Winter has turned straight into summer as the weather hit 90 degrees in OKC today.

It is so nice to be outside.  I had some errands to run and had fun riding with the windows down.

Here’s a thought for the day and we can just run with that.  There are people who spend their entire lives trying to fight the spread of Christianity and the idea that there is a God.  So why, when our church asks us to come two days out of the week, and to volunteer on some weekends do we find so many excuses to get out of it?

When did just attending church become an option?  When did “o we think we do enough” become an acceptable answer when asked to volunteer a little more time.

Seriously I don’t understand how the entire foundation of our life can take a back seat to things that are temporary?

We have to check our priorities.  Rather than let your faith just exist in the foreground of life depending on when you have time for it ( so that your life determines your faith) why can’t we change out our faith as the background setting to everything we do (so that your faith determines your life).

What do you think?

peace to you

current itunes track: Recycling, Jim Gaffigan, King Bacon

currently wathcing:  The Terminator Trilogy, I am so excited for the new one

currently reading: Pagan Christianity, Frank Viola and George Barna

currently waiting for: tomorrow so i can see my family!  o yeah!

This last couple of weeks I have gotten the pleasure of meeting a new friend who is from all different parts of the country.  This person has traveled and lived in northern california, southern california (which she assures is nothing like northern), the pacific northwest, and the really chilly northeast, but this is her first time in the mid-west (south-esqu area…).  She has started coming to bible study with us and just sharing her thoughts on life from different perspectives and I must say that it is refreshing to get a new perspective on how people act.

We laughed last night as we discussed the overwhelming majority of people (in this region) who feel that if you are not republican then you aren’t really a Christian (a person from an un-named BIG church told a member of the church I go to that she would be praying for her children because she had an Obama bumper sticker on her car, this was after telling her she would be praying for her soul as well!  haha…).  What was funny was how our new friend looked puzzled and then that moment of lightbulb above head struck as she realized where she was living and how far from “kansas” she actually was (or really how close she was ha!).

Then as we were wrapping up small groups a large thunderstorm began to approach.  We could hear the rumble of the thunder and one of our student’s dads called to warn him about it.  This is when our new friend began to get REALLY uncomfortable.  Now i would love to say that I was really compassionate and trying to help with her tornado phobia…but I wasn’t (at first!) I teased a little but then realized that when you aren’t from this area how terrifying the thought of some spectral cloud of debris sucking you into the sky and throwing you for miles might actually seem.  I realized maybe i don’t need to run out into the weather to watch the “finger of God” reach down and scratch the surface of the earth.

Overall it has been an enlightening experience meeting this new friend and realizing just how unique we can all be (while still falling into meta-groups that think in somewhat congruent ways).  O well.  enjoy your afternoon.  peace to you.

current itunes track: 10 Million Slave, Otis Taylor, The Return of the Banjo

currently watching: nothing.  i am still behind on tv, though i did watch the new family guy on sunday night.  I WAS VERY disappointed, just not a good episode.  they tried to push the envelope and all they did was push a boring plot into my living room..suck

currently reading: House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski

*Today’s blog is in response to meagansmith.wordpress.com’s definition of my mind as a Wiki-Trail seeker (i sure love her a lot!)

I love information.  Useless trivia (I tend to bug meagan with my pop up trivia version of movies, music, books, and other things.  I know she loves me though cause she puts up with it..  Riddles.  Jokes.  Books.  News.  Stories.  Anything that I can hold on to and recount.  I collect information the way others might collect keepsakes, souvenirs, or ticket stubs.  Information that I recall can take me back to where I read that or heard that.  Like a keepsake I am reminded of my feelings at the time, or as a souvenir of another time.  The thought itself is a ticket stub of where I have been, what I have “witnessed,” and what I lay claim to as a piece of information.

I acquire information, stories, and data and then store them away. Why are they worth storing? At the time of storing (or filing it in my brain boxes…with my mind grapes!) it is often hard to say exactly when or why I might need them, but I also realize that I never know when it might become useful? With a beautiful collection of possibility engendering “facts” in mind, I  don’t feel comfortable throwing anything away (I see this connection in life to, I am a bit of a pack rat and I am trying to fight this!). But I will continue to acquire and compile and file stuff away. It’s interesting. It keeps my mind fresh. And perhaps, hopefully, and most likely (I have discovered), some of it will prove valuable one day.

