Ask & it will be given to you.
Seek, & you will find.
Knock & the door will be opened to you.
Thanks for the help & suggestions. I’ll give this one a run & see how it goes…
Puh-leez.
I’m bored with the themes that blogger has for its templates… actually, I’ve been bored for about a year, & have even done some searching to attempt to find a theme that I can live with… to no avail. I like WordPress’ free stuff, & Typepad’s as well. Blogger must have a love-connection to Douglas Bowman, because he seems to be the exclusive designer of blogger’s themas (yes, I spelled it “thema” on purpose.)
Recommendations? Suggestions? Places to look? With the caveat: that I won’t have to go to computer geek school or learn another language (like html) to create the new look…
Roundabout…
This is a picture of the Bean & I at Roundabout last week – w/18 of our friends – in this pic, we’re making a commitment to Christ’s call on our lives, & also to each other.
Strassbourg
The Bean & I arrived in Frankfurt about an hour ahead of schedule – always fun to sit in the middle of the aisle, esp. when the persons directly in front & behind me were complaining about me to the flight attendant because, GASP! I had the air on & they could feel it. Perhaps because we’re packed in the plane like sardines, or because the guy in front of me had his seat so far back he might as well have been sitting in my lap. But, we slept for at least 4 hours, so 4 hours is better than no sleep. :)
We had a brief coffee with Johannes & Anja, then went to visit our friends (& hosts for the next 3 days,) Martin & Sandra. We stayed up late talking, & then crashed hard about 11 p.m.
We slept for about 12 hours (!)
Today, we’ve traveled to Strassbourg, France, to have a “relaxing day” in the city center, viewing old cathedrals, & reviewing the history of this city that has been at the crux of many land disputes between Germany & France – look up Alsace on Google & you’ll see what I’m talking about.
The streets we walked through had a strange blend of German architecture (like the buildings around the mayor’s office in Frankfurt) & what we saw in Zurich 2 years ago – we stopped for about an hour in the Cathedral of Strassbourg – a large, very ornate cathedral, longer than 2 football fields inside, wider than 1. It had a very hollow, almost eerie atmosphere inside, & for the most part, was completely empty except for a few, very few tourists. I sat in a row of the wooden chairs near the front of the church, & thought & prayed – thanking God that He hears our prayers, that we can pray directly to Him because of Jesus, & that He lives in us through the Holy Spirit. We had some talks about God living in us vs. living in a building, & what would motivate a people to build such a cathedral…
It’s cold (about 28-32 F) with intermittent rain, so we ducked into as many cafe’s as possible to have an espresso or cappuccino, before we once again braved the elements to walk the streets.
We hope to eat at McDonald’s tonight – a little taste of home. :)
Please pray for favor for us in our coming meetings, starting Sunday afternoon – we really feel the difference that your prayers make.
I’ll be blogging again soon!
Blessings to you
Louie & Joni
some days…
Seems like there is a conspiracy of some sort… a conspiracy to antagonize me until I finally snap, & really lose it. Get angry. Throw stuff. Yell. Have a fit. This isn’t a new thing. It happens all the time. A little something something pulls at me, twists me to give in to the rage, to “vent.” To allow myself the indulgence of a rant.
Yet there’s the whisper that says no. Don’t. I don’t need to. It won’t bring the relief that it promises. The resulting frustrations & regrets far outweigh the false luxury of temporary giving away of control.
It doesn’t really matter if it’s been “dumb people,” as I know that I am someone’s dumb person. (BTW: please don’t write me to confirm. I really, really would encourage you to KITY, which is my own acronym, just created for Keep it to Yourself…) Life is full of frustrations. Long lines. Computer updates that create snafus with the other programs on the computer. People that one has to interact with in order to transact business, eat a meal, fill a prescription, find necessary information… if I were to lose it every time I was justified in “losing it,” I think that I’d be going off pretty much all the time. And the issue would be selfishness. Self-focus. Pride. Me issues.
And the indulgence of flesh gives place to the dark-side… provides a pivot point, a manipulation station the enemy can work from, in complete anonymity, hiding behind my well-developed sense of offense, wronged-ness, & me-ness.
Note: please go easy on the scoey-isms that have entered the blog. If you’re reading, it’s late. I’m tired. Frustrated. Bothered at several wasted hours. At dust & dirt. Silly dogs. Eyes that itch & burn & are really red, that EVERYONE is finding it necessary to point out to me.
It’s Wednesday…
Wednesday
A niece…
More recently J. R. R. Tolkien created an alternative meaning for this name using his made up Elvish language Quenya. In his novel The Lord of the Rings Elanor means “sun-star” (el: star, and anor: sun), and is the name of a golden five-pointed flower that grows in the woods of Lothlórien and the given name of a golden-haired child.
