never been here before

Happy Halloween... I have no idea how they got them to dance like that. But it's hilarous.

Every guitar player has their favorite pick. Not one actual "pick" but the one brand, texture, and thickness you found that fits you. I am no different. When I first began to play, I sought the advice of professionals at one of our local music stores. He directed me to a blue one (which I love, my favorite color) that was fairly thick. I can't recall the exact measurement of thickness, but it's a lot thicker than what I use now. The logo and words on it rubbed off after a few months or so, and once I'd moved past finger-picking to chords (which is completely backwords for worship leading, if you think about. But I never do anything the normal way) I needed something thinner. So I just grabbed different kinds and tested them. I eventually landed on the perfect pick for me. The only problem? It's pink. I don't do pink. Why am I writing about very uninteresting part of my life? Well, the other day I was searching through my purse and as I was digging at the v

I decided to watch one of my all-time favorite freaky movies - The Village . I will not spend the whole post waxing philosophical about the greatness that is M. Night Shyamalan. I'll let my friend Rocky do that for me here , here and here . For me, pop culture is like dessert. I so look forward to it before it happens and after when I'm done I feel both satisfied and sick from the sugar. With certain entertainment venues, I pick apart the annoying unbelievably issues, continuity errors and character assassinations over and over. (Perhaps that's why so little of what's on TV right now interests me. Perhaps I'm secretly afraid I'll get an ulcer.) But with movies, I tend to simply let them wash over with with joy (unless they suck, that is.) The Village is no different. (not with the sucking, of course, but with the joy...) So my desire to simply let movies wash over me is probably why I had no idea the surprise that appeared was once Ivy climbed over the wall.

My aunt and I spoke for quite a while more - an opportunity I'd been praying for since we decided to go on this trip together. Thankfully it was given to me: the chance to share with her God's never-ending love no matter the sin. The love that spurs me to gratefulness - away from sin not towards it. I shared with her from Galatians 3 "Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them." Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit." I even told her about Martin Luther, the 95 Theses , the birth of the reformation and told her that reading Roman

Last week I traveled to Kansas City and then on to St. Louis to visit two very interesting and two very different seminaries. Why seminary? Well, it happened sometime after this . I remember glancing through church job descriptions in order to make sense of this "thing" that was burning inside me, and I realized that every job that looked really great required a master's degree. So thus began the research. St. Paul School of Theology intrigued me for two reasons: the urban setting and the diversity of the student body. Both were confirmed after my visit. The school itself is very nice - the campus is lovely and well-keep (and quite small), the buildings are beautiful, they have the very latest in technological equipment in each class room, yadda, yadda. That is all very nice. But what I really loved was the dynamic range of ethnicity, age and background of the students on campus. I had lunch with two really great people - Laura and Joel. Current students both extremely in

In light of my recent anniversary, I decided to glance back at some old posts in order to point out my favorites. On the Church Never Underestimate God Love and the Church Law of Love Fight or Flight Boundaries - Part 2 On Worship Colson missed the mark on this one A Worship Leader's Responsibility Landmarks and Going Through the Motions On Personal Growth Answering the Call Restoration (Part 1) Being the Better Person Being Someone Who Matters The Perfect Storm On "Yeah, yeah, I get it." The Shield of Faith Me+Sparks = Bad On the Media/Pop Culture Everyone Else is Talking About It I Admit it My Version of Politics Enjoy! (But please ignore the typos...)

...a step in the right direction. Pope Benedict XVI is expected to cast aside the concept of limbo. . Maybe those old Catholics can change after all. :)

Today, I am offically one year old on blogspot.com. I look back over the last year and I feel as though I've come full circle. Let me explain... A few months ago a young girl from my congregation approached me and asked me to mentor her. She is 19 and chose not to go to college after she graduated. She is currently teaching dance at a local studio and trying so hard to figure out how to be happy. She and I are reading Captivating by Staci and John Eldridge and today I was typing up the question on the chapter 6 "Healing the Wound", remembering what I went through about a year ago on the subject of restoration . I am now realizing just how much healing God gave me in the last twelve months. I am not brand new. I am mended . And I think that's much better. Never thought I'd say that, but I am. I am mended - tattered and torn. But like the velveteen rabbit, I was made real by love. Not perfect, but real nonetheless. How could I ask for more? A list of my favorite p

My page looks like crap from a PC. The type is too large and for some reason the bottom half shows all the text being centered. Per usual, it looks fine on a Mac. I've seen some other blogger pages and they also seems to be acting weird. Has blogger gone Mac only? Please say it's true.