I like to take that information and then converse with others who have so many diverse and enlightening opinions.  I love to sit with an individual (especially my Dove…she is so smart!) or group and talk about life, love, philosophy, and even (with humbled reverence for the mysteries I will never know) God.  Even if the conversation never goes anywhere, it is the exchange of ideas and information that makes me light up like a New Orleans evening during Mardi Gras.

I am fascinated and deeply intrigued by ideas. What is an idea? An idea is, to put it simply, a concept, the best explanation of the most events. I get so excited when I can discern beneath the complex surface of an issue and find a beautifully simple concept (or pattern) to explain why things are the way they are. An idea then forms a connection for me. My mind  is always looking for connections and I am greatly enamored when seemingly disparate occurrences can be linked by some seemingly irrelevant connection. The ideas can even become a fresh perspective on familiar challenges for me – whether professionally or personally. I want to take the world we all know and turn it this way and that so we as a community can view it from a strange but enlightening angle. Simply put, ideas are thrilling, and for me that is enough sometimes!

I don’t know what kind of intellectual pursuits you find intriguing but I hope you find ways to challenge yourself personally.  Whether I am just sitting vegging out on video games or I am in deep study for a bible lesson, I know that I will always continue to think and examine things from different angles.  Maybe that is why I feel a close connection with post-modernity because I want to find all the angles people look at the world from and then discern connections between them so we can live in harmony and understanding.

*I would like to add one disclaimer.  I do love wikipedia.org, but YES I am aware of the evils of open source information sharing and so it is usually a springboard for me to go different places and look to real sources for info!

*If you are a news junkie I recommend www.drudgreport.com for intense, diverse, constantly updated news stories.

Hope you are having a great day.  peace to you

current itunes track: Pardon Me, Incubus, Make Yourself

currently watching: not much. I am behind on tv stuff, been pretty busy!

currently gaming: new tunes on rock band 2.  i am disappointed in the content put out by GH: world tour, rock band 2 is light years ahead!

currently reading: Living Your Strengths, Winseman, Clifton, and Liesveld, Gallup Press 2003

How many of you love blogs?  I do.  Well I love my friends blogs.  Especially when they tell me cool or interesting things.  I realize this blog has been pretty bland in the past and I want you to know I apologize and I am looking to rectify this ASAP!  So instead of super long posts with no quality I am going to go quality posts no matter how long!

Check out http://tonydifab.wordpress.com/ if you want to see someone who makes blogging worthwhile!

Following in his footsteps I am commiting to write like I never have before.  So please let me know what you think when you think something (if you don’t leave a comment it tells me you weren’t thinking!) and we will see how things go!

I am looking forward to writing about video games, movies, tv, and life.  so if you have any questions you would like me to tackle please leave them in a comment and I will tackle it!

Today’s blog…actually begins HERE!

I have never been fond of Ski Trips in youth ministry.  I have always thought they were expensive and dangerous.  Well this year the kids at church convinced me to plan one and I was actually really excited and had everything ready until Sunday.  Tony, the pastor at my church, gave a lesson on where is God during the Financial Crisis?  Now the message was not some hugely profound life shattering message, but it was a well delivered common sense talk on scripture and what OUR responsibilities are when life gets tough in the kingdom.  I found myself weeping as a map was shown of the foreclosures on homes just within the zip code the church resides in and i wept even harder as a woman talk about giving her last 40 dollars (for a family of 8!) to the church and getting a surprise check for forty dollars the same day!  I was deeply convicted about the ski trip and knew that I couldn’t take 6 kids and 3 sponsors skiing (at close to a $3600 price tag…not a piece that was everyone as a whole….) when students in my ministry couldn’t go and the church couldn’t cover their cost!  So today I have called all the students and parents and sent emails apologizing about canceling but I am not worried and I am overwhelmed at the response I have gotten.  All of the parents have been really cool about it and understand!  So I have planned a huge Guys Night/Girls Night bash (that will be much cheaper, so everyone can attend) that will blow the roof off what was going to be the ski trip weekend!

