so if you need an idea this year and want to start planning out your costume, here are some you may want to consider (or stray away from due to populartity).

5. g.i. joe character - this summer G.I. joe brought back all of my generations favorite childhood memories. snake eyes and sgt. slaughter (to name a couple). Keep your eyes open for military outifts and sweet play guns.
4. female singers - i think we'll see slight change from girls dressing as scandalous as possible to an actual decent costumes. keep your eyes out for lady gaga, hannah montana, taylor swift and katie perry. (don't count out a second year of sarah palin either)
3. star trek - i never watched star trek growing up as a kid but this empire has made a total comeback. i'm sure we'll see some tight shirts and elf shaped ears set a halloween trend.
2. vampires - twilight has made vampires cool again. i was a vampire in 4th grade. i wore jeans and a tshirt because that's all i had. now vampires can wear street clothes and it's actually cool.
1. michael jackson - need i say anything about this. there are so many ways you can dress like mike, so look for this year to be the king of pops biggest halloween ever.

honorable mention: obama, michael myers, transformers and disney princesses.