There’s more, but I’ll save it for later. If you made it all the way through this post, you deserve a prize. Go get yourself a cup of great coffee, or whatever foo-foo drink you like, & drink it, all the while thinking, “I’m rewarding myself for reading all the way through that post.” Cheers to you.
we care a lot…
Not a Faith No More reference…We Care A Lot is about a conversation I was having with a friend the other day about my friend’s hope/wish/want to be able to help another, mutual, friend… Vague enough for you? Don’t want to expose the friend or the mutual friend, so I must speak in riddles…
Anyway, my friend’s mourning over the struggles, issues, & general pain that our mutual friend was experiencing reminded me of some great advice I was given by my friend, Chuck. Chuck said:
First: it’s not your job to die FOR your church, your friends, or for anyone else. Jesus already did.
Second: No matter what someone else’s troubles, difficulties, or life situation is, you cannot care more about it than they do… it’s a black-hole that is very hard to escape.
Made me think…how often have I expended great amounts of energy in helping a friend/other to navigate through a situation only to find that when push came to shove & a tough call had to be made, a tough call that just might have made it so that the friend/other could extricate themselves from the rough/tough situation, that the person I was helping would decide that they didn’t want to get out, didn’t want to move on from their situation… but they still wanted all the support & people walking with them that they could find? (Yes, that incredibly long sentence started with a question, so I have to put a ? at the end of it… had to re-read the sentence too, as I was completely lost. But I digress.)
People don’t always want out the situations that they’re in – sometimes, it’s their own life choices that keep them in the vicious circle that they’re trapped in… & I realize that they’re not trapped so much as stuck. And I see that I care more about what they’re doing/facing than they seem to… and I ponder if it’s my role at all to be apart of the situation any longer…
But then to have a boundary, to say “no more” is deemed judgmental & unChristian.
And… I still care a lot…
connect – the – dots, la-la-la-la…
It’s not like I think about thinking – it just happens. I ponder. I wonder. I examine situations, scenarios, possiblities, from just about every angle that I can. (BTW: The Bean says its one of the things that she loves about me, watching me examine the situation, put together related scenarios & bits of info to construct the big picture, which she likes to call “connecting the dots,” completely unlike PeeWee on PeeWee’s Playhouse, where he’d shout out, “Connect the dots! La la la la!” Pure magic. The caveat to the Bean’s liking of my thinking – the examination/evaluation shouldn’t be aimed anywhere near her general direction. The scrutiny of the “thinking microscope” is fairly intense, or so she tells me. Potentially relentless. But I digress…)
The thinking thing can be a gift. But when it turns into ‘overthink’ it’s more like a curse. I’ve got a meeting tomorrow outside of Sacramento with a supervisor – it’s been in the works since 10/5, & it was asked for by him… that means that I have had about 20 days to think. About. What. He. Wants. To. Talk. About.
The preparer in me wants to create, work through, & then solve every potential scenario, every interaction, every possible word that could be said so that if any of the scenarios’ actually does pop up, I’d be ready. However, it is impossible to predict what is on his mind, & the quest to “think through this,” in advance actually ends up being very, very destructive. Consuming. Frustrating. Counterproductive. Paralyzing. Esp. on the off chance (15-20% if you’re taking odds) that this could be a rough meeting.
So I find myself practicing rest in the middle of stress – breathing out confusion & tension, breathing in the peace of the Holy Spirit. Bringing myself to sit quietly on my purple chair (its comfy!) & reminding myself that a) I am not God b) I am not in charge & c) I know who is. I submit my thoughts, the wild, crazy, stuff that I won’t even type here thoughts, & the challenging, potentially life-sucking practical thoughts as well. Submit them. To God. Under His feet. Me, sitting at His feet. Just a boy, trying to figure it out on the fly, but really now trying to just BE, making the presence of God my priority.
(PS – why the photo? I’ve got a soft spot in me heart for PeeWee Herman, as the Bean & I met when she did my make-up at a camp where I played Mr. PWH for a week-long tour that was actually extended into a couple of extra guest appearances later in the summer…)
what is the measure of your success? and other questions to ponder…
Feeling a bit pensive today- & wanted to share the love.
How does one know if what they’re doing is a success or a failure?
What constitutes a successful life?
Is it silly to think in terms of success & failure when it comes to evaluating a life/life decisions?
Is it accumulation of stuff? Wealth? Friendships? Philanthropy/benevolence/humanitarianism? Education? Accomplishments?
What standard will I be measured with? Against?
WHAT IS THE MEASURE OF YOUR SUCCESS?
© Roland Steven Taylor, from the Album “I Predict 1990”
In this city I confess
I am driven to possess
answer no one, let them guess
are you someone I impress?I am a big boss
with a short fuse
I have a nylon carpet and rubber shoes
and when I shake hands
you’ll get a big shock
you’ll be begging for mercy when the champ is through
you’d better believe I’ll put the clamps on youIn this city, be assured
some will rise above the herd
feed the fatted, leave the rest
this is how we won the WestI am a safebox
I am the inner sanctum when the door locks
I own the passkey
you say you can’t take it with you?
we’ll see about that, won’t we?push…push…push…
In this city I confess
god is mammon, more is less
off like lemmings at the gun
I know better, still I runI am an old man
and the word came
but you can’t buy time on a good name
now when the heirs come around like buzzards on a kill
I see my reflection in their envious eyes
I’d watch it all burn
to buy another sunriseSome men find the fire escape
old men learn it all too late
push…push…push the alarm
old MacDonald’s bought the farm