I am proud of the students and parents in the group who understand the need to be discerning in the midst of this financial mess and I can not wait for Mission OKC during Spring Break when we are going to love all over our community!

Take time to look, think, and most importantly, love.  We are not alone.  We are not the center of the universe.  We are a community, hand in hand – holding on for dear life.

current itunes track: Bartender (Live at Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA), Live Trax 2008, DMB

currently watching: The Twilight Zone, Season 1

currently reading: Deuteronomy and Galatians

currently gaming: Rock Band 2 XBOX360, Mercenaries 2 XboxLIVE with DiFab, A Kingdom for Keflings (Xbox Live Arcade) i will blog about this later, probably the coolest, most addicting game I have played in YEARS!

currently wishing: it was small group night again.  i love small group nights.

currently missing: all my homies all over the world…

current favorite video of all time: I’m on a Boat by The Lonely Island (look for the edited SNL version as it is pretty full of obscenities!) It is the best example of parody I have EVER seen.

So I haven’t blogged since the start of December and I apolgize.  I have been lazy, and apparently that kills so i better watch out!

Lots of changes.  Life is good, I saw Katie and Daniel get married (which means I also got to see some other great friends!  What a great weekend), Christmas was off the chain (I got spoiled like crazy.  RIDICULOUSLY CRAZY.  IT was awesome to see family.), the new year has started well (see below), and now today I am sick as a dog andtrying not to cough up a lung!

The New Year has started and Meagan and I are participating with the Fam in a Biggest Loser type contest.  It is pretty awesome.  The winner will get a new article of clothing from everyone else who participates!  So far I have lost around 10 or so pounds in a week and a half…i need to work harder!

Like always I have been missing friends like crazy.  This college student to adult transition is just no fun, I am glad that Difab, Kyzer, and Selena are here…we are hoping to go to houston before Spring Break though!

Meagan and I have bought some more furniture.  We got her a cool Baker’s rack at hobby lobby and then we got an end table and coffee table for the living room.  We even got some art for the bedroom so meagan is helping me be all domestic since my idea of good pictures are posters!

Surprise on Tuesday, I went to Game Stop and found a copy of Assassin’s Creed for $17.99, this is the 7th best rated XBOX360 game and I snagged it for under twenty bucks, so much for workingout this week!  HA!

New office on TONIGHT!  Don’t miss it.

So I should wrap this up.  Sorry there isn’t any real content, I will get back to regular blogging with all sorts of jokes soon!  You rock.

peace to you and your family

currently on itunes: Genius playlist starting with Everything’s Magic, Angels and Airwaves

currently watching: 80s movies, classic action movies

currently reading: Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk (for the umpteenth time)

currently gaming: Assassin’s Creed, XBOX360 – Sid Meier’s Priates, PSP – Heavy Weapon XBOX360 Arcade

currently wishing: to just travel around the country and play music.  Schedule Leo Goes Grr in your hometown (just leave me a comment and we will work out the details!  Come on Lubbock, Phoenix, Houston, Tulsa, New Jersey, and Canada…you know you want this tour!)

So you know how you like the same type of stuff year after year, you have your favorites and you hang onto them and then one day you eat it, or listen to it, or watch it and all of a sudden you realize wow…I have changed and I am ok with that.  That has been happening a lot since I have graduated.  I wanted to go over a few if that was ok with you!

Music:  I have started listening to 90s music (which is crazy) and now my favorite two bands are Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin ( in that order).  I still love Dave Matthews Band but right now WOW I am really into progressive rock and no one is better than Floyd and no one is heavier than Zeppelin (i also REALLY like tool, as they have taken progressive rock to whole new heights!).

TV: 30 Rock, 30 Rock, 30 Rock.  This show is hilarious.  I could not stand Alec Baldwin and then this show started and man WOW.  What a show.  O and I have a new lady crush (forget natalie portman) Tina Fey is AMAZING!

