I like traffic lights when they are green.

well, it seems Barna let me down. we have to watch Narnia on Friday instead since they aren't doing a preview showing in Joplin now. Would have been nice to have been told that a week ago. grrr. o well. still gonna be SWEET!!! 11 days!

there are things in this life worth more than the stuff of life. Things you can't put your hands on. Do you believe that? Sure you do.. If you believe in love, happiness, contentment, peace, or justice then you do. Can you put your hands on any of them? Smell them or wrap your arms around them? Do you desire any of these things? Sure you do Some of them even at the expense of the tangible things. So for Jesus to ask us to give up worldly possessions to gain a reward isn't as dramatic a request as we make it out to be sometimes. give up 10%! you have to be kidding!... most boys spend more than a years worth of 10% on one prom date. and for what we get in return...hmmm. resonable? or not?

well, my back still hurts so I didn't get to play soccer tonight. I really wanted to but it's funny because Mario actually came tonight, first time in a long time. I got a chance to talk to him which was nice. My Spanish is coming along a lot more quickly now. I guess since the guys fell like I am sincerely trying to learn they are helping me more. It is nice being considered a friend by them all. They even shared their cake with me and Kevin Kalm the other day when we went in to the restaurant to eat. Pretty cool. Mario even gave me a Mexican DVD to watch. It has too movies on it, neither of which I can understand. It gives me a headache after a while and I have to turn it off. I haven't made it all the way through either of them in one sitting yet. It's to hard trying to concentrate that long. I have only managed to pick out about 5 or 6 sentences so far. They are funny to watch though. Pretty cheesy.

Got some new bokks I am excited to read, discovered I am "post-evangelical. Tomorrow is Wendy's Birthday and I still haven't gotten her a present from the boys. I am a bad husband. (We got her present 3 weeks ago actually but it would be nice to do something nice for her anyway. Wives appreciate that sort of thing. So I am taking tomorrow off. I think anyway. She may have other ideas...who knows?...o Wait I can't because I am off Wed Thurs Friday...ouch...online epiphany...well I better get home and to bed....cya later.

I hurt my back last night at FUN. Man does it hurt. It hurt much worse last night. Slept in the recliner downstairs. I say slept but use the term loosely. I don't think I really slept much at all. MAd efor a pretty useless day off, one where I was supposed to be putitng ceiling tiles up in the dining room. Oh, yeah, and discovered I put a peice of sheetrock up backwards today. Great. An to think I was so proud of the job I had done. Funny though, because ther were several times where I looked at the paper edge and though..."hmm I wonder why that is showing there but nowhere else?" I don't know how many times I touched it and asked that question. My Father in Law had to point out the obvious to me. Great. Of WEll. at least it was only a $10 peice of sheet rock. It could have been worse. ANyway. My back hurts. A lot. and I need to get to bed. Later. thanks for stopping in.

watched "House of Flying Daggers" tonight. WOW. Not as good cinematically as Hero. (WOW WOW WOW!) but a slightly more interesting character development. Intriguing. Moving. Sad. Wow. Not for everyone I am sure, particularly that the ending is really never finished. The main character storyline is somewhat wrapped up but ending of the bigger picture, the story our story is told within, is never revealed. I like that. I like it a lot. I don;t always like being told how things end. I sometimes like having open endings. In some ways I think the ending of it all will be like that. We are told how things will end, armageddon, old earth destroyed, new earth introduced, etc...and sometimes it seems as though that is it...like ok heaven, and that's it. But that isn't it. In a way I think it is left open, what will heaven be like, what are the stories that will develope there? What will I do, whom will I meet. What will we do?I don't want a nice little bow tied on the answer to this question. Do you? Do you really want someone, anyone to know that...for it to be that simple, that predictable? Or do you long for mystery, and expectation and wonder. Open endings. Like cold milk with chocolate cupcakes after a swim in the lake.

okay, so not everyone is as careful and courteous to their opponents as we would like...




soccer picture!
(I tried to post the pic here but it keeps blocking me for some reason. so you'll have to check it out on your own.)

legalism is when you demand of other people what you yourself are not.

Why love?

How many people can I love?
How many people do I know?
School classes, sporting events, jobs, family.
How many people do I know?

How many people do I love?
How many people have I loved but have “moved on” to love others in their place?

How many people could I love at one time?
10? 100? 1000?

What if my love for them wasn’t returned?
Wasn’t appreciated?
If they were constantly offending the relationship, freely expressing love for others but rarely to me?

Would I still love?
Would I welcome them back with open arms?
Would you?

I am humbled right now. Tremendously. Compliments from people I trust. An undeserved card from a student. Praise from a graduate. Affirmations I don't feel I necessarily deserve. God is good.

I cut my finger with a saw a few weeks ago. 4 stitches. But it is all healed up now. Yeah for me.

So, when I was little. Very little. My parents had me stay at a day care place. Just like today, it was just a home someone opened up and called it a day care. Anyway, apparently this lady who watched us was lazy and didn't want to have to actually "watch" us so she would get us to sleep all day by, get this, setting us in the kitchen, turning the gas stove on and leaving the room till we got quiet. Yes. I am serious. And yes, I will use this as an excuse for my behavior sometimes. Crazy thing is she never really got her license revoked. She got her hand slapped and went back to work. Even crazier, my parents took me back to her house...ok, just kidding on that part. cya

I saw a portion on a PBS program the other night while waiting for CSI to finish taping. It was somewhere in Africa where they were doing tests on the only water source a village had. Not 10 feet from the watering hole was a built up mound where the villagers watered their cattle. T his in itself is a pretty gross thought. The water was a VERY mury tan color, and as the crew was taking samples one of the guys looked away, apalled that they woudl use this water. But he went on to say that this was the villages ONLY source of water. They have no choice. Water = life in this world. No one can live without it. For these people they had no choice. Drink this amoeba infested, ecoli breeding water or die. Though this water, which is supposed to bring life only cause sickness and harm and malnutrition and death. I immediately thought of the church. How it is supposed to be life for people, something they can have confidence in for helping them to live, , but that instead it often causes more damage. When the Church is not what it is supposed to be it is dirty, filthy, harmful water.
its late. thats about all I have.
Good to saee Jonathan this weekend.
Blew my lines in the second time around with the skit in church.
Getting pretty busy again.
But I have every intention of writing LOTS more soon.
by for now.