walt and ron weasley look similar

A Few of my Favorite Things from MC Training Week 2

Val Vance and I taught Week 2 of MC Training “The Gospel in Community and on Mission” with around 65 people in attendance. Here is a quick summary of the things that God taught me:

◦                      Healthy missional community families know they got there by giving something up. The Bible is filled with stories of people who had to go down to get up. Joseph had to give up his comfort, his family and the life he knew before he became Pharaohs’ right hand man. David had to give up his home and wandered around Israel fearing for his life before he became King. Our groups are no exception. We need to be willing to sacrifice something that we are probably are uninterested in giving up if we want to ever actually function as a family. Our schedules, our social expectations. Thinking of one of my favorite scenes from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, we have to let go of the thing that we think we most want (our comfort) to get the thing we most need (a sense of family in our groups).

◦                      Being on mission is simpler (and harder) than we think. I shared a story about my neighbor where it was difficult to know how to respond after he told an inappropriate joke in front of my daughter and my wife. Our discussion time went at least eight minutes in our groups and then another eight minutes of people who wanted to just keep chiming in with the difficulty they felt in this situation. As is often the case with all of us, the class craved a silver bullet answer. But we landed in the tension of knowing that though there may not be a right answer in every case, our motivation regardless of what we do needs to be rooted in Jesus’s love for us. We then talked about how we needed to test our hearts and if we needed to speak up any more corrective manner then we should do that or if we were needing to stay silent because we tend toward speaking too much then we should probably do that. Colossians 4:5-6, “let your speech always be gracious, sprinkled with salt so that you know how you want to answer each person”

◦                      Lean in to negative emotions. When things get hard and we see these things called negative emotions come out of us, we tend to move away from the situations where we notice those negative emotions come out. But that’s not necessarily a sign that God is telling us to back away from the circumstances – it’s possible that something external needs to change but it’s also absolutely true that Gos wants something internal  to change.

Favorite Things about 2013

Since joining the Austin Stone staff in July of this year, I haven’t found the time to write an entry on this blog. Christmas time seems like as good a time as any to rectify that. Why now? For one thing, the colder weather forces me indoors which makes writing a lot more feasible. For another thing, with Christmas time comes the end of the year, and with the end of the year comes end of the year “Best of” lists. And let’s be honest, be it arrogance or otherwise, I’m a sucker for telling others what I like best.

So without further ado, here is a list of a few of my favorite things from 2013.

MEMORIES

1. 11-26-13. Lydia’s Birthday celebration (early). For dinner we went to one of our favorite restaurants in town, a traditional sushi place called Mushashino. While at dinner, I gave Lydia a framed copy of some of the most important dates in our relationship (e.g. the day I asked her out, the day I asked her to marry me, etc.). We then spent our first night away from Violet at the Renaissance Hotel and got upgraded to an Executive Suite with three wide-screen TV’s and bunches of furniture. We ate European chocolate and drank wine in the hot tub. In the morning, while Lydia slept in I went home, picked up Violet and then grabbed some breakfast from Chick-fil-a and Starbucks and then ate it in bed. According to Lydia it was my best birthday celebration I’ve thrown for her. 🙂
2. June, July, August. Violet loving to swim…whether we were at Lake Michigan, in Green Lake (with Mari and Nathanael), in the pool at the YMCA, or elsewhere, it was so much fun to watch Violet learn to love the water. She has been fearless about getting in the water since she was 9 months old, but over the Summer she became a capable enjoyer of it (walking, jumping in, floating with her puddle jumper, going down the slide into it, etc.). Next up: teaching her to paddle.
3. 6-2-13. For the first time in over 15 years (since 7th grade) I went downhill skiing. And I didn’t suck! While at Brother’s weekend, we made a gametime decision to head up the mountains in Summit county to Arapahoe Basin and didn’t regret it (except for maybe my brother Daniel who “rage quit” 10 seconds after he got all of his gear on.
4. 11-18-13. Waiting to board a train from St. Pancreas International Train Station in London, England to Sheffield, England. With it being my first visit to the UK, I was in love with most everything I saw, but nothing quite stole my heart as much as the architecture and hustle and bustle of the train station at St. Pancreas.
5. 3-13-13. Watching Little Daylight, Hunter Hunted, The Neighbourhood, and Bastille live at SXSW at Club DeVille. While hanging out with my friends Oli and Sarah and my brother Nathan, we were struggling to decide which lineup to gamble on. We chose well.
   
6. 4-12-13. I’ve had the honor of giving Violet most of her baths. This has been at times a lot of fun and at times a huge challenge as I try and wash away stickiness and stinkiness before bedtime. This usually means I get the slap-happiest or angriest version of Violet, but I wouldn’t trade it. Here’s her 12 month video which shows a good deal of her in the bathtub.

MOVIES

1. The Spectacular Now. When I left the theater I remember feeling like I had just seen a season of “Mad Men” set in high school. It was serious, it was sad, it was funny, it was well thought out, and it was well executed. As with The Descendants, Shailene Woodley impresses more than her on-screen counterparts, but it’s close
2. Man of Steel. I watched this one on the plane from Dallas to London and was shocked how many liberties were taken from the “classic story”. Gone were the countless scenes of Superman growing in wisdom and in stature and in their place were more intense galactic battles with dragon-like creatures swooping across the screen. As the credits rolled, I was happy (but not surprised) to see that Christopher Nolan helped write the story.
3. Oblivion. Something about this movie haunted me in dystopian “what would that be like?” kind of way similar to how I felt after I watched A.I. with Jude Law and Haley Joel Osment. Something about the vibe of the film made me want to be on that lonely version of Earth with my wife flying around in my one-man spacecraft.
4. Before Midnight. Lydia and I watched this one at SXSW this year where I got a picture with the director, Richard Linklater before the screening.
5. Les Miserables. Great casting (aside from Russell Crowe) made this one a joy to watch through and through.
6. Kings of Summer. A brotherhood, rite-of-passage type film that’s a bit of a slow burner with a great “I guess that’s about right” type ending. 

ALBUMS

1. David Ramirez “The Rooster EP”. Not a common thing to list an EP at the top of an “albums” list, but this is no common EP. This is evident with a line like the following “I’ve been loyal to the wants of my lustful heart/And unfaithful to my friend Love”. Just incredible.
2. Gregory Alan Isakov “The Weatherman”. Ryan Adams-esque with excellent, subtle melodies.
3. Vampire Weekend “Modern Vampires of the City”. Somehow, they just keep getting better. More creative, more catchy. “Unbelievers” is probably my favorite track on the record.
4. Tom Odell “Long Way Down” A melancholy album with a rockin’ edge to it.
5. The Strokes “Comedown Machine” They return to form with a tightly wound, energetic new wave sound. Definitely not as good as Room on Fire or Is this it? but what is?
6. Polyenso “One Big Particular Loop”. Radiohead’s “The Bends” reincarnated. What’s not to like?