Food: Meagan is a great cook and whatever she does with chicken is amazing.  i am getting super tired of hamburgers from fast food places.  i love IBC root beer and orange crush in the bottle as much as I love mt. dew.

movies: I still love movies with explosions and car chases.  no change there.  same with video games.  more shooting the better.  although action games (NOT RPGs) are alluring now a days.

books: college was all about theology.  then after graduation I made sure to read none of it for about 4 months.  Now I am back with a vengeance and LOVING IT!

downloading music:  i am PAYING for downloads.  that is all.

playing music:  Leo Goes GRR is my current band and WOW i love playing and performing with them.  I hope we can turn our show into as much visual excitement as I feel just playing the music!

poker:  texas hold ‘em is some of the most fun you can have just sitting around with friends.

other stuff:  i hate news media…i do love the Daily Show and The Colbert Report
the best candy in the world is starburst
doesn’t matter who is president, people’s greed is what messes up the system.
guitar hero world tour is amazing.  i can’t wait for what is next.
i love my mac…and i grew up as a PC
there is still something magical about buying a cd rather than downloading it from ITUNES
people are really selfish.  trampling someone at wal mart?  really?!
sports are a quiet evil that separates people just because they aren’t the “right” fans
flip flops are a year round clothing article.  quit asking if my toes are cold!
schlutterbahn should be closer to OKC
i love that my family and my in-laws live in the same town. “vacations” are easy!
i love to ramble online…

current itunes track: Have a Cigar, Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here

currently watching: 30 Rock, Season 2

currently reading: Jesus Wants to Save Christians

currently surfing: drudgereport.com, woot.com, 6dollarshirts.com

currently wishing: to be home for christmas!

WOW.  I have not blogged in forever.  I apologize to my mom (cause that is all who read this right? well i would apologize to Kristin but she hasn’t come to visit…so she is in trouble!)

Since my last entry we have had Halloween (Trunk or Treat at our church, it was awesome!), we got a new President (and if you did not know he is a different race than the last 43…so go America!), we finished the walls in the Youth Room at Church!  AWESOME!  The new James Bond movie came out (it is amazing, very much like the Bourne movies, but I like those…so IT ROCKED!), i started listening to christmas music, and It is almost thanksgiving and time for a trip to Lubbock!  I CAN NOT WAIT!

SO AS A TOTAL SIDE TO THIS WHOLE THING I NEED YOUR HELP!

Please respond with your vote for the top 5 best classic rock songs of all time!  PLEASE HELP ME! (1960-early 1980s)

alright well that is a quick one.  I will write something funny and witty later!

peace to you

current itunes track: Don’t Fear the Reaper, Blue Oyster Cult, Agents of Fortune

currently reading: The Other Philosophy, David Weaver

currently watching: really enjoying My Own Worst Enemy on NBC and Eleventh Hour on CBS

current scripture study: Matthew 17:1-9

craving: plane tickets to houston, new jersey, phoenix, and san diego (for myself!)

Hey friends

It is about 6:55 am and I am just finishing up some emails and stuff I needed to get sent out this morning to parents and students.  Just wanted to update and not really add anything interesting to the internet other than the fact that I hope some folks are looking forward to reading this bad boy!

Meagan and I have ben housesitting this weekend…this means I miss our apartment (i am spoiled by our bed, it is like sleeping on clouds next to an angel!) Not that the bed at this place we are at is bad, it is just not ours!  Although the little dog Jack has gotten used to us and seems to like us well enough.  At first he was stand offish like a cat, now he pounces, plays, and wants to be right in between us all the time.  But you know how little dogs are, that little dog smell.  mmmmm

Church has been great and more exciting stuff is happening even as I speak!  I will update more on that later, but needless to say many prayers are being answered.

Finally I am ready to go start my day off.  So I am going to be out of here in a couple of hours and then I am taking a nap.  

PEACE to you

current itunes track: E-Pro, Beck, Guero

currently reading: Pagan Christianity, George Barna

currently watching: lots of DVR’d things (football, daily show, colbert, american dad, king of the hill, family guy, CSI, all sorts of fun!)

currently craving: more time with meagan and some donuts

can’t wait: TO BE HOME THIS WEEKEND!

see you then

I am a big guy.  I know this and I also know that I am responsible for the choices I make.  But since I live in Obama/McCain America (how scary that either one will run this country in 3 months) I get bailed out (by fast food conglomerates, who are really the ones to blame i mean seriously how good is that double beef burrito at TACO BELL, darn Mt Dew for tasting so good) even if it is my fault I am flatlining on the table in the ER.  The very people who caused part of the problem (the administration and congress) are now bailing out investors and big business WHILE WE PAY FOR IT (to the tune of now 835 billion dollars).  I have a solution what if every person over 18 just took a cut of that 835 billion and let us AMERICANS decide where the money can go, and if big business falls well BOO-FRICKIN-HOO (o yeah in my plan every person over 18 would get a check from the government for around 4200 dollars).  I don’t get heated about much politically but this economic bailout plan is the biggest load of bull crap I have read about in a long time (and I have been alive long enough to remember both of Clinton’s and Bush 2’s administrations).  

So besides that meagan and I are doing well.  We are fearing for our lives now that the bailout has hit and I figure that why worry we will just open up everything we bought for fear of Y2K and just use that stuff.  I mean that bottled water is only 8 years old right?  How long can canned beans sit?  O and we are filling up our gas tanks every night so that if that  gas shortage happens we will have two full tanks for the jerk thieves who will syphon gas from innocent people’s cars while they sleep!

Alright so I am being cynical, good things in life right now are: Meagan, my job (church is great), we got internet at the house and DVR it is really great, i finally was able to rent rock band 2, and I am going to take meagan home for a visit to Lubbock next weekend on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  

Well hope you are doing well.  Sorry for my bitter rant.  i hope you have enoyed another episode of hilarity from me, or at least i thought it was funny.  calm down man.

peace to you

currently watching: DVR’d (is that a verb?) Daily Show and The Colbert Report (happiness)

currently reading: every magazine put in front of me (if you get that I will buy you a drink)

currently gaming: Rock Band 2, XBOX360

current itunes track: Parabola, Tool, Lateralus

current time: 4:01 pm

This week has been busy.  Planning, working, living, laughing, and enjoying!  Meagan and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary yesterday (from the day I asked her out. hahaha).  So we celebrated the best way we know how, by being at church and having a great communion service with the students.  man i love being a pastor.

Heroes and the Office return this week.  WOW.  Never have I been glued to the tv like this, o except every video game I have ever played. (i am sure mom is laughing.  i know you miss the sound of sirens and gun shots from the game room haha!).  I am excited for the office.  o man i have been watching youtube clips in my office OVER AND OVER.  If you did not see the slap face commercial during the olympics.  then stop.  STOP right now.  type youtube into your browser address and look up the office slap face.  one of the greatest 31 seconds you will ever spend.  i promise.

My friend Jessica and I have been planning a new mid-week service for prayer and worship aimed at college students and 20 somethings.  Well really it is aimed as a place for people to come and drop FACEDOWN before God and worship and pray for an hour.  I don’t really care who shows up…I am just pumped that we can all worship TOGETHER!  So if you are in the Oklahoma City area on October 7th at 9pm you should come to Northview Community Church for the first FACEDOWN.  Seriously it will rock.

I have been reading like a maniac.  Meagan and I are on different schedules.  Mainly she gets up at 5:15 ever morning and I DON’T.  So what does this mean for me when Meagan declares bed time at 10 ?  Well it means for me that I have been reading, anything I can get my hands on until about 3 in the morning because I don’t have to get my day going until 8:30.  So I have been reading.  Fiction, non-fiction, magazines, classic novels, theology books.  You name it I am ingesting it (well not like really ingesting it and don’t name drugs cause…thats just bad).  Anyway I feel like the bookworm I was in high school again and it is grand.  I LOVE reading.

Well I better go.  I have to get ready for our small group and then we are going to PARTY and watch the office premier!  AWESOME.

peace to you

current itunes track: Inside Out, Eve 6, Eve 6

currently reading: Simply Christian, N.T. Wright (just finished Fahrenheit 451.  such a great novel)

currently watching:  the office clips on hulu.com

currently gaming:  i am going to rent rock band 2. sounds